Chapter 401: Six Ren

The Chen Estate.

Xiaoman hummed a tune as she carried two food containers along the narrow bluestone path, returning to Ginkgo Garden. She pushed the door open and entered, complaining loudly, "Come help me! You have no initiative at all."

Dressed in a moon-white monastic robe, the young monk, looking like a put-upon young wife, quickly dropped the bamboo broom he was holding. He took the food containers from Xiaoman and meticulously arranged the dishes on the stone table. There was a plate of red plum fermented tofu, twelve steamed buns, and two bowls of plain congee.

Xiaoman sat down casually at the table. "I'm warning you," she said, "when the young master returns, you're not allowed to tell on me and say I bullied you again..."

The young monk hastily replied, "Don't worry, Miss Xiaoman, I won't!"

Xiaoman picked up her chopsticks, thoroughly satisfied. "Alright," she said, "sit down and eat! Today's buns have pickled celery filling. I pickled them myself a few days ago, using the first batch of celery from early spring. They're sour, crispy, and absolutely delicious!" In spring, in the capital, what officials and nobles desired most was not meat, but fresh green vegetables, which were rarely seen during winter!

Xiaoman took a huge bite of her bun, and the young monk watched, his heart pounding, as she opened her gaping mouth and bit off more than half of it in one go! Just as the young monk was about to eat his bun, Xiaoman suddenly raised her hand and pressed down on his wrist!

"What's wrong, Miss Xiaoman?" the young monk asked, puzzled. He looked up and saw Xiaoman's expression change repeatedly, as if she had eaten something bad! All he heard was a rumbling in Xiaoman's stomach, loud as thunder!

The next moment, Xiaoman stood up, released the young monk's wrist, bent over, and vomited a mouthful of black liquid!

"Ugh." Xiaoman vomited three mouthfuls of black liquid in a row, which stained the bluestone bricks, making the young monk recoil in alarm. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.

Xiaoman suddenly looked up, staring intently at the young monk. "Don't eat the buns. They're poisoned."

The young monk was dumbfounded. "Poisoned? You... you... you! Are you alright? Oh, you're fine!"

Xiaoman pulled a silk handkerchief from her bosom and wiped the black liquid from the corner of her mouth. "Through my cultivation that involves eating," she explained, "I can tell if something is poisoned the moment I taste it. And I'm the one person in this world who's least afraid of food poisoning! If there's poison, a few mouthfuls of black liquid are all it takes to get rid of it completely!"

The young monk, thoroughly impressed, gave a thumbs-up. "Amitabha," he said, "Miss Xiaoman, you're amazing! This monk can't vomit black liquid; this monk can only express grievances!"

This time, Xiaoman had no time to bicker with him. She pulled the young monk by the wrist towards the house, then pulled the door shut.

Inside the main room, the young monk watched Xiaoman hastily gather her belongings, stuffing all her valuables, gold, silver, and Buddhist coins into a bundle. "Miss Xiaoman, what are you doing?" he asked.

Without turning her head, Xiaoman tied the bundle tightly. "The young master must have been targeted during the spring hunt," she explained. "Someone wants to kill both of us! We need to leave quickly. Right now, they don't want to be too obvious; they're using a slow-acting poison, intending for us to look like we died of illness! But they won't wait long. Once they're desperate, we won't be able to escape! No, no, carrying a bundle will be too obvious!"

She looked regretfully at the blue bundle on the bed, but ultimately, she reluctantly put it down, only taking a few strings of Buddhist coins, which she concealed in her sleeve.

Xiaoman came before the young monk and instructed him seriously, "Go get the carrying pole now and pretend to fetch water. I'll walk beside you! Remember, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not act unusual, just like always!"

The young monk looked at Xiaoman's eyes, full of doubt. "Is it really that serious?" he asked.

Xiaoman rolled her eyes. "Look at you, so useless!" she scoffed. "Following my young master, you'll always have to face great storms! What about your 'Official's Scripture'? Besides reading people's minds, what else can it do? Can it kill?"

The young monk paused. "After reciting the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's Vows Sutra ten thousand times and making a great vow, one can gain divine abilities!" he replied. "Oh, and it can also heal people and save lives. My master saved many people in Yunzhou!"

Xiaoman angrily retorted, "I'm asking about you, not your master! What can *you* do right now?"

The young monk hesitated for a moment. "Send you to the afterlife!" he finally said.

Xiaoman was furious. She pinched his waist. "What good are you?" she snapped. "Remember, when I say 'run,' you run with me. Don't hesitate for a second. If you run too slowly, I'll hit you."

Wincing, the young monk went to the side room to fetch the carrying pole and swayed unsteadily as he walked out. Xiaoman walked beside him, complaining, "I work so hard to cook three meals a day for you, and you complain constantly about doing so little work, and even go tell on me to the young master." As she spoke, Xiaoman balled up her fist and hit the monk's back, making him wince in pain. He lowered his voice and complained, "Miss Xiaoman, you don't have to make it so realistic."

Xiaoman glared at him. "Shut up," she snapped.

For some reason, the young monk gradually felt calmer. Just then, a servant approached them. The servant smiled and greeted, "Miss Xiaoman!" Xiaoman glanced at him and replied with a hum. As they passed each other, her hand, hidden in her sleeve, clenched into a fist, only slowly relaxing after they had gone past.

The young monk couldn't resist wanting to look back. She gritted her teeth and whispered to him, "Don't look back, don't look back!" Behind them, the servant stopped on the bluestone path and turned around, staring intently at their backs as they walked towards the well.

Arriving at the well, the young monk vigorously worked the wooden crank, which coiled the hemp rope and slowly brought the wooden bucket to the well's mouth. Xiaoman's mind raced, urgently thinking of a countermeasure. Her head remained still, but her eyes darted around. *I need to go through Xiaoyingzhou to Wendantang to find the Chen family's main branch,* she thought. *It seems the main branch of the Chen family is good to the young master and trustworthy! No, in this Chen Estate, she couldn't trust anyone! Then go find Second Sister? No, Second Sister went to the spring hunt with the young master! Go to the Lamplit Inn? No, those people only recognize money, not people! Go to the Ministry of Personnel and find Master Zhang Zhuo.* In this vast capital, Master Zhang was the only one she could trust.

Xiaoman had made up her mind. Just then, the young monk had just drawn a bucket of water. She suddenly whispered a command, "Run! Towards the courtyard wall!" Xiaoman picked up the heavy water bucket and hurled it behind them, then, without looking back, pulled the young monk and ran towards the courtyard wall! The bucket accurately hit the pursuing servant and shattered, sending him tumbling backward. "Chase them!" a voice shouted. Several more people emerged from the corner, closely trailing Xiaoman!

The well was only a short distance from the courtyard wall, and they reached it in an instant! Xiaoman dragged the young monk by his rear and pushed him onto the gray tiles of the wall, and the young monk scrambled to climb up! Just as she was about to leap onto the gray tiles, she suddenly turned her head aside. An axe scraped past her ear and embedded itself in the white wall! Xiaoman's expression remained unchanged. With a backward kick to the groin, the servant behind her immediately fainted.

Five more people surrounded them. One of them held a mountain ghost charm, its patterns swirling crimson like blood. A woman emerged from the mountain ghost charm, with disheveled hair, a white robe, a pale face, and red lips. She had a torso but no legs! The woman pressed a palm towards Xiaoman, striking her directly on the chest with ghostly speed! Xiaoman spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and retreated quickly to the wall. She looked up and saw that after landing the palm strike, the woman glided back to the servant and lightly settled onto his shoulder.

*A remnant of the Beggar Sect.*

As a servant swung his axe towards her, she suddenly squatted down, pulled a small silver pair of scissors from her sleeve, and, still squatting, snipped towards the ground! To his surprise, she cut a shadow from the air, and the shadow struggled, then expanded! The shadow grew into a creature with the body of a goat and the face of a human, a gaping maw stretching from its left armpit to its right, with black fur curling up around its four hooves, like four dark auspicious clouds!

*It was a Taotie.*

The human-height Taotie opened its gaping maw and swallowed the servant in front of it in one gulp! Xiaoman no longer lingered in battle. Taking advantage of the servants' retreat in shock, she stepped on the Taotie, then like a butterfly, flipped over the courtyard wall, and pulled the young monk, dashing towards Fuyou Street!

"Run! There's a master coming! The Taotie won't last long," she urged.

They hadn't run far when Xiaoman's heart sank. The Taotie had already been dispersed! She heard someone flip over the courtyard wall behind them, landing heavily on the ground!

Xiaoman pulled the young monk around a corner into an alley, muttering, "What do we do, what do we do, what do we do? We can't make it to the Ministry of Personnel!"

Before she finished speaking, a lazy voice said, "Get in the carriage!"

Xiaoman abruptly looked up. She saw a lazy-looking Daoist priest in a blue robe leaning against a carriage, his head bowed. He was holding a rat-hair brush and writing something on two elm leaves in his palm!

Without looking up, the Daoist priest said, "Why are you standing there stunned?"

Xiaoman pulled the young monk into the carriage. As they stepped in, the Daoist priest raised a hand and stuck the two written elm leaves onto their foreheads. "Sit still, and don't speak!" he commanded. Xiaoman and the young monk sat in the carriage, filled with uncertainty, letting the Daoist priest drive them along Fuyou Street towards Chang'an Avenue!

The Chen Estate servants who had given chase hid their axes behind their backs. They looked left and right on Fuyou Street but couldn't see Xiaoman anywhere! The servant holding the mountain ghost charm saw the carriage, immediately rushed forward, and pulled aside the side curtain to peer inside! Xiaoman and the young monk held their breath, their hearts in their throats, watching the other's sinister gaze sweep over them, yet it seemed to see nothing! The servant dropped the curtain, shook his head at his companions, and prepared to leave!

However, just then, the carriage-driving Daoist priest lazily said, "Did I tell you to leave?"

The servant froze, walked to the front of the carriage, and looked at the Daoist priest. "May I ask who you are?" he asked.

The Daoist priest grinned. "Zhang Li, the senior disciple of the Mount Huang Daoist Court!"

The servant was startled, took a step back, and hastily clasped his hands in a respectful bow. "My apologies for disturbing you, Daoist Master, please forgive me!"

Zhang Li chuckled. "Just 'please forgive me' and that's it? Slap yourself!"

The servant did not hesitate. He used his right hand to slap himself ten times in a row, not stopping until blood appeared!

Zhang Li praised, "Thugs raised by prominent families truly know how to behave!" He lowered his head and glanced at the mountain ghost charm clutched in the other's left hand. "Remnants of the Beggar Sect," he said, "I've told you before: your use of mountain ghost charms goes against the harmony of heaven and earth. Go to the City God Temple in Chongnanfang and kneel in penance until you throw nine divine blocks that indicate forgiveness; then the Heavenly Venerable will have forgiven you!"

The servant bowed his head and gritted his teeth. "Yes!" he replied.

Zhang Li no longer looked at him. He drove the carriage southward, softly humming a little tune: "Oh, the elm seeds are light, the leaves sway, a single leaf obscures the view, a long bluestone path! The young monk doesn't chant sutras, the young lady has a cruel heart; neither compares to this humble Daoist, whose snores shake the roof beams. Hmm, this part should also be written into the story, how wonderful."

Having said this, Zhang Li suddenly pulled a blank scroll from his bosom, drew a writing brush from his hair bun, and rapidly wrote on the scroll! Xiaoman had never heard this tune before; she felt like he was improvising it. This Daoist was strange; he didn't seem like a proper Daoist at all! She looked up, unable to see the young monk inside the carriage, but she could feel his warm breath!

Not until an incense stick's worth of time had passed and the elm leaves on their foreheads crumbled, did she see the young monk looking her way! As their eyes suddenly met, the young monk, for the first time, looked away!

The carriage slowly stopped. Zhang Li lifted the curtain and looked inside. He looked meaningfully at the two of them. "I can't take you much further. Get off here!" he said.

"Daoist Master, how did you know we were in trouble?" Xiaoman asked, puzzled.

Zhang Li raised an eyebrow. "As the senior disciple of the Mount Huang Daoist Court," he replied, "I am skilled in Liuren divination. All I need is a quick calculation!"

Xiaoman said earnestly, "Thank you, Daoist Master, for saving our lives. And you don't need to keep spouting nonsense!"

Zhang Li laughed heartily. "Tell your young master that the favor owed for Luhun Mountain Villa, this humble Daoist has repaid in Luocheng," he said. "And the favor for the Four Dreams of Bianliang, this humble Daoist has also repaid today! Quickly return the elm leaves in his hand, and thus, our karma will be settled!"

Xiaoman's eyes darted. "This time, the Daoist Master saved *me*," she argued. "How can that count as repaying a favor to my young master? It should be counted as *I* owe the Daoist Master a favor! The young master is the young master, and I am I! So, by my reckoning, you still owe my young master a favor!"

Zhang Li's eyes widened. "No, no, no, how can you calculate it like that?" he protested. "What would I want your favor for?"

Xiaoman paid him no mind. She pulled the young monk, jumped off the carriage, and ran with all her might towards the Ministry of Personnel!

Zhang Li watched Xiaoman's skirt and the young monk's moon-white monastic robe flutter as they ran, his gaze gradually settling on their clasped hands. "Interesting, interesting," he mused. "This humble Daoist will write you and this young monk into my storybook too."