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After Wang Yao had boarded the plane, he found that the monk had already been there. They were on the same plane and in the same cabinet. What was even more coincidental was that their seats were close—they were only separated by the cabinet aisle.

“You really are destined to meet the Buddha,” said the monk with a smile.

“I’m destined to meet you. Are you Buddha?” Wang Yao sat down and smiled.

“Yes,” said the monk without hesitation.

“What?” said Wang Yao in surprise. “Are you not afraid of being blamed by the real Buddha?

“Buddha said, everyone is Buddha,” the monk said with a smile.

“You are very articulate,” said Wang Yao.

“I am flattered,” said the monk.

The plane was going to take off soon; Wang Yao stopped talking to the monk and just sat quietly.

With a big noise, the plane took off into the sky.

“Do you live in Haiqu?” asked the monk after the plane was stable.

“Yes,” said Wang Yao.

“I plan to visit Fulai temple. Are you interested in going with me?” asked the monk.

“I’ve been there before. Sorry, I have no interest in visiting that place again,” said Wang Yao. He actually had never been there before. The temple was located on an unknown hill. Rumor had it that if someone made a wish there, their dream would come true.

The monk just smiled.

“You seem to be pretty wealthy,” said Wang Yao with a smile. “Do you get paid as a monk?”

“Yes,” said the monk.

“Do you mind me asking how much do you get paid a month?” asked Wang Yao.

“Just over ten thousand yuan per month,” said the monk with a smile.

“Earning over ten thousand a month by practicing dhyana, and sitting and reciting scriptures sounds like easy money,” said Wang Yao.

“Money is not important to me.”

“Why did you become a monk?”

“It’s just my destiny,” said the monk.

“Destiny?” asked Wang Yao.

“You don’t sound practical. I’m so confused by your words. You are so eloquent,” said Wang Yao with a smile.

“I fled from famine and almost starved to death. Luckily, I was saved by a monk from a temple. That’s how I became a monk,” said the monk after being silent for a moment.

“It sounds like you didn’t have a choice. Do you enjoy being a monk?” asked Wang Yao.

“Of course I do. I left the world of mortals. I’m no longer troubled by those things in the mundane world. I’ve never felt so at ease and relaxed before,” said the monk with a smile.

“But you look so skinny. What is the food like at the temple?” asked Wang Yao. The more he talked to the monk, the less he trusted the monk. Wang Yao thought the monk was really eloquent, so he started to talk nonsense deliberately.

“The food in the temple was actually quite good,” said the monk.

“Can you eat meat?” asked Wang Yao.

“I haven’t reached the level of being able to eat meat,” said the monk.

“Can you drink alcohol?” asked Wang Yao.

“I haven’t reached the level of being able to drink alcohol,” said the monk.

“What a pity!” said Wang Yao with a smile.

“Being a vegan makes you lose weight. Life without alcohol will keep you away from worry,” said the monk.

“I think you are just scared of being an alcoholic,” said a middle-aged man with a smile. The man sat next to them had been eavesdropping in on their conversation.

“You are right,” said the monk honestly.

“Buddha said that even though the alcohol and flesh goes through one’s body

the Buddha stays evermore in my mind. I don’t think it will matter if you just eat a little bit of meat and drink a little bit of alcohol,” said Wang Yao.

“If you have reached the level, it won’t matter; but if you haven’t, you will be easily tempted by the taste of meat and alcohol. Then, your meditative mind will be wasted, and your practice of Buddhism will be destroyed,” said the monk.

“Have you ever been in love?” asked Wang Yao.

“Yes, more than once,” said the monk.

Wang Yao smiled and stopped talking. The monk also stopped talking and closed his eyes to rest. His hands were twisting the Buddha beads.

The conversation was over.

After several hours, the plane landed at Haiqu airport. Wang Yao didn’t ask anyone to pick him up, so he was going to go home by himself. To his surprise, he saw a car waiting for the monk at the exit of the airport.

“Wow, since when do monks have special car service!” said one of the passengers in surprise.

“Sir, I’ll see you next time,” said the monk.

“See you, rich monk!” said Wang Yao with a smile.

The monk smiled back and entered the car, which left immediately.

Wang Yao went to the bus stop nearby. He decided to take the bus home.

“Traveling in first class and having a car wait for him at the exit—since when are monks so rich?” murmured Wang Yao in confusion.

The bus was not fast, especially when it was passing Haiqu city business center.

The bus was quite old. The seats on the bus probably hadn’t been changed in a long time. The color of the seats had started to fade.

There were not many people traveling from Haiqu to Lianshan at this time of the day, so most of the seats were empty.

Cough! Cough! Suddenly Wang Yao heard someone coughing. The person who was coughing was an old man; his cough was really bad. He couldn’t stop coughing. It was as if he was going to cough his lungs out.

The passengers started to look at the old man.

He must be really sick.

Wang Yao knew he was quite sick just from listening to his cough. The old man was seriously ill. He needed treatment.

“Sir, are you okay?” said the young driver in a nice manner.

“Yes, I’m fine,” said the old man. He started to cough again. He didn’t look fine at all.

“Sir, shall I take you to the hospital?” said the driver.

“No, thanks, you just keep going,” said the old man.

The bus was leaving Haiqu soon.

Cough! Cough! Ugh!

After coughing for a moment, the old man suddenly started to vomit. The bus was full of the smell of rotten food and blood.

What he had vomited was not only undigested food but also thick blood.

Screech! The driver braked hard; then he turned the steering wheel to make a U-turn. The bus headed back to the business center of Haiqu.

“Hey, where are you going?” asked one of the passengers.

“Why did you even ask? Of course, I’m driving to the hospital!” shouted the young driver.

“I’m in a hurry to go home!” said the passenger.

“You can jump off the bus then!” said the driver.

Haha! Wang Yao laughed.

The nice driver had a hot temper.

The driver drove the bus very fast. It was not easy to go through the busy city center while driving a big bus, but the young man was a very good driver. The bus was like a big mudfish swimming among loads of other fish.

The bus arrived at Haiqu People’s hospital as fast as it could. The old man on the bus had become too frail to sit up. The bus went straight into the hospital, which was quite a rare thing.

The staff from the emergency department responded quickly. The doctors went to see the old man straight away. Their response time was far better than the local hospital in town.

The doctors in Haiqu People’s hospital were nice and efficient.

No wonder everyone wants to go to big hospitals.

The young driver had no awareness of the trouble he had brought to himself. He was smoking a cigarette pleasantly.

“Aren’t you scared of getting into any trouble? The old man’s family could blame you for his hospitalization,” said one of the passengers.

“Trouble? I’ve got a surveillance camera on the bus,” said the young driver. He didn’t really care what trouble he could potentially get into.

After the old man was settled in the hospital, everyone went back onto the bus. The driver drove the bus out of the hospital and headed back to Lianshan again.

Wang Yao was amazed by the courage of the young driver. He knew that nowadays no one would help someone who had fallen down in the street to stand up. What the young driver did was really rare. If he were the driver, he would probably hesitate.

Sometimes, you hesitate to do certain things when you have more life experience.

Wang Yao smiled as he was listening to the driver singing songs he didn’t know.

The young man is so happy and straightforward, thought Wang Yao.

“The patient’s condition is not stable,” said a doctor from Haiqu People’s hospital.

“Do a CT scan on him; focus on his lungs,” said another doctor.

The doctors in the emergency department were quite busy. The old man who was brought in by the young bus driver suddenly deteriorated.

I hope the old man will be fine, thought Wang Yao as he was looking at the small houses through the window of the bus.

The bus arrived at Lianshan after an hour and a half. Wang Yao called a taxi to take him back to the village. By the time he had arrived home, it was evening. His parent had already had dinner.

“Yao, how come you didn’t tell us you were coming back today? Have you eaten anything?” Zhang Xiuying was surprised to see her son.

“Not yet,” said Wang Yao.

“I’ll cook something for you now; what do you want to eat?” asked Zhang Xiuying.

“Anything is fine; just cook me some noodles,” said Wang Yao.

“Okay, just a second.” Zhang Xiuying rushed to the kitchen.

Wang Yao got himself a glass of water and sat down to talk to his father. His father started to ask him a lot of questions.

“Was everything okay?” asked Wang Fenghua.

“Yeah,” said Wang Yao.

“Have you cured the patient?” asked Wang Fenghua.

“Not yet, he is very sick. It will take some time to treat his illness,” said Wang Yao.

“Will you be going away again soon?” asked Wang Fenghua.

“Not any time soon,” replied Wang Yao.

Wang Yao had been away quite frequently in the last few months. He was a person who cared a lot about his family, and he didn’t want to be away from his family too often.

“Good.” Wang Fenghua nodded. As a parent, he also wanted Wang Yao to be around as much as he could.