Chapter 067
Chapter 67: Buddha’s Chosen Is a Piece of Tang Monk’s Flesh
Outside the Auspicious Cloud Residence, the noise leaked right through the courtyard walls.
Lin Yu Jiao, Lin Yu Wan, and Lin Yu Ning, the three sisters from the General’s Manor, reached the gate just in time to hear Wang Yao’s voice raised eight notes higher, scolding.
Youngest Lin Yu Ning was like a raccoon in a melon field, running toward any fun she saw.
She stood on tiptoe, stretched her neck, and peeped inside as she tugged her sisters’ sleeves: “Big Sister, Second Sister, look, look!”
Her cheeks were pink with excitement as she asked: “Aren’t those our Cousins from the House of Wang? What’s going on? They came to our manor and started scolding each other?”
Lin Yu Jiao folded her arms and curled her lip in a sneer: “What else could it be?”
She said like an old hand: “Someone with no eyes must have gone and poked Elder Cousin’s treasured person again.”
She had long seen through this kind of jealousy drama.
Lin Yu Wan’s brows knit with a calmness beyond her age. She sighed, took one sister by each hand, and led them toward the inner courtyard: “Enough. Stop gawking.”
She reminded them gently: “We came to visit the sick. Don’t meddle in other people’s business.”
Inside, sandalwood smoke curled, but it could not drown the sharp noise from outside.
Lin Qing Xuan reclined in moon-white robes. The color only made his face look paler. His eyes were shut, but his brows were twisted tight.
Clearly, the racket outside annoyed him.
Kneeling at his couch, Xiao Man was carefully unwrapping the bandage on his arm to change the medicine.
Seeing his unhappy face, she paused and asked in a tiny voice like a mosquito: “Eldest Grandson Young Master, outside… should this maid go and block the Cousin Misses from the House of Wang?”
Without lifting his eyelids, Lin Qing Xuan said two light words: “No need.”
His voice was calm and carried a firm chill: “Let them make a scene.”
The bigger the scene, the better. He wanted to see how deep the daughters of the House of Wang were willing to scheme.
Just then, a maid announced that the three Cousin Misses from the General’s Manor had arrived.
Lin Yu Wan led her two little sisters in. They curtsied properly, every move by the book: “Elder Cousin, we heard you were injured. Grandmother was worried and sent us sisters to visit.”
Lin Yu Jiao was not as reserved as her big sister. Her eyes spun as she craned her neck to look at his forehead and blurted: “Elder Cousin, is it serious? Who dared touch you? I’ll tell my father to peel their skin.”
Direct and simple, Lin Yu Ning dug around in her wide sleeve, pulled out a packet of candied fruit wrapped tight in oiled paper, and held it up like a treasure: “Elder Cousin, have some candy.”
She smiled so sweetly that her dimples popped: “Mother says if you eat something sweet, your heart won’t feel bitter.”
That childlike kindness swept away the heavy air in the room.
Lin Qing Xuan’s tight brows softened. He opened his eyes and looked at his youngest Cousin with gentle warmth.
He took the slightly warm pack of candied fruit and said more mildly: “It’s nothing, just a small wound.”
Lin Yu Wan’s gaze flicked, without a trace, between Elder Cousin and Xiao Man.
She turned to Xiao Man and spoke so soft it could be squeezed like water: “Miss Xiao Man, you’ve worked hard caring for Elder Cousin these days.”
Caught by the sudden kindness, Xiao Man flapped her hands, flustered, her head shaking like a rattle: “Big Miss, you speak too highly. I don’t dare accept it. This is just this maid’s duty.”
Looking at her, Lin Yu Wan’s eyes filled with mixed feelings.
Ever since Mother had lectured her about being well matched in family standing, Lin Yu Wan’s heart had felt heavy and blocked.
If Mother was right, that status and rank were an uncrossable gap, then what about her and Lu Chen… did they really have no chance at all?
She was not willing to accept that.
So now, as she looked at Xiao Man and Elder Cousin, one a humble maidservant and the other a noble Buddha’s Chosen, something strange sparked in her heart.
She needed a success story.
She needed Xiao Man to win Elder Cousin and smash those so-called rules of class and birth.
Xiao Man was her comparison group, her hope to fight fate.
With that thought, Lin Yu Wan’s tone toward Xiao Man grew even warmer: “Miss Xiao Man, if you have free time, come sit in my courtyard in the General’s Manor. We can talk.”
She tilted her head with friendly closeness: “We girls in the inner chambers are idle most days. Having one more sister to chat with is a good thing.”
Hearing this, Lin Yu Jiao’s eyes almost popped out.
[What is happening? Has Big Sister lost her mind?]
[Inviting a maid to her courtyard to chat? Even if this maid is Elder Cousin’s favorite, she is still a maid. Since when did Big Sister get so improper?]
She could not guess the many turns in Lin Yu Wan’s thoughts.
The simple Lin Yu Ning clapped at once: “Yes, yes! Sister Xiao Man, come play with me too.”
She bounced to Xiao Man’s side, took her hand, and beamed: “I still haven’t thanked you. If you hadn’t taken me to the study last time, I would never have gotten Elder Cousin’s handwritten Buddhist scripture.”
Mentioning the study, Lin Yu Ning suddenly remembered something. Her face went a shade pale. She ducked a little behind Lin Qing Xuan and lowered her voice to ask mysteriously: “Also, Sister Xiao Man, in Elder Cousin’s study… is that dark air still there?”
Just thinking of that day made the back of her neck go cold.
Dark air?
Lin Qing Xuan’s eyes sharpened like a blade.
He suddenly recalled that the Heart Demon had escaped its seal that day because Xiao Man and this bold Cousin had blundered into the study’s mechanism.
No third person could learn this.
At once, Lin Yu Wan and Lin Yu Jiao’s curiosity spiked, and they asked together: “Dark air?”
Lin Yu Ning rolled up her sleeves, ready to act out the scare they had seen: “It was…”
“Ning Ning.” Lin Qing Xuan cut her off without warning.
Though his voice was not loud, it carried a weight that could not be resisted.
He looked at Lin Yu Ning with deep eyes and guided firmly: “That day, you saw it wrong, didn’t you?”
His final note lifted slightly as his gaze slid to Xiao Man, a clear instruction.
Smart as she was, Xiao Man understood at once that the Buddha’s Chosen did not want others to know about the Heart Demon.
Her heart skipped. She nodded quickly and said to Lin Yu Ning: “Yes, Third Miss, you must have seen wrong. There’s no dark air in the study.”
“I saw wrong?” Lin Yu Ning blinked, doubtful.
Her memory of that gray-black mist was so clear. How could it be wrong?
She tried to explain: “But Sister Xiao Man, that day we clearly…”
“Oh my!” Lin Yu Wan jumped in with a bright, proper smile and gently steered the talk away: “Then it was a mistake. Children can have weak eyes sometimes.”
She turned to Xiao Man and repeated her invitation with care: “Xiao Man, don’t forget. Do come to my courtyard to visit.”
Then she stood at once, took the hand of the still-confused Lin Yu Ning and the gossip-hungry Lin Yu Jiao, and made their farewell: “Elder Cousin, you look in decent spirits. Now we can rest easy.”
She added smoothly: “Please rest well. We won’t disturb you further.”
Decisive and tactful, she led her little sisters out.
At the doorway, she turned back, still not at ease, and reminded Xiao Man: “Come by the corner gate that joins the two manors, it’s the closest. My courtyard is called Heroine’s Quarters. It’s easy to find.”
Xiao Man saw them to the courtyard gate. She watched the three sisters vanish past the moon gate and finally let out a long breath.
…
Once outside the Auspicious Cloud Residence, Lin Yu Wan and Lin Yu Jiao could no longer hold back. They flanked Lin Yu Ning.
Lin Yu Ning squeaked: “Big Sister, Second Sister, what are you doing?”
They pressed together: “Ning Ning, tell us, what dark air?”
Finding eager listeners at last, Lin Yu Ning lit up and told the whole story from start to finish: “That day, Sister Xiao Man took me into the inner room of Elder Cousin’s study to get the scripture he copied by hand. We must have touched something on the wall by mistake. I heard a click, and a crack opened in the bookshelf.”
She gestured, face full of lingering fear: “Then a gray, dusty mist whooshed out of the gap. I was so scared. I grabbed the scripture and ran.”
Lin Yu Jiao listened with shining eyes, rubbed her chin, and began to analyze: “Dark air… flying out from a hidden crack with Buddhist scriptures…”
She clapped and concluded: “It must be a soul. Think about it, Buddhist scriptures are used to suppress demons and spirits. Elder Cousin must have sealed something in there, and you two let it out.”
Lin Yu Wan shot her a look and scolded lightly: “Don’t talk nonsense. Not every Buddhist scripture is for suppressing spirits.”
She turned to Lin Yu Ning and asked: “Little Sister, what was the name of the scripture you took?”
Lin Yu Ning tried to recall: “It was Elder Cousin’s handwritten Heart Sutra.”
“The Heart Sutra?” Lin Yu Wan shook her head at once and said: “That one doesn’t suppress ghosts. It teaches seeing your own nature and crossing all suffering. Jiao Jiao, stop guessing blindly.”
“Then what was it?” Lin Yu Jiao pushed back, unwilling to quit.
Lin Yu Wan thought a moment and gave the most reasonable answer she could: “Who knows.”
She looked toward the Auspicious Cloud Residence, eyes far away: “Don’t forget who Elder Cousin is. He is the Buddha’s Chosen, carrying a Buddha Bone Relic. He is born like a piece of Tang Monk’s Flesh, drawing the desire of demons and strange spirits.”
She finished calmly: “If odd things happen around him, that is the most normal thing of all.”
That explanation convinced Lin Yu Jiao and Lin Yu Ning at once.
Right.
Elder Cousin is the Buddha’s Chosen.
Weird things are the normal kind of thing around him.