A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 101.1

After the monks of the Grand Temple concluded the last sutra chanting session of the fourth lunar month, Xie Wenjun asked the kitchen to fetch a pot of wine.

Instead of sitting at the dining table leisurely sipping wine, she held the wine cup in her hand and strolled through the secluded woods of the Grand Temple.

Xie Yuan had traded the roster of the Inspectorate Jianren Division for monitoring officials from Xie Wenjun, and Rong Jun had returned to the Palace of Eternal Peace Yongning Hall. The Imperial Guards and warrior monks surrounding the Palace of Eternal Peace were no longer strictly controlled; they were dispersed to guard various halls and intersections within the Grand Temple.

Xie Wenjun was no longer confined to the hall, yet she was still forbidden to leave the temple. Wherever she went, she was monitored, every move scrutinized by hidden eyes.

The Emperor had only ordered the Imperial Guards and the Grand Temple’s warrior monks to protect the safety of the Eldest Princess, never explicitly ordering her confinement. As Xie Wenjun wished to walk around the temple, the Imperial Guards were helpless to stop her.

After finishing the wine, Xie Wenjun wanted to summon the monk who brewed it.

A warrior monk, whose eyes still held a hint of childishness, kindly advised, “Your Royal Highness, Master Jing Jue has a strange and eccentric temper. Besides the Abbot, he doesn’t listen to anyone.” He pronounced the jue in Jue Wu (Enlightenment) as the jue in Shui Jiao (Sleep).

Rong Jun heard this and asked, “Jing Jue? Is it the jue from Enlightenment, or the jue from Sleep?”

“The Dharma name granted by the Abbot is the jue from Enlightenment, but everyone in the temple calls him the jue from Sleep. If he’s not brewing wine, he spends the entire day sleeping. He has a bad temper, never speaks to anyone he sees, and curses as soon as he opens his mouth. We can’t defeat him in a fight, so the monks in the temple all dislike him and avoid him from a distance. Also, he’s quite old, yet he’s often late for morning lessons…”

The warrior monk launched into a rapid-fire, harsh complaint.

Rong Jun quickly made a gesture to stop him from uttering any more unnecessary words.

Xie Wenjun said, “Rong Jun, go and invite him.”

The warrior monk sighed, crestfallen. It was all for nothing.

The Grand Temple’s wine business had been running for many years and was famous in the surrounding areas. The monk Jing Jue would drag a flat cart up and down the mountain every few days to deliver wine. On this day, he had just unloaded his cart upon returning to the temple when the Abbot summoned him.

Monk Jing Jue stood on the bluestone path and performed a Buddhist salute.

“This humble monk, Jing Jue, greets the Eldest Princess.”

He bowed his head, making it faintly visible that the contours of his facial muscles were irregular, with his eyebrows, nose, lips, and beard haphazardly pulled. A rough look at this face revealed that he had committed acts of killing before entering the temple. Years of Buddhist purification had failed to wash away his innate savagery. Thus, he had hidden for years in the back mountains of the Grand Temple, accompanied by wine, rarely meeting outsiders.

Xie Wenjun said, “I have long heard that Master Jing Jue’s winemaking skills are extraordinary, and I also wish to learn the secrets of this craft.”

Monk Jing Jue replied, “It is a private skill, not to be taught externally. Even when buried in the yellow earth, this winemaking formula will be taken with this humble monk to the netherworld.”

Rong Jun’s sword pressed against the old monk’s neck. The old monk looked sideways, “There is plenty of wine in the back mountains if you wish to drink. If the benefactor insists on using force, this humble monk can exchange a few moves.”

Rong Jun twisted the blade, and the sword edge swept horizontally. Monk Jing Jue pressed his palms together, shifted his feet, and drifted backward several steps to evade the strike. He suddenly separated his hands, and his palms, carrying the sound of rushing wind, chopped straight towards Rong Jun’s skull.

This palm strike was intended to kill.

Rong Jun blocked the palm with her sword, but the force of the strike shook her, causing her to stagger backward repeatedly, and her long sword nearly slipped from her grasp.

The young warrior monk who had just tearfully complained about Monk Jing Jue had long since fled far away.

“Rong Jun, don’t be rude,” Xie Wenjun instructed.

The Abbot also quickly spoke up, “Jing Jue.”

Jing Jue looked very displeased. He stood formally, bowed to Xie Wenjun, and said, “This humble monk takes his leave.”

Just as he was about to depart, his gaze fixed on a section of metal object exposed at Xie Wenjun’s waist, and he stopped moving.

He was momentarily astonished.

The Buddhist beads wrapped around his tiger’s mouth trembled slightly.

Glancing around, he saw the surrounding guards and warrior monks. He turned his back and walked a distance, saying, “If you sincerely want to learn winemaking, come find me tomorrow after the hour of You (5-7 PM), under the old pine tree in the back mountain.”

The next day at the hour of You, when Xie Wenjun found the back mountain, Monk Jing Jue was indeed waiting under an old pine tree.

The winemaking area was not enclosed by a mud wall, but by a wild fence of stakes. Inside the yard, a few wine stoves were built, along with a wooden hut for storing wine barrels, and a flat cart was parked in the corner. There was nothing else.

“No one else is allowed to come in!”

Monk Jing Jue’s fearsome reputation preceded him, so the warrior monks were unwilling to provoke him by entering. The Imperial Guards, seeing that the area was quiet and uninhabited, with a cliff behind the yard, consciously stood guard outside the fence, keeping a close watch on the inside.

Monk Jing Jue swept the wine stoves clean. His voice was deep as he asked, “How did you come to possess the iron-inlaid letter tube?”

“A gift from an old friend.”

Monk Jing Jue said nothing. He fetched a wooden bucket and scooped the soaked sorghum grits, ladle by ladle, into the steamer, building a fire to steam them.

The wind from the cliff blew silently for a long time.

“Is he still alive?”

The surroundings were quiet.

Monk Jing Jue’s body instantly stiffened. “No need to say anything. It was this humble monk’s own delusion.”

Xie Wenjun said, “I have a matter to ask of Master Jing Jue.”

“Since the iron-inlaid letter tube has fallen into your hands, it’s not a matter of asking. Just give your command, Eldest Princess. This humble monk has already become a monk and does not concern himself with worldly affairs, so I can only grant you one request.”

The fire in the stove roared, and Monk Jing Jue began stirring the sorghum paste with a wooden stick. When the stove gradually cooled, he added the wine yeast, and then placed it in a wooden barrel, sealing it layer by layer for fermentation.

Another row of wooden barrels, emitting a yeasty aroma, was added to the wooden hut.

As the sky gradually brightened, Monk Jing Jue’s wine was ready again.

He pulled the flat cart down the mountain and then back up. When he returned to the temple, it was the Dragon Boat Festival.

Xie Wenjun went up the back mountain again and personally brewed several jars of Realgar wine. On the Dragon Boat Festival, the monks in the temple did not drink wine, but the Changning Guards and Imperial Guards inside and outside the temple could not avoid having a few drinks.

The wine stoves burned from the hour of Wu (11 AM – 1 PM) until the hour of Zi (11 PM – 1 AM).

Xie Wenjun asked Rong Jun to distribute the jarred Realgar wine among the Imperial Guards.

In the evening, Xie Wenjun took out the long, narrow box from beneath the Buddhist niche again. The feather arrow was still there. Her fingertip brushed across the arrow shaft.

Ying Rong served the meal. The vegetarian dishes were placed on the dining table, all uniformly bland, making them unappetizing to look at.

“Your Highness, do you truly intend to transfer the authority over agriculture and sericulture to the Central Secretariat?”

“If I don’t hand over the authority over agriculture and sericulture, Chen Liangyu will have to remain imprisoned in the death cell for one more day.”

A carriage rattled over the long street, lingering for a moment at the entrance of a six-foot secluded alley. Two people sat at the wonton stall at the alley entrance, occasionally peering into the alley.

Walking a short distance into the alley led to the main gate of the Vulture Peak Academy.

A female voice inside the carriage whispered something to the coachman. The coachman cracked his bullwhip and drove the carriage away. The coachman drove down another street and turned into Emerald Willow Alley from another intersection.

Fine willows were planted on one side of Emerald Willow Alley; during spring and summer, the thousand threads of green were dazzling. The other side was originally willows too, but they were all cut down when the Vulture Peak Academy was completed and replaced with ginkgo trees.

This resulted in such a fragmented scene of one street with two different views.

The people of Vulture Peak Academy only learned from Gu Xie that it was the Eldest Princess who ordered the willows to be cut down and the ginkgo trees to be planted. As for why the Eldest Princess did this, few could explain the reason. Later, rumors gradually spread that the Eldest Princess had a lover who adored ginkgo trees.

This row of ginkgo trees was planted by the Eldest Princess for her beloved.

Although this claim existed, no one could figure out the identity of that “lover.”

At this moment, a new moon passed over the tall watchtower, casting a soft light over the high walls and deep courtyards. Tired birds resting during migration perched on the eaves to preen their feathers.

The carriage stopped in front of a small door. A woman with her face covered by a long cloth stepped out of the carriage. If it were daytime, people would surely notice the faint marks on the exposed skin of her face.

Her knuckles knocked three times on the small door. The door creaked open a crack from the inside.

Li Yujing handed in a token. The person inside looked at it and then opened the door wide. “Miss Qin, please. The Mountain Chief is in the Hall of Rites.”

Li Yujing glanced towards the ends of the alley.

The guard said, “I give the guards of Emerald Willow Alley a few taels of silver every day at the hour of You, sending them off to drink.” He then invited Li Yujing into the Academy.