Yun Zhaozhao later wrote down all the names Daoist Chang Kong and Lin Banxia had come up with, then asked Daoist Qingxin to check the child's birth chart. Only after confirming there were no oversights did she have Jingting give the names to the female lay devotee so she could pick whichever she liked best.
This naming experience made Yun Zhaozhao realize that many things really were easy to imagine but quite difficult to do. Take naming, for instance. She had thought there was nothing hard about it, but after going through it herself, she understood that coming up with a name that sounded nice and carried a good meaning was no simple task these days.
Compared with that, watching Xiao Yao plant flowers was much simpler.
When Yun Zhaozhao had planted roses before, she had always bought ready-grown plants. This was her first time watching someone grow them from seed.
How to put it? The process was quite relaxing to watch. First, the ground had to be dug into ridges, then holes dug along them, seeds placed inside, and a little soil put over them. And as mentioned before, Xiao Yao had obsessive-compulsive tendencies, so her holes were all about the same size and spaced about the same distance apart. Most importantly, they lined up neatly in both rows and columns. Once everything was planted, she sprinkled on a little fertilizer, then watered it.
For as long as Xiao Yao planted in the backyard, Yun Zhaozhao sat there watching.
Her gaze made Xiao Yao so nervous that she eventually couldn't help quietly asking Lin Banxia for help. "Teacher Lin, does the temple master not trust my gardening skills? Is she sitting there specifically to supervise me?"
Lin Banxia glanced back at Yun Zhaozhao, then answered in the same hushed voice, "You're overthinking it. She's just bored and sitting there to pass the time! Don't mind her. Just do whatever you need to do and think of her as our Clear Breeze Temple's mascot."
"Oh, I see!" Xiao Yao said. Come to think of it, Temple Master Yun was so pretty and had such a nice personality and temper that she really was well suited to being Clear Breeze Temple's mascot.
Of course, Xiao Yao only thought that last part to herself. She didn't dare say it in front of Lin Banxia.
Yun "Mascot" Zhaozhao really was watching the planting to pass the time.
After all, her only form of entertainment before had been watching Daoist Qingxin tell ghost stories on his livestream. Ever since learning that his ghost stories might be real ghost stories, she had given up that hobby.
The days were growing longer now. Usually, the sun wouldn't fully set until around seven, and only then would the sky gradually darken, so sometimes Yun Zhaozhao had no idea what to do to pass those long daylight hours.
Sometimes, Yun Zhaozhao chatted with her college classmate Xu Ping on WeChat.
After her initial envy, jealousy, and resentment upon learning that Yun Zhaozhao had inherited a Taoist temple, Xu Ping had now come to truly envy her life there. It really was so free, with neither a boss to manage her nor workplace politics.
Naturally, Yun Zhaozhao was too embarrassed to complain to Xu Ping that, free as she was, she occasionally got bored too. That would sound far too much like humblebragging, which didn't suit her understated, reserved personality.
So when chatting with Xu Ping, she either agreed with what Xu Ping said or joined her in complaining about life's frustrations and inconveniences.
When she got unbearably bored, she found things for the people around her to do.
For instance, while scrolling through videos online one day, she saw a dish that was supposedly in danger of becoming a lost art: paper-wrapped fried chicken. So she encouraged Daoist Chang Kong to try making it.
Daoist Chang Kong was very tempted when he heard about it. After all, the only thing more enticing than delicious food was delicious food he had never tried that was also in danger of disappearing. Just as the scenery people most wanted to see was always something they had never seen and might lose the chance to see at any moment.
But to make paper-wrapped fried chicken, they first needed at least one chicken.
"There are chickens!" Yun Zhaozhao said. "Didn't Grandpa Lin say he was going to buy some to raise in the village? Let me work it out. It's been a while now. Maybe some of the faster-growing ones are already big enough to eat."
"Then would you mind making the trip?" Daoist Chang Kong asked.
For one thing, Yun Zhaozhao had nothing to do. For another, she really did want to see Grandpa Lin's rice, wheat, and tea fields. Besides, the village where he grew rice wasn't far from Clear Breeze Temple, only a little over half an hour away on foot, so the next day she really did stroll over.
Grandpa Lin was very happy to see Yun Zhaozhao and eagerly took her on a tour of the fields. All along the way, like a parent showing off his children, he enthusiastically and patiently explained which rice paddies were flourishing, which wheat fields might produce high yields, and which tea plots would definitely produce fresh, delicious tea in the future...
Yun Zhaozhao grew excited as she listened. She even couldn't help imagining that perhaps, in the near future, she would lead everyone at Clear Breeze Temple to financial freedom.
But before achieving financial freedom, she needed to achieve roast chicken freedom first.
She asked Grandpa Lin, "Grandpa, how are those chickens you said you were going to buy doing?"
At that, Grandpa Lin immediately turned his walking tractor around and drove straight toward the courtyard where he lived. "I'll take you to see them. They're doing great!"
The chicks were kept on the hill behind the house, so the walking tractor had to stay in the courtyard. To see them, Yun Zhaozhao still had to follow Grandpa Lin up a mountain path. It wasn't far, perhaps only a few hundred meters, but Lin Zhaozhao was left panting. The old man, on the other hand, waited for her while grumbling, "You young people really are frailer than an old man like me. When I was your age, never mind climbing a mountain path empty-handed-even with dozens or a hundred jin of firewood on my back, I could walk over hills like these as though they were flat ground."
Yun Zhaozhao wanted to argue, but the moment she opened her mouth, she panted like an ox. In the end, she silently shut it again and took the enormous blame for physical weakness on behalf of the younger generation.
The two of them climbed all the way to a fenced clearing and finally saw Grandpa Lin's flock of chicks. They really were growing beautifully, but they were also truly tiny. If they were made into paper-wrapped fried chicken, they probably
wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between her teeth!
Besides, Grandpa Lin surely wouldn't let her eat chicks this small.
So Yun Zhaozhao simply didn't mention the real reason for her visit and contentedly spent some time watching the chicks with Grandpa Lin.
As they watched, Grandpa Lin suddenly suggested, "Last time I visited Clear Breeze Temple, I noticed you didn't keep any pets, just a few stray cats hanging around at most. Why don't you pick a little rooster to take back and raise in the backyard? It could crow for you later."
Yun Zhaozhao already found her days boring, so Grandpa Lin's suggestion instantly tempted her. Without even thinking much about it, she picked a little rooster at random and brought him back to Clear Breeze Temple.
Daoist Chang Kong's first reaction upon seeing the little rooster she had brought back was shock. "...Are you sure you want to make paper-wrapped fried chicken with a chicken that small?"
Yun Zhaozhao set the little rooster down and replied, "No, I brought him back to keep for fun. Grandpa Lin said he'd crow when he grew up, too."
Daoist Chang Kong really wanted to say, "You sleep in every day. Are you sure you need a rooster crowing?" But when the words reached his lips, he tactfully swallowed them. "All right. As long as you're happy."
Yun Zhaozhao remained enthusiastic. "I've seen how fortune-telling masters usually have a pet with them. Some have little birds, some have cats or dogs. I think having a chicken could work too."
Jingting wandered over from the side and said with a smile, "Sure. Why not? If the prediction's accurate, you can say you made it. If it's wrong, you can blame it all on the chick and say he made it. We could even give him a name: Fortune-Telling Chicken."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "..."
"...Once the fortune-telling's done, we could slaughter him and make that paper-wrapped fried chicken you wanted," Jingting continued. "The reason would be that he revealed heaven's secrets."
"...If we really did what you said, I don't think this chicken would have merely revealed heaven's secrets," Yun Zhaozhao said. "He'd have violated heaven's laws!"
The chicken: "..." If I'd known, I'd rather have rotted in the chicken coop.
They were having a lively discussion around the chicken when Xiao Yao came in. She spotted the chick right away too and excitedly ran over to play with him. "Where did this chick come from? He's so cute."
"Cute, isn't he?" Yun Zhaozhao said. "From now on, this chicken is our Clear Breeze Temple's mascot."
Xiao Yao instinctively glanced at Yun Zhaozhao. "But doesn't Clear Breeze Temple already have a mascot? How can one temple allow two mascots?"
Yun Zhaozhao said, "..." We already have a mascot? How come I, the temple master, don't know about this?
After saying it, Xiao Yao realized she had let it slip and fled in fright. Yun Zhaozhao looked at the chick, then at herself, then recalled the look Xiao Yao had just given her. Belatedly, she realized: Could the mascot Xiao Yao meant be me?
Chapter 41
Yun Zhaozhao later named the little rooster Yunlai, expressing the wish that visitors would flock to Clear Breeze Temple like clouds.
Then Yun Zhaozhao asked Daoist Chang Kong to make little Yunlai a simple chicken coop so he could live in the backyard.
With trees, flowers, grass, and all sorts of little insects, the backyard was practically heaven on earth for a little rooster. His only regret might have been that he was a little lonely, but that was all right. Yun Zhaozhao planned to let little Yunlai settle in for a while first. If it didn't work out, she would send him back to Grandpa Lin or bring over a little hen to keep him company.
By then, Yun Zhaozhao had completely forgotten her earlier claim that Clear Breeze Temple was a place of peace and quiet unsuitable for keeping poultry. Every day after eating her fill, she would stroll into the backyard with leftovers to feed the chicken.
Besides her, Xiao Yao liked Yunlai too. While Yun Zhaozhao fed him leftovers, Xiao Yao caught little insects and earthworms for him.
After feeding him, the two of them would squat beside the coop and watch the chick for ages.
Only Lin Banxia had absolutely no interest in these little pointy-beaked creatures. And not just little pointy-beaked creatures-she had no interest in cats or dogs either.