"Isn't the Round of 32 competition in a few days?" Xiaoyao asked.
The Young Miss shook her head and said: "Several matches have already started, but none involved our people..."
"No way! Did I really delay for so long? I should have been able to make it for the start of the Round of 32!" Xiaoyao was stunned. "Did I spend too much time on the road? It seems I didn't delay much—just dug some ore in a few places, gathered some herbs, went to several gambling houses, learned some things..."
"..."
This is what you call not delaying much? Really, knowing we were in the finals, you didn't come to cheer us on and instead did all these random things on the road.
"Do you think those things are more important than us?" the Young Miss asked irritably.
"Are you talking about you all, or just you?" Xiaoyao asked.
"What if I said just me?"
"Then definitely those things are more important!" Xiaoyao answered.
"Bang!" The Young Miss gave Xiaoyao a heavy punch.
"..." Xiaoyao fell silent. He didn't resist. "When you draw a clear line with the Mo family and my boss, I'll definitely hit back!"
"..." The Young Miss hesitated for a moment and lowered her hand. "Xiaoyao, if one day you're no longer part of the Mo family, will you draw a clear line with me?"
At this moment, the Young Miss's tone carried some emotion, seeming a bit afraid—afraid of suddenly losing contact with Xiaoyao and having to draw clear boundaries.
"That depends on you. If you don't want to, we don't need to draw clear boundaries! You are you, the Mo family is the Mo family!" Xiaoyao shook his head and said with a smile.
"Then why did you just say you'd hit me?"
"That's because you're currently the Young Miss, and as a servant, I naturally can't hit you—that would be insubordination. But if you weren't, then I could hit back," Xiaoyao answered.
"..."
So that's how it is. I thought it was something else—scared me!
"So that means we can still be... brothers?" the Young Miss said with a playful smile.
"Yes!" Xiaoyao nodded.
"Then it's decided. Whether or not the Mo family wants to break ties with Seventh Sister, I'll always be your sister and... sister!" The Young Miss originally wanted to say "brother" but thought saying "sister" was better, though this made it somewhat contradictory.
"No thanks, I don't need you as a sister—that would be very strange," Xiaoyao shook his head.
"Aren't we brothers?"
"Yes."
"Then you're my little brother."
"You could say that."
"Then I'm your big sister."
"..."
Xiaoyao was silent for a moment, then said somewhat weakly: "I think 'big brother' suits you better..."
"..." The several young ladies immediately fell silent.
Although the Young Miss was rather tomboyish, she was still a woman. Such a form of address would be very, very strange.
"Well then, you all work hard and keep getting good results. I'll be watching you! I'm leaving..." Seeing nothing else to do, Xiaoyao prepared to slip away.
"Leaving? Where are you going?" The Young Miss grabbed Xiaoyao.
"To be my poor scholar, of course! Naturally to the temple to seek lodging, and incidentally to look at the books there. Scholars should read more books—in books there are houses of gold, in books there are beauties like jade! Scholar—this profession really suits me. I'm such a genius..." Xiaoyao became more and more excited as he spoke, then left on his own.
Sure enough, this kid doesn't want to be with us anymore. When he says he'll watch us, he probably won't even come see us during the matches!
"Wait!"
"Don't try to persuade me! I'm determined to be this poor scholar," Xiaoyao shook his head, his expression seeming to tell everyone not to try to dissuade him.
"We're not trying to persuade you not to be a scholar. It's just that scholars lodge in temples because they have nowhere else to stay. We have a place for you to lodge—why do you need to go to a temple?" The speaker was Third Miss. If anyone here could persuade Xiaoyao, it would definitely be Third Miss.
The others could at most beg, request, plead, etc.—that wasn't persuasion. But Third Miss could reason with him and appeal to his emotions—that was true persuasion.
"What you say seems to make some sense. However, to experience the life of a poor scholar, I've decided to stay at the temple for a few nights first, then come to where you're staying later. We'll be here for a long time anyway, and staying in one place all the time would be boring." Xiaoyao changed his mind, but only for later—he'd still start the same way.
The Young Miss nodded and said: "That makes sense. I'll also go lodge at the temple!"
"..."
Hey hey, you're a woman! Going to a temple isn't very convenient. Although there are some women there, it's still a monk temple. Women should go to nunneries.
"Fine! We'll have company!" Xiaoyao nodded. He had no objection to this—he wouldn't oppose the Young Miss going.
"I'll go too!" Guxing also spoke up at this moment.
"Boss, that place isn't very suitable for girls!" Xiaoyao suddenly became serious and opposed Guxing following along.
"..."
"Damn! Kid, what do you mean by that!" The Young Miss was angry again. Didn't this mean he was saying she wasn't a woman? Although she liked women, she had never said she wasn't a woman.
"I mean the temple isn't suitable for girls. You're fine though."
"You're still saying it."
"What, are you scared?"
"What would I be scared of."
"Then what's there to say?"
"You..."
"Alright, Mo Yu, monk temples really aren't suitable for us girls. Don't go cause trouble. Besides, Little Servant is only lodging there at night—during the day he'll still be in the capital," Nangong Suxin spoke up with the same reasoning. If this situation continued, it would definitely go on endlessly.
"Yes, Miss Mo Yu, Xiaoyao won't be staying at the temple all the time. When you want to see him, you can still see him. Besides, it's only a few days. The temple is full of monks chanting sutras—he'll get bored and can't stand it." Third Miss also chimed in with persuasion.
"He get bored? Unlikely. You don't know—he's even been a monk. Maybe he'll chant sutras together and study Buddhist teachings," the Young Miss responded.
"..."
A moment of silence...
"Been a monk?"
"Otherwise, why do you think he was bald on Lantern Festival night? It's because he was previously a monk, chanting sutras..."
"..."
Another moment of silence...
"Little Servant, you can even do this. I should admire you, but why do I feel so powerless," Nangong Suxin looked at Xiaoyao and said somewhat helplessly.
"Whatever. I'm leaving! Actually, Buddhist teachings are quite good. If you comprehend them, they can also improve your martial dao realm." Xiaoyao said casually, leading his thin horse away.
At this moment, when Guxing wanted to say something, Xiaoyao added another sentence that made Guxing stop talking and let Xiaoyao leave:
"Boss, I'll prepare breakfast for you tomorrow morning. Focus on your cultivation."
He'd prepare breakfast tomorrow morning, meaning he'd appear at her place in the morning. That was really no different from living together. Originally everyone slept separately at night anyway—they weren't going to sleep together, were they?
"Xiaoyao, the largest repository of books here is at Hanlin Academy, but it requires some procedures. Non-citizens of the Great Tang Empire can't read the innermost books." Third Miss called out behind Xiaoyao, reminding him.
"Got it, thanks. See you tomorrow," Xiaoyao nodded and parted from the young ladies.
After Xiaoyao left, the young ladies still seemed to feel like they were dreaming, because none of them had expected Xiaoyao to appear like this and then just leave.
This seemed different from what they had imagined before, giving them this kind of illusion.
Xiaoyao didn't know about this. He was considering which temple to go to. In this Great Tang capital, there were quite a few temples inside and outside the city. The most famous was undoubtedly Lanruo Temple!
This Lanruo Temple was not only within the city but also in the capital's inner city. It was unique—all others were in the suburbs or on the edges of the outer city.
From this point alone, one could tell this Lanruo Temple was extraordinary. It was said this was because Lanruo Temple was originally at that location, already there before the Great Tang capital was even built.
According to legend, this Lanruo Temple was the place of origin for the Great Tang Empire's royal family. The founding emperor had once lived in this Lanruo Temple for a period, met and fell in love with his empress here, and became sworn brothers with the founding general here.
Then he fought with a group of local tyrants here and finally began his path to conquering the world—founding a kingdom, declaring himself king, then developing the kingdom through dozens of generations into an empire, then step by step expanding the empire to develop into today's first empire that no one could contend with.
The founding emperor's name was Ning Caichen, the empress was called Nie Xiaoqian, the founding general was called Yan Chixia, and as for that tyrannical force, their leader had a nickname—Black Mountain Old Demon.
"We don't provide lodging here!"
Poor scholar Xiaoyao was rejected. Xiaoyao could more or less guess this result, because this was after all the Great Tang Empire's royal temple. Members of the royal family often came to worship here, and those who entered and exited were either rich or noble. How could a poor scholar like him be qualified to lodge here.
However, what made Xiaoyao very displeased was that he was now at Lanruo Temple's entrance and they wouldn't even let him through the main gate. Not providing lodging was one thing, but at least let people enter to burn incense and worship Buddha.
"Why?" Xiaoyao asked in confusion.
"This is Lanruo Temple!"
"I know—I can read such big characters!" Xiaoyao replied calmly.
"Do you know what kind of place this is? You, a poor scholar, still want to lodge here? Not to mention lodging—you don't even have the qualifications to enter."
"Is this a temple or a palace? If it's a palace, then I won't enter, but if this is a temple, it should open its gates to welcome those with affinity!" Xiaoyao frowned. The monk before him appeared to be just a gate-keeping novice, yet even a novice was this arrogant—one could imagine the quality of this Lanruo Temple.
The people nearby, seeing this situation, didn't pay much attention, as if such things happened every day.
(End of Chapter)