Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 168 Xuanmu Panxiang Temple

Qin Ye and officials from various government offices in Jinling who were standing solemnly outside the hall suddenly saw Jia Chengshilang lose his normal behavior and rush into the hall like a madman, causing a commotion among the officials.

At this moment in the main hall, the virtuous monks and nuns from all the major temples were holding a grand ceremony to consecrate and pray for the Buddha statues and the empress dowager's tablet. They must not be disturbed at all.

Before Jia Cong approached the entrance to the hall, he was stopped by several guards in royal uniform. If Jia Cong had not been wearing the uniform of a seventh-rank official, they would have charged him with disrespect on the spot.

During this delay, Jia Cong saw that the monks and nuns in the hall had turned around the Buddha statue. The beautiful figure that had shocked his heart and soul disappeared in the crowd like a fleeting glimpse.

The monks and nuns outside the main hall were still filing in. The monks and nuns who were just inside the main hall, after performing three rounds of rituals, left through the rear door, leaving their places for the monks and nuns who came later.

Jia Cong broke free from the Jinyi captain's entanglement and obstruction, lifted up his official robe, walked around the hall, and ran wildly towards the back of the hall. His absurd behavior, which was completely contrary to official etiquette, made all the officials present look at him sideways.

But after running a few steps, he was stopped by another group of Jinyi captains.

Today is the day for the consecration and resting of the spirit in the main hall of Da Ci'en Temple. The spirit tablet of Empress Dowager Xianxiao needs to be protected, and the safety of officials from various government offices and eminent monks and nuns from various temples who participate in the ceremony needs even more protection.

Some time ago, a group of Japanese ronin disguised themselves and sneaked into the construction site, almost causing a disaster.

This had to make Jinling Yingtian Prefecture and the Jinyiwei take great precautions, as if they were facing a powerful enemy, and they arranged extremely strict preventive and protective measures.

They were afraid that any mistake in the Empress Dowager's funeral ceremony, which concerned the emperor's reputation, would bring fatal disaster to the government offices in Jinling that were involved.

Because Da Ci'en Temple is a Buddhist place, people are not allowed to carry weapons. Even the guarding lieutenants are not allowed to wear swords, so only those with excellent skills are selected.

If Jia Cong had not been wearing official uniform and carrying a badge of identification, he would have been forcibly captured by these officers for his inappropriate behavior.

Jia Cong finally explained it clearly, but when he bypassed the interrogation and ran to the back hall, he could no longer find the figure that was lingering in his mind.

For the entire afternoon, Jia Cong searched everywhere in the unfinished Da Ci'en Temple complex, hoping for a lucky break, but in the end he found nothing.

Jia Cong was certain that the nun with untied hair was Zhi Shao, otherwise how could there be someone so similar in the world.

That year, she was forced by Jia She to jump into the Liuyang River. Jia Cong searched for her on both sides of the river for three days and three nights but found nothing. He had long thought that she was dead.

How come she is in Jinling now and has become a nun? There has been no news from her in all these years. What is going on?

At this time, the sun was setting, and the consecration and restoring ceremony of the main hall of Da Ci'en Temple had been completed. The monks and nuns from various temples who participated in the ceremony had already left.

But Jia Cong still did not give up, and went to the temple to find the official from the Buddhist Registrar's Office.

Describe to him the appearance of the nun with untied hair, but there are hundreds of monks and nuns present today, and the official will be able to recognize them all.

When Jia Cong saw that he was holding a thick cloth book in his hand, his eyes lit up and he asked, "This is the list of monks and nuns who will participate in the ceremony of the Grand Hall this time."

The official replied, "It is the list of monks and nuns who are attending the ceremony. There are 297 monks and nuns in 81 famous temples and ancient monasteries in Jinling Province."

Jia Cong was a seventh-rank scripture-writing official in the Da Ci'en Temple, and this identity was finally of some use. He immediately contacted the official from the Monks' Registration Office to request this list.

It took an entire night to carefully write down the names, addresses, and information about the nuns attending all 27 nunneries on the list.

There are eleven of these nunneries in Jinling, and the others are located in Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Gusu, Liangxi and other places.

The nuns who participated in the ceremony did not register whether they wore hair or not. Instead, they recorded the names of the great monks and nuns. As for the other accompanying monks and nuns, only the number of people was recorded.

In other words, Jia Cong would have to search more than 20 nunneries in several states on both sides of the Yangtze River before he could find Zhishao's whereabouts.

This was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the scene in the hall was a blessing from heaven for him. Even if he had to travel all over the country, Jia Cong was determined to find her whereabouts.

The next morning, Jia Cong took Wu'er out and went to Yingtian Prefecture to ask Jia Yucun to issue an official document for a population investigation.

Then he went to visit the eleven nunneries in Jinling City one by one.

Because Wu'er and Zhishao had been good friends since childhood and were familiar with everything about Zhishao, and the nunnery did not allow male guests to enter the inner hall, it would be much more convenient to bring Wu'er along.

The two of them went out early every morning and traveled for two days, visiting all the eleven nunneries, but found nothing. Since the nunnery in Jinling was fruitless, he would go to Yangzhou, Gusu, Zhenjiang, Liangxi and other places to look for it.

That night, he was in his study, flipping through the list of monks, hoping to find something new.
When I turned to one of the pages, I saw the name Gusu Xuanmu Temple, and my heart moved slightly.

He knew that there was a mountain called Xuanmu Mountain in Wu County, Gusu, which was named after Yu Taixuan, the governor of Qingzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who was buried there.

This mountain is planted with plum blossoms. Every winter, the winter plum blossoms are in full bloom and look like snow. This is the first choice place for Suzhou locals to appreciate plum blossoms.

The reason why Jia Cong knew it so clearly was because he had heard Daiyu mention it many times. Daiyu had been living as a guest in Jia's house and had been homesick for many years.

Whenever she talked about her hometown Gusu with Jia Cong, she could not forget the plum blossoms on Xuanmu Mountain, which was known as the "sea of ​​fragrant snow".

Jia Cong also knew that there was a Panxiang Temple on Xuanmu Mountain, which was the place where Miaoyu, the character in the Dream of the Red Chamber who believed that "the sky is not necessarily empty", practiced.

I don’t know how many nunneries there are on Xuanmu Mountain, and whether Xuanmu Temple is the Panxiang Temple.

……

Gusu, Feng family.

Ever since finding Yinglian, Feng, who had been haggard and decadent for more than ten years, seemed to have taken an elixir and came back to life.

But before the good days lasted a few days, her father suddenly invited Mr. Liu from Chonghui Street to come to the house and asked Yinglian to come out to serve tea. Feng felt something was wrong.

She also knew Mr. Liu. Although he was already old, he was still insatiable in his pursuit of women. Because his family had some assets, he already had two concubines, but he was still not satisfied. It was heard that he was looking for beautiful women recently.

"Father, Yinglian is not even thirteen yet, not old enough to discuss marriage, and Mr. Liu is almost sixty, and he wants to take a concubine. Isn't this harming Yinglian?"

"What do you know, a woman like you? Master Liu was once a county magistrate. His family owns thousands of acres of fertile land. He is a famous squire in Gusu. What's wrong with being old? It's better than Yinglian marrying a poor man and suffering in the future."

"Yinglian is my daughter. I finally found her. I can't let her suffer. As a mother, I can't accept this marriage!"

Yinglian hid in the room and listened to her mother and grandfather arguing.

That day, my grandfather asked me to serve tea to Mr. Liu. That person stared at me intently, which made me feel uneasy. The next day, my grandfather said that Mr. Liu wanted to take her as a concubine.

My mother was very good to me, but my grandmother disliked her and thought that adding another mouth to feed was a waste of money. She didn't like staying in this house because she couldn't bear to leave her mother.

If only the young master were here, didn’t he promise to come see me? It’s been so many days, he wouldn’t have forgotten me. Thinking of this, Yinglian felt sad and kept wiping away her tears.

"It's not your turn to make the decisions at home! After your husband went missing, you've been living off your parents for more than ten years. Now you have to support another child. How can you afford that?

A girl will get married sooner or later, so why keep her at home for nothing? Yinglian has been abducted for more than ten years, and you are a widow and unemployed. How can she marry a good man in the future?

Now that Master Liu is willing to take a concubine, you will never have to worry about food and clothing. It's such a good thing, why wouldn't you be satisfied?"

"Dad, I have been doing laundry, sewing and mending at home these years to supplement the family income. I have never had a day off. I will take care of Yinglian at home.

You are just after Mr. Liu's five hundred taels of betrothal money. That's my daughter. I will never agree to this marriage even if I die!"

Suddenly, the gate of the courtyard was opened with a crash, and the person who pushed it open seemed to have used quite a bit of force.

Feng's face was pleasantly surprised: "Master Jia, why are you here?"

"Master!"

Yinglian rushed out of the room with a smile on her face. Her sweet and charming smile seemed to cover up all the sadness and coldness.

Without caring that her mother and grandfather were present, she threw herself into Jia Cong's arms and hugged him tightly for fear that he would leave again. The fear and worry in her heart were instantly swept away.

(End of this chapter)