In the depths of the temple.
There was no Buddha.
There was an old woman.
Time had carved many traces on her.
Yet in her every movement, one could still sense an indescribable beauty.
Perhaps this was the meaning of "beauty in the bones, not in the skin."
Some beauties radiate loveliness from their bones; with beautiful bone structure, the skin hardly matters.
Mianmian rarely saw people stringing beads.
Embroidery was common.
But stringing beads was also normal; prayer beads don't grow on trees in strings. They must be polished from seeds or fruits, then strung together with thread. It looks simple, but if someone is good at matching, choosing different beads can make a beautiful combination.
Mianmian walked up to the old woman and saw her stringing a prayer bead bracelet.
After their family's circumstances improved, Grandma taught her daily, honing her eye for quality.
The beads the old woman was stringing seemed very expensive.
The prayer beads were made of soapberry, probably chosen for its auspicious name meaning "no worries, peace, and well-being" in Chinese.
In fact, soapberry itself is excellent, rich in saponins. Rubbing soapberry shells produces bubbles, cleaning hands thoroughly. So wearing soapberry beads is like wearing a string of soap??
This string of soapberries was uniform in size, dense, and beautiful.
The matching beads were even more stunning. There was a golden top bead with intertwining dragons, two dragons on one gold bead, their claws lifelike, their faces very expressive.
In this era, dragons were not decorations ordinary people could use.
So this old woman must have royal connections.
She might be a royal nanny.
Just like Grandma.
Besides the golden dragon top bead, there were large pearls, a flowing green jade safety clasp, a piece of red coral carved into a bat, a large oriental pearl carved with double happiness, and a teardrop-shaped green jade pendant.
When Mianmian arrived, the old woman was already halfway through stringing.
She watched as the old woman picked up beads and threaded them deftly.
Then she tied knots, very skillfully – one couldn't tie such knots without stringing hundreds of sets.
Even without beads, the string in her hands twisted into beautifully intricate knots.
Mianmian always paid extra attention to people with nimble fingers.
Like Grandma's small hands, skilled in delivering babies.
This old woman's hands were no less dexterous than Grandma's.
Indeed, the elderly in ancient times were treasures, rich in life experience. Just living to such an age was remarkable.
Mianmian sat down quietly to watch the old woman finish stringing the bracelet and tying the knots. Only then did the old woman look up at her.
"Whose child are you?" the old woman asked.
Her voice was hoarse, not pleasant to hear, as if her vocal cords had been injured, but her expression was gentle.
"I'm my parents' child," Jiang Mianmian replied.
The old woman: ...
"You look very much like an old acquaintance of mine."
Jiang Mianmian nodded: "Then your acquaintance must be very good-looking."
The old woman smiled.
Yes, her acquaintance was very beautiful.
She saw the girl watching her string beads for a long time, and asked, "Do you like this?"
Jiang Mianmian nodded: "Granny, you string them very beautifully. You have good taste and match them well."
The old woman was stunned for a while at being called "Granny."
Her smile faded.
"At first it was just a string of soapberries. I thought it was too plain, so I added a gold bead. Still thinking it was plain, I added a jade ring, coral, pearls. Every time I add a new bead, I have to restring the whole thing."
Jiang Mianmian nodded seriously.
Seeing her serious nod, the old woman couldn't help asking, "What did you hear from that?"
"Granny, you're very rich, very leisurely, and very bored."
The old woman: ... Her defenses were broken.
Where did this little brat come from?
...
Mianmian wanted to chat more.
But at this moment, her mother came and pulled her away.
"Madam, I'm sorry, we have something to do, we'll be going now," Qin Luoxia said, pulling the child away without further ado.
She had just been discussing arrangements for a religious ceremony with the temple monks. They had settled on performing a ceremony, with options for one day, three days, nine days, or even forty-nine days.
Although they were now wealthy, money didn't grow on trees.
She felt a bit cheated giving money to these bald monks, and wasn't sure if the ceremony would be effective.
But to put Cong Brother at ease, she boldly chose the nine-day option.
She made a mental note to tell her children before she died to just do a one-day ceremony, no, make it three days.
Don't spend too much money, it's wasteful.
After choosing the nine-day ceremony, she also selected some eternal lamps.
An eternal lamp is a lamp that's kept lit continuously, with the monks adding oil daily. She chose this for one year, planning to renew it year by year.
Qin Luoxia thought that as long as they were doing well, the lamp could stay lit.
If they weren't doing well, surely no one would come to renew the lamp.
That should do.
The wall of eternal lamps was beautiful though, a whole wall of flickering lights, like trembling souls.
After settling the arrangements, she turned around and her little one was gone.
Qin Luoxia asked Cong Brother to follow the monk to check the ceremony preparations, worried they might cut corners or use unsuitable items. Whether he understood or not, just watching would help a bit.
It was originally a sad affair, but being given a task made Cong Heng feel the warmth of everyday life again.
Aunt Qin always managed to make life vibrant.
Perhaps Mianmian took after her aunt more.
Qin Luoxia went out to look for her daughter.
She circled the large temple once but didn't see Mianmian.
Although Mianmian was playful, she shouldn't run off without saying anything.
Qin Luoxia started to panic and looked more carefully.
Suddenly she felt something was off about one area.
At first glance, it seemed like a dead end.
The layout seemed different, like a hiding place.
It also looked like an ordinary corner.
There seemed to be more than meets the eye.
It felt like a place full of experts.
It gave her the excited feeling of hunting in a forest full of prey.
As if a tiger was hiding here, a bear there, and a python hanging from a tree.
Qin Luoxia stepped in and looked around.
She assessed the fighting strength.
She could probably handle them all alone.
But it would be difficult with Mianmian and Cong Brother.
Besides, it probably wouldn't come to fighting.
Avoid fighting if possible.
After all, this was a temple.
It didn't feel like they were specifically lying in wait for her.
The aura was different.
Even so, faced with an unknown situation where she couldn't be 100% sure of defeating everyone and escaping unscathed, Qin Luoxia felt she should be cautious.
As expected, she saw her little one when she turned the corner.
She was talking to an old woman.
The old woman's expression wasn't good.
Qin Luoxia noticed that the encirclement was centered around the old woman.
She walked into the encirclement, pretending to be unconcerned, then grabbed her child's arm, smiling openly as she greeted, "Madam, my daughter doesn't know better, if she's bothered you, I'll take her away now."
In reality, her hand was already applying force.
Mianmian sensed her mother's slight tension, like when she was about to be scolded, and obediently became docile.
She waved goodbye to the old woman: "Bye-bye, Granny."
"Madam, we're leaving now, we'll come again another time," Qin Luoxia said with a smile as she pulled her child away.
Left behind was Princess Huiyun, called "Granny" on one side and "Madam" on the other, her face almost smoking with anger.
...
Normally, although this was part of Tai'e Temple, outsiders couldn't enter here.
A high-level expert had set up an illusion here, a very profound illusion.
Children, pure and innocent, might accidentally stumble in.
Because here, even confused rabbits might wander in.
Some children who were particularly focused and pure might be able to enter.
But then a middle-aged woman also walked in.
She took her child away as if they were just having a casual conversation.
Had the illusion outside disappeared?
What shocked Princess Huiyun most was being called "Granny" and "Madam."
Ah...
The bracelet she had spent all morning stringing was gone too.
She just remembered that person calling her "Madam," she was so surprised that the bracelet fell into the child's hands.
The child held the bracelet, looking embarrassed as she said, "Thank you, Granny."
Then she took a piece of wood from her pocket and handed it to her, saying, "You can smell this if you can't sleep, it helps with insomnia."
If it weren't for the jade, pearl, and coral bracelet in her hand turning into a piece of wood, Princess Huiyun would have thought it was all an illusion.
Now her mind was full of "Granny," "Madam," "Madam," "Granny"... She wanted to kill someone!!!
