The Fox Demon Came to Repay the Monk Before His Vows novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Debt Is Paid

Jingmo carried Yanzhi up the ridge on his back.

Yanzhi protested for the first hundred steps, as a matter of dignity, and then he put his chin on Jingmo's shoulder and let him.

The Rock Hermitage stood where they had left it, a stone cell with a plank door.

At the back was a little shrine with a bowl.

The peach stone still sat in the bowl before the Buddha.

Nobody had come to take their vigil away.

Jingmo set Yanzhi down on the pallet and lit one lamp.

He washed the bite with hot water and wine, and bound it with strips of his own robe.

His hands were gentle, even through the linen, and Yanzhi watched his bent head and the long muscle in his neck.

"Does it hurt?"

"Everything hurts. It's a very thorough day."

"Hold still."

"I'm holding."

"You are not. You're looking at me."

"It's the only thing I want to look at."

Jingmo finished the knot and sat back on his heels, and for a while he did not say anything.

Yanzhi got up.

It took some doing, with the shoulder, and a blanket held around him in place of dignity.

He went to the little shrine, where the bowl sat before the gilt Buddha, and knelt on the hard floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Be quiet. I'm making a speech."

Yanzhi held the bead from his throat up before the peach stone, so that the Buddha could see it.

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