Chapter 90: Buddha’s Arrangement
Yaoying nodded her head.
Mondatipa’s brow has some beads of sweat: “When this poor monk departed from Chang’an, the princess had given the poor monk several bottles of pills, one of which was named Anxi1 Pill. The princess’ attendant said this medicine had the effect of reducing swelling and relieving pain… Does the princess know the prescription of this Anxi Pill?”
Yaoying was startled, her mind spinning a few times. Pondering for a moment, her gaze glanced over the gloomy corridor, looking towards the closed palace doors of the main hall. She asked in a soft voice: “Buddha’s son is sick?”
Mondatipa’s face stiffened for a moment before sighing. “Since the princess guessed it, this poor monk will tell the truth. When this poor monk first came to the Royal Court, Buddha’s son was seriously ill. This poor monk tried many remedies, and later unintentionally let Buddha’s son take a few Anxi Pills.”
At that time, the Northern Rong cavalry was approaching aggressively, uniting with other tribes to attack the Holy City. Tumoroga was running out of time. Knowing that if the news of his serious illness spread, the Royal Court would be defeated. Preparing for the worst, he made a last-ditch attempt and took all kinds of medicine.
As a result, he miraculously recovered after taking the Anxi Pill.
The pills were obtained from Yaoying, and Mondatipa did not know what the prescription was. Seeing that the bottle of pills was almost emptied, he could only send people to the Central Plains to ask for medicine while thinking of other ways to stabilize Tumoroga’s condition. However, the war situation was so tense that it was impossible for Tumoroga to hide in the Holy City to recover from his illness.
He endured the pain and led his troops into battle, holding on until he entered an alliance with the Northern Rong, holding on until he scared off Haidu Aling. Returning to the Holy City, he finally could no longer hold on.
When Mondatipa finished, he sighed and said, “Buddha’s son fell ill just now, and the Anxi Pills that this poor monk brought from the Central Plains are all gone…”
The doubts in Yaoying’s mind were instantly cleared up.
It did not occur to her that an unintentional move she made a year ago would actually affect the battle situation 8,000 miles away.
Tumoroga saved her, not because he was touched by her, but because he heard her identify herself as a princess of Great Wei. He took the Anxi Pill to get better, and Mondatipa must have mentioned her to him.
The destiny that Mondatipa was talking about turned out to be about this.
Yaoying realized a lot of things.
No wonder Tumoroga urgently hurried back to the Holy City and insisted on waiting until dark to enter the city; he was sick, very sick, and afraid that others would notice.
So, that was why she didn’t see any big city-state or tribes along the way. Tumoroga’s route back to the Holy City deliberately avoided crowded cities and towns.
His original intention was probably to take her back to the Holy City, and then slowly inquire about the prescription for the Anxi Pill.
Now that he had a sudden attack and his life was at stake, Mondatipa had to invite her over late at night and risk telling her that he was seriously ill.
Tumoroga’s worries were not groundless. He was a god in the hearts of the people of the Western Regions. If he lived one more day, the Royal Court would be prosperous and stable. But once he died, the Royal Court would immediately fall apart, submitting to the Northern Rong in just a single month. This thousand-mile-long Buddhist kingdom had completely died out in history.
If the news spread, the Royal Court would be chaotic.
Yaoying sighed: “Venerable, I know the prescription for the Anxi Pill, but those herbs are all native to the Central Plains. Even if Venerable knew the prescription, you could not concoct the medicine at this moment.”
The anxiety in Mondatipa’s brown eyes slowly faded away. He stood in front of the steps, releasing a deep sigh.
“This poor monk’s appearance has made the princess laugh. Buddha’s son was wise and gifted from youth, his talent innate, and he is well versed in the classics. In time, he would be a great talent of the Sakyamuni, and he would be able to promote Buddhism and deliver all beings from suffering. This poor monk could not bear to see him going to reincarnation before his great purpose is achieved.”
Yaoying also did not want Tumoroga to die so early… She thought about it and said, “Venerable Master, I can write out the general prescription. Perhaps there are herbs in the Western Regions that can be substituted?”
Mondatipa was a monk, indifferent to life and death. If it were not for his genuine appreciation of Tumoroga’s talent and aptitude, he would not bother to talk with Yaoying. Just as he was about to give up, he heard her words and his spirits lifted.
Chang’an and the Holy City were 8,000 miles away. The medicine sent to him by the Seventh Princess was just enough to relieve Tumoroga’s pain, and now the Seventh Princess coincidentally appeared in the Holy City—perhaps it was all Buddha’s arrangement.
Mondatipa led Yaoying through a long corridor, entering the inner room through a side door.
Layers and layers of heavy golden silk curtain hung low. Looking in, the inner hall was pitch-black.
When the attendant lifted the curtain, a brilliant golden light poured out abruptly.
Yaoying raised her hand to cover her eyes, slowly adapting to the light in front of her.
Hundreds of candles were burning in the hall, the flamed as brilliant as daylight. The floor was covered with embroidered Persian carpets, the sensation as soft as stepping on clouds. The beaded curtains embedded with gems on all four walls were gently swaying, the multi-colored gems gorgeous, overflowing with light. The finely carved gold lacquer murals on the walls seem to be brimming and exuding a shimmering golden light.
Yaoying was dizzy—entering the Holy City in the dark and not seeing the full view of the palace, she thought the palace was as majestic and cold as the earthen cliff she saw in the evening. She didn’t expect the main hall to be so magnificently extravagant and beautiful.
One could imagine how rich the Royal Court was.
No wonder two generations of Northern Rong Khans were interested in the Royal Court.
Banruo and several other personal soldiers were kneeling in front of the inner hall’s couch, looking sorrowful, their eyes were red from crying. Seeing Yaoying being brought in, they immediately jumped up.
“Demoness…”
Yaoying ignored him, walked to the bookcase next to her, and in a few strokes, wrote out the prescription she knew.
Mondatipa picked it up to give a scan and shook his head in disappointment: “This prescription works wonders with this water anise herb2… Among all the drugs brought by this poor monk, there is no substitute for water anise herb.”
“Water anise herb?” Yaoying’s eyes flickered for a moment.
There was a loud wailing sound coming from the bedside, and Banruo shouted, “Venerable!”
Mondatipa walked briskly to the couch, looked at the pale-as-a-sheet Tumoroga on the bed, and gave a long sigh.
Yaoying peeked out half her head from behind him, and her eyes fell on Tumoroga’s face.
In the candle flame’s illumination, he was lying on a white quilt blanket embroidered in gold. His under eyes were blue-black, lips bloodless, his handsome face beaded with sweat. His two thick eyebrows tightly wrinkled, evidently in excruciating pain, but he did not make a sound.
The corner of the quilt was lifted to reveal his swollen and almost blackened legs—these days, he actually relied on these legs to mount and dismount a horse, to ride on the back of the horse to command the thousands of troops?
If not for what she saw with her own eyes, Yaoying could not believe that the man whose life was hanging by a thread in front of her was the Buddha’s son who led thousands of troops to scare off Haidu Aling a few days ago.
Among the curves of that torrent that moved up and down countless hills of sand, he was the only one in a vivid red kasaya, dazzling and looking not of this world.
His aura was daunting and imposing.
Who could have imagined that he was gritting his teeth and suffering from such torment?
How tough was this man’s will to allow him to hold on to this day?
He was the king of the Holy City, the god in the hearts of the people of the Western Regions, so even though the pain was so unbearable that one longed for death, he had to carry this destined to be destroyed Buddhist kingdom on his shoulders.
Yaoying could not help but feel deeply moved. Taking a few steps forward, she uncovered the brocade quilt.
Banruo shouted, “What are you trying to do?!”
Yaoying didn’t even look at him, lifting up Tumoroga’s robe and touching his swollen leg with her fingers, “Fetch some hot water.”
Banruo shouted loudly for the personal guards to drive her away.
Mondatipa stopped Banruo and asked Yaoying, “Hot water? Won’t that increase the swelling?”
Yaoying glanced at Tumoroga. She could not get close to him these days, having no choice but to follow at the end of the procession looking up at his proud and otherwordly posture every day. Now that she was closer, she discovered that he was even more handsome than she had imagined. Even in illness, he still had picturesque features.
She said, “I used to see a divine doctor treating others using this method when I was at Chibi. That person was in a similar situation as him. Hot water, acupuncture… these things could temporarily alleviate his pain.”
Even if it didn’t save him, it would at least relieve some of this compassionate monk’s pain.
Mondatipa had heard of acupuncture, “There is a Chinese monk in the Buddhist temple who knows acupuncture. Ask him to come to the royal palace!”
Right now, everything had been tried. Without the Anxi Pill, they could only resign themselves to fate.
The personal guards looked at each other, but out of trust in Mondatipa, they accepted the orders and went.
The attendants soon fetched the hot water. Yaoying commanded the attendants to fetch herbs and wipe off Tumoroga’s body.
Half a shichen later, the Han monk arrived after rushing. Yaoying told him everything she could recall. The Han monk washed his hands, smoked the needles, and began to apply them to Tumoroga.
The candle flame burned quietly. The swelling on Tumoroga’s legs still had not dissipated, but the palms of his hands were not so cold, and the color of his lips had recovered a little.
Yaoying was acting as an assistant beside him, taking an embroidered handkerchief to wipe Tumoroga’s cold sweat.
In the second half of the night, the candles in the hall burned until only half remained. She was so tired that her eyelids fluttered and she unknowingly fell asleep leaning against the couch.
In a haze, she was suddenly roused by the sound of heavy footsteps.
Yaoying opened her eyes and crashed into a line of sight as deep as an abyss.
A pair of deep turquoise eyes were gazing at her quietly.
This pair of eyes were wise and solitary. Like a vast and clear spring, they looked as if they could penetrate everything in the world. Obviously looking up at her from below, but she felt even more pressure, with nothing to hide.
It seemed that inside and out, from body to soul, this man had seen through her.
Yaoying was startled. Coming back to her senses, she calmly tucked her hand back into her sleeve and wiped away the saliva on her lips. She stood up gently, and woke up Mondatipa who was meditating with his eyes closed: “Venerable, Buddha’s son is awake.”
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Hello! Another month has come and gone, and I truly have no clue where all the time went. Thank you to everyone who has checked in on me; I’m doing fine! I’ve just never found enough time to properly get comfy and translate until today. It was one thing after another, but I believe life has finally settled down for now, so I think more timely updates can be expected. I’m also a huge mess; I had this chapter saved in my drafts (since October 4th!) and I didn’t even realize I hadn’t posted it until I was drafting my new chapters.
Important Ko-fi update: Thank you to everyone who’s given a Ko-fi that I haven’t fulfilled. I will try to work at a one chapter/week pace for both my projects for most weeks (excluding finals week etc), with an additional chapter from Ko-fi. In other words, I am aiming for two a week until Ko-fis run out in which case, it’ll be once a week. I will hope to up the amount but I have a low stockpile of chapter parts and can’t fulfill more than this at present.
1 Anxi Pills: Anxi means rest or peace and this was an actual medicine made. The prescription was written down in a book and was used as a painkiller in ancient times.
2 This is known as Chinese anise in English or licium anisatum.