The handsome young monk, dressed in white robes, stood under the moonlight, serene and detached, exuding a Buddha-like presence.

The young monk looked at Chen Ji and said, “My name is Luozhuisajia, but everyone likes to call me Little Monk. You can call me Little Monk too.”

Princess Baili, perched on the wall, looked at Chen Ji and introduced, “The Little Monk is a reincarnated Living Buddha, and he’s very powerful! If he says you’re powerful, then you must be!”

Chen Ji hesitated for a moment. “Does a reincarnated Living Buddha struggle so much just to climb over a wall?”

The young monk looked a bit embarrassed. “I haven’t completed my cultivation yet. My master instructed me to recite the *Sutra of the Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva* a hundred thousand times, and I’ve only just recited it over seventy thousand times. My great vows haven’t been fulfilled either…”

Chen Ji pondered. The young monk’s words revealed a lot of information: his path to cultivation involved chanting sutras and fulfilling great vows. Reciting a hundred thousand times was a critical threshold, and after completing it, he should become more powerful.

It was quite candid of him to simply reveal his cultivation path like that.

At this moment, the Crown Prince curiously examined Chen Ji. “Little Monk, you said he’s powerful? He doesn’t look like it.”

The Crown Prince was no longer wearing the mink coat from earlier in the day. He had changed into a black overlapping-collar long-sleeved robe, embroidered with silver lotus flowers. It looked somewhat plain and elegant, but it didn’t quite suit the slightly flamboyant Crown Prince.

The young monk brushed dust from his robes. With the clear eyes of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old, he pointed to his chest and said, “What I mean by ‘powerful’ isn’t about strength; it’s about the mind. Everyone has three ‘thieves’ in their hearts: greed, anger, and delusion. In this young man’s heart, greed and anger are gone, with only delusion remaining. That’s already very impressive.”

“Greed is an unworthy desire. How many disasters in this world arise from it? Not being greedy doesn’t mean not loving wealth, but rather knowing how to restrain oneself.”

“Anger is unwise fury. If a person still harbors anger, they cannot be called wise, because anger clouds the mind.”

Chen Ji seemed to ponder. “What about delusion, then?”

The young monk smiled. “Delusion is an obsession. With obsession, one cannot achieve liberation.”

Princess Baili was astride the wall, dressed in a practical, almost masculine style: a white long gown, white trousers, white boots, and a white jade hairpin. Her only splash of color was a red jade collar pendant, like the red spot on the forehead of a white koi.

She rested her chin in her hand and asked curiously, “Little Monk, you’ve spoken so mystically, but how many of these ‘thieves’ have you eradicated yourself?”

The young monk thought for a moment. “I’m the same. Only ‘delusion’ remains.”

Princess Baili pressed further, “Why haven’t you eradicated that last ‘delusion’?”

“It’s not that I haven’t eradicated it, but rather that I don’t possess it yet,” the young monk explained. “I don’t yet have ‘delusion’ in that sense, so I can’t eradicate it. My master sent me to the Central Plains precisely so I could find ‘delusion’ and then eradicate it. I haven’t found it yet, nor do I know what ‘delusion’ truly is, but my master said that on the day I encounter it, I will naturally understand.”

“Oh, I’ve never heard you mention that before,” Princess Baili said, puzzled. “But isn’t it better not to have ‘delusion’? Why search for it? Wouldn’t that be doing something unnecessary?” The young monk shook his head. “This is a trial. Without undergoing trials, one cannot become a Buddha.”

The Crown Prince, leaning against the wall, looked bored. “You monks are supposed to be compassionate. Why are you always talking about ‘eradicating’ things? Fighting and killing isn’t good!”

The young monk shook his head. “My Ge Ning Sect never speaks of compassion.”

“Oh? What do you speak of, then?”

“Great fearlessness.”

Princess Baili, who had been astride the wall, swung her legs over to sit sideways. “Brother, let’s stop chatting. Help me down.”

“Alright, I’m coming,” the Crown Prince said, walking over to the wall. He let his sister step on his shoulder to jump down from the wall.

Chen Ji watched silently. The Crown Prince and Princess Baili were not born of the same mother, yet their relationship was unbelievably good.

And the Crown Prince, despite already being twenty years old, still wasn’t serious…

Wait, Wuyun had said there should be another Princess Lingyun in the royal residence, born to Concubine Jing. Why wasn’t she with them?

At this moment, the Crown Prince looked at Chen Ji. “This is…”

“Chen Ji.”

The Crown Prince smiled. “Chen Ji, I see you’re also a dashing figure. We’re sure to become good friends in the future. But there’s no time to chat today; we have many friends waiting at the gate. We’ll go first. We’re all free spirits of the pugilistic world, so we’ll meet again if fate allows!”

Zhu Baili also quickly added, “Yes, yes, yes, I’ll bring you some Ma family donkey meat flatbreads when I come back in the morning!”

With that, the Crown Prince led the young monk and Princess Baili away.

Chen Ji raised his arm to block their path. “Wait a moment.”

“Huh?” The Crown Prince took a step back. “What for?”

Chen Ji said, “Hush money. Ten taels of silver per person, or I’ll call the royal guards.”

The Crown Prince shrieked, “Wow, you think we don’t know the prices outside, huh? Ten taels of silver can buy a house in the suburbs! Why don’t you just rob us… Little Monk, didn’t you say he had already eradicated ‘greed’?!”

The young monk hesitated for a moment. “This shows he’s already very restrained.”

The Crown Prince looked confused.

Princess Baili looked at Chen Ji. “One tael of silver per time. We’ll be passing through many more times in the future, so you should consider a long-term approach, or we won’t pass through here again!”

Chen Ji replied, “Deal!”

Baili looked at the Crown Prince helplessly. “Brother, he agreed so quickly, did I ask for too little?”

“Seems so.”

Chen Ji said, “One person, one time, one tael. You are three people this time, so that’s three taels.”

Just then, someone outside called through the crack in the door, “Crown Prince, Princess, are you out yet?”

The Crown Prince looked at Princess Baili. “Just pay up. The people outside are getting impatient.”

Zhu Baili reluctantly pulled out a plain, small sachet from her sleeve. She took out three ‘silver peanuts’ from it and slapped them into Chen Ji’s palm. “Here! Can we go now?”

Chen Ji stepped aside, smiling, and said, “Thank you for your patronage. I wish you all a fun evening.”

The Crown Prince quickly ran to pull open the main hall door. He saw over ten people waiting outside, with sabers and swords at their waists, like members of the pugilistic world.

Chen Ji also spotted Liang Gou’er and Liang Mao’er among the group.

The Crown Prince asked at the door, “Where shall we go for fun?”

Then Liang Gou’er said with a grin, “There’s only one lively place in Luocheng at night, and that’s the East Market. And the most fun place in the East Market is Red Robe Alley! Come on, Crown Prince, lead us to Red Robe Alley for some drinks!”

Chen Ji was astonished.

A Princess and a Monk, going to Red Robe Alley?!

At this moment, Princess Baili was carefully closing the medical hall’s main door. When only a small crack remained, she saw Chen Ji looking over from a distance. She wrinkled her nose, let out a cold snort, and quickly closed the door.

Chen Ji weighed the silver peanuts in his hand. Wuyun climbed up the apricot tree and lay on a branch, tucking in her paws.

Wuyun meowed, “They’re actually pretty nice people.”

Chen Ji smiled. “As a Crown Prince and a Princess, they didn’t get angry when I blocked their path, and they never used their status to intimidate me. They are indeed very good people.”