Chapter 658
Greed and Ignorance
In a small courtyard in Shaojiu Hutong, two powerful figures sat facing each other, their expressions tense and ready to fight.
The atmosphere in the courtyard was only broken when the young ghost brought in some thin porridge.
Beneath the monkey mask, Qi Xiao said in a deep voice, "Why waste words with him? Just take him down. Even if we add more men, he's no match for us."
Yu Yuan whispered, "Don't speak yet. These two are up to something. Let's eavesdrop and report back to Lord Bailong."
Yao An looked at the precious monkey and exclaimed, "I've long heard that there are many people under the precious monkey's mask, and seeing it today, it's true. The way to visit the Holy Minister is truly miraculous."
However, Chen Ji ignored everything else and spoke first, probing, "Senior brother, you went to great lengths to follow me today, hoping to make eye contact with me in the crowd and ease the palpitations between us?"
Yao An smiled and said, "Junior brother, didn't you discover me first? Why ask such a question? I'm just curious how you discovered me when you shouldn't recognize me... Oh, I understand now, it was that little monk beside you who revealed the secret."
The traces confirmed his suspicions: the young monk had seen Yao An, but today on the long street, there was a third person practicing the same path as him.
Yao An originally wanted to make eye contact with himself, but he happened to make eye contact with the third person first, and suddenly stood up to search for the other person in the crowd.
This action made Yao An mistakenly believe that he had been discovered, so he left in advance, and what he saw was Yao An's back.
So, who is the third person hiding in the crowd on the long street?
Yao An asked with great interest, “Junior brother, do you know what telepathy is? Telepathy is the result of cultivating good deeds in the world. It is both the mental power of the six supernatural powers and the knowledge of others’ minds among the ten wisdoms. Only Buddhas with great merits above the forty-nine heavens can possess it after they die peacefully and are reborn. It can save themselves and all sentient beings.”
Yao An observed Chen Ji's expression: "There's a legend in the Yunzhou Tantric sect that the Great Vow Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva has already passed away in the Five Turbid World above the Forty-Nine Heavens, intending to undergo ten reincarnations to save all sentient beings. Coincidentally, the seventh day after Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's passing is the day of the first incarnation of Narajñāpāramitā. Isn't that a coincidence?"
Chen Ji frowned and remained silent. He had heard of the Five Turbid World, a place where the Five Wrathful Soldiers were imprisoned and exiled.
However, Yao An's words indicate that the other party had been to Yunzhou and was very familiar with the Yunzhou Tantric sect... Could the chaos in the Yunzhou Tantric sect also be the work of the Jing Dynasty's military intelligence agency?
"The ability to see into another's mind can subdue afflictions and break through self-attachment. Mahayana Bodhisattvas use it to know the capacities of sentient beings, teach according to their needs, and resolve grievances," Yao An said, then changed the subject. "However, the ability to see into another's mind is not omnipotent. It only knows the present, not the past or the future. It only knows the desire realm and the form realm, not the formless realm. It cannot know the mind in meditation or without thought, and it cannot replace prajna wisdom and liberation. Its misuse can easily lead to arrogance and the prying into others' privacy, which only increases afflictions."
Chen Ji said calmly, "Why are you telling me this?"
Yao An smiled and said, "Junior brother, do you know that there is destiny and karma in this world? Luo Zhui Sa Jia's possession of telepathy is already a crime, and his master's instruction that he never reveal what he sees in other people's minds is actually a way of protecting him. To put it simply, as long as he can keep the secret, no one will want to make things difficult for a reincarnated Buddha. But once he can't keep the secret, some people will be afraid of him, and some people will want to use him. Then he will no longer be a Buddha, but just a tool."
Chen Ji countered, "Which type are you?"
After a moment's thought, Yao An said frankly, "I have both."
At this moment, Bao Hou stood behind Chen Ji, and the young changgui stood behind Yao An. The food on the table had gone cold, but no one had touched their chopsticks.
Chen Ji finally spoke up and asked, "Since it's a competition between sects, Senior Brother, you could have just come straight to our door. Why go through all this trouble and roundabout ways?"
Yao An looked around the small courtyard, glancing at the kitchen and then at the dilapidated grapevine, and answered irrelevantly: "That winter, it snowed heavily for seventeen days in the capital, and it was extremely cold. My parents went to the Imperial Mausoleum in Changping to perform corvée labor... Logically, a husband and wife shouldn't be performing corvée labor at the same time, but they offended the village head. The village head first used the 'village official corvée labor' to send my father to the Imperial Mausoleum, and then, while my father was not at home, he tried to forcibly take my mother. My mother resisted and stabbed him in the abdomen with scissors. The village head was enraged and, under the pretext of 'miscellaneous corvée labor,' also sent my mother to the Imperial Mausoleum."
Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought. The Ning Dynasty had three types of corvée labor. The first type was “Lijia Zhengyi”, where 110 households formed a “Li” and each household was required to perform one service every ten years, with only one person required to do so.
The second type is "equal corvée labor," in which men personally perform all service duties, such as servants, gatekeepers, storehouse workers, postmen, jailers, and militiamen. These duties can be waived by paying money. This system existed in the early years of the Ning Dynasty, but it is now practically non-existent and has been occupied by the sons of local gentry.
The third type is "miscellaneous corvée labor," which is used to build palaces, mausoleums, waterways, and cities; transport supplies; collect timber; carry firewood; and repair bridges and roads. It is carried out irregularly and without a fixed quota, and is conscripted on short notice. This type of labor is the heaviest and often causes public resentment.
This neighborhood chief cleverly used the rules to destroy a family and wipe out its members.
Yao An said calmly, "Not long after, a neighbor brought back news that my parents had frozen to death in Changping. My uncle and aunt seized my family's land and drove me out of the house. No matter how much I cried and shouted at the door, they refused to open it. I ate snow outside for two days, but I couldn't take it anymore and didn't know where to go, so I had to beg along the street. In the end, I collapsed in front of my master's door."
"In a daze, I saw my master come to me, and his first words were to curse me for dying in front of his door, saying it would be bad luck." Yao An wasn't angry when he thought of this; instead, a smile appeared on his face. "I told him not to worry about me, that I was going to see my parents. I tried to get up and move away from his door, but I just couldn't move. My master used copper coins to divine the future before asking me for my birth date and time, and then he carried me home."
Yao An pointed to the kitchen: "He wouldn't let me into the house, he just left me in the kitchen. I remember clearly, he made me a bowl of hot egg tea with an egg and added half a spoonful of brown sugar. Then he took out half a piece of cake from the medicine box. The cake was as hard as a rock, and I could only bite into it after soaking it in the egg tea. He just sat next to me and watched me eat, cursing as he watched: 'Eat slowly, don't choke to death, I don't have time to save you a second time.'" Yao An looked at Chen Ji: "Junior brother, that was the best thing I've ever eaten. Not because I was starving for four days, but because finally someone was watching me eat. You may not understand the feeling of losing your parents, but you'll understand after you lose them. It's good enough to have someone watching you eat."
Chen Ji remained silent.
The firewood in the kitchen crackled, and the flames leaked out from the door, illuminating half of Yao An's face and outlining the haggard profile with flickering light.
He then looked at the grapevine: "Junior brother, do you know that I begged Master to build that grape trellis? Master somehow got hold of a section of grapevine and stuck it under the courtyard wall. He said that this thing only bears fruit when it's old, and you won't be able to eat grapes for the first year or two. I couldn't wait that long, so I squatted under the vine every day watching it grow new leaves. Master scolded me: 'Even if you open your eyes wide, you still can't see grapes.' But I waited for two years, and it really did bear fruit."
Chen Ji shook his head: "My master never told me about these things."
“There’s a lot you don’t know,” Yao An got up and went to the window of the west wing, reaching out to touch the window. “My master has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. The west wing where I live is drafty in winter. When I told my master I was cold, he scolded me openly for being delicate, saying I didn’t have the life of a young master but had the illness of one. But at night, he would secretly bring back the old window paper that the Imperial Hospital had left over and paste it up again and again. Eventually, the paper patches on the window were so thick that no light could get in. When I said I was still cold, he scolded me again for being delicate. But the next day, he went and got a broken charcoal brazier and put it in the room.”
Chen Ji also recalled the old man Yao's words and actions. The old man seemed to always be cursing, but when he really encountered difficulties, the old man would go to the secret police office in Luocheng to help him keep Mr. Feng away for an hour.
Chen Ji looked up at Yao An: "But you didn't cherish it. After mastering medicine, you secretly poisoned officials..."
Yao An interrupted, "You think I'm wrong? Which of those officials didn't deserve to die? Why do you think Minister Zhang, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, suffered from kidney deficiency? This man forced women into prostitution and seized the wives and daughters of his subordinates; he deserves to die. And Minister Zhou, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Studs, embezzled funds from the horse administration, replacing the border troops' warhorses with gelding old horses, profiting eight thousand taels from it. In the winter of the thirteenth year of the Jianing era, the Guyuan border troops, due to a shortage of warhorses, had their left flank overrun by the Jing Dynasty's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, resulting in the deaths of over four hundred men."
"When Zhao, the Director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Works, was supervising the construction of the Changping Imperial Mausoleum, he cut corners and used substandard materials. That year, there was a heavy rain, and three sections of the mausoleum road collapsed, killing seven laborers who were building the mausoleum. However, he reported it to the court as a natural disaster."
“And then there’s Sun, the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Personnel,” Yao An sat back down at the stone table. “This man is in charge of the capital’s performance evaluations, and he openly accepts bribes. A county magistrate who wants to be promoted to assistant prefect pays three thousand taels of silver. An assistant prefect who wants to be promoted to prefect pays eight thousand taels. Those who don’t have the money are demoted to remote, malaria-ridden areas. Of the seven county magistrates he demoted to Yunzhou in the fourteenth year of the Jianing era, three died in office. Junior brother, do you think they deserved to die?”
Chang Sheng muttered to himself, "That's really true. I, Jie Fanwei, know all the evidence against these people, but it's just not the right time to take action against them yet."
Yao An glanced at Bao Hou and continued. He spoke as if flipping through an old ledger, naming a person with each page: "The councilor of the Court of Transmission intercepted disaster reports from the south, resulting in 20,000 deaths from starvation in Yuzhou, which the court dismissed as a minor disaster. A certain censor of the Censorate accepted bribes and suppressed impeachment memorials; the aggrieved party was dragged away by the Five Cities Garrison as soon as he knelt before the Meridian Gate."
Yao An laughed loudly: "The people I killed were all deserving of death. What crime have they committed?"
Chen Ji sighed inwardly. Everything has two sides, and everyone faces dilemmas. Perhaps Yao An had said these words to Old Man Yao as well, which is why Old Man Yao gave Yao An a chance to reform.
He suddenly asked, "What about the abbot? Was he also guilty?"
Yao An remained expressionless: "If it weren't for his meddling, and if Master hadn't been involved with medicinal herbs and the daily affairs of the Imperial Medical Academy, he would never have discovered these things."
Chen Ji sighed, "But you still want to poison Master."
Yao An remained silent.
He could make excuses for everything else, but this was something he could never explain away. Twenty years later, perhaps even he himself couldn't explain why he was blinded by greed back then.
A moment later, Yao An looked at Chen Ji and smiled nonchalantly. Although he was smiling, there was a fire in his eyes, a mixture of envy and jealousy: "Junior brother just asked me why I framed you? I've been wandering for twenty years and have become homeless. You should taste that feeling too. Or perhaps you and I could have a competition to see who is Master's most capable disciple."
So-called greed.
Greedy for wealth, coveting money, land, and treasures.
Lustful greed refers to greed for worldly desires and physical appearance.
The name "Greedy" refers to someone who is greedy for fame, status, praise, respect, and achievements.
Wanting more, being unwilling to let go, clinging to possession, indulging in enjoyment, comparing oneself to others in a vain way, being anxious about gains and losses, and being reluctant to give up are all forms of greed.
Chen Ji stared intently at the other's face, certain that the person the young monk had seen, whose heart held only greed and not anger or delusion, was indeed his senior brother. (End of Chapter)