Sinful Lotus

Beyond the front courtyard lay a square, orderly life-release pond.

A stone bridge spanned the pond. Beneath it, the water was a dark, murky black, with several withered yellow lotus leaves floating upon it; faintly, a few koi could be seen swimming along the bottom.

A stone lantern stood by the pond, the candle flame within long extinguished, its body covered in creeping moss.

Past the life-release pond stood the Bell and Drum Towers, facing one another. Their upturned eaves and hooked corners held bronze bells that chimed in the evening breeze.

Farther inside was another courtyard, with side halls on either side. Their doors were tightly shut, and their window paper had yellowed, making it impossible to tell what was enshrined within.

As Shen Hui made his way along, he ran into several more nuns.

Some emerged from the side halls to pour tea, while others swept the courtyard corners. Seeing this stranger barge in, some cried out in alarm, some pressed their palms together and chanted the Buddha's name, and some turned to flee.

Shen Hui treated them all alike and swept every one of them into his sleeve.

Beyond three courtyards lay the final enclosure:

Perfect Penetration Hall.

Its doors stood wide open. The hall was dimly lit, with only two everlasting lamps before the Buddha casting their faint glow.

A statue of Child-Bestowing Guanyin sat within.

The statue was roughly the size of a True Person. Her face was full and kindly, her eyes half-closed, a smile resting on her lips. She bore the appearance of a woman in her thirties.

In her left arm, she held a plump infant, barefoot and naked, smiling with adorably simple innocence. In her right hand, she supported a white Jade Purification Vase, with a lotus flower inserted at an