Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 797 Defamation
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, a pale blue light shone through the window paper.

Master Jiang's eyelashes fluttered, and then he silently opened his eyes. He woke up naturally; his biological clock, honed over years of escorting goods, was more accurate than a crowing rooster.

Master Jiang sat up and found Luo Yagu still curled up asleep on another bed. Master Jiang tiptoed over the blue cloth outfit beside the bed, then picked up the long spear wrapped in oiled leather. He had deliberately leaned the spear against the foot of the bed last night, and it was still standing steadily.

Master Jiang is tall and burly, but his movements are as light as a cat's. Whether he's tying his belt or binding his leggings, he doesn't make a sound. Even when putting on his shoes, he first slips his feet into them before slowly standing up and settling them in.

However, his caution didn't allow Luo Yagu to sleep for much longer. Just as he was about to sling the spear across his back, a series of "cock-a-doodle-doo" cries suddenly came from the chicken coop outside the courtyard.

Three calls woke Luo Yagu up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, his disheveled hair still curly from sleep.

“Master Jiang, you’re still…” Luo Yagu yawned, and for a moment, a hint of his Lombardy accent from northern Italy crept in. “…Up so early.”

"Good morning, Master Luo." Master Jiang smiled, slung his gun over his shoulder, and then gestured towards the door with his chin. "There's some commotion in the backyard. I'll go tell the waiter to fetch water for washing up."

"Okay, thank you." Luo Yagu blinked, then yawned loudly. "You're great!"

Master Jiang walked to the door, opened the wooden door, and a gust of cool air, carrying dew, immediately rushed in.

Wow!

Just as Master Jiang was about to speak, he heard a strange noise. He went outside and looked in the direction of the sound. It turned out that Feng Laojiu, who had also gotten up early, was feeding the livestock in the shed. The fodder was poured into the stone trough, which made the mules happily paw at the ground.

"Hey! You there!" Master Jiang called out casually. "Come here for a moment."

"Huh?" Old Feng was taken aback at first, then turned around and saw Master Jiang waving at him, so he quickly put down the material container. He wiped his hands on his linen apron and hurried over: "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Could you please bring us some hot water?" Master Jiang said. "We need to wash up."

"Alright, hot water, right? Please wait a moment." Old Feng hurriedly agreed, but instead of going directly to the hot water room to get water, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Sixth Brother, aren't you up yet? Hurry up and bring a bucket of hot water to the guest in the east wing!"

"Don't rush me, don't rush me!" Feng Xiaoliu's response sounded flustered. "Coming, coming!"

Before long, Feng Xiaoliu arrived at the east wing's couple's room carrying a wooden bucket. "Hot water's here," he said, placing the bucket on the stone steps at the door and letting out a long sigh of relief. "Good morning, Master Jiang and Master Luo! What would you like for breakfast? Usually, it's millet porridge, multigrain pancakes, with pickled radishes, pickled cucumbers, and braised eggs. If you'd like noodles, we also have meat sauce noodles. Of course, if you'd like other hearty dishes, our shop can make them fresh."

"No need for that. We have no other requirements," Luo Yagu said with a smile and a wave of her hand. "A simple one will do."

"Okay! I'll go to the stove and call you when breakfast is ready." Feng Xiaoliu replied and turned to go to the kitchen.

After Luo Yagu and Master Jiang finished washing up, several tables were already occupied in the inn's main hall by farmers and merchants who had come to the market. They were eating porridge and noodles with pickled vegetables, chatting about market conditions and current affairs. When Luo Yagu walked in, the lively conversation suddenly quieted down. Several pairs of eyes in the main hall quietly fell on his brown hair and deep eyes. Some people huddled together and whispered, their lips moving, but no one spoke loudly for a moment.

Luo Yagu didn't seem to mind at all. He found an empty seat towards the back and sat down. Chef Jiang sat next to him, and three young men also came over with their bowls of porridge. At this moment, Manager Feng came out from behind the counter with a clean pair of chopsticks, handing one pair to each person. He then placed the remaining chopsticks in the half-empty chopstick holder: "Please enjoy your meal. If you need more porridge, please add more; if you need more bread, please take some. If you need anything else, just let me know."

"Okay, thank you for your trouble." Luo Yagu nodded with a smile, then picked up a hard-boiled egg and slowly peeled it.

As everyone was eating, a farmer in a blue cloth shirt couldn't help but look over. He patted the arm of another farmer in front of him and laughed, "Look at that guy with the hooked nose and thunderous mouth, doesn't he look like those foreigners we saw by the sea..."

"Tsk, can you keep your voice down?" The person who was called out glared at his companion. "They can hear me!"

"Tch. So what if he can hear you? He can't understand you anyway." The farmer shrugged and then secretly glanced at the farmer a few more times.

"Nonsense. Didn't you hear what he was saying to the shopkeeper?" Clearly, the person who was called over was also paying attention to Luo Yagu, and even noticed him talking. "Judging from his attire, he's probably a eloquent and literate foreign monk, unlike those foreign merchants and soldiers."

Luo Yagu heard it clearly, but he was already used to it and didn't care. Since no one came up to talk to him, he simply pretended that nothing had happened and continued to slowly drink his porridge.

After finishing breakfast, Luo Yagu got up and walked towards the counter. Master Jiang immediately followed behind, casually saying, "You three hurry up and pack your luggage, and get the mule cart and donkey ready. We're leaving."

"Yes." The three young men nodded immediately and then quickly walked towards the backyard.

When Manager Feng saw Luo Yagu coming over, he quickly put down the account book in his hand and asked solicitously, "Master Luo, Master Jiang, how did you two rest yesterday?"

"Very well, thank you for your trouble, Manager Feng." Luo Yagu nodded and took out a small cloth bag from his pocket. "Please calculate the bill, we need to get going."

Manager Feng grabbed the abacus and started clicking away, muttering, "For lodging, a double room is thirty coins a night, and a shared room is twenty-five coins a night, totaling fifty-five coins. As for food, yesterday's roasted mutton cost four hundred and fifty coins, the stewed chicken fifty coins, and breakfast just now was ten coins per person, so for five people it's fifty coins. Four hundred and fifty plus two fiftys, that's five hundred and fifty coins. Five hundred and fifty coins for food, plus fifty-five coins for lodging, that's six hundred and five coins in total." Manager Feng paused, then added another digit: "Forget the five coins, let's round it up and charge you six hundred coins. If you want to pay in silver, then it'll be six qian."

The price was very reasonable. If this were in Beijing, the same roasted lamb leg, which looked to weigh about seven or eight pounds, would cost this much. So Chef Jiang just listened quietly to the sound of his voice.

Luo Yagu opened the small cloth bag he had brought earlier, which contained more than a dozen silver ingots. He picked out three that looked neither too big nor too small and handed them to Manager Feng: "Please weigh them and see if they are enough."

"Alright!" Manager Feng immediately took out a small bronze scale from under the counter. The scale beam was engraved with fine markings. He placed the silver ingot on the scale pan and carefully moved the weight until the scale beam was level. Then he smiled and said, "It's about five mace and eight fen, two fen short. You'll need to add a little more." "Then add this." Luo Yagu picked out a silver ingot the size of a fingernail from her cloth bag and placed it on the scale.

"Six mace and two fen. That's about six mace and three fen." Manager Feng adjusted the weight on the scale again. "I'll get the scissors and cut it for you, or I'll give you twenty-five copper coins in change."

"No need." Luo Yagu waved her hand and put away the small cloth bag. "Consider the extra money as a reward for you. Thank you for running around to entertain us."

"How could I possibly accept this!" Manager Feng smiled so broadly his eyes narrowed. He quickly put the four silver coins into the cash box, then took out a large sheet of oil paper, wrapped a stack of baked flatbreads in it, and handed it to Luo Yagu. "I'll wrap you some more baked flatbreads so you can have something to eat on the way."

"Okay, thank you." Luo Yagu took the package of pastries and handed it to Chef Jiang.

By this time, the three young men had already brought out their luggage, and the donkey and mule cart had been led to the door by the workers.

Manager Feng walked around the counter, leading Feng Xiaoliu to escort the five people to the door. Standing on the steps, he waved and said, "Take care, everyone! Come again next time!"

"Thank you for your hospitality. Until we meet again." Luo Yagu climbed onto the mule cart, lifted the curtain, and bowed. Master Jiang nodded with a smile, mounted the donkey, and gave the young driver a wink.

"Giddy up!" With a shout, the donkey stepped forward, and the mule cart started moving.

--------

Manager Feng stood under the eaves, his hand on his forehead, watching until the shadow of the mule cart shrank into a tiny black dot at the end of the official road before he looked away. Just as he was about to turn and go back inside, a loud, rough shout came from the main room: "Waiter, the bill!"

"Coming!" Manager Feng replied, but then turned to Feng Xiaoliu, "Liu'er, hurry up and do the accounting for that table on the east side. I'll go back to the counter and write it down."

"Okay, sure." Feng Xiaoliu walked quickly to the table of the customers who were calling out.

The man was a farmer wearing a gray cloth jacket. The porridge in his bowl was almost gone, and he was wiping his mouth with his sleeve when Feng Xiaoliu came over. "Uncle, your meal consists of a bowl of porridge, two pancakes, and an egg, totaling fifteen coins." As soon as Feng Xiaoliu finished quoting the price, the customer took out fifteen copper coins from his pocket and placed them on the table with a clatter.

"Isn't that right?" the guest said with a smile.

“That’s right.” Feng Xiaoliu deftly gathered the copper coins into his cloth bag and called out, “Fifteen coins for you! Uncle, take care.” With that, Feng Xiaoliu bent down to collect the bowls. The three rough porcelain bowls, two large and one small, were stacked together, making a clanging sound.

"Hey, Liu'er, let me ask you something." Feng Xiaoliu put away the bowl and was about to pick it up and walk to the backyard when the guest grabbed his sleeve. "Who exactly was that guy who just left? He had a Tartar face, but he spoke so nicely. If you only listened to him, you would think he was one of us northerners."

As soon as he said this, the room quieted down a bit. Several vendors and farmers at the next table who were drinking porridge stopped eating and all turned to look at Feng Xiaoliu. Even a peddler eating noodles in the corner perked up his ears. Feng Xiaoliu had no choice but to put his bowl down on the table and scratch his head: "That's a Tibetan monk who can chant sutras. He came yesterday around dusk."

"I knew it!" A peddler carrying a load on a shoulder pole slapped his thigh. "That curly hair and Taoist robe—he must be a Taoist priest!"

“He’s probably not a Taoist practitioner,” Feng Xiaoliu said, looking over. “He said he was a Christian monk.”

"Jesus?" The peddler was taken aback, his brow furrowing. "What kind of religion is that? Can it bring rain or children?"

"I don't know about that." Feng Xiaoliu smiled awkwardly. "I've hardly spoken to him at all, except for a couple of words when I was serving him water and vegetables."

"Could it be some kind of evil or heretical sect?" someone muttered quietly in the corner. The voice wasn't loud, but it made the atmosphere in the main room a little colder. "Otherwise, why would someone look like that and believe in a cult I've never heard of before?"

"No, no!" Feng Xiaoliu quickly waved his hand: "They believe in God, they have travel permits, and the imperial court even has a special department to manage their religion! It's called...yes, 'Yeluo Si', yes! It's Yelu Si, just like Daolu Si and Senglu Si. I saw those travel permits yesterday, they were stamped with some kind of official seal, all red and bright. They can't be fake."

"Yelusi?" A merchant in a blue cloth robe put down his chopsticks and frowned in confusion. "I just came back from the capital last month. How come I've never heard of such a department? Is he trying to fool me?"

No sooner had these words been spoken than a merchant dressed in silk robes at the table diagonally opposite him suddenly spoke up. "I heard something about these foreign monks in the capital," the man said, picking his teeth with a toothpick. He was speaking to his friend at the table, but his voice was anything but quiet, as if he wanted everyone to hear him.

"Hey, look, there's someone knowledgeable here." Feng Xiaoliu's eyes lit up, and he tilted his head to look over. "Could you explain it to me?"

"Speak?" The merchant in the silk robe laughed, tossed away the toothpick, leaned back in his chair, and struck a mysterious pose. "Then I'll have something to say."

"Hey buddy, just tell us what you know," someone at the next table egged him on. "Why are you keeping us in suspense?"

"What's the rush? I need to think about it." The guest in the silk robe smacked his lips and said slowly, "Last year in Liaodong, there was a case of spreading rumors and inciting the army. It was done by Tibetan monks like them. The fire spread all the way from Liaodong to the capital, and many people were arrested."

"No way? That Master Luo seemed quite amiable just now, and he recited the scriptures well. He didn't seem like someone who would do bad things." Feng Xiaoliu's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously glanced towards the counter. At this moment, Manager Feng, who was still holding a pen, had stopped there and was no longer writing down the accounts.

"Why would I lie to you?" The guest in the silk robe sneered, raising his hand to lightly trace a line on his neck. "The mastermind has already been executed, back in early summer. I was in the capital at the time, and even went to the execution ground to join the commotion. That old wicked monk looked almost exactly like the one who just left—curly hair, a hooked nose, and a thunderous mouth. As the Zuo Zhuan says, 'Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts.' Even if these foreign monks look honest, they must all be harboring wicked intentions behind the scenes."

(End of this chapter)