UCTOOT CH7

Shi Shu stared at the copper coin in his hand, which still retained residual warmth from being handled.

This guy earns thirty coins a day—did he just spend all his savings on me?

Damn, a benevolent lord with clear soup!

I love fatherly friends, I just love fatherly friends.

Someone nearby spoke: “Senior brother, I’m looking for a copy of The Infinite Life Sutra. I’ve been searching for a long time but can’t find it.”

Xie Wuchi replied, “It’s in the Pure Land section, third column on the left, sixth row, from left to right.”

Seeing that the speaker was a relatively short monk, Xie Wuchi nodded to Shi Shu in farewell, then turned and walked to the bookshelves. Reaching out, he retrieved the required sutra from the shelf.

The Sutra Repository housed a vast collection of scriptures, an ocean of books, an endless trove. Xie Wuchi had spent a month organizing the texts, memorizing their general locations, retaining them at a glance, and reciting them fluently.

Was he… a genius?

Having known him for just a day or two, Shi Shu had already formed an impression of him as both incredibly capable and remarkably kind.

From a distance, Shi Shu waved and called out, “Xie Wuchi, put it on my tab—I’ll pay you back!”

Under the sunlight, Shi Shu’s entire figure looked bright and immaculate. Xie Wuchi smiled slightly. “I’ll remember.”

Shi Shu turned and left the Sutra Repository.

The copper coin in his hand had a round contour with a square hole in the center. If its era could be determined, it might even be an antique.

However, this handful of coins made Shi Shu feel the pressing reality of his situation. “Since I’m here, I might as well settle down. I’ll probably have to stay at Xiangnan Temple for a long time. Xie Wuchi has been kind to me, but I can’t live off him forever—we’re just friends, after all.”

A one-sided reliance is not a healthy friendship.

Since he treats me as a friend, I should treat him the same way.

I have to be self-reliant.

Shi Shu had yet to leave Xiangnan Temple when the bustling scene before him overwhelmed his senses. The long stone steps were lined with market stalls on either side, with pedestrians browsing and making purchases in the middle. The marketplace extended all the way to the temple gates, and beyond them, the city’s prosperity unfolded before his eyes.

An ancient well, a towering bodhi tree, rows of merchants, cloth shops, and taverns—buildings with tiled eaves connecting one after another, banners fluttering in the wind.

Laughter and chatter echoed through the alleys, music from pipes and strings resonated in tea houses and taverns. The lively shouts of vendors filled the air, making it feel like stepping into a dream.

“I’ve really entered the city now,” Shi Shu murmured in awe, standing still for half a minute before stepping into the dreamlike scenery.

“Roast goose, roast chicken, marinated meats, freshly baked pastries…”

“Stop! Stop! Stop tempting me!”

“Finding a job is more important!”

Summoning his courage, Shi Shu called out to a waiter at a restaurant, “Are you hiring?”

The waiter gave him a once-over. “Are you from Xiangnan Temple?”

“I’m just staying there temporarily…”

The waiter shook his head. “No, no, the abbot said we’re not allowed to hire monks from Xiangnan Temple.”

Shi Shu protested, “But I’m not a monk.”

“Lay disciples aren’t allowed either.” The waiter, holding a teapot, quickly darted away. “Excuse me, make way! This way, esteemed guest!”

Shi Shu was perplexed. After inquiring at several more shops, a middle-aged woman sewing nearby finally spoke up:

“Don’t bother asking. No one around here will hire you. You’re from out of town, aren’t you? This whole market, including the nearby Zhouqiao Night Market, all the property belongs to the monks of Xiangnan Temple. The abbot has decreed that monks must not compete with commoners for profit, nor should they engage in worldly affairs outside of Buddhist study. That’s why no one is allowed to employ monks, or else the temple will revoke all rental properties.”

Shi Shu was dumbfounded. “…What?”

He raised a hand and pointed toward the end of the street. “Are you saying that from that archway up ahead to the boundary marker behind us, all these buildings belong to Xiangnan Temple?”

The woman chuckled. “Not just that. See that tall pavilion across the street? From that tavern to here, all the land and buildings belong to Xiangnan Temple. And outside the city, they own another 30,000 mu of land.”

Shi Shu was stunned. “…Thirty thousand mu?”

“The lady never speaks falsehoods.”

“…A million?”

The middle-aged woman chuckled at his astonished expression. “Xiangnan Temple is the most powerful landowner in Dongdu. We common folk all live under its influence. Ten years ago, the Mani Hall at Xiangnan Temple accidentally caught fire. Do you know how much it cost to repair? One million taels!”

Damn! That’s a billion!

A billion just to rebuild a few halls? Shi Shu wasn’t particularly politically astute, but he couldn’t help but want to shout: Corruption! This is corruption!

That aside, another thought arose in his mind: How did Xie Wuchi manage to get into such an elite temple?

If this were the modern era, Xiangnan Temple would undoubtedly be the most prestigious monastery in the country. Shi Shu had read in the news before that some renowned temples required their monks to pass rigorous exams—some even demanded degrees from top universities like Tsinghua or Peking University.

…Xie Wuchi, Tsinghua or Peking—was he in the right major for this?

“On the surface, it looks like the same starting line, but in reality, it’s an intense competition. Just how many more surprises does this world have for me?”

But how had Xiangnan Temple amassed such vast real estate holdings? A temple, monks—weren’t these words supposed to evoke images of austerity and simplicity?

As soon as he started thinking about it, Shi Shu’s mind went blank. He gave up pondering the question and continued down the bustling street. It took him a good ten minutes to walk through the entire market street—just one of the many grand sights in Dongdu.

Gradually, the surroundings grew quieter, indicating the market’s end. As Shi Shu turned back, he suddenly heard a girl sobbing from an alley to his left.

“…Hic… hic… hic… hic…”

“Please… let me go.”

“Please… just let me go.”

“?”

Broad daylight, under the open sky.

Shi Shu turned and walked toward the sound. “What’s going on here!?”

The next second, his legs nearly gave out.

There weren’t just one or two men—there were four or five. Their shirts were tucked into their waistbands, their demeanor thuggish, surrounding a girl carrying a flower basket in the narrow alley. They leered at her tear-streaked face.

“Don’t cry! What’s there to be afraid of? We won’t hurt you.”

“Come with us. We’ll take care of you.”

“You’re not engaged anyway. Or do you already have someone in your heart? What’s wrong with us?”

One of them blocked the alley’s exit. The girl tried to move, but another man grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, grinning wickedly as she shrank helplessly against the wall, too afraid to do anything but cry.

When Shi Shu appeared, the apparent leader only glanced at him and snapped, “Scram. This isn’t your business!”

Shi Shu: “…”

So arrogant!

By all logic, Shi Shu could just pretend he’d taken a wrong turn and leave, and these men wouldn’t trouble him. But his heartbeat quickened, pounding wildly in his chest, and his feet felt heavy, stuck to the ground.

Crap. His sense of justice had awakened…

If he walked away now, that girl was doomed. But if he fought—he would lose.

After a moment of deliberation, Shi Shu cleared his throat. “Brothers, can we not do this?”

The tall, thin-faced man turned to him. “What did you just say?”

“I said, can you not do this? Look, brothers, she’s crying. Isn’t it clear she doesn’t want this? Forcing someone like this—isn’t that a bit too much?”

Thin-face sneered, “Who are you calling ‘brother’?”

Shi Shu blinked. “Didn’t you want her to call you brother?”

“The hell! I’ll be her brother, but who the fu-ck wants to be your brother? You little pretty boy, looking for trouble?” The leader smashed his fist against the wall, knocking loose a layer of plaster, an obvious display of intimidation. Without another word, he strode toward Shi Shu.

“Hey, hey! No need for this! Why are you getting violent?” Shi Shu furrowed his elegant brows. “You guys are clearly in the wrong here!”

Shouting was useless. A fist was coming straight for him.

Shi Shu had always been a studious kid—he had never fought in his life. In his panic, he noticed a bamboo pole to his left. Acting on instinct, he grabbed it and jabbed it toward the group.

The men scattered like startled ducks, momentarily thrown into chaos. But they quickly recovered and rushed forward to beat him up.

Shi Shu shouted at the girl, “Run!”

The girl clutched her flower basket and bolted. As she passed Shi Shu, she beckoned, “Come with me!”

Shi Shu: “I’m running too?!”

“Come on!”

Behind them, enraged shouts rang out. “You filthy rats! You lowborn scum! You two must be in cahoots! Running away? Stand still, you little bastards!”

That was close!

Shi Shu dodged an incoming strike and took off after the girl. She was clearly familiar with the streets around Xiangnan Temple, weaving through the narrow gaps between market stalls, darting left and right through stone-paved alleys, and slipping past the noisy crowds into a secluded old street.

Within just a few turns, they had completely lost their pursuers.

The voices behind them grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely.

“We’re safe now.” The girl stopped, leaning against the wall, gasping for breath.

“Yeah, yeah, safe.” Shi Shu propped himself up on his knees, feeling the soreness from his long run the night before crashing down on him with double the intensity. “So much pain, so much pain… Yesterday’s old injuries haven’t even healed, and now I’ve added new ones. It really hurts—I can’t walk anymore.”

“Thank you, kind sir.”

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome, but…”

Only then did Shi Shu realize—”Where is this?”

He found himself in a run-down street, a stark contrast to the bustling prosperity of Xiangnan Temple. The stone-paved ground was coated with layers of greasy grime, and a drainage ditch ran alongside the houses, its water trickling past every household, carrying a stench of filth.

Yet the area was densely populated. The low houses stood shoulder to shoulder, makeshift shacks crammed into every available space. An old man stepped outside to empty a night pot, glancing at them from a distance.

Everyone here bore an air of poverty, a weariness of suffering.

Shi Shu was momentarily stunned. The girl seemed a bit uneasy. “My name is Xiao Shu. My house is just here. I should go now.”

“Alright, next time you see those men, just run. Stay safe.” Shi Shu didn’t press further. “I’ll look around and then head back to the temple.”

The scenery along this street was nowhere near as lively as the main roads. It resembled an urban village within a metropolis, inhabited by the kind of poverty-stricken folk that made Shi Shu uneasy. Strangely, though, they were all unfailingly polite—bowing slightly when they saw him, exuding an air of humble courtesy.

He didn’t understand. He truly didn’t.

Shi Shu wandered through the streets as the sky gradually darkened.

The market was also beginning to disperse, stalls closing as vendors returned home. It was time to go back to Xiangnan Temple. After all, he had just met his overachieving benefactor—it was best to behave for now.

“Excuse me, which way to Xiangnan Temple?”

“Just ahead.”

“Great, thanks!”

In the distance, he could make out the dense canopy of the great bodhi tree near the temple’s lion-head gate. Shi Shu let out a sigh of relief and jogged forward. Suddenly, a gut feeling of danger seized him.

“Wait… why are those guys here?”

Shi Shu instantly ducked behind a shop.

The same gang of thugs from earlier that afternoon was now sitting at a tea stall by the temple entrance, sipping tea and scanning the passing crowds of temple-goers.

By evening, visitors to the temple were few, and those entering were carefully scrutinized. Shi Shu glanced down at his monk’s robe and immediately understood—his clothes had given him away.

“…Don’t tell me they’re waiting for me?”

“Are they really that vengeful…?”

“What the hell—you guys were the ones harassing someone, and now I’m the bad guy?”

Shi Shu suddenly felt like a grade-schooler who had provoked the school bully and now didn’t dare go home. But in this era, there was no mom to pick him up after school.

“Damn this wretched ancient world—damn it! Where’s justice? Where’s law and order?! If I knew how to fight, I’d go up there and beat them up myself!”

And now it was getting late… Would Xie Wuchi be worried?

As Shi Shu hesitated, a young monk on his way home happened to pass by and called out, “Senior brother, could you do me a favor? Tell Xie Wuchi in the Sutra Repository—the one organizing scriptures, the most handsome one, the lay disciple who looks at people like he’s looking at stray dogs. Tell him—”

“Don’t cause trouble.”

The phrase flashed across Shi Shu’s mind, along with the memory of Xie Wuchi’s darkened gaze and the lingering warmth of his breath against Shi Shu’s palm when he had spoken those words.

Shi Shu blinked and hesitated for a moment before saying, “Just tell him… ‘Your little brother ran into some trouble and might be back late. Don’t wait up.’”

“Alright.” The young monk, holding a begging bowl, flicked his robe and nimbly stepped up the temple stairs, disappearing behind its doors.

The day was winding down—vendors packing up, students leaving their lessons, shopkeepers shutting their doors, street sweepers beginning their work.

Shi Shu crouched behind the stall, his legs going numb from squatting. But more than the discomfort, the feeling of sheer humiliation surged through him as the evening deepened.

Damn it…

Me—a certified modern-day heartthrob—how did I end up like this? First, harassed by another man. Then forced into a nighttime escape. And now I’m being stalked by thugs outside a temple, too scared to go home?

If I had to summarize my fate in three words, they would be: tragic, tragic, tragic.

He was a man, but somehow, he feared men.

Just as Shi Shu stewed in his frustration, a tall figure stepped out from Xiangnan Temple’s gate.

Dressed in simple yet elegant dark cyan monk’s robes, his wrist adorned with a few strands of prayer beads, Xie Wuchi stood under the dim temple lantern. The bodhi beads on his slender wrist swayed gently in the evening breeze, occasionally tapping lightly against his fingertips.

“Why is Xie Wuchi here?”

“Did he already find out?”

Standing at the temple entrance, illuminated by a single lantern, Xie Wuchi’s expression was unreadable as he swept his gaze across the scene. He took in the sight of five men still loitering at the tea stall, clearly in no hurry to leave. Then, his gaze shifted—toward the rice shop, where Shi Shu was hiding.

Xie Wuchi rarely smiled. On the rare occasions he did, it was the kind of restrained curve of the lips that made him seem approachable but untouchable.

But right now, there was no smile at all.

The dim light cast deep shadows over his sharp features, making his already unreadable expression even colder, more ominous—sending a chill down one’s spine.

Xie Wuchi: “You don’t need to hide anymore. You can come out.”

Shi Shu hesitated. Did I hear that right? If I just walk out now and a fight breaks out… two against five—can we win?

The next moment, he saw Xie Wuchi withdraw his gaze, step down from the temple stairs, and walk straight toward the five men. His shadow loomed over them as he stopped right in front of them.

Shi Shu: “Xie Wuchi, what are you doing!?”

The thin-faced man had just risen from his stool when Xie Wuchi pressed a hand onto his shoulder. “A temple is a place of peace. Fighting here is inappropriate. Let’s take this elsewhere.”

Thin-face: “Fine, elsewhere works. You’re with him? Don’t say I didn’t warn you—grudges belong to their rightful owners. We only came to deal with this pretty boy. If you insist on interfering, don’t start crying for your mommy when you get dragged into this beating.”

Xie Wuchi: “Don’t worry. Even if we beat someone to death, there won’t be any authorities involved.”

His voice was calm, almost absentminded. Since he had put it that way, the thugs exchanged glances and nodded.

Perfect. This was going to be fun.

Their figures moved deeper into the dark alley, shadows shifting in the night.

As they neared a more secluded spot, the men shot each other a quick look and reached for Xie Wuchi’s shoulders, thinking they could easily pin him to the ground.

But in the blink of an eye—

A swift over-the-shoulder throw.

A sickening crack.

“AHH—!!! Fu-ck! You—”

Panic filled their voices.

“You’re a trained fighter!?”

“Not much training. Nothing compared to the Selection Vanguard’s daily drills.” Xie Wuchi’s tone remained indifferent. “And just so we’re clear—you already agreed. No authorities, even if someone dies.”

Calmly, he looped his prayer beads around his fingers and, with a light flick, shattered a man’s teeth. Blood spurted out, instantly staining the bodhi beads and splattering onto the wide sleeves of his robe.

“You—who the hell are you?!”

Xie Wuchi’s gaze remained cold as he tilted his head slightly downward. “Does it matter? You have your military rules, and I have my temple’s regulations. We fight now, and this ends here. If this escalates, it won’t be good for either of us.”

Then, with a sharp punch to the man’s stomach, the thug doubled over, clutching his abdomen, howling in pain as he collapsed and rolled on the ground.

In mere moments, all five men were down. Xie Wuchi’s blows were ruthless—one of them had even passed out, lying motionless.

“Take your friend to see a doctor. Tongjitang Clinic is still open. You’d better hurry before his kidney damage becomes irreversible.”

Xie Wuchi wiped the blood off his hands as he walked out of the alley. The bodhi beads dangled from his fingers, their silk tassels swaying in the night air. His jawline, too, was flecked with blood.

As he emerged from the darkness, his gaze locked onto Shi Shu, who had just rushed to the alley entrance, gripping a wooden staff, seemingly ready for action.

Shi Shu looked at the fallen men. Then at Xie Wuchi.

“Thud.”

The staff was snatched from his hands and tossed to the ground.

“You don’t listen.”

The wind carried the scent of blood as Xie Wuchi’s figure brushed past him.

By the time Shi Shu turned his head, all he saw was Xie Wuchi’s retreating silhouette, disappearing into the night—his dark cyan monastic robe swaying with each step.

His voice was low and cold.

“Come. We need to talk.”