The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

“In addition, once someone is placed on the list of bad debtors, which is a list of untrustworthy people, all their bank accounts will be frozen. They will be prohibited from taking planes, high-speed rail, ordinary trains, as well as be restricted when it comes to schooling for their children, house purchases, estate expansions and renovations. Furthermore, there is a regulation for our county. Once someone is placed on the untrustworthy list, all public buses, taxis, and traveling agencies will reject serving you. Even supermarkets will not sell you anything. In other words, you will be completely isolated.”

Upon hearing Fangzheng, Ma Jiangping trembled when she thought of the repercussions. Humans were social animals after all. There was no way to avoid the public facilities and services when living in this world. Once they were excluded from it, there was almost nothing they could do. She looked at her grandson and granddaughter who were still young and naive before looking at her son and his wife.

Ma Jiangping finally sighed. “This… This isn’t real, right? If it is, why didn’t we hear anything about it?”

Fangzheng said, “Look at when it will be put into effect.”

Ma Jiangping looked and realized that it was going to be implemented next year! Once it was in effect, her life would be worse than death. To have money without any outlet to spend it, what use was it then? With this in mind, Ma Jiangping broke out into a cold sweat.

Fangzheng stood up and said, “What Man does, Heaven watches. When morals are ignored by you, the law will be forced to play catchup. Patron, it’s not terrifying to be wrong, but what’s terrifying is to not repent when wrong. The sea of bitterness knows no bounds, turn back to the shore before it’s too late.”

With that said, Fangzheng shook his head and prepared to leave.

At that moment, Meng Changming exclaimed. “Abbot Fangzheng, then… Then what should we do now? No one in the village trusts us anymore. How are we to leave the house from now on?”

Fangzheng said without turning back. “Karma. This is karma. It is never too late to make amends. Patron, good faith is enough to overcome everything.”

As he spoke, Fangzheng left.

Meng Changming and Ma Jiangping exchanged looks and saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes. But with things having developed this far, what else could they say? They still had to live their lives… For some reason, although they felt their hearts ache from returning the money, they felt as though an invisible mountain had been lifted from their hearts. They heaved a sigh of relief for some baffling reason.

Outside, Lame Ma was already waiting for Fangzheng. When he saw him come out, he gave a wide grin and chuckled. “Abbot Fangzheng, you are impressive. You got the money with a simple request.”

Fangzheng smiled, but he was cringing inwardly. Getting money with a simple request? If only it were this simple!

“By the way, Master, why did you only ask for ten thousand yuan each time? Wouldn’t asking twenty thousand once save time?” Lame Ma asked curiously.

Fangzheng looked at Lame Ma and gave him a mysterious smile and said faintly, “Guess.”

Then, Fangzheng walked off.

Lame Ma looked at Fangzheng’s back and found him especially mysterious. He thought, “Since Master reacted like that, there must be a profound reason behind it. It’s probably my perception that is insufficient to understand him. Yes, Master is indeed a master. The way he does things is completely different from an ordinary person.”

With this in mind, Lame Ma touched the money in his pocket and chased with a chuckle. “Abbot Fangzheng, I know the reason.”

“Oh?” Fangzheng was puzzled. How was this guy so smart?

“It’s because you are an erudite person! It’s natural that you do things different from us,” Lame Ma said with a chuckle.

Fangzheng looked up at the sky in a speechless manner. Erudite person? He cringed inwardly. If he could resolve a problem with a simple request, would he go through all that effort as a lazy person? He shot a glance at the introduction of Solicit Donations in his mind.

Solicit Donations: Level 1. A necessary skill for monks. Can be used to solicit food and money from others.

Footnote 1: Solicit Donations maxes out at 10,000 yuan each time and can be done repeatedly and leveled up.

Footnote 2: Solicited wealth cannot be used for oneself, but the gains can be given to others to help them. The System will automatically take whatever is solicited into possession if it is not used in a day.

Footnote 3: Solicit Donations can be used forcefully, but the target has to be a person of evil with more negative karma than merit! Ineffective against good people.

Upon seeing this, Fangzheng shook his head. Thinking back to how he couldn’t use the money he solicited for himself, he felt his heart chill. He sang with tears welling in his eyes. “We’re different ¹ …”

After sending Lame Ma off, Fangzheng returned to the mountain alone. The sky which had turned clear became gloomy again because of the northwestern winds. Fangzheng looked up at the sky and shook his head. “There’s really a lot of snow this year. However, a heavy snowfall in winter means a bumper harvest, so it’s not too bad.”

After returning to the mountain, he saw two visitors in the monastery. After they offered incense, they immediately went up to greet Fangzheng when they saw him return. After taking a picture with him and taking pictures of the area, they left.

Fangzheng was already used to this.

With that, the day came to a peaceful end.

The next day, after having breakfast, Fangzheng moved a chair to the Bridge of Helplessness. He lay there leisurely and read the scriptures. The dark clouds blotted out half the sky, but with a strong gust of wind, the clouds opened up, allowing sunlight to penetrate the dark clouds, producing a golden beam of light that looked gorgeous.

The Bridge of Helplessness was only slightly higher than the water surface, being nearly level. As a result of the gloomy skies, the reflections appeared especially clear. Fangzheng sat there as if he was sitting above the Heavenly Dragon Pond. There was a Fangzheng sitting above the water surface, and another Fangzheng beneath it. A scene of heaven and earth being overturned, but also a mirror image which made anyone who saw it from afar feel like the world had been flipped. It made it difficult to tell which was the real world.

Another strong gust of wind blew, cracking open the dark clouds, sending golden rays of light down, adding some warmth to the snowy land.

Just as Fangzheng was reading the scriptures in relish, he heard a series of strange footsteps. They sounded chaotic as though it could be both a single person or two. However, the regularity of the sound was different from that of a single person’s walking.

Fangzheng subconsciously looked over and saw a person with all limbs on the ground as though he was prostrating!

When Fangzheng saw this, he subconsciously looked at his monastery. After confirming that it was One Finger Monastery and not Potala Palace and that the person wasn’t an honest Tibetan, his mind was filled with a question mark. He thought, “When did One Finger Monastery have such a charm to have a devotee prostrate himself throughout his entire journey here?”

However, the thought disappeared instantly because the person began moving. His movement didn’t look like he was getting up to walk, however, but crawling! It didn’t look right either, because it looked like he was dragging his body. The person’s legs were completely immobile, and the person was dragging his body with his hands on the ground! He had just stopped because he was taking a short break due to exhaustion.

Fangzheng hurriedly ran over and pressed his palms together. “Amitabha. Patron, let This Penniless Monk help you.”