When Nan Xinlan saw Tie Mingzhu, she was beside herself with shock. For the life of her, she could not understand why Tie Mingzhu had also come seeking shelter.
She had chosen Wang Chong because he was poor.
A young master not born of a prominent lineage would certainly have little social life. If she served as his sword-bearing maid, she would naturally remain incognito. Had she gone to take refuge with someone like Qin Han, she might arrive in the morning only to become the laughingstock of the entire world by the afternoon.
Tie Mingzhu wore an expression that showed she had lost all will to live. She truly could not fathom how she had fallen to such a state—how, after all these twists and turns, she had ended up right back in the lecher's clutches.
Grief suddenly welled up within the eldest young mistress of the Tie family. The moment she saw Nan Xinlan, she hugged her close friend and wept bitterly.
Yu Zao had heard of Nan Xinlan and Tie Mingzhu, but as a mere maid who was hardly well-connected, she did not actually recognize these two heroines. The little maid was thus thoroughly bewildered. She had a nagging feeling that her young master had quite a few secrets, but she decided not to pry, resolving to be the most well-behaved maid for her master.
Knowing it was inappropriate for the two "new maids" to show their faces in public, Wang Chong entrusted them to Yu Zao, then took Monk Xuan Gang along to see Su Luoyan. By this time the morning sky was quite bright, so their visit would not disturb anyone's sweet slumber.
Su Luoyan had risen rather early. Having freshened up alongside Lu Yaoniang, the two were now in the courtyard playing chess. Sun Mingke was practicing his swordsmanship elsewhere rather than hovering beside his senior martial sister. When Wang Chong came to pay his respects, Su Luoyan was slightly puzzled; generally speaking, Wang Chong would not seek an audience so early in the morning. But upon seeing Monk Xuan Gang, she was instantly taken aback. "Master Xuan Gang, why have you come down the mountain again?" she asked.
Monk Xuan Gang said with nonchalant swagger, "Master instructed me to handle a matter, so for now I'm tagging along with Wang Chong."
Though crude and brash by nature, he was a seasoned veteran of the jianghu. After all, the Chen Ba of old, the Sheyang Tiger, had rampaged across several provinces and perpetrated countless misdeeds, a man of fierce notoriety who was by no means a reckless fool; his words carried deliberate ambiguity.
Nor could Su Luoyan guess that Kong Chan would have his disciple serve as Wang Chong's attendant. She simply assumed that Master Kong Chan's Buddhist mind was profound and wondrous and that he truly had some grand design, so she promptly gave instructions to offer seats to Wang Chong and Monk Xuan Gang.
Wang Chong did not actually dare treat Monk Xuan Gang as a mere attendant. After all, the big monk was his senior fellow disciple, and his martial skills were genuinely formidable. Seeing that the game the two women were playing was one he had never encountered before, Wang Chong inquired about the rules on the board.
Su Luoyan was quite patient and explained, "This game is called military chess. The pieces are divided into two kinds: soldiers and generals. The guiding principle is that soldiers never expose their general, and generals never reveal their movements. The method is to surround and trap the opponent's pieces, and the objective is to capture all of the opponent's general pieces to win."
Wang Chong watched for a while and found that the game bore a strong resemblance to Go, except that each side had both soldiers and generals, divided into four colors. It was far more intricate than Go, with considerably more complicated calculations. He thought to himself, *With calculations this complex, a human brain can barely keep up. There probably aren't any true masters of military chess in this world.*
The big monk Xuan Gang understood chess even less. After completing a session of cultivating Withered Chan and emerging from meditation, for reasons unknown, the distracting thoughts in his mind had largely vanished. He felt only an inner tranquility, peaceful joy, and neither grief nor delight; he had felt entirely drained of enthusiasm all this time. As he watched the two women play chess, who knew how much time slipped by before he abruptly "snapped out of it," giving himself quite a fright. He thought, *What kind of technique did that thieving baldy master teach me to produce such bizarre symptoms? After cultivating it just once, my very temperament seems to have changed. If I keep practicing like this, won't I turn into a block of wood? Unable to get angry, uninterested in drinking wine, having no craving for meat—if it goes on like this, what joy is left in life?*
Wang Chong noticed the change in Monk Xuan Gang. He too had felt that his senior brother was acting strange today, and asked, "Why have you been so wooden today, Senior Brother? Why does it seem like you've just come back to your senses?"
Monk Xuan Gang glanced at the two women and said, "Let's step aside and talk, brother." Pulling Wang Chong to one side, he recounted how their master had transmitted the Withered Chan technique of Borobudur Great Buddha Temple, then asked in a low voice, "Junior Brother, Master thinks highly of you, which must mean you have some real ability. Help me figure this out—just what is the deal with this Withered Chan technique?"
Wang Chong was also quite shocked upon hearing this. He thought to himself, *Can a Buddhist Chan technique actually alter a person's personality?*
He pondered for a long while, having no idea why Kong Chan had refrained from passing down Shaolin's supreme arts and insisted on imparting the Chan technique of Borobudur Great Buddha Temple instead. But with a turn of his thoughts, an idea struck him. "Senior Brother," he said, "a while back, I acquired a supreme art from the Qingshan Sect of the Western Regions called the Diamond Prajna Palm. If you don't wish to cultivate the Withered Chan technique, why not learn the Diamond Prajna Palm instead?"
Xuan Gang was instantly overjoyed. He might not understand Buddhist or Daoist allusions, but he was thoroughly knowledgeable about the martial world. He knew the origin of the Qingshan Sect and knew that this palm technique was a fusion of two great Shaolin supreme arts, renowned across the land, with might exceeding even his own claim to fame, the Great Thunder-Roar Palm, enough to rank among the realm's top three. He immediately said, "I won't take advantage of you. I'll trade the Withered Chan technique for this palm art."
Wang Chong also felt that since Withered Chan was the foremost of the four great Chan arts of Borobudur Great Buddha Temple, it had to hold some profound mysteries and likely would not fall far behind the Thirty-Two Aspects Spirit-Transformation Cultivation Fundamental Classic of Poqiluoshan Monastery. The two exchanged their martial techniques. Monk Xuan Gang was delighted; already an obsessive martial artist, he could not restrain himself. Borrowing a quiet meditation room from Su Luoyan, he went off to cultivate. Wang Chong also bid farewell to the two women, Su and Lu, and returned to his own quarters.
By then, Yu Zao had already settled the two newcomers. She was exceptionally clever; in just this short span of time, through subtle probing and indirect questions, she had discovered that neither woman was an actual maid of the Wang family. In fact, they were not even well-acquainted with Wang Chong, and knew far less than she did about many matters—such as what flavors the young master preferred.
Yu Zao attended to Wang Chong as he changed his clothes, then fetched clean water to wipe his hands and face. Seeing that the two women made no move to help, she could not help sneering inwardly: *How are they maids in any sense? They're clearly two spoiled young mistresses! For whatever reason, they insisted on coming to the young master's quarters, but with what little skill they possess, they think they can compete with me for favor?*
Wang Chong genuinely thought Yu Zao was wonderful. Ever since he had acquired this little maid, clothes were laid out for his reach and meals served to his mouth. On ordinary days she wiped his hands, washed his face, and tended to his every comfort, rivaling a robot girlfriend from an AI short drama. Standing before him, her entire heart was filled with "my young master," making life far more delightful for the spirit than any of the girlfriends he had dated before transmigrating.
He gave a light cough and asked, "How are Fourteenth Sister and Fifteenth Sister doing?"
Yu Zao sighed, shook her head, and said, "They don't seem like maids at all."
Wang Chong chuckled. "They weren't maids to begin with. Fourteenth Sister is Tie Mingzhu, and Fifteenth Sister is Nan Xinlan. For some reason they couldn't see reason and insisted on becoming my maids. You'll have to teach them properly from now on so they develop some self-awareness as maids."
Although Wang Chong had never considered doing anything to Tie Mingzhu and Nan Xinlan, he had no desire to support freeloading masters either.
Well, or rather, freeloading mistresses?
It was getting weirder and weirder...
All in all, he still hoped these two women would have some awareness and do more work.
Yu Zao's mouth fell open, wide enough to stuff a pigeon's egg inside. Only after a long while did she softly draw in a breath, asking in shock and suspicion, "Young Master... are they still respectable women?"
...Nan Xinlan: *Who are you calling unrespectable...*
...Tie Mingzhu: *I suppose we still count...*
...Wang Chong: *I'm not...*
Chapter 48