The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Liu Guangyu uttered, “Uh…”

“Ahem. Little Master, why did you become a monk at such a young age? Did your parents agree to it?” Liu Guangyu awkwardly tried to change topics.

Red Boy thought it over extremely seriously and said, “Probably not, but they are probably no match for the monk that took me away, so all they can do is put up with it.”

Liu Guangyu uttered, “Uh…”

Writing it off as child’s babble, he continued to ask. “Well, what do your parents do?”

Red Boy stroked his chin and said, “My mom runs a cave abode, but I’ve no idea what she does precisely either. My dad gallivants every day, everywhere. He claims to have friends everywhere, but when I got into trouble, nothing was heard from him. Not even a fart.”

“Uh…” Liu Guangyu realized that he was on completely different wavelengths with the child and decisively gave up on teasing the child. All he did was listen to Song Tianqiao in peace.

…

“Little Master, is the water outside really not meant for drinking?” The elderly man who had wanted to take a sip of the water came over.

Red Boy nodded. “It’s a divine pond that was bestowed by the heavens, the Heavenly Dragon Pond. How can you reach your hand into the water to drink it? If you wish to drink, there’s a waterfall over there. Get some of that water to drink.”

“Waterfall?” The moment that was said, everyone jumped in fright. There was even a waterfall on this mountain?

Liu Guangyu and County Head Qi exchanged looks before they immediately dashed over. A waterfall was definitely a great selling point! They had to take a look at it!

Therefore, the group was led by Red Boy to the end of the stream. Indeed, when the stream fell off the cliff, there were rainbows intertwined with the silver cascading falls. There were even sparkles of gold, accentuating its beauty. How beautiful!

Everyone subconsciously exclaimed. Liu Guangyu and County Head Qi could see the sparkles in each other’s eyes. What they originally thought was a tiny farming village could now be further developed and promoted!

Meanwhile, beneath Mt. One Finger, the tourists who had nothing to do were walking about randomly. Some ended up behind One Finger Village and Mt. One Finger where the land protruded. This protrusion obstructed their view, preventing them from seeing anything.

However, when they circled around, all of them let out exclamations. “Waterfall!”

“Rainbows!”

“Gold?”

“Wow, it’s beautiful!”

Their exclamations attracted even more people over. Wang Yougui, who was busy, also saw the crowd gather over there. He naturally knew of the waterfall, having learned about it the previous evening. He had rushed over to check it at night, but as there was a lot of fog around the waterfall at night, he hadn’t been able to see a thing. He didn’t think too much of it afterwards since he’d been busy with phone calls since the previous night…

He never expected the waterfall to be so pretty during the day! Augmented by the rainbows and the golden sparkles, Wang Yougui only wished to yell out loud—we’re rich!

“Village Chief, what’s the name of this waterfall? It’s really beautiful,” a person asked.

Following that, many people cast their curious gazes over. Wang Yougui said with a rueful smile, “This waterfall comes from the mountaintop, so it naturally belongs to One Finger Monastery’s Abbot Fangzheng. As for what its name is, you can only ask him…” With that said, Wang Yougui’s gaze up the mountain turned more mixed. Over the past year, Mt. One Finger had produced too many incredulous things. Even a fool would know that there was a secret to Mt. One Finger and Fangzheng. However, the village treated Fangzheng as its own child, so naturally, no one exposed this fact. But he knew that the situation with One Finger Monastery couldn’t be hidden forever. All the questions would come hitting them eventually. If they were to survive the barrage of questions, they would naturally soar. If not…

Wang Yougui narrowed his eyes and thought to himself, “It’s time to have a chat with Fangzheng. He needs to make the decision for himself on these matters. I ultimately cannot make the decision for him.”

At this moment, the guys who had been managing the parking lots with Dog Song ran back. All of them were exhausted and drenched with sweat, but all of them looked exhilarated. All of their rural tourism vacancies had been fully booked! There were people everywhere, to the point of there not being enough tables. Dog Song came up with an idea and set up a simple kitchen outside. It was formed of a few piled bricks, and a huge pot was placed on it. Timber was burned beneath it, and surrounding it were a few folding stools for camping. It was just an emergency solution at first, but to their surprise, the city people actually found this interesting. All of them came over…

Other families learned from this and naturally earned boatloads of money soon after as well. It would be odd if they weren’t happy.

“Village Chief, there’s really no more space outside. Also, there are too many visitors. Our village can’t handle them all. I mean… Since it’s so popular, should we raise our prices?” Dog Song secretly asked.

Wang Yougui was taken aback. Raise their prices? He had never thought of that before! Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that One Finger Village would become so popular!

“That’s right. Village Chief, some people even want to stay here. Look, how much money would it take to open a store? I heard that at some tourist destinations, it can cost more than a thousand a night during peak season. Boarding and lodging prices increase severalfold. So, do you think…” Chen Jin’s son, Chen Long, also returned to help. Young lads had a lot more imagination.

Wang Yougui looked at the people in front of him before chuckling. “No way!”

“What? Why? We aren’t going to earn all this money that is right in front of us?” Chen Long asked, perplexed.

Wang Yougui said, “When earning money, we have to do it with a conscience. Are you not earning enough now? People can have goals, but they must not be greedy. A small stream flows far, and only by being farsighted can we go far. This is only the beginning, and you want to kill the golden goose? If we suddenly raised prices, what would the tourists think of us? If they do not come in the future, how are we to earn more money?”

The moment that was said, Dog Song and Chen Long nodded slightly. Indeed, that did sound reasonable. Therefore they stopped thinking and got back to work.

At this moment, Wang Yougui received engraving master Jiang Zhou’s disciple’s, Fan Qing’s, phone call. He was informed that the county head had arrived at One Finger Monastery.

Wang Yougui quickly gave Fangzheng a call to inform him and also wished that he could put in a good word for One Finger Village… Fangzheng naturally rejected doing too much. To suck up and do things through the back door? This was not something Fangzheng would do. However, simply putting in a good word wasn’t a problem.

Meanwhile…

“Little Master, what’s this waterfall’s name?” Liu Guangyu asked curiously.

“No idea. Master hasn’t given it a name yet.” Red Boy shook his head and said.

Liu Guangyu and County Head Qi exchanged looks and saw the curiosity in each other’s eyes! Although they had been disappointed by Fangzheng originally, they realized that Fangzheng should no longer be suspected of lying and bragging after Song Tianqiao’s explanations. They felt like he was honest and down-to-earth. With all sorts of miraculous things happening on Mt. One Finger, the duo felt even more curiosity and interest towards Fangzheng.

After entering One Finger Monastery, County Head Qi said, “Little Master, where is your master? Can we meet him?”

The moment Red Boy heard that, he shot a glance at the backyard. The yards were only that big, and Fangzheng’s sense of hearing was sharp. If he wished to meet them, he would have long done so. Since he didn’t come out, it meant that he didn’t wish to meet the guests.

Therefore, Red Boy struggled internally as Liu Guangyu placed him on the ground. Red Boy cleared his throat and pressed his palms together. “Master said that he needs to meditate on the Zen today, so he won’t be meeting anyone.”

“Not meeting anyone?” Before Liu Guangyu and County Head Qi could react, Fangzheng, who was about to come out to take a look after hanging up the phone, stood rooted to the spot. With Red Boy saying that, how could he go out? If he did, wouldn’t he appear dishonest or unctuous? Even though he was planning on meditating, he came out seeing that the county head and the county secretary were there? Thinking back to Wang Yougui’s exhortations, Fangzheng could only shake his head.

With this in mind, Fangzheng smiled bitterly and returned to his room to read the Buddhist scriptures. Although a county head was quite a powerful official and was the leading official of the region, Fangzheng was a monk separated from this world. It didn’t matter if he didn’t meet them. As for Wang Yougui’s request, he had never agreed to it anyway, so he didn’t feel burdened by it psychologically.

“Not meeting anyone? Little guy, do you not know who these people are?” Wu Changfa was instantly amused. He felt that although the monastery wasn’t big, the monk’s ego sure was huge. He wasn’t even entertaining guests who came.

Red Boy wasn’t stupid either. He knew that this group of people were of high standing, so with a thought coming to him, he asked adorably, “Who’s here?”

“These two are the most important figures in Songwu County. Your Mt. One Finger is under their jurisdiction. Tell me, would your master need to meet them?” Wu Changfa said with a laugh.

Liu Guangyu and County Head Qi had no plans to reveal their identities, but since Fangzheng wasn’t coming out, they were left with no choice either. The main reason they had come was to meet Fangzheng. Seeing One Finger Monastery was only secondary. Especially after seeing Mt. One Finger and One Finger Monastery, they were moved, so they naturally wished to meet Fangzheng. Therefore, none of them stopped Wu Changfa.

But with Red Boy deliberately asking, and with them announcing who they were, Red Boy still didn’t see Fangzheng come out. Believing that Fangzheng was definitely not coming out, he raised his head and said, “There’s nothing I can do. Master is in seclusion meditating over the Buddhist Dharma. When that happens, he doesn’t meet anyone. Gentlemen, if you wish to pay respects to Buddha, up ahead is the Ten Thousand Buddha Hall. Ordinary incense is free, but high incense is two hundred. The backyard is our living quarters, so it’s not open to the public. If you wish to buy incense, just hand the money to my senior brother.”

With that said, Red Boy ignored the bewildered looks of everyone and pointed to Monkey, who was sitting calmly and composedly by the door. He had to watch the area. After all, the water in the Heavenly Dragon Pond was Unrooted Clean Aqua. It was actually fine letting people drink it, but it was highly addictive! If the crowd had a great time drinking, it could be imagined that groups of people would be squatting by the Heavenly Dragon Pond all day, lapping up the water. That scene would just look nasty and affect the scenery. Therefore, Fangzheng and Red Boy decided from the get-go to set up a regulation to prevent outsiders from drinking.

Naturally, as people living in modern times, few people would really squat down and drink the pond water. Therefore, it was rather easy to stop people.

Compared to Red Boy’s problems, Lone Wolf had it a lot easier. His mission was to guard the Frost Bamboo forest. All visitors were to be kept out! There was the Crystal Rice paddy in it too. It was naturally fine if a few people came, but once there were too many people, One Finger Monastery would be out of manpower. If pandemonium set in, One Finger Monastery would ultimately suffer. Therefore, they barred entry to the Frost Bamboo forest, only allowing people to look at it from afar.