Hou Er walked in carrying a large fish.
"Fen, stew this fish. We’re having a feast tonight!"
"Great! We get to eat fish again!" Hou Muping clapped his hands.
Cuifen took the fish, her eyes darting toward Chen Xu as she signaled to Hou Er.
Hou Er finally realized there was still a monk in the house.
"Well... should we keep it alive for now? Is there anything else in the house we can prepare for the Master?"
Chen Xu noticed the hostess's gaze, pressed his palms together, and spoke.
"Amitabha. Benefactor Hou, there is no need to worry about this poor monk. I do not observe the meat taboo, and I would quite like to taste the fish of the Lei River."
"In that case, Fen, go ahead and stew the fish. Make some extra food while you're at it."
Hou Er turned back to Chen Xu. "Master, do you drink alcohol?"
Chen Xu shook his head.
"Then I still have some leaves from the local wild tea trees. Master, please wait a moment while I boil a pot of water."
"Thank you, Benefactor Hou."
After Hou Er finished speaking, he followed his wife into the kitchen.
As soon as he entered, Cuifen pulled him into a corner and whispered, "Dear, do you know this monk? Could he be one of those people?"
Cuifen raised a finger and pointed toward the sky.
Hou Er shook his head, leaning down to rummage through a cabinet for tea leaves. "The Master really did come from Daxia. I saw it with my own eyes; he isn't one of those people."
"But he doesn't abstain from meat, and he wears such strange clothes. Is he really a proper monk?"
"Heh, does wearing proper clothes make one a proper monk?" Hou Er sneered. "In this South Realm, the temples get more numerous with every city you pass, and the monks dress better and better, but how many of them are actually proper?"
"They look at us commoners like we're pig dung. But this Master from Daxia... at least there is no contempt in his eyes when he looks at us."
"Don't worry. If the Master were truly a bad person, I wouldn't have made it back to the village. Now, hurry and cook."
Since the man of the house had spoken, Cuifen didn't think more on it and went back to cooking.
After a while, Hou Er finished boiling a pot of hot water, threw the leaves in, and carried the pot out.
He poured a bowl for Chen Xu and one for himself, then sat down with Hou Muping in his arms.
"Master, be careful, it's hot."
"Thank you, benefactor."
Chen Xu sniffed the aroma of the tea and found a pungent scent mixed in with the fragrance, causing his interest in this 'wild tea' to vanish instantly.
"Benefactor Hou, this poor monk has a few questions. I wonder if you might answer them?"
"Master, please ask."
While Hou Er was brewing the tea, Chen Xu had already learned a bit about Rotten Fish Village from Hou Muping.
The people here mainly survived by farming for the lords in the city. The younger ones with decent looks would go into the city to work as manual laborers.
But what struck Chen Xu as strange was that, according to Hou Muping, no one in Rotten Fish Village actually engaged in fishing. The occasional fish they had was usually a reward for working for the city lords.
Yet not long ago, Hou Er and his brothers had been casting nets on the Lei River.
"Benefactor Hou, I heard from Muping that Rotten Fish Village hasn't made a living from the Lei River for a long time?"
"Oh, so it's about that."
Hou Er realized that Chen Xu had seen him on the river. He lifted Hou Muping from his lap and sent him to the inner room.
Then, with a sigh, he continued, "Sigh, Master, you wouldn't know. In the South Realm, everything from the sky above to the ground below—whether dead or alive, whether it breathes or moves—if it can be seen or touched, it all belongs to the aristocratic clans."
"This Lei River has belonged to the aristocratic clans for a long time. Without their permission, going into the river is a crime equivalent to murder."
"Murder? Catching a fish is considered murder?"
Chen Xu was shocked.
"Heh, it's not just catching fish. Even drinking a mouthful of river water counts. In the eyes of the aristocratic clans, we commoners are just another resource. We are no different from the fat fish in the Lei River."
Getting worked up, Hou Er picked up his bowl and took a large gulp. He forgot the tea had just been brewed; the hot water scalded him, but with a guest present, he couldn't spit it out, so he forced himself to swallow it.
"So that is how it is. Then this morning, when I saw you and the other benefactors fishing on the Lei River, were you working for the aristocratic clans?"
"Exactly, exactly. My brothers and I were all working for the aristocratic clans." Hou Er was still trying to think of an excuse, and he hadn't expected Chen Xu to provide one for him.
"Then why go so far away instead of doing it here at your doorstep?"
"Uh, that... that's because..." Hou Er was momentarily at a loss for words.
'Stupid brain, think! I read so many picture books, why aren't they helping when I need them!'
Hou Er broke into a sweat from anxiety.
Seeing his panicked state, Chen Xu didn't have the heart to let him suffer and took the initiative to suggest a reason. "Is it because you feel that working for the aristocratic clans is undignified, or perhaps it brings a bad reputation?"
Hou Er's eyes lit up. "Yes, exactly! Master, you truly are a Master, seeing right into a person's heart. It's precisely because we feel it's undignified that we sneak off to the upper reaches to avoid the villagers' scorn."
In reality, from Hou Er's sequence of movements and the fluctuations of his soul, Chen Xu had already guessed they were poaching.
But Chen Xu was neither a South Realm aristocrat nor an animal rights activist; he didn't care whether Hou Er had a permit to catch fish.
To ease the tension, Chen Xu shifted the topic from Hou Er to the aristocratic clans of the South Realm.
With the target changed, Hou Er seemed like a different person. He no longer stuttered, and his thoughts flowed freely as he poured out a torrent of words to Chen Xu.
Or rather, he poured out a massive amount of bitterness.
He spoke of how the aristocratic clans imposed heavy taxes and harsh punishments, how they committed murder and arson, and how they stripped people to the bone. He spoke of the Voodoo Cult members who raised poisonous insects, harvested brains and hearts, and used living people to cultivate venomous creatures, stopping at nothing.
"And those monks, they aren't good people either! Each one is fatter than a pig, slicker and more glittering than the Buddha statues in the temples. But they only respect the lords of the aristocratic clans."
"We commoners can't even enter the temples to burn incense and pray. We can only worship that Doorway Buddha outside."
"Bah! A Buddha statue haphazardly molded from a pile of mud. It doesn't even have a face!"
"Dear!" Cuifen rushed out from the kitchen, ran behind Hou Er, and slapped him hard several times.
He hadn't even been drinking, yet he was speaking so recklessly in broad daylight, cursing monks to a monk's face. He was looking for death.
Hou Er snapped out of it and hurriedly tried to explain. "Master, don't misunderstand. I wasn't talking about you; I was talking about the monks in the city. Bah, no, I... I..."
His peripheral vision caught the tea bowl on the table, and he seemed to find a savior.
"It's... it's these tea leaves that have gone bad. My head is all muddled, and I'm talking nonsense. Master, please don't take it to heart."
After speaking, he told Cuifen to take the tea from the table and dump it out.
Chen Xu smiled and raised a hand to stop her.
The tea was actually fine, if a bit pungent. The reason Hou Er was speaking so freely was that Chen Xu had used his mental strength to secretly interfere with his soul, causing him to drop his guard.
This technique came from the Soul Soothing Technique. In Akhan's territory, the Soul Soothing Technique was an introductory soul skill used by Enlightenment apprentices to communicate with small animals.
Chen Xu had modified the technique slightly so it could 'soothe' the souls of ordinary humans. After all, to Chen Xu's massive mental strength, the soul of an ordinary person was no different from that of a small animal.
"Benefactor Hou, there is no need to panic. I am not a monk from the South Realm; I am a monk from Daxia. What does your cursing them have to do with me?"
"Master is merciful!"
Seeing that Chen Xu truly wasn't angry and remained as peaceful as ever, Hou Er finally believed that Chen Xu was different from the monks in the South Realm.
It really had to be an outside monk; the local monks probably didn't even know how to recite scriptures anymore.
Following that, Hou Er relaxed considerably and told Chen Xu many stories about the South Realm, including the three major powers, the eight great aristocratic clans, the South Realm Buddhist sects, and the Voodoo Cult.
Before long, Cuifen emerged carrying a large basin of fish.
"Master, the food is ready. Why don't we eat first?"
"Excellent!"
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