Later on, even the people from the street below squeezed upstairs one after another to watch the commotion—a pregnant young wife and a monk in his robes. Anyone could tell this was an extraordinary romantic scandal. No one wanted to miss such excitement. Some busybodies even called their friends over. The tavern quickly became so packed that there was no room to stand. Some even tried to climb up through the windows. In the end, even the people in the teahouse across the street came out onto their balconies to watch the spectacle.

Shen Xiaohai had long since taken advantage of the crowd to slip away. That cup of tea had already been knocked to the ground by the force of the young woman rushing over, smashing into pieces. Master Yuanhui closed his eyes, trying to suppress the towering rage in his heart. But no matter how hard he tried to calm himself, the murderous intent surging within couldn’t be contained. Eventually, his blood rushed upward, his entire face turned crimson with suppressed fury, and even his bald head was covered with a thin layer of red.

Song Chuyi had actually come up with such a method to humiliate him! Not only did she ruin his reputation for being an infallible fortune-teller, but now she wanted to make him appear as a depraved, lustful monk in everyone’s eyes!

If Song Chuyi truly succeeded, he would become a rat crossing the street that everyone would beat. Still entering the palace to discuss Buddhist teachings with Emperor Jianzhang? Still hoping to become Prince Dongping’s teacher and establish a teacher-student relationship to firmly control him? All of it would be impossible.

This was clearly forcing him into a dead end. This young girl who appeared gentle and harmless—when she didn’t make a move, that was one thing, but once she struck, she left no room for mercy, directly dealing a fatal blow. No, this was ten times more unbearable than death itself.

He closed his eyes in anguish, feeling a surge of hot energy rising from his dantian. He felt even more desperate. In his shock and rage, he finally mustered some strength and fiercely pushed away the young woman clinging to him.

The shopkeeper had already rushed upstairs in a hurry. Seeing this scene, he too wore an expression of shocked disbelief, forgetting even how to speak. After a long while, he finally stammered as he came in, opening his mouth to ask: “What’s going on?! What are you people doing in my establishment?!”

His fear was quite reasonable. According to Great Zhou law, there was a collective punishment system for monks engaging in sexual misconduct. Anyone who provided a venue for monks to commit adultery would be executed by law without exception.

Therefore, at this moment, the shopkeeper was scared out of his wits, even more terrified than Master Yuanhui himself, the person directly involved.

The young woman collapsed on the ground, crying and wailing, merely weeping incessantly with her face covered, refusing to say a word. But her silence only made the matter seem even more ambiguous. The surrounding crowd occasionally burst into jeering and mocking laughter, and some hecklers even said unpleasant and offensive things.

After an unknown period of time, what Master Yuanhui feared most finally happened. Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted: “Isn’t this Master Yuanhui from Huangjue Temple?!”

One word stirred up a thousand waves. The onlookers surged forward one after another, competing to speak up: “It really is Master Yuanhui from Huangjue Temple! It really is Master Yuanhui!”

Hadn’t Master Yuanhui just incorrectly read Sixth Miss Song’s fate, angering the Emperor and the court officials? How was he now entangled with a singing girl from a tavern?!

Master Yuanhui’s facial expression remained unchanged, but the veins on his neck protruded one by one, and his entire face turned the color of liver. The shopkeeper clutched his heart, feeling as if he was about to faint. His hands trembled nervously. He pointed at Master Yuanhui and the young woman, his lips quivering. After a long moment, he rolled and crawled downstairs shouting for someone to report to the authorities.

Report to the authorities, report to the authorities! Otherwise, not only might the entire tavern be lost, but they might not even be able to keep their lives! He spat on the ground several times, as if finding it extremely inauspicious. He couldn’t help but curse aloud: “Bah! What virtuous high monk?! What worldly sage?! Clearly just a depraved monk! And now he’s even implicated me…”

The key point was that it had to happen in their tavern. The dirty water splashed on him might never be washed clean. His heart pounded rapidly. He finally came to his senses and directed people to drive out those watching the spectacle. The more people who surrounded them, the more people would know about this matter. He still had to run his business in the future. If people mistakenly believed he had provided the place for this adulterous pair, he could forget about doing business. He would have no face to show in the future.

Fortunately, the people from Shuntian Prefecture arrived quickly, taking away both Master Yuanhui and the weeping young woman who refused to say a single word. Hidden in the crowd, Shen Xiaohai watched with a pale face. When he came to his senses, he realized he was already covered in cold sweat—so this was Sixth Miss Song’s plan all along. She wanted to completely destroy Master Yuanhui’s reputation, making it impossible for him to establish himself in the future. Master Yuanhui had pronounced her fate as that of a lone star bringing calamity, so she used this method to take revenge on him, making life worse than death for him.

He recalled how two days ago at the manor, He Shi had clutched his robe hem and mournfully told him: “Sixth Miss Song said that if I hadn’t intruded into Marquis Changning’s manor this time, she would have had to treat us as Master Yuanhui’s allies… Young Master! Even if you don’t think of yourself, think of your parents and children. Marquis Changning’s manor means what they say and does what they promise!”

He had still been somewhat hesitant then, but now he was covered in cold sweat from head to toe. The veins on his forehead throbbed violently. If he hadn’t agreed to deliver that cup of tea for Song Chuyi, if he hadn’t agreed to pass along that message for her, what would Duke Yingguo’s manor be like now? Shen Xiaohai didn’t dare think any further. He swallowed with difficulty, licked his somewhat chapped lips, shrank into the crowd, and walked out of the tavern door in a daze following the flow of people.

Great Zhou had extremely strict controls over monks. Although they were given many privileges—for example, they didn’t have to pay taxes or rent, and monks from imperial temples even received additional stipends—correspondingly, many rules and regulations were also set for them.

First and foremost, they took issues of monks’ conduct extremely seriously. If a monk broke his vows, he often faced punishment even more severe than ordinary people.

Master Yuankong received the news and immediately knew things were bad. He hurriedly took his calling card and rushed to the capital.

Fortunately, with his guarantee as the abbot of an imperial temple, along with maneuvering by that person behind the scenes, plus the fact that aside from a string of prayer beads without any engraving and a sachet, the young woman couldn’t produce any evidence, after being tormented in prison for a night, Master Yuanhui was eventually released intact.

However, neither Master Yuankong nor Master Yuanhui could feel happy—the Song family and Song Chuyi fundamentally didn’t want him dead or in trouble. They only wanted to thoroughly ruin his reputation.

And in fact, even though he hadn’t done anything, even though the authorities had released him and proven his innocence, it was useless. After such a spectacular commotion, his reputation had been completely and utterly destroyed.