Chapter 22: Cousin Zhu Yan
“Those fellow sure react fast!”
Wang Chong frowned.
The response from the Yao Clan came faster than he thought.
“Those two people had been following us ever since we left the house. I wasn’t able to confirm it back then, but I am sure that they are here for us now.
Meng Long came closer and whispered with an affirmative voice.
Wang Chong didn’t say a word, but a storm had already broken out in his mind.
In the Vast Crane Pavilion, he and his little sister had wrecked Yao Guang Yi’s plan. Wang Chong had tried his best to cover up the matter so as to not incur anyone’s suspicion.
However, Yao Guang Yi was a wily old fox and he was wary of everything. Could it be that his activities in the Vast Crane Pavilion had incurred the other party’s suspicion? That’s why he commanded Yao Feng to see what he is up to?
If that was true, then this wasn’t a good sign.
Wang Chong did not wish to attract their attention so early on!
“Masters, do you know scriptures?”
A thought flashed through Wang Chong’s mind. He abruptly turned around and asked the two Sindhi monks.
“Scriptures?”
The two monks were astonished by Wang Chong’s question. Even so, they replied his question honestly:
“We do know a little bit of it.”
What kind of joke is this? If a Sindhi monk didn’t know Buddhist scriptures, there wouldn’t be a single monk in the world who knew scriptures. Wang Chong’s question was equivalent to asking whether a hen could lay eggs.
“Great! Can I trouble the two masters to chant a line then?”
Wang Chong clapped his hands together and grinned.
The two foreign monks found the situation ludicrous, they were unable to comprehend the significance of Wang Chong’s actions. Even so, after the deal regarding the Hyderabad ores was confirmed, they felt as though a burden was lifted from their hearts.
It was only a small matter to chant a portion of the scripture for Wang Chong.
“Of course we can.”
The two answered frankly. The immediately started to chant a portion of the Sanskrit scriptures for Wang Chong.
…
“What is that lad up to?”
“Is he joking? He left home so early in the morning just to find these two monks to chant scriptures for him?”
Upon hearing the Sanskrit chanting from the streets, by the alley, the two Yao Residence guards stared at one another in shock. They felt as though they had been toyed with.
Wang Chong had left home so secretively, so the two thought that he had received some important intelligence or so. Yet, it turned out that he was just looking for two foreign monks to chant scriptures for him.
This was too ridiculous!
The two of them were completely unable to understand how the thoughts of these rich scions worked.
“What did I say? I said that this lad would never change, and gongzi had overestimated him! See, I am right! Take a look for yourself, is this lad even worth our effort? Our entire morning had been wasted on him!”
The Yao Residence guard with a scar on his face was filled with resentment. Seeing Wang Chong chuckling with joy from afar, he felt his anger surging through him.
“That may not be the case. Master and gongzi probably have their own intentions.”
The other guard said awkwardly.
“Intentions? Heh! You mean this? If I were to say, master and gongzi are simply making a big fuss out of nothing. He is just a kid, what kind of problems can he cause?”
The scarred guard scoffed:
“Besides, shouldn’t we follow his younger sister instead? Weren’t you at the Vast Crane Pavilion as well? The one that was truly impressive was his younger sister, and she should be the one we should follow. that fellow was only a sidekick then.”
The other guard opened his mouth to refute him, but he found himself unable to come up with an argument at all:
“Let’s just watch on for a little longer. Perhaps we might discover something else about him!”
“Discover? Discover what? It is enough wasting the entire morning on him, do you still want to waste an afternoon as well? If you want to wait, go ahead. In any case, I won’t be accompanying you.”
The scarred guard spouted impatiently.
The other guard opened his mouth only to close it again. He glanced into the distance and saw that the two foreign monks had already finished their chanting. Wang Chong bowed, invited the two foreign monks onto his carriage and left in the direction of the Wang Family Residence.
It looked like he was prepared to invite the two foreign monks to his home to chant!
“Sigh!”
The other guard sighed and finally gave up:
“Let’s forget it then! Gongzi had asked us to report all news to him as soon as possible, so let’s return to the residence to report this matter to him.”
As they spoke, they silently turned around and left.
“Gongzi, they have left.”
On the carriage, Meng Long released his grip on the hidden window at the back of the carriage and turned his head to say to Wang Chong. He had surveyed the surroundings for a long time and confirmed that the duo had not followed them.
“Great, let’s head to the Court of Judicial Review now!”
As though expecting this scenario, Wang Chong smiled.
Xiyuyu!
The horse neighed and pulled the carriage in a u-turn. Then, turning at a cross junction onto another path, it headed straight for the Central Plains Court of Judicial Review.
…
The Court of Judicial Review was in charge of preceding over criminal cases and settling contractual disputes in the capital.
However, the most important use of this location was to bear testimony to a contract. Any contract that was created here was extremely binding. The contracts made here were almost equivalent to being endorsed by the entire Great Tang Empire.
As such, no one dared to break the contract easily.
For many businessmen who were not well-acquainted with one another, it was the best to sign and file their contracts here. In fact, the first thing that many of the foreign merchants from Abbasid Caliphate, Western Region, Turkic Khaganate, Ü-Tsang, Silla and such countries upon reaching the capital was to head to the Court of Judicial Review to prepare their documents.
There were too many rich merchants in the capital and Wang Chong was worried that some other hiccups may occur if he were to delay the matter. Thus, he hurriedly pulled the two monks to the Court of Judicial Review to sign the contract.
To the two Sindhi monks, the Court of Judicial Review bearing witness to the contract meant an additional layer of security for them.
…
“Hu! I’m finally done!”
Wang Chong shook the contract in his hand as he walked out of the Court of Judicial Review. His heart felt a lot lighter than it did before.
“Masters, thank you! Within a month, I will definitely pay you the money for 300 jun of ores. However, I hope that you both would keep your promise.”
Wang Chong turned around to look at them.
“Of course. The Gods above can bear testimony that we Sindhis never break our promises.”
Below the large chinese scholar tree by the road, the two foreign monks said with a solemn face.
The first time they met, they did not really have high expectations of this young man and as such, they did not think that he would be a suitable collaborator for them in the Central Plains.
However, as they interacted with him, their impression of Wang Chong changed.
This young man’s thoughts were completely different from the average populace. Just to take the ‘right to distribute’ for example, they still weren’t able to get a clear grip on the concept yet.
Furthermore, his identity seemed even nobler than what they had previously thought. They felt this from the atmosphere in the Court of Judicial Review back then.
However, no matter how it was, this was something positive to their sales of Hyderabad ores in the Great Tang.
“Masters, let’s part here. We’ll get into contact if there’s still anything else.”
Wang Chong said to the duo.
“Un.”
The two foreign monks nodded their heads and left with widened strides.
Seeing the two disappearing into the corner, Wang Chong retracted his gaze.
“…Right now, I need to find a way to earn 90000 gold taels!”
Wang Chong mumbled.
Even though he got the right to distribute the Hyderabad ore from the Sindhi monks, what was troublesome was the latter part. After all, 90000 gold taels was by no means a small sum.
Wang Chong only had a monthly allowance of a few silver taels. Going by his monthly allowance, he wouldn’t have enough money even by the time he was lying in his coffin.
“My head hurts! I’ll think about the matter after I get back!”
Wang Chong patted his head and turned around to get onto his carriage.
Gululu!
The sound of the movement of a carriage echoed. Wang Chong had barely taken a few steps when something flashed across his eyes. A copper-colored carriage suddenly appeared perpendicular before him, blocking the path between him and his carriage.
Wang Chong was taken aback. He subconsciously lifted his head to take a look. When he saw the familiar flower carvings on the copper, Wang Chong’s face paled as though he was slapped by someone.
“Not good!”
Wang Chong’s face changed and he immediately turned around to flee, but it was too late. A smooth white jade-like hand which exuded the scent of flowers stretched out from the windows of the carriage as though a snake.
The movement of the arm didn’t look swift, but given Wang Chong’s abilities, he was unable to evade it at all. In an instant, his ear was held hostage.
“You little rascal, you dare to flee upon seeing your elder sister?”
From the elegant carriage, a haughty voice of a woman harrumphed. She sounded extremely gleeful, as though she was proud of the fact that she managed to grab Wang Chong’s ear.
“My dear cousin, let go, let go. I won’t flee, I won’t flee…”
Wang Chong’s ear was tugged on and twisted by that jade-like hand. His entire ear turned bright red as though it was scorched by flames and he howled in pain.
“What did you call me?”
The woman in the carriage harrumphed in dissatisfaction. Vaguely, the sound of movements could be heard from the carriage and it seemed like there was more than one person in the carriage.
“I was wrong, Second Sister!”
Upon seeing the situation not in his favor, Wang Chong immediately changed his words. Without his younger sister to serve as his bodyguard, Shen Hai and Meng Long, by themselves, weren’t a match for this ‘Second Sister’.
In fact, even if his younger sister was here, she wouldn’t have to dared to lay her hands on this ‘Second Sister’. At most, she could only paste herself on her body with a look of admiration and chant ‘Second Sister’ coyly over and over again.
“That’s more like it!”
In the carriage, the lady nodded her head in satisfaction. Lifting her finger up, the doors to the carriage opened. As though a kite, Wang Chong was lifted into the carriage.
As though being brought into an entirely different world, all Wang Chong could see in his sight was red.
“The both of you need not wait any further, return back. I will be taking this brat Wang Chong along with me!”
In the turn of an eye, the lady beside him commanded Shen Hai and Meng Long arrogantly before the carriage galloped away.
Calming down, Wang Chong noticed that the interior of the carriage was massive and it was mainly red and pink. It was clearly a carriage made for females.
Before Wang Chong was a young beautiful lady with a voluptuous figure who looked around twenty-four or twenty-five. She exuded a dignified aura and at this instant, her head was currently lowered as she groomed her crimson-colored nails.
Beside her, a curvaceous red-robed lady stared at Wang Chong and chuckled beneath her hands.
Wang Chong didn’t know the red-robed lady, but he felt awkward from being stared and laughed at like this.
“Second Sister, you were looking for me?”
Wang Chong glanced at the beautiful lady who was currently grooming her nails and mustered his courage to say.
This person was his cousin.
This cousin of his was the type of person that one couldn’t help but see her as a big sister-like figure and feel intimate to her; unknowingly, one would want to get close to her.
However, Wang Chong was an exception.
Different from the others, Wang Chong felt ‘fear’ upon seeing this ‘big sister’ and the urge to escape would overwhelm him.
There weren’t many women who could induce fear in Wang Chong.
Yet, this cousin of his happened to be one of them.
During Wang Chong’s rebellious age, when even his mother was unable to keep a leash on him, Wang Chong found himself helpless before this cousin of his. It was as though he was the Monkey Sun who was trapped in the palms of the Sakyamuni Buddha
In the Central Plains, when the authority of distinguished families reached a bottleneck, they would try to bear more descendants. The Wang Clan was the same as well. Regardless of whether it was his own family or those uncles and aunts of his, their households were full of children.
This cousin of his happened to be the second daughter of his big uncle.
Monkey Sun & Sakyamuni Buddha -> Journey to the West.
Big uncle -> elder uncle.
Little uncle -> younger uncle.
Big aunt -> elder aunt
Little aunt -> younger aunt
I have no idea how I should term the husband of an aunt yet, but I will probably just try to use ‘husband of so-and-so’ or if it comes down to it, I will use uncle.