Chi Meng slightly devastated at his first impression to the people, he wonders if the people are upset to see him descend now, how will they think of him once he becomes the Heavenly Emperor. Would they despise him, turn against him ? Would that be the downfall of Tian Tang ? Worry fills his thought. However, Yi Rong just wanted to find a place to settle down and rest.
As Yi Rong turns to Chi Mengs direction and sees his beat up expression, he rolls his eyes and pulls Chi Meng while trying to find a place that they can shelter for the night, and hopefully for the next 130 years. While walking down the muddy paths, Yi Rong finally stumbles across an abandon temple. At first he was filled with happiness, he thought his luck was amazing, just within a few steps, he already found a place to live ! But upon entering the abandon temple, he was simply fooled from the outside !
Inside, the temple looked old and broken down, full of cobwebs and infested with bugs like ants ! On the brighter end, the temple was crafted with high grade wood, therefore the structure of the temple was still holding on for now ! Yi Rong thinks twice whether they should camp at this temple, but as he looks further down, he feels lazy and doesn't want to walk anymore, and what if there aren't anymore empty houses or temples for them to stay. Then they'll have to walk back up here, that would just be a waste of energy. At last, Yi Rong reluctantly sighs, but he remembers, he didn't come alone.
Yi Rong with a mischievous grin walks out, "Hey Tai Zi, don't stand there like a tree and come help me." he says with a pleading tone, but Chi Meng seems to stay frozen, staring down and looking at an old and wrecked up sign board, it seems to be the name of the temple.
"Whatcha looking at ?" as Yi Rong walks up to Chi Meng and slightly leans on his shoulder. Chi Meng startled at a suddenly touch jumps awake to reality. "Oh, sorry what do you need ?"
"Temple of Mu Nian Tang... (慕念堂庙 ) " Yi Rong says softly, it sounds rings a bell in his mind, but he can't pin point what it is. He then turns his head over to Chi Meng, "Does Tai Zi have any idea who is Mu Nian Tang ?" Chi Meng claims he doesn't know, but Yi Rong know he's definitely hiding something. Yi Rong wanting to tease Chi Meng, hoping that Chi Meng will tell him what Mu Nian Tang is towards him. However, at the last second he changes his mind, ' why bother knowing so much about Tai Zi ? Tai Zi's just here to guide me, why would I want to get closer to him... ' Yi Rong thinks to himself.
Chi Meng then breaks the awkwardness in the atmosphere, "You needed help ?" He asks Yi Rong, as they make eye contact, Yi Rong finally remembers who Mu Nian Tang is. Lost in thought, Chi Meng waves his hand in front of Yi Rong, "Hello, are you okay ?"
"Huh, oh yeah, my bad. Uhmm.. right, come help me replenish the temple." says Yi Rong as he brings Chi Meng inside.
While they were cleaning inside, Chi Meng noticed one of the wooden pillar that was supporting the roof looked a bit rotten, a gut feeling made him want to crack open the pillar, and he did. Chi Meng swung his sword and smashed open the rotten part of the wooden pillar"HEY BASTARD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, I TOLD YOU TO REPLENISH THE TEMPLE NOT BRING IT DOWN !" Yi Rong yells, right before he smacks Chi Meng, thousands of termites crawl out. Chi Meng then throws his swords to the other pillars, as it seems, the high grade wood thickness made it seem like it was still in a good condition, but all of the pillars have long been infested by termites.
Yi Rong crouches down at the sight of the termites coming out from all the pillars. "Ughhh... I regret this already..." he cries out, Chi Meng looks down at Yi Rong, sighs and walks out. Yi Rong immediately looks up, he runs over to the door, opening his arms wide, not allowing Chi Meng to leave.
"Hey, no way you're going to leave me and find another place to live ?" Yi Rong pouts, Chi Meng pushes Yi Rong's arm aside, "I'm not that wicked, I'm going to go cut down some trees to collect wood in order to make new pillars." Yi Rong stunned and thinks to himself, 'Is Tai Zi really that tender-hearted ?"
Before Chi Meng leaves, he turns around and tells Yi Rong, "Continue cleaning up the temple at area's that are safe, don't try to run away, or you'll be punished. Hopefully, once I come back and fix the pillars up, we'll be on time to get dinner in one of the nearby stalls before they close down." Yi Rong groans as he walks back in the temple, he stretches before continuing cleaning up the temple.
The Sun starts to set, without a sight of Chi Meng, Yi Rong sits at the front steps of the temple, as he rest his head on the door frame and whines, "Did he run away, it's been several hours already, at this rate I guess I'm starving tonight." he cries out as his stomach rumbles. Just when Yi Rong starts to loose hope, from afar he sees a tiny figure running back, could it be Chi Meng ? But as it gets closer, he realises it was a great egret (大白鹭), It flew by and rested right in front of Yi Rong. Yi Rong raises his eyebrow, why on earth was there such a huge bird here, he thinks to himself, a bird this size would definitely starve in this impoverished place. The bird then drops a small pouch and a small note on Yi Rongs lap, it stays there till Yi Rong finally reads the letter.
Yi Rong sighs, and opens the letter, 'Hey little pest, I think by the time i'm back, the roosters are already crowing. Inside that small pouch there's a few tong bao (通寶 — Olden days of China's common currency ) inside the pouch. That should be enough for a big meal.' Yi Rong cheerfully jumps in the air and exclaims "BLESS THE GODS IN HEAVENS AND ABOVE, I CAN FINALLY EAT ! !"
Yi Rong then happily waddles to the market, unfortunately, by the time he arrived, almost all the shops were closed. Just when Yi Rong was about to cry his way back home, in the corner of his eye, he noticed a shop still opened, it was a tang yuan (汤圆) shop. Yi Rong contemplated, 'Tang yuan for dinner... would that be weird ? Oh well, there's nothing else to eat, it's better than starving.'
Yi Rong then floats over and orders, "Hey lao ban (老板, common term to call the shop owner in China) could I please get one warm bowl of red bean tang yuan !", "Sure, no problem ! Would you like to eat here or to go ?" the owner ask. "To eat here, thank you !" Yi Rong says as he tries to keep his mouth from watering by the sent of the delicious tang yuan cooking. As he finds a spot to sit down in the shop, he eves drop on a conversation nearby...
"Dad, let's go eat tang yuan together ! It'll be my treat, you've worked soo hard today." a girl that looks no more at 19 pleads towards her old father as she grabs him tightly and helps him walk over. "Okay, but just this one time. I don't want you to waste your money on me, you should keep it to yourself !" the old father lectures her. Yi Rong slowly looks back at the pouch with money inside that Chi Meng gave him, and clenches it tight.
"Uhh lao ban, I apologise for the inconvenience, but could you make it 2 bowls of red bean tang yuan, both to go." Yi Rong says as he passes over the money for the other bowl of tang yuan.
"Oh, sure no problem ! May I ask why did you suddenly change your mind ?" the owner teasingly asks, hinting that he thought Yi Rong wanted to buy a bowl of tang yuan for the girl. Yi Rong nervously laughs, "I just remembered that I had a friend coming over tonight." "Oh, I apologise, *whisper* I thought you wanted to buy that young lady a bowl of tang yuan.." the owner chuckles, Yi Rong immediately turns red like a tomato and covers his face with both of his palms.
"Haha, don't bother covering your face with your palms, we can see right through it !" the owner jokes as he passes over the 2 bowls of tang yuan. Yi Rong thanks the owner and sets off, but as he turned around, the same young lady was standing right behind him. The stared at each other for a solid 2 second, before Yi Rong awkwardly apologises and runs off, feeling extremely embarrassed...