Chapter 181: Converting You to Monastic Life
The meat was too tough, full of tendons, and impossible to chew—absolutely impossible to chew.
It only got tougher the more it was stewed.
No wonder swans haven’t gone extinct; they taste terrible.
It got stuck between Jiang Mianmian’s little teeth, and she spent ages picking at it with a toothpick.
It’s necessary to get some dental floss.
Toothpicks are not effective.
Jiang Yu was also very puzzled; it looked so good, yet it tasted so bad.
In the world of food, one really cannot judge by appearances; usually, things that look ugly are highly likely to be delicious.
For example, bullfrogs.
Today, Mother and Father were not around.
Jiang Yu was in charge.
One swan had been slaughtered, and with one remaining, they threw it back into the lake.
What a pity. Jiang Mianmian looked at the swan in the lake, never imagining that something so beautiful could taste so terrible.
Aunt Yin saw the two girls, who had eaten the swan and were now full of regret, looking like they were up to no good.
She prepared to teach the two girls to do something practical.
She wouldn’t teach them to count Buddhist beans; that was such a huge sin and required such a lack of perspective—who would bother counting that stuff when there was so much else to do?
Just as she was about to pull out the account books to teach the two girls how to read them and review whether the Master’s birthday banquet had made a profit or a loss, where the losses and gains were, and how to improve or avoid mistakes next time.
There was also the matter of social exchanges—how much the other party had gifted, so that next time they held an event, one would need to send something of similar value.
These belonged to the daily affairs of the inner household; one didn’t have to be an expert, and one could let servants handle them, but one had to understand them. One couldn’t be completely ignorant, or others would take advantage.
At this moment, visitors unexpectedly arrived at the house.
Jiang Yu, acting as Madam Meng, went up to greet them very excitedly.
She wasn’t embarrassed or afraid at all; she was very thick-skinned.
This could be considered a major strength.
Jiang Mianmian curiously followed her older sister to receive the guests.
She was curious about who would come when Mother and Father weren’t home.
The visitors turned out to be two Buddhist nuns.
They had arrived. Jiang Mianmian remembered what Great-Aunt had said.
After settling down in the Prefecture City, besides interacting with various powerful and noble families, one would also encounter monks and nuns visiting.
One couldn’t drive away visiting monks or nuns; they had to be sent off politely.
It was equivalent to the Buddhist sect’s true “protection money.”
Because monks and nuns were also a very powerful force.
Although the two nuns were dressed in robes, they were noble and elegant, with an extraordinary temperament.
Both nuns were very beautiful; one was elegant, the other solemn, and every movement they made was very ethereal.
Both of them held fly-whisks—the kind with long, hairy ends, though she didn’t know what kind of hair it was.
The fly-whisk of the nun on the left had whiter hair, while the one on the right had grayer hair, but they both looked fluffy and quite nice.
Little Mianmian curiously followed her sister, watching her act all serious and proper while greeting the guests.
Aunt Yin kept her eyes on her nose and her nose on her heart, looking like the ideal nanny, standing properly behind her sister.
“Two nuns have visited; I do not know what instructions you have?” Jiang Yu sat upright, gesturing for the others to sit as well, thinking to herself that if they wanted money, she would say they had none, or send them off with a small amount—nobody’s money came from the wind.
A servant brought tea.
Jiang Yu remembered that if she wanted the other party to leave, she should pick up her teacup; serving tea to see guests off was a signal.
What if she got thirsty in the middle?
What if she picked it up by accident?
Jiang Mianmian also received a small teacup containing sweet tea.
She was still small, so the rules could be a bit more relaxed for her.
However, she also sat obediently, not looking around, nor jumping about; she just watched the guests with some curiosity.
“My Buddhist name is Qingci.”
“My Buddhist name is Qingming.”
“We have come presumptuously because I have observed that the Buddhist aura in your residence is soaring to the heavens. It is destined that there is an affinity with the Buddha here, and there is someone from our Buddhist sect in this household. We have come to take her back to the Buddhist sect.”
Jiang Yu:???
She actually felt that these people were suspected of trying to swindle money.
However, these two were dressed so gorgeously and expensively; under Great-Aunt’s tutelage, she could more or less recognize fabrics by now.
The robes worn by the two nuns in front of her were things that an ordinary person couldn’t afford even if they didn’t eat or drink for a year.
The material was luxurious, with hidden gold thread patterns. Although it looked white at a glance, a closer look revealed many patterns, like flowing, shimmering light.
As the two nuns reached out to pick up their tea, their hands were clean and fair. If they were nuns who still had people serving them, these certainly weren’t hands that did manual labor. Hands that did manual labor would have some veins showing, especially at their age; having hands like a young girl’s was somewhat abnormal.
Jiang Mianmian sat to the side watching the excitement, finding these words inexplicably familiar.
And the gazes of these two beautiful middle-aged nuns were not right.
What are you looking at me for???
No way, right??
I worked so hard to transmigrate here, worked so hard to grow up until now—trying hard to drink milk, trying hard to master peeing and pooping on my own, learning to crawl, learning to walk, learning to talk—and now you want me to become a nun, chanting sutras every day, eating vegetarian food, hitting a wooden fish, sweeping fallen leaves, from a pretty little nun to a pretty old nun?
I wouldn’t do that, even if it meant living to be a hundred years old.
Living to be a hundred would just mean becoming a hundred-year-old nun!!
This was the first time Jiang Yu had heard that because someone in the house had an affinity with the Buddhist sect, they had to be taken away.
How was this any different from robbery? If I went to a fishmonger’s shop and said this fish had an affinity with me and I wanted to take it home without paying, I would likely be beaten half to death by the fishmonger.
“You have seen wrong; there is no affinity in my house.” Jiang Yu picked up her teacup.
“This little benefactor is originally one of our Buddhist sect and should not be in the secular world; otherwise, it will be bad for the whole family. Everything should return to the right track. Little benefactor, please come with us.”
The nun who called herself Qingci stood up and chanted a Buddhist greeting towards Jiang Mianmian, her figure instantly appearing in front of Mianmian.
The nun who called herself Qingming also walked right in front of her.
She didn’t know what kind of trickery this was.
It was suddenly startling.
Jiang Mianmian thought to herself, if I’m not in the secular world, where would I go? To the mountains? I just came out of the mountains.
She didn’t want to experience child abduction in this lifetime.
In a flash of lightning, the two nuns had already reached out to grab Mianmian.
The two old nuns were very skilled.
They were confident they could take a little girl away from such an unremarkable residence.
And then, they didn’t manage to pull her.
They pulled again.
Still, they didn’t manage to pull her.
By this time, Jiang Yu and Aunt Yin had reacted.
Jiang Yu reached out and gave Qingci a big slap, sending her flying.
Aunt Yin also raised her decades-old smelly foot and kicked out.
One kick landed on Qingming’s body.
It made her foot ache.
Then she scooped Mianmian up.
Pang Ya was trembling with fear.
But she still stood in front of the young miss.
With her eyes closed, she went over and delivered an extra kick to Master Qingming.
“So scary!” Pang Ya panted, kicking hard with her foot while folding her hands to press against her chest, clenching her fists to support her round chin…
Thank you for reading + listening 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
