AWB Chapter 1992 49 Cities Are Not for You, a New Monk, to Chant Sutras
Chapter 1992 49 Cities Are Not for You, a New Monk, to Chant Sutras
The air in the study froze once again.
Shangguan Wuji stood there, maintaining his bowed listening posture, but he seemed frozen in place.
His expression was still lingering on the compliment of the gentleman's brilliant plan from a moment ago, but deep in his eyes, a storm suddenly surged.
"gentlemen……"
His voice even changed tone, becoming dry as if sand was rubbing in his throat.
The person behind the screen seemed to have anticipated his reaction, and did not urge him, but simply waited quietly.
Shangguan Wuji slowly straightened up, his movements stiff like a puppet. He looked towards the screen, but although he couldn't see anything, his eyes were filled with unbelievable panic.
Shangguan Wuji repeated, "Sir, you...you're not joking, are you?"
"Do you think I'm joking?" The man's voice was emotionless, as if he was still admiring Shangguan Wuji's expression at that moment.
"But..." Shangguan Wuji opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found his mouth dry. He subconsciously reached for the tea, and his fingers trembled slightly when they touched the teacup. The teacup made a soft clinking sound on the saucer.
He needs some tea!
I need to suppress the chill that's creeping down my spine!
Use that piping hot tea!
He finally swallowed the tea, but found that it couldn't suppress the chill at all.
The chill crept up his tailbone, climbing up his spine vertebra by vertebra, finally exploding on Shangguan Wuji's scalp, making his hair stand on end.
"Sir!" He finally found his voice, but the previous composure was gone. "Do you know who that person you were just talking about is?"
"Of course I know!" The man's voice was calm and collected. "Young Master Buddha is a name that cannot be ignored in the underworld of Yanjing! He's not someone to be trifled with!"
"He's not someone to be trifled with!" Shangguan Wuji blurted out almost without thinking, his voice rising involuntarily. "He is...he is..."
He couldn't go on!
He desperately wanted to call himself a demon, a devil, a messenger from the underworld, a soul-reaping impermanence!
Just hearing that name filled him with an instinctive fear!
The lights in the study seemed to have dimmed a bit.
The wind and snow outside the window intensified, the sound of the snow hitting the windowpanes dense and rustling, like countless hands pounding on the window.
Shangguan Wuji slowly sat down, but this time, he didn't sit with the same confidence as before.
His back was slightly hunched, and his hands were clenched into fists on his knees, turning completely white.
"Sir!" He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down: "You're telling me to push this matter onto Young Master Buddha? Isn't that just asking me to commit suicide?"
There was no response from behind the screen.
Shangguan Wuji wiped the sweat from his brow, his voice low as if he were talking about something shady, and continued, "You know Little Buddha better than I do! He's only emerged in the last few decades... but the way he did it was incredibly ruthless!"
He paused, as if recalling something terrible, and his face paled even more.
“I remember the spring of 64,” he gasped, his voice filled with reminiscence, each word spoken slowly, as if he were painstakingly digging out something buried deep in his memory: “There was a shop in Panjiayuan, run by someone surnamed Wang, I think. He had a batch of Ming Dynasty imperial porcelain, which was his family heirloom! The young master took a liking to it and sent someone to negotiate the price. The price was driven down so low that it was practically robbery!”
"Old Master Wang refuses to sell, saying it was passed down from his ancestors and he wouldn't sell it for any amount of money! Besides..."
The study was quiet except for the ticking of the grandfather clock.
"And then?" the person behind the screen asked calmly.
"And then?" Shangguan Wuji gave a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Three days later, Old Master Wang's grandson disappeared on his way home from school! He was only a teenager, and he left home happily with his schoolbag in the morning, but he didn't come back that night! The Wang family reported it to the police, and the whole city searched for him. I remember it vividly, but they couldn't find him anywhere!"
"On the fourth day, Old Master Wang received a package! When he opened it—" Shangguan Wuji's throat bobbed as he spoke, "it contained his grandson's finger and a note with just one sentence: 'Exchange the porcelain for the child!'"
The wind outside the window suddenly picked up.
Shangguan Wuji's voice sounded even deeper and more weathered by the wind: "Old Master Wang went mad on the spot! He handed over all the porcelain, but it was too late! The child never came back! The police found the body in the moat, and when they pulled it out, there wasn't a single good piece of flesh on the child's body!"
He stopped, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and his face turned pale.
"That was just the beginning!" Shangguan Wuji continued, "Later, in Panjiayuan, whoever received a note from Little Buddha dared not hand over their good stuff? Later, Little Buddha probably found the porcelain too cloying, so he stopped asking for it. Otherwise, would Panjiayuan still have any good stuff?"
He paused for a moment, then continued, "There was another year, I think it was 71. There were two old thugs in Xidan who, relying on their local power, didn't give Little Buddha any face and extorted protection money from one of his shops! Little Buddha sent people to talk to them, but those two old thugs were quite arrogant, saying things like, 'It's not your place, a newcomer, to chant sutras in Beijing!'"
"And then?" the man asked, his voice showing interest.
"And then?" Shangguan Wuji swallowed hard, then smiled bitterly, "The next day, those two old thugs were found lying naked at the entrance of their own alley, their bodies covered in writing carved with knives. What did they carve? It was all the shameful things they'd done over the years—who they'd taken money from, who they'd collected debts from, who they'd harmed, which woman they'd driven to her death, which girl they'd slept with..."
"Tsk tsk tsk, those words were carved so deeply, tearing through the flesh, avoiding vital points. You can tell at a glance that they won't die anytime soon! They were forced to talk while they were carving those words on their bodies!"
"Is the person dead?" the man asked.
"How could that be!" Shangguan Wuji shook his head, his face bitter. "When the police came, those two old bastards didn't dare say a word. They claimed to know nothing about anything they were asked. Their wounds got infected, and they were in the hospital for three whole months. After they were discharged, they took their entire families and left Yanjing overnight, never to return!"
Shangguan Wuji raised his head and looked at the screen: "These are just two things I remember! In the many years that followed, Little Buddha's methods became more and more ruthless, his tricks became more and more varied, and his territory became more and more expansive! In Yanjing City now, whether in the underworld or the legitimate world, who doesn't know his name? Who doesn't give him face?"
He paused, a bitter look on his face. "Sir, you want me to go and say that it was Little Buddha who did it? Wouldn't that be the same as pointing my finger at Little Buddha in front of all the important people in Yanjing and saying, 'You framed me'?"
"So?" the person behind the screen asked.
"So I will die!" Shangguan Wuji finally couldn't hold back anymore, his voice filled with barely suppressed excitement: "Little Buddha hates it most when people throw mud at him! Especially mudslinging involving Li Xiangnan, who is at the height of his power!"
He paced back and forth in the study, his steps hurried and heavy, his whole body exuding unease and panic.
He is now in a dilemma. If he doesn't say this, he will become Li Xiangnan's target. If he does say this, he will become a target for both Li Xiangnan and Little Buddha!
What should I do?