The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Fangzheng snapped back to his senses from the light shout. He pressed his palms together and said, “Amitabha. Greetings Patrons.” Two out of the three people in front of him looked annoyed, while the other was blushing… His mind was filled with question marks. What was wrong with the three of them when he had done nothing?

“Please, don’t greet us, we can’t accept your kind words. You only have sights for Jiang Ting, so we aren’t anything,” Ruan Xianghe said with a scoff.

Fangzheng was no fool. After hearing what Ruan Xianghe said, he immediately understood what had happened. He realized that he had been thought to be ogling a beauty while he was in a daze. In his mind, he smiled ruefully, but he knew that such matters could not be explained as it would only serve to make things worse. However, Fangzheng was still a little embarrassed when Ruan Xianghe said that. He wasn’t sure how he could continue the conversation.

At that moment, Jiang Ting stepped forward and said, “Director Ruan, the Venerable One wasn’t looking at me. I believe he was spacing out.”

Fangzheng felt extreme gratitude when he heard that. What a nice girl! He looked at Jiang Ting with a look of gratitude, but he didn’t dare look at her for too long, afraid that he would be misunderstood again.

However, this ephemeral and furtive glance appeared like a shifty-eyed look to Ruan Xianghe. This action immediately added to her rage, and she thought that the monk was being incorrigible as he kept peeping! In her rage, she grunted coldly and said, “Jiang Ting, don’t speak up for him. A man should be responsible for his actions. What’s so good about being sneaky and furtive? Also, you must stand bold against perverts. Avoidance only shows your weakness. It will easily lead to further harm! Stand up, point the person out. That way, he won’t dare to use his eyes to violate you any longer.”

Fangzheng rolled his eyes when he heard that. What the heck? What nonsense was this? He was just in a daze. And what was this slippery slope? Pervert? Further harm? And even violation? Fangzheng did wish to do so, but the System wouldn’t allow it!

Doesn’t this woman have too rich of an imagination… Indeed, Zen Master One Finger was right. You can offend anyone but a woman because you will never keep up with how fast her mind works.

Jiang Ting was also left at a loss whether to cry or laugh. She had only spoken the truth. Yet not only was the misunderstanding not cleared, it got worse instead…

Zhao Yumin was also pissed. He had come up this mountain and had extolled how tremendous it was. He was just short of claiming that One Finger Monastery was the place of a true Buddha. But, that was apparently nothing but the result of rumors. He felt rather embarrassed. Furthermore, with the way Fangzheng kept staring at Jiang Ting, he couldn’t stand it as an elder. After all, she was his old friend’s daughter. How could he make her suffer when he had brought her along with him? However, Zhao Yumin also understood Fangzheng…

Therefore, Zhao Yumin said, “Alright. Enough. He’s a young lad after all. It’s the time when he’s filled with vigor. If he were in any other situation, he would be seeking a partner. Yet this child came to this mountain to be a monk instead. From a biological perspective, with his unsatisfied desires, it’s not a surprise that he turned inattentive when seeing a beautiful member of the opposite sex. We should understand as people who have gone through the same.”

Fangzheng was unsure if he should thank Zhao Yumin or curse him for being an old, licentious man. Was he like a scoundrel monk who wasn’t choosing?

When Ruan Xianghe heard that, she thought about it and found it reasonable. It would be hard on the child if she spoke any further. Therefore, she nodded slightly to express her agreement. Then, she looked at Fangzheng with an additional look of pity…

However, that look of pity only lasted for a few seconds. It was replaced with fury the next moment.

This was because Ruan Xianghe noticed that even when the young monk had been reprimanded, he continued standing there with a look of calm. It was as though he wasn’t involved, and he held no feelings of penitence! He even stood there like an outsider, watching the commotion with relish. She immediately became furious. She couldn’t understand. Was the country lacking in people? Why was such a good monastery, one filled with a Zen-like charm, left to a young monk to be its abbot!? Ever since this monk appeared, she felt like a demonic cloud hung over her. To think that she had imagined that this monastery hid some esteemed person. From the looks of it, there wasn’t any of that, but there was a vulgar person!

Ruan Xianghe also calmed down a lot more. She guessed that scolding Fangzheng was definitely not right, but she could not allow the child to continue his degeneracy. Therefore, she said, “Little Mon… Abbot Fangzheng, you are an abbot, and I’m a hospital’s director. Our positions are about the same. However, I’m older than you. As someone with experience, I should give you some advice. Since you are a monk, you should be like a monk. Even if your body or mind have other thoughts, you must learn to hold them back. It’s because you are a monk that you shouldn’t sully the name of monks. Besides, you are now an abbot. To be honest, I wasn’t as capable as you back when I was your age. However, with great power comes great responsibility. As an abbot, you should shoulder the responsibility of the monastery. Regardless if you are in front of people or not, you should maintain the bearing of an abbot. You can’t simply act up because of seeing a lady…$#@%…”

When Ruan Xianghe began speaking, Zhao Yumin cast a look of pity to Fangzheng. He knew her too well. She was fine when she wasn’t educating others, but once she began, she could go on for three days and three nights. Therefore, Zhao Yumin hurriedly winked at Jiang Ting, signaling for her to interrupt Ruan Xianghe.

When Jiang Ting saw this, she also smiled bitterly. If Zhao Yumin didn’t dare to say a word as Ruan Xianghe’s husband, how could she dare to? Wouldn’t that be asking trouble!?

However, Jiang Ting looked at Fangzheng and then at Ruan Xianghe. She knew that she was the cause of all of this, so it wasn’t right for her to continue letting Fangzheng undergo the torment, right? Therefore she clenched her teeth and, taking the moment Ruan Xianghe paused, she said, “Director, I’ve met Abbot Fangzheng before. We are friends. He’s not like what you imagine him to be. He should have… seen something. He can do fortune telling.” Jiang Ting was not good at lying. She was okay when she said the first half, but she began to stutter at the second half.

Thankfully, Ruan Xianghe’s attention was on Fangzheng, a child who needed to be educated. She didn’t notice the fine details of the lass’s darting eyes. Instead, she looked at Jiang Ting with doubt and asked, “He knows how to do fortune telling?”

Jiang Ting noticed that she had successfully diverted Ruan Xianghe’s attention and heaved a sigh of relief. Her mind also turned active. When she thought of how Monkey was saved thanks to a sentence from Fangzheng, she immediately felt a little confident. “I have a friend named Hou ¹ Dongchen. He once escaped a car accident after hearing one sentence from Abbot Fangzheng.”

This time, Ruan Xianghe stared at Jiang Ting, and when she saw her looking serious and earnest, she was finally slightly convinced. However, she still asked, “Really?”

Jiang Ting nodded immediately and said, “For real. If you don’t believe me, I can get him to visit you when we are back, and you can ask him face to face.”

Ruan Xianghe wore a look of awkwardness. If it was really a misunderstanding, what had she been babbling on for just then? To embarrass herself? Her face turned red instantly… But on second thought, fortune telling? In this day and age, fortune tellers were all cheats. They only resorted to sophistry and psychology! In that case, Fangzheng was not only a pervert, he also had a criminal record as a scammer! With this in mind, Ruan Xianghe’s embarrassment vanished. Instead, she was filled with confidence, and she planned to expose Fangzheng! She wanted to make the two idiots, Zhao Yumin and Jiang Ting, know that there was no such thing as fortune-telling or supernatural masters in this world!