The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Ma’am, room service.” An attendant knocked on the door, but he didn’t notice a salted fish climbing out from underneath. It lifted the lid and took out a plate of food from inside before hiding beneath the cart and digging in.

When the door opened, the attendant brought the tray over and lifted the cover, only to be dumbfounded. “Where’s the food?”

“I should be the one saying that, right?” The woman glared at him angrily before slamming the door.

The attendant sadly returned to the cart, but he wasn’t able to find the missing food. In his exasperation, he bent down to search the ground, only to have Salted Fish crawl out from the other side and place the empty plate on the cart. When the attendant stood up again, Salted Fish hid himself underneath once more.

When the attendant lifted the cover again, he immediately trembled from fright. “I… I swear that there was no plate here a moment ago!”

The attendant then quickly left with the food cart as though he had seen a ghost.

The attendant eventually broke down because he realized that the food kept disappearing on his subsequent trips. After a few times, the attendant knelt down and kowtowed towards the cart, pleading. “I don’t know who you are, a ghost, buddha, bodhisattva, god, or angel, but please stop messing with me. Please! Uh…”

While he was kowtowing, he suddenly saw something beneath the cart. It was a fish’s tail!

The attendant frowned and grabbed it before yanking it out.

When the huge salted fish was pulled out, the attendant was at a loss from seeing the hard salted fish. He mumbled. “I didn’t deliver any salted fish… Why would there be a salted fish underneath the cart?”

Shaking his head, the attendant still felt shaken. He hurriedly placed the salted fish on the cart and pushed it into the kitchen.

When a chef saw Dinh enter the kitchen in low spirits with the cart, he said, “Hey, Dinh, don’t tell me you lost the food again? Be wary of the manager!”

Dinh said bitterly, “I lost it again. I’ve no idea what kind of supernatural being is targeting me… Sigh, but I did pick up a salted fish on the way. Can you check if someone lost it?”

“Salted Fish? Our restaurant doesn’t have salted fish on the menu. But I must say, this salted fish is rather fat!” A chef walked over and touched Salted Fish’s belly as he marveled.

“Regardless of whose it is, it’s just a salted fish, and salted fish is meant for eating. There are quite a few distinguished guests this time. Let’s slice it up and offer it to them,” the fat chef said.

“Alright. I’ll give it a wash!” Another mustached chef chuckled as he brought Salted Fish to the sink. He switched on the tap and began scrubbing him. As he did, he felt odd. He had a nagging feeling that there was a problem with the salted fish’s eyes. It was as if it was staring at him the whole time!

It gave him the creeps, but soon, he finished scrubbing it and threw it to the fat chef. “You do it. I’m getting shivers from this fish.”

“You coward. It’s just a salted fish. What’s there to be afraid of? Watch me!” The fat chef turned around and placed Salted Fish on his chopping board. The others began working on their own tasks since there were so many people waiting to be served. No one dared to skive or they might end up losing their jobs if they ticked off any bigwigs.

Seeing that there was nothing left for him to do, Dinh decided to leave. But before leaving, he looked back and happened to see the salted fish turn its body and stand up while the fat chef was turning back to chat. Then, the salted fish picked up a cucumber and stuffed it into its mouth. Realizing that Dinh was looking at it, it grinned before swiping its neck.

“Heavens!” Dinh screamed in fright.

The fat chef turned around and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Dinh pointed at Salted Fish and screamed, “That salted fish just came alive!”

The fat chef looked at the hard fish and said with a smile, “Punk, are you nuts? It’s a dead fish, so how can it come to life? If it really can, I sure want to see it! If not, I’ll just chop it up for a dish!”

However, Salted Fish lay there motionless, leaving the fat chef amused. Dinh rubbed his eyes and after confirming that there was nothing, he left in low spirits. As he walked, he muttered. “I keep feeling as though something is about to happen…”

The fat chef shook his head and held up his cleaver, shouting. “Come on, cutesy, it’s time to be split into two!”

“Clang!”

Sparks flew as the chef’s dull knife flew into the sky. It left the fat chef dumbfounded.

“How… How is this possible?” The fat chef was flabbergasted. He had been cooking all his life and killed countless fish, but he could swear that he had never seen such a hard fish.

The others were busy and didn’t notice this scene, but the fat chef was covered in sweat.

Putting down his blunt cleaver, he got a sharp cleaver from beside him. He was going to try the slow approach by slicing the salted fish’s body. But despite slicing at it all day, he was surprised to see he couldn’t leave a mark at all.

He gulped and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He couldn’t help but recall Dinh’s words as his hands shivered. He mumbled. “I don’t believe it. I’m just going to cook you directly!”

The flames were turned to full blast as they spewed high. The fat chef was also reeling in fright. Without any thought, he placed Salted Fish over the flame to burn it.

A minute later, the salted fish was still a salted fish, and the fire was still burning.

He wiped his sweat.

Five minutes later, the salted fish was still a salted fish, and the fire was still burning.

He wiped his tears.

Ten minutes later, he asked with a sobbing tone, “What the f**king hell are you? Say something if you have what it takes!”

“What do you want me to say? Darn fatty. You first chopped me with one cleaver before slicing me with another one. Now, you are burning me in flames. I haven’t even done anything to you, but you want me to speak? Do you really think an old fish like me doesn’t know how to curse?” Salted Fish suddenly sat up amidst the flames. He splattered saliva all over the fat chef’s face.

The chef’s abnormality had already caught the notice of the rest. They turned their heads over and instantly, all of them screamed. All of them threw their knives, yelling, “Demon!”

The chefs collectively ran out.

At the same time, Dinh, who had left, came back again. But this time, it wasn’t voluntary.

“Be good. Retreat to the back and don’t make a sound. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee that you will survive this shot.” A man held a rifle at Dinh as the latter slowly retreated.

“Alright, the two of you, head over to open the door. Our friend over here, you can go in and tell the rest of them to quieten down…” The man with the rifle chuckled.

Two rifle-wielding men behind him went forward and reached out to open the door.

At this moment…

Bam!

The door seemed to explode as people barged through it.!

When the swinging door opened, the two unlucky fools by the door failed to react in time. They got hit by the door and fell back, unconscious.

The moment the door opened, a bunch of white-clothed fatties swarmed out!