The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Once he got in the car, Director Chen finally calmed down. He hurriedly gave an old classmate in the capital a call. “Mi Song, don’t say a word. Switch on your computer and go onto the Kindred Hearts Forum. Yes, the one from our Gulin province. Watch the stickied content. As a good friend, I’m giving you an opportunity. Whether you grasp it depends on you.”

Mi Song was somewhat stunned, but he knew Director Chen very well. There would definitely be a reason for his words. Hence, he immediately switched on his computer and went onto the Kindred Hearts Forum. He clicked the thread and asked, puzzled, “Old Chen, why isn’t there a single comment?”

Director Chen was taken aback. Comments? Only then did he come to a realization and smile wryly. “Comments? They don’t exist. Who would have the goddamn time to comment after watching the video!”

With that said, Director Chen hung up and sped away. His target—Black River City, Songwu County, Mt. One Finger, One Finger Monastery!

Mi Song was taken aback upon hearing that, but after he finished watching the video, he didn’t hesitate to also run out and make a phone call. “Little Liu, book a flight for me to Gulin! What do you mean when? As soon and early as possible! If there are no plane tickets, the high-speed rail will do. In short, I don’t care what method you use, I want to get to Gulin as quickly as possible!”

How big was the medical world? It could be called rather huge. It went from village doctors all the way to specialists in the capital, and even spanned the entire globe. But on the other hand, it was also quite a small world. The network was tightly knitted with everyone knowing each other. Two famous doctors who didn’t know each other would easily find that they were connected to each other by several mutual friends. They might even have teachers and classmates in common.

Perhaps the Kindred Hearts Forum’s influence wasn’t huge and few people browsed it, but when these people spread the message, it caused a huge commotion throughout China’s medical world!

Anyone who could get out of their duties to rush to the northeast basically set off. As for those who couldn’t, all of them anxiously tried to get out of their duties. Some even pleaded with friends to bring back information, even if only in the form of more videos.

At worst, some went back to watch the video in a bid to look for the old and learn from the new to gain more knowledge.

There were even people who translated the video and posted it overseas, garnering the attention of many TCM doctors overseas. However, it was overseas after all. Although Fangzheng explained profound theories in simple language, the translators were unable to do so the same way. The translations were ambiguous leaving many foreigners at a loss. In addition, foreigners had little understanding of TCM, so it was basically opaque to them.

As such, although it caused a huge commotion domestically, there was a wave of denigration overseas. The people abroad believed that the person in the video knew nothing about medicine and was spouting nonsense, that he was just playing to the gallery.

With regards to this, many domestic doctors revealed contemptuous smiles. Don’t understand? Great, we might not even want to teach you even if you would like to understand!

Fangzheng didn’t know how much of a stir he had caused. After sending off the bunch of reporters, Mt. One Finger was restored to tranquility. However, from the second day onwards, there were suddenly more visitors. All of them had watched the news, so they were tourists from Black Mountain City, and even from Gulin City and Spring City. The visitors didn’t have much hope for Mt. One Finger really being special in the beginning since it was a small mountain without the majesty of a famous mountain chain or huge river. It also didn’t have the charm of the green hills of the south. The only landmark of the mountain was probably its single peak.

But when the crowd arrived at the mountaintop and saw the immortal-like scene, all the visitors rubbed their eyes and cried out in disbelief. It was almost a miracle!

Seeing the crowds marvel and constantly taking photos, donating to the point of filling his incense burner, Fangzheng realized for the first time that his incense burner was a little too small.

“From the looks of it, I need to think of a way to get a bigger incense burner. Otherwise, I won’t be able to accommodate all the popularity in the future.” As Fangzheng mumbled, he saw another group of tourists. The leader raised a tiny flag, and it was apparently a tour group!

Meanwhile, Fangzheng received a phone call from County Head Qi. “Abbot Fangzheng. Haha! The skies have cleared up, and it has stopped snowing. The county has gotten a few vacation companies to organize a friends-and-family group tour to Mt. One Finger. You don’t have to bother about them. They will not disturb your monastery’s operations either. All they will do is look around. If they like it, they will include your Mt. One Finger as one of the tourist destinations. In the future, the number of tourists visiting your place will increase exponentially. Haha!”

Fangzheng was flustered when he heard the first half. If a bunch of officials were to come, he would still need to accompany them. That wasn’t something he wanted to do. But when he heard that he didn’t need to do anything in the second half, he immediately heaved a sigh of relief and thought, “This county head is not bad. He understands me!”

Fangzheng and the county head exchanged a few more words before the latter hung up because he was busy.

Fangzheng looked at the distant tourist group and his tiny incense burner. He frowned and thought, “This won’t do. The incense burner is almost full. The visitors won’t be able to offer incense, and if they can’t offer it, they won’t buy any. That would be a waste.”

With this in mind, Fangzheng shot a glance at Red Boy who had nothing to do. Then he called for him and whispered something. Red Boy was stunned when he heard him, asking, “Master, other people yearn for guests to come, so why are you barring them from entering?”

Fangzheng said with a smile, “What do you know? Just do what I say.”

Red Boy nodded and went out. Soon, the tourist group outside was stopped by Red Boy.

“Amitabha. Patrons, One Finger Monastery is temporarily doing some cleaning and will not be receiving guests. All of you can spend some time around the mountaintop. In a while, you can enter the monastery,” Red Boy said.

“How can you do that? It wasn’t easy for us to scale the mountain, but you aren’t letting us in? What kind of logic is that?” a man grumbled.

However, just as the man finished his words, a woman’s voice sounded. “He asked you to walk around a bit, he didn’t say you won’t be able to enter. Why are you shouting at a child?”

“That’s right. How can a big man like you shout at a child?” Another woman jumped forward and suppressed the man’s potential retort.

Following that, a bunch of women rushed over and surrounded Red Boy. All of them looked at him like he was a crystalline doll or plush toy. They curiously asked, “Little guy, what’s your name?”

“How old are you?”

“When did you become a monk?”

“Aiyah, why didn’t you shave your head? …”

A group of women began asking all sorts of questions. Some of the bolder ones even wanted to touch Red Boy and hug him. Upon seeing this scene, Red Boy was dumbfounded. He felt he had been tricked.

And when the man saw this, he immediately understood that in this world where looks and cuteness reigned supreme, he would likely be beaten to death if he said anything else. Hence, he chose to shut up and cooperate without a word.

From afar, Fangzheng saw that Red Boy successfully held back the tourists and hurriedly called for Lone Wolf, Monkey, and Squirrel. He also called Salted Fish who was sunbathing in the backyard.