Traveling to the ancient harem

The next morning, the old lady prepared to go down the mountain with Huang Ye. As soon as they walked out of the temple, they saw a nun standing not far from the door. When she saw them coming out, she immediately came over, put her hands together in front of the old lady, and chanted a Buddhist name: "Amitabha. I am Guan Zhen, the abbess of Ciyun Temple on Fanjing Mountain. I am honored to meet you, old lady."

"Greetings, Master." The old lady returned the greeting, and Huang Ye followed her. The old lady always worshipped Buddha and was very respectful to monks.

Guan Zhen looked at Huang Ye: "Little donor has grown so big!"

The old lady was a little surprised: "Do you recognize my Ye'er?"

"The Taoist priest who named her was my senior brother in the secular world. I heard him say that."

The old lady stood in awe and said, "How is the Taoist priest? I haven't seen him since then."

"Brother is traveling around and his whereabouts are unknown. Madam Xie is worried about him."

Guan Zhen bowed again and said, "I have been preaching Buddhism at the gate of Fuyun Temple these days. I would like to visit you tomorrow. Is that possible?"

The old lady saw that the abbot was about fifty years old, with kind eyes. Although she had something on her mind, she still agreed, thinking that she and the abbot Yuan Huizi were fellow apprentices, and said, "I will welcome the abbot at the mansion tomorrow."

The old lady led Huang Ye and returned to the Marquis' Mansion in the carriage parked at the foot of the mountain. The old master and his son were on duty. Chen was surprised to hear that they came back. She put down what she was doing and rushed to Funing Hall. Huang Ye was not there. The old lady did not let her go to pay her respects to Chen, but asked her to go back to Furong Garden directly. The child had suffered such a great injustice and must not have slept well last night. Let her have a good rest.

"Mother, didn't you say you would be back in the afternoon? What happened?" Chen asked the old lady.

The old lady looked at Chen and thought, forget it, this daughter-in-law is really protective of the child, she told her in advance, she knew the child was bullied, I don’t know how sad she would be, let her be sad later. (Look, this mother-in-law is so considerate of her daughter-in-law, she is really a caring and good mother-in-law, the old lady gave herself a thumbs up in her heart.)

"I came back early if there's nothing else." The old lady waved her hand, "Go and do your own thing. I don't need you to serve me here." She was sulking and couldn't sleep last night, so she had to get some sleep and recuperate. Only when she was in good health could she be a support for her children.

"By the way, prepare a table of vegetarian dishes tomorrow, as a nun is coming to visit."

Chen responded and went out. Today was the day when the heads of various villages came to deliver autumn grain, so she was also very busy.

Late in the afternoon, the old man and his son both got off work and returned home. Dad Huang had been very excited these days. The new arithmetic he invented (invented by his daughter) was promoted very well in the Ministry of Revenue, and his colleagues praised him highly and admired him. The Minister of Revenue had already reported his arithmetic to the emperor, and promotion to the position of Vice Minister was just around the corner.

The father and son arrived at Funing Hall together. Huang Ye and Hongger were already there. The old lady asked someone to invite Chen over. The whole family sat together, and the old lady asked Hongdou to tell them what happened yesterday. Although Hongdou was young, she was eloquent and described the whole process clearly.

"Sister, second brother will avenge you." Huang Zihong's eyes turned red with anger. He usually couldn't bear to say a harsh word to his sister, but now he made his sister kneel down and apologize. He was really tired of living. No matter who she was, he would just beat her.

Chen was already sobbing. Her daughter, whom she loved as dearly as the apple of her eye, was actually being humiliated in front of so many people. She felt heartbroken just thinking about that scene.

"This is too much." The old man and his son were equally angry. Although it looked like a quarrel between children, the girl at that time was intending to kill or injure others. Ye'er was such a young child. If it weren't for Hongdou protecting her master, who knows what would have happened to her. What hatred or grudge did that young lady from the Bo's Mansion have to be so cruel?

"Hongdou is good. She knows how to protect her master. Give her a reward." The old man asked someone to bring ten taels of silver as a reward to Hongdou.

Hongdou took it and said with great pride: "It is my blessing to protect the young lady. I will be the young lady's thug." She patted her chest and said, "Whoever dares to bully the young lady, I will beat her to death." Everyone almost laughed because of her.

Huang Ye suppressed his laughter and said, "You can't just say someone was beaten to death."

"Then I won't beat you to death." Whatever the young lady said was right.

"Someone come." The old man shouted, "Go to the front yard and call Lao Chen over. I have something to talk to him about." Lao Chen is the housekeeper of the mansion and he is in charge of some external affairs. Let him go and find out what is going on. There must be a reason for everything.

"Madam, there is a nun outside who calls herself Guanzhen and wants to see you." Chen had informed the doorman in advance, so the person was led directly to the old lady's Funing Hall.

"Come with me to welcome them. I'll tell you later." The old lady stood up and said to the old man. She had forgotten about this just now and didn't tell them. The old man didn't ask either. The whole family went out to welcome them. Guan Zhen came alone. When he saw everyone, he put his hands together and saluted. Everyone returned the salute and then went back to the front hall and sat down. Jin Yu came in to serve tea. No one spoke for a while.