Chapter 307: Cold Weather, Warm Hearts

A villager holding needle and thread nearby asked, "Who's Xiaohong? Cong'er, is there another newcomer at your Daoist temple?"

Wang Cong gave a vague reply, "Just a guest."

The villagers were displeased and began to lecture: "How can you let a guest do the cooking? What did your father teach you lot?"

Wang Cong hurriedly set down the blessing pouch he was sewing, "You're right, I'll go up the mountain right now to cook."

He turned to stare at Tao Yanbai.

Tao Yanbai reluctantly set down the needle and thread in his hands, "I'm going too?"

Wang Cong urged him, "Hurry up."

Once outside, Wang Cong asked Pan Yun, "Little Xiao Shishu, where's my father? He didn't go back to the rear courtyard?"

"As soon as he came back he went to the pharmacy. He bought a piece of meat back, said he wanted to prepare it three ways."

Wang Cong: "How heavy a piece of meat?"

Pan Yun: "One jin."

Wang Cong: "…What a huge piece of meat."

Three ways, why not just sixteen ways — one tael, one preparation.

Wang Cong's whole face fell into misery.

Pan Yun stopped minding him. Seeing Master Xuanmiao and the others busy in the storage room, she immediately abandoned the two of them and ran over, "You all hurry up the mountain. When Big Martial Brother comes back to the rear courtyard and doesn't see you, he'll definitely get angry."

Master Xuanmiao and the others were packing blessing pouches.

Pan Yun had prepared seven different kinds of grain in total, mixed according to the recipe Miao He gave. They said porridge cooked according to this recipe harmonized the spleen and stomach, dispelled dampness and nourished the complexion, supplemented the middle and boosted Qi…

Regardless of how effective it was, it sure sounded like a lot.

Master Xuanmiao and the others were weighing out the proportions, then packing them into the already-sewn blessing pouches.

Quite a lot of people had come to the Mountain God Temple to sew blessing pouches today, and there were both men and women, mostly villagers. Pan Yun had looked them over — the stitching was still fairly fine and tight.

Miao Zhen was writing the character "fu" (fortune) on the other side. Once written, she'd let it air-dry; once the ink was completely dry, the blessing pouch was officially finished.

Pan Yun looked left and right, decided writing suited her better, so she rolled up her sleeves and went to write characters alongside Miao Zhen.

Miao Zhen: "Little Xiao Shishu, you're back~"

Pan Yun gave an "mm."

No one asked Pan Yun where she'd gone, or whether the flying artifact was finished.

Pan Yun saw this and sighed.

Miao Zhen couldn't help but look up at her.

Pan Yun said: "If one day when I do things, you all wouldn't get to the bottom of it, but would trust me like you trust Big Martial Brother — not asking about anything — that would be great."

Miao Zhen: "Then you have to be a bit more reliable when doing things, Little Xiao Shishu. The martial uncles and aunts get to the bottom of things not because they don't trust you, but because they're afraid you'll cause trouble."

Pan Yun: "It's just that you don't believe I can solve things on my own."

Miao Zhen: "Then can you, Little Xiao Shishu?"

Pan Yun thought of the days when she'd borrowed Master Xuanmiao and Wang Feiyin's reputations to stir things up out there, gave a small cough, and vaguely said: "Wait a little longer, almost there~~"

In the jianghu, it was probably almost there, but at Long Hushan Academy…

Beneath the Academy was still the Celestial Tian Zhang Tian Shi Fu — who knew how many old monsters were hiding inside?

Moreover, if old monsters were hiding in the Celestial Tian Zhang Tian Shi Fu, by the same logic one could deduce that somewhere out there, in some unknown place, there were still about the same number of old monsters hiding.

Pan Yun suspected her Big Martial Brother was one of them.

So being a person still required keeping a low profile. You could provoke people weaker than yourself, or slightly stronger, but don't provoke those much stronger than you.

That's right — Pan Yun was exactly this kind of bully who picked on the weak and feared the strong.

After packing the blessing pouches, they went up the mountain. Master Xuanmiao said: "We leave tomorrow. We can definitely be back before the new year, but we're not sure about the temple fair."

Tao Yanbai had just been brought back and didn't yet know the prior situation, so he asked: "Xiao Shishu, isn't your injury not yet healed?"

Tao Ji waved it off indifferently: "It's not far from healed. Besides, we made an appointment with the patients in Changzhou Prefecture — we have to go on time."

Pan Yun immediately said: "Third Martial Brother, Fourth Martial Sister, let me see you off."

Master Xuanmiao glanced at her, "You can fly a sword now?"

Pan Yun: "Borrow the medicine cauldron from Big Martial Brother for a use."

Master Xuanmiao said: "Go out less lately, especially out of the Qingshan Realm."

Pan Yun: "Why?"

She had just come back from outside the Qingshan Realm.

Master Xuanmiao stopped walking, turned to look down the mountain.

Everyone stopped walking along with her, and together turned to look down the mountain. Mist was gradually rising, ethereal and still — no different from usual.

Master Xuanmiao said: "Mount Sanqing can remain so still and peaceful because Big Martial Brother is here. Once we leave here, Third Martial Brother and I can't protect you."

Pan Yun was about to laugh and pat her chest to declare she could protect herself and them, but meeting Master Xuanmiao's gaze, that hand couldn't come down.

Master Xuanmiao turned and continued climbing the mountain, "Let's go. Just behave yourself in the mountain and handle your temple fair properly. Stop always thinking about running outside the mountain."

Master Xuanmiao said: "You're only the First Marquis. You haven't reached the level of being invincible under heaven."

"Oh." Pan Yun obediently followed behind.

Pan Yun really did settle down obediently. Although she very much wanted to go to Changzhou Prefecture, and also very much wanted to go to Datong, she still held herself back, quietly waiting for a good opportunity.

The very night Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji left, it started to snow. The snow wasn't heavy, but the temperature dropped sharply.

Pan Yun had thought no one would come to the temple to sew blessing pouches today, but no sooner had she gone down the mountain than she saw a crowd of people at the temple's front plaza, necks hunched, hands tucked together, waiting.

They huddled in twos and threes, mostly women, a few men, patches sewn onto patches on their clothes — many of them from other villages.

Seeing Pan Yun, the people who had been hunched and downcast immediately straightened up, forced out a stiff, panicked smile, bowed and scraped: "Temple Keeper, we, we've come for the blessing-pouch sewing work." Pan Yun nodded with a flat expression, stepped forward to open the Mountain God Temple, let them in, and asked: "How's your needlework?"

The women all said it was good. Some of the men answered "good" right away; others glanced up at the Mountain God statue, then said with some uncertainty: "It's alright, I guess."

Pan Yun swept a glance, felt there were too many people, so she patted the black cat's rump and said, "Go call Miao Zhen and the others down."

Pan Xiao Hei leapt from her shoulder and ran up the mountain.

Pan Yun gave each person a piece of cloth, a needle, and a thread, and let them try sewing on their own.

Once everyone had lined up and received their cloth and needle and thread.

Tao Yanbai and Miao Zhen and Miao He had also come down the mountain.

The three, seeing that people had crowded out onto the square in front of the temple, knew that an especially large number had come today.

Pan Yun opened the door on the other side, even opened the kitchen door, and let them go inside and sit.

Of course there weren't that many stools, so they could only sit on some pieces of wood, stones, or even the ground.

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Seeing the three, Pan Yun said, "Miao Zhen, you come and check their needle and thread; Miao He, Yanbai, go start the fire; I'll go fetch some straw."

The Sanqing Temple had fields and land, and also grew rice; this year, after the rice harvest, the straw left from threshing was piled up on the empty ground by the fields.

The Daoist temple's people would occasionally carry one or two bundles up the mountain, and the rest was left here; if the cold was severe, straw needed to be spread on the ground to keep the wheat warm.

Of course, passersby could also use it.

Pan Yun then bound two huge bundles of straw, carrying one in each hand, and hauled them back to the Mountain God Temple.

Miao Zhen had already checked everyone's needlework, turned away two men, and accepted all the rest.

Seeing those two with drooping brows and eyes, faces full of misery, her gaze sweeping over their rough, cracked hands, Pan Yun said, "The temple still needs two odd-job workers; you two can stay as well."

The two men's eyes immediately lit up.

Pan Yun announced loudly, "Everyone's wage is twenty wen a day, with one lunch included; however many bolts of cloth you take, you must return that many blessing pouches."

"The blessing pouches are all a fixed size; you may not cut them down further."

The villagers all agreed.

Pan Yun then pointed at the straw on the ground and said, "There are no stools to sit on in the temple; everyone come and make yourselves a cattail hassock to sit on."

This they were familiar with, and everyone stepped forward to pull straw.

Of course they couldn't make a cattail hassock like the ones Pan Yun and the others usually sat in meditation on all at once, but with a twist here, a roll there, a hassock that wouldn't easily come apart could still be made.

Seeing there were so many people, Pan Yun ran off again and hauled back two more bundles of straw.

Once everyone had made their hassocks, Pan Yun had them sit and work along both sides of the temple, the back, as well as in the kitchen and the east wing's side rooms.

Five fires were lit in the temple; everyone sat around the fires, and fires were also lit in the kitchen and east wing; bit by bit the cold was driven out, and in the firelight the stiffness and pallor on the villagers' faces slowly faded, and they all softened.

Miao He carried out a big pot from the kitchen, and on the square temporarily built a stove, adding a whole big pot of water.

Tao Yanbai squatted in front and started the fire.

Miao He began rummaging through her jade-token space, tossing things into the pot every now and then.

Big chunk after big chunk of dried ginger.

Tao Yanbai took them, rinsed them with water on the side, then took out a cleaver and sliced the ginger bit by bit into the pot.

Saposhnikovia, licorice…

Once everything was added, the water in the pot also heated up, giving off a faint herbal scent.

After Tao Yanbai finished slicing the ginger, he put the lid on the pot and said, "Who's cooking lunch? What are we cooking?"

Pan Yun, who was busy working up a sweat, pointed at the two odd-job workers who were shuttling firewood around and said, "Aren't those people right there?"

"Once everyone finishes their cold-dispelling herbal tea, Miao He, you and Yanbai go buy some bones and meat, and have them cook a big pot of meat porridge. Oh, remember to balance meat and vegetables, and add plenty of greens and chopped scallions."

Miao He's eyes lit up. "We're having meat porridge for lunch?"

Pan Yun: "It's big-bone lean-meat porridge!"

Not only Miao He, even Tao Yanbai couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva and said softly, "Little Xiao Shishu, aren't you giving too much, too good?"

Pan Yun waved her hand and said, "It's not too much. In this bitter cold, they're still willing to come work at the Mountain God Temple—such heavy affection—this is what we ought to host them with."

Tao Yanbai: …Aren't they here for the money?

Miao He, at the side, nodded repeatedly. "Right, right, right, in this cold, if it were me, I definitely wouldn't go out."

Pan Yun: "So that's how much they love the Mountain God, love me, this temple keeper. How could the Mountain God and I bear to let them down?"

The two odd-job workers passing by heard this and immediately followed Pan Yun's line of thinking: that's right, they did love the Mountain God, love the temple keeper.

The Mountain God was so efficacious, and the temple keeper was a good person too; they were willing to brave the snow to do work for the Mountain God.

Pan Yun heard the tinkling notification of merit points coming in, and she couldn't help turning to look at the Mountain God statue in the temple.

A ray of morning sunlight shone in from the side, landing right on its brows and eyes, making the cold, stern Mountain God statue show a touch of gentleness.

Pan Yun couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth.

When the two odd-job workers were delivering firewood to the various fires and chatting, they passed on Pan Yun's words in their own understanding; the villagers all felt they were right—they had braved the snow to work precisely for the Mountain God.

Thinking this way, their bodies felt warm and cozy, and their icy hearts seemed to warm a little too.

Just then, Miao He came in and called them, "Did you bring bowls? Come out and get a bowl of cold-dispelling herbal tea."

The villagers immediately set down the needle and thread in their hands, and with a swoosh pulled out bowls, basins, and even one person brought a small pot…

Miao He couldn't help but smile till her eyes curved, and she waved at them, saying, "Follow me."

Everyone swarmed after her.

(End of this chapter)