Chapter 80

Chapter 80 A Scholar Surnamed Gao

“Don’t worry. It’s me bothering Third Sister anyway. I have been pretty weak too, and luckily, I feel fine during this trip.”

“Don’t even mention it, Fourth Lady. The Third Lady is your older sister, and of course, she will take care of you.”

“Alright, then please tell the Third Lady that we will meet her fifteen minutes later under the tree outside of the Old Lady’s yard,” responded Yu Chun.

Without saying anything else, the two maids curtsied to each other and left. Yu Chun did everything as Qu Moying told her and returned inside.

The other maid quickly returned to Qu Qiuyan’s yard. After seeing Qu Qiuyan, she curtsied to her and reported, “My lady, the First Lady said she feels unwell and can’t go with you this time. Fourth Lady said she will meet you fifteen minutes later under the tree outside of the Old Lady’s yard.”

“Qu Xuexin refused to go with us again? She is getting more and more smart,” Qu Qiuyan sneered. She picked a hairpin and passed it to the maid who was helping her dressing up behind her. The maid cautiously picked the hairpin up and put it in her hair. Qu Qiuyan had always liked wearing multiple hairpins simultaneously, but she would choose them carefully so that they could match up well, making her look elegant but not showy.

Qu Qiuyan was proud of her own styling since it showed her unique beauty but still made her keep a low profile. This was something that other noble ladies couldn’t compete with her for.

As for Qu Xuexin, she never cared about her in the first place.

She knew Qu Xuexin was a coward and didn’t dare to accompany Qu Moying in this situation. To be honest, Qu Qiuyan preferred her absence too since she didn’t want Qu Xuexin to ruin her plan.

“Is my cousin ready?” Qu Qiuyan turned her head and asked another maid who had just returned.

“Everything is ready, and all you need to do is wait, my lady. You won’t get involved since all you did was just give a hairpin to the Fourth Lady. You have no idea about what will happen later,” the maid reported carefully and even imitated Yu Qingmeng’s tone while speaking.

Qu Qiuyan pressed her lips. She still couldn’t trust Yu Qingmeng, but her distrust didn’t matter now.

After the last lesson, Yu Qingmeng must be more discreet this time. Qu Qiuyan couldn’t intervene too much since she didn’t want to leave any possibility of her getting into trouble.

Meanwhile, Yu Qingmeng was anxiously striding back and forth in her room. Suddenly, she stopped with a sullen face, deep in her thoughts. Right now, she had two choices. The first and most suitable one was Second Young Master Yan, but she somehow had this weird feeling about him since he failed last time.

“My lady,” her maid Ju Xiang said worriedly.

“Give the hairpin to Gao,” Yu Qingmeng said while gnashing her teeth. After a while, she finally made up her mind.

She chose to trust her gut feeling and use the second candidate – a scholar surnamed Gao. Her aunt Yu found him before and planned to use him to set Qu Moying up when she was still in the village. However, none of them expected the Old Lady to call Qu Moying back. Luckily, she asked Gao to come to the Dabei Temple this time.

Compared to Second Young Master Yan, who seemed very unpredictable, Gao always acted obediently and seemed much more reliable for her plan.

“My lady, will Third Lady Qu get mad?” asked Ju Xiang.

Third Lady Qu said she wanted to use this person too, and she hadn’t known that this man was brought here by Yu Qingmeng yet. Ju Xiang was worried that her master would get scolded because of it.

“There’s no time. I will explain it to my cousin later. As long as we can get rid of Qu Moying this time, Gao will become useless to us anyway!” Yu Qingmeng sounded determined.

She knew Second Young Master Yan was the most suitable person to carry out her plan since he had already talked to Qu Moying before. However, every time Yu Qingmeng thought about Second Young Master Yan, she would feel unsettled as Gao seemed reliable as well.

“Yes, my lady!” Ju Xiang took the hairpin from Yu Qingmeng’s hand, put it into her pocket, and left in a hurry.

Ju Xiang looked around after leaving the yard and turned to the area where all the male guests stayed. The male and female areas were separated by two Buddha halls, but they were not too far away from each other. She walked around the halls and headed to a more remote place. After a while, she finally stopped in front of a shabby little house. It was quiet around as Ju Xiang didn’t see anyone passing by.

Unlike the guest yards with multiple houses, this house had the simplest layout with only one room. Located in a remote place, it looked more like a storage room of the temple.

After Ju Xiang knocked on the door, a good-looking young man with a pale face opened the door. Not surprised seeing Ju Xiang, he bowed to her politely, “Miss Ju Xiang.”

He was wearing a clean dark blue robe made of coarse cloth. It was obviously washed many times since the color started to fade

“Come here. Listen…” Ju Xiang whispered in his ear.

While Ju Xiang was talking, the young man seemed awkward and frowned. After Ju Xiang finished her words, he asked slowly, “Will it be too inappropriate?”

“Do you even care? Stop faking it. You will have the good reward you deserve.” Ju Xiang pulled out a check and passed it to him, “Whether it fails or not, you can have this.”

“Thank you, Miss Ju Xiang.” The young man took the check, looking very timid.

However, Ju Xiang couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She couldn’t believe a shameless man like him pretended to be such a polite and simple man. If she didn’t know his history, she would be deceived by his innocent look too.

With her job finished, Ju Xiang left immediately. Even a maid like her looked down on him…

After Qu Qiuyan got washed, she walked outside with her maid Qing Ju. At the same time, they saw Qu Moying walking over with Yu Dong. Seeing her younger sister, Qu Qiuyan acted excitedly, walked up to Qu Moying, and held her hand. “We arrive at the same time, Moying! Let’s go. I’ll show you some good views here, and then we can go worship the Buddha.”

“I don’t think it’s a good time to watch the views. If Grandmother knows about it, she will be mad,” Qu Moying said hesitantly.

“Don’t worry. Grandmother likes you the most. She won’t do anything to you,” said Qu Qiuyan carelessly, holding Qu Moying’s hand more tightly.

Qu Moying pulled her hand back and avoided her intimate touch. “Third Sister, I’m sorry. I’m not used to holding hands with other people.”

“Oh, okay. Then let’s go. I know some of the Buddha halls are really popular among the guests, where many people’s wishes came true after they worshiped the Buddha. We can go pray there, draw divination sticks, and let a monk analyze them for us. We are only with me this time, so you don’t need to be so restrained.”

Qu Qiuyan was beaming with a trace of excitement on her face, not irritated by Qu Moying’s avoidance. However, when she glanced over Qu Moying’s hair, her expression suddenly changed. “Moying, where’s the hairpin I gave to you? How come you are not wearing it?”

“I’m sorry that I lost the hairpin, Third Sister. I was about to tell you this. When I was walking before, an old maid bumped into me and made me drop the hairpin,” Qu Moying lowered her head and said worriedly.

“Moying, you can’t lose such a private thing like a hairpin! Did you look for it? If someone picks it, your name will be ruined! We should go look for it right now.” Qu Qiuyan reached out, trying to hold Qu Moying’s hand again.

Qu Moying avoided her hand. “Then we can look for it while walking. If I see that old maid again, I’m sure I can recognize her. Then I can ask it back from her.”

“Okay. That sounds good,” Qu Qiuyan agreed, still wearing a worried look on her face. Meanwhile, she sneered inwardly. Looking for that old maid? Yu Qingmeng was not a stupid girl, and she must have sent the old maid away from the temple. Even if Qu Moying searched every inch of the temple, she wouldn’t find that old maid.

The two walked along the way, and Qu Moying would enter every Buddha hall they passed by to worship the Buddha, saying the Old Lady asked her to show her gratitude to the Buddha for protecting her this morning.

The Buddha halls Qu Moying had entered were just some small ones with very few visitors around.

After Qu Qiuyan accompanied Qu Moying to worship in several small halls, she suggested, “Moying, there are many Buddha halls in the Dabei Temple. If you go to every one of them, you can’t finish your worship even in the evening. How about we go to the most popular ones? More divine power is gathered there, and in this way, the Buddha can feel our devout pray better.”

“Go to the most popular Buddha halls?” Qu Moying seemed a bit convinced.

“Yes, the most popular ones. I can take you there, and then we can draw divination sticks to test our luck. If you could know going out in the morning was unlucky for you, you could’ve avoided the trouble.” Qu Qiuyan thought her words worked, and her voice got even softer, talking like a concerning older sister.

Qu Moying was almost entirely convinced. She only hesitated for a few more seconds and then followed Qu Qiuyan.

This time, they passed by several Buddha halls and stopped in front of a big one. It should be one of the biggest halls in the Dabei Temple, looking much more spacious and solemn than the ones they went before. Guests were coming and going, and many of them went up to worship the huge Buddha statue in the hall’s center.

In the corner of the Buddha hall, a monk was helping people analyze their divination stick, with a long queue in front of him.

After the two worshiped the Buddha statue, Qu Qiuyan suggested drawing a divination stick and letting the monk analyze it for them.

Qu Moying tried to refuse her, but Qu Qiuyan acted too enthusiastic about it. Having no other choice, Qu Moying picked the stick holder from the table and shook it until a stick dropped out. It wrote, “End in the water, start in the fire. The path ahead is yet to be unfolded!”

Qu Moying didn’t care about it too much until she saw the words written on the stick. She clenched the stick hard, with her eyes wide open in shock.

“Moying, what’s written on your stick? Let me see.” Qu Qiuyan noticed her unusual reaction and turned around to look at her stick.

Qu Moying took a deep breath and flipped the stick down. “Nothing really. It’s just some vague words that I can’t even understand.”

“That’s normal. Let’s go listen to the monk’s analysis,” Qu Qiuyan stood up, still sounding excited.

It would be too odd if she refused to let the monk analyze her stick after drawing one. Qu Moying looked around and noticed everyone who drew a stick queued up, waiting for the monk. There were many people, but they all seemed polite and peaceful, no one trying to cut in line.

“Okay!” Qu Moying stood up with Yu Dong’s help. She suppressed the shock in her heart, followed Qu Qiuyan, and slowly walked to the queue.

In her past life, Qu Moying had never been superstitious, believing in stuff like fate. However, after she was reborn, she became a devout believer. If gods or Buddhas didn’t exist, she would never get the chance to be reborn and revenge herself.

The words written on the stick couldn’t be more evident to her. When she recalled the moment she fell into the icy cold lake, it still felt like yesterday…