The arson attempt had failed. The person who returned with the news had an ashen face, and even Yuanjue’s expression changed involuntarily. He called out in some shock, “Senior Brother!” Then fell into a long silence.
This Sixth Miss Song had clearly anticipated their follow-up move. She had seen through their plan to retaliate in kind and cause trouble at the Tongzhou estate, and had actually set up an ambush there early on.
But none of this mattered, because this hadn’t been Yuanhui’s true objective to begin with. His real killing move was Emperor Jianzhang—no emperor could tolerate such a heaven-sent demon and harbinger of disaster appearing under his rule. He had laid out Song Chuyi’s fate to Emperor Jianzhang, explaining that she was a disaster star who brought calamity in her destiny, and anyone who came into contact with her would meet with misfortune.
This had originally been a very simple trap. If not for Song Chengru’s kneeling and resignation in the Golden Throne Hall, if not for Cen Biliang’s wake-up call and Grand Secretary Chang’s counsel, he should by now already be celebrating victory.
But Song Chengru had knelt just like that, and Cen Biliang had elevated the matter to the height of not asking about the common people but about ghosts and spirits instead…
Cen Biliang and Grand Secretary Chang had deliberately redirected the focus to someone wanting to harm the Song family. With the northwest border situation tense, Emperor Jianzhang still needed Cui Shaoting to guard the northwest for him and suppress the Tartars, still needed Song Chengru to sort out official governance and settle accounts with the treacherous remnants left from the previous dynasty… Under such circumstances, even if Song Chuyi was a disaster star, it wasn’t that important anymore.
So the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Observatory became the scapegoats to take the blame for this. And although he hadn’t been punished by Emperor Jianzhang, his prestige had greatly diminished because of this incident. The scholars at the Imperial Academy were all cursing him as a bald donkey meddling in government affairs.
Indeed, those who defied fate to change their destiny had fortunes different from ordinary people. Yuanhui sat upright on his meditation cushion, his expression unmoved.
The angrier he became, the calmer he grew. Yuanjue saw this and his eyebrows moved. Just as he was about to speak, someone outside announced that the abbot had arrived. He immediately withdrew respectfully to the side, ushered Master Yuankong through the door, placed his palms together and recited a Buddhist invocation.
Master Yuankong nodded at him, and he understood, glanced at Yuanhui, and quietly withdrew, closing the door behind him.
“Too impetuous.” Master Yuankong looked at him for a long while, then sat down cross-legged on the meditation cushion opposite him. “Since you have such aspirations, you shouldn’t have been fixated on a fate-changed destiny star.”
From childhood, Yuanhui had tasted all of life’s bitterness and sweetness. Later, when he went to Fujian, he witnessed even more of the common people’s suffering. He had always taken it as his mission to save all beings under heaven. In Fujian, he had risked his life leading the monks of Shaolin Temple to drive out and exterminate the Japanese pirates again and again.
But later, the Fujian Governor at the time, Yue Wen, was harmed by treacherous people. The resistance against the Japanese pirates was forced to stagnate, and the pirates took the opportunity to launch a massive invasion, occupying Ningbo and Putuo, killing four hundred militia members and three thousand civilians…
At that moment, Yuanhui understood—what did it matter whether they resisted the pirates or not, whether it was about the common people or not? The court simply didn’t care. Those lofty lords only cared about whose people occupied the key positions.
As he looked at the corpses strewn everywhere, he swore to heaven that one day he would grasp great power and make all these people pay the price. He was the one who truly sought welfare for the common people.
Yuanhui opened his eyes to look at his senior brother and slowly exhaled. “Senior Brother is right. I was too impatient.”
Though he admitted his mistake, his attitude was obvious. Master Yuankong shook his head somewhat helplessly and asked him, “I heard you’re going down the mountain?”
Yuanhui hadn’t descended the mountain for quite some time. As an enlightened monk of considerable renown, he rarely left the mountain gate.
He pressed his lips together and nodded.
Master Yuankong looked at him with some concern. “Be careful in all things, and prioritize the bigger picture above all.”
Shen Xiaohai had to exert great effort to suppress his inner panic to avoid his legs giving out on the spot before Yuanhui. Actually, he didn’t need to do anything—Song Chuyi had merely asked He Shi to tell him to have Yuanhui drink a cup of tea, that was all.
He swallowed and sat down with difficulty in his chair, asking somewhat vexedly, “Master, now that I’ve fallen to this state…”
He casually poured a cup of tea for Yuanhui.
Yuanhui glanced at him, accepted the tea and placed it on the table, but didn’t sit down himself. Instead, he turned to ask him, “You had someone send word to me saying you knew of my mother’s and sister’s whereabouts?”
He was currently at a disadvantage. His counterattack was like a fist striking cotton—it had caused no impact whatsoever on Song Chuyi. The Song family had also become more firmly established because of this upheaval. Even the matter of Song Chuyi being a celestial calamity and lone star, no one now dared use it to make an issue, fearing they’d be branded with the label of framing and false accusation.
Yet his people were completely at a loss regarding the whereabouts of Madam Huang and Elder Sister Huang—with the power of the Song family and Cui family, if they wanted to hide two people and hide them seamlessly, it was very simple.
Shen Xiaohai picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and sighed. “I don’t know very clearly either. As you know, I’m being hounded to death by Marquis Wuning Manor. My wife has been asking people everywhere for help. Wasn’t Changning Earl Manor holding a banquet a few days ago? My wife went there once and came back saying she heard that Sixth Miss Song has been frequently coming here to meet with people lately. I thought, since Sixth Miss Song abducted Madam Huang and Elder Sister Huang, she must still be planning to use them against you…”
Saying this was the same as saying nothing. Master Yuanhui sat down before him, picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and put the cup back down again.
In just that moment, the door outside was suddenly flung open with a bang. A young woman holding a pipa and heavily pregnant suddenly charged straight toward them.
Shen Xiaohai alertly dodged to the side, and the young woman crashed straight into Master Yuanhui’s embrace.
Yuanhui frowned and instinctively tried to push the person away. Only when he raised his hand did he realize something was wrong with his body—his limbs seemed somewhat numb, and the motion of raising his hand was extremely labored. He actually couldn’t move freely anymore…
The young woman sobbed and wept, not intimidated by him at all. Taking advantage of this moment, she pulled a string of prayer beads from him and stuffed a sachet into his sleeve pocket, while crying even more heart-wrenchingly.
Yuanhui’s face turned livid. He turned to look at Shen Xiaohai, his gaze filled with chilling coldness.
His trip down the mountain had two purposes: first, because Shen Xiaohai had notified him that there might be news of his mother and sister; second, he wanted to personally dispatch more people to intensify the search. Who knew that the moment he came down, he’d fall into a trap.
There was something wrong with the tea Shen Xiaohai had given him. He never would have dreamed that Shen Xiaohai, who had always been obedient and compliant, would turn against him at this critical moment and hand him a cup of problematic tea!
In such a noisy place, what abounded most were people who loved watching spectacles. Very soon, people came one after another to watch the excitement. When they saw that the male protagonist of this drama was actually a great monk, these people’s eyes all revealed excited, curious light. Before long, the crowd was three layers deep.