worshiping Buddha
The temple was already crowded, but then a torrential downpour started, and even more women lined up to worship and offer incense. Once they gathered together, they could chat and pass the time.
The lady and her ladies were talking about what had happened a few days ago. When they talked about it, they all spoke in low voices and looked frightened. Some even patted their chests in fright.
"When they found that young lady again, she had been eaten by wolves in the mountains and was unrecognizable. I heard that..." The woman's eyes darted around at the crowd, and her voice lowered even further, "She was completely naked and covered in wounds. When her mother saw her, she cried herself to death on the spot."
The crowd was horrified. One of the bolder ones continued to ask, "Has the government caught the murderer?"
The woman who had been talking the most immediately looked anxious, sighed deeply, and said, "That's the problem. There's more than one murderer. They're all bandits who roam the mountains in groups, and we can't catch them."
Hearing her say this, everyone became even more frightened and agreed to travel together when they went down the mountain, lest the villains succeed.
Some of the more fearless ones immediately said nonchalantly, "What's there to be afraid of? It's just one incident. The authorities have been searching for the murderer in the mountains for the past two days, so I doubt they'll dare to come out again."
While everyone was chatting animatedly, Jingwan, feeling bored, listened carefully and caught the gist of it. It was about a young lady who went up the mountain to worship Buddha, but unfortunately, she was kidnapped by bandits in the mountains. Her parents reported it to the authorities, but when they found her again, the poor lady had already met with misfortune.
The area around the Great Buddha Temple is a sacred place; even royalty would come here to offer incense and worship Buddha. How could bandits dare to roam here? Besides, this is the capital of a country, a place of extreme prosperity. Anyone with good hands and feet could make a living by doing some hard labor. How could bandits possibly emerge here?
As she was lost in thought, a sudden clap of lightning and thunder startled Jingwan, who quickly caught up with Gao Yun. Looking back, she saw thick, dark clouds and the rain intensifying, casting a heavy shadow over her heart.
The women were all there to burn incense and pray to Buddha. This poor girl was just one of the many things they talked about. After they finished talking about the girl, they started talking about which family had produced a good rouge and face powder. Little did they know that this casual conversation had already reached the imperial court and become evidence for high-ranking officials to accuse and attack their political opponents.
It turned out that the bandits who kidnapped the girl were refugees from Yan and Bing prefectures. However, this was only a small part of the refugees who had fled from Danzhou. Most of the refugees were still stuck in Danzhou, or had starved to death on the way.
The capital city is full of nobles, so how could they allow the disaster victims to disturb them? As a result, the disaster victims have been unable to enter the city. Not only that, the government is also arresting these refugees, but the number of refugees is increasing. If they continue to arrest them like this, the prison will not be enough to house them all.
Later, some refugees flowed into Yimen Mountain, which is backed by Dafosi Temple. Because of Dafosi Temple, most of those who entered the mountain were from wealthy families. If you managed to rob one or two rich people, it would be enough to feed them for several days!
The faction led by Prime Minister Qin hoped to open the city gates, provide relief to the disaster victims, and send them back after the situation in Wei and Bing provinces had been appeased and the disaster had been alleviated.
The faction led by Xiang Zhong, the Vice Minister of Revenue, believed that if the city gates were opened wide, countless refugees would flood into the city, which would inevitably cause chaos in the capital.
At Yang Fujin's signal, Xiang Zhong raised an eyebrow, glanced sideways at Prime Minister Qin, and said, "The court has already allocated funds to aid Yan and Bing prefectures. Where would there be any extra money to aid these disaster victims in Pingdu? Furthermore, whenever a disaster strikes, they gather in the capital to demand money. If this sets a precedent, we should all stop attending court and go to the city gates to wait for aid to disaster victims throughout the Great Wei!"
Not to be outdone, Prime Minister Qin, though over sixty years old, still argued vehemently: "If there is food and shelter, how could there be disaster victims robbing in the mountains? If we continue to let it go unchecked, there will surely be more disaster victims gathering outside the city. From now on, the people of Pingdu will have to watch their heads when they leave the city."
Xiang Zhong sneered: "Food costs money, lodging costs money, who's going to pay for that?"
Although the crowd below remained silent, they all understood that if the disaster victims were to actually enter the city, they would not be willing to pay for their own money, so they all echoed Xiang Zhong's sentiments.
Li Muyun sat on the sandalwood chair, sipping fragrant tea without saying a word, letting the two bicker.
The emperor grew impatient and, at Yang Fujin's suggestion, made the decision that the city gates must not be opened and all the disaster victims should head north to return to Yan and Bing prefectures.
She then looked at Li Muyun and said, "Aunt, do you have any important matters to attend to in Pingdu? If not, you should return home. Your aunt still needs you in the Northwest!"
Li Muyun put down his teacup and said leisurely, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm unwilling to leave, but the disaster relief funds from the Ministry of Revenue haven't arrived yet, so I can't leave even if I wanted to!"
The young emperor had long wanted her to leave. Li Muyun had stayed in Pingdu for more than half a month, during which he was forced to attend court for more than half a month. He had been eagerly anticipating her departure.
Hearing that she was just waiting for money, he hurriedly instructed Xiang Zhong to transfer the money over after court today.
Li Muyun then stood up and thanked the emperor.
Without wasting any time, she immediately requested the funds to be allocated after court. The old fox smiled and said, "This disaster relief requires a lot of money, which cannot be raised in a short time. Your Highness, please wait three more days..."
He was unaware of the impatience in Li Muyun's eyes; he only heard a swish, and then the guard's knife was at his neck.
Li Muyun slowly rubbed the knife against Xiang Zhong's neck, saying each word clearly, "I don't have that much time to waste with you. Now, my men will go with you to get the silver, hmm?"
Having navigated the treacherous waters of officialdom for decades, even amidst fierce political battles with his rivals in the court, he had never experienced anything like this before, with a knife pointed at his neck and his life threatened. He immediately trembled and said, "Yes...yes, Your Highness, go get the silver now...now."
Li Muyun didn't flinch, sheathed his sword, and strode away.
Passing by the Hanlin Academy, she unexpectedly saw a man and stopped to watch as he walked towards her carrying a thick stack of books.
Lu Chang immediately recognized the old friend. After leaving the Northwest, he could only hear about this princess from other people, but he had never seen her again. Just as he was about to pay his respects, he saw Li Muyun turn around and leave, without any intention of talking to him.
He smiled, not taking it to heart. After finishing his shift, he didn't go home. Instead, he came out of the government office and strolled leisurely along the roadside. Just then, he saw Dongfang Wuxia carrying an umbrella and leading two servants toward him.
Lu Chang looked around but didn't see Jing Wan beside him. He didn't have time to go up and explain that she had come to pick up the grinding machine for her mistress, but the shop's craftsman was nowhere to be found, and she had only just received the item.
"After I send these things home, I will go to the Great Buddha Temple to pick up Miss."
"Dafo Temple?" Lu Chang frowned, his previous languid expression completely vanishing, and asked, "She went to Dafo Temple? Has she returned?"
Dongfang Wuxia shook her head: "This servant does not know. How about this servant goes to the Great Buddha Temple to take a look?"
A sense of unease suddenly welled up in Lu Chang's heart. There were refugees wandering in Yimen Mountain. A few days ago, they even robbed and killed a girl. In recent days, the number of refugees has been increasing, and chaos is inevitable.
He became increasingly uneasy, so he told Wuxia to go back to the mansion to see if anyone had returned. Then he hurried away and happened to meet a colleague on the way. He borrowed the colleague's horse and left the city.
The rain was too heavy, and the umbrella in his hand had become a burden. Lu Chang threw it away, tightened the reins, and headed into the mountains.
Meanwhile, at the Great Buddha Temple, because they arrived late, the Gao family was also late in descending the mountain. Since several families were going down the mountain together, Jingwan boldly suggested to the Duchess that it was getting late and they should go down the mountain with the others for safety.
But Wang refused, insisting on staying for a vegetarian meal. By the time everyone came out, most of the people in the temple had disappeared.
The rain had lessened by then, but it continued to fall, and even fewer people were going up and down the mountain. By the time they came down, their carriage was the only one left on the mountain path.
Gao Yun said she was dizzy and that her own carriage was not comfortable. Shi Jun, of course, understood what she meant, so she switched carriages with her and sat with Jing Wan.
As soon as she got into the carriage, she turned her head to the side and refused to speak to Jingwan.
Jingwan didn't take it to heart. She clenched the handkerchief in her hand, thinking of the murder case the women in the temple had talked about. Looking at the quiet mountain forest, she became more and more panicked and just wanted to get back to the city as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. It had been raining all day, and the road was slippery. One horse lost its footing and overturned. The cart wheels hit a bare rock, and the cart rolled into the dense forest beside the mountain road. The driver tumbled several times, hit his head, and lost consciousness.
They were already some distance from the carriages in front of them, and now, due to the carriages rolling over, the distance has increased even further.
There was a gap where Jingwan fell, and she squeezed through it. Shijun followed behind. Because Shijun was taller, it was a bit difficult for her to squeeze through. Jingwan had to grit her teeth and lift the carriage with all her might to let Shijun out.
But when Shi Jun came out, the two of them discovered that, in that short time, three masked men wielding knives jumped out of the forest.
Because of the commotion behind them, the carriage in front had stopped, but the driver in front, not seeing any trace of the carriage behind, stopped the carriage to look for it. However, upon seeing this scene, he immediately ran away quietly, only tightening the reins to urge the carriage down the mountain, not daring to delay at all.
One of them wanted to chase after them again, but was stopped by the other man, who smiled maliciously and said, "There are not many of us, so we can't split up, but these two beauties are enough."
After saying that, the three of them were about to grab Jingwan.
Unexpectedly, the gossip she had heard during the day was about to come true for her. Thinking of the poor girl's miserable state, Jingwan suddenly found great courage, grabbed Shijun's hand, and shouted, "Run!"
Shi Jun was so frightened that her legs went weak. When Jing Wan pulled her to run, she couldn't muster any strength and just let Jing Wan carry her.
The dense forest was rugged, either covered with fallen leaves or jagged rocks, with many withered branches and leaves blocking the way, like thousands of grotesque hands that scratched the delicate face as they passed by.
Jingwan grew up in the countryside, and when she ran, the three bandits couldn't catch up with her for a while. They were refugees from Weizhou who had been going hungry for months and their physical strength was not as good as that of ordinary men.
But at that very moment, a sharp pain suddenly shot through her right foot. With a "thud," a strong, enveloping sensation enveloped her foot, and Jingwan fell to the ground. Looking down, she realized she had stepped on a trap. The jaws of the trap pierced through her embroidered shoe and into her flesh. The pain was excruciating, and she cried out in agony.
Footsteps came from behind; the three bandits had arrived.
Shi Jun looked at Jing Wan's feet, then at the bandits not far away. Although he was conflicted, he finally made up his mind and ran forward alone, leaving Jing Wan behind.
Jingwan watched her leave, wanting to call out to her, but only managed to open her mouth in grievance. She tried to get up, but the pain in her feet was unbearable, and she dared not move. Meanwhile, the bandits behind her had already arrived.
Jingwan thought to herself that she would soon become the talk of the town among the women who would come to the Great Buddha Temple to offer incense tomorrow.
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