Chapter 96: Up the Mountain
Chapter 96: Up the Mountain
Not long after the monk disappeared, the rain stopped, and Gu Jiao made her way to the temple to meet Little Jing Kong.
Little Jing Kong spent a pleasant and fulfilling day in the temple, half a day to be exact.
He met several senior brothers, including the gentle and considerate senior brother Jing Chen, the abbot and his former little monk playmates namely Jing Fan, Jing Xin and Jing Shan.
Because the abbot and his senior brothers were busy, he spent the longest time with the three little monks.
Without Jing Kong grabbing their meal, the three little monks were full of nutrients, and each one was rounder than before.
Little Jing Kong wasn’t the original Little Jing Kong either—— he shed off his monk robe and was now dressed in folk children’s clothes, and his little bald head also grew tiny hair spikes.
In fact, he was the youngest among the little monks, but he spoke the earliest and the best, and even later even the abbot couldn’t beat him in words.
He proudly showed his little face to the little monks and asked, “Do you see the little buds in my face? JiaoJiao gave it to me!”
“I saw it, I saw it!” Jing Fan answered.
“I saw it too!” Jing Xin replied.
After thinking for a while, Jing Shan said slowly, “Then… I saw it too!”
Little Jing Kong was greatly satisfied.
“Will the buds grow into flowies?” Jing Fan asked as he pointed to his little face.
Little Jing Kong paused and shook his head, saying, “I don’t think so. They will only grow into kisses, which will stay on my face all the time!”
“Can I eat it?” JIng Fan asked.
“You can’t.” Little Jing Kong answered.
Hearing that it could neither grow into a flowy nor they could eat it, the three little monks lost interest in the little buds of kisses instantly.
But Little Jing Kong still had something else here.
Little Jing Kong decisively took out a jar of vegetarian meatballs that Gu Jiao had packed for him. After opening the lid, an aroma of scallion oil wafted out, almost filling the whole yard.
The three little monks were stunned.
Jing Fan widened his eyes and said, “What, what is it that it smells so good?”
Three little people’s saliva immediately poured down.
Little Jing Kong wanted to eat meat but couldn’t, so Gu Jiao thought of a way to make vegetarian meat for him with ingredients such as tofu.
That way, he could also eat whatever they ate at home—— for example, if they had roasted duck for meal, he would also be eating “roasted duck”; if they had sausage, he would also be eating “sausage”; if they had braised pork at home, he would also be eating “braised pork”.
Recently, they had been eating meatballs at home, so Little Jing Kong had his own version of meatballs these days.
Little Jing Kong ate a piece of meatball in front of his friends, which truly shocked his little friends!
The little monks were simply stunned in their spot!
“You, you, you’re eating meat?”
“Don’t you faint when you eat meat?”
“Heavens la! That’s terrible! Senior Brother would have to carry you back home!”
Little Jing Kong wasn’t really a child who liked teasing people. After showing off his prestige, he confessed the truth about the meatballs. He said, “It’s made of vegetarian meat. JiaoJiao said that monks can also eat it!”
At first, the three little monks hesitated, fearing that they were being tricked into breaking the precepts by Jing Kong. Finally, the youngest of the three, Jing Fan, took a bite with the spirit of self-sacrifice, and then, after that, he could no longer stop eating.
Little Jing Kong, who had only been the one to grab other people’s food before, experienced being robbed of his food for the first time!
He was encircled by the three in an instant!
He was a little expert in the temple at grabbing other’s food, and gave his full attention to honing this skill for three and a half years. Who knew one day, he would also be robbed of his food by others?
They robbed not only the vegetarian meatballs, the snacks and wild fruits were not spared as well.
The three former unskilled individuals seemed to have sharpened their skills in an instant, robbing Little Jing Kong without even giving him a chance to protect himself.
Little Jing Kong pounded his chest with his tiny fist sadly. Sure enough, there was a price to pay for taking things out without thinking!
Only today did the three little monks know that the food at the foot of the mountain was so delicious!
Suddenly, they also want to go down the mountain even just for a little bit. Should they?
The four of them got along very harmoniously when they skimmed off the matter of grabbing other’s food.
Little Jing Kong described his life at the foot of the mountain to several little people, and they learned that he was taking in his brother-in-law every day. Little monk Jing Fan asked, “Who is this brother-in-law? Is he your dad?”
The few of them were still very young, and they were not like Little Jing Kong whose wisdom surpassed his age, so they didn’t know what brother-in-law meant, but they understood that the male master in the family seemed to be the father.
Little Jing Kong sighed and said, “Temporary dad. JiaoJiao can change him at any time.”
Little Jing Kong might be calling her JiaoJiao, but in his heart, he treated Gu Jiao as his mother. Only, he couldn’t be sure whether Xiao Liulang was his father.
After all, according to his observation for so many days, this dad hadn’t officially taken charge of the family yet, and he was in danger of being laid off at any time. [T/N: ʱªʱªʱª (ᕑᗢूᓫ∗)]
Several little people continued to talk, and somehow their topic became about their classwork.
Little monk Jing Fan said, “We’ve memorized a lot of Buddhist scriptures since you went down the mountain! It’s something you haven’t memorized yet!”
Jing Xin agreed, “Exactly!”
Jing Shan also nodded his head!
Little Jing Kong raised an eyebrow and asked, “Oh? What did you memorize?”
Little monk Jiing Fan: “Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra!”
Little Jing Kong spread out his hands and said, “I’ve already memorized it when I was two years old.”
Little monk Jing Xin: “Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata!”
Little Jing Kong shrugged, “I’ve memorized it since I was two years and three months old.”
Little monk Jing Shan: “Du, Durangama Sutra”
Little Jing Kong scratched his small ear and sighed helplessly, “It’s Shurangama Sutra, fool. You even got the title wrong. Have you really memorized it?”
The few little monks flushed in embarrassment.
How could they really memorize it? It was just that they had to write down these titles for so many days that they managed to remember these mouthful titles for several days. It really really exhausted their little brains!
“Alas, it’s no fun talking to you guys about scriptures. I’ll go talk with the abbot instead.” Little Jing Kong stood up from the steps and went to the abbot with his short legs.
The abbot had just sat down in the scripture hall and was about to read a scripture to the monks when suddenly, a young novice monk hurried over and said, “Abbot, Jing Kong is here to see you! He wants to talk to you about Zen scriptures!”
The abbot’s body shook and the prayer beads in his hand fell off.
That… That exceedingly clever little brat wanted to talk about Zen scriptures with him?
Spare his old life please!!!
Little Jing Kong had been studying Buddhist scriptures since very young, and he was full of curiosity about everything there was in Buddhist scriptures. The abbot would read him a line of verse and he could come up with ten questions, which always made the abbot unable to answer in the end!
“’Everything with form is unreal’, is the abbot not real then? Since the abbot is not real, what the abbot said to me is also not real! Then I can’t trust the abbot! If I can’t trust the abbot, I also can’t believe the Buddhist scriptures that the abbot is telling me! Buddhist scriptures are also false!”
Abbot: Although that just sounds like twisting words and forcing logic, I actually think there is some truth in there…
The abbot, adhering to his super-high professionalism, came back to his senses and patiently explained it to him.
After listening to his explanation, Jing Kong said, “I don’t think what you said is right!”
Abbot: “How can it be wrong? You’re just too young to understand!”
Little Jing Kong: “Buddha is so smart, he must have a way to make me understand clearly. It’s the abbot that didn’t convey his meaning well. The problem isn’t me, it’s the abbot!”
There were too many such conversations. More often than not, the abbot would fail to convince him, and Jing Kong would use his own set of logic to bring the monks who had just entered the temple to the wrong side perfectly.
The fear of being dominated by Little Jing Kong came to mind, making the abbot feel bad all over.
When Gu Jiao finally came to pick up Little Jing Kong, Little Jing Kong had long succeeded in causing a black smoke to rise from the heads of the monks in the whole scripture hall by asking them questions!
“Abbot, I’m leaving now. We’ll discuss this again next time!” Little Jing Kong’s hand was held by Gu Jiao. He turned his head and waved his other hand at the abbot.
The ashened-face abbot who only felt like dying on the spot: Please, never come again, alright…?
The pair of brother and sister descended the mountain hand in hand.
Little Jing Kong felt restless, wanting to spread his feet and run down.
However, it just rained and the road was slippery. Gu Jiao worried that he would roll down like a little wax gourd and didn’t let go of his hand.
“Did you have a good time today?” Gu Jiao suddenly asked.
“Yeah!” Little Jing Kong said adorably, raised his other tiny hand and counted with his little fingers, “Today, I saw Jing Xin, Jing Fan, Jing Shan, Brother Jing Chen and the abbot…”
He recited more names. Basically, everyone he saw in the temple.
“Haven’t you seen your master?” Gu Jiao asked.
Little Jing Kong sighed and said, “That old man is so elusive and he seldom goes to the mountain.”
Old man?
Gu Jiao suddenly thought of the eccentric monk she encountered in the woods. But that monk looked very young, so he couldn’t be the old man in Little Jing Kong’s mouth, right?
What Gu Jiao didn’t know was that, despite Little Jing Kong calling him old man, his master was actually not old and was more than twenty years younger than the abbot!
Gu Jiao added, “Are there any good-looking monks in the temple? A very beautiful one. The most beautiful.”
That monk’s appearance was almost as good as Xiao Liulang’s. Afraid she couldn’t find a second one in the whole world.
“Yes!” Little Jing Kong looked up very solemnly and pointed to himself, “Me!”
Gu Jiao：“…”
Gu Jiao said, “Except you.”
Little Jing Kong said with great certainty, “That’s it. I’m the most beautiful little monk in the world! Aside from me, no one else there is good-looking!”
His master wasn’t good-looking either!
Even though his master told him before that he(his master) was the best-looking in the whole world, Little Jing Kong still believed he(LJK) was the best-looking one. He would never admit that his master was good-looking!
Gu Jiao spoke no more.
Could it be that that man wasn’t a monk in this temple?
******
Monk: Brat, who did you say isn’t good-looking eh???