The Temple Keepers, Daoist priests, and Buddhist monks received somewhat better treatment than those who made their living through shady dealings. Rather than being thrown into the Detention Room, they were brought to the Feng Family residence.
Apart from the old keeper of the Temple of Lord Guan, the Young Shrine Attendant of the Heavenly Consort Temple, and the old pedantic scholar in robes from the Merit Ancestral Hall, everyone trembled in fear. The Daoist priests and Buddhist monks were even worse. At the sight inside the residence, they cried out, their legs buckled, and they tumbled into a heap on the ground, not daring to speak.
The officers from the Yamen were shaking with fear too.
The scene before them could be summed up in just three words.
Chaos, chaos, chaos.
The Demon-Troubled Age.
The old keeper of the Temple of Lord Guan kept puffing on his long-stemmed tobacco pipe without saying a word. The Young Shrine Attendant of the Heavenly Consort Temple narrowed his eyes at his surroundings, then lowered his head, eyes on his nose and nose pointing toward his heart, as still as a clay idol or Wooden Carving. Only the Old Pedant showed any spirit. Several times, he tried to curse, but the Young Shrine Attendant kept tugging at him, stopping the words in his throat. After this happened repeatedly, his pent-up anger lodged in his chest and turned his face red.
An officer beside him, who had been keeping his head down, saw the Old Pedant's expression and kicked him in the backside, leaving a dusty footprint. "Silence!"
The Old Pedant turned and saw the officer glaring at him, which only made him angrier. But upon seeing the officer's uniform, he swallowed his indignation and silently repeated, Commoners must not fight officials, to console