Ming Shu took a deep breath before going forward.
She was in front of a simple temple in the outskirts of the Royal Capital.
Although simple, the temple was clean and tidy, showing that the whoever habited took good care of it.
It had a very relaxing atmosphere and people who visit it couldn't help but slowing down a bit and letting go of your troublesome thoughts.
Well, that is the case with most people, but Ming Shu who was frozen in the threshold of the temple, had her palms sweating, fast heart beat and messy breathing. She had a hundred thoughts passing through her mind in a chaotic way.
She was so nervous!
Just inside this temple is her Master. A man who taught her so much and who she owed so much. He was probably the key for so many questions.
She clenched her fists and the pain of her nails deep in her palm, made her thoughts more clear.
Ming Shu took a deep breath and crossed the threshold.
"Amithaba. Donor, what brings you here?"
An old monk came forward to greet her.
Ming Shu covered her fist with a hand and greeted back the monk.
"Master I came to talk with your guest"
The monk looked deeply at her and turned back.
"I'll guide you to him. Come with me donor"
The old monk said with a kind voice.
He guided her to the garden in the left side of the temple.
A forest of bamboo with a small lake and a shed entered her view. The decoration was not extravagant and only some incense burner, lanterns and a few pillows made the whole decoration of the garden.
In the lake, a man was sat down in a rock by the border of the lake with a bucket by his side.
"Donor Huan, you have a visitor"
The monk said approaching the man.
"Say that I'm not here"
The man answered without turning back shaking his hand in the air as if to shoo an annoying fly.
The monk shook his head.
"The visitor is already here. I suggest you talk with the little donor since both your fates are entwined enough for cause and effect relationship"
The man almost threw the fishing rod in his hand.
Who is so big to have a cause and effect relationship with him? Is it the white-eyed Wolf girl? But then the monk wouldn't call little donor.
"Take me to him"
The man put his fishing rod down and turned around, colliding his gaze with Ming Shu.
"I'll leave the two of you alone"
The monk said with a smile retreating back to the temple.
The man looked at Ming Shu up and down. He must admit the girl in front of him in red hood was a beauty but don't say a girl, he didn't know a boy as young as her.
"I don't know you"
The man said with certainty. Although she wasn't the most pretty girl he met, her traces were unique enough for him not to forget her easily.
"Yes, we are not acquaintances in this life"
Ming Shu answered with a smile.
The man raised an eyebrow to the girl's speech and caught the main point.
This life.
So as to say...
"...past life?"
Ming Shu only smiled and went to sit down in one of the pillows.
"Why don't we sit down first?"
She said pointing to the pillow across her. The man sat down silently waiting for her to answer his question.
Seeing him like that a chuckle escaped her mouth.
"Not exactly our past life. To be more precise it was my past life"
The man in front of her continued to stare silently at her.
After taking a deep breath calming her heart, she opened her mouth again.
"I've rebirthed"
That's right. She decided to tell her Master the secret she kept from everyone. Not because she found him more trustworthy, but just because she felt that this was the fastest and best way to put him on her camp.
"In my past life I entered the Poison Sect and was selected as a disciple by you Master Huan. You taught me everything you could. But I was blind by love and entered the Poison Sect undercover by the Emperor's , my husband's , orders. Although I manage to let you escape, you later died by the hands of your first disciple"
Ming Shu kowtowed to Master Huan and knocked her head three times.
"Master, this disciple is sorry for not saving you"
"Your story is touching and all little doll, but I don't seem to have reason to believe it is true"
The man said coldly. Kidding, say a master he is going to be her master? Such absurd story, who dares to believe it?
Ming Shu kept herself in the same position and replied to him.
"Master actually doesn't love the Poison Sect. He is actually on it just because he is free to research poison, which is restricted by the Emperor's law. Master doesn't accept tasks involving a large number of innocent people or tasks with heavy cause and effect. Master doesn't like sour things. Master's enemy in the sect is Elder Yu. Master keeps his coins in his socks. Master has a erotica on the secret compartment in the cabinet by his bedside. Master's first love-"
"Alright, alright. I believe you. Unless you are a ghost by my side there is no way you can know so much. Honestly how can you know about this book, the me in your past life, seriously"
Master Huan said shaking his head. How could he let such a little girl see such dirty books. No! How could she even find it!
He sighed. If he didn't had confidence in his martial arts and his poisons he would doubt someone went through his things before she found him. But his poison sect dislike was unknown to everyone, so he couldn't help but believe the little doll.
"So what brought you to your past life Master?"
He asked Ming Shu.
Seeing him believing her she released a sigh. She knew he would believe her since he was a pious believer of Buddhism.
"I found out that First Senior Sister is my enemy"
Master Huan snorted.
"You don't have such a sister"
"Master"
Ming Shu said helplessly.
"Humph. I'm just saying the truth. But say, how did you provoke that white eyed wolf girl?"
"She's my father concubine"
"Hell!"
Master Huan smacked the rock by his side.
"It seems that even if we have no master-disciple relationship we can't escape cause and effect. What do you want me to do? You know she is not my disciple anymore. Even if I tell her to leave your house there is no way she will obey me"
He said bitterly.
Ming Shu looked at the pained look in his face and knew that Lady Ye was really one of her Master's regret.
She shook her head.
"No. I just have some doubts"
"Well, then I will solve them if possible"
Master Huan said putting a smile on his face again.
"How did Lady Ye entered the Poison Sect?"
"When she was younger she was a sickly bean. Her mother brought her to us in the excuse of recuperation in the countryside. She was poisoned and we treated her. The little girl was fascinated by poison and I ended up accepting her. She passed two years by my side. Although she didn't learn everything, she was a genius regarding the craft of new poisons"
Master Huan said with some nostalgia.
"If she was such a genius, why you revoked your mentorship?"
Master Huan became silent for a moment and opened his mouth again.
"She was genius in poison craft and fascinated by poison lethality. She liked to test her poison in the poor people in the Sect outskirts. Once she made a fog poison and released in one of the villages close by. The whole village died screaming painfully. I couldn't stop her in time. Once I got there i saw her laughing joyfully at a screaming child"
Ming Shu nodded in understanding. Actually Lady Ye method was not unusual in the Sect, it was completely against what Master Huan teaches.
"The last question, why did she entered my father's backyard?"
Master Huan opened a mocking smile.
"It seems I still kept some secrets from you little ghost. She and your father knew since they were kids. I believe he made one of those kid promises of marrying her and she kept the promise in her heart"
Ming Shu was a bit lost with such explanation. She thought that there was a huge conspiracy, who would have thought it was such a simple and silly reason?
She shook her head. It seems she's overthinking things.
Seeing the girl shaking her head with obvious relief, Master Huan chuckled.
"Of course that is only one of the reasons. Unfortunately I Cant tell you the other one since is a Sect secret"
The tension that already had left her instantly came back. She just knew it! Would such a greed person succumb to a concubine position of a mid-level minister?
"The Sect asked her to infiltrate in the backyard of not I much influential charcuterie to monitor the government's actions. Father who married the Li's general only daughter was the perfect target since he could still manipulate the ministers opinions somewhat and could more less choose his position with the help of his in-laws. I bet he tried extra hard to win the Minister of Justice position under Lady Ye's pillow talk. Having the Minister of Justice, who is responsible for monitoring the crime in national territory, was the ideal to the Sect"
Master Huan listened quietly to his 'disciple' deduction and he must say he was impressed she could think of all the plot that those old bastard spent a lot of time making.
Opposite to him, Ming Shu saw him quiet and knew she was right. Sigh, can't thing be simpler? She actually liked the Lady Ye who naively believed the words of a child as a life contract. Such a cute Lady Ye, could still have a loving time with her daughter and be buried the whole body. But now, alas. It seems that she has to plan well as to not hurt Yunning more than she can handle.