Xia Wenjin smiled and said, "Then thank you for your concern. Let’s talk about this later. Today is the day for casting lots. Hurry up and get ready to go see the excitent!"
As she spoke, she was about to step out when Huangfu Jingchen grabbed her arm and said, "Wait!"
Xia Wenjin gently pulled away without a trace and said, "What’s wrong?"
Huangfu Jingchen didn’t seem to mind this small detail. With a sowhat serious expression, he said, "Last night, I walked around the temple and found so places very strange!"
"How strange?"
Huangfu Jingchen pondered, "I can’t say for sure, but there are won on this mountain!"
Xia Wenjin paused and said, "What’s wrong with having won?"
Huangfu Jingchen reminded her, "This is a Buddhist Temple!"
Xia Wenjin laughed, "You forgot. Today is the day for casting lots. Many incense guests co early just to draw a lot today. Quite a few people even stay at the temple."
"They are not staying here!"
"Naturally, this is where the n stay. It would be chaotic for won to stay here, so there must be another place!" Xia Wenjin still found it normal.
Huangfu Jingchen, seeing Xia Wenjin’s indifferent attitude, anxiously said, "But, but... those don’t look like... decent people!"
Xia Wenjin’s eyes flashed. She turned to Huangfu Jingchen, winked, and said playfully, "Oh, Brother Zheng, you can tell at a glance who is not decent? Tell , what does ’not decent’ an?"
Huangfu Jingchen’s expression turned slightly cold, "You don’t believe ?"
Xia Wenjin laughed, "I do, but hearing the words ’not decent’ from your mouth is so novel that I want to understand more deeply!"
Huangfu Jingchen looked at her with a hint of doubt in his eyes and said, "All this ti, haven’t you been treating like a child?"
She looked at him with a mix of jest, teasing, and a hint of the elder looking at the younger.
Though she sotis acted recklessly, her intentional and unintentional actions often placed her ahead of him, as if protecting him like an elder would a junior.
Even though she behaved casually and joked wildly, she was very restrained and distant when sothing serious happened.
"Uh..." Xia Wenjin paused, thinking carefully, and realized it was true. After all, when she died in her past life, she was twenty-five. Looking at an eighteen-year-old man now, wouldn’t she see him as a child? But in reality, she isn’t even sixteen yet.
Seeing her hesitation, Huangfu Jingchen coldly said, "I’m not a child anymore."
Xia Wenjin was slightly taken aback, looked at his resolute eyes, and considered her own mindset. She felt a bit inappropriate. She awkwardly tried to explain, "Well... maybe it’s because I am very experienced in the Jianghu, and you’re new to the world, so many things are unfamiliar, causing to have this thought. Just a little, just a little bit!"
Huangfu Jingchen had nothing to say. Being new to the world, he had been deceived even out of his clothes by her, embarrassed in every way. No wonder in her eyes he seed as naive as a child?
Seeing his displeased face, Xia Wenjin quickly added, "Actually, you are quite impressive. With my experience in the Jianghu, not many people can catch up with if I decide to escape. Yet, you managed to chase across hundreds of miles without losing track. I was preconceived. Rest assured, it won’t happen again in the future!"
With her words, Huangfu Jingchen’s expression softened a bit, though his mood remained sowhat low.
Xia Wenjin’s eyes blinked rapidly, her pupils darted around. She leaned closer, tugging at his sleeve, and said, "Tell , what did you find?"
Huangfu Jingchen turned his head, seeing her bright eyes looking at him. It was no longer an adult looking at a child, but with curiosity, inquiry, and a hint of appeasent, asking for a ceasefire. His mood quickly cald, and he said, "Last night, I was just looking around without any purpose, but on the roof of one house, I vaguely heard laughter, won’s laughter. It’s normal for female incense guests to co and stay as the lot-drawing day approaches, but I felt that laughter was far too improper for a Buddhist Temple, so I went to investigate. I rember it was northeast, in one of the Zen Temples, there were four or five won, dressed... seductively, behaving frivolously, laughing wantonly, like... people from a brothel. There were also n’s voices inside...
Xia Wenjin pondered, "Though so may bring their families to draw lots, there shouldn’t be such audacious flirting in a temple. That is indeed odd, but..." She paused, looking at Huangfu Jingchen, "The person we’re looking for definitely isn’t among them!"
Huangfu Jingchen asked, "Why?"
"The missing village won were all daughters of ordinary farrs. They wouldn’t be able to act so brazenly, dressed seductively, and behave frivolously, serving others actively," Xia Wenjin explained.
Huangfu Jingchen nodded seriously, "So, there are only two possibilities. Either soone indeed brought their family but ignored the temple’s sanctity, or those won were originally from a brothel, brought up the mountain."
Xia Wenjin’s eyes flickered with light, but she looked at Huangfu Jingchen and asked, "So you’re suggesting..."
Huangfu Jingchen’s face turned even more serious as he said slowly, "This Shian Temple is renowned and should be a solemn and orderly temple. If our suspicion is true, there are only two possibilities. Either soone in the temple is breaking the rules, and the managent is chaotic, allowing mischief-makers an opportunity, or... the entire temple has issues!"
Xia Wenjin’s eyes deepened as she nodded solemnly, "Let’s investigate carefully. But for now, let’s go see the lot-drawing event first."
Huangfu Jingchen lowered his eyes and saw a hint of a smile in Xia Wenjin’s. But it was no longer a teasing, playful smile, but one of equality, seeking his opinion, making the gloom and discontent he felt from being treated like a child vanish, his mood brightened.
In fact, he had said those words earlier partly because Xia Wenjin’s attitude made him slightly displeased, but also because his mindset had changed; he didn’t want to be underestimated by her.
He understood very well that the reason Xia Wenjin treated him like a junior was that so of his behaviors, in her eyes, seed childish.
After all, in front of soone with rich experience and knowledge of the Jianghu, his actions as a newcor must appear very naive.
He would work hard to change her perception of him.
He didn’t want to be seen as a junior, a child, or an immature person. Therefore, he needed to ensure his behavior was no longer simple and naive.
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