Chapter 5: The Secret of the Nunnery

After returning to Shuiyun Temple, the masters in the temple glanced at the disheveled master and servant, and all chuckled. According to Lüya's fierce temperament, she would definitely argue with them, but now she didn't even have the strength to open her eyes, and she collapsed on the ground as soon as she entered the room.

Chu Si touched her burning forehead, feeling uneasy.

These days, Lüya had been working tirelessly, doing physical labor day and night in the icy and snowy weather, wearing only two thin old cotton clothes, unable to withstand the cold at all.

"Why isn't Miaoxian here?" a voice came from the door. Chu Si quickly recalled this person. Her name was Miaoyin, and she was closest to Miaoxian. She was always the one causing trouble behind the scenes, in her mid-thirties but always fond of makeup.

"I don't know," Chu Si replied calmly, getting up and searching the room, only finding a poorly made silver hairpin. She furrowed her brow, tucked it into her sleeve, and planned to go get medicine for Lüya later.

But Miaoyin was greedy for money. As soon as she saw the glint of silver, her eyes lit up, and she reached out to snatch the hairpin from Chu Si's hand. Chu Si was prepared, and when she saw her coming, she dodged to the side. Miaoyin couldn't control her momentum and bumped her head on the edge of the table, wincing in pain, "You want to kill me, you despicable wretch!"

Listening to Miaoyin's frustrated words, Chu Si chuckled lightly, "I might as well ask the abbess if this is how the sisters in the temple talk to people."

Miaoyin was at a loss for words. There were rules in the temple, and she could bully this impoverished young lady, but she couldn't spread a bad reputation outside.

Miaoyin glared at Chu Si resentfully, glanced at Lüya lying on the bed, and sneered, "Although you treat me poorly, as a nun, we still have to do good deeds. Don't say I didn't tell you, you haven't finished embroidering the thirty handkerchiefs and chopping the fifteen loads of firewood this month. The abbesses still have three big tubs of clothes to wash. It's almost the end of the year, don't end up with nothing to eat for the New Year." With that, Miaoyin turned and left.

Chu Si watched her leave indifferently. This nunnery was very strange. Not only did everyone here exude an air of makeup and powder, but there were very few pilgrims who came, yet the Chu family still sent her here.

In the past two or three years, all the silver and jewelry her mother had given her, even the better clothes, had been taken by these nuns. Not only that, they forced her and the two maids to do physical labor every day in exchange for a little rice. They had almost become servants in this nunnery.

Thinking of the other maid, Chu Si sighed lightly. A year ago, that gentle and courteous maid suddenly disappeared, and when she was found, there was only a corpse. She used to think that she had really fallen down the hill and died at night, but now it seemed that she might have had something to do with these wicked nuns.

"Miss..." Lüya regained some consciousness and softly called out to Chu Si, who had been standing by the door the whole time.

Chu Si snapped out of her thoughts and walked to the bedside, "I'll go down the mountain later to buy some medicine for you."

As soon as Lüya heard that Chu Si was going down the mountain, she quickly grabbed her hand, her face slightly flushed, "No! Unless someone from the Chu family comes to pick you up, you must not go down the mountain!" Lüya held onto Chu Si's clothes tightly.

Seeing her like this, Chu Si's brow furrowed slightly, "Did you see something?"

Lüya weakly shook her head, but she didn't have the strength to say more. Chu Si looked at Lüya, who was frowning tightly, and suddenly remembered something. It was a scandal involving Prince Xiaoyao from years ago. Although he had suppressed the matter and no one had told her, she had heard some rumors in the palace. Prince Xiaoyao used the name of the nunnery to harbor assassins. Not only that, the nunnery was involved in the flesh trade, receiving people from the martial arts world, commoners, and wealthy merchants, all to gather and spread information.