Chapter 89 Precepts: A Pure Land of Buddhism, This Place Is Inappropriate
The tranquility of the mountain temple was disturbed by this minor disturbance. When the crowd dispersed, the moonlight was as bright as ever. Just then, the head monk in charge of the kitchen at Taihuang Temple followed behind the abbot. Xie Wenjun then kept Yuanrong and Daiqing behind and ordered a vegetarian meal to be prepared.
The abbot, dressed in a monk's robe embroidered with a few strands of pale gold auspicious clouds, his bald head shining brightly, turned around and whispered a few words to the head monk in charge of cooking. He then walked over, folded his sleeves, and bowed to Xie Wenjun. "Her Highness the Princess and the General are in seclusion copying Buddhist scriptures for Empress Huixian. They did not have a meal this afternoon. The temple has prepared vegetarian food; just have someone bring it up."
Xie Wenjun nodded: "Thank you for your hospitality, Abbot."
Tonight, the moon is bright and the wind is gentle, with a clear moon shining over a thousand miles. The abbot also felt that this was a rare sight and said, "Your Highness, General, if you wish to admire the moon, you may move to the meditation platform in front of the temple."
Chen Liangyu said, "It's a pity the temple doesn't provide wine, so we can't have a few drinks under the moon today."
The abbot hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and muttered, "Monks are forbidden from drinking alcohol, so I'm afraid the general can only regret it today."
Xie Wenjun asked her, "Would you like some wine?"
Chen Liangyu said, "It was just a casual remark. I just felt that the mountain moon shining on the forest and spring would be even more delightful with a pot of fine wine. It's fine if we don't have it."
Xie Wenjun said, "Abbot."
The abbot clasped his hands in a gesture of respect: "Your Highness, the Eldest Princess."
Xie Wenjun took two steps toward the abbot, who was startled and lowered his head again, revealing twelve ordination scars on his head like stars.
Xie Wenjun questioned, "Does Taihuang Temple not have wine?" She knew exactly what she was asking.
The abbot, filled with trepidation, was unwilling to give a truthful answer, saying, "Your Highness, Buddhist disciples do not drink alcohol." He then went on to recount other rules and regulations, all of which were vague and evasive.
Xie Wenjun asked, "Does the temple have any wine?"
Just as the abbot was about to offer another perfunctory reply, Xie Wenjun said calmly, "Is the Taihuang Temple no longer selling alcohol?"
Knowing that the secret sale of wine at Taihuang Temple had been exposed, the abbot blushed and said with a forced smile, "Your Highness, this old monk... this temple's sale of wine and other beverages was truly a last resort..."
Seeing the abbot rub his bald head, about to pour out all his bitterness, Xie Wenjun immediately grabbed Chen Liangyu's arm and pulled him away, striding towards the monks' quarters. "No need for further explanation. Bring two jugs, you go about your business. I will pretend I know nothing about this matter and will not punish the monks of Taihuang Temple."
"Thank you for your mercy, Your Highness."
Yuan Rong and Dai Qing followed, carrying Xie Wenjun's change of clothes. When they reached the door of the dormitory, Lin Yin and Bu Ping'er, dressed in armor, stood side by side in front of the pillar and bowed, "Greetings, Princess and General." The two looked at Chen Liangyu with much clearer eyes.
Chen Liangyu glanced at Lin Yin and Bu Ping'er, then walked past them with her chest out and head held high, her clothes spotless. "Twelve volumes of Buddhist scriptures need to be offered before the memorial tablet of Empress Huixian. Tomorrow, you two will each hand-copy two volumes."
Lin Yin: "Yes."
Bu Ping'er: "Yes."
Chen Liangyu said, "We have prepared vegetarian meals and wine at the Zen Temple. You two can take off your armor and come along."
While ostensibly admiring the moon, Xie Wenjun actually wanted to privately bid farewell to Dai Qing. Lin Yin and Bu Ping'er understood this, so they did not refuse and went back to their rooms to change clothes.
Xie Wenjun glanced at Dai Qing, then at Yuan Rong. The two were still wearing the same single-layered shawls with quilted linings they had worn during the day, and they must be feeling a bit cold now. She said, "Let's go back and put on some clothes."
Yuan Rong wanted to stay and help Xie Wenjun change her clothes, but Chen Liangyu took the clothes that she and Dai Qing were carrying and said, "You two go."
The two bowed and went to Yongning Palace.
Chen Liangyu stepped over the threshold. “I was just about to rest when the candle went out. I’ll go and light it.”
Just as I was about to find a tinderbox to light the candle, the two ancient doors behind me suddenly slammed shut. The moonlight was instantly blocked by the closed wooden doors, and my vision suddenly darkened, surrounded by thick night.
His long arms, like creeping vines, quietly climbed up her neck. Before her vision, blurred by darkness, could regain its clarity, she was enveloped in a passionate kiss.
She closed her eyes.
The clothes he was holding were scattered all over the ground.
Xie Wenjun hooked his arm around her neck, their warm breaths mingling, and their breathing gradually quickened. "Say it again."
"What?" Chen Liangyu lowered his head to meet her, their lips lightly touching, and mumbled, "What? Say it again?"
Xie Wenjun leaned forward, step by step, forcing Chen Liangyu back to the inner side of the room, where a bent-leg Luohan bed lay across the room.
The quilt was half-lifted, still retaining its warmth.
"What you just said..."
Chen Liangyu gently raised his hand, trembling slightly, and cupped Xie Wenjun's face, his gaze deeply fixed on her eyes. "Your Highness, I wish to write history together and have our names engraved side by side."
Before he could even utter a word, Xie Wenjun pinned him to the bed.
The kiss deepened.
The beds at Taihuang Temple were simple and poorly crafted; their creaking and swaying sounded particularly jarring in the quiet night.
The daybed had three sides with railings. Chen Liangyu half-reclined, half-leaned, turning and twisting to accommodate her. Xie Wenjun freed one hand and hooked it around her clothes, with a hint of urgency, wanting to untie the restraint.
Chen Liangyu pressed down her frantically groping fingers and said, "Your Highness, this is not a good place."
This is a sacred Buddhist site, and the monks' quarters are located not far from Yongning Hall, where the spirit tablet of Empress Huixian is enshrined. It is a holy place for spiritual practice and propagation of the Dharma. To engage in sexual activity here would be blasphemous to the gods.
“Today,” Xie Wenjun said.
Xie Wenjun broke free of her grasp, his warm lips forcefully covering hers, his fingertips probing towards her collar, almost succeeding, but Chen Liangyu held tightly to her front, refusing to let go. Chen Liangyu's quarters were separated from Bu Ping'er's by only one wall, and she dared not resist for fear of causing a bigger commotion.
Chen Liangyu said, "There are precepts in the temple..."
"When did I ever observe any precepts?"
So-called rules and regulations are ropes used to bind the weak.
"If all the rules of this world must be followed, then the one I should follow most is the ancestral law of the palace, to be a dignified but useless decoration."
During the struggle, Xie Wenjun tore off a button with an engraved eagle pattern from Chen Liangyu's lapel.
The sound was crisp and clear.
Startled by the slight noise, Xie Wenjun stopped tearing at the clothes, a beautiful smile curving her lips, and said, "You need to change out of these clothes, A-Li."
Is it absolutely necessary to take them off? For a moment, their breaths froze.
A moment later, her lower lip was held in her mouth again.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness inside, the silvery moonlight outside the window still poured down gently. A mist welled up in Chen Liangyu's eyes.
"Let me go."
A barely audible whimper.
Although she was in a mountain temple, she strictly adhered to the Buddhist precepts and was unwilling to break the taboo. Lin Yin and Bu Ping'er went inside to change their clothes, and soon they would come out from the two side rooms. Chen Liangyu even breathed very softly, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Such a state of being able to take care of the beginning but not the end makes them look incredibly fragile.
Yet it is also extremely dazzling.
Xie Wenjun wrapped his arm around Chen Liangyu's shoulder from behind, pressed her down onto the cushion pillow at the head of the bed, and leaned over her, saying, "To be recorded in history together, to be famous for all eternity, is not enough for me..."
"not enough……"
"I want to be with you year after year, day and night. I must dedicate my life to making you happy today."
Chen Liangyu slowly and resignedly climbed onto Xie Wenjun's back, her hands, which had been tightly gripping her clothes, loosened their grip.
The doors on the left and right sides of the dormitory opened one after the other, their sounds mingling with the night. The sound of military boots clattering as two rows of footsteps approached the dormitory doors.
Lin Yin asked in confusion, "Why is it so dark?" He looked through the latticed window frame, but the window was covered with paper, and it was pitch black, so he couldn't see anything. "I clearly heard the door close just now, it was quite loud, the General should be here."
Bu Ping'er didn't say anything, but turned around halfway in place, also full of suspicion.
With her mouth tightly covered, Chen Liangyu watched as two dark figures appeared on the door. Her whole body stiffened, and she dared not move a single finger.
Taking advantage of the brief moment when she froze in place, Xie Wenjun swiftly pulled, and in an instant, the clothes were spread out on the Luohan bed.
Lin Yin walked back to the door and knocked three times. "General, are you inside?"
No one responded.
"strangeness."
Chen Liangyu grew increasingly afraid of making a commotion, thinking to herself that if she had known she would face such a calamity today, she shouldn't have brought the two of them to Taihuang Temple. Especially Lin Yin.
Lin Yin waited at the door, but after a while there was still no sound from inside. "Could something have happened?"
There was a hint of anxiety in his voice.
They broke down the door!
Chen Liangyu suddenly remembered that the door was not bolted, but only slightly ajar. Lin Yin and Bu Ping'er could open the door with just a light touch, or even without pushing it.
The room was simple, the daybed had no roof, and there was nowhere to hang bed curtains. At this moment, she was like a silk doll to be manipulated, crouching in the crescent moon, held up.
"Your Highness..." she pleaded softly.
He shuddered.
Xie Wenjun held her captive, seemingly oblivious to the commotion outside the door, focused solely on fiddling with the object.
Two figures stood still outside the door, while the other leaped.
Bu Ping'er remained relatively calm as always. She turned half a circle around in place and then didn't move again, seemingly biting her knuckles as she pondered something. "Should we go with the Princess to ask about the abbot's position first?"
Chen Liangyu pursed her lips, trying her best to suppress the sob that was about to escape her lips, and her head tilted back uncontrollably.
Lin Yin leaped up and down, his shadow sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes near and sometimes far, shouting, "It seems that the Princess went back to Changning Palace to change clothes with the two ladies, Yuanrong and Daiqing. They left from outside my room. I didn't hear the General go by. The way she walks, it's like a whirlwind and lightning. She could kill someone if she bumps into them. She's definitely not among the people who went by."
Seeing that Bu Ping'er was not in a hurry at all, Lin Yin gave her a push.
"Say something. It's pitch black, and there's no oil lamp. Could you have been assassinated? Are you dead?"
It's almost dead.
Chen Liangyu was tense, both physically and mentally, and had to control her breathing. She thought that the first thing she would do upon returning to the Northern Border was to throw Lin Yin into the deep mountains and forests of Qilian Road and make her go through another battle.
Xie Wenjun leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "The soldiers you lead really do keep your safety in mind in everything they do."
Chen Liangyu's hands roamed frantically, finally touching a corner of the quilt on the bed frame. With a sudden burst of strength, she lifted it up, completely covering herself and Xie Wenjun, leaving only their eyes exposed.
Every rub of the clothes caused a huge uproar.
Each rapid gasp was quickly swallowed.
Outside the door, Lin Yin's noisy chatter abruptly ceased. Chen Liangyu anticipated that she was about to do something foolish that she would regret for the rest of her life.
Sure enough, Lin Yin stopped in his tracks. "Ping'er, break down the door!"
Author's note: Thanks to Gu Ji for his deep water!
It attracted a lot of new readers!
Thanks to the lovely Shallow Water, please keep urging me to update!! I'll be working overtime tomorrow, so there will be no update.
Thank you to all the young readers who have made it this far!
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