The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Lin Tai felt a little better when he heard that. Since Liu Ying was around, he could not mess around and not be a gentleman. He took a deep breath and suppressed his rage. He glared at Li He and Cui Jiandong and cursed. “Scram! Stop comparing a monk with me. Let’s go and take a look. Don’t shoot off your mouths unless you’re certain. F**k, we just came up, and we got smacked twice in the face already. Damn it! How f**king weird. How did this bastard renovate a rundown temple? Furthermore, it even seems to have expanded.”

Li He and Cui Jiandong agreed immediately. Their hate for Fangzheng increased. If not for the darn monk, would they have shamed themselves in front of Lin Tai? They had to find an opportunity to smack him back in the face! The two secretly swore to do precisely that.

Just as they were prepared to leave, they suddenly realized that Lin Tai wasn’t walking. Instead, he took out his cell phone to make a call.

“Boss Lin, what are you…” Li He and Cui Jiandong asked, confused.

Lin Tai sneered. “Does Fangzheng think that things changed for the better just because he renovated the building a bit? I don’t know about anything else, but the new is not necessarily better than the old. Even if someone was willing to donate money to this poor, remote village monastery, it can’t have been a lot. The building might look good, but that’s all on the outside. As for the materials used inside… Hmph. I’ll get a construction friend to come over in a while. How dare Fangzheng smack my face? I’ll dig out all the skeletons in his closet today! There’s a price to posturing in front of me.”

Li He and Cui Jiandong immediately sucked up to him when they heard that. They immediately praised him for his cleverness and capability for being able to spot any hidden problems Fangzheng might have.

From their point of view, Lin Tai was right. How could someone donate large sums of money to renovate a monastery in such a rundown place? They might not even have been willing to use wood. There were many instances of buildings mixing a steel framework with some mud and painting over it to make them look like ancient buildings. Even if wood had been used, there were different grades of wood. Good wood cost a fortune! With Fangzheng’s conditions, there was no way he could afford it. Lin Tai was getting an expert to expose Fangzheng’s facade. This was what you called face-smacking! It was bound to be a loud smack in the face.

Lin Xi thought nothing of this. She only felt that the monk was more and more interesting. Despite not doing anything, he had smacked Lin Tai and company, who had done a lot, to speechlessness. They were burning with anger but had to bear with it! This was the first time she was seeing Lin Tai suffer so badly. Upon hearing how her brother was about to use such a tactic, she could not help but feel a little worried for Fangzheng. She had a balance in her heart. As a spectator, she obviously knew that Fangzheng was just an innocent party embroiled in all of this. He had not done anything, after all.

Up ahead, Liu Ying had chased up to Fangzheng. With mixed emotions and some feelings of self-blame, she said, “Fangzheng, why didn’t you explain earlier? This made it so awkward. We are all former classmates, so why did you need to do this? Smacking their faces brings no benefits to you.”

Fangzheng immediately frowned when he heard that. He had welcomed them as classmates because they were his former classmates as well as because he was grateful for the meal Liu Ying had offered him back then. If not, Fangzheng wouldn’t have bothered with them with the way they acted. He would have closed the door and not welcomed them! Besides, he was the victim who had been mocked the entire way up. He was not the one mocking them. He had already restrained himself, but had they?

Fangzheng did not squabble. In the end, they had been smacked in the face with their own words. Yet, the blame was pinned on him? How infuriating!

Fangzheng stopped and looked at Liu Ying. He said with a smile, “Patron, did you give This Penniless Monk a chance to speak the entire way up?”

Liu Ying was instantly shocked.

Fangzheng stopped looking at her and turned to walk to the monastery. As he walked, he said, “People always like to find mistakes in others. They will find something to pin on another person even if there isn’t anything. Yet they do not make time for any introspection. What have their frustrations and worries got to do with This Penniless Monk?”

Upon hearing Fangzheng’s words and seeing his back, Liu Ying felt a little lost. Was this still the same Fangzheng from before? In the past, Fangzheng did not have much of a presence. Yet now, he seemed to exude a dazzling light. It was especially so in this instant. His gaze spoke volumes. The feeling he gave off was like the feeling of a deity. He stood high above and was in a different world from her.

Unbeknown to Liu Ying, Fangzheng had always been a person who returned kindness tenfold. The better one treated him, the better he treated the other person. On the contrary, if someone was bad to him?

Sorry, but This Penniless Monk is a monk. This Penniless Monk wants to become Buddha, so who the f**k are you?

Liu Ying shook her head and took a glance at One Finger Monastery. She thought to herself, “Although this monastery has been renovated, it’s far inferior to those huge monasteries that have existed for a thousand years, be it in scale or heritage. With just this bit of achievement, you are acting arrogant like you are a god. If you were given a huge monastery, wouldn’t you be worse? A frog in the well doesn’t know how huge the world is. To indulge in self-admiration is ultimately a fault. If you could humbly sit down to have a nice chat with Lin Tai, he might be willing to renovate your monastery or help advertise for you if he was happy. Wouldn’t that be nice? This pointless arrogance is truly immature.”

With this in mind, Liu Ying did not think of chasing after Fangzheng. To her, Fangzheng was too shallow and arrogant. She did not wish to get involved with such a person. She planned on blacklisting Fangzheng from that day forth and never crossing paths with him again.

“Sis Liu Ying, come here quickly!” At that moment, Lin Xi called out to Liu Ying.

Liu Ying nodded and walked over.

Lin Tai was waiting for his expert friend to arrive, so he was in no rush to enter the monastery. Instead, he stood in his spot waiting. When Lin Xi saw this, she brought Liu Ying along with her to take in the scenery and chat.

It didn’t take long for a man who looked reliable and experienced to arrive on the mountaintop. The moment he met Lin Tai, he gave him a big bear hug.

The person’s name was Song Tianqiao, and he was a good friend of Lin Tai’s. He had previously worked together with Lin Tai’s family company and designed many property projects for them. Meanwhile, Song Tianqiao was also one of the pursuers of Lin Xi. The moment he heard that Lin Xi was on the mountain, he immediately rushed over. As such, even though he was hugging Lin Tai, his eyes would sweep towards Lin Xi from time to time.

Lin Xi blushed from the way he looked at her. Song Tianqiao was an intellectual man who was mature, reliable, and generous. The aura he exuded was indeed attractive to a young girl like Lin Xi.

“Lin Xi, come over. Your Brother Song is here.” Lin Tai waved.

Lin Xi had no choice but to head over and greet him. “Brother Song.”

“Lin Xi, long time no see. You have become prettier again,” said Song Tianqiao with a smile as his eyes lit up.

Lin Xi tersely acknowledged the compliment before running back to Liu Ying. Although she had a good impression of Song Tianqiao, the way he looked at her made her uncomfortable.

Song Tianqiao seemed to be used to it and thought nothing of it. He began chatting with Lin Tai.

Lin Tai told him his intentions, and Song Tianqiao roared with laughter. He patted him on the shoulder in confidence. “Lin Tai, you got the right person. I have done some research on monasteries, especially ancient ones. I can tell at a glance of every brick and tile, every bell and tower whether it’s an antique or not. I’ll know if it was made with good-quality materials or not in a moment. This monastery’s bricks and tiles are all very new at a glance, so it should have been recently built. The construction of typical monasteries needs to go by protocol, and they have to hire professional teams to design them. If the monastery had found someone to design it, there’s no way I wouldn’t be aware of it. After all, our industry isn’t that huge. Since I’m not aware of it, it means they took some shortcuts. And there’s no need to say much about that. Poor workmanship, poor materials, and a terrible product with no historical value or quality workmanship. I can tell you such a building has to be worthless without even having to take a look!”