The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

“So you have had checkups at other facilities, as well?” Director Zhao’s voice was heard.

“That’s right. We went to several places. They all said that we won’t be able to conceive a child. But who knew that after visiting One Finger Temple and praying to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, we would actually hit the jackpot. It’s like a dream.” Du Mei could not stop running her mouth as she spoke in between laughs.

Yang Hua was also laughing foolishly along with her…

Director Zhao said, “Alright. This is a good thing. Congratulations. I still have something to tend to, so I’ll be leaving for now. Make sure to get sufficient rest and do not overexert yourself.” After saying that, the director’s head was filled with questions. What was going on? As for the matter of eating the machine, he smartly refused to bring it up and thought to escape quickly.

Yang Hua and Du Mei acknowledged it before excitedly leaving the hospital.

Jiang Ting watched the two leave as she mumbled to herself, “One Finger Temple? Praying to the Bodhisattva to bear children? Is that even possible? Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of this temple before… If it is truly efficacious…”

Jiang Ting’s eyes lit up. She checked the time and found that her night shift was over, so she hurriedly packed up to go home. As soon as she was home, she switched on her computer and searched for One Finger Temple but found nothing. She called the head nurse, asked for Yang Hua’s address, and managed to find One Finger Village. It was very obvious in the maps that Mt. One Finger was behind One Finger Village. Furthermore, according to Mt. One Finger’s introduction, there was a tiny temple on the mountain but there was no mention of its name.

However, Jiang Ting connected the dots and was quite certain that it was One Finger Temple.

Jiang Ting was always a curious person. She wrote about the day’s events on her Weibo social media page, explaining how the couple was at first unable to conceive but then managed to successfully make children after praying at One Finger Temple.

After she posted on Weibo, she went to bed without much thought.

But although she did not think too much of it, the people who saw her post were riled up.

A discussion lit up in the comments section of her post.

“Jiang Ting are you mad? You are a nurse but you believe in this?”

“Lass, is a screw loose in your head?”

“You can’t believe in the divine.”

“Enough guys. Didn’t Jiang Ting say that they both had conditions that made them physically unable to have children? Yet they managed to conceive after praying to Bodhisattva. How do you explain that?”

“Perhaps their bodies self-regulated and turned for the better. And they just happened to pray to Bodhisattva around the same time. It has to be a coincidence!”

“Wouldn’t we know if it’s a coincidence by simply going to this temple ourselves?”

“That’s right. It’s not that far. Let’s check our schedules and see if we can go one day?”

“I think that would work…”

Soon, three people who were rather free got together and planned a visit to Mt. One Finger. However, even though they called it an investigation, they were just making an excuse to have some fun outdoors. In a few more weeks it would snow, preventing them from going mountain climbing.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully. The next day, Fangzheng ate his breakfast, cleaned the hall, and began reading Buddhist scripture as part of his daily routine.

Suddenly, he heard voices coming from outside. They sounded rather chaotic, indicating that there were quite a number of people!

Fangzheng lamented inwardly, “This voice sounds like Auntie Du Mei. Were their prayers ineffective, and now this fierce auntie is bringing a mob to smash this place up?”

Although Fangzheng had the Great Strength Vajra Palm and had Lone Wolf as a guardian, it was impossible for him to attack others when he did not stand on the side of reason. Clearly, it did not match with Buddhist precepts. Therefore, he rushed out the door and turned around a corner. He held his hands to the corner of a wall and secretly peeped out.

He saw a huge bunch of people rushing over from afar. The person leading the way was Yang Hua! Accompanying Yang Hua was Yang Ping, and behind them were the villagers. They were all people he knew as his seniors.

Seeing these people rushing towards him, Fangzheng felt a little worried. “Is there a need to do this? Is there a need to bring so many people to destroy this tiny temple? I’m doomed. I’ve only been abbot for a month and the place is going to get wrecked. Sigh… should I get the police? Forget it, they are family. It wouldn’t be right to call the cops on them. If it was ineffective, I’ll just let them smash the place. They have a right to vent their frustration.” Fangzheng muttered to himself.

At that moment, the crowd had arrived at the entrance. From afar, he heard Yang Hua shout, “Fangzheng! Fangzheng! Fangzheng, are you in?”

Fangzheng contemplated. Since he could not stray too far from the temple, nor did he have anywhere to run to, he might as well honestly face them. At that moment, he finally understood the saying: “A monk may run away but not his temple!” No matter how far the monk ran, the temple would capture and bring him back… It was precisely referring to him!

“Amitabha. Patron Yang, This Penniless Monk is here.” After a month of Buddhist practice, Fangzheng began to understand certain things. As someone beyond the secular world, he had to act respectably at all times. He could not always think of himself as an ordinary person.

Yang Hua was stunned, clearly not accustomed to Fangzheng’s Buddhist mannerisms. However, he immediately jolted out of his reverie and shouted, “Fangzheng!”

Fangzheng was given a fright as he thought to himself— Are they about to beat him already? Isn’t this storm coming too quickly? What happened to the calm before the storm? I haven’t prepared myself for a beating!

In the end, Yang Hua spread out his arms and hugged Fangzheng in a warm embrace. He said with a hearty laugh, “Fangzheng, we got it! We got it! One shot for two. Two!”

Fangzheng was dumbfounded. What? What did he mean ‘got it?’ As a middle-aged man, what could he have gotten? If you want to destroy the building, go ahead, but you want to use a cannon to shoot it down? And twice?

At that moment, Du Mei had come over as well. Her sister-in-law, Liu Ya, was supporting her. Du Mei, who was always extremely intrepid and strong-willed, suddenly took on a motherly nature and was no longer so rambunctious. She said with glee, “Darn kid, your temple is truly efficacious! Just one prayer and we got it after some hard work!”

Only then did Fangzheng understand that one shot for two did not refer to shooting him, but that they had a child!

Fangzheng immediately heaved a sigh of relief and returned to his reverential state. He said calmly, “Congratulations, Patron Liu…”

Pa!

Fangzheng lowered his head as his head was slapped. Even his skin had turned red!

Fangzheng thought bitterly, You are already pregnant, why are you still so strong…

“Don’t keep saying ‘Patron.’ Call me Auntie! I find it more endearing,” exclaimed Du Mei.

Helpless to resist, Fangzheng addressed her as Auntie.

Only then did Du Mei beam and exclaim, “I know you lead an austere life up here on the mountains so I got you some potatoes and long beans. Dry the beans and you can boil them in water during winter for your meals. There are also potato chips. They have been dried too! This year’s potato harvest is pretty good. They taste good too and are rather sweet.”

Fangzheng thanked her profusely. The villagers helped moved the three big bags of potatoes and plastic bags containing potato chips, chopped cucumbers, and long beans inside.

Upon seeing these vegetables, Fangzheng nearly salivated. Although Crystal Rice was unnaturally delicious, he had not had these common dishes in a long time. He had been craving them! What made Fangzheng’s eyes really light up was a big tub of soybean oil. His temple had been out of cooking for so long that he had already forgotten the taste of oil. His cravings got more intense…

Du Mei and Yang Hua were rejoicing as they went to offer incense once again.

After that, Fangzheng was inundated by the villagers’ questions.

“Fangzheng, is this place really that efficacious?”

“It’s definitely efficacious. Who doesn’t know that Du Mei and Yang Hua have been given the death sentence by the hospitals. They were never to bear children but then, after praying here, they immediately got one. Even the doctors at the county hospital were confounded by it. They keep insisting that it was a mistake…”