The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

And so, Wang Yougui wrote down the agreement of the bet. Finally, he signed and stamped it before handing it to Sun Youqian.

When Sun Youqian saw how Wang Yougui seemed to have prepared everything nicely and signed so decisively, he immediately felt a little worried. Could it be a trap? But on careful look at the agreement, it didn’t seem to have any loopholes.

“What’s the matter, Manager Sun? Why aren’t you signing?” Wang Yougui asked when he saw Sun Youqian looking hesitant to sign.

Sun Youqian had bragged the entire time, so to not sign at that moment would embarrass him greatly. Looking at his huge machine and the monk who looked like a fool as well as the bunch of hillbillies, he thought to himself, “I don’t believe our machine will lose to them!”

Therefore, Sun Youqian said, “I have a request. Both sides have to start together. There’s a time limit of one hour. Whoever reaps a larger area wins! Also, the machine needs to be operated by me and Jiang Chaowei! Also, the bet needs to add five kilograms of supreme-grade Frost Bamboo shoots!”

When Dog Song and company heard that, their hearts immediately palpitated. When they saw Wang Yougui wanted to sign the contract, they were thinking of letting Yang Hua go easy. But from the looks of it, Sun Youqian was smart and had thought of this point. With this clause, Dog Song and company had no idea how they could win. As for the Frost Bamboo shoots, no one worried about that. As long as they asked for it, Fangzheng would definitely give it to them. It would just leave them disgruntled if they lost!

In the end, Wang Yougui actually agreed despite the pressure everyone was giving him!

Dog Song and company facepalmed, unable to watch on. They couldn’t figure out why the usually smart Wang Yougui would make such a foolish mistake. If they didn’t understand Wang Yougui’s personality well enough, they would have even suspected that Wang Yougui was in cahoots with Sun Youqian to scam the village of its wealth.

When Sun Youqian saw Wang Yougui nod and add the two additional lines decisively, he roared with laughter and signed his name.

With that, the agreement was established!

Sun Youqian looked up and said with a laugh, “Village Chief Wang, you should return and prepare the money! In that kind of mud pool, it would be impressive even for a skilled person to reap an acre. At most, they can do one acre and a half. Back when I said two acres, it was to give them some leeway, but with this machine of mine, in such flat lands, it can easily do a hundred acres in a day! You will definitely lose!”

Sun Youqian looked at Wang Yougui as though he was looking at a joke.

However, Wang Yougui grabbed his copy of the agreement and handed it to Tan Juguo. Then, he roared with laughter and said, “Manager Sun, what you said makes absolute sense. But who knows who will win until we really compete?”

“Is there really a need to?” Sun Youqian was taken aback, completely unsure what Wang Yougui was up to.

“Master, what did you say to Patron Wang Yougui? Why is he so optimistic? Are you planning on making me use a divine power? If it’s used, this tiny piece of land can be finished in a second,” said Red Boy out of curiosity.

Monkey and Lone Wolf came over as well.

Fangzheng smiled. “This time, I won’t be getting you to use your divine powers. I’ll be using the divine powers of mortals!”

“Divine powers of mortals?” Red Boy was taken aback. Do mortals have divine powers? Do they know how to use divine powers? Following that, Red Boy suddenly recalled something. Divine powers of mortals? Fangzheng had used them before!

With this in mind, Red Boy laughed. Monkey laughed as well. Lone Wolf grinned and said, “I knew it. Master definitely wouldn’t lose out. Haha… Someone is going to lose his pants!”

Dong!

Fangzheng raised his hand and struck him. “Be civil!”

“Alright. Haha… Someone is going to lose his briefs!” Red Boy nodded obediently and continued laughing.

Fangzheng: “…”

Meanwhile, Sun Youqian saw Wang Yougui leave and was informed that the competition would begin an hour later!

Sun Youqian laughed. “Sure, I’ll wait for you!”

A few minutes later, Dog Song received a short message. “Aiyah. The sow back home is causing a fuss. I need to go home first.”

“My hen just laid some eggs. Mengmeng, let’s go. Time to head home.” Sun Qiancheng left.

“I need to return to feed the ducks.” Another person left.

Sun Youqian thought nothing of it. He only cared about the outcome of the match. As for the others, they could leave if they wanted to. He didn’t care!

An hour later, Wang Yougui returned, panting and sweating bullets.

“Village Chief Wang, shall we begin?” Sun Youqian was a little impatient from the waiting. His opportunity to make a killing was here!

“Alright, let’s begin!” Wang Yougui nodded and looked towards Fangzheng.

Sun Youqian also looked in Fangzheng’s direction and saw him holding a sickle in preparation to begin harvesting.

Fangzheng had participated in bigger gambles, but Zhou Zishan and company didn’t know of that. When they saw Fangzheng come again, they thought nothing of it. All they wished was to do more to prove their worth and to prove that they were not useless.

When Sun Youqian looked at these people, he laughed. “I realize how cruel I am. Haha, but I like this feeling of squashing others! Little Jiang, let’s get to work!”

Sun Youqian shouted. Jiang Chaowei also wore a look of excitement. They had earned double in the blink of an eye. They were about to make a killing! How delightful!

Just as Jiang Chaowei was about to start the machine, he looked up and was instantly stunned. He pointed into the distance and shouted, “Manager, look!”

Sun Youqian reprimanded him in a joking manner. “What’s there to see! Start the engine. We’re going to squash them!”

Although he said so, Sun Youqian still looked over subconsciously and was dumbfounded!

He saw a huge bunch of villagers waving their sickles, charging into the paddy fields. Then, they began brandishing the sickles, reaping the paddy one after another! In just a minute, they had finished harvesting a huge area!

Sun Youqian could clearly see the villagers who had left previously among them!

Sun Youqian looked angrily at Wang Yougui.

Wang Yougui shrugged his shoulders and said innocently, “Friend, you only said that the machines will be competing with humans, but you didn’t say how many humans! Of course, we didn’t limit the number of machines you can use either. You can still call for help and bring more over.”

Sun Youqian nearly choked when he heard that. He held back the blood he nearly vomited. Get other machines over? Ignoring the fact that combined harvesters couldn’t go fast, even if they were towed over, it would take an hour to traverse the distance from Songwu County to One Finger Village! At the fastest possible speed, it would take thirty to forty minutes. Then there was still the time needed to load and unload the machine! One hour wouldn’t be enough! By the time the other machines came, it would be too late.

With this in mind, Sun Youqian glanced at the villagers in the riverbed. He did a rough count and there were more than a hundred people! 12 people could finish an acre in an hour. A hundred people would be able to do nearly 10 acres! His machine could do about 120 acres a day, but that was with full efficiency at 12 hours in the day. It also meant that he could only do 10 acres in an hour!

But, from the villager count, there were not more than 120 people. If his machine went a little faster…

Sun Youqian felt his hope reignite as he cursed. “Little Jiang, stop watching! Get moving! We have to go as fast as possible and raise the efficiency to the highest! We have to let them understand that humans can never beat machines!”

“Alright!” Jiang Chaowei had also done the math. It appeared like he had a high chance of earning the commission.

Zhou Zishan and company were originally working when they heard a series of footsteps behind them. When they turned their heads, they were immediately given a shock! They saw the villagers rushing over with sickle in hand. If they hadn’t been smiling and chuckling, Zhou Zishan and company would have imagined that they were in the middle of a triad crossfire.

“Amitabha. Patrons, do not panic. They are here to help,” Fangzheng said.

“Brothers, don’t worry. We are here to help you. You’ll get paid for everything as promised, we just want to uphold our honor. We want to defeat that machine! Everyone, let’s do it!” Chen Jin said with a laugh.

When Zhou Zishan heard that, he felt his heart warm up. In his long journey across China, machines had forever enjoyed more prestige, attention, and warmth than people. And they were a group of people who were always written off… Zhou Zishan never expected there would come a day when a huge group of people ran over to fight alongside them! This scene reminded him of years before when wheat hands would arrive at the wheat fields. They would all rush into the wheat fields, brandishing their sickles. Despite the pouring sweat, there would be laughter, and it was in such circumstances that the boundless seas of wheat were conquered. Those scenes were still fresh on his mind. But unfortunately, the times had changed. Many of his old comrades were no longer in this business.

Moved by this scene, Zhou Zishan became even more dexterous and quick. There was a youthful smile on his face, and he felt as though he had returned to the time when he was still young. He yearned to use a single sickle to wipe clean the entire wheat field.

Zhou Ziyuan, Shen Aijia, and company were the same. Only Zhou Ziheng hadn’t grown up in that era, but sensing the lively scene, he also became more diligent.

The little girl and boy who were running manically with Squirrel previously ended up seated by the river’s bank. They watched in interest as over a hundred people harvested the crops while being all smiles.

At that moment, the sound of a motor engine sounded. Everyone’s hearts tightened for they knew that the metal monster was coming!

When they turned their heads, they saw Jiang Chaowei approaching with the harvester. Wherever he passed, paddy would be reaped and collected. This only served to tighten the hearts of everyone. A machine was a machine after all. It was too fast!

Jiang Chaowei looked at these villagers and raised his head in confidence. He laughed, as though he was saying: “There’s no way you can win!”

“Master, this divine power of yours isn’t useful. There’s not enough people. This machine is too fast.” Red Boy looked over and rubbed his nose. However, his nose got dirtier since he was smearing the mud that was already on his hands…

Fangzheng shot a glance into the distance and laughed. “Then I’ll cast an even more powerful divine power!”

“What divine power?” Red Boy asked in shock.

“Of course it’s the Great Summoning Spell!” After Fangzheng said that, he looked in the direction of the village and saw a huge group of villagers rushing over!

Red Boy said in shock, “Those people aren’t from One Finger Village, are they?”

“They are from Hongtang Village, and a few other villages. I never expected Wang Yougui to summon so many people. From the looks of it, our Village Chief does have some charisma. Heh heh,” Fangzheng said with a laugh.

Little did Fangzheng know that Wang Yougui wasn’t as charismatic as he imagined. Wang Yougui had used Fangzheng’s name to summon people. When everyone heard that Fangzheng was competing in a paddy reaping contest with someone else and was in need of help, all the ones who had nothing to do in their village rushed over!