The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Fangzheng rolled his eyes. “You are so big in size, yet you are afraid of such young children?”

The elephant shook its head and said, “Of course, why wouldn’t I be? Humans are scary…”

“Scary? Then why has This Penniless Monk often heard about you elephants harming humans? For example, entering the village to wipe clean the food in the village.” Fangzheng refused to believe it.

The elephant said bitterly, “Do you think we want to? We are forced to do so out of no choice. The forest is chopped bare by humans, and our living areas are becoming smaller and smaller, and we are eating lesser and lesser. It’s hard to even be satiated these days. Although there’s a lot of bananas, we just keep shitting when we eat too much of it. It’s uncomfortable.”

Upon hearing that, Fangzheng did not make any further sarcastic remarks. Instead, he fell into deep thought.

In today’s world, the human population was increasing, and the space required for survival and the amount of resources needed was increasing. Therefore, it was inevitable for humans and animals to fight for natural resources.

However, that didn’t mean that humans couldn’t practice restraint. At the very least, humans were working hard towards this direction.

Fangzheng said, “I can’t represent all humanity. I can only represent myself and apologize to you. It’s humans who destroyed your home…”

The elephant shook its nose nonchalantly and said, “There’s nothing to be sorry about. To be honest, my people don’t care about the things we don’t need taken away from us. We just want to live…”

The elephant spoke in a relaxed manner, but Fangzheng found it extremely repressive. Humans were pursuing the beauty in life and quality of life, while animals in nature were only working hard for survival… They were satisfied as long as they were alive.

Fangzheng felt a little ashamed when making the comparison.

“How are you going to live in the future? Are you going to the human village to mess around?” asked Fangzheng.

The elephant shook its head and said, “I don’t know either. I need to eat after all.”

Fangzheng had an idea and said, “I have a solution. It can let you have your fill in the future. You can play however you want.”

The elephant’s eyes lit up. “What’s the solution?”

Fangzheng whispered a few words and the elephant was stunned…

Fangzheng said, “Trust me. Do as This Penniless Monk says. There’s no problem.”

The elephant said, “Alright, I’ll give it a try once I become queen.”

“Queen?” Fangzheng asked in surprise.

The elephant said, “Of course, I’m the princess of our elephant herd!”

“Pfft!” Fangzheng spat out a mouthful of water and exclaimed, “Princess? You are female?”

The elephant was enraged. “Are you blind? How can I be male?”

Only then did Fangzheng recall that elephants were a matriarchal society. The matriarch elephant was in charge of leading the group’s collective movement, and the male elephants were mostly used for defense.

“Alright. Don’t be angry. This Penniless Monk will help you when you become matriarch,” said Fangzheng.

“Really?” The elephant had seen Fangzheng’s abilities and naturally believed him.

Their luck was pretty good. They found the elephant herd that afternoon. After some trouble, she successfully became the matriarch of the elephant herd. Everything that happened next succeeded according to Fangzheng’s guess.

Although it was not the most harmonious relationship between humans and elephants, the confrontation between the two ceased completely.

Fangzheng had long left Vietnam. His goal was to return home as soon as possible. He did not know how One Finger Monastery was doing.

After buying a plane ticket, he sat on the plane and woke up to find himself back in the northeast.

After getting off the plane, Fangzheng immediately activated A Golden Millet Dream to conceal his face. Otherwise, with his influence in the area, there was no way he could proceed.

After returning to One Finger Village, Fangzheng realized that the atmosphere in the village was somewhat odd.

Upon seeing Fangzheng return, Dog Song rushed over and dragged Fangzheng into the house.

Dog Song said, “Abbot Fangzheng, you are finally back!”

Fangzheng was puzzled. “What happened?”

Dog Song said, “Indeed, something happened. Chen Jin’s son, Chen Long, has disappeared!”

Fangzheng jumped in fright when he heard that. Chen Long was a burly, young man. How could he disappear?

Dog Song continued, “This matter sounds a little odd. Wasn’t Chen Long setting up a company in the south? Later, when One Finger Village became rich, he ran both sides and sold our products to the south. For example, Frost Bamboo carvings are very popular there. He earned quite a lot of money and also gave our village a lot of economic benefits.”

Fangzheng said, “That’s indeed a good thing. Just the production alone is not enough. Distribution channels are needed. But what does this have to do with Chen Long’s disappearance?”

Dog Song said, “Actually, I don’t know if it has anything to do with it. However, I heard from Chen Jin that something was wrong with Chen Long since last month. Every time he came back, he would tell Chen Jin that there is no conflict between science and deities. The deities are just products of higher-level technology. I’m not too sure about the specifics. No one thought much of this in the beginning, but Chen Long suddenly disappeared. I think it might be related to this matter.”

Fangzheng said, “What’s Patron Chen Jin’s take on this matter?”

Dog Song said, “What can he say? He’s already so worried. His family is in a disheartened state and they cry every day. By the way, Chen Jin has gone south. The police there needs his help to investigate something…”

Fangzheng also agreed that the matter wasn’t that simple. However, there was too little information. He couldn’t figure out anything.

After leaving Dog Song’s house, Fangzheng was dragged into the house by Wang Yougui before he even took a few steps. It was also regarding Chen Long.

Wang Yougui was even more direct. “Abbot Fangzheng, I know you are capable. Look, can you think of a way to help Chen Jin and quickly find Chen Long?”

Fangzheng said, “Patron Wang, don’t worry. Now that This Penniless Monk knows about the matter, This Penniless Monk will definitely take care of it. Wait till This Penniless Monk returns to the monastery and prepare everything; it won’t be too late to set off. There’s no rush.”

Wang Yougui nodded and said, “It’s fine as long as you are willing to help. Alright, go back up the mountain to take a look.”

After Fangzheng bade farewell and left, he sadly realized that someone had pulled him to the side to tell him about the matter after a few steps. Clearly, everyone knew about it. However, it was Chen Jin’s family after all. It was a sad matter. If they were to discuss it on the streets, it might cause the Chen family greater grief.

Therefore, all of them acted like thieves…

When he finally walked out of the village and returned to the mountain, Fangzheng saw Salted Fish sitting by the door. There was a woman sitting across him crying while covering her face. Salted Fish also cried. He had no idea how long this had been going on. Fangzheng went over, the woman was already wiping her tears as she grumbled, “Why are you crying more than me?”

Salted Fish said, “There’s nothing better to do anyway. Since you’re crying, we can cry together. At least, you won’t be crying alone.”