That afternoon, Rong Chen Zi had prepared a portion of the antidote and applied it first to He Bang’s eye. Rong Chen Zi’s fingers were long and slender, every fingernail neatly trimmed. A tall man, who had lived an upright and blameless life, he carried in his very bearing a vast and righteous air. But doing this kind of delicate work left him somewhat less than deft.

In the end even He Bang herself began to grow worried: “Zhiguan, don’t you dare take shortcuts and just poke my eye blind to save time!!”

Rong Chen Zi gave two dry coughs, also a bit awkward, and without further ado handed the mutton-fat jade vial to his senior disciple at his side. Qingxuan had no choice but to inherit this thankless task. He Bang rolled back and forth on Rong Chen Zi’s grand daybed without any sign of settling down: “Zhiguan, when are you going to avenge me?”

Rong Chen Zi sat cross-legged at the edge of the bed, casually leafing through a copy of the Classic of the Yellow Court Inner Landscape: “We must wait until Qingsu has investigated the facts clearly; once there is definitive evidence we may proceed. If the matter truly proves to be her doing, this poor daoist will by no means show leniency.”

He Bang was displeased: “Hmph! You said you’d do something and now you’re going back on your word again! Could it be that you’ve been bewitched by Fuya’s beauty…”

Before she could finish, Rong Chen Zi rose and walked out the door. A gentleman faced with a woman’s logic had no leg to stand on. Confucius once said that of all people, women and petty men were most difficult to deal with — this He Bang embodied both descriptions in full!

That night, Rong Chen Zi lectured the disciples on the Tract on Shadow-Fortune of Lord Wenchang. He Bang had spent all afternoon soaking in the water vat in the meal hall, and eventually made her way back to his quarters. The weather was too hot to sleep, so she sprawled on Rong Chen Zi’s bed, drinking his tea and flipping through his scriptures — and at last, overcome with inferiority, she tore out every passage she couldn’t read. But this creature had never applied herself to study at any point in her life, so what she actually could understand was… truly, truly very little.

By the time the night air cooled and He Bang had finally fallen asleep, Rong Chen Zi returned to his quarters after the lecture — to find only a room full of crumpled little paper balls to greet him. Even his composure, impeccable as it was, gave way in a flash to indignant fury. He yanked the blanket aside and brought his horsehair whisk down with a sharp crack.

He Bang had no idea she had shredded the patriarch master’s handwritten copy of the scriptures. The whisk landed on her back without any warning, striking her with enough force that she almost cracked her clamshell.

The rage of this Haihuang Majesty surged to the surface in full force. He Bang roared: “You smelly daoist, curse your immortal ancestors! How dare you wound my clamshell! Today I shall go on a great slaughter — I’ll kill myself first, then you, and then wipe out every last one of your disciples and grand-disciples!”

“…” Rong Chen Zi had half-formed a hand seal and stopped mid-way, his blazing fury doused as if by cold water. After a moment he shook his head, let out a long and heavy sigh, and then bent down and began picking up paper balls from the floor. He gathered them for a while, shook his head once more, and let out another long and heavy sigh.

Rong Chen Zi found needle, thread, and paste, and under the lamplight carefully smoothed each page flat, meticulously gluing them back together one by one. He Bang made no sound at all and simply watched him coldly from the edge of the bed: “You won’t take me out to play, you won’t go avenge me, and you even dared hit my clamshell when you came back — hmph!!”

The two scripture books took Rong Chen Zi several hours to paste back together, and by the time he was done the sky was nearly light. He finally lay down, extinguished the lamp, and was just drifting into drowsiness when He Bang quietly crept over to his side, opened both clamshell halves wide, and snapped them shut on his right arm with a thunderous crack. Rong Chen Zi jolted upright in bed. His right arm screamed with pain, and even a man of the finest temperament could no longer contain his fury.

He hunched over, clutching his arm, trembling all over with rage — not a trace remaining of his daoist dignity: “You dare bite me! You you you—”

He Bang had come down with ferocious force, biting his right arm as if to break it in two. Rong Chen Zi finally made up his mind — this river clam was done being kept. Done being kept, done!!

He threaded his outer sash through the clamshell and stormed out the door in fury. She had no idea how he’d done it, but He Bang twisted left and right and simply could not transform back into human form. She was furious too, and naturally said nothing kind: “You smelly daoist — let me go this instant! You man of no integrity — some Zhiguan you are — hmph, the moment you lay eyes on that Fuya you can barely move your feet! Mouth full of benevolence and righteousness, but a chest full of lust and treachery!!”

Rong Chen Zi pressed his lips tight, barely suppressing the urge to stomp her into pieces. He had originally intended to fling her back into the sea, but at this point he was past caring — he set her down at the foot of Lingxia Mountain and turned to leave.

Who should he encounter just then but Xingzhi Zhenren and Yuyang Zhenren of Jiuding Palace, walking straight toward him. Both men were dressed in their daoist crowns and robes, intending to pay a visit to Fuya at Qingxu Monastery, and at the sight of Rong Chen Zi’s expression black as a thundercloud, they were thoroughly astonished — a daoist cultivated inner composure, and Rong Chen Zi was an exalted daoist; ordinarily he had long since left all traces of joy and anger invisible on his face. To have driven him into this state took a truly extraordinary hand.

The two men walked forward, and some of He Bang’s words had drifted to their ears as well — only fragments like “Fuya” and “lust and treachery” — and their expressions immediately took on a smirk of amusement. Xingzhi Zhenren was no saint either, and immediately lifted the binding transformation curse from He Bang, looking perfectly kind and compassionate: “May the Infinite Heavenly Venerable bless us — what is all this?”

Before Rong Chen Zi could say a word, He Bang had already transformed back into human form, flushed with fury: “Every day he’s off with that Fuya, and he only came back to his room at the third watch last night, and when he came back he hit me!!”

Rong Chen Zi still hadn’t spoken, when it was Yuyang Zhenren who addressed him: “Fellow daoist, is this not your cauldron vessel? How has it come to such a scene as this?”

Rong Chen Zi’s face flushed, and not wishing to air his grievances in public he lowered his voice and tried again to appease He Bang: “I was never with Fuya every single day — you know yourself whether I came back to our quarters or not. And last night’s late return was only due to the lecture — what does that have to do with Fuya?”

Though he had kept his voice low, what ears could Xingzhi and Yuyang possibly have that they couldn’t hear. The two men exchanged a glance and held straight faces through the effort of suppressing their laughter. He Bang had no intention of letting the matter drop there: “Son of a — and you were going to throw me away!!”

Rong Chen Zi was slightly irritated: “And is that not because you clamped down on my arm?!”

He Bang erupted with fury: “If you hadn’t hit me, would I have clamped down on your arm?! You smelly daoist!” She pointed at Xingzhi and Yuyang standing behind her who were straining not to laugh: “And you two! All you daoists are the same — not a single one of you is any good!! Hmph — one thing in bed and another out of it — in the end it’s all just lies and deception!!”

Caught in the crossfire of the burning city gates, the two men rubbed their noses and stayed quiet. Rong Chen Zi’s face was completely crimson, and his fury, driven to the extreme, reversed itself back into calm. He breathed in deeply, and finally lowered his voice in a conciliatory tone: “Stop making a scene — causing a scene in front of others is unseemly.”

He Bang’s brows and eyes were raised in sharp angles: “You know it’s unseemly now?! When you were hitting me, did you think it was seemly for a man to strike a woman?! Today I will—”

She was getting louder and louder. Rong Chen Zi clenched his teeth: “A piece of meat tonight. Come back.”

That river clam immediately forgot all her fury — she was practically drooling: “Really?”

Rong Chen Zi turned his face to the side and said nothing. She broke into a beaming smile: “Well, all right then!!”

She needed no further coaxing, and went bouncing and hopping up the mountain. Xingzhi Zhenren and Yuyang Zhenren nearly collapsed laughing, and Rong Chen Zi heaved a long sigh, sorrowfully realizing that if he ever gave up the role of Zhiguan, he could always change careers and sell meat.

Back at the monastery, Xingzhi and Yuyang went to find Fuya, with Yuyang Zhenren still fretting over that Blood Pupil Curse. Rong Chen Zi was the host and could not very well refuse to accompany them. His right arm was still throbbing with violent pain, but all he could do was endure it the whole way. He quietly had Qingxuan go and fetch a piece of beef in secret.

By the time he went back to the room for his afternoon rest, He Bang sprawled across his chest with ten fingers as slender white as scallion stalks: “This piece is fatty, this piece has a good chew to it — oh oh, the breast meat isn’t bad either…”

It was clear Rong Chen Zi would get no peace without the meat. He had slept almost not at all the previous night and simply could not take this kind of wear. He could only instruct her: “Go out first and have Qingxuan come in.”

For the sake of the meat, He Bang was very cooperative. Shortly afterward Qingxuan came in carrying a silver tray, and seeing that He Bang had indeed gone outside, he lifted the tray and from beneath it presented a length of bloody raw beef to Rong Chen Zi.

Rong Chen Zi, unhurried and composed, sliced open his right arm and coated the beef thoroughly with his blood. Then he made a show of bandaging his arm, waved his hand, and said: “You may go.”

He Bang got to eat her meat as she’d wished, but she was deeply suspicious. This immortal’s flesh, when eaten, always fell short of how wonderful it smelled; and moreover, after eating it, her cultivation showed no obvious change. She had raised this concern with Rong Chen Zi many times, until he, worn out by her pestering, finally analyzed it with her: “Could it be that seven pieces make one complete course of treatment?”