Chapter 152: In the Name of Concern...

Just as Lady Ji was so furious she almost fainted, a sound of footsteps approached. A Daoist nun walked out from the gates of the temple and asked the crowd, "Which one of you is Master Lu Wen?"

"I am," Lu Ying stepped forward.

"Please follow me."

Seeing that Lu Ying was about to enter, Lady Ji, who had scrambled out of the pit in a sorry state, shrieked, "What about me? I want to see Niangniang."

The Daoist nun looked in astonishment at Lady Ji, who was disheveled and covered in mud stains, then nodded and said, "You may come as well." Lady Ji tidied her messy hair and bowed to the nun, saying, "Please allow me to change my clothes." Finally remembering her status, she resumed the demeanor of an aristocratic lady.

The nun, however, frowned and said, "Recluse Qingyuan only requested to meet Master Lu. Can Lady Ji return tomorrow?"

How could that possibly work? Suppressing her discomfort with a patch of mud dangling from the tip of her nose, Lady Ji immediately retorted, "I am also—" Right at that moment, a young maiden who had been standing to the side, dumbfounded by these developments, quickly cut in, "It's all the same if my sister sees Recluse Qingyuan tomorrow." With that, she flashed a few meaningful looks at Lady Ji.

Lady Ji stood there with her mouth agape in shock as she watched Lu Ying walk inside.

As soon as Lu Ying left, two maidens, a young master, and a middle-aged steward crowded around Lady Ji. While the maidens helped Lady Ji and her maid to their feet, the middle-aged steward lowered his voice and said, "Recluse Qingyuan has long since cared nothing for worldly affairs; why bother seeing her? The most pressing matter for this trip is to see Niangniang and persuade her not to seek a divorce."

Lady Ji realized she had put the cart before the horse. She asked blankly, "Then what about Niangniang? Has she come out yet?"

"Not yet." Just as a young man uttered these words, his gaze drifted toward the Daoist temple and froze. He saw Niangniang, who had just retreated from within, cross paths with Lu Wen. Lu Wen stopped, whispered something to Niangniang that caused her to nod, and then resumed walking.

The young man lowered his voice and said, "Niangniang is coming out."

The group grew excited. At that moment, the middle-aged steward instructed, "Go and try your best to keep that fellow surnamed Lu detained inside. Lady Ji, Lady Chen, and Young Master Feng, you are all people who hold influence with the Yuan family; later, you must persuade her to dispel any thoughts of a divorce."

Hearing this, the maiden who had called Lady Ji her sister gave a snort of derisive laughter and said dismissively, "That will be extremely easy. The Yuan woman's disposition is just like a puppy's—give her a bone and she'll be all teary-eyed, say a few harsh words and she'll lose her bearings. I guarantee that after we say a few things, she'll agree."

Lady Ji, however, felt a twinge of shame. She muttered, "Fortunately, she didn't see what happened on the boat yesterday." Given Niangniang's secluded lifestyle, she most likely hadn't heard any of the rumors outside either. Otherwise, at the thought of how she had framed Niangniang in front of so many people only to turn around and act like sisters with her, Lady Ji still found it somewhat difficult to save face. Fortunately, she was kept in the dark.

Still feeling uneasy, the middle-aged steward turned to the young master and said, "Young Master Feng has always been on good terms with Young Master Yang, and in the past, you even spoke a few kind words on Niangniang's behalf; she has always appreciated your favor. Later on, we hope you will do your utmost, Young Master."

Young Master Feng flashed a grin and said offhandedly, "That's simple." He paused, then added, "I will do my best, but as for the outcome, I make no guarantees." Unlike the young women, Young Master Feng's eyes faintly concealed a sense of nonchalance, along with superficial contempt and disdain.

The middle-aged steward nodded and walked away without further ado. By this time, Niangniang had already walked out of the temple. While Lady Chen and the others crowded around Niangniang, Lady Ji wanted to tidy herself up, but the thought of her disheveled state and her still-unconscious maid provided living evidence that could be used to corroborate the rudeness, brutality, and ruthlessness of the person surnamed Lu. Thus, she stopped herself.

From a distance, she watched Niangniang surrounded by the others, gazing at her timid appearance just like in the past. Then she looked in the direction where Lu Ying had disappeared and thought to herself: Niangniang has always looked up to me; the last time someone spoke ill of me, she stayed angry on my behalf for a long time. This person surnamed Lu has humiliated me so, she will surely stand up for me and will from now on utterly detest that person surnamed Lu!

At this thought, she felt that taking that blow had been worth it.

At that moment, the maid was still lying unconscious nearby; who could possibly remember her?

***

Lu Ying entered the Daoist temple.

She arrived at a plain-looking side room. Just as she made a deep, sweeping bow, the sixty-something Daoist nun slumped on the mat raised a pair of turbid eyes to stare at her, slowly asking, "You are Lu Wen?"

"Yes."

"I hear from Niangniang that you are a nun? I truly cannot tell."

Lu Ying smiled.

The nun pointed to a spot beside her and said, "Sit."

"Yes."

After Lu Ying sat down, the nun closed her eyes to rest her mind.

As she sat motionless in meditation, Lu Ying quietly pondered her own affairs.

Lu Ying had not expected the nun to meditate for nearly half an hour. Lu Ying glanced at her, seeing her eyes half-closed, unsure whether she had fallen asleep. She stood up, strolled leisurely to one side, and admired a diagram of the Eight Trigrams.

After a while, the nun's voice came through: "I heard from Niangniang that you told her if there was only one person in this world she could trust, that person would be me. Did you say such a thing?"

Lu Ying turned her head, "Yes."

"To understand my personality so well, and yet be able to hide Niangniang so thoroughly that no one can find her—whose person are you?"

Lu Ying lowered her eyes, looked at her, and said slowly, "My master's surname is Liu, and his given name is Jiang..."

At the mention of this name, the nun seemed startled. She quickly opened her eyes and looked at Lu Ying.

Staring at her for a long time, the nun let out a low sigh and murmured, "It is time."

With that, she asked, "You wish to manage Niangniang's dowry?"

Lu Ying smiled and said quite honestly, "When I met Niangniang on the boat and saw her facing such hardship on all sides, I did have that intention. Her nature is purely kind; she does not know how to manage people, and once the dowry is in her hands, it is easily exploited by others. Besides, those people should not be allowed to keep the benefits given by her parents while treating her with such harshness."

The nun stared at her for a moment and slowly said, "The dowry cannot be given to you..."

Upon hearing these words, Lu Ying maintained her calm and breezy expression. She said languidly, "That's fine as well... My original intention was merely to use her dowry as a foothold for commercial ventures in Wuchang. Since the Recluse has other arrangements, I can achieve the same through other means."

The nun opened her eyes again to appraise her. She saw that Lu Ying remained completely relaxed and at ease, as if she did not realize that by casually giving up on this, she was abandoning a path paved with gold, nor did she seem to realize that starting from other means meant she would have to exert ten or a hundred times the effort.

***

After a good while, she nodded and said, "Very well, you may leave."

Lu Ying bowed in return and slowly stepped out.

No one stopped Lu Ying as she came out.

Recluse Qingyuan had kept her for so long that she had given the people outside ample time; there was no need to delay Lu Ying any further.

Before long, Lu Ying stepped out of the temple gates. Outside the gates, it was desolate and cold; those young men and maidens were nowhere to be seen, and Niangniang was absent. Summoning a guard to ask a few questions, she turned and walked in another direction.

Soon, she arrived beside a wooden corridor. Through the gradually thickening woods, before Lu Ying even drew close, she clearly heard a maiden's voice ring out: "Niangniang, you are truly foolish! What do you think you have? You don't have a single reliable servant by your side, and your own nature is cowardly. If you leave the Yang estate, how do you expect to live?"

Another maiden also sighed and said, "Indeed, your roots are in Wuchang. Just think, after your divorce, which aristocratic family would still be willing to associate with a divorced woman? You surely cannot live out your days like a nun, can you?"

At this, Niangniang softly said something.

Upon hearing this, the aforementioned Lady Chen sneered, "Niangniang, it's not that I want to criticize you, but truly, you have no strong points that make anyone care. Think about it: you aren't clever, you're prone to crying, you're incompetent, you can never seem to master the zither, chess, calligraphy, or painting, and when interacting with people normally, you're as dull as a block of wood. Just think, with a woman like you, how could Young Master Yang possibly care for you? Now that he has finally come to his senses and realized your worth, you're still putting on airs. Niangniang, don't end up getting nothing at all, clutching your virginity as you grow old in some empty mountains."

Lady Chen's words were extremely scathing. Lu Ying frowned and quickened her pace.

Before long, she caught sight of Niangniang, who at that moment was surrounded by four or five peers hurling one remark after another at her. What these people were saying was clearly unpleasant. Niangniang was curled up in a corner, shaking her head whenever someone tried to persuade her. Even from afar, tears could be seen welling in her eyes, and her aura of insecurity, fear, and low self-esteem was impossible to mask.

Seeing this, Lu Ying quickened her steps.

Just then, Lady Ji's mocking laughter rang out: "Niangniang, could it be that you're still thinking of that pretty-boy surnamed Lu? I'm telling you, we've already investigated him; he is no scion of an aristocratic family from Luoyang at all. He's a con artist from the pleasure quarters whose business is trading in sodomy and making a living through fraud. He has successively ruined three young women in Jiangzhou and Chengdu, and one of them even committed suicide because of him..."

Lady Ji rattled off these slanderous accusations fluently. Niangniang looked as though she had been struck dumb; she raised her head, her mouth agape in a daze as she stared at Lady Ji.

How could Lady Ji know that Lu Ying was not a young man at all, but a woman? She was still casually slandering Lu Ying, just as she casually brushed past the fact that she had slandered Niangniang for committing adultery on the boat yesterday.

Seeing that Niangniang had finally lost her composure somewhat under Lady Ji's words, Lady Chen breathed a sigh of relief. With an annoyed tone, she chimed in, "I'm telling you, Niangniang, we are all doing this out of genuine care for you. What is there for you to hesitate about? Look at you—you have neither looks nor family backing, who could possibly love you? If Young Master Yang hadn't grown up with you since childhood and been moved by your devotion over all these years, do you think he'd give a damn if you lived or died? And as for us, if we didn't think you were at least obedient, we wouldn't even bother paying you the slightest attention. Look at you—look at you, still wearing that same stupid, vacant look. Tsk, truly unlovable!"

Under Lady Chen's verbal assault, Niangniang's eyes filled with tears. She cowered, biting her lip, curling her entire body into a tight ball as if she wanted to hide herself away... In the past, whenever she acted like this, she would timidly submit to everyone's demands. Seeing her act this way again, the young women unconsciously relaxed their expressions. (To be continued)