The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

The three pregnant nuns were not imprisoned in the Yamen but in a secluded courtyard not far from the back gate.

The Shuntian Prefecture prepared this courtyard specifically to temporarily detain prisoners who couldn’t be detained in the large prison permanently.

Apart from the three pregnant nuns, there was also a 74-year-old woman who was charged with poisoning and killing her neighbors, a family of six, after a land dispute.

Sun Shaozong led Jia Baoyu and Miaoyu and wandered around until they arrived at the small courtyard. Pointing to five tiled houses lined up in the west wing, he said, "Those nuns are separately detained inside. Are you planning to see them one by one or...?"

"Since we're here, we naturally have to see them one by one."

Miaoyu spoke and pondered for a moment before continuing, "Didn't you say last time that they are all a bit… extreme now? Let's start with the most normal one."

"Okay."

Sun Shaozong nodded and took them to the first room on the north side. He gently pushed open the door, and a foul smell rushed over them.

The three of them instinctively stopped in their tracks. Miaoyu quickly covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve and asked in a low voice, "Didn't you say that they haven't been mistreated, My Lord? How can this be..."

"Look carefully first."

Sun Shaozong interrupted her and gestured for them to change their perspective to get a better view of the situation inside.

Miaoyu and Baoyu walked over and looked inside. Although it was simpler than they imagined, they didn’t see the filth they expected.

Looking more closely, they saw a nun in a gray monk's robe tied up tightly with coarse ropes on a black wooden bed in the center. The foul smell emanated from her.

Isn't this mistreatment?

Miaoyu became annoyed again, but Baoyu frowned and said, "Second Brother, is this woman trying to commit suicide?"

"Oh, Brother Bao's observation skills have improved recently."

Sun Shaozong complimented him casually and sighed helplessly. "This woman has been seeking death since she came here. The guards had no choice but to tie her up."

Miaoyu was still somewhat dissatisfied. "But… But she can't be treated like this. At least she should be cleaned up!"

"Cleaned up?"

Sun Shaozong snorted, "Do you think it's easy to clean a person who is desperately trying to die? Every time she's cleaned, it takes at least four or five servants and a couple of hours. It's already very difficult to do it once every two or three days."

Miaoyu fell silent for a moment, hesitated at the door for a while, and in the end, she didn’t dare to go in and speak. She could only ask with a stiff voice, "The other two, are they... are they as filthy as this?"

"Filthy?"

Sun Shaozong smirked. "Their bodies are clean, but as for other aspects... hehe."

With that, he immediately walked to the central ”cell.”

Miaoyu and Jia Baoyu hurriedly followed up. When they got close, they found that this room was different from the previous one, but it was locked. If they sniffed carefully, there was a faint smell of sandalwood in the room.

Smelling the scent of sandalwood, Miaoyu was in a good mood. He ordered Sun Shaozong to let the female guards come forward and open the lock on the door.

However, after the door opened, she carefully adjusted her angle and observed the situation outside the door.

She saw that the furnishings in the room were as simple and tidy as before. The only difference was that there was a small Buddhist niche on the wall on the north side and a yellow futon on the ground.

The nun, who was imprisoned here, knelt on the futon and chanted the scripture piously with her hands together.

This was how a nun should look when asking Buddad for forgiveness!

Miaoyu couldn't help but secretly glance at Sun Shaozong and say that this "petty" Sun must have deliberately changed the order. He led himself to see the most abnormal one first so that she could feel scared for nothing.

With such thinking, she walked in without waiting for Sun Shaozong’s instruction.

Baoyu also hurried to follow up. Sun Shaozong didn't stop him. He just held his arms and stood at the door, allowing them to talk to the nun.

"Amitabha, this... This..."

Miaoyu came forward and said her Buddhist name, but she was stunned and didn't know how to call her. According to common sense, she should call her "Elder Martial Sister But thinking of what the nun had done, the name of "Elder Martial Sister" couldn’t be said anyway.

However, the nun was also startled by her. Looking back slowly, she saw Miaoyu in a monastic robe and a blue silk shawl with picturesque features. Her eyes brightened a little. When she saw Baoyu behind her, she was even more overjoyed.

The nun stretched out her hand on the ground and stood up with some difficulty. She put her hands together and said, "Amitabha, to get the company of Second Master Bao, you must be a blessing, right?"

Seeing that her speech and behavior were the same as those of ordinary people, Miaoyu dismissed her last worry and nodded. "It's Miaoyu, I'm here to..."

"Don't talk about these vulgar things first!"

Who knew that the nun didn't wait for her to finish talking, then she said excitedly, "Since you are destined to travel with the Second Master Bao, have you ever helped him beyond the worldly sufferings and reached the realm of infinite joy?"

Not to mention that Jia Baoyu was baffled by this, even Miaoyu, who was raised in a Buddhist school, didn't understand it and hesitated, "I don't know... I don't know what the "infinite joy" realm that you said is referring to, which classic?"

Because the nun was in her early twenties and her face was dignified, Miaoyu finally called her "Elder Martial Sister.”

"Classic?"

The nun smiled and looked deep and distant. It seemed that she had gotten rid of all the troubles in the world. "The classics are just the records of the sages who have recorded their own understanding. After all, we are separated by one layer. How can we compare the communication between Buddha and Bodhisattva in person?"

Communicate with Bodhisattva in person?

Miaoyu said dubiously, "Did Elder Martial Sister ever communicate with Buddha and Bodhisattva in person?"

"I did naturally."

A little red blush appeared on the nun’s face, and her voice was a little louder than that just now, "At the beginning, in the Buddhist Hall of the back hall of Shuiyue Nunnery, I was in a trance several times, and my soul floated out of my body. At that time, I saw the Bodhisattva, he... He was smiling at me!"

As she said this, she couldn’t help but stop to gasp for a while, and then held her heart and said intoxicatedly, "That kind of feeling... It seems my entire person is filled with boundless Buddha dharma."

Hearing what she said so thoroughly, Jia Baoyu and Miaoyu were immersed in her speech.

"Dharma?"

At this moment, Sun Shaozong snorted at the door and said, "I’m afraid it's the lecherous monk who fills you!"

Fill?

A lecherous monk?

Miaoyu was still a little perplexed, but Jia Baoyu blushed to the side and had already created the image that Sun Shaozong had described.

"Shut up! What do you know about those who destroy and slander Buddha?!"

The nun’s face suddenly became violent, and she shouted at Sun Shaozong, "If you want to connect with the Western Blissful World, you must be in a state of infinite joy before you can do it!"

As she said this, she stared at Jia Baoyu with drooling eyes again. "Second Master Bao is a person with innate wisdom. If I can have a good time with him, we will be able to reach the Supreme State together. I must not miss this great opportunity!"

"You... You..."

Miaoyu was no longer confused, and now she has come to understand it. She stepped back in shame and anger and scolded, "What are you talking about? What's this... What Buddhism is this? It's clearly evil!"

Sigh~

The nun sighed regretfully when she saw her fierce reaction. "You who are fated to practice Buddhism but are still in the shackles of the world without knowing it. It is a cruel thing."

Then she looked solemn, lifted her monk's robe, completely exposed the body without anything else to the public, and said her Buddha's name, "Amitabha, it seems that only if I practice with the Second Master Bao first, can you just get lost?!"