Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 80
>Chapter Title: Nun
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Looking at the frosted persimmon cake held up in front of him, Li Huowang shook his head in refusal.
“Don’t eat too much. We’re heading to the inn soon to order some good dishes, and you won’t have room for them.”
But Li Huowang’s reminder didn’t slow down their eating at all.
“No problem. I can finish these and still eat a full meal.”
“Yeah, yeah, even if it stuffs me to bursting, I gotta eat! Starving is pure hell. Hey, Senior Brother Li, aren’t you hungry?”
Li Huowang smiled without replying and led the horse onward. The inn wasn’t far ahead.
“Senior Brother Li, I bought you some ready-made clothes. Why not try them on?”
Li Huowang shook his head again. “Nah, I’m used to the Daoist robes. Just swap the ones underneath. Also, you should cover your eyes, or it’ll hurt again.”
The two carriages squeezed through the dense crowd for a good while before finally pulling up in front of the inn.
The excited Gouwa thrust his handful of gold beans high in the air and charged inside first.
“Waiter! Get Grandpa Cao the best upstairs room! Then bring red-braised pork!! The kind with only fat, no lean!! Four big bowls!!”
Li Huowang shoved him aside and walked in. Glancing at the townsfolk eating and chatting around him, he said to the approaching waiter, “No need for a private upstairs room. We’ll eat in the main hall. I like the bustle.”
“Senior Brother Li, we’ve got money now. What’s the point of eating in the main hall? It’s so noisy and—”
Gouwa deflated like a frostbitten eggplant after a glare from Li Huowang.
Once seated at a wooden table, the conversations from all around started flooding into Li Huowang’s ears.
“Baowen’s mom, watch out for getting the short end of the stick. Your mother-in-law really said that behind your back.”
“I say, when people get too cheeky, just smack ’em! We folks from Siqi never backed down from a fight. I may be a retired soldier, but if the call-up order comes, I’ll head back to camp without a word!”
“Heh heh heh, Brother Ziqi, my apologies. My wife nagged a bit, so I was late. Allow me to down three cups as penance.”
“Hey! Look at that Daoist. He’s odd—his robes are actually red...”
Li Huowang waited until the waiter brought the dishes, but he hadn’t heard the information he was after.
By his thinking, with the nunnery so close to town, it should have some impact on the locals, good or bad.
Yet from the townsfolk’s reactions, that nunnery had barely any presence.
Fine, if this approach didn’t work, Li Huowang had others.
“Two Dragons Play with a Pearl~ Three Yangs Bring Prosperity~ Carp Leaps the Dragon Gate~ Heh heh! Dishes are served~ Enjoy your meal, honored guests!”
As the waiter finished naming the dishes and turned to leave, Li Huowang grabbed him.
“Hey, esteemed master, as you can see, the inn’s swamped. I really can’t—”
The waiter’s complaint died in his throat as Li Huowang stuffed a gold bean into his hand.
“You know Heng Hua Mountain over there?”
“Of course, of course!”
“There’s a nunnery on the mountain. I hear the incense there is booming? Their bodhisattva really answers prayers?”
A flicker of confusion crossed the waiter’s face at that. “Booming incense? Nah, An Ci Nunnery’s not even as popular as the local earth god’s shrine.”
“Hm?” Li Huowang glanced at Xiaoman, who was eating. That didn’t match what she’d said.
“My neighbor said the incense was really booming.” Xiaoman set down her chopsticks, looking awkward.
“Pfft, your neighbor must’ve been talking nonsense. The bodhisattva statue at An Ci Nunnery’s covered in dust. Booming incense? That’d be a miracle.”
“Esteemed master, trust me, you won’t go wrong. My second sister’s nephew’s village had a widow who went to An Ci Nunnery to become a nun.”
At that, Li Huowang perked up instantly. “Oh? Why’d she go become a nun there? Are there any requirements to join?”
The waiter glanced around, his expression hesitant.
When Li Huowang slipped the gold bean into his palm, the waiter leaned in and lowered his voice deliberately.
“Her husband died, her family lived far away, and worst of all, she couldn’t bear a son. The villagers treated her like a dead end and shunned her. Desperate with nowhere else to turn, she became a nun. Who’d choose that life if they could survive otherwise?”
“Oh... I see.” Li Huowang nodded thoughtfully.
From the information gathered so far, these nuns seemed fairly normal, not much different from what Li Zhi had said before dying.
“Do you know why those nuns wear black robes?” Li Huowang pulled out another gold bean.
“Pfft, those aren’t black robes. Nuns wear blue ones. But for whatever reason—no well on the mountain or something—they never bathe or change clothes. Those blue robes get worn straight to black.”
The waiter’s face twisted in disgust as he spoke.
“One day, a few nuns came down to sell pigs. I saw one rub her neck, and get this—she rolled off a date-sized ball of black grime!!”
At his words, the people nearby grimaced and set down their chopsticks.
*Smack!* A hand slapped the back of the waiter’s head.
“The guests are eating! What the hell are you blabbing about?! Trying to ruin my Penglai Inn’s reputation?!”
“Boss, it’s not like that! The esteemed master asked, so I told him!”
Watching the fat innkeeper force the waiter to apologize and drag him off, Li Huowang picked up his chopsticks and started eating.
“Senior Brother Li, we could’ve asked for you.”
Gouwa said this as he crammed a glistening hunk of fat pork into his mouth.
“Enough. What could your pockmarked face dig up? You’d just scare folks off. Baolu, after you eat, go around town and ask about An Ci Nunnery.”
Among the human ingredients, only this man who was good in water looked completely normal.
The usually inconspicuous Sun Baolu froze for a moment, then nodded silently.
Li Huowang glanced at him and kept eating. Looking normal didn’t mean he was normal.
This man never undressed to sleep, and even for the toilet, he hid from everyone—men and women alike.
There had to be something under his clothes explaining why Danyangzi had chosen him as an ingredient.
But Li Huowang didn’t pry. He wouldn’t want others dissecting his own mental state either.
For the next stretch of time, Li Huowang holed up at the inn.
He sent the Daoist acolytes and Baolu separately to gather news on An Ci Nunnery.
He didn’t want a repeat of what happened at Zhengde Temple.
After asking around for a while—and even sending Baolu up the mountain once—Li Huowang tentatively concluded the nuns posed no major threat.
What the townsfolk said most about the nuns was that they were filthy, lazy, and fat.
“If I’m not down by tomorrow, you all leave immediately. Got it?”
Standing before the dirt path up the mountain, Li Huowang instructed the other ingredients.
“Senior Brother Li, let us come with you.”
“Come along to be dead weight? You think it’s a picnic?”
Li Huowang regretted the harshness the moment he said it, but he offered no explanation and turned to climb the mountain alone.
Watching his receding figure, Bai Lingmiao bit her lip, tears welling up as if she wanted to say something.
But even after he vanished into the hills, the words never came.
(End of chapter)