Chapter 104
Chapter 104: The Walking White Tofu
When Zhao Lv Liu left the Heir Apparent Manor, her steps felt light and floaty, as if she were walking on clouds.
She was trapped in a rush of wild inspiration. A storm of pictures flashed through her mind like flying arrows.
She kept replaying the scene in the tea room with Lin Qing Xuan: his calm, elegant posture as he sat straight, the quiet line of his face when he lowered his eyes, and that long-fingered hand resting by the teacup.
Miracle! It felt like a miracle.
Even though the Buddha’s Chosen stayed cool from start to finish and never gave her a smile, nothing could stop Zhao Lv Liu from filling in her own details, painting scene after scene where cold divinity met everyday warmth.
She even forgot to say goodbye to the Lin Clan sisters. Hugging her charcoal pencil and sketchbook, she hurried off like a sleepwalker.
Only one thought beat in her chest.
Right now. At once. Get back to the studio and spill this fierce, boiling inspiration onto paper.
Watching Zhao Lv Liu flee like the wind, Lin Yu Jiao frowned and tugged her Little Sister’s sleeve. In a low voice full of doubt, she asked, “Ning Ning, she just left like that?”
She added, “I feel like this is risky. Will she really give us that Register of Handsome Men she promised? What if we worked so hard, took the risk, and then she pretends it never happened?”
Lin Yu Ning’s heart thumped like a caught rabbit. Still, with things already in motion, she forced herself to sound steady, as if calming her sister and herself at the same time: “I think it will be fine, Second Sister. Sister Lu Liu is a well-known talent in the Capital City. She wouldn’t lie over something this small. How about we wait two more days?”
After the two cousins left, the tea room finally returned to quiet.
Lifting his cup again, Lin Qing Xuan still wore a trace of confusion. At last he asked the question that had been circling in his mind: “Did they really come to ask about the Buddhist Dharma?”
He had felt no real hunger for Dharma from any of the three. If anything, the mood had been oddly off.
“Meow.” Black Cat Tuan Tuan licked a front paw with grace. Mischief glinted in his green eyes. He flicked his tail, and his Mind-Voice Transmission came sharp and clear: “They did not come for Dharma. Your youngest cousin has money on the brain. She is thinking ‘sell high’ and ‘get rich.’ She may as well carve the words copper coin on her forehead. As for your second cousin, she is itching with curiosity over the strange book in Painter Zhao’s hands.”
Tuan Tuan drew out the last one on purpose, letting the suspense hang: “And that Zhao Lv Liu… her head is full of love scenes. But it is not real longing. It is more like a painter’s professional sickness. She is simply bewitched by you, a walking library of inspiration.”
Hearing Tuan Tuan’s running commentary, Xiao Man could not help a soft laugh.
She crooked a finger: “Tuan Tuan, come here.”
When he came over, Xiao Man scooped him up and stroked his sleek coat. Then she looked up at Lin Qing Xuan with a sly curve at her lips and said, “If you ask me, your skill at reading hearts beats some official Buddha’s Chosen.”
Lin Qing Xuan lifted his gaze from the cup to Xiao Man. A thin note of displeasure colored his voice: “If you knew their motives were not pure, why did you let them in?”
“Young Master, do you not often say we should Deliver All Beings?” said Xiao Man, slow and steady. “Must deliverance only mean holding a scripture and speaking big truths no one understands?”
She paused, soft but firm: “If we grant three Misses a small wish that harms no one, if the one who wants money finds a new path, the curious one gains a bit of fun, and the artist receives true inspiration, and if they all leave happy today, is that not also a kind of Spiritual Deliverance?”
She tilted her head, her eyes bright and clever: “Could it be that your earlier idea was a little too narrow?”
Lin Qing Xuan was stunned.
He looked at Xiao Man’s teasing eyes, then at the lazy, yawning Black Cat in her arms. Something firm inside him seemed to loosen, as if her words had opened a thin crack.
He had always thought Spiritual Deliverance meant guiding people to goodness, pointing them to the truth of the Buddhist Dharma, helping them cross the sea of suffering, and leading them to attain enlightenment and Nirvana.
But Xiao Man’s words pushed open a new window in his mind.
So deliverance could also look like this.
Granting small joys, completing a harmless wish, giving people a moment of cheer in the dust of the mortal world… there was a quiet Zen meaning here he had never thought about.
He fell into thought. Xiao Man made sense.
Pulling himself back from deep ideas, Lin Qing Xuan remembered Zhao Lv Liu’s fevered gaze. He had never understood that feeling, yet Xiao Man seemed to know it very well.
Studying Xiao Man, he felt a new curiosity about his own looks for the first time, and asked in a soft voice, “Xiao Man, do you think my clothes today were what inspired Painter Zhao?”
Xiao Man looked him up and down without mercy. “Your outfit? The colors are clean, yes, but all year you wear frost white, or moon white, or distant mountain green. People might think our manor can only afford those few bolts of cloth. It is like plain broth. You look like a block of tender tofu ready for the pot. Good-looking, but no flavor.”
Done teasing, she rested her chin on her hand, eyes shining: “Speaking of which, I want to read Zhao Lv Liu’s books too. I heard every Miss in the Capital City is fighting over her Capital Handsome Men Album. How about I take leave tomorrow and go to Yunlang Studio to buy a few, so I can see what the fuss is about?”
“We will both go to Yunlang Studio in the morning, and we can buy some other little things along the way,” said Lin Qing Xuan, eyes full of fondness.
“Really?” Xiao Man’s eyes went round with joy. “Tomorrow?”
Going out, and buying storybooks. Double happiness.
Watching her light up, Lin Qing Xuan felt that softened corner of his heart grow even warmer.
He wanted to see with his own eyes the lively world she talked about, to see the books that kept the Capital City Misses up at night.
Maybe this was also a kind of cultivation.
A faint smile touched his lips, and his voice turned gentle: “Then tomorrow, I will go with you.”
“Mm,” she answered, meeting his happy gaze. Warmth filled his heart. “We will go together.”