The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Fangzheng felt the pain as well.

Granny Zhang said with a helpless laugh, “Alright. Stop crying. Gugu is here too.”

Keke wailed even louder when she heard that. On the other hand, Fangzheng was puzzled. This old lady was far too bad with words, wasn’t she? She was rubbing salt into the wound!

At this moment, there was a sudden sound.

“Gu… Gu…”

“Gugu!?” Before Fangzheng could react, Keke realized the sound was extremely familiar. She looked up and turned in the direction of the sound.

She saw Granny Zhang take out a bird cage from behind her. In it was a gray pigeon which looked at Keke with gem-like eyes as it let out a pigeon’s coo.

Keke widened her tiny mouth and cried. “Gugu! It’s my Gugu!” Keke was extremely excited and just as she was about to run over, she suddenly halted. She looked at Granny Zhang and said with some worry and misery, “Granny, Mommy needs to be nourished… Gugu, it…”

“Alright, silly child. Granny had just happened to buy a cleaned pigeon and had been planning to make some soup anyway. How could Granny drink it when seeing such a poor thing like you? Take this to your Mommy. Let her get well soon so she can take care of you.” Granny Zhang squatted down and ruffled Keke’s head. Her eyes reddened as she said that.

Fangzheng silently pressed his palms together and said inwardly, “Amitabha.”

Who said that there wasn’t love in this world? It was everywhere, it was just that the world lacked a pair of eyes to discover it.

After coaxing Keke, Granny Zhang sized up Fangzheng before pulling him to the side. She interrogated him for quite some time and, after confirming that he wasn’t up to no good, she gave all sorts of warnings. Under Keke’s urging, she finally allowed Fangzheng to bring Keke home. However, before Fangzheng left, he borrowed a wooden chair from Granny Zhang.

Meanwhile, Fangzheng also learned from Granny Zhang that after Song Bin was dragged away by the women, he was directly sent to the police station. They didn’t know what happened to him after that.

With regards to this, Fangzheng wasn’t fazed by it. If Song Bin dared to make another appearance, Fangzheng wouldn’t mind keeping him in prison forever.

After sending Keke home, Fangzheng went downstairs again to buy two big bags of rice and lots of vegetables. Then, under the odd looks of people, he also bought some meat and a chicken.

Ignoring the people gossiping behind his back, Fangzheng went upstairs with the rice.

Before long, a picture was posted on Weibo.

“Shocking. A shameless young monk buying meat and chicken on the streets!”

As Fangzheng was carrying one bag of rice on each of his shoulder, the picture didn’t capture his face. The picture only showed a man with two bags of rice on his shoulders, with his head not visible. However, his monk robes were obvious. The meat and chicken that were dangling from his fingers were especially visible…

Instantly, criticism filled the Internet.

“Hehe, this monk sure is shameless. I’ve met monks who have eaten meat, but I’ve never seen a monk do it so openly. And he even bought it himself!”

“This monk’s appetite sure is huge. He bought so much meat and a whole chicken.”

“Tsk. Monks these days are pretty good. There are fake monks everywhere.”

…

There were also others who were more reasonable. “Don’t you know that many monks these days are just students of Buddhist schools? They aren’t really becoming monks but studying Buddhist scriptures. They don’t eat meat in the monastery, but they are no different from a normal person outside the Buddhist temples. In the entire country, there aren’t that many monks who truly practice asceticism. Those ascetic monks wouldn’t come out to do purchases either. They are true ascetics who don’t eat meat or touch anything that has the Five Pungent Spices.”

There was a mixture of likes and criticism towards the comment.

However, there were people with very sharp eyes who quickly commented.

“Hey! Why do those clothes look so much like Abbot Fangzheng’s white robes?”

“I was wondering about that too. Look at those shoes. He dresses the same as Abbot Fangzheng. Don’t tell me it’s really him?”

“Impossible, right? Isn’t Abbot Fangzheng in the northeast? This picture is clearly from Nanhu County in the south!”

“Perhaps other monks are trying to rub off some of Abbot Fangzheng’s popularity by wearing similar clothes?”

“Now that you mention it, I’ve checked online. And indeed, many unscrupulous merchants are beginning to sell monk robes in the same style as Abbot Fangzheng’s. There are even animals that resemble those few animals in One Finger Monastery. There’s also a doll version of Little Venerable Jingxin! It even has a d*ck! The sales aren’t bad. Tsk, Female patrons sure have extraordinary hobbies.”

The moment this guy made a dirty comment, all the comments were led astray as they turned to the problem of Jingxin’s d*ck…

However, Fangzheng didn’t know of all of this. He had no time to bother with it since he had begun cooking the moment he entered the house.

Seeing so much rice, vegetables, and meat, Keke nearly drooled. She placed her tiny hands on the table, tiptoed, and looked at the meat Fangzheng had placed on the chopping board with widened eyes. From time to time, she would gulp her saliva. Not too different from Keke was Lone Wolf. Since the moment this guy went to Mt. One Finger, he hadn’t eaten meat anymore. To see Fangzheng suddenly return with a meat purchase, he felt a surreal sense of doubt. Then he suddenly wondered if he could eat whatever Fangzheng brought back. Hence, for the first time, he didn’t wallow in laziness as he patrolled the door, waiting in anticipation for his first meat feast ever since entering One Finger Monastery!

Unfortunately, Fangzheng didn’t do a thing despite the two of them waiting all day. He stood there in a daze after he was done with the rice!

Fangzheng was really a little dumbfounded because he had grown up eating vegetarian. He was skilled at cooking vegetarian dishes, but as for meat dishes… He really had no idea about how to cook them!

Most importantly, after being a monk his entire life and pretending to be a master for more than a year, he couldn’t bring himself to prepare the meat. He had thickened his skin when buying the meat downstairs. Why had he bought two bags of rice? It was because he was too embarrassed to look anyone in the eye. He deliberately bought two bags of rice to block his face to prevent people from seeing him blush.

After waiting all day, Keke finally couldn’t help but ask meekly, “Daddy, do you not know how to cook?”

Thump!

A thud was heard behind as Keke looked back to see Lone Wolf sprawled on the ground. His mouth was tightly shut as his eyes welled with tears.

Fangzheng glared at Lone Wolf, sending him running to the stairwell with his tail between his legs. Soon, there was an uncontrolled sound of stifled laughter outside.

Fangzheng scratched his head in embarrassment. “Daddy will go teach the dog a lesson. He farted in the stairwell, affecting the nice atmosphere.” With that said, Fangzheng ran out.

Seeing Fangzheng rush over belligerently, Lone Wolf hurriedly scampered away, but unfortunately, he was soon caught by Fangzheng. He slapped him and said, “You are to keep running up and down without stopping. Otherwise, you can forget about lunch.”

Lone Wolf was stunned as he asked, “Master, why?”

“For acting. Buy some time. If you do well, you can get more for lunch!” As Fangzheng spoke, he took out his phone and began searching the Internet for recipes of meat dishes…