Chapter 6.1: Monkey

Mr. Zhang stared blankly at Jiang Lî.

With these words, and that warm and gentle appearance, she truly looked like an unmarried daughter of a wealthy family. However, he couldn’t help feeling this young miss was rather exaggerating.

Although he had some doubts, Mr. Zhang was in a hurry to go to other places. He had thought that Jiang Lî was just joking and wouldn’t really spend all her money on cakes. After all, both master and servant were living here, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that they definitely did not have a lot of money. Ordinary rich people would not think twice about taking out forty copper coins to buy cakes, yet for two children who couldn’t even wear warm clothes, it wasn’t very reasonable.

“If you buy so many pastries, before you can even finish eating them, they will be already spoilt” Mr. Zhang Lang couldn’t help reminding her.

“It’s alright,” Jiang Lî said. “We can eat them all.”

Words that needed to be said were already spoken, so Mr. Zhang no longer said anything. Those copper coins were other people’s copper coins, and Jiang Lî bought most of the cakes that he carried with him. He was happy that he could return home a bit earlier, so why should he be worried?

On the other hand, Tong’er, although puzzled by Jiang Lî’s words, had probably never disobeyed Jiang Lî’s orders and could only suppress the anxiety in her heart. On the way back, the large basket full of pastries occasionally attracted looks from the gray-clothed nuns that passed them by. Tong’er was afraid that they would come over to snatch it and held it even tighter.

Upon arriving at the damp room, Tong’er placed the basket on the table and closed the door. Finally, she could not help but ask, “Why did young miss buy so many…?”

Jiang Lî did not look at her. She pushed open the window, and outside the window could be seen the mountain range of Qingcheng Mountain, with its peaks rising and falling. The snow of winter had long since melted, and as far as the eyes could see, the peach blossoms that covered the mountains dyed the usually austere mountain with a pink glow, like a gentle and peerless beauty.

“Look,” she pointed towards the distance for Tong’er to see.

Tong’er approached the window to have a look and saw a palm-sized monkey with a curled tail squatting on a peach tree in the distance, clasping a fruit with both hands and happily nibbling on it.

“It’s a monkey,” Tong’er was puzzled, “What’s there to see with those monkeys?”

There were many monkeys on Qingcheng mountain, and they were usually mischievous as well. The monkeys here got along quite well with people, especially those from the He Lin Temple. There was a constant stream of pilgrims, and they would occasionally throw some peanuts and sweets when they saw the monkeys playing on the trees. With the shortage of food in winter, the monkeys frequently went to pick food from the hands of the pilgrims. During spring and summer, the monkeys did not lack food, so they did not disturb the pilgrims and played by themselves.

On this side of the nunnery, however, because it was cold and unfrequented, there were very few monkeys — where there was no food, there was no pleasure that would attract them.

“You go and get some cakes.” Jiang Lî said.

Tong’er went to get a few walnut cakes according to Jiang Lî’s order.

Jiang Lî crumbled the cakes into a few small pieces and waved at the monkey on the far-away tree. Perhaps the cake from Mr. Zhang was really sweet, as the fragrance of the walnuts soon attracted the attention of the curled-tailed monkey. It quickly rushed to the window and vigilantly stared at the walnut cake in Jiang Lî’s hand, eager to try but not daring to step forward.

Jiang Lî moved forward and held out her hand. The monkey finally couldn’t resist the temptation of the walnut cake. It stretched out its paw, stole a piece of the cake, and ran behind a rock with its back facing Jiang Lî, then ate the cake. As it finished eating, it turned its head to look at the window to see Jiang Lî still standing in front of the window with a smile on her face, a few pieces of the crumbled cakes on her hand. Its nerve got bigger and it once again ran back to take another piece of cake from Jiang Lî’s hand.