Chapter 80: Nun

Chapter 80: The Nuns

Looking at the frost-dusted dried persimmons held out before him, Li Huowang shook his head in refusal.

"Don't eat too much. Once we get to the inn and order some good dishes, you won't have an appetite left."

Yet Li Huowang's warning did nothing to slow their pace of eating.

"It's fine. After I finish these, I'll still have room for a proper meal."

"Right, right! Even if it kills us, we must eat! Starving is truly a miserable hell, ah. Senior Brother Li, aren't you hungry?"

Li Huowang smiled without saying a word, leading his horse forward. Not far ahead lay the inn.

"Senior Brother Li, I bought you some ready-made clothes. Why don't you try them on?"

Li Huowang shook his head once more. "Forget it. I'm used to wearing Taoist robes. Just change the inner garments. Besides, you should cover your eyes, or they'll start aching again."

The two carriages squeezed through the dense crowd for a long while before finally arriving at the inn's entrance.

An excited Gouwa, holding a gold bean high in his hand, was the first to burst inside.

"Waiter! Give Master Cao the finest upper room! Then serve braised pork! Only the fatty parts, no lean meat! Bring four huge bowls!"

Li Huowang pushed him aside and walked in. Glancing at the townsfolk eating and chatting around, he said to the approaching waiter, "No need for a private room. We'll eat right here in the main hall. I like a lively atmosphere."

"Senior Brother Li, we're rich now! Why eat in the main hall? It's so noisy and—"

Shot a glare by Li Huowang, the excitable Gouwa wilted like a frostbitten eggplant.

As they took their seats at a wooden table, the surrounding chatter began to continuously flood into Li Huowang's ears.

"Baowen's mother, you'd better watch out for subtle retaliation. Your mother-in-law was truly saying that behind your back."

"If you ask me, when others step on your nose and get on your face, you just fight back! We of Siqi have never feared anyone in battle. Though this old man has retired to the fields, if the orders to mobilize come down, I'll return to camp without a second word!"

"Hehehe, Brother Ziqi, my apologies, my apologies. My wife nagged a few words, so I'm a bit late. I shall punish myself with three cups right now."

"Ah! Look, that Taoist is quite strange. His robe is actually red..."

Until the waiter brought the dishes, Li Huowang had not gleaned the information he sought.

By his understanding, since the town was so close to the nunnery, it should have had some impact on the locals, for better or worse.

Yet judging from the townspeople's reactions, the nunnery had a remarkably low presence.

Since this approach yielded nothing, Li Huowang had other methods.

"Two dragons playing with a pearl! Three rams bringing prosperity! A carp leaping over the dragon gate! Hehe! The dishes are all here! Esteemed guests, enjoy your meal!"

The waiter, having just finished announcing the dish names, was about to leave when Li Huowang grabbed him.

"Oh, dear Daoist Master, you see how busy the inn is, I'm really sor—"

Before the waiter could even finish the word sorry, a gold bean from Li Huowang's hand stuffed the rest of his words back down his throat.

"Do you know about Henghua Mountain over there?"

"Know it, know it!"

"There's a nunnery on the mountain. I heard their incense offerings are quite prosperous? Are their Bodhisattvas very efficacious?"

Hearing this, a trace of confusion appeared on the waiter's face. "Prosperous incense? I don't think so. The incense at Ance Nunnery isn't even as good as that for the Earth God."

"Hmm?" Li Huowang looked at Xiaoman, who was eating. This was not what she had told him.

"My neighbor said the incense was very prosperous," Xiaoman said, putting down her chopsticks in slight embarrassment.

"Ha, your neighbor was definitely blowing smoke. The Bodhisattvas at Ance Nunnery are covered in a layer of dust. If they had prosperous incense, it'd be a ghost story."

"Master, listen to me, I can't be wrong. The widow in my second sister's nephew's village went to Ance Nunnery to become a nun."

Hearing this, Li Huowang instantly perked up. "Oh? Why did she go there to become a nun? Are there any requirements to become a nun there?"

The waiter looked left and right, his expression somewhat hesitant.

When Li Huowang pressed the gold bean into his hand, the waiter leaned in close, deliberately lowering his voice.

"Her husband died, her maiden family was far away, and on top of that, she was incapable of bearing a son. So the villagers devoured her family's last assets. With nowhere else to turn, she became a nun. If anyone could survive any other way, who would want to be a nun?"

"Oh... so that's how it is." Li Huowang nodded thoughtfully.

From the information gathered so far, these nuns seemed relatively normal, not much different from what Li Zhi had said before his death.

"Then do you know why those nuns wear black clothes?" Li Huowang took out another gold bean.

"Ha, those aren't black clothes. The nuns' garments are cyan. But I don't know if there's no well on the mountain or what, they never bathe or change clothes. Those outfits literally went from cyan to black from wear."

Saying this, the waiter's face was full of disgust.

"The other day, a few nuns came down to sell pigs. I saw one of them rubbing her neck, and hey! Guess what? She actually rubbed off a black mud ball the size of a jujube!"

As soon as the waiter said this, the people nearby all put down their chopsticks with looks of disgust.

"Smack!" A palm struck the back of the waiter's head.

"The esteemed guests are eating! What are you blabbering about here? Trying to ruin the reputation of my Penglai Inn, are you?"

"Innkeeper, it's really not my fault! The Daoist Master asked, so I answered!"

Watching the fat innkeeper force the waiter to apologize and drag him away, Li Huowang picked up his chopsticks and began to eat.

"Senior Brother Li, if there's anything you want to ask, we can help you."

Gouwa said this, picking up a greasy, huge piece of fat pork and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Enough. What could your mottled face possibly ask without scaring people to death? Baolu, after you finish eating, go into town and ask about news of Ance Nunnery for me."

Among the human medicinal ingredients, only this man with good swimming skills looked completely normal on the outside.

Sun Baolu, who had always lacked a sense of presence, was taken aback, then silently nodded.

Li Huowang glanced at him and continued eating. Looking normal on the outside didn't mean he was truly normal.

This man never took off his clothes to sleep, and even hid from others when using the latrine, hiding from both men and women.

Beneath his clothes must be hidden the reason he was chosen by Danyangzi as a medicinal ingredient.

But Li Huowang didn't want to pry further. Judging others by himself, he wouldn't want others discussing his own mental state with him either.

For the following period, Li Huowang settled down at this inn.

He sent the Taoist acolytes and Baolu separately to gather news about Ance Nunnery.

Li Huowang did not want the events of Zhengde Temple to happen again.

After inquiring for a while, and specifically sending Baolu to scout the mountain, Li Huowang reluctantly concluded that the nuns probably posed no major threat.

The most the townspeople said about the nuns was that they were dirty, lazy, and fat.

"If I haven't come down by tomorrow, you all leave this place immediately, do you hear me?"

Li Huowang stood before the dirt path leading up the mountain, instructing the other medicinal ingredients.

"Senior Brother Li, let us go with you."

"Go where? To be a burden? Do you really think this is a spring outing?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Li Huowang felt he had spoken too harshly, but he offered no explanation, turning around to climb the mountain alone.

Watching the figure gradually fade into the distance, Bai Lingmiao bit her lip, her eyes brimming with tears as if yearning to speak.

Yet she waited until he vanished into the mountains, never once letting the words pass her lips.

(End of Chapter)