Chapter 104: The Grace of Enlightenment, Never to Be Forgotten!
“Indiscernible to the naked eye…”
Zhao Xuanlang furrowed his brows tightly as he repeatedly compared the two coins in his hands, murmuring constantly, “Look carefully, compare carefully, focus… compare…”
Somehow, his initially restless mood gradually calmed down through this continuous comparison.
He seemed to have realized something; his frown eased as he placed the two coins in the palms of his hands and surprisingly closed his eyes, no longer scrutinizing them closely.
Shortly after…
He opened his eyes with a sigh and said, “Brother Xu, I have poor eyesight and can only sense that these two coins differ in weight; I cannot discern any other difference.”
“Difference in weight…”
Xu Boqing’s eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he smiled, “Based on your feeling, Brother Zhao, which coin feels heavier?”
Zhao Xuanlang hesitated for a moment, then placed the Daliang coin from his right hand onto the table and said, “I just tried to observe and compare carefully, as Brother Xu suggested… I personally think this coin is heavier, but the kind of ‘weight’ is difficult to describe—not in the conventional sense.”
At the end, he added with a conflicted expression, “I’m not sure if it’s just an illusion…”
“Hahaha…”
Xu Boqing laughed upon seeing him pick out the coin imbued with a ‘worldly aura’ and said, “It’s not an illusion. That coin indeed carries something invisible to ordinary people, which is why it feels ‘heavier’.”
“Oh?”
Zhao Xuanlang’s expression brightened with excitement as he said, “So, Brother Xu, my feeling is correct?”
“Correct…”
Xu Boqing nodded slightly, then pushed the tray on the table toward him and said, “I won’t have you look for silver fragments. There are eighty-eight coins in this tray.”
He paused, smiling, “Among these eighty-eight coins, there is… well… one coin that, like you sensed earlier, is ‘heavier’ than the others. If you can pick it out within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, you’ll pass this test…”
“Phew… eighty-eight coins…”
Zhao Xuanlang exhaled a breath through clenched teeth, a fine sweat breaking out on his forehead, but the excitement in his eyes grew even more evident.
“Yes, eighty-eight to one…”
Xu Boqing put down his wine cup and deliberately provoked him, “If you pick the right one, I’ll let you see with your own eyes what makes it different from the others. If you pick wrong, it will only prove your earlier choice between the two was a guess. Do you dare to accept the challenge?”
“…”
Zhao Xuanlang’s gaze sharpened as he looked at the scattered coins in the tray. He reached in and felt around, then muttered, “Eighty-eight to one is quite challenging…”
His voice suddenly faltered, and with his middle and index fingers, he plucked a coin from the tray, smiling, “But since I grew up handling coins and now know their weights, why would I need the time of a cup of tea?”
“…”
Xu Boqing looked at the coin he had just picked; noticing the same faint ‘worldly aura’ enveloping it, he was slightly taken aback but quickly recovered and said with a click of his tongue, “I underestimated you, Brother Zhao…”
“Hahaha…”
Zhao Xuanlang rubbed the coins in the tray, his smile suddenly faltering. Then, picking another coin that also carried the worldly aura, he weighed it in his hand.
“This…”
“Heh, that one too…”
Xu Boqing laughed as he saw him pick out another coin with the same aura and said, “Actually, among these eighty-eight coins, there are two that are different from the rest. I feared you wouldn’t feel enough pressure, so I said there was only one; but then worried the challenge might be too great, so I understated the number…”
He paused, teasingly adding, “I never thought your intuition would be this sharp.”
“Hahahahaha…”
Zhao Xuanlang laughed heartily, then cupped his hands and said, “So, Brother Xu, have I passed your test?”
“Indeed…”
Xu Boqing nodded lightly and said, “Now please close your eyes. I will show you what makes the coins you selected special…”
Seeing him close his eyes as requested, Xu Boqing gently touched the coins, extracting the lingering ‘worldly aura’ and smearing it across his eyelids.
“You may open your eyes now.”
“…”
When Zhao Xuanlang opened his eyes, it seemed as though a flash of insight passed through them. He stared blankly at the coins on the table, the faint aura around them now strikingly clear.
He picked up two coins for comparison—one dull and lifeless, the other seemingly enveloped in a subtle energy.
“Brother Xu, what… what is this?”
“This is called ‘Qi’…”
Xu Boqing did not elaborate much, saying, “Earlier, Brother Zhao mentioned that wealth can be divided into ‘useful wealth’ and ‘useless wealth.’ I wholeheartedly agree…”
He paused, then said with a hint of mystery, “I have two stories about money. Would you like to hear them?”
Hearing this, Zhao Xuanlang put down the coins and sat upright, cupping his hands respectfully, “I am eager to listen!”
“Both stories involve ten taels of silver…”
Xu Boqing pondered for a moment and said, “The first story is about a man who married a wife. Though they had no children, the couple loved each other deeply. But soon, his wife became gravely ill. He was heartbroken and sold all his possessions to treat her…”
“Even after selling everything and borrowing all he could, he was still ten taels short for the medicine…”
His wife eventually died from her illness. The man became a beggar, wandering the streets, lost and aimless…
A wealthy man heard of his plight and wanted to help him start over, but the man refused, bluntly saying, ‘Money is useless to me now…’”
He paused, sighed, and continued, “The second story is similar. Another man married and had a beautiful daughter. His wife and daughter both fell ill, but his money was only enough to save one of them. The anguish and torment were unbearable.”
“Eventually, he chose to save his wife, but fate was unkind. Despite spending all his money, his wife’s condition worsened, and she passed away.”
“The daughter was still alive, but he had no money left for her treatment. In desperation, he sold his late wife’s body for a ghost marriage, using the ten taels he gained to save his daughter…”
“Sadly, it was already too late…”
“…”
The two men fell silent for a long moment.
Xu Boqing shook his head, took a sip of wine, and casually said, “The world is full of suffering, and there are countless people as pitiful as them. Brother Zhao, what do you think those ten taels of silver represent to such people?”
“Hope, or despair…”
Zhao Xuanlang also raised his head to drink and said, “To us, ten taels of silver might be so insignificant we wouldn’t bother to pick them up if dropped, but to ordinary people, they carry so much more.”
“Exactly…”
Xu Boqing smiled faintly, speaking with a hint of meaning, “If they didn’t carry those things, how could they feel ‘heavier’?”
Zhao Xuanlang’s breath caught at those words, a sudden realization dawning on his face. “If silver coins are so, then these coins are the same—as I said earlier… If a beggar is starving, the coin in his bowl is lifesaving money, and that coin carries something else…”
“And that something…”
“Is what Brother Xu calls ‘Qi’!!”
“Clever~ I call it the ‘worldly mortal aura.’”
Xu Boqing nodded slightly and explained, “In fact, it’s not just money; many things carry ‘worldly aura,’ but it’s most commonly found in money. After discovering their existence, I compiled a method of ‘Qi cultivation’ that, to my knowledge, no one in the world has practiced before.”
“Of course, I can’t guarantee the effectiveness of this cultivation, but simply seeing that Brother Zhao, with ordinary eyes, can detect this ‘worldly aura’ suggests you have an affinity for this method.”
He paused, a faint smile playing on his lips as he asked, “Brother Zhao, would you like to try cultivating it?”
“…”
Hearing this, Zhao Xuanlang’s face lit up with joy. Rising, he performed a disciple’s salute with solemnity and said, “I, Zhao Xuanlang, am forever grateful for Master Xu’s guidance!!”