Chapter 023
Chapter 23: Old Chen’s Family Shock Level +1
Xiao Man almost threw herself at the door as she slid the heavy bolt back, then rushed to the window and pushed the carved wooden panels wide open. Cool air swept in with the green scent of the courtyard plants, washing through the meditation room that had been thick with sandalwood and an invisible pressure.
She stood at the window and took a long, greedy breath, wanting the moving wind to blow away every messy thought, every shameful memory, and that awful Heart Voice.
[Freedom.]
[A safe distance.]
[A quiet brain.]
The little person in her heart jumped for joy. The cold wind chilled the sweat on her back and cleared her head. She snuck a glance toward the desk. Lin Qing Xuan still leaned back slightly, rolling his prayer beads, eyes resting on the freshly bright courtyard outside the window. Sunlight fell through the lattice onto his plain monk’s robe and outlined a pure, distant figure. His face showed no irritation at being disturbed, and no smugness at having won. The fierce Heart Voice duel and this sudden “airing out” were both just small, unimportant moments to him.
Calling him a poser in her heart, Xiao Man still did not dare linger. She bent quickly to salute his back and spoke fast to make her exit: “If Young Master has no other orders, then I will go get familiar with the chores in the yard.”
Not waiting for a reply, she bolted like a startled rabbit out of the meditation room and, this time, left the door pulled to but not fully shut.
At the same time, in a side yard of the Auspicious Cloud Residence, Granny Chen was running faster than she ever had in her life. Her legs churned, her chest heaved, and her face flushed red as sweat beaded on her forehead. She clutched a small cloth bundle to her chest as if it were a hot iron that could burn a hole through her. Nanny Zhou, the First Madam’s most capable and strict aide, had handed it to her with orders that had almost made her faint on the spot. The bundle held a shocking medicine.
She burst into the narrow room she shared with Old Chen and their son Shi Tou. The two men sat staring at each other with the dazed faces of people who had just survived danger.
Seeing his mother, Shi Tou blurted, surprised: “Ma, why are you running like that?”
Granny Chen did not waste breath. She grabbed Shi Tou by the sleeve, her eyes sharp as knives as she hissed, “Listen to me, Shi Tou. From now on, keep your distance from that girl Xiao Man. If you can avoid talking to her, don’t talk. She is not like the other maids, you hear?”
Startled by her sudden force, Shi Tou nodded at once: “Got it, Ma.”
“And another thing,” she said as she stuffed a heavy string of copper coins into his hand. “Take this. Go buy yourself something good to eat. Go play. Do not hang around the yard, and do not eavesdrop at walls.”
She pushed him toward the door. Shi Tou stared at the money, stunned. Had the sun risen in the west? Not only did Ma not ask him for money, she gave him some?
He grinned wide and chirped, “Thanks, Ma! I’m going now,” and tucked the coins away, ready to dash off.
“Wait,” Granny Chen said, yanking him back by the collar. With a hard warning look she added, “Remember what I said. Do not get any ideas about Xiao Man. Not even a little bit.”
Shi Tou nodded fast; he was not stupid: “Don’t worry, Ma. I know.”
[She and the Eldest Grandson Young Master can stay alone with the door closed. Even if you gave me a hundred courage points, I wouldn’t dare.]
He zipped out. When her son’s figure disappeared through the gate, Granny Chen shut the door and slid the bolt. She turned and leaned against the panel, thumping her chest as she panted, shock and secrecy written all over her face.
Old Chen frowned at her jumpy look and asked, uneasy, “Old woman, did a ghost chase you? Why run and lock the door?”
Granny Chen lunged over, grabbed his arm, and squeezed so hard her fingers dug into his flesh as she whispered with a tremor, “Old man, something huge happened. Sky-big.”
“Say it. No suspense.”
“I just came from Nanny Zhou. First Madam has spoken.” Granny Chen swallowed, eyes wild and also strangely excited. “That girl Xiao Man is not here just to grind ink and run errands. She is the woman the Young Master named himself.”
“A woman?” Old Chen sucked in a breath. He had guessed a little, but hearing it stated so plainly still hit hard.
“Yes, a woman. Our pure and restrained Young Master, Buddha’s Chosen, who is almost shaved bald like a monk. For the first time in over twenty years, he wants to break his celibacy. He wants a woman.” Granny Chen slapped her thigh, voice shaking. “That girl is about to soar to Heaven. I look and look and she isn’t some stunning beauty who could shame the moon and flowers. How did this happen?”
She looked truly stumped, even a bit sorry for their Young Master.
Old Chen muttered inwardly that Granny even knew that fancy phrase. Aloud, he asked what mattered: “What did Madam say exactly? Did she just send the girl over?”
Granny Chen leaned in closer, voice dropping lower: “Nanny Zhou said First Madam ordered us to fully support the Young Master. We are to help the Young Master take Xiao Man down.”
“Take Xiao Man down?” Old Chen’s eyes almost popped. “Isn’t it usually the girl who volunteers to warm the bed, using all her tricks to seduce the Young Master? How did it flip around so we have to help the Young Master take her down?”
It broke all his ideas of how the world worked.
“Exactly,” Granny Chen said, and her eyes went red as grief welled up. She sniffled as she cried, “My Young Master, my jewel, my Heavenly Immortal of a Young Master. How did he end up wanting this slip of a girl? And we have to help? What is this? I cannot accept it.”
She got sadder the more she thought and started to sob like she was sending her carefully raised cabbage straight to a pig, with orders to pass it the shovel.
Old Chen snapped, driven crazy by the noise: “Quiet. What are you crying for? None of your business. If the Young Master is willing, who are you to judge? That Xiao Man girl is not as bad as you think. She is neat, quick, and steady.”
Granny Chen flinched and swallowed back her tears, still unhappy. She wiped her face, then seemed to make up her mind and pulled out the little cloth bundle that had scared her the whole way home. “Here.”
She shoved it into Old Chen’s hands and whispered, even more afraid: “Nanny Zhou gave this. She said, if necessary, we can use it.”
Old Chen loosened a corner and glanced at the powder inside. With Nanny Zhou’s status and those words if necessary, he understood in an instant. His mouth opened into a perfect O big enough to fit an egg. All the color drained from his face.
“This is… an aphrodisiac?” His voice cracked as his hands shook like a sieve. “Heavenly Lord above. We are using this level of trick? Is the Young Master that desperate?”
The idea tore his world in half. Buddha’s Chosen needing a thing like that to chase a girl? Had Madam gone mad?
Shock and fear grabbed Old Chen. He clapped the bundle shut and pushed it back into Granny Chen’s hands like it was a hot coal or a live bomb. “Keep it hidden. Hide it well. No one must see it.”
He fixed her with the sternest look he had ever given and warned: “Listen to me. This stays between heaven and earth and the two of us. Not a word to anyone. Not even our son. And you, with that loose mouth, if you leak half a syllable…”
He made a slicing motion across his neck and said with a hard edge, “We, and Shi Tou with us, will lose our lives. Understand?”
Frightened, Granny Chen clutched the bundle and nodded fast, her face white as paper: “I understand. I do. Don’t worry. I know how serious this is. I won’t talk even if I’m beaten.”
She stuffed the bundle deep inside her clothes like it was poison. The little room held only their rough breathing and a heavy sense of disaster.
At that same moment, Xiao Man hurried along the covered walkway toward her room, wanting to get as far from the meditation room as possible. She had no idea she had become the core target of a plan ordered from the very top, run by Old Chen and Granny Chen, and even equipped with “strategic supplies.” The plan’s name could only be this: Buddha’s Chosen Breaks Celibacy.
Back in the meditation room, Lin Qing Xuan let his fingers pass over the spot where Xiao Man’s sleeve had flicked a drop of ink. A tiny smear of still-wet black stained his fingertip, dark as night. He lifted his hand and looked at it as the faintest ripple moved in his deep eyes.
Outside, the sunlight was just right.