Chapter 119: Your Lineage

"Let's see what he says first," Ming said, gazing into the distance with a look of slight confusion.

Xiao Bi chuckled. "The old monk? He is the renowned abbot of the Holy Light Temple in Zixiu Village, known by the dharma name Xu Wu. You must show him proper respect."

Kai Ming smiled at him. "By the look of it, you’ve become quite close with this monk!"

Xiao Bi nodded. "I've been here for a few days and discovered that Abbot Xu Wu possesses some rather extraordinary skills. He is also gifted in mathematics and is a master of chess. I am humbly learning from him."

"What kind of extraordinary skills?" she asked, teasingly. "Communing with spirits?"

"How did you know?" His expression was one of genuine surprise. "Abbot Xu Wu truly can communicate with ghosts and gods!"

Kai Ming laughed twice, then immediately fell silent. Why laugh at this old monk? Could she really be skeptical, given the bizarre events that had happened to her own person?

"Xiao Bi, the old monk doesn't know your true identity, does he?" She picked up a chess piece for him and added casually, "I notice he keeps calling you 'Young Master.' You haven't told him the truth, have you?"

Xiao Bi grinned. "Of course not. If he knew I were from the imperial government, he probably wouldn't be so close to me."

How strange that sounded—as if he were disparaging his own status. Why would someone of royal blood hold such a little-known village monk in such high regard?

"Is this it? The Holy Light Temple? I slept here last night?" Kai Ming looked up at the building she had just exited. It was a row of neat, tidy rooms. Though the place was small, it was meticulously kept.

Xiao Bi closed the lid of the chess box and nodded. "Yes, you arrived at the temple last night. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn't want to disturb you."

She watched Xiao Bi, her gaze lingering on the green jade set in his browband, then taking in the lotus patterns on his clothing. "You look quite handsome dressed like this."

Xiao Bi blushed slightly, looking rather uncomfortable. "If I'm to play the part of a young master, I have to look the part, don't I?"

She smiled and said nothing.

Xiao Bi tilted his head, watching her intently. "You seem very different this time, sister, compared to the last two times."

"Do I?" She touched her face. She wasn't any heavier or thinner; what could be different?

Xiao Bi made a mournful face. "Mm, you look very dejected."

"Dejected?" She seemed lost in thought. After experiencing such major events, who wouldn't be affected? "Perhaps it's maturity."

Xiao Bi chuckled. "Were you very immature before, sister?"

"You're a child; you wouldn't understand."

"I'm not a child anymore!"

"In my eyes, you're still a little brat."

"..."

As they chatted, Abbot Xu Wu emerged, dressed as a traveling monk with a rain hat and a staff. He stood by the incense niche and said to them, "We may depart."

Kai Ming stood up immediately, with Xiao Bi following closely behind.

Abbot Xu Wu looked at Xiao Bi with curiosity. "Is the Young Master coming along as well?"

Xiao Bi smiled. "I have nothing better to do, so I thought I’d tag along and see what’s happening. You don’t mind, do you, Abbot?"

"Not at all. Let us proceed together."

As they walked through the Holy Light Temple, the monks—whether they were carrying water or sweeping leaves—stopped their work to press their palms together in greeting to the Abbot. However, their eyes kept darting toward Kai Ming. It was a look of familiarity mixed with surprise, not the look one gives a strange woman.

Kai Ming braced herself, walking through the gazes of so many curious onlookers. She felt a chill in her heart. Why were the monks in the temple looking at her like that?

The Holy Light Temple was not large, and they soon reached the gate—a pair of faded vermilion wooden doors, no different from those in the modern world. As she crossed the threshold, a memory suddenly surfaced. She remembered that night at the post station, when Xuan, in a fit of rage, had said: "It was a coincidence that night, too. Because of the rain, we stopped at that temple, and you were just sitting there on the bed in the meditation room like a fool..."

Before Xuan had reached the Holy Light Temple, she had already been there! That was why the monks looked at her that way; she had been living at the Holy Light Temple all along! And as a woman who had lost her wits!

"We lived in peace for a few years, and this year, the transition period the old monk spoke of has arrived..."

"The old monk promised me that he wouldn't let an idiot stay with me forever. He said that the day your soul returned, you would be the perfect wife!"

All the answers lay with this Abbot Xu Wu! He knew the truth about everything!

Once outside the gate, they saw a typical village: low-lying shrubs, muddy paths crisscrossing in every direction, yellow dogs barking at passersby, and villagers offering friendly nods.

Abbot Xu Wu was unfailingly polite, returning every greeting. The villagers’ eyes inevitably fell on Kai Ming and Xiao Bi, full of curiosity about these two strangers—especially Xiao Bi, in his fine, wealthy attire.

Abbot Xu Wu walked with great speed, and soon they arrived before a mud-brick house. Several figures were busy in front of it—farm women in coarse cloth, their faces dark and weathered, their ages discernible only by their clothing.

"Mistress Jing," Abbot Xu Wu stopped and called out to one of them. "How is your back?"

The middle-aged woman, called Mistress Jing, hurriedly set down her work and came forward. "Abbot Xu Wu is here! Please, come inside and rest!"

Abbot Xu Wu replied politely, "No need for trouble. Mistress Jing, is my medicine still working?"

Mistress Jing rubbed her lower back and laughed. "Thanks to your divine medicine, Abbot, look—my back doesn't ache, my legs aren't sore. You truly are a man of miracles!"

Abbot Xu Wu smiled faintly. "I dare not claim to be divine. I am merely a servant of the Bodhisattva. Mistress Jing, I have come today specifically to see you. Is Master Jing not at home?"

"Master Jing? He went to the mountains early this morning to tend to the fruit trees. He said he’d pick some melons to sell in the city for a good price during the autumn harvest. You can tell me whatever it is, Abbot."

Abbot Xu Wu nodded and looked at her. "Last night, your daughter came to me in a dream."

"My daughter?" Mistress Jing looked back at her own two daughters and one son, bewildered. "Abbot, my daughters are all right here. How could she have come to you in a dream?"

Abbot Xu Wu chuckled. "Mistress Jing, have you forgotten that you had another daughter?"

Mistress Jing’s face changed instantly, and her voice turned shrill. "What nonsense are you spouting, Abbot?! I only have two daughters! Where would another one come from?"

Abbot Xu Wu sighed. "If you don't want people to know, you shouldn't have done it in the first place! Mistress Jing, your daughter came to me in a dream and asked me to offer prayers for her today. I have come specifically to tell you."

"Why tell me? Get out! Stop spouting such drivel here!" Mistress Jing turned hostile, grabbing a broom and waving it at them like a demon. "If you don't leave, I'll chase you out!"

Kai Ming and Xiao Bi, standing behind the Abbot, were completely bewildered, staring at each other.

Abbot Xu Wu shook his head and sighed. "Mistress Jing, it is not too late to seek redemption..." Before he could finish, the woman’s broom came swinging down. "Get out! Get away! If you don't leave, I won't be polite!"

Her outburst terrified the three of them, and they fled like rabbits from her doorstep.

From a distance, they could still see the woman leaning on her broom, cursing them. Kai Ming felt a lingering fear and complained to the old monk, "Why did you have to go and provoke that shrew for no reason?"

Abbot Xu Wu smiled. "She is no shrew; she is your own mother."

Kai Ming gasped, nearly choking on her own saliva. "Are you joking?" First, she was a fool of unknown origin, and now she was the daughter of a rural shrew? The old monk didn't even need a draft to make up his lies.

"Your situation is complex," Abbot Xu Wu said, lifting his robes to walk onto the soft ridge of a field. "The whole truth lies on that mountain."

The truth was on the mountain? His cryptic words only left her more confused.

Abbot Xu Wu merely smiled and led the way. The two of them had no choice but to follow, feeling deeply frustrated.

Crossing the field, they reached a stone-paved mountain path. Panting, they climbed to the hillside, where a simple pavilion had been built. Abbot Xu Wu walked inside and pointed to an inconspicuous mound of earth nearby. "Patron, look there."

"Look at what?" Kai Ming asked, gasping for breath. "There's nothing there."

Abbot Xu Wu said nothing. He stepped forward to the small rise and stared at it for a long time. "Patron, do you know what this is?"

Kai Ming naturally shook her head, and Xiao Bi looked on with suspicion.

Abbot Xu Wu offered a faint smile and said slowly, "This is the place where all the truth is buried."

Kai Ming looked at him strangely. What obscure Zen riddle was the old monk spouting? Why couldn't she understand a word of it?

Abbot Xu Wu looked up, his eyes beneath the rain hat fixed firmly on her. "It was from this very mound that I dug you out!"

The muscles in Kai Ming’s face went rigid; she couldn't form an expression. "What did you say?!" Did the old monk mean that her original body wasn't a fool, but a dead person? This had to be the biggest joke in the world!

Even Xiao Bi couldn't help but interject: "Abbot, this is not a matter for jokes."

"I never speak in falsehoods," Abbot Xu Wu said with a soft sigh. "Sigh, this is a long story..."

"Please, Abbot, make it short!" It seemed Xiao Bi's curiosity was just as great.

Abbot Xu Wu finally opened his mouth, speaking in a measured, steady tone: "Over a decade ago, I was just a humble young monk. On a dark, rainy night, I was returning from a friend’s house near the village entrance. As I passed by Mistress Jing’s house, I heard the sound of a baby crying, followed by a man’s scolding and a woman’s weeping. Everyone in the village knew Mistress Jing was pregnant, so I assumed she was in labor that night. I had drunk a few cups of vegetarian wine at my friend's, and my head was spinning, so I stopped outside her house for a few minutes. I never imagined that those few minutes of hesitation would accidentally save a life..."