Chapter 14 A ghost! By the power of the law! The Three Pure Ones, save your disciple!
Once you find the key factors behind the first failure, new problems soon arise.
Ever since Cui Miaochang and Senior Brother Zhang went south, Yu Nie has practically turned Huaiyuan City upside down, all in search of herbs containing blue pigment.
As time passed, one incense stick or two, and three days went by, her legs ached from running around, but she still hadn't found what she wanted.
Unable to find a substitute for chicken blood, she couldn't eat or sleep well, her mind was in turmoil, and her face looked haggard. Anyone who didn't know better would think she'd gone to steal a dog in the middle of the night.
“Tsk…” Yu Nie sat on the steps of the west wing, supporting his head with his palms, his whole body like it was covered in thorns, clicking his tongue left and right every now and then.
It's one thing if you can't make peacock blue and lose money, but this matter concerns the safety of the Rong family, so it's a completely different matter.
In other matters, she could tolerate the death of a fellow Daoist rather than her own. But the matter of implicating her benefactor was something she absolutely could not do.
While we shouldn't teach someone how to fish, we also shouldn't repay kindness with enmity.
Lang Xi was practicing her sword in the center of the courtyard when she heard her junior sister sigh. She stopped her practice and turned around: "Junior sister, are you still worried about the Peacock Blue thing?"
Yu Nie closed her eyes, her pretty face tilted back, her expression full of worry, and her voice sounded listless: "Who says otherwise? There are still seven days to show the finished product to Rong Dajia, and right now, your junior sister is still empty-handed. What will I give him to show him then?"
Knowing her worries, Langxi drew his sword and sat down beside her, suggesting, "If we really can't extract that peacock blue, why don't we quickly tell the Rong family? And help them find someone to speak on their behalf at the county government, so that those officials in official hats can be lenient with us."
Yu Nie had actually thought about using connections to find someone last night, and even had a candidate in mind.
She saw it clearly the day before yesterday when He Renzhi personally visited the person diagonally across the street. When had the county magistrate, who was used to being powerful, ever shown such a fawning attitude?
Although she was not familiar with the current civil and military official system, based on this alone, she could almost conclude that the official rank of the person living in the alchemy room was definitely higher than that of He Renzhi.
"What about finding that Captain Huan Zijing of the Xuan Ce Army?" she blurted out.
Langxi put the sword aside: "The captain is a straightforward person and he also solved the problem of the travel permit for my master. If we go to him... it might really be feasible."
“That person is not bad.” Yu Nie pondered, given the current situation, she had to prepare for the worst. She sighed, “Fortunately, God has left me a glimmer of hope. If all else fails, I can ask Huan Zijing for help. Only he can help. If it were their commander of the Xuan Ce Army, we would be in grave danger, our fates uncertain.”
Listening to her speak like she was telling a comedy routine, Lang Xi smiled and then asked in confusion, "Junior Sister, how do you know what kind of person the commander of the Xuan Ce Army is?"
Since neither Zijing nor Xie Cheng, who was half recovered from his injuries, were around, Yu Nie spoke more recklessly: "I heard from the people listening to music at the teahouse that Huan Xun is an extremely wicked person. Calling him a beast would be an understatement. He is so detestable that everyone wants to kill him."
Langxi laughed and said, "Or are those people just making things up? You actually believe that?"
Unable to state the truth, Yu Nie replied firmly, "I believe you. Huan Xun is truly not a good person. He is a heartless and treacherous villain."
"Why do you feel like you've met him in person, Junior Sister?" Lang Xi asked with a smile, seeing her confident expression.
This was difficult to explain, so she had to laugh it off: "Anyway, you'll understand later, Junior Sister."
For Lang Xi, her junior sister was not someone who believed everything she heard, and she didn't understand why she insisted on her opinion and was so certain about this matter.
Although Langxi had some doubts, he did not refute them, but said softly, "If what those people said is true, then the people of this region... seem to be in dire straits again."
After a brief moment of sorrow, she immediately continued, "But in any case, Huan Xun hasn't taken office yet, so neither of us can refute the truth of these words. Let's hope he is a wise and just official."
"These exorbitant taxes and levies have impoverished the people. If an official who doesn't care about the people's plight were to come to this land, how would ordinary people survive?"
Having gained insight, Yu Nie knew perfectly well that Lang Xi's wish was destined to fail. She secretly prayed that it would be safest to make gunpowder as soon as possible.
Otherwise, before the chaos even begins, these ordinary people might be killed by evil spirits like Huan Xun.
The two women were talking and did not notice that someone had come in from outside the temple gate.
Rounding the corner of the corridor, they saw Lu Jinshi, with his dark face, standing by the side room. After they finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then turned and went outside.
"Alright, we'll talk about these things later." Langxi then turned the conversation back to Peacock Blue: "If you're determined to ask Commander Huan for help, but feel embarrassed to ask, I'll go talk to him when he returns."
"Let's wait and see for a while longer, Junior Sister." Yu Nie pondered for a moment. "After all, we just troubled them with the travel permit. And when they moved into the temple, they offered a considerable amount of incense money. If we bother them with everything, it would seem like we don't know our manners."
“You’re right. Then we’ll wait a few more days,” Lang Xi said. “Etiquette is important, but human life is of paramount importance. If we really have no other choice, we’ll have to swallow our pride and go to them.”
"Okay, we'll listen to our senior sister." Face is the least important thing to them; no matter how important face is, it can't be compared to human life.
After saying that, Yu Nie stretched his neck and looked around the courtyard: "Has Junior Brother not returned from gathering herbs up the mountain yet? It's almost lunchtime."
"I reckon it'll be soon." Lang Xi picked up his sword and stood up. "I'll go get ready and change my clothes. Junior Sister, you go to the kitchen first."
Yu Nie didn't refuse, replied "Okay," and turned to go to the backyard.
No sooner had they left than Ah Hui came panting in, carrying a medicine basket on his back. The small hoe in his hand was spotless, clearly having been cleaned beforehand.
Langxi changed his clothes and came out, just in time to see Ahui putting down his basket. He told him to quickly wash his hands and change his clothes and go to the kitchen for dinner.
Ah Hui smiled and nodded in agreement.
Today, only the three of them, along with Aunt Liu, were in the temple. They were all family, so lunch was simple: three vegetarian dishes and an egg drop soup.
Halfway through the meal, Ah Hui gestured to show that he had seen a huge wild rabbit in the mountains that day. Then he gestured again to indicate that he had seen Lu Jinshi's figure from afar on his way back, but he couldn't find him when he returned.
Yu Nie picked up a wooden spoon and served everyone a bowl of soup. He asked if he had seen wrong, saying that the thin, dark-faced man, Huan Zijing, and Xie Cheng had left yesterday evening and had not been seen since.
Not seeing Lu's attendants, Ahui wondered if she was seeing things.
Aunt Liu chimed in, "What happened to that junior officer and Guard Xie? Why haven't we seen them for so long?"
"No, Aunt Liu, they are from Xuan Ce's army. Who would dare to cause them trouble?" Yu Nie took a sip of soup, which was so hot that she quickly ran to the pot, scooped up a ladle of cold water, and gulped down a large mouthful.
Upon hearing this, Aunt Liu felt it made sense, and a smile appeared at the corner of her eye: "Our Rong girl is right."
Aunt Liu had no children of her own, but she treated these young children as if they were her own, and she always spoke and did things with a smile.
The tone of voice is different from theirs; Aunt Liu speaks with a Central Plains accent.
She wasn't originally from Huaiyuan. She came to the frontier because her husband had accumulated a huge debt several years ago. After the two of them sold their property to pay off the debt, they had very little left and had no choice but to seek refuge with her husband's uncle who was doing business in Liangzhou.
But as fate would have it, the rope broke at its thinnest point. Just as their lives were beginning to improve, a plague thirty years ago claimed the lives of her husband and her uncle. After her uncle's eldest son inherited the family fortune, he was utterly heartless towards her, his aunt, and cruelly drove her out of the house.
At that time, she was penniless and had no choice but to become a maid in a wealthy family. Her master disliked her because of her clumsy legs and would beat and scold her at the drop of a hat.
The abbot at the time happened to be performing an exorcism ritual at that household. Seeing this, he took pity on her and brought her back to the temple, where she remains to this day.
After lunch, the three of them each took on their respective duties.
With his goal still in a state of confusion, Yu Nie had nowhere to start, so he could only start messing around in his own neighborhood.
She flipped through the pages from daylight until sunrise and sunset, and seeing that she was going to gain nothing again today, she felt half of her heart had died.
As for why the other half hadn't died, her gaze drifted to the pitch-black alchemy room to the east, pondering whether it would be best to quickly admit defeat to fate. There was no need to be stubborn; finding someone to settle this matter was the priority.
The thought of giving up flashed through her mind for a moment, but she sighed to herself and murmured, "I should just keep pushing myself. After all, who knows if countless failures are just the prelude to success?"
"People should be more optimistic, Rong Yune. Believe in good luck, and good luck will come your way." She carried a lantern and crouched down, her wide eyes searching under the bushes on both sides of the temple.
Whenever he found a wild herb that he had never tried, he would pluck off its tender leaves, put them into a simple bamboo mortar and pestle and crush them into a paste. Then, he would take out two bamboo tubes, each about half an inch tall and the thickness of a thumb, from his waist and drip the liquid into them.
The two bamboo tubes contain wood ash juice and black vinegar, respectively. According to chemical principles, blue pigment turns yellow-green in alkaline conditions and reverts to blue in acidic conditions. This allows for faster identification of which plants contain blue pigment.
After trying again and again, she still couldn't find what she was looking for.
It was getting late, and Aunt Liu called her from the doorway to go back to sleep.
Yu Nie responded from afar, "I'll be right back, give me a little more time."
"Let's look for it tomorrow, girl. It's so dark, we can't see anything," Aunt Liu advised her.
"I understand, Aunt Liu, I'll be right back." She said this, but her feet didn't move an inch. She was only looking down at the flowers and plants under her feet, completely unaware that the person had already reached the entrance of the temple and nimbly dismounted.
The young man, leading his black-maned horse, did not go straight in, but stood there for a long time, watching her.
A moment later, she nearly bumped into a tree while walking, then suddenly straightened up, pounding her chest and stamping her feet, as if filled with deep regret. She should have gone straight, but instead took a detour; she should have turned, but instead stubbornly kept going forward.
At midnight, it looked incredibly eerie, its raised head seemingly possessed. Any passerby who saw it would be terrified.
"Looks like we'll get nothing tonight again," Yu Nie muttered, raising the lantern in his hand and bending down even lower to look at the flowers and plants on the ground.
She was diligently searching through the weeds when suddenly a pair of black boots caught her eye. Her back stiffened abruptly, her neck arched, and she dared not lift it. Her knees went weak, and she didn't dare blink, as if struck by lightning. Her mind was filled with ghost stories told by the storyteller in the teahouse.
The boy lowered his eyes and saw her standing stiffly, wondering what trick she was playing. He raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and swayed his whole body.
Seeing the pair of black boots move slightly, Yu Nie felt the hairs on his body stand on end.
Before the boy standing in front of her could speak, she, like a startled bird, threw down her lantern like a gust of wind and shouted, "Hurry, hurry, by the law! Three Pure Ones, save your disciple!" and ran into the temple.
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