Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 169: Buddhist Woman's Diligent Giving

Gusu, Xuanmu Mountain, Panxiang Temple.

A nun on duty brought a young girl of about twelve or thirteen years old into the guest bedroom in the inner courtyard.

I knew that there was an old nun with a kind face sitting in the guest room.

The girl had a slender figure, delicate and beautiful figure, skin as white as jade, and a bright red mole between her eyebrows.

The old nun smiled and said, "This girl is really pretty. I heard you are going to the temple to make a donation."

The young girl smiled and said, “My mother came to the temple several years ago and made a great wish. Unexpectedly, her wish came true. I am very grateful to your temple for its blessing, so you asked me to make a donation to repay the Buddha’s kindness.

My family brought more than 20 gifts to all the monks and nuns in the temple. My mother specifically told me to personally hand over the gifts to each nun to show my piety. I hope the abbot will approve this."

Although the old nun was old, she was in good spirits, with a pair of eyes that were full of wisdom and light, as if she could see through people's hearts.

"I saw that the girl had the air of separation, but now her eyebrows and eyes show the joy of reconciliation. Was she lost in her childhood, and because of the help of a noble person, she has escaped the disaster?"

When the girl heard this, she was stunned, and a look of confusion appeared on her face.

The young master said that male guests are not allowed to enter the inner hall of the nunnery, so he taught me these words to help him find someone. But he never said that the abbess is so powerful, not only can she read faces, but also how accurate can she be?
……

This girl was naturally Yinglian. When Jia Cong arrived in Gusu that day, he first went to Feng's house to see Yinglian.

But as soon as he reached the door, he heard what Feng and Feng Su said, and he kicked the door open in anger.

Although he knew that Feng Su was not a good person, he was always on guard, otherwise he would not have gone to see Yinglian as soon as he arrived in Gusu.

But no one expected Feng Su to be so despicable. He had just found his lost granddaughter, but just a few days later, he thought she was a waste of rice and wanted to sell her to someone as a concubine for five hundred taels.

In a rage, he wanted to take Yinglian away immediately. Yinglian of course wanted to go with him, but she couldn't bear to leave her mother.

Feng Su naturally tried his best to stop her. His newly-minted granddaughter was so beautiful that she was worth a huge sum of money whether she was married or a concubine. How could he let her go?

But Feng did not stop him. Her father was greedy and ungrateful. He only cared about money and had no family affection at all. If her daughter stayed here, she would not have a good ending.

I am a widow, unemployed, and alone. It will be very difficult for me to find a good place for my daughter in the future.

Moreover, Yinglian has been thinking about Mr. Jia all the time these days. Although her daughter is still young, it may not be a relationship.

But Mrs. Feng was also an experienced person, and she knew that her daughter wanted to be with him very much.

This Master Jia is so protective of Yinglian, and it was he who saved Yinglian in Jinling.

She had suffered half her life and had seen through a lot. She knew that wealth and gold were not permanent things. Only intimacy and harmony could bring long-lasting happiness. This Mr. Jia might be her daughter's destiny.

Feng Su only dared to scold and stop Jia Cong with words. He didn't have the ability to use force on Jia Cong.

Jia Cong was already filled with rage after hearing those words at the door just now. Feng Su was such a terrible person, so how could he feel at ease leaving Yinglian in the Feng family?

Mrs. Feng is a widow who has lost her job and is living with her parents. Although she loves her daughter, she is afraid that she will not be able to prevail against her father in the end. The longer Yinglian stays, the more accidents there will be.

He only told Madam Feng that he would take Yinglian to help him find someone, and when they finished their business and left Gusu, he would definitely send Yinglian back to meet them, and they would then make things right.

……

In the incense room of Panxiang Temple, Yinglian looked at the old nun curiously and said, "How did you know that, nun? I was lost when I was a child, and I only found my mother recently."

The nun on duty beside him smiled and said, "My abbess is an expert at performing innate divine numbers and can predict the life and death of people, fortune and disaster. Everyone in Gusu City knows this."

The old nun seemed to have a good impression of Yinglian. After chatting with her for a while, she asked all the nuns in the temple to go to the guest room to receive alms.

The nun on duty saw the girl running to the door of the inner hall and waving outside. A young man who had been waiting outside the door came in carrying gifts for alms.

However, he was stopped by the nun on duty, saying that male guests were not allowed into the inner hall of the nunnery.

This is also the reason why Jia Cong brought Yinglian here. When he was searching in the eleven nunneries in Jinling, he also brought Wu'er with him for this reason.

At the beginning, he obtained the official document signed by Jia Yucun in Jinling, but he was unfamiliar with Suzhou and could not do such a thing.

That's why he came up with the idea of ​​having Yinglian pretend to be a devout Buddhist woman, and under the pretext of making a large donation to the temple, he went to Panxiang Temple to investigate Zhishao.

Although he was anxious, he could not force his way into such an ancient nunnery with strict rules and regulations. He waited until Yinglian saw the person she was looking for before he could reason with her. In the inner courtyard, the nuns from the temple came in one by one to receive alms, but more than a dozen nuns came in one after another, and Yinglian did not see the person described by Jia Cong.

So he asked, "Master Abbot, I heard that there are two sisters in the temple who are practicing Buddhism with their hair untied. They are both very good. Why don't you see them coming out?"

The guest room in the inner courtyard of Panxiang Temple is very close to the second gate of the inner courtyard. There is a long corridor and nothing blocking the way. Yinglian's clear voice came out and was heard clearly by Jia Cong who was guarding outside the second gate.

My heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

Then the old nun said, "My two disciples with hair are practicing in the temple, but they have not received the precepts, so they cannot accept alms."

When Yinglian heard this, she was surprised. She thought, "Young master is so smart that he can predict the future. He guessed everything and even taught me how to respond in advance."

"Master, I have also heard from my family that these two sisters with hair are extraordinary. Their gifts are not alms, but ordinary and thoughtful gifts.

My family said that Buddha respects those who are predestined, and no monk in the temple should be neglected. Could you please ask the two sisters to come out and see them so that my family can fulfill their wish. "

The nun on duty nearby didn't care much about it. It was just an ordinary thing for a female guest to come to the temple to make a large donation and want to meet two untied sisters.

But the old nun was actually very wise and extraordinary. She had felt that Yinglian's face was peculiar when she first saw her, and she could tell from it now that she was particularly concerned about her two unattached disciples.

But he thought it was not a bad thing, so he asked the nun on duty to go and call for help.

After a while, Yinglian saw two nuns with long hair entering the guard room.

The first nun who came in was beautiful and graceful, with a cold look and an air of scholarliness.

The nun following behind her was less cold and aloof, with beautiful eyebrows and bright eyes, a graceful figure, and as delicate as a peony. Although she was dressed in Buddhist robes, her beauty could not be concealed.

Before coming here, Yinglian had seen the portrait painted by Jia Cong, and it was the nun who came in later.

Yinglian felt delighted and proud that she had finally accomplished something for the young master.

The young master said that the person in the painting was a maid who had served him since childhood and had been missing for several years. But how could she become a nun?
Yinglian took out two gifts that Jia Cong had prepared earlier.

This time, the donations given to other nuns were all the same monk's robes, monk's hats, shoes and socks.

These two gifts are also very different.

One of them was a set of top-quality study treasures, while the other was a bit strange: a pair of silver-flowered twisted-wire bracelets.

Jia Cong had told Yinglian that if the person she saw was indeed the person in the painting, she should give the bracelet away, but if it was not the person in the painting, he had prepared another set of gifts.

Yinglian held the bracelets in her hands and handed them to the nun with long hair who came in later. She asked, "What is the name of this master?"

The nun looked at the bracelets with a puzzled expression. She glanced at the old nun beside her and saw the old nun nodded before she said, "My Dharma name is Jinghui. Thank you for your support, young lady."

Her voice was clear and quite charming, quite different from the solemnity of the ancient Buddhist temple.

Jia Cong, who was standing at the second door of the inner hall, was listening attentively.

As soon as he arrived in Gusu, he asked the locals and found out that there were no other temples on Xuanmu Mountain in Gusu except Panxiang Temple, so the locals called Panxiang Temple Xuanmu Temple.

As far as he knew, the official from the Buddhist Registration Office was from Suzhou, so when he was logging into the roster, he casually recorded Panxiang Temple as Xuanmu Temple.

Even so, he couldn't be completely sure that he could find Zhishao here, but there was no doubt that Miaoyu was practicing here.

So the gift he prepared was the Four Treasures of the Study.

And the two silver flower twisted wire bracelets that he gave to Zhishao that year, he has always carried with him.

Because male guests were not allowed to enter the inner hall of the nunnery, he drew a portrait of Zhishao in advance and asked Yinglian to see it carefully.

When he heard Yinglian asking the other person's name, he pricked up his ears and listened.

That sentence: "My Dharma name is Jinghui. Thank you for your support, young lady."

The voice was graceful and soft, but to Jia Cong it sounded like a loud bell. How could he not recognize that it was Zhishao's voice?

Trembling with excitement, he rushed into the inner hall of the nunnery regardless of everything.

(End of this chapter)