Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 415: Wandering Around the World
Baoyu and the other monks went begging for alms along the way, walking during the day and sleeping at night, and they didn't know how many thousands of miles they had walked, from the twelfth lunar month to the beginning of spring, and one day they finally arrived in Zhenjiang.

The monks led Baoyu into Jinshan Temple and met the abbot. He told him the purpose of their visit. The abbot said, "Monks must keep their six senses pure and must not be involved in money or sex. Every day they have to meditate and chant scriptures, clean the yard, make fire and cook, fetch water and chop wood, and go out to beg for alms. You must not be lazy. Since you are a devout Buddhist, we will ordain you and let you stay."

Baoyu knelt down in a hurry to thank the abbot, who came over to shave Baoyu's hair, put on monk's robes for him, and let him live in the meditation room with the other disciples.

At night, seven or eight monks slept on a row of beds in the Zen room. They played and joked until midnight and refused to go to sleep. Seeing that Baoyu had become so well behaved, some of them teased him, threatening to throw his bag outside or pulling off his quilt. One of the most mischievous monks even held an oil lamp and walked over his head, deliberately dripping it on his head. The trouble lasted for quite some time before the monks finally stopped.

Before daybreak, the abbot woke up the monks and asked them to fetch water, sweep the floor, chop wood, and cook.

How could Baoyu have done all these? Those monks came here to bully him, and when they saw that he didn't get along with them, they gave him all the dirty and tiring work to do.

In the morning, Baoyu went to the well to fetch more than ten buckets of water, filled the water tank, and chopped wood to cook. Tears filled his eyes from the smoke. During the day, he had to clean the yard, wash clothes and quilts, recite scriptures and meditate. How could he have free time? Baoyu took the bowl and went around begging for alms, walking from street to street. He really couldn't open his mouth. If he didn't beg for too little, he would be scolded by his brothers and sisters when he came back. After just a few days, he got tired of it, but he had to endure it.

On this day, he finally got a good job. It was Mr. Zhang in the city who was holding a water and land ritual. Because of his good looks, Baoyu was selected by the abbot to accompany him. When he arrived at Mr. Zhang's house, he read scriptures during the day. At night, Baoyu was dozing off, and suddenly several brothers woke him up.

"The abbot has asked us to take some things back tonight while everyone is asleep, so that we can help with the temple's expenses."

Baoyu was so sleepy that he forced his eyes open and said groggily, "Isn't this stealing?"

The elder brother said, "Fool, if we don't steal some things, how much money can we save by begging? You just got here, don't you know that all the temples in the city are stealing? If you don't get up, I'll pull your ears!"

Baoyu was stunned and thought to himself, "These monks are all so unclean. How can one of them really be enlightened through meditation? During the day, they go to people's homes to pray for the dead and set up altars to cheat people out of money. At night, they even steal. They have defiled themselves."

He regretted it so much that he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. He forced himself to get up and rushed to Zhang's garden with the other monks. He wandered around all night because he didn't want to steal anything. He came back to get his bag before dawn. He was afraid that the abbot would scold him, so he ran away in a hurry.

Baoyu walked to a dilapidated temple, fell asleep for a while, got up and looked around, thinking that he would be alone and without care from now on, and all the sadness in his heart turned into tears and flowed all over the floor. Baoyu walked around blindly, not knowing where to go, and suddenly saw a rich family giving out porridge. Baoyu was starving, and he didn't care about his face anymore, so he hurried over to ask for a bowl of porridge.

Just after using it, he was suddenly surrounded by a group of yamen runners. The leader of the group held up the imperial edict and said, "The saint intends to station troops in the western regions. You are hungry and have no idea where to get food. Why don't you all go to the western regions? When you get there, each of you will be given 20 mu of good farmland!"

The beggars were about to scatter when they heard this, but they were surrounded by the yamen runners. Some of the most prominent ones were beaten with iron bars until their heads were bleeding. Baoyu also tried to struggle out, but he had been hungry for several days and had no strength left. He was pinned to the ground by the yamen runners in the blink of an eye.

Baoyu shouted, "I am a monk, you can't catch me!"

The yamen runner was startled and asked, "Do you have a certificate of ordination?"

Baoyu just got ordained, where did he get the certificate?
The yamen runner laughed and said, "Since you don't have a certificate of ordination, you are just a beggar or a refugee. You should go to the Western Regions and live a good life!"

Someone shouted, "The Western Region is thousands of miles away, and only one in ten people can reach the place. Who dares to go there?"

The squad leader cursed, "Bullshit! At most half of them will die on the way, how can there be only one out of ten?"

All the people were immediately arrested by the yamen runners. After being given a piece of cake, they were escorted westward by a sentry from the Inspection Office.

The journey lasted more than 20 days. On this day, they arrived in Luoyang. The soldiers of the patrol department escorted more than a hundred people to stay at the mountain temple. At night, the soldiers ate meat and drank wine, which was very unpleasant. They only gave the refugees a moldy cake.

That night, the refugee who was tied to Baoyu could not bear it any longer, so he went to the fire and burned the rope, then ran away without making a sound. Baoyu woke up with a start, and seeing that the rope was broken, he also ran out.

From then on, Baoyu dared not go to the city again, and begged for alms along the way, like a rootless duckweed. In a hurry, another half year passed, and the wealthy and idle man of the past was now skinny.

When we arrived in Shaanxi Province that day, we felt desolate in the dilapidated temple. We burned some charcoal and wrote a poem on the wall:
Sleeping in the flat forest, the frost awakens me.
The strange road is full of tears,
I want to tell my grievances to the cold moon.

I looked up and saw the sky full of stars.

Early that morning, he was hungry and walked to the countryside. Suddenly, he saw a woman holding a child walking towards him. Baoyu glanced at her and suddenly stopped. The woman also frowned and thought to herself, why does this person seem to have been seen before?
Baoyu looked carefully and found that it was the second girl, whom he met in the countryside with Qin Zhong that year. She had taught him how to use the spinning wheel. She was about seventeen or eighteen years old then, and now she must be in her twenties. She must have married here, so he said, "You are the second girl, right? I am from the Jia family. My family was destroyed, and I became a monk."

The second girl was surprised and said, "I remember now, you are Master Jia?"

Baoyu said, "I have walked for such a long time, and I am thirsty and hungry. I beg you to give me a bowl of rice."

The second girl hurriedly invited him home, put her son on the kang, and went to the kitchen to heat up the leftovers and brought them over.

Baoyu took it and ate it greedily, then took a sip of tea.

At this time, she heard voices in the yard. She went out to see that it was her husband who came back carrying a hoe. She said, "There is a monk begging for alms in the house. He is so hungry that we just heated up some taro for him. He is eating in the main room."

Her husband was a loyal and honest man and said, "Then let him eat and leave quickly."

Baoyu hurried out to thank the two men and begged them to let him stay in the farm. He was tired of wandering and wanted to find a place to live steadily.

After some discussion, the couple cleaned up the barn and let Baoyu live there. The second girl and her husband lent him a hoe and asked him to farm the idle fields outside the village.

Baoyu got acquainted with the people in the village. However, because he had never done farm work and did not know how to farm, he did not get any harvest from the crops he planted. All he planted were barren grains. However, he had to pay taxes and rent. He barely managed to survive for a year or two, and could barely take care of himself. The villagers bullied him again, and Baoyu became even more distressed. It was raining heavily that day. Baoyu had a quarrel with some ruffians in the village and was beaten by them. Fearing that he would be found at home, he hurriedly borrowed a bamboo hat and raincoat from a fisherman at the village head, and left the village to wander outside again.

A few years later, Baoyu was begging in the countryside. Suddenly, he saw a big house open its door and a nun holding a bowl walked out. The nun turned around and said to the people inside, "Amitabha, if you only follow my method, the evil spirit will soon disappear." The people inside thanked him repeatedly, "Thank you very much, thank you Master Miaoyu."

Baoyu froze, and the nun turned around and suddenly caught a glimpse of Baoyu, who was covered in dust and dressed in rags.

Baoyu was so happy to see his old friend again that he shed tears: "Master Miaoyu."

Miaoyu was shocked and asked, "Baoyu? How did you fall into such a state?"

Then he led Baoyu to the nunnery, where all the nuns were very respectful to Miaoyu. Baoyu told him about his life in recent years and asked about Miaoyu's situation.

Miaoyu said, "What else can I do? I was nearly raped by a lecherous monk at Guazhou Ferry that day... Fortunately, Master Li rescued me and I was saved. After that, I led my maidservants all the way to this place. Two years later, they were old and wanted to get married. Who knew that the nunnery would attract thieves and take away all my antiques. There is no other way. Now I can only beg for alms and perform rituals to make a living."

Just then, a little nun suddenly ran in and shouted, "Master, I threw a toad with its mouth tied up at Mr. Li's house. I will come to you tomorrow to ask for its rescue. I only need a hundred or so silver dollars to pay for it, which will be enough for me to eat this year!"

Miaoyu turned her head and shouted, "Shut up!"

When the little nun saw a beggar in the meditation room, she immediately stuck out her tongue and turned and ran away. Baoyu looked at Miaoyu again, and felt that the Miaoyu in his heart who was ignorant of the world suddenly collapsed and became a vulgar person who pursued profit.

Miaoyu pursed her lips and said nothing, and Baoyu did not ask any more questions. Baoyu stayed in the nunnery for a few days, then left without saying goodbye, leaving only a poem on the wall:
The strings of the harp tell of sorrow and happiness.
The world is full of separations and reunions, ups and downs.

Regret, cry, loneliness, coldness, and boredom,
The prince met me in my dream last night.

............................................................

Not to mention that Baoyu was wandering around, just say that Baochai, Tanchun and others in the capital saw that Baoyu had not returned, and asked Li Weijian to look for him everywhere, but after one or two years, there was still no result.

Baochai regretted forcing Baoyu a little too hastily, but then she thought, isn't this just putting my trust in the wrong person? In the twelfth month of that year, the sage passed away, and on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, the King of Jin ascended the throne and changed the reign to Zhiping.

All the civil and military officials in the court were promoted. Li Weijian was awarded the second-class title of Marquis of Jingling for his meritorious service in managing the Beijing-Tianjin Railway. The new emperor ascended the throne and issued a general amnesty, and even Jia Zhen and Jia Rong returned from exile.

But only Jia Zhen came back, and after a brief investigation, he learned that Jia Rong had died of exhaustion after only two years of hard labor. Jia Zhen, on the other hand, had survived to this day thanks to the care of the old friends of the Jia family.

Jia Zhen first found the Jia family's new house and cried with Tanchun, Xichun and others. After listening to the experiences of the past few years, he sighed and said nothing. He turned around and looked for Youshi, but she died of illness a year ago. Jia Zhen went to his ancestral grave to offer sacrifices, then took the money sent by Tanchun and went straight to southern Xinjiang. He was never heard from again.

That day, Baochai was sitting in her room, knitting lace, when she suddenly saw Ying'er come in with a sad face and said, "Miss, the shopkeeper said that Pang San has said that we should pay the money in full within half a month, otherwise he will cause trouble for the factory."

Baochai was conservative by nature. Seeing that the cannery was making a lot of money, she did not know how to expand her business. As a result, she was outperformed by other factories in just a few years, and now she only has a slight surplus. At this time, she also provoked a group of scoundrels. The scoundrels saw that there was only one girl in the Xue family running the factory, and heard about the Xue family's background, so they immediately came to bully her with confidence.

Baochai cried countless times in secret for this reason. If there was a man in the family, how could she be bullied like this?
Ying'er grumbled, and then said, "Today, Brother Lang will announce the results. I don't know if I can pass this time. The third girl next door sent someone to check the list early in the morning."

Baochai said, "Brother Lang has devoted himself to learning and has a famous teacher to teach him. I think he will definitely pass this time."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of firecrackers outside. Ying'er ran out to see the result, and came back happily saying, "Sure enough, he passed! He ranked second in the county exam, which is amazing. Maybe he will be a juren next year."

Baochai became absent-minded, and suddenly she thought of Li Weijian back then. If she had been more resolute back then, how could she have fallen into such a situation?
After thinking about it for a while, at noon that day, there was a noise next door. Baochai went to see what was going on, and saw Tanchun holding a sword and throwing a pile of gifts out of the door, and spat: "I treated her as an elder, but she used me as a raft. Go back and tell her that she is dreaming! In this case, our friendship will be gone from now on, and we should go our separate ways!"

After saying this, she slammed the door and left angrily. Baochai was very surprised, and took Ying'er to the back of Jia's house. After asking Xichun, she learned that it was the Nan'an Concubine who came to visit yesterday. Tanchun and Xichun thought that the two families had always had exchanges, and this time they came to look after the two orphans.

Who knew that the Nan'an Concubine had another idea! It was said that in the winter of last year, the Nan'an King was defeated in Mengla, and only one in ten of his troops survived. The emperor was furious and ordered his men to lock up the Nan'an King and bring him back to the capital.

Before Nan'an could reach the capital, the sage passed away. The new emperor had a lot of things to do when he ascended the throne, so he naturally put the matter of King Nan'an behind him.

Nan'an Taifei went around trying to rescue her son. As most of the old officials in the court were against going to war with the Gongbang Dynasty, Nan'an Taifei thought about marrying her to settle the border issue. She was reluctant to give up her own daughter, and suddenly remembered that the Jia family was in decline and there were three daughters who had not yet married, so she thought of adopting her daughter and marrying her to the Nanman.

After Xichun finished speaking, Tanchun slammed her hands on the table and said angrily, "You are really blind. When our family was in trouble, the four princes did not plead for mercy. Now that you are in need, you want to recognize me as your godparents. Why? It was not the four princes who instigated the incident back then. How could grandfather support the deposed prince so wholeheartedly?"

Baochai smiled and consoled him, "Since everyone has driven them away, why should Third Sister be angry?"

As they were talking, Baochan suddenly came in and cried, "Miss, please go home quickly. Peng'er is dying!"

Baochai stood up suddenly, feeling dizzy and asked tremblingly, "Why...why can't I do it?"

Baochan cried, "I have had a fever since the day before yesterday. I have taken several doses of medicine but it has not improved. I suddenly had a convulsion just now, and my forehead feels very hot to the touch."

"This...this..." Baochai was suddenly at a loss.

Tanchun and Baochai had become more reconciled these days, and knowing that Xue Peng was the only son of the Xue family, she hurriedly said, "Don't worry, Sister Bao. Yun girl told me last time that the Bo's Mansion has made some kind of magical medicine that can revive the dead and turn bones into flesh. I think Sister Bao should go to the Bo's Mansion and ask for the medicine!"

(End of this chapter)