Consort

He sorted through his recent thoughts. He had four goals at present.

First, and most importantly, with less than a month until the Courtyard Competition Dharma Assembly, he needed to prepare. Second, he needed to find alcohol to get Yeluo drunk. Third, he needed to rent a better mud-brick house for his younger sister.

The fourth was a long-term goal: naturally, collecting things rich in fortune essence. That sort of collecting seemed to require money too.

"Four goals, and three of them need secret silver." The money Qu Zan had on hand really did seem insufficient.

In the small scripture hall, Rusu noticed Qu Zan's faintly furrowed brow and asked, "Junior Brother Gyatso, has something been troubling you lately?"

Qu Zan smiled faintly. "Yes. Who doesn't have a few troubles?"

"Then you could go to Jieyou Alley." Rusu gave a mysterious smile.

"Jieyou Alley?" Qu Zan paused. "Where is that?"

Rusu said, "Junior Brother, have you really never heard of it? Where do you usually go after class?"

"To the lecture hall to read scriptures?"

The corner of Rusu's mouth twitched. "No wonder your studies are so good, Junior Brother Gyatso. Admirable, truly admirable!" His eyes plainly held the look one gave a bookworm.

"I'll take you to Jieyou Alley tonight. One relief to dispel a hundred worries..." Rusu said.

After the afternoon classes ended, Qu Zan was just about to head to the dining hall.

Rusu said, "Come on, Junior Brother. Your senior brother will broaden your horizons."

"I haven't had dinner yet," Qu Zan said. The dining hall meal was free; it would be a shame to miss it.

"Tonight, your senior brother will treat you to something good!"

Qu Zan said, "Then I'll collect my butter tea and tsampa from the dining hall first." He ran inside, collected his portion, and handed it to Doje.

Doje could hardly believe he would get two dinners today. Before he even had time to thank him, Qu Zan was already far away.

Watching this, the corner of Rusu's mouth twitched slightly. "Junior Brother, you really know how to make every little bit count."

"I can't help it. Poverty has scared me enough that I don't want to waste anything." Qu Zan sighed softly.

Rusu led Qu Zan toward the rear mountain. Compared with the clamor out front, it grew quieter the farther they went.

Monk Soldiers in close-fitting clothes stood guard around them.

One of the Monk Soldiers looked at the pair and held his long saber across their path, blocking them.

Rusu took out the waist token identifying him as a Scholar Monk, then slipped over two secret silver coins.

Only then did Tsering step aside and let them pass through the narrow gate.

"Ordinary servants and serfs can pass through here, but Attendant Monks and Scholar Monks without connections cannot," Rusu said.

Walking along the stone-paved mountain path, Qu Zan felt that even the air was especially fresh.

Tall poplars, pines, cypresses, and wild peach trees grew on either side of the path.

Thick rammed-earth walls over a dozen zhang high stood on either side, painted ocher, their tops covered in reddish-brown bianma grass. They enclosed one hilltop after another.

Qu Zan asked, "What's inside those walls?"

"The Linka Private Estates and the Lay Buddhist Courtyard. The people living there are all living buddhas, officials, and nobles..." Rusu said quietly.

"Oh, private gardens for important people."

It was difficult to make out what lay within from outside. All they could see from a distance were decorative gilded reliefs and designs of the Eight Auspicious Symbols.

Every timber of the projecting wooden eaves and rafters bore paintings in five colors, with raised-powder outlines traced in gold, their layers intricate and delicate.

They followed the foot of the high walls downhill. After half an hour, Qu Zan reckoned they had reached the other side of the mountain. Suddenly, a continuous stretch of low houses appeared before them.

A winding street paved with cobblestones ran through them. Shops in the Mìdì style stood at intervals along it, with ritual implements and other goods piled outside their doors.

"This is really a marketplace for cultivators. All sorts of unusual things are traded here. Of course, Corpse Camel Temple takes a thirty-percent cut of every transaction."

Only then did Qu Zan see clearly that Jieyou Alley lay south of Corpse Camel Ridge, near several major thoroughfares.

Some shops sold magnificent Buddhist tapestries, while others displayed all manner of statues of gods and buddhas...

Outside one shop, Qu Zan spotted several large jars densely packed with scorpions. The jars beside them held snakes, centipedes, toads, geckos, and other such creatures.

There were also strange herbs and minerals whose colors he could not make out. Some shops also sold talismans supposedly blessed by living buddhas.

"...But, Junior Brother, I suggest you don't buy anything here. It's fake and expensive..."

Outside one shop, Qu Zan saw an entire wall covered in human spinal columns. The sight made his scalp prickle. Another shop's stall was covered in Human-Bone Prayer Beads.

"Master, have a look. These are all Human-Bone Prayer Beads made from the bones of High Monks," the shopkeeper said.

Qu Zan picked up a strand. High Monk prayer beads were polished from the brow bones of those who had attained enlightenment. This strand alone had a hundred and eight beads.

There were over a thousand strands along the whole street. Never mind whether they came from High Monks—Qu Zan doubted they were even Human-Bone Prayer Beads. They might be made from cow or sheep bones.

"The goods sold here are considerably better than those outside." He examined and touched them one by one, seeing whether he could find any ornaments bearing fortune essence.

"Junior Brother, over here!" Rusu called quietly to Qu Zan.

Qu Zan walked away somewhat reluctantly.

Rusu asked, "Junior Brother, do you like these amulets and ritual implements?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, my purse is thin..." Qu Zan said.

"Once we've achieved something in our cultivation, we'll be able to make these ourselves, and ours will be far better than those fakes."

Rusu led Qu Zan to a red building inside the alley, surrounded by its own low vermilion rammed-earth wall.

The walls bore expanses of shallow reliefs depicting Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi in sexual union. A black pulu wool curtain hung over the entrance, embroidered with embracing bliss deities.

Indistinct dakinis and faint lotus designs had been painted by hand on the walls.

One glance at those lotuses, and Qu Zan felt something was very wrong...

"This doesn't seem like a respectable place," Qu Zan said quietly.

Rusu said with perfect seriousness, "How is it not respectable? It couldn't be more respectable. This is a place for joint esoteric practice."

Faced with Qu Zan's doubtful gaze, Rusu lowered his voice. "Everyone privately calls this place the Consort Lodge."

A Wisdom King meant a wrathful manifestation of a buddha; the female deity paired with him was therefore called a consort.

In cultivating the practice of sexual union, practitioners put it into action and performed the act of sexual union.

The Lama was regarded as the father, and the woman who practiced esoteric arts as his partner as the dakini,

"Look, we're all cultivating. We have to test the results of our practice. Remaining firm without releasing shows that our cultivation has borne fruit."

They lifted the curtain and entered, immediately finding the main Buddhist altar in the center.

On a wood-and-stone Mount Sumeru pedestal half a person's height stood a gilt-copper statue of Chakrasamvara in sexual union. The four-armed Wisdom King tightly embraced a naked Vajravarahi, his body entwined with coral and human-bone ornaments, demons trampled beneath his feet;

The statue's brows and eyes were wrathful, its embracing pose explicit and brazen. It was the signature display of the entire building.

The walls throughout were covered in colorful Thangka murals of sexual union, depicting various principal deities embracing consorts in dual cultivation.

The space was enclosed, and beneath the dim yellow light, the images looked especially suggestive. The scent of women's rouge and powder was strong.

"Good fortune and blessings, Lamas." A woman approached them.

She wore a light pink sleeveless silk top, its fabric soft and thin, and an ordinary red pulu wool skirt that reached her ankles.

A faded, translucent gauze scarf draped over her shoulders, slipping casually down them, matching the forms of the celestial maidens in the murals.

Rusu asked, "Are there any new consorts?"

"Yes, there are. Dharma master, please go upstairs first."

"Good, good. I want to cultivate great bliss together with the Wisdom Consort..." Rusu headed up to the second floor as he spoke. "Today, the vajra shall subdue the wicked lotus."

The woman said to Qu Zan, "And you, Lama? I don't recognize your face. Shall I choose a consort to cultivate with you?"