Shooing Them Away

Actually, even if she had noticed, she wouldn't have cared much... After all, she had no intention of getting involved in that matter.

Compared to meddling in their business, Su Qing was more concerned with her own Incense Power. Thus, she naturally didn't pay it much mind.

Unfortunately...

Though she didn't want to get involved, someone still came looking for them.

At that moment, Su Qing and the other two had just bought a few trinkets. After happily paying, they were walking down the street.

"You two, slow down..." Su Qing said helplessly, watching the two girls hopping ahead of her in high spirits.

It was then that Su Qing suddenly spotted eight bald monks walking quickly toward the three of them.

These monks were tall and burly, dressed like martial monks. Their presence drew many gazes along the way—some looked with curiosity, some with envy, and others with jealousy.

One could only wonder what exactly they were jealous of...

As soon as Su Qing noticed these monks, her brow instinctively furrowed.

With a single glance, she saw through the true identities of these eight monks.

The Eight Great Vajras were indeed powerful, but they were still far inferior to Su Qing. She saw through their transformations instantly.

This was why she frowned upon seeing these monks.

Lately, Su Qing hadn't been particularly keen on meeting people from the Buddhist sect... especially the direct subordinates of the Buddha himself. She was worried she would be lectured on things she didn't want to hear.

'Tsk, what a coincidence... walking the streets, chatting, and I run right into the Eight Great Vajras,' Su Qing chuckled inwardly, musing to herself. 'By the look of it, Tang Sanzang and his disciples have already passed the tribulation of the Heaven-Reaching River and have returned to Chang'an City. Otherwise, these Eight Great Vajras wouldn't be on this street... I just don't know why these fellows are running over to see me. I hope it's just a chance encounter!'

While Su Qing was thinking, the Eight Great Vajras arrived before her.

The Eight Great Vajras pressed their palms together and bowed to Su Qing, saying, "Amitabha. Greetings, Lady Bodhisattva."

Hearing this, Su Qing looked at the eight of them with a calm gaze. Simultaneously, she pinched a spell with her hand to isolate their conversation and mask her words from others before speaking.

"The Eight Great Vajras are all here? Hmph. Instead of watching over and protecting Tang Sanzang and the others, you've run here to find me. For what purpose? Do you think that because you've reached Chang'an, it's safe enough to slack off?"

"Amitabha, Amitabha. We certainly do not wish to slack off..." the leading Vajra said hurriedly.

Su Qing’s beautiful willow-leaf brows arched slightly. "Oh? Then why have you come to see me? Is there some business? If there's nothing important and you just wanted to say hello, then you've said it. Do not continue to disturb me while I'm out shopping with my goddaughter and my friend's child."

Though shooing them away so directly was somewhat lacking in social grace, it would be herself who suffered the annoyance if she didn't drive them off immediately.

She had no desire to engage in small talk with these Vajras.

Even less did she want them to interrupt her leisure time.

Therefore, even if it seemed insensitive, Su Qing chose to dismiss them outright.

Hearing Su Qing’s words...

The Eight Great Vajras looked at each other, momentarily stuck in an awkward position.

In everyone's impression, Su Qing was a very reasonable and easygoing person, by no means an insensitive existence, and certainly not one to drive people away like this.

Yet today, she had chosen to shoo them off directly.

For a moment, none of them knew how they had offended her.

After thinking it over, they could only conclude that their sudden visit had disturbed Su Qing... and that was why she was so displeased.

But come to think of it, it made sense.

She was having a perfectly good time walking the streets with her goddaughter and a friend's child, only to be suddenly blocked by several monks. Anyone would be at least a little unhappy.

Not to mention, she was a high-ranking immortal.

It was only natural for her to be annoyed.

Once the Eight Great Vajras reached this conclusion...

They hurriedly bowed to Su Qing and said, "Amitabha. We did not come seeking the Bodhisattva for any major matter. We simply saw the Bodhisattva here and came specifically to offer our greetings. If we have disturbed the Bodhisattva, we hope for your forbearance... We shall take our leave now."

Su Qing waved her hand. "I don't blame you! Just go back to your duties. I'll be going now..."

After saying that, Su Qing stepped past the Eight Great Vajras, taking Chaoyan and Red Boy with her.

Once Su Qing had left and disappeared from sight, the Eight Great Vajras finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, Sovereign Su is not a difficult person to talk to... If it were any other immortal, I'm afraid an apology wouldn't have been enough to end the matter."

"Indeed, indeed! Next time, we shouldn't just run up to greet someone the moment we see them."

"I think the issue wasn't the greeting itself, but the fact that we swarmed her all at once... The Sovereign is currently in the mortal world in the guise of a mortal taking children shopping. For so many of us to suddenly surround her was a bit inappropriate."

"That is true... You are the sharpest among us."

"Amitabha. We were lucky the Sovereign didn't take offense this time... We must not let it happen again. We cannot focus solely on cultivating Buddhist laws and forget the basic ways of officialdom..."

"It's not that we forgot; we just let our preconceived notions of the Sovereign's temperament take over. We forgot that even a Great Immortal like the Sovereign has a temper..."

After parting with Su Qing, the Eight Great Vajras analyzed what they had done wrong as they walked... almost like minor deities who had just attained immortality.

"Alright, alright, stop analyzing. Let's go back to watching Tang Sanzang and his disciples!"

"Right, let's get back to serious business."

"When the time is right, we'll just take them away."

With that, they went back to hovering around Tang Sanzang's group without hesitation... to prevent any unexpected accidents.

Meanwhile, after parting with the Eight Great Vajras, Su Qing and the others continued their shopping as before. Naturally, Chaoyan and Red Boy asked about those eight monks... and Su Qing told them everything honestly, hiding nothing.

Once they learned the truth, the two girls settled down and followed Su Qing to continue their stroll.

And so, Su Qing spent another full day playing in Chang'an City with Chaoyan and Red Boy.

Time flowed by.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning.

According to the original plan, Su Qing would have taken the two out for one last day of fun.

However, because Su Qing had other plans, she was in no hurry to leave the house.

Instead, she sat in the courtyard and called the maid and Old Lady Yu to her side, indicating she had some matters to entrust to them.

Because after this, Su Qing’s opportunities to return here would likely be even fewer... she needed to focus more on collecting Incense Power, and besides that, she had many other affairs, large and small, waiting for her. Therefore, it was virtually impossible for her to return to Chang'an City again in the short term, so she naturally had to arrange things for the future.

Su Qing gave the maid and Old Lady Yu instructions for after her departure. The matters regarding the house had already been settled, but there were still many other things that needed to be addressed.

She didn't want a repeat of what had happened here before.

Fortunately, both the maid and Old Lady Yu were very obedient to Su Qing.

They didn't refuse a single thing Su Qing arranged, stating they would definitely do their best.

Su Qing didn't know if they could truly do it well, but since they had given their word... she would simply trust them.

"That's all I have to say..." After laying out the arrangements, Su Qing set down her tea and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

"Madam... will you really not come back in the future?"

"I'm not sure, but it will certainly be rare."

"I see..."

"Yes." Su Qing nodded and said, "Alright, besides that—Old Lady Yu, has your eyesight improved at all?"

Suddenly mentioned, Old Lady Yu was stunned for a moment, as if realizing it only then. "Eh, if Madam hadn't said anything... I really wouldn't have noticed. I seem to see things more clearly today than yesterday. Madam, how... how did you know?"

This wasn't Old Lady Yu acting; she was truly slow to react.

Even Su Qing often didn't know what was going on in Old Lady Yu's mind, so her surprised expression was a genuine realization that her sight had improved.

Seeing this, Su Qing felt a bit helpless.

She smiled slightly and didn't explain much, only nodding. "If your eyes are better, then I can rest easy."

Old Lady Yu stared blankly at Su Qing for a long time before asking, "Did Madam do something?"

"Ah? I suppose so. I offered a prayer to the Mountain God of the Changbai Mountains, hoping your eyes would recover... It seems the Mountain God helped." Su Qing smiled elegantly and said, "So you see, occasionally praying to the immortals is useful. Look, hasn't the deity answered the prayer?"

"The deity manifested?" Old Lady Yu’s cloudy eyes looked at Su Qing. After a long silence, she said, "So it was the deity manifesting."

Su Qing couldn't read minds, so she didn't know what Old Lady Yu was thinking.

She simply smiled gently and said, "Yes! It was the deity manifesting."

"I see..." Old Lady Yu also began to smile. Her old face wrinkled up like a ball, but it wasn't scary; instead, it felt very kind. She said, "In that case, I'll pray more to that Mountain God in the future! I just wonder what kind of great mountain it is, and what the Mountain God looks like."

Su Qing continued to smile gently, saying with a straight face, "It is a grand mountain, and the Mountain God is very beautiful."

Su Qing didn't feel the least bit embarrassed praising herself... In this regard, she was quite thick-skinned! Besides, it wasn't really self-praise; it was just the truth.

"A grand mountain is good, a grand mountain is good!" Old Lady Yu nodded, answering with a smile.

Su Qing chuckled and nodded. "Alright, alright, the time is about right... I should be heading out."

Su Qing knew that if they continued chatting like this, it would go on forever, so she proactively ended the conversation, indicating she was about to leave.

Neither Old Lady Yu nor the maid had any objections.

To the side, the two girls, learning they could finally head out, perked up instantly.

They were supposed to have set out early in the morning, but because Su Qing had things to say, they had been delayed until now.

Consequently, the two girls had long been impatient.

Fortunately, they could finally set off.

"Today is our last day staying here, we have to play hard!" Red Boy stood beside Su Qing and said seriously, "We should play all night and go to the entertainment houses to listen to music!"

Hearing this, Su Qing gave her a knock on the head and said, "No!"

"Why not!" Red Boy pouted and asked.

"I said no, and that's that! At night, you still need to rest properly."

"We aren't mortals. Even if we don't rest at night, what's the harm?" Red Boy argued stubbornly.

Su Qing didn't indulge her, simply stating, "No!"

Seeing Su Qing’s firm attitude, Red Boy was out of options.

With Su Qing like this, even if she had a silver tongue, she could never win an argument against her.

Unless... she suddenly had other plans.

Otherwise, once Su Qing had made up her mind, it was very difficult to change.

"Hmph, fine, I'll listen to you, okay?" Red Boy curled her lip, finally compromising.

Chaoyan looked at Red Boy and said helplessly, "Knowing you'd be forced to compromise in the end, why bother bringing it up just now?"

"You... you're just kicking me while I'm down!" Red Boy said indignantly.

Just as the two were about to start bickering, Su Qing suddenly stopped.

Noticing Su Qing had stopped, Chaoyan ignored Red Boy and looked up at Su Qing, asking, "Godmother, why did you stop all of a sudden?"

Su Qing curled her lip and shrugged helplessly. "Isn't it because another old acquaintance has come looking for us?"

Hearing this, both Chaoyan and Red Boy were stunned. Then, following the direction of Su Qing’s gaze, they saw a young novice monk walking toward the three of them.

Only, the way the young novice walked was a bit strange...

It was as if the ground were burning his feet; he was constantly hopping with every step.

From time to time, he would scratch his ears and cheeks...

Looking at him, he was indeed quite odd.

Chaoyan and Red Boy looked at the young novice with heads full of question marks. "Who is that young monk? I don't remember you knowing someone like that, Godmother?"

Hearing this, Su Qing realized neither of the girls had recognized the young novice.

She couldn't help but shake her head and say, "Can you really not tell that person is Sun Wukong?"

Su Qing was speechless. With that walking posture and those monkey-like mannerisms, even if they couldn't see through the transformation, they should have guessed who it was.