MHNEB 19 (1/2)

Book 1:  Now we don’t hear the loom shuttle; we only hear our daughter sighing.

第19章 倒霉崔琳

Chapter 19: Unlucky Cui Lin [Part 1 of 2]

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The so-called Qiuyuan temple, rather than describing it as a Buddhist temple, one should describe it as an old and worn-down temple. Although Yu City is not as heavily guarded as the central regions of the country, Yu City had also had a lot of temples. However, with Tuoba Tao’s “return to the secularism” policy, the monks all fled away from the temple and most of the temples were now in bad conditions.  

This Qiuyuan temple was originally located in a remote place. The smoke emitted from the incense of prayers were not obvious from plain sight. When the edict from the capital had passed down to “return the monks to secularism”, the few monks in the temple all fled. The originally unprosperous Buddhist temple transformed in an instant to a deserted temple. Later, this temple became a place for wandering swordsmen, beggars and exiles to hang out.

Now, this place is occupied by a group of LuShuihu.  The former people who resided in the Qiuyuan temple leisurely have all ran away, just like the previous owners of the temple. 

In the backyard of a shabby room, a wealthy noble was tied up. Although it appeared that he wasn’t treated with any good wine or food, it seemed that he wasn’t tortured as much as one had imagined.  

For the past few days, Cui Lin had thought of many ideas and ways to escape, but in the end, he decided not to do so. 

These people had made it clear that they came for him. After he was abducted, they immediately retreated here. They also sent some letters to the Cui family in Ping City and the county’s magistrate while appearing as if they were waiting for someone.

What he was concerned was who exactly they were waiting for. 

There were not many LuShuihus that had abducted him from Yu City. It was only about fifty people who had abducted him. But these 50 people were mostly cavalry soldiers. When his family’s guard faced off with them, his family guard was immediately losing the fight. Moreover, when they had already succeeded in capturing him, they retreated. He was beyond reach by his family’s guards as a person with two legs can’t match up to the speed of an animal who’s on four legs. 

He was dressed like a commoner as a disguise when he was at Yu City, but he was still caught by these people. Apparently, they had noticed him when he was at Ping City. The ones with intentions stalk the one without intention. This time, he had really been abducted. 

"It’s useless by abducting me. In Great Wei, everyone is clear of my grandfather's character. All of you are only against me. At most, they would just let me take my own life to resolve this crisis. They will never exchange me for Shi YuanJia and Xi Yuan."

Cui Lin spoke fluently in Xianbei to the young leader of this group of people. He knew that the curly-haired braided leader, as well as several companions next to him, can speak in the Xianbei language.

Gai Wu used a small dagger to shave a woodcarving without uttering a single word. These few days, he personally watched over Cui Lin. Other than going to the toilet, he did not leave a single step away from him.

There are officials and soldiers confronting the Lushuihus in the Qiuyuan temple, but since the county soldiers that Yu city is able to mobilize are only up to a few hundred people. They could easily surround them. If they are attacked violently by these soldiers, he planned to use ratproof devices on them. This person, Gai Wu, is not anxious at all. Seeing this, Cui Lin had become anxious. 

"I haven't seen you so eager to seek your own death. If you have no value, we should just kill you.” A youth beside Gai Wu cruelly muttered, “Do you want us to scoop out your heart or dig out your brain? We would satisfy your wishes.” 

“Even if you scoop out my heart or dig out my brain, my grandfather and my liege would never fulfil your wishes. I’m just an unimportant person……”

“You are about to marry the princess; how could you be deemed as an unimportant person!”

“Bai Ma(0)!” Gai Wu used the Xiongnu language to interrupt the youth’s words. “This Han-ren is trying to worm out details from your words, stop talking.”  

Bai Ma was given a shock. He stared at Cui Lin momentarily, as he took a few strides and was about to give Cui Lin a slap.

“Bai Ma!” Gai Wu stood at a side with a stern-looking gigantic man. The man caught the youth’s hand. Gai Wu continued to speak in the Xiongnu language to convince him, “It’s due to your carelessness. He purposely tried to force you into a state of agitation. You can just ignore him.”

The man forced the youth to retreat. Then, the man searched around the house for a bit and found a strip of dusty monk’s robe with holes in it. He forcibly pushed one of the trousers’ sleeves into Cui Lin’s mouth.

This Han-ren was very docile and obedient for the past few days. Today when the troops started to surround the temple, he started to become disobedient. 

Cui Lin’s mouth was stuffed with a cloth that’s smelly and full of dust. All of a sudden, a lot of dust started to trickle down his throat. He wanted to violently cough it out, and his stomach can’t help but gurgle and churn. Helpless with his current situation that he’s mouth is being stuffed, he could only cough and vomit dryly. 

Towards those disciples who had never borne any hardship before, this type of torture was crueller than inflicting physical torture on them. When the youth named Bai Ma saw how he was being treated, he immediately laughed happily. With this, the youth dropped the idea of slapping him. 

Cui Lin stared at Gai Wu in humiliation. He knew that the hardest person to deal with now was this Hu-ren who did not speak a word to him.

Not much people in the capital knew of the matter of him marrying Princess Shang soon, other than his grandfather. These Lushuihus had chosen him as a target, because of this information. It can be seen that the mastermind behind these Lushuihus is a noble lord whose status is not low. 

This is reasonable because Ping City has a few Xianbei nobles who believed in the teachings of Buddhism. Because of the Emperor’s policy of suppressing Buddhism, many Xianbei nobles had threatened him with their deaths. At this time, they had tasked the Lushuihus to force his grandfather to concede and to teach his grandfather a lesson. This reasoning had matched with the motives of these people. 

Moreover, these Lushuihus also believed in Buddhism. They believed in “Reaping lives to attain enlightenment”(1). It’s normal for them to work together with the mastermind and sell their lives for the sake of their faith and money.

Cui Lin was docile and obedient the past few days because he didn’t know why these Lushuihus caught him-was it because of monetary reasons or otherwise? Today, he heard the loud shouts from the soldiers that were surrounding this area. The moment he knew their motives, he felt much more relieved. 

As long as he possesses a use, his life will not be at risk.

As long as they still wished to discuss the conditions for exchange with the Emperor, just by catching him as a gambling chip would not be enough. He thought that they might be waiting for a certain someone or something to happen. That will then be pivotal to the whole issue. 

Thinking of this, he can’t help but feel the itch in his mouth. He felt that he must utter out a word or a phrase. 

It was only he did not think of the stern-looking, gigantic man behind the leader would be so lacking in morals. Because the man was afraid that he would speak, he actually used such a dirty item to shove it into his mouth.

Cough, cough, cough, he’s afraid that he would not know the taste of meat in three months! 

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(0) The name Bai Ma (白马）: lit. translation: White Horse. 

(1) 杀生成佛: (Literal meaning: Killing lives to become Buddha); Not sure whether it comes from the idiom 放下屠刀，立地成佛, which means putting down the knife, and becoming Buddha on the spot.) Anyway, becoming Buddha is synonymous with reaching enlightenment in a lot of Buddhist teachings. So, I chose that because it made more sense. 

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Fleur's Corner: 

A short chapter update, because firstly I rushed this chapter out due to time constraints, (sorry if you spot any grammatical errors). Secondly, because this chapter is originally short. Hopefully, I'll be able to update the chapter before 18th, as I'm going overseas for a short trip. 

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