When she first saw Lin Fei, the nun was stunned for a moment. She probably never expected to see someone with such an appearance here, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.

After being stunned for a moment, the nun got up, walked to the door of the nunnery, and opened the door. When she saw Lin Fei wearing the official robe of Shaoqing of Dali Temple, the surprise in her eyes faded and turned to vigilance.

Of course, this look of vigilance was only fleeting. The nun lowered her eyelids and said “Amitabha”.

Lin Fei looked at the elderly nun in front of him for a moment, and without performing any Buddhist rituals, he directly revealed his identity: “Lin Fei, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple.”

“Donor Lin.” The nun said, “Jing’an, a poor nun.”

Lin Fei nodded and glanced behind the robed nun. Another nun was approaching from that direction. Compared to the straight posture and elegant demeanor of Jing’an in front of him, this nun’s figure was noticeably bent, and the signs of old age were evident in her posture.

“Poor nun Jinghui.” The female nun introduced herself, performing a Buddhist salute.

At the same age, the two old nuns had completely different postures.

Compared with Jing’an’s dull eyebrows, the stooped Jinghui’s eyebrows were more dignified, and the delicate appearance of her youth could be vaguely seen in her facial features.

Lin Fei looked at the two of them, paused for a moment, and then spoke directly, “May I enter the nunnery to have a look?”

Jinghui looked back at Jing’an, and Jing’an nodded and said, “Donor Lin, please come in.”

Lin Fei, accompanied by Zhao You, followed the two nuns. As they entered, they found themselves in the main hall, where the deities were enshrined. In the center of the Buddhist hall, three statues of deities were placed. The central Guanyin statue had lowered brows and closed eyes, with a compassionate expression as if looking down on the people below.

The statue of Guanyin seemed to be several years old. The robes of the stone statue are often wiped and were clean, but some of the colors had faded, making it extremely dull. However, the red lips on Guanyin’s face and the cinnabar between the brows were very bright in color.

Seeing Lin Fei’s eyes falling on the face of the Guanyin statue in front of him, Jing’an said, “It’s dotted with cinnabar.”

“Very beautiful,” Lin Fei remarked, then shifted his gaze away from the statue of Guanyin. Following Jing’an and Jinghui, he bypassed the main hall and headed towards the rear hall.

Exiting the Buddha hall, there was a vast bamboo forest leading to the rear hall. The bamboo was dense and tall, reaching straight up to the sky as if forming a natural bamboo screen that separated the Buddha hall from the rear hall.

Seeing Lin Fei looking at the bamboo forest, Jing’an lowered her eyebrows and said: “There are some bamboo planted in the nunnery.”

Lin Fei said: “The bamboos are good!”

Behind him, Zhao You, who had been holding back all the way and didn’t know what to say, said something at the right time: “Literati like bamboo the most.”

Jing’an stopped guiding the way, glanced at Zhao You who was looking back, and explained: “This bamboo has been in the nunnery for many years.”

Zhao You “Oh ” He made a sound, touched his nose, and said nothing.

He mentioned it casually, and he didn’t care about the nun’s explanation.

There were several wing rooms around the bamboo forest. The place was not big and you could see everything at a glance.

Jing’an took the initiative to open the door of the wing, pointed to the clean and tidy wing, and asked Lin Fei: “Donor Lin, would you like to go in and take a look?”

The wing was simple but very clean.

Lin Fei glanced at the side room and then withdrew his gaze, shook his head, and said to Jing’an: “No need.”

After wandering around the temple for a while, Lin Fei led Zhao You out of the temple. He glanced back at the partially closed temple door, faintly seeing two robed nuns sitting on cushions inside, chanting and reciting scriptures in front of the central statue of Guanyin.

Lin Fei watched for a while, and then he turned around and went down the mountain road. When he passed the row of houses of the mountain people, he did not stop but went straight down the mountain.

The round trip on the mountain took less than two hours.

Wu Bucai, who had finished the corpse examination, was already packing his things.

From a distance, he saw Lin Fei leading Zhao You over here and said: “Lin Shaoqing, Ruan Zhan’s body is similar to Han Jun’s body. It just lacks the wounds on the chest and back.”

Lin Fei said “Hmm” and without looking at Ruan Zhan again, he took Zhao You back to Dali Temple.

…

The evening meal on the Dragon Boat Festival was still rice dumplings. After the evening meal, Wen Mingtang sent Ah Bing and Tangyuan away, returning to her yard.

There were two rooms in the courtyard. Because Tangyuan did not live in Dali Temple, the room next to her was vacant, and she lived alone in the entire courtyard.

Wen Mingtang went into the house and moved the incense burner to the yard, and sprinkled a handful of dates and melon seeds in front of the incense burner. Then she went back to the house and took out a small, white-washed bundle.

She took the baggage to the stone table in the small courtyard outside and opened it. The baggage was not big, and the contents inside were visible.

A wolf hair brush, a gilded flower-shaped comb, a handful of golden peanuts, and a stack of letters with “For Sister Mingtang’s Eyes Only” written on them.

Putting the pile of letters aside, Wen Mingtang looked at the remaining items in the bag.

The wolf hair brush had already shed some bristles. Wen Mingtang picked up the brush and turned the bamboo pen handle in her hand. She ran her fingers over a rough spot on the handle, looking at the bold characters inscribed there: “Wen Xuance presents to Miss Mingtang.”

Wen Mingtang stared at the characters on the pen handle for a moment, then set it down and picked up the gilded flower-shaped comb beside it. The comb was missing a tooth, a gap that she vaguely remembered being caused when she was pushed and it fell to the ground on the day she was taken to the palace gardens.

There were no words written on the flower comb. It was the favorite flower comb that the gentle and beautiful woman in her memory always put in her bun.

One came from the father, the other came from the mother, and the last little golden peanut was a New Year’s gift given to the original owner during the Chinese New Year of the year of the accident. It was hidden in a small purse close to her body and escaped the search.

During the bumpy days in the palace, the child never used it to bribe the palace officials who disciplined or troubled her.

Perhaps she also knew that bribery was useless. A small golden peanut might help her escape one beating, but it might not be able to help her escape the next one.

While she was looking at the golden peanut in her hand, a voice sounded behind her.

“For Sister Mingtang’s eyes only?” The voice, calm yet carrying a hint of chilly detachment, remained cold and indifferent, much like before. “The ink carries a slight sheen of pearls, a flashy style that was popular in the Jiangnan region two years ago. The ink of this sort fetched high prices and its use for writing letters suggests the sender’s considerable wealth.”

“The stamp in the lower right corner of the envelope indicates it was sent into the palace. Sent all the way from Jiangnan, along with money to bribe the palace servants, it seems the sender put some thought into this.”

Wen Mingtang held the golden peanut in her hand and turned to look at the person coming.

Lin Fei appeared at the door of the courtyard at some unknown time, holding several volumes of files in his hands and looking down at her.

Before Wen Mingtang could speak, she saw Lin Fei shake his head and say, “I noticed the character ‘Ye’ on the envelope. If I’m not mistaken, the combination of being able to call you ‘Sister Mingtang’ and having this surname reminds me of your former fiancé, Ye Dacai.”

Wen Mingtang: “…”

She paused, about to speak, when she heard Lin Fei continue, “He sends letters one after another, seemingly full of affection, but has he ever come to see you once since entering the palace?”

Wen Mingtang shook her head: she had never met her former fiancé.

Seeing her reaction, Lin Fei added, “Two years ago, Ye Dacai visited Chang’an once. He made quite a stir by spending lavishly at the Xinglou Pavilion in the city. Were you aware of that?”

“He came to Chang’an, yet didn’t even bother to visit you in the palace. It’s evident that this Ye Dacai has invested all his sentiments into his letters and nowhere else.”

Seeing Lin Fei’s expression, which seemed to be advising her to come to her senses, Wen Mingtang fell silent for a moment before looking at him and asking, “What does he have to do with me?”

Not to mention having no connection with her, even with the original host, the memories of the former engaged fiancé were vague in her childhood memories, and even his appearance was somewhat blurry.

But compared to this, there was one thing she wanted to ask Lin Fei.

(End of chapter)

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