After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

Seeing that Jiang Dusheng was still frowning, Huiming suddenly looked around mysteriously, and took out an oil paper package from his sleeve, which turned out to be half a roast chicken that had not been finished.

Under Jiang Dusheng's shocked gaze, Huiming calmly tore off a chicken leg and said:

"Back then, I upheld the precepts, eating only one meal a day and never lying down to sleep at night. I considered myself to have excellent meditative skills."

He took a bite of the chicken leg, squinting his eyes, as if savoring the taste, or perhaps reminiscing, "One day, I went down the mountain to beg for alms. I had walked quite a distance and was feeling hungry. I came across a young widow selling roast chicken by the roadside. The aroma was incredible..."

"You broke the rule?" Jiang Dusheng's eyes widened.

"Wrong!" Huiming, gnawing on a chicken leg, raised his index finger, his face shiny with oil, pointing to the sky and then to his heart. "I have achieved enlightenment."

"The widow's roast chicken and the vegetarian food in the temple are essentially offerings from all living beings."

He swallowed the chicken, licked his fingers, and his expression suddenly became extremely serious. "Being attached to the outward appearance of meat and vegetables, thinking that eating vegetarian food is keeping the precepts and being pure, and feeling disgusted at the sight of meat, this is the real attachment to appearances. It is being bound by the name and form of keeping the precepts."

"The precepts are like a raft, used to cross the river. How can one cling to the raft and die on the shore?"

Huiming wrapped the chicken leg, took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth and hands, and looked at Jiang Dusheng with a burning gaze:

"Listen, the Buddha saves all beings without ever telling you what you must do. Some people take refuge in the Buddha, while others refine their hearts in the mortal world; both are forms of spiritual practice."

Huiming suddenly stopped smiling, and pressed his withered hand on her head. "The word 'love' can be obsession or enlightenment. It depends on whether you are immersed in it or use it to understand the suffering of all beings."

Just then, a Bodhi leaf drifted down and landed in Jiang Dusheng's palm.

Huiming's voice suddenly softened, "The wind hasn't moved, the leaves haven't moved, it's the heart of the benevolent that's moved... But if the heart is already in the mortal world, why force it to stay on the lotus platform?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Dusheng stared at the leaf in his palm, frowned, and said, "But Master, what is 'like'? I can't tell."

"I can't tell if my concern for him stems from the trust we've built through life and death, or from liking him... or perhaps from the special attraction his yang-evil body has for me... These feelings are all mixed together, and I can't figure them out."

Looking at Jiang Dusheng's confused expression, Huiming's eyes flashed with affection, but also with the helplessness of his foolish disciple finally getting the hang of things.

He slowly picked up a Bodhi leaf that had fallen on the stone steps, gently tracing its veins with his fingertips, and suddenly asked:

"My disciple, do you remember what Manjushri Bodhisattva said when he inquired about Vimalakirti's illness in the Vimalakirti Sutra?"

Jiang Dusheng was taken aback, and subconsciously replied, "From infatuation comes love, and thus my illness arises..."

"Not bad." Huiming nodded approvingly, holding the leaf up to the sunlight, where the veins were clearly visible in the light and shadow.

"The scripture points out that attachment to desire is indeed a disease, but it immediately follows by saying that because all sentient beings are sick, I am sick. Do you understand the true meaning of this?"

Seeing Jiang Dusheng shake her head, Huiming suddenly placed the leaf on her forehead:

"You feel the veins in this leaf. They seem complex, like the myriad causes and conditions in the world and the twists and turns of the human heart. But no matter how winding they are, every tiny branch vein eventually connects to the main vein and returns to the petiole."

"Your indistinguishable concern, panic, and excitement for the Xie family boy is like the first leaves sprouting, unable to distinguish between morning dew and rain."

He moved the leaf aside, his gaze gently meeting Jiang Dusheng's still bewildered eyes: "No need to rush to discern. Let it naturally feel the nourishment of the water, just as your heart should first accept the existence of this concern."

"If the heart is flustered and resistant, like a leaf curling up, how can it see clearly what kind of water droplets are falling on it?"

After saying that, Huiming suddenly produced a wooden fish as if by magic, and struck it with a thud:

"I have three questions for you, but you need not answer them; just observe them in your heart."

"First question: When you see him, is it like a spring breeze caressing your face, making all 84,000 pores open?"

Jiang Dusheng's breath hitched. She suddenly remembered the hot, burning breath Xie Jinchen had when their foreheads touched in the mountain god temple.

And then there was that tear that fell on her neck, burning her very soul.

"Second question: When you parted from him, did you feel as if a hundred claws were scratching your heart, restless and uneasy like an ant on a hot pan?"

Jiang Dusheng unconsciously clenched his sleeves, recalling the moment he watched Xie Jinchen turn and walk into the gradually brightening sky in front of the mountain god temple, and the sudden feeling of panic and emptiness that welled up in his heart.

"Third question." Huiming didn't give her much time to think, leaning in unexpectedly to press the question, "Put everything aside and only ask your own heart. If he were on the verge of death right now, and you had to give up your cultivation to save him, would you hesitate?"

Jiang Dusheng subconsciously reached for the tea on the stone table, but upon hearing this, her fingers trembled violently, and she knocked over the rough pottery teacup, spilling the slightly hot tea and splashing it all over the back of her hand, but she was completely unaware.

In that instant, what flashed through my mind was not weighing the options, but a complete blank, followed by an almost suffocating tightness, as if the scene Huiming described had already come true.

There was no need for a verbal response; her reaction said it all.

"Hahahahaha!"

Seeing this, Huiming laughed loudly, "What's there to not be able to tell? A tacit understanding in life and death, a bond of camaraderie, might make you risk your life for him, but it might not make you feel a tightness in your chest when you lose him, much less give up your cultivation to save him, transcending all rational considerations and going straight for instinct."

"Your Bodhi seed has long been warmed by the karmic fire and obsessions of that boy, taking root and sprouting. You may not hear it yourself, but your teacher is right here, hearing it very clearly!"

Jiang Dusheng was stunned and sat there in shock. Suddenly, he remembered Xie Jinchen's stubborn eyes and the hoarse words, "I struggled out of the fires of hell," and the sting in his heart.

Then I recalled the warmth of the two spiritual energies merging.

A mountain breeze swept through the courtyard. Jiang Dusheng looked at the winding mountain road outside the temple gate. He had been squeezing the Bodhi leaf in his palm until it released its juice, the fragrance of which permeated his skin.

"I... I think I understand." She slowly closed her five fingers, and when she opened them again, a drop of juice clung to her fingers, reflecting her clear eyes.

"It's not that the wind is not still, or the leaves are not undisturbed; it's that I dare not admit it, but that the wind has already stirred the lake of my heart."