The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

All the disciples raised their heads to look at Fangzheng with their mouths wide open. They were at a loss as to what to say.

Fangzheng continued. “There’s a kind of goodness known as a white lie. There’s a type of evil known as a harsh truth. In fact, the theory from before can be supported and also contradicted. Actions that make people better and make them pay for their evil deeds can be considered acts of justice. These acts don’t need to be considered correct acts under the confines of morals. They can also be incorrect acts.

“Although it seems like Putian Hospital only utilized a loophole, their true mistake was to sully the reputation of doctors despite being doctors themselves. That’s an act that destroys societal trust! Such acts have a greater destructive power than a single person committing a malicious deed. What they were destroying was the whole environment! If such doctors became numerous, patients wouldn’t care which doctors are Putian Hospital’s and which doctors are the good ones, nor would they be able to tell the difference. They would only end up believing that all doctors are bad. Once that happened, the relationship between doctors and patients would deteriorate, and it could even result in a terrifying outcome.

“If This Penniless Monk had reacted as everyone imagined I would, matching his words with his deeds like a gentleman, and if he allowed them to attend the lecture, it wouldn’t be a problem for This Penniless Monk. This Penniless Monk would still be able to gain the reputation of being a trustworthy gentleman. However, this would be burying a seed of destruction for all of society. In the future, this seed would grow into a venomous tree that would poison the world. When comparing the two, This Penniless Monk would rather be the vile character.”

Having said that, Fangzheng felt a little smug. “In fact, there are many gentlemen in this world, but there’s quite a lack of gentlemen who don’t mind being a vile character like me. Hehe.” Towards the end, Fangzheng couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

Everyone was stunned. In the beginning, they absolutely believed that Fangzheng was wrong in what he had done because he had gone back on his word. But having heard his explanation and thinking it over carefully, his decision was indeed a gentlemanly act of sacrificing himself for the greater good. However, they were somewhat confused. What was a gentleman then? It was confusing.

Fangzheng couldn’t be bothered to explain more as this was something that depended on the circumstances in the end. It wasn’t an absolute rule that could determine everything. They wouldn’t understand even if he went into detail, so he didn’t bother to waste his time. He decided that they could figure it out themselves since they had plenty of time ahead of them.

After dinner, Fangzheng got into bed and immediately checked his merit points. When he saw the numbers, he immediately beamed. As expected, Fangzheng had earned 10,000 merit points from the two-day free consultation event! That meant that the number of patients that had come exceeded 10,000!

What did this mean? A typical major hospital only had about five to six thousand patients a day. Just the thought of this left Fangzheng somewhat alarmed.

At this speed, I’ll accumulate enough merit points for the treatment in one to two months. Yes, the incense money we received in the past two days hasn’t been terrible either. However, I’m still quite far off from 20 million… I have to think of something. As Fangzheng thought, he couldn’t help but recall Song Xianhe’s father. The three brothers appeared to be very rich.

As he pondered over the matter, he fell asleep. In his dream, he earned copious amounts of money and rolled around on a mountain of it…

After an uneventful night, Fangzheng got up before daybreak. He washed up and struck the bell and drum which broke the silence of the world.

With everything prepared, Fangzheng slowly led Red Boy and the rest who were dressed up down the mountain. From Fangzheng’s point of view, the competition had ended yesterday. With the name list announced, perhaps everyone had left already, so he thought it shouldn’t be too crowded.

However, Fangzheng was left dumbfounded when he reached the mountainside. There were people everywhere! All of them were packed on the staircase leading up the mountain. They were tiptoeing and craning their necks to look up. Fangzheng was puzzled. Back when this mountain path was being renovated, there was a lack of funds, and all the stone was donated by one person. Since there hadn’t been a lot of money, the stone slabs were huge. Each slab was twenty centimeters tall! With such a height difference, tiptoeing would only make one’s eye level go from the neck of the person in front to the back of their head, right? But then, the person in front would also be tiptoeing… Weren’t these people tired?

Fangzheng looked at them and shook his head. I’ve finally understood China’s ancient tradition of crowding. Even if there’s nothing to see, they will crowd around! Who cares what’s happening in the middle? As long as you return and say you saw nothing, you can still give a good account and win face.

As Fangzheng sized up these people, they were sizing him up in return. Fangzheng wasn’t surprised by this anymore as he had frequently been on the news. Lone Wolf didn’t find it odd either since he had become the mascot of One Finger Monastery. Red Boy was no stranger to it, while Squirrel was famous as well. However, when everyone saw Monkey, their gaze turned odd. This was because Monkey looked different from usual. He wore an armband around his arm which said “Inspector”!

Everyone was stunned. What was he an inspector for? A monkey could be used to monitor them? Are you sure he’s not here to be a clown? Everyone couldn’t help but laugh, but they quickly held their laughter.

Fangzheng ignored them as he walked over with staid steps. Like before, Red Boy put down a chair, and Fangzheng took his seat. Lone Wolf became the backdrop as Red Boy stood by the side like a child attendant.

Fangzheng took a look at the area in front of him. There were exactly 49 people. As for the people standing by the stairs, Fangzheng didn’t chase them away as he directly started the lecture.

At the same time, while the doctors who sat in front of Fangzheng were holding their tickets, they wore looks of puzzlement. Was the lecture to be held out in the open? If that was the case, what was the difference between them and the people by the stairs, other than the fact that they had seats? If they had known this was going to be the case, they wouldn’t have gone through so much effort. They could have just woken up early to get a good standing spot.

But on careful thought, sitting was ultimately better than standing. Besides, there were tiny furnaces in front of them that burned with flames. As they listened to the lecture, they could also use the tiny table on their knees to take down notes. It did seem to be much better than those people who were trembling.

As for the people standing by the stairs, they looked excited and were thinking, “Yes! We’re going to make a killing this way! Hahaha!”

But they quickly regretted laughing. They hadn’t brought enough equipment. It was truly cold! Aside from that, their hands weren’t free, so they couldn’t take notes either. All they could do was stand there staring, hoping to use their phones to record the audio. However, the moment a phone was taken out, the monkey would immediately warn them. Monkey raised a signboard which said: “Recording, Taping, and Photographing are Strictly Prohibited. Violators will be sent down.”

“If I had known this, I would have brought some hidden recorders…” someone mumbled inwardly.