Chapter 119
Chapter 119: Abbess Xu Ci
Daylight came bright and clear; the morning mist had long since burned away.
Xiao Man stood at the gate of the Heir Apparent’s Manor until her calves ached.
They had said early. Now the sun was climbing toward noon, and not a single shadow had arrived.
She shifted her numb feet. The red sandalwood beads on her wrist rested smooth and warm against her skin, calming the restless knot in her chest.
Just as she was about to become a statue waiting for a husband who would never come, two ornate carriages finally rolled around the street corner. Behind them marched a line of serving women, the display loud enough to bruise the air.
The carriages stopped at the gate.
First Madam stepped out, supported by Huang Qi, a first-rank senior maid. Her face was carefully made up, her clothes rich and heavy with status. She didn’t bother to look twice at anything—only flicked an assessing glance at Xiao Man, sharp with scrutiny.
Turning slightly, she spoke to the steward matron, Matron Zhou. Her voice was low; her lips barely moved.
“Did you bring the birth charts?”
Matron Zhou bent into a bow, a deferential smile fixed on her face, and nodded hard.
“Yes, Madam. Everything is prepared.”
Only then did First Madam look satisfied. She climbed into the front carriage without another word.
Matron Zhou’s expression shifted instantly. She turned and waved Xiao Man and Huang Qi forward, tone pure command.
“You two. The back carriage.”
Huang Qi lifted her chin and climbed in first, deliberately claiming the roomiest spot as if it belonged to her by right.
Xiao Man pressed her lips together and followed without comment.
Inside, the carriage felt stifling, thick with silence.
Matron Zhou rested with her eyes closed. Huang Qi, however, kept stealing glances at Xiao Man, as if trying to measure her. What could possibly be so special about this Yao Xiao Man, that she had become the foremost person by the Buddhist Scion’s side at the Auspicious Cloud Residence?
Xiao Man turned toward the window and watched the streets slip away, too tired to care.
The procession traveled in grand fashion and soon reached the Azure Cloud Temple outside the city.
The temple’s incense never thinned. Even though it wasn’t the first or fifteenth day, plenty of carriages still crowded the mountain gate.
It seemed the temple had been warned. An abbess in a blue-gray robe was already waiting there, her expression serene.
First Madam’s party stepped down and, under the abbess’s guidance, followed the rituals—bowing and offering incense in the proper order.
But First Madam was distracted throughout. The moment the incense was planted in the burner, she caught Matron Zhou by the sleeve and hurried off, eager as if her feet were on fire, straight to the one truly in charge.
Abbess Xu Ci.
“Abbess Xu Ci. I’ve heard so much about you.”
First Madam’s smile came too fast, too bright. She offered two slips of red paper, each marked with a birth chart.
Abbess Xu Ci was not young, yet her eyes were startlingly clear—keen enough to make a person feel seen all the way through.
She picked up Lin Qing Xuan’s chart first.
One glance, and she smiled.
“Born with spiritual wisdom. Bathed in Buddha’s light. A fate meant for a virtuous eminent monk.” Her eyes lifted, calm and certain. “In the entire Great Qian Dynasty, that can only be the Buddhist Scion of your household, yes?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
First Madam’s pride overflowed. She almost glowed.
“Abbess truly has a discerning eye!”
“Then, Abbess, please look at this one as well.”
She tapped Xiao Man’s red paper with a pointed nail, urgency barely restrained.
Abbess Xu Ci took it, studied it for a moment, then nodded.
“A rough road. Bitter first, sweet later. Not an ill fate.”
She placed the two charts side by side. Her gaze moved from paper to paper, then to First Madam’s eager face, and understanding slid into place with quiet ease.
Her next words were blunt as steel.
“So this is the heavenly maiden who will resolve the Buddhist Scion’s destined calamity.”
First Madam’s smile wavered.
“Madam,” Abbess Xu Ci continued, voice even, mercilessly clear, “your fixation on status is too heavy. In your heart, you look down on this miss.”
First Madam stiffened.
“But you must understand this,” Abbess Xu Ci said, eyes sharp. “In this world, there is only one person who can continue your family line.”
The air snapped tight.
First Madam’s jaw nearly fell open.
“Continue… the family line? Only one person?”
She stared as if certain she’d misheard.
“Abbess, you mean… it can only be her?”
She tried, stubbornly, to salvage hope.
Abbess Xu Ci nodded, unbending.
“The Buddhist Scion’s destiny is linked in rings, all tied to this girl. Their souls and dreams are bound; their fate is set across three lifetimes. You cannot break them apart.”
“Abbess, I—I didn’t want to break them apart…”
Caught red-handed, First Madam’s face went red, then white. She could only deny, clumsy and stubborn.
“Oh?” Abbess Xu Ci’s mouth twitched, her expression saying plainly: Go on. Keep pretending.
“Good,” she said. “Then keep it that way.”
She turned and walked away, leaving First Madam rooted in place.
As the abbess stepped out, her gaze landed on Xiao Man standing beneath the corridor, looking uncertain.
Abbess Xu Ci’s eyes brightened. She beckoned with a decisive curl of her fingers.
“You there. Come here.”
Xiao Man blinked, startled, and pointed at herself.
“Me?”
The abbess smiled and nodded.
Still hesitant, Xiao Man approached.
The moment she drew near, Abbess Xu Ci reached out and took her hand. Her palm was warm, her grip steady.
“Child,” she asked gently, “have you suffered in that manor?”
The softness of her tone caught Xiao Man off guard.
“Don’t always force yourself to swallow everything,” Abbess Xu Ci said, voice low and sure. “Some bonds are written by heaven. You can’t sever them even if you want to.”
She squeezed Xiao Man’s hand lightly.
“Let things follow their course, and you’ll see them through.”
Xiao Man listened in a daze.
Everyone in this temple spoke like mist and bells. Maybe that was what people meant by zen.
Before she could gather herself, Abbess Xu Ci drew out a piece of pale, warm jade—carved into a small Buddha—and hung it around Xiao Man’s neck without asking permission.
“Wear this close to your body,” the abbess said, firm beneath her kindness. “It will protect you. In the days ahead, you may face a tribulation. I hope it helps you turn danger into safety.”
“A tribulation?”
First Madam had just stepped out and caught that last line. Her heart jolted.
She rushed forward, breath tight with panic.
“Abbess, then does my son Qing Xuan also need something—jade Guanyin, perhaps—to ward off evil?”
Abbess Xu Ci gave her a slow look, as if measuring how much of the truth she could bear.
“If Madam truly wishes to request one,” she said at last, “then donate a generous incense offering in the main hall, and go to our Daoist Abbot. Ask for a consecrated Guanyin jade pendant.”
She paused, then added, almost idly, “However, the Buddhist Scion carries a Buddhist blessing. He already has a relic bead to protect him. He likely doesn’t care for a consecrated pendant. Madam need not waste effort on useless things.”
First Madam didn’t hear a word after donate.
Her mind rang with a single phrase—continue the family line—over and over until everything else went faint.
Incense money… if it could keep Qing Xuan’s line unbroken, what did it matter?
And what did a maid’s background matter?
Yes. This abbess was enlightening her.
She would return and tell Old Madam: Xiao Man was no ordinary maid. She was the only one who could continue the Heir Apparent’s Manor’s line—a woman sent by fate to bring heirs.
Status, background—everything could step aside. The line mattered more.
She had to plan quickly and thoroughly, and hold Xiao Man’s contract tight enough that she could never leave.