Chapter 67
Chapter 67: Buddhist Scion Was Tang Monk Meat
Outside the Auspicious Cloud Residence, the shouting spilled through the courtyard walls.
Lin Yu Jiao, Lin Yu Wan, and Lin Yu Ning had just reached the entrance when Wang Yao’s scolding—raised an octave too high—hit their ears.
Lin Yu Ning, the youngest, was the type who always ran toward excitement. She rose onto her toes and craned her neck to peer inside.
“Eldest Sister, Second Sister—look, look!”
She tugged on both their sleeves, face bright with anticipation. “Aren’t those the Wang family cousins? What’s going on? They came to our manor and started scolding their own people?”
Lin Yu Jiao folded her arms and snorted, mouth twisting into mockery.
“What else could it be?”
“Someone blind must’ve gone and provoked Cousin’s precious treasure again.”
Lin Yu Wan’s brows knit. Her calm, steady expression didn’t match her age.
She shook her head, helpless, then took one sister by each hand and guided them toward the inner courtyard.
“Enough. Stop gawking.”
“We came to visit the sick. Don’t meddle in another family’s mess.”
Inside, sandalwood incense curled through the room, but it couldn’t drown out the shrill noise outside.
Lin Qing Xuan reclined on the couch in moon-pale robes that made his face look even whiter. His eyes were closed, but his brows were drawn into a tight knot.
The commotion was clearly scraping at his nerves.
Xiao Man knelt at the couch, carefully unwrapping the bandage on his arm to change the medicine.
Seeing his displeasure, she paused mid-motion. Her voice dropped to a mosquito’s hum.
“Eldest Grandson Young Master… should this servant go stop the Wang family cousin misses outside?”
Lin Qing Xuan didn’t open his eyes. His lips parted for two words.
“No need.”
His tone was flat, but it carried that same cold finality.
“Let them make trouble.”
Let it grow louder. Let it spread wider. He wanted to see just how deep the Wang family daughter’s calculations ran.
Just then, a maid announced that three cousin misses from the General Manor had arrived.
Lin Yu Wan led her two sisters in and performed a proper curtsy, neat and formal.
“Cousin, we heard you were injured. Grandmother was worried, so she specially sent us sisters to visit.”
Lin Yu Jiao wasn’t as restrained. Her eyes darted, and she craned forward, trying to see the injury at Lin Qing Xuan’s forehead.
“Cousin, is it serious? Whoever dared touch you must be blind. I’ll tell my father to skin them!”
Lin Yu Ning, the most straightforward, rummaged in her wide sleeves and pulled out a packet of candied fruit wrapped tight in oiled paper. She offered it like a treasure.
She grinned, dimples appearing. “Cousin, eat sweets!”
“My mother says if you eat something sweet, your heart won’t feel bitter!”
That childlike sincerity scattered the heaviness in the room like sunlight.
Lin Qing Xuan’s brows finally eased. He opened his eyes and looked at his youngest cousin with a gentler gaze.
He took the slightly warm packet. “It’s fine. Just a small injury.”
Lin Yu Wan’s eyes shifted, subtle and quick, from Lin Qing Xuan to Xiao Man.
Then she turned to Xiao Man, voice soft enough to melt.
“Miss Xiao Man, you’ve worked hard taking care of Cousin these days.”
Xiao Man went stiff with surprise, then waved her hands in a flurry, shaking her head so hard her hair nearly came loose.
“Eldest Miss is too kind. This servant doesn’t deserve it. It’s simply my duty.”
Lin Yu Wan watched her. Something complicated moved in her eyes.
Ever since her mother sat her down and lectured her about matching status, her heart had felt heavy—like a stone lodged under her ribs.
If family background and position were truly an unbridgeable chasm… then she and Lu Chen—did they truly have no chance at all?
She couldn’t accept it.
And so, looking at Xiao Man and Lin Qing Xuan—one a humble maidservant, one a noble Buddhist Scion—Lin Yu Wan found herself nursing a strange, quiet hope.
She needed a successful example.
She needed Xiao Man to win Lin Qing Xuan—cleanly, unmistakably—and smash those so-called rules and barriers into dust.
Xiao Man was her measure, her mirror, her stubborn dream of defying fate.
Her voice grew even warmer.
“Miss Xiao Man, if you have time, you can come sit in my courtyard at the General Manor. We can talk.”
She tilted her head, easy, intimate. “We sheltered daughters are idle most days. Another sister to chat with is always a good thing.”
Lin Yu Jiao’s eyes nearly bulged.
How could she guess what twisted paths Lin Yu Wan’s mind had been walking?
But Lin Yu Ning clapped immediately, delighted. “Yes, yes! Sister Xiao Man, come play with me too!”
She bounced to Xiao Man’s side and grabbed her hand.
“I still haven’t properly thanked you. If you hadn’t taken me to the study last time, I never would’ve gotten the Buddhist scripture Cousin copied by hand!”
The mention of the study made Lin Yu Ning’s face go pale. She shrank behind Lin Qing Xuan, lowering her voice into a conspiratorial whisper.
“And also… Sister Xiao Man, in Cousin’s study… that dark black qi—is it still there?”
Just remembering it made the back of her neck prickle.
Black qi?
Lin Qing Xuan’s gaze sharpened, a blade drawn from its sheath.
Only then did it slam back into his mind: that day, the Heart Demon escaped its suppression precisely because Xiao Man, dragging this reckless cousin along, accidentally triggered the mechanism in his study.
No third person could know.
Lin Yu Wan and Lin Yu Jiao’s curiosity lit at once.
“Black qi?” they asked together.
Lin Yu Ning was already gearing up to describe it, eyes wide, hands half-raised—
“It was—”
“Ning Ning.”
Lin Qing Xuan’s voice cut through, calm and immovable.
It wasn’t loud, but it carried a weight that made the room still.
He looked at Lin Yu Ning, eyes deep. “That day… you saw wrong, didn’t you?”
The last syllable rose slightly. His gaze slid to Xiao Man—an unmistakable command.
Xiao Man’s heart jolted. She understood instantly: Lin Qing Xuan did not want anyone to know about the Heart Demon.
She nodded quickly and backed his play.
“Yes, Third Miss. You must have mistaken it. There was no black qi in the study.”
“I… mistook it?” Lin Yu Ning blinked, doubtful.
That gray-black mist was burned into her memory. How could it be a mistake?
She started to protest. “But Sister Xiao Man, that day we clearly—”
“Oh!” Lin Yu Wan cut in suddenly, bright and smooth, smiling as she steered the conversation away as if nothing happened.
“If you saw wrong, then you saw wrong. Little children sometimes have poor eyesight.”
She turned back to Xiao Man, repeating her invitation, firm and warm.
“Miss Xiao Man—don’t forget. You must come to my courtyard to play.”
With that, she rose at once, gathered Lin Yu Ning and the gossip-hungry Lin Yu Jiao, and bowed to Lin Qing Xuan.
“Cousin, seeing you in decent spirits puts us at ease.”
“Rest well. We won’t bother you any longer.”
She moved quickly, decisively, leading her sisters out.
At the doorway she looked back once more, as if the thought struck her late.
“Remember—the side gate connecting the two manors is the closest. My courtyard is called Heroines Courtyard. It’s easy to find.”
Xiao Man escorted them to the courtyard gate, polite and careful. Only when the three sisters disappeared beyond the moon gate did she finally let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Outside the Auspicious Cloud Residence, Lin Yu Wan and Lin Yu Jiao couldn’t contain themselves. They flanked Lin Yu Ning, trapping her in the middle.
“Eldest Sister! Second Sister—what are you doing?”
“Ning Ning,” Lin Yu Jiao pressed, eyes bright, “hurry up. What black qi?”
Lin Yu Ning found her audience and came alive at once, spilling the story in a rush.
“That day, Sister Xiao Man took me into the inner room of Cousin’s study to get the scripture he copied by hand. We must’ve bumped something on the wall, because there was a click—and the bookshelf split open a crack!”
She mimed it with her hands, face still pale with lingering fear.
“Then! A gray, dusty cloud—whoosh—shot out of the gap! I was terrified! I grabbed the scripture and ran!”
Lin Yu Jiao rubbed her chin, already lost in her own theory. “Black qi… flying out from a crack where Buddhist scriptures were hidden…”
She slapped her palm and declared, pleased with herself. “Then it has to be a soul! Buddhist scriptures are used to suppress evil spirits. Cousin must’ve sealed something in there, and you two let it out!”
Lin Yu Wan rolled her eyes. “Stop making things up. Not every Buddhist scripture is meant to suppress ghosts.”
She looked at Lin Yu Ning, voice sharpening into something practical. “Little sister. The scripture you took—what was it called?”
Lin Yu Ning frowned, searching her memory. “Um… it was the Heart Sutra Cousin copied by hand.”
“The Heart Sutra?” Lin Yu Wan immediately shook her head.
“Then your guess is wrong. The Heart Sutra isn’t for suppressing specters. It’s about clearing the mind, crossing suffering. Jiao Jiao, don’t play at being clever.”
Lin Yu Jiao wouldn’t let go. “Then what was it?”
Lin Yu Wan paused, then gave the only answer that sounded truly honest.
“Who knows.”
Her gaze drifted back toward the Auspicious Cloud Residence, distant, thoughtful.
“But don’t forget who Cousin is. He is a Buddhist Scion, bearing a Buddha Bone Relic. He was born Tang Monk meat—something Demons and Devils covet.”
“If strange things happen around him… that’s only normal.”
That explanation landed like a stone in water—solid, unquestioned.
Lin Yu Jiao and Lin Yu Ning nodded immediately, convinced.
Of course.
Cousin was a Buddhist Scion.
With him, weird things were normal.