Copper Coins

Chapter 15: Silver Doctor’s Bells (1)

 

Adviser Liu stilled, eyes wide and body rigid with fear, so frightened that he forgot to breathe.

 

If one commits too many evils, there will be a day when even their own mother would not want to see them. The difference between him, a scoundrel, and the tear-stained Liu Chong was obvious, ironic even.

 

Old Granny Liu wiped off a handful of tears as she watched Advisor Liu, her sobs gradually subsiding. While her expression collected, her eyes were still filled with cloudy tears, revealing her profound grief.

 

“Why are you shaking?” Old Granny Liu restrained her distress. “Could it be that you are still scared of your mother coming for your life?”

 

Advisor Liu instinctively shook his head, his face a ghastly white and his lips trembling uncontrollably, stammering, “Your son only just....only…”

 

His voice choked up, unable to continue. Lowering his head, he heaved in two deep breaths before hurriedly kneeling, knocking his head harshly on the ground as he bowed towards Old Granny Liu, “Your son recklessly trusted that cultivator’s wicked lies and meddled with evil. Your son has been unfilial.”

 

Weeping a face full of tears and mucus, he pressed his welted forehead to the ground, unable to form any other coherent sentence.

 

“What have you done?” Xue Xian shot a loathsome glower at the huddled figure. Being a blunt and straightforward person, he hated people who obfuscated to excuse themselves the most. Unfiliality is unfilial and toxicity and selfishness are precisely toxic and selfish. To just shove all the blame onto the cultivator, he really was shameless. He was literally deceiving his dear mother with these lies.

 

Old Granny Liu said nothing and just silently looked at Advisor Liu. To see one’s own child, whom they raised, turn out to be such a person, anyone would feel unsettled. After a long pause, she softly sighed, “A clap does not sound with only one hand.”

 

If one did not care, even if a cultivator spoke flowers into existence, they would not listen.

 

The still-prostrating Advisor Liu stiffened at her words. He carefully lifted his head, hoping to glean an inkling from her eyes but did not find any aura akin to a malevolent spirit surrounding her.

 

Granny Liu sighed again, beckoning him with a hand. “Come closer.”

 

This grandmother must have been blessed with a slow temper. Her tone remained soft and gentle but there was still a hint of helplessness.

 

Hearing no resentment from her request, Advisor Liu disregarded his previous hesitancy and shuffled toward Granny Liu with a glimmer of hope in his eyes—after all, someone who had changed into a malevolent spirit would not speak with such tenderness. Perhaps there was a solution.

 

“Look at your mother,” said Granny Liu quietly.

 

“I really haven’t looked at you like this in a very long time.” Advisor Liu pushed his luck, tacking on another sentence. 

 

Old Granny Liu stared at him and swung back an open palm!

 

Smack!

 

No one expected her to suddenly do such a thing, leaving all of them in a dumbfounded stupor.

 

Affected the most, Advisor Liu held his face, wearing an expression of utter shock.

 

“Mother, you…” He was speechless.

 

“Ahhhh…My hand is also itching,” sighed Xue Xian disappointedly.

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

Being in such a state, Advisor Liu completely missed Xue Xian’s mutterings. After pausing for ages with a hand to his face, he finally found his mind. “I, I didn’t know of any other method. I really didn’t have any other option. I asked the cultivator for your sake.”

 

He finished the sentence and, suddenly, as if he had suddenly found a way to explain, said, “Since the beginning, I requested the cultivator for your sake. Your body was getting weaker and weaker with one side always hunched over. That charlatan from the Jiang family told me that with one sickness ushering in another, it would be difficult for you to ever fully heal from it. Only then did I consider asking a cultivator. Mother, you don’t understand, your north-eastern room was in a good location. The cultivator told me that once the arrangements were made, the place would be able to raise human flesh and bone back from the dead and I just wished for you to heal sooner. But…Uhh…”

 

“Isn’t the north-east room where your son Liu Jin lives?” asked Xue Xian in a puzzled tone.

 

Coincidently hearing the comment between the gaps of his sighs, Advisor Liu instinctively clarified, “Jin-er moved in there later!”

 

After a prolonged silence, Old Granny Liu straightened and spoke, “I know.”  She gazed at Advisor Liu reflectively. “Not only did you let me stay in a good room of the house but you also came in every single day with tea and water. In the end, when I was paralyzed and couldn’t get up, you would sit by my bed whenever you had spare time, waiting on me…Mother remembers it all.”

 

How could a person contradict with themselves to such an extent? Claiming that he was not filial but he truly did his duty as a son for his mother. Claiming that he was filial, yet with just a few words from the cultivator, he looked away when his dear mother was being bound to the house and whatever could be used was used without even a little bit wasted.

 

“But…” Old Granny Liu said abruptly, “it wasn’t until you confined me to the house when I realised why you had let me stay in the good room, that it was for taking my Chong-er’s life in trade.”

 

“This slap is for Chong-er!” Old Granny Liu swiftly raised her hand.

 

Smack!

 

The second palm hit the other half of Advisor Liu’s face.

 

“This slap is for the sake of the Jiangs’ medicine hall’s doctor!” Slowing, Old Granny Liu continued, “The medicine I ate on my last day, it was you who switched it, wasn’t it? Though my mind wasn’t as clear, you can taste it when medicine changes. I gave birth to you, I understand your inner thoughts…”

 

She shook her head, sighing, “You only saw that mother wasn’t improving in any case so you acted filial for a half-dead person to see, hard work but no need to please. Once the reputation spread, you listened to that impudent cultivator’s words and urged mother to pass on conveniently early, right?”

 

Advisor Liu knelt there, utterly silent.

 

“You have done what you’ve done but you truly shouldn’t have placed the blame on Doctor Jiang. Though I could not see or speak by then, I could still hear the discussions between the servant girls. Doctor Jiang was labeled as a charlatan for the rest of his life because of you. Do you even feel guilty?”

 

Granny Liu shut her eyes. Having maintained her human form for so long, it had started to slowly fade with parts of her face becoming unclear. “I am your mother, Chong-er is your son. One’s own family has a personal method of calculation, outsiders have their own. Mother helped you turn the millstone for three years. Consider it paying my debt to you as my child. Also consider Chong-er living under the roof for this long as a payment for the debt of you raising him for twelve years…And the debt you owe the Jiang family should also be paid.”

 

“Mother…Mother, what do you mean?” Advisor Liu straightened and lifted his head, his lost expression tinged with alarm and bewilderment.

 

“To owe someone is just that, it cannot be blotted out. Debts must always be repaid.” Old Granny Liu looked at him one last time, before turning away towards Xuan Min and asked in a quiet voice, “Master, shouldn’t I move on now?”

 

She probably took Xuan Min for a Buddist monk who guided lost souls to the afterlife.

 

Xuan Min looked down at her and pointed at the millstone.

 

Without needing to hear him speak, Granny nodded, seeming to already understand what he meant. She turned to look at Liu Chong. The fool who had been curled up into a ball and crying lifted his head. He did not really understand her words just now but reacted to Old Granny Liu’s movement, “Grandmother…are, are you tired?”

 

“Yes, Grandmother’s really tired,” said Old Granny Liu tenderly. “I have to go sleep for a bit.”.

 

“Then when I burn ingots in the future, can I still see you?”

 

“Everything you say, Grandmother will hear. Though you may not see Grandmother, Grandmother will always…watch over you.” With these words, Granny Liu sank into the millstone.

 

Xuan Min picked up the millstone and Jiang Shining’s paper form off the floor, turned and walked out of the house.

 

“Master! Master! My face—” Dazed and dumbfounded, Advisor Liu stumbled and crashed his way out of the house. He shakily felt at his face while hollering, “Why’s it swelling up?!”

 

Xuan Min glanced over at him.

 

Both of Advisor Liu’s cheeks were swelling up profusely in the distinct shape of handprints. The handprints were a bloody red and the skin was so thin that the veins underneath could be seen clear as day, like spiderwebs. It honestly looked a bit terrifying.

 

“Resentful spirits cannot touch humans,” said Xuan Min.

 

Blinking rapidly, Advisor Liu’s face was so swollen that he had difficulty speaking, “Then why am I…”

 

“Resentful spirits with grievances have a single chance to seek retribution,” said Xuan Min. “They are able to mar the body of those who wronged them.”

 

Advisor Liu looked alarmed. “What about after they leave the mark? Will she be coming back to take my life?”

 

Xuan Min coldy stated, “She did not leave it for herself, it is for your son Liu Chong and Doctor Jiang’s family. These two people suffered a lifetime of bitter hardship because of you and they shall be returned to you.”

 

Give him a taste of his own medicine.

 

“Don’t go, don’t go, save me! Master, save me—” Advisor Liu dropped to the ground, kneeling before Xuan Min, and shuffled forward on his knees, grabbing the hem of Xuan Min’s robe in a death grip.

 

From his position at Xuan Min’s waist, Xue Xian suddenly asked, “The one with the surname Liu, I ask you this! This past summer, did you go to Huameng County in Guangdong?”

 

In the midst of his panic, Advisor Liu had assumed Xuan Min was the one asking. Shaking his head, he repeatedly assured, “I haven't, I haven’t, I’ve never travelled that far away before.”

 

After answering, he continued to beg, trembling, “Save me, please, save me...”

 

“How’s that possible?” asked Xue Xian harshly.

 

“It’s the truth! The complete and utter truth! Not a single sentence is false. Why would I even dare to trick you?” Considering his current state and the way his head scraped the ground, Advisor Liu certainly did not seem to be faking it.

 

How could that be? If he has never been to Huameng, why does he have the blood mark?! Xue Xian glared at the side of his ear where the blood mark that Xuan Min pointed out was. He was half perplexed and half infuriated.

 

“If there’s even half a sentence where you’re hiding something—”

 

“I wouldn’t dare, I really wouldn’t. Why would I…Oh!” For the sake of salvation, Advisor Liu was so zealous that he seemed willing to slice open his head for others to see. “Right! Now that you mention Guangdong and Huameng, I do remember someone who came from around there. A fisherman, but I barely interacted with him. I only bought an orb that looked like gold but wasn’t actually—”

 

“An orb?! What did it look like?” Xue Xian interrupted Advisor Liu the moment he heard, fiercely reminded of the familiar humming anticipation before a game and couldn’t help but ask, “Where is the orb now?”

 

Advisor Liu cowered a bit, hemming and hawing as he muttered, “It’s…”

 

“What are you mumbling?! Speak louder!” Whenever Xue Xian came across people who obfuscated at crucial moments like this, he just wanted to pick them up with a claw and chuck them into the Southern Sea.

 

“The cultivator said that the gold orb had ample spiritual energy so he helped me smelt it into the millstone…” Advisor Liu’s head had nearly shrunk into his collar.

 

Xue Xian, “…” You f*cking took the body of a true dragon and smelted it into a millstone? How about you stuff your f*cking self into it?!

 

He was so enraged that he straight up clawed his way over.

 

Xuan Min noticed that he had stopped moving and speaking so he lifted his leg.

 

“You can’t leave, you can’t. Save me, save me, please…” Advisor Liu aggressively clutched the corner of Xuan Min’s robe, not letting it go for the life of him.

 

Xuan Min looked at him and crouched down. He whispered a sentence that Advisor Liu did not understand, something similar to an ancient line from the Classics.

 

He then knocked the back of his hand against the forehead of Advisor Liu, who felt a tremor in his head akin to tens of thousands of bells ringing.

 

He perked up and murmured, “I-is the mark gone?”

 

Xuan Min looked at him and calmly replied, “It only assures—that the debt will be repaid.”

 

Advisor Liu froze the instant he heard this.

 

Xuan Min smoothly ripped off the edge of his robe that Advisor Liu clutched, stood up, and walked away.

 

Advisor Liu swiftly changed his tune, rolling and calling out, “Buddhists and Buddhist schools have always valued compassion above all else—”

 

Xuan Min did not even spare him a glance, striding out purposefully, and replied indifferently, “This poor monk has never cultivated compassion.”

Chapter 15: Silver Doctor’s Bells (1)

 

Adviser Liu stilled, eyes wide and body rigid with fear, so frightened that he forgot to breathe.

 

If one commits too many evils, there will be a day when even their own mother would not want to see them. The difference between him, a scoundrel, and the tear-stained Liu Chong was obvious, ironic even.

 

Old Granny Liu wiped off a handful of tears as she watched Advisor Liu, her sobs gradually subsiding. While her expression collected, her eyes were still filled with cloudy tears, revealing her profound grief.

 

“Why are you shaking?” Old Granny Liu restrained her distress. “Could it be that you are still scared of your mother coming for your life?”

 

Advisor Liu instinctively shook his head, his face a ghastly white and his lips trembling uncontrollably, stammering, “Your son only just....only…”

 

His voice choked up, unable to continue. Lowering his head, he heaved in two deep breaths before hurriedly kneeling, knocking his head harshly on the ground as he bowed towards Old Granny Liu, “Your son recklessly trusted that cultivator’s wicked lies and meddled with evil. Your son has been unfilial.”

 

Weeping a face full of tears and mucus, he pressed his welted forehead to the ground, unable to form any other coherent sentence.

 

“What have you done?” Xue Xian shot a loathsome glower at the huddled figure. Being a blunt and straightforward person, he hated people who obfuscated to excuse themselves the most. Unfiliality is unfilial and toxicity and selfishness are precisely toxic and selfish. To just shove all the blame onto the cultivator, he really was shameless. He was literally deceiving his dear mother with these lies.

 

Old Granny Liu said nothing and just silently looked at Advisor Liu. To see one’s own child, whom they raised, turn out to be such a person, anyone would feel unsettled. After a long pause, she softly sighed, “A clap does not sound with only one hand.”

 

If one did not care, even if a cultivator spoke flowers into existence, they would not listen.

 

The still-prostrating Advisor Liu stiffened at her words. He carefully lifted his head, hoping to glean an inkling from her eyes but did not find any aura akin to a malevolent spirit surrounding her.

 

Granny Liu sighed again, beckoning him with a hand. “Come closer.”

 

This grandmother must have been blessed with a slow temper. Her tone remained soft and gentle but there was still a hint of helplessness.

 

Hearing no resentment from her request, Advisor Liu disregarded his previous hesitancy and shuffled toward Granny Liu with a glimmer of hope in his eyes—after all, someone who had changed into a malevolent spirit would not speak with such tenderness. Perhaps there was a solution.

 

“Look at your mother,” said Granny Liu quietly.

 

“I really haven’t looked at you like this in a very long time.” Advisor Liu pushed his luck, tacking on another sentence. 

 

Old Granny Liu stared at him and swung back an open palm!

 

Smack!

 

No one expected her to suddenly do such a thing, leaving all of them in a dumbfounded stupor.

 

Affected the most, Advisor Liu held his face, wearing an expression of utter shock.

 

“Mother, you…” He was speechless.

 

“Ahhhh…My hand is also itching,” sighed Xue Xian disappointedly.

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

Being in such a state, Advisor Liu completely missed Xue Xian’s mutterings. After pausing for ages with a hand to his face, he finally found his mind. “I, I didn’t know of any other method. I really didn’t have any other option. I asked the cultivator for your sake.”

 

He finished the sentence and, suddenly, as if he had suddenly found a way to explain, said, “Since the beginning, I requested the cultivator for your sake. Your body was getting weaker and weaker with one side always hunched over. That charlatan from the Jiang family told me that with one sickness ushering in another, it would be difficult for you to ever fully heal from it. Only then did I consider asking a cultivator. Mother, you don’t understand, your north-eastern room was in a good location. The cultivator told me that once the arrangements were made, the place would be able to raise human flesh and bone back from the dead and I just wished for you to heal sooner. But…Uhh…”

 

“Isn’t the north-east room where your son Liu Jin lives?” asked Xue Xian in a puzzled tone.

 

Coincidently hearing the comment between the gaps of his sighs, Advisor Liu instinctively clarified, “Jin-er moved in there later!”

 

After a prolonged silence, Old Granny Liu straightened and spoke, “I know.”  She gazed at Advisor Liu reflectively. “Not only did you let me stay in a good room of the house but you also came in every single day with tea and water. In the end, when I was paralyzed and couldn’t get up, you would sit by my bed whenever you had spare time, waiting on me…Mother remembers it all.”

 

How could a person contradict with themselves to such an extent? Claiming that he was not filial but he truly did his duty as a son for his mother. Claiming that he was filial, yet with just a few words from the cultivator, he looked away when his dear mother was being bound to the house and whatever could be used was used without even a little bit wasted.

 

“But…” Old Granny Liu said abruptly, “it wasn’t until you confined me to the house when I realised why you had let me stay in the good room, that it was for taking my Chong-er’s life in trade.”

 

“This slap is for Chong-er!” Old Granny Liu swiftly raised her hand.

 

Smack!

 

The second palm hit the other half of Advisor Liu’s face.

 

“This slap is for the sake of the Jiangs’ medicine hall’s doctor!” Slowing, Old Granny Liu continued, “The medicine I ate on my last day, it was you who switched it, wasn’t it? Though my mind wasn’t as clear, you can taste it when medicine changes. I gave birth to you, I understand your inner thoughts…”

 

She shook her head, sighing, “You only saw that mother wasn’t improving in any case so you acted filial for a half-dead person to see, hard work but no need to please. Once the reputation spread, you listened to that impudent cultivator’s words and urged mother to pass on conveniently early, right?”

 

Advisor Liu knelt there, utterly silent.

 

“You have done what you’ve done but you truly shouldn’t have placed the blame on Doctor Jiang. Though I could not see or speak by then, I could still hear the discussions between the servant girls. Doctor Jiang was labeled as a charlatan for the rest of his life because of you. Do you even feel guilty?”

 

Granny Liu shut her eyes. Having maintained her human form for so long, it had started to slowly fade with parts of her face becoming unclear. “I am your mother, Chong-er is your son. One’s own family has a personal method of calculation, outsiders have their own. Mother helped you turn the millstone for three years. Consider it paying my debt to you as my child. Also consider Chong-er living under the roof for this long as a payment for the debt of you raising him for twelve years…And the debt you owe the Jiang family should also be paid.”

 

“Mother…Mother, what do you mean?” Advisor Liu straightened and lifted his head, his lost expression tinged with alarm and bewilderment.

 

“To owe someone is just that, it cannot be blotted out. Debts must always be repaid.” Old Granny Liu looked at him one last time, before turning away towards Xuan Min and asked in a quiet voice, “Master, shouldn’t I move on now?”

 

She probably took Xuan Min for a Buddist monk who guided lost souls to the afterlife.

 

Xuan Min looked down at her and pointed at the millstone.

 

Without needing to hear him speak, Granny nodded, seeming to already understand what he meant. She turned to look at Liu Chong. The fool who had been curled up into a ball and crying lifted his head. He did not really understand her words just now but reacted to Old Granny Liu’s movement, “Grandmother…are, are you tired?”

 

“Yes, Grandmother’s really tired,” said Old Granny Liu tenderly. “I have to go sleep for a bit.”.

 

“Then when I burn ingots in the future, can I still see you?”

 

“Everything you say, Grandmother will hear. Though you may not see Grandmother, Grandmother will always…watch over you.” With these words, Granny Liu sank into the millstone.

 

Xuan Min picked up the millstone and Jiang Shining’s paper form off the floor, turned and walked out of the house.

 

“Master! Master! My face—” Dazed and dumbfounded, Advisor Liu stumbled and crashed his way out of the house. He shakily felt at his face while hollering, “Why’s it swelling up?!”

 

Xuan Min glanced over at him.

 

Both of Advisor Liu’s cheeks were swelling up profusely in the distinct shape of handprints. The handprints were a bloody red and the skin was so thin that the veins underneath could be seen clear as day, like spiderwebs. It honestly looked a bit terrifying.

 

“Resentful spirits cannot touch humans,” said Xuan Min.

 

Blinking rapidly, Advisor Liu’s face was so swollen that he had difficulty speaking, “Then why am I…”

 

“Resentful spirits with grievances have a single chance to seek retribution,” said Xuan Min. “They are able to mar the body of those who wronged them.”

 

Advisor Liu looked alarmed. “What about after they leave the mark? Will she be coming back to take my life?”

 

Xuan Min coldy stated, “She did not leave it for herself, it is for your son Liu Chong and Doctor Jiang’s family. These two people suffered a lifetime of bitter hardship because of you and they shall be returned to you.”

 

Give him a taste of his own medicine.

 

“Don’t go, don’t go, save me! Master, save me—” Advisor Liu dropped to the ground, kneeling before Xuan Min, and shuffled forward on his knees, grabbing the hem of Xuan Min’s robe in a death grip.

 

From his position at Xuan Min’s waist, Xue Xian suddenly asked, “The one with the surname Liu, I ask you this! This past summer, did you go to Huameng County in Guangdong?”

 

In the midst of his panic, Advisor Liu had assumed Xuan Min was the one asking. Shaking his head, he repeatedly assured, “I haven't, I haven’t, I’ve never travelled that far away before.”

 

After answering, he continued to beg, trembling, “Save me, please, save me...”

 

“How’s that possible?” asked Xue Xian harshly.

 

“It’s the truth! The complete and utter truth! Not a single sentence is false. Why would I even dare to trick you?” Considering his current state and the way his head scraped the ground, Advisor Liu certainly did not seem to be faking it.

 

How could that be? If he has never been to Huameng, why does he have the blood mark?! Xue Xian glared at the side of his ear where the blood mark that Xuan Min pointed out was. He was half perplexed and half infuriated.

 

“If there’s even half a sentence where you’re hiding something—”

 

“I wouldn’t dare, I really wouldn’t. Why would I…Oh!” For the sake of salvation, Advisor Liu was so zealous that he seemed willing to slice open his head for others to see. “Right! Now that you mention Guangdong and Huameng, I do remember someone who came from around there. A fisherman, but I barely interacted with him. I only bought an orb that looked like gold but wasn’t actually—”

 

“An orb?! What did it look like?” Xue Xian interrupted Advisor Liu the moment he heard, fiercely reminded of the familiar humming anticipation before a game and couldn’t help but ask, “Where is the orb now?”

 

Advisor Liu cowered a bit, hemming and hawing as he muttered, “It’s…”

 

“What are you mumbling?! Speak louder!” Whenever Xue Xian came across people who obfuscated at crucial moments like this, he just wanted to pick them up with a claw and chuck them into the Southern Sea.

 

“The cultivator said that the gold orb had ample spiritual energy so he helped me smelt it into the millstone…” Advisor Liu’s head had nearly shrunk into his collar.

 

Xue Xian, “…” You f*cking took the body of a true dragon and smelted it into a millstone? How about you stuff your f*cking self into it?!

 

He was so enraged that he straight up clawed his way over.

 

Xuan Min noticed that he had stopped moving and speaking so he lifted his leg.

 

“You can’t leave, you can’t. Save me, save me, please…” Advisor Liu aggressively clutched the corner of Xuan Min’s robe, not letting it go for the life of him.

 

Xuan Min looked at him and crouched down. He whispered a sentence that Advisor Liu did not understand, something similar to an ancient line from the Classics.

 

He then knocked the back of his hand against the forehead of Advisor Liu, who felt a tremor in his head akin to tens of thousands of bells ringing.

 

He perked up and murmured, “I-is the mark gone?”

 

Xuan Min looked at him and calmly replied, “It only assures—that the debt will be repaid.”

 

Advisor Liu froze the instant he heard this.

 

Xuan Min smoothly ripped off the edge of his robe that Advisor Liu clutched, stood up, and walked away.

 

Advisor Liu swiftly changed his tune, rolling and calling out, “Buddhists and Buddhist schools have always valued compassion above all else—”

 

Xuan Min did not even spare him a glance, striding out purposefully, and replied indifferently, “This poor monk has never cultivated compassion.”