The Fox Demon Came to Repay the Monk Before His Vows novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Beads
The full moon was one night away, and Yanzhi could not sit still.
He paced the guest room.
He rearranged his sleeves.
He ate four of Zhiyin's steamed buns standing up, and scorched his tongue on tea.
He talked a good deal of nonsense to the boy with the tooth, who had been appointed his guard and slept across his doorway.
At the third watch he gave up.
He found Jingmo at the cairn, putting the three fallen stones back one by one.
The moon sat fat and nearly round over the orchard wall.
"Come," said Yanzhi.
Jingmo looked up.
"Where?"
"Somewhere with a door. Somewhere high." Yanzhi held out his hand. "Bring your beads."
Jingmo went very still.
Then he took the rosary from his sash, all seventeen black jujube beads strung on their cord, and put it in Yanzhi's palm.
The bell tower stood at the highest corner of the temple, a square wooden room under a copper roof.
A great bronze bell hung in the middle, and it would not be rung until morning.
In the corner lay a thick quilt that the novices used on watch nights.
There was a window onto the whole sleeping mountain.
Yanzhi shut the door, dropped the bar, and turned.
"Tomorrow," he said, "the Warden is going to put his hands on me before every hall on this mountain."
"He will not."
"I think you're right. I think you'll tear the Mirror Hall down." Yanzhi breathed out.
"But if I'm wrong, I want tonight to have been the best night of my life."
Jingmo did not answer.
He stood there, enormous in the moonlight, looking at the rosary swinging from Yanzhi's fingers.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Fox Demon Came to Repay the Monk Before His Vows are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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