If you are sick and even doctors can't cure you, there is a simple way: pray to gods and Buddhas.

This was the second way Ah Mian thought of to cure the illness.

After receiving her first month's salary, she specifically asked her employer to give her a day off.

That evening, they celebrated that A-Mian had made money. In the moonlight, she took out gifts one by one: A-Dou's copper bell (160 coins), Meng Jing's hair ties and wooden hairpins (20 coins), Meng Chijian's boots (100 coins), and Meng's mother's new cane (80 coins).

Her hemorrhage dispelled the rumors that she was a "miser" and an "ungrateful wretch," earning praise and envy from everyone in the village (Meng's mother rushed to the village entrance to show off). A-Mian, naturally, swayed her head with pride, feeling very capable. At the dinner table, she proposed another idea: she wanted to go to the temple to offer incense and pray to Buddha, and anyone who was free could join her.

On the other side of the mountain, there is a temple with relatively prosperous incense offerings. There are four or five monks who take turns going down the mountain to beg for alms and make purchases.

"The shopkeeper Wangwang told me that the temple is very efficacious, and there are free vegetarian meals available."

Meng Chijian said, "I will go with you tomorrow." The blacksmith shop had relatively flexible working hours. Most people who ordered goods would wait a while before picking them up. Even if they went to the shop and found it closed, they could just come back in a few days.

After all, there was only one blacksmith shop in the small town.

"I want to go too! I want to go too!" Meng Jing exclaimed excitedly.

Mencius' mother had difficulty seeing and hesitated to speak.

Amian said, "Then let's all go together. Mother will ride on Dou's back, and we'll lead him up the mountain path!"

The mountain path leading to the temple was built by generations of monks, and the daily passage of pilgrims has made it very smooth, wide enough for a horse-drawn carriage to pass through.

The next morning, the Meng family's courtyard was bustling with activity.

Everyone changed into their most presentable and beautiful clothes. A-Mian also put on a floral dress and cloth shoes. This time she didn't use makeup, but simply pursed her lips with red paper.

Because she needed to pay for Meng Chijian's medical treatment, she reluctantly took out another two hundred coins, which she planned to use as incense money.

After all these expenses, Ah Mian only had about nine hundred coins left (before that, she had only spent half a tael of silver on lodging and food, her wages for this month were one tael of silver, and then she spent three hundred and sixty coins on gifts and two hundred coins on incense).

However, the thought of receiving her monthly allowance next month made her feel at ease.

Meng Jing was styling herself up with a new hair tie, and she had also picked a lot of wildflowers, which she cleverly braided into her hair.

When A-Mian saw this, she ran to pick flowers as well.

"Eat your breakfast before you go! Be careful with your clothes—" Meng Chijian packed the items he would need for the journey into a bundle, then filled a vegetable basket with food and drink for the road, before going to the woodshed to find several straw hats. "Xiao Jing, go and keep an eye on A Mian, make sure she doesn't step into the mud. Then bring her back, and we'll set off after Mother has finished eating."

Meng Jing accepted the order and went out to show off her outfit.

After a chaotic scene, we finally got out of the house.

Two girls, one older and one younger, wearing straw hats, walked ahead, while Meng Chijian led the donkey behind, occasionally telling his mother about what had happened on the road.

This family didn't usually believe in any particular religion, but like everyone else at the time, they thought that there might really be a god in the dark, and they were willing to believe in anything as long as it could be of use.

Halfway there, A-Mian felt tired walking in cloth shoes, so Meng Chijian took out a pair of straw sandals from his bundle.

After a while, Meng Jing said she was thirsty and A Mian said she was hungry, so the group found a grassy area to stop and rest. Meng Chijian took out two water bags from the vegetable basket. One was for him and A Mian, and the other belonged to the other family members. He did not allow them to be mixed, so he marked them.

Then, Ah Mian took out the rice balls she had made from the vegetable basket and distributed them to everyone.

She learned to make rice balls from the shops outside. She used cucumber and corn, mixed them with rice, steamed them together, and then shaped them into round balls.

Although the food was cold and tasted bland, everyone was hungry and tired, so they still ate with relish under the blue sky and white clouds.

After resting for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, we walked for another half an hour and finally arrived at the temple.

Amian gave Meng Jing a wink, and Meng Jing, understanding, went to help her mother, lagging behind as they slowly paid their respects. Meanwhile, Amian pulled Meng Chijian along and began treating his illness again.

She glanced at how others did it and then started imitating them. Every time she came across a statue of a god or Buddha, she would kneel down and bow a few times, putting her hands together and whispering her wishes.

"Goddess Guanyin, my husband, Lu Amian, keeps having nightmares. Please cure him. He is a very, very good person. I also wish you good health and happiness."

Then, they lit the incense and candles they had received before entering the temple with other lit incense and candles, and put a lot of copper coins into the wooden box.

Meng Chijian then took her hand and joined her in the worship.

"Why don't you speak your wish aloud? What if the Bodhisattva can't hear you?" A-Mian asked midway.

Meng Chijian gave her a long, quiet look.

So the next time he knelt in prayer, he said, “Great Manjushri Bodhisattva, I am Meng Chijian from Qingshan Village. Please bless my family with health, happiness, and all things going smoothly. There is another person I need to pay special attention to, the young lady next to me. First, I hope she grows taller. Although I bought her a toy to play with, she doesn’t seem to have changed much lately. Second, A-Mian works in someone else’s shop; I hope she doesn’t encounter any unreasonable customers who bully her. Third, I hope her wishes come true…”

Amian quickly grabbed his sleeve: "Why are you nagging like this in front of the Bodhisattva?"

Meng Chijian said, "It's a rare opportunity for me to come all this way."

"You should just say it in your heart, otherwise the Bodhisattva might get annoyed."

"……All right."

People from the nearby mountains came to worship in the temple one after another, but some of them looked disdainful and said, "These fools really think that heaven will favor ordinary people like them? They're dreaming."

Zhang Yixing waved a fan. He and his group had originally come to pray for good luck in the exam and to pass it with flying colors. However, before he even entered the hall, he saw the two people standing shoulder to shoulder, whispering to each other, looking extremely intimate.

"Don't say anything out of turn," Lu Weiwei said, afraid that she might accidentally offend the Bodhisattva and cause her husband to fail the exam again. "Let's go and sincerely pray..."

When the two arrived at the palace, they were both quite resentful. They were exhausted and hungry from their journey from Lujia Village, and they were covered in dust and dirt.

One of them was suspicious. How could the two of them have made up so quickly? Once I pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, I will make Ah Mian regret it to the core! If I rise to prominence in the future, I will teach that brute a lesson and cripple him to avenge the two punches and one kick he received that day!