"Goodness, what should I call you now—Quan Taisheng or the meat-eating monk Yuanci?" Xing'er asked as she knelt beside the table in the mountainside pavilion, carefully lifting a cup of fragrant tea and taking a delicate sip.
Yuanci gently brushed a hand over his flowing hair. His face remained kindly as he said with easy grace, "A monk who eats meat is a monk, and a monk who doesn't eat meat is also a monk. A monk without hair is a monk, but does that mean one with hair isn't? Yi Tian, that's fallacious reasoning. I never thought that even after proving the Dao, you'd still be so unable to let go."
Although Xing'er desperately tried to calm herself, her eyes still drifted toward the girl kneeling beside her. The girl wore a plain dress, and as she brewed the tea, a faintly elegant, confident smile graced her face. She looked so understated, yet that bearing of hers had clearly seized Xing'er's attention.
"Dad, as for Master, forget growing his hair back—he never abstained from meat and fish in the first place. Over the years, he's reached the point where nothing weighs on his mind. All things are empty to him, and he does as he pleases, seeking only the laws of cause and effect within his heart," the girl said with a smile. Naturally, she was speaking to me, because the child had already recognized me.
"Ke'er, you've really grown up," Xing'er said awkwardly. To relay my voice, she could only transmit my words directly. But at the start of casual conversation, there was no way for her to pretend to be me, let alone pass along my words naturally.
Yuanci and Hua Ke, on the other hand, had no such problem. Neither blushed nor showed the slightest embarrassment.