A heavy rain washed away all the mud, yet awakening remains pristine.
Just like last night during the torrential rain, Xin Jiuwei was covered in mud and water, her face soaked with rain and mud, as she struggled to raise her wrist to ask Jueming for help.
The white-robed monk calmly held up his umbrella, and not a single drop of rain touched the hem of his robe.
Xin Jiuwei wondered, how could someone in such a sorry state make the chess player, who had always remained an observer, understand her usefulness?
She thought to herself, a smile on her face, and looked down at the holy monk sitting under the tree.
Jueming met her gaze without sorrow or joy, as if nothing in the world could stir the emotions of this noble Buddhist disciple from Chongwu Mountain.
But what Xin Jiuwei didn't know was that Jueming's gaze fell on her fair and clean face, and he was thinking about the mud on her face from the previous night.
And there was the fleeting flash of lightning across her face, and her astonishingly bright eyes beneath the muddy water.
Jueming withdrew his gaze. "You are feeling better, benefactor."
"Much better, but my foot still hurts." As she spoke, Xin Jiuwei sat down next to Jueming without ceremony, looking up in the direction he was looking. "What are you looking at, Master? You monks, can you always see things differently from us?"
Jueming said calmly, "Even monks don't have the ability to see ghosts."
Xin Jiuwei was slightly taken aback, then laughed, "Even a master can joke."
She reached out and caught a fallen crabapple petal. "What I mean is, Buddha should be able to see something more beautiful beyond the entanglements of us mortals."
Jueming remained silent.
Xin Jiuwei held the petal in her palm. "Master, do you think I have a strong affinity with Buddhism? This is the third time I've met you."
Jueming closed his eyes, as if he were silently reciting Buddhist scriptures.
Xin Jiuwei found it boring and sighed, "Are you always so silent? Don't you speak when the junior disciples at Lingyin Temple want to ask you questions? Don't you speak when discussing philosophy with others?"
She often thought of Xiao Xun from her previous life, and found it hard to connect that cold and gloomy new emperor with the Jueming before her.
“Those who sincerely believe are naturally destined,” Jueming said calmly. “Miss Xin’s desire to seek Buddha’s protection is not a good path.”
His thoughts were laid bare, and Xin Jiuwei stiffened involuntarily. Then, she mustered her courage and asked, "Master, on what basis are you certain that this is not a good path? Buddha saves all sentient beings; do Bodhisattvas just coldly watch people suffer?"
Jueming did not answer, and continued to close his eyes and ignore her.
Xin Jiuwei was unwilling to give up, and her eyes reddened again. She moved closer to Jueming.
“The master helped my brother at the apprenticeship banquet last time, and I thought he was a kind-hearted person.”
Jueming said calmly, "It's just being realistic."
“Then why won’t the master help me?” Xin Jiuwei asked, staring at Jueming’s face. “The master won’t interpret the fortune for me. I was abandoned on the mountain by Qi Huaiyu. My body is in so much pain. The master also won’t ask the Bodhisattva to bless me.”
Jueming sighed for the first time ever: "How do you think the Bodhisattva will protect you?"
Xin Jiuwei leaned closer, her eyes like pools of autumn water, looking weak and helpless, yet with a subtle cunning hidden in the afternoon sunlight.
"I don't know," she said weakly. "Perhaps the master didn't realize that I had already reached a dead end."
When they first met, she held a very unlucky fortune slip and spoke to Jueming in the same tone.
"Master, I am in a difficult situation."
A sixteen-year-old girl, so slender, fell off a carriage in the heavy rain; anyone else might have died.
Despite the excruciating pain, she reached out to grab his clothes, and the rain couldn't wash away the bright light in her eyes.
"Buddha can save all sentient beings, but where is Bodhisattva? Where can I seek her protection?"
Xin Jiuwei said softly, seemingly helpless, "I've thought and thought, and I can only think of one person."
She stared intently at Jueming. "Master, everyone in Yingzhou City respects you, and Jiuwei is no exception."
The girl blinked and tears welled up in her eyes. "Please help me."
As soon as she finished speaking, a blurry image flashed before her eyes. It was Jueming opening his eyes and turning his head.
He probably wanted to talk to her, and turned his head unintentionally, but Xin Jiuwei had unconsciously leaned forward and kept her distance from him for a long time.
With that turn of their heads, they were almost nose to nose.
Xin Jiuwei was startled. Jueming's face showed no emotion as he turned back and slowly stood up.
There are countless people in the world who have nowhere else to turn.
Jueming's voice was calm and indifferent.
"How can I help you?"
Xin Jiuwei remained seated, her heart pounding for some reason.
She looked up, and Jueming's figure was backlit, so she could only make out a silhouette.
It turns out that Jueming was so tall. I usually only noticed his expressionless face and his monk's robe, but I forgot that he was more handsome than any other man in Yingzhou City.
Xin Jiuwei looked at that retreating figure and asked softly, "What if I could help you, Master, someday?"
"Isn't it fair to view this as a transaction?"
Jueming didn't say anything, and walked away.
Xin Jiuwei sat there for a long time, feeling somewhat discouraged. She felt that Jueming's family was a waste of their resources and had no compassion at all.
However, she was already prepared; how could Xiao Xun be a compassionate person?
She needs to be useful to him, just as Qi Huaiyu was useful to Xiao Xun in her previous life.
Xin Jiuwei sat and thought for a while. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Liu Ya walking over, so she stood up and smiled at her.
Liu Ya remained expressionless, nodded to Xin Jiuwei, and went to a corner of the yard to feed the chickens.
But her movements as she fed the chickens were clumsy, and Xin Jiuwei noticed that she was being observed.
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