The dining hall was very quiet, the young Daoists eating with heads bowed. Qingyun had that morning perfected a lotus root powder dumpling recipe, using an elaborate array of supplementary ingredients — peach kernels, pine nuts, red and green shreds, honey dates, kumquats, osmanthus blossoms, and more. The preparation was exceptionally involved.

But the new creation was undeniably a success, for He Bang was busy flattering him: “Oh! Delicious — Qingyun, you’re incredibly talented!!”

Qingyun found this quite a trial, but thinking of it as shielding his own master from incoming fire, he used the serving chopsticks to transfer all the dumplings from his own dish to He Bang. He Bang beamed with delight, but before long she had finished them all. She then began casting glances at Rong Chen Zi — Ye Tian was still talking at length, and Rong Chen Zi was leaning in to listen carefully, very patient.

He Bang walked over. Having witnessed the incident with Fuya before, Rong Chen Zi was afraid she might dump another basin of soup on Ye Tian, and was about to speak — but she simply smiled brightly and said: “You’re none of you hungry, right?”

Ye Tian, who clearly intended to keep Rong Chen Zi to herself, merely gave a cold snort: “Help yourself.”

He Bang was overjoyed and snatched up all the lotus root powder dumplings from the table: “That’s exactly my intention!!”

Rong Chen Zi: “…”

Two portions of dumplings dispatched, He Bang somehow grew only hungrier. She went back to flatter Qingyun: “Qingyun, how exactly are these made? Would you show me how?”

This time her greedy expression was impossible to conceal. Qingyun glanced at Qingxuan; Qingxuan gave a slight nod, and Qingyun set down his chopsticks: “This junior disciple will make some more.”

He Bang bounced happily after him toward the kitchen. Rong Chen Zi was still chatting with Ye Tian, but a strange restlessness had settled in his heart — this river clam truly has no scruples!!

He turned to call after her: “If you want to go down the mountain, you’d better hurry up and change clothes!”

He Bang hesitated: “We’re leaving right now?”

Rong Chen Zi brooked no negotiation: “Mm.”

She looked at Qingyun the way she looked at lotus root powder dumplings, then looked at Rong Chen Zi. Rong Chen Zi was faintly displeased: “Are you going or not?”

He Bang savored the memory of the lotus root powder dumplings. The dumplings would be ready in no time, but the delicacies down the mountain were still a long walk away — and Rong Chen Zi was so stingy, there was no telling how much he’d actually let her eat.

Weighing it all up, she made her choice: “Then I’ll go down the mountain with you another time.” She smiled brightly and tugged at Qingyun’s sleeve, her eyes sparkling with light: “Lotus root powder dumplings — oh, oh, lotus root powder dumplings!”

Ye Tian had been watching Rong Chen Zi’s expression all along. His words and manner remained ever unruffled, but she knew this senior brother of hers far too well — he seemed, possibly, perhaps, in all probability, conceivably, by all appearances… to be jealous!!

Rong Chen Zi himself couldn’t have said. In truth, He Bang not coming along would spare him no small amount of trouble — he ought to have felt relieved. He set down his chopsticks and rose, his expression calm as still water: “Then I’m leaving. Don’t cause trouble while you’re at the temple!”

He Bang hadn’t even heard him finish before she was responding in rapid succession, then went running off to the kitchen with Qingyun.

Rong Chen Zi made no further remark. But whatever Ye Tian was saying, he simply could not concentrate on listening. By the time the hour of Chen was drawing to a close, Rong Chen Zi had finished his preparations and was ready to go down the mountain. Worried about another clash between Ye Tian and He Bang, he brought Ye Tian along with him.

He straightened his robes and had all his jade tablets and talismans in order. He Bang was sitting on the sleeping platform eating dumplings, flipping through the trashy romantic novels Qingsu had brought back for her — Legend of the Demonic Prodigy and My Dear, Forward March!

Rong Chen Zi had never approved of her reading this sort of chaotic, utterly nutritionless garbage. But she was a demon — and she would only read books that featured demons! And not just any demon would do — the demons had to be written as supremely, overwhelmingly powerful! No reading if the female lead wasn’t devastatingly beautiful! No reading if the male lead wasn’t breathtakingly handsome! No reading if the female lead didn’t have a dozen suitors! No reading unless the protagonist could one-shot ten thousand monks and Daoists!! So really, only this sort of ludicrously dramatic, ridiculous, wish-fulfillment Mary Sue fare could ever satisfy her appetite.

Rong Chen Zi walked to the doorway and said plainly: “I’m leaving.”

He Bang didn’t even lift her head: “Mm!”

Rong Chen Zi was suddenly struck by a very strange feeling — something like a little irritation, something like a little disappointment, a tangle of five different flavors impossible to sort out. He walked abruptly to the sleeping platform and lifted He Bang’s chin: “Am I truly not worth as much as two lotus root powder dumplings?”

He Bang’s cheeks were puffed like a steamed bun; it took considerable effort to swallow. Then she furrowed her brows in thought: “Of course you’re more important than two dumplings!” Rong Chen Zi was about to say more, but she suddenly began gesturing with great animation, “But Qingyun made two whole pots of them…”

Rong Chen Zi was genuinely vexed. Genuinely.

When it came time to descend the mountain, the disciples came to see them off. He Bang was occupied with her dumplings and naturally did not come. Rong Chen Zi brought Qingsu and Ye Tian down with him, then paused in front of Qingyun and abruptly asked: “How many lotus root powder dumplings are in one pot?”

Qingyun had not expected his master to ask about something so trivial, but after a moment steeled himself and answered: “In reply to Master — forty-nine.”

Rong Chen Zi silently calculated that his own importance apparently ranked above two dumplings but below ninety-eight lotus root powder dumplings…

He was still brooding over this when Qingxuan — who knew his master’s mind all too well, and more importantly, had no wish to have this glutton remaining on the mountain (now that her standing had grown ever more precious, he could not bear responsibility if anything happened to her) — immediately bowed to Rong Chen Zi: “Master, this disciple has just recalled something — please wait a moment.”

Before Rong Chen Zi could reply, he had already gone dashing off toward the side hall. He Bang was still doing battle with her dumplings. Qingxuan walked up beside her: “Your Majesty, you’re truly not going down the mountain with Master?”

He Bang had her head down in her book, chopsticks moving without pause: “Not going. I want to eat dumplings.”

Qingxuan put on an expression of deep regret: “What a shame! Do you know where Master is going this time?” Seeing He Bang show no interest, he dropped the suspense: “He’s going to the residence of Senior Grand Secretary Liu. Grand Secretary Liu is the personal tutor of the current Emperor — never mind his immeasurable wealth, but his household chef was once the foremost culinary master of the entire Jiangnan region!!”

He Bang stopped flipping pages and eyed him with a look of skepticism. Qingxuan wore the expression of someone savoring a memory: “His pearl and emerald sweet rice dumplings, his sugar-steamed cream cakes, his rose petal drink — oh my, so fragrant you’d swallow your own tongue right along with them!!”

He Bang’s heart began to waver. But she was still suspicious: “Your tongue’s still there, isn’t it?”

Qingxuan’s eyes went wide: “That’s just a figure of speech!”

He Bang looked at the dumplings in her hand, back and forth she wavered, and at last asked: “Better than lotus root powder dumplings?”

Qingxuan put on a face of utmost conviction: “Absolutely — lotus root powder dumplings don’t even come close by comparison!”

He Bang finally set down her dumplings: “Oh oh oh oh, I want to go down the mountain with Rong Chen Zi!! Where is Rong Chen Zi…” She went bouncing and skipping out the door, while Qingxuan tidied Rong Chen Zi’s bedchamber and let out a long, long sigh of relief: “Thank the heavens, thank the earth, thank the Master, thank the Founding Patriarch — she’s finally gone…”

Rong Chen Zi had waited a long time without seeing Qingxuan, when instead he saw He Bang come running in with her skirts flying. She clasped Rong Chen Zi’s arm, pressing her lips almost to his cheek: “Rong Chen Zi, I want to go down the mountain with you!”

Ye Tian’s heart clenched with irritation — she found this river clam unbearable to look at no matter which way she turned. Rong Chen Zi’s face went faintly red; He Bang was pressing herself so close that even through the fabric of his robe he could probably feel the soft warmth of her. He extracted his arm, gave a light cough: “Weren’t you not going?”

He Bang played at being coy: “But with you gone, staying at the temple by myself is no fun at all.”

Rong Chen Zi gave a faint snort of mild disdain, yet that small trace of displeasure in his heart vanished like smoke in the wind: “Then go change your clothes. You and Qingzhen are about the same height — borrow a set from him, and shoes too.”

He Bang was not particularly pleased: “I don’t like wearing shoes.”

Rong Chen Zi’s tone brooked no argument: “No shoes, no going down the mountain.”

While the two exchanged words, Ye Tian’s brow had already knitted itself into a tight knot: “Elder Brother!”

Rong Chen Zi waited in place for He Bang to change, simply turning to give Ye Tian a small smile: “She’s a little headstrong. Don’t take it to heart.”

This time He Bang was fast; it was not long before she came back wearing Qingzhen’s borrowed clothes. She wore a sky-blue Daoist robe, her black hair bound up with a blue ribbon, her eyes like clear water, her teeth like small gourds. Her pair of slender jade feet, wrapped in cloth shoes, looked delicate and precious beyond measure. Rong Chen Zi suddenly felt that the decision to dress her as a junior Daoist apprentice was a catastrophically terrible one!!

If he were to bring a woman with him, people might at most assume he was employing a cultivation vessel. But bringing someone like this — others would most likely not take him for cultivating with a female vessel, but rather for doing something improper with a Daoist apprentice boy…