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Chapter 25
The Mark
“Have you come to pay your respects to Avalokitesvara as well, miss?”
The lady asked Gogyo with a gentle smile.
A soft voice, a kind smile…
Gogyo stood dazed for a moment before coming to her senses and replying.
“No. I’ve come to see the abbot.”
The lady smiled faintly and said,
“The abbot has gone down the mountain…”
Before she could even finish speaking, another maid came trotting over with a lunch box in her hands. The snow hadn’t completely melted yet, and the path was slick with ice. Sure enough, there was a slipping sound, and the maid fell forward.
Gogyo saw the lunch box fly out of the maid’s hands. It looked like it was about to hit the lady, so Gogyo quickly stepped forward and blocked it with her arm.
The lunch box burst open in midair, and the soup and side dishes inside spilled all over Gogyo.
“Madam, are you all right?”
Ryu-a looked anxiously at her mistress.
The lady shook her head.
“I’m fine.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned to look at Gogyo. Her eyes were full of concern.
“The one who’s hurt is this young lady. Miss, are you all right?”
If this small young lady hadn’t blocked the lunch box for her just now, it would have fallen on her and injured her face.
“I’m fine,” Gogyo said.
Because the weather was cold, the food wasn’t very hot. It was just uncomfortable because the soup was sticky on her clothes.
The lady felt guilty that Gogyo had been put in such a predicament. She sighed as she looked at the maid who had fallen to the ground.
“You should have been more careful.”
The maid had fallen hard too, and her knee was swollen. Enduring the pain, she stood up and said resentfully,
“The road was too slippery…”
The lady knew it hadn’t been intentional. Still, she couldn’t help feeling uneasy that someone else had been harmed. She said to Gogyo,
“This is all my fault for dirtying your clothes, miss. If you don’t mind, why don’t you come with me to the meditation quarters and change into some clean clothes?”
Gogyo thought for a moment, then followed without refusing.
To have private meditation quarters in a temple—this lady seemed like someone who came here often.
The meditation quarters were at the end of the corridor. From the outside, they didn’t look any different from the others, but the interior décor was elegant and serene, perfectly matching the lady’s demeanor.
Both maids entered the room with them.
The lady instructed the maid named Ryu-a, who was wearing a light green vest, to open the wardrobe.
Ryu-a was unwilling.
“Madam, these are all the young lady’s clothes!”
How could a country bumpkin like her wear the young lady’s clothes?
The gentle expression disappeared from the lady’s face.
“Go out and bring more temple food. Don’t forget to prepare some for this young lady as well.”
Overwhelmed by her mistress’s imposing air, the maid bowed her head.
“…Yes.”
The lady herself selected a set of clothes from the wardrobe and handed them to Gogyo.
“They’re my daughter’s clothes. I’m not sure if they’ll fit you, but they’re better than wet clothes. Go on and change.”
Gogyo changed behind a folding screen.
She thought they might be too big, but unexpectedly, they fit her perfectly.
“They suit you well,” the lady said with a smile. Though they were her daughter’s clothes, they looked even fresher on this little girl.
“May I ask how old you are this year?”
“I’m fourteen.”
The lady’s eyes lit up.
“The same age as my daughter. My daughter was born in this temple.”
So was I, Gogyo thought. What a coincidence.
The lady smiled warmly and gestured toward the heated area of the room.
“Let’s sit and talk.”
Gogyo sat down there. The two of them sat across a small table. On the table were delicately made dim sum.
The lady pushed the dim sum toward her.
“Aren’t you hungry? Have some first. The temple food will be here soon.”
“Yes.”
After climbing the mountain for so long, she really was hungry. Gogyo picked a yellow, flower-shaped dim sum.
She ate very quietly.
“Is it good?” the lady asked.
“Yes.” Gogyo nodded. But when she saw the lady looking at her suspiciously, she hesitated for a moment, then added,
“It’s better than Li Ji’s.”
“What’s Li Ji?” the lady asked.
“The best dim sum shop in town.”
Only then did the lady relax. In fact, she had made these dim sum herself. When she had free time at home, she would spend her days making dim sum. Unfortunately, her two children couldn’t eat them—her son was too frail, and though her daughter was healthy, she didn’t like to eat them. She couldn’t help but wonder whether her cooking simply wasn’t good.
Gogyo’s enjoyment wasn’t fake. She truly thought it was delicious.
Seeing Gogyo’s reaction gave the lady a sense of accomplishment, and she couldn’t help glancing at Gogyo’s face again and again as she ate. As she did, the mark on the side of Gogyo’s face kept catching her eye.
Such a good girl—what a pity, the lady thought regretfully.
Then her gaze moved to Gogyo’s hands. They were hands that had worked for a long time. There were calluses on her palms and scars on the backs of her hands.
The lady thought of her own daughter. Born into a marquis’s household by good fortune, her daughter had never known the hardships of common life. If her daughter had to endure such suffering, her heart would have broken as a mother.
While Gogyo was sitting in the lady’s room, finishing off an entire plate of chestnut cakes, the abbot returned to the temple.
Gogyo hadn’t forgotten her purpose. After saying goodbye to the lady, she headed to the abbot’s quarters.
The abbot, with his white beard, looked quite old, but his bearing was vigorous—likely because he continued to practice martial arts.
Gogyo explained her reason for coming, concisely and clearly.
“…I wanted to ask whether the abbot has any intention of selling.”
After she finished speaking, the abbot remained silent for a long time. When she looked more closely, she realized the abbot was staring fixedly at her face…
Gogyo almost wanted to ask whether something was stuck on her face. Just as the words hovered on the tip of her tongue, she suddenly remembered that there actually was something on her face.
“Master?” Gogyo called out.
“Ahem!” The abbot snapped back to his senses, cleared his throat, straightened his posture, and said,
“So what you just said was… that you want to buy the mountain?”
“Yes.”
“And how old are you this year?”
Huh?
Wasn’t that a sudden change of topic?
“Is it not allowed for someone young to buy a mountain?” Gogyo asked calmly.
“Oh, no, no, not at all! Amitabha, benefactor, please don’t misunderstand!”
The abbot pressed one palm together in a formal gesture as he spoke.
“The monk Jingxin, who manages the temple’s finances, has gone out at the moment. He won’t be back for two or three days. Why don’t you come back in a few days, benefactor?”
“All right. Then I’ll come again near the end of the year.”
All the while, the abbot’s gaze kept drifting to the mark on her face.
Gogyo frowned.
“Master, I don’t care how others look at me, but for one who has left the secular world to keep staring at someone’s flaw—doesn’t that seem inappropriate?”
The abbot hurriedly apologized.
“This old monk was discourteous. Please don’t take offense, benefactor.”
After Gogyo left, it was a long time before the abbot finally regained his composure.
One of his disciples stepped forward and asked,
“Abbot, what’s wrong?”
“Something has come to mind.”
“What might that be?”
The abbot let out a long sigh.
“It was a very long time ago.”
That night, he had drunk too much. While trying to apply shougongsha—a substance once used in ancient times to verify a woman’s chastity, which would never fade unless she had intercourse—to a newborn baby, his hand slipped and he ended up marking the child’s face…
The next morning, when he woke up and remembered his foolish act, he hurried to apologize to the secondary madam. But the child in her arms had a pale, spotless face, with no trace of shougongsha at all.
Because he had drunk so much, he couldn’t be certain of his memory. Seeing that the child’s face was clean, he concluded that nothing of the sort had happened.
Many years passed, and he completely forgot about the incident. But meeting that girl just now brought all those memories flooding back.
That night, had he really marked the child’s face with shougongsha?
No—back then, the child he had marked was the precious offspring of the secondary madam. That girl just now said she was a common villager.
After leaving the abbot’s quarters, Gogyo went to look for the lady she had met earlier, but learned that she had already gone down the mountain.
“These dim sum were entrusted to me by the madam to give to you, benefactor. Please accept them.”
The monk who was cleaning the quarters handed Gogyo a large box.
Weighing it in her hands, Gogyo realized that the lady had given her all of the dim sum.
She let out a small sigh. She hadn’t even been able to return the clothes yet…
The clothes the lady had given her were beautiful, but they weren’t suitable for walking mountain paths. She probably wouldn’t even make it two steps before the seams came undone.
It wasn’t because the quality was poor—rather, people who could wear such fabric never needed to walk rough roads themselves.
Gogyo quickened her steps on the way back. She was worried that her grandmother might not get along with the neighbors. Her grandmother had a rough temperament and was picky about people—not the type who mingled easily.
But unexpectedly, the moment Gogyo entered the door, she froze, eyes wide.
What was going on? Why were there so many people? And all women?
Gogyo and Xiao Yulang rarely interacted voluntarily with the villagers.
Even in the past, when people had come by because someone needed help writing or reading a letter, three visitors in one day had been the record.
So she couldn’t understand why the house was suddenly packed with people.
Her grandmother sat imposingly in the seat of honor. Beside her, Na Auntie—wife of Uncle Na—stood respectfully, holding a cup of tea.
Guifang, the youngest daughter-in-law from Aunt Zhang’s household, held a tray with sunflower seeds and teacups on it.
Gogyo felt more and more confused. Hadn’t Sister Guifang just given birth?
The remaining women, perhaps not deemed worthy to stand close, stood opposite them. They jostled one another, looking like a rural version of palace intrigue.
“All right, that’s enough. You may all go home,” Grandma said, setting down the sunflower seeds and waving her hand.
Before leaving, everyone bowed crookedly toward Grandma.
Watching palace maids bow was a pleasing sight, but village women with headscarves bowing like that was incredibly strange.
Unable to understand, Gogyo grabbed Xue Yingxiang, who was standing nearby, and asked,
“What did my grandaunt do this time?”
Xue Yingxiang couldn’t hide her admiration as she replied,
“She told the villagers stories about plays! They were so interesting!”
Gogyo’s mouth twisted.
“Then what’s with all the bowing?”
Xue Yingxiang thought for a moment before realizing what Gogyo meant.
“Oh, that? Auntie taught them. She said people in theaters all do it like this!”
As if theater people would ever do that!
Grandma had blatantly deceived everyone into bowing to her.
Gogyo grew curious. Just where did her grandmother come from, to be so skilled at fooling people like this?
