Ch 211 (Extra 22): The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Lian Ou Side Story 3

After reciting scriptures in the main hall for over an hour, Huiming began to regret it.

He was hungry.

People truly could not skip meals…

But at this hour, if he went to the dining hall now, he could forget about zongzi and eight-treasure rice. Those half-grown boys had definitely already cleaned everything out.

After hesitating for a while, Huiming sighed and stood up, planning to head to the kitchen and see whether there were leftover plain steamed buns and pickled vegetables he could make do with.

The moment he turned around, however, he saw a half-gray-haired monk enter the main hall. The man had apparently been standing behind him watching for quite some time.

Huiming froze, then awkwardly knelt back down and called out, “Shishu.”

Their little temple actually housed quite a few people, but relationships there were simple.

Very few monks genuinely devoted themselves to Buddhist teachings. Most of the younger monks and novice monks were abandoned infants from nearby villages, ranked among each other according to the order they had been picked up.

Huiming himself was no different.

He had been abandoned at the temple gate as a child. Though recorded under the abbot’s name as a disciple, in truth his shifu and shishu had all taken turns raising him, acting as both father and mother.

In difficult years, when they picked up sickly children, the monks would shamelessly carry them into nearby villages, begging nursing mothers to spare some milk just to keep them alive.

Back then the temple had not been as wealthy as it was now, and they could not even afford compensation. Some women were kind enough to help. Others did not even produce enough milk for their own babies. Whether abandoned children survived depended entirely on fate.

Because of this, Huiming and his fellow disciples respected their masters and uncles deeply.

It was only after Huiming grew older and proved clever that he established the temple fair, gradually improving life in the temple. In recent years, even the younger novice monks had finally been properly raised.

Shishu carried a tray holding half a bowl of eight-treasure rice, two steamed buns, and a small dish of braised soybeans with pickled greens.

He urged Huiming out of the main hall to sit on the steps outside.

“Eat. You can’t go without food just because you’ve got worries. This isn’t like usual. The temple fair lasts until after the Fifth Month Festival. There are still many days left.”

Huiming grinned.

“Shishu still treats me best.”

Without any politeness, he immediately started eating.

Shishu did not ask what troubled him. Instead, he rubbed Huiming’s bald head the same way he had when Huiming was small.

“Shouldn’t I dote on you? In this temple, you’re the most capable one, the sharpest-minded. Without you, we’d still be swallowing bran and wild greens. Little Nine and Little Eleven probably wouldn’t even have survived.”

“I discussed it with your shifu. He’s getting old now. He still cares about temple matters, but he no longer has the energy to manage them.”

“Next year, we plan to hand the temple affairs over to you. Your senior brothers can help from the side, and your shifu will guide you for another year or two. Then the position of abbot can be passed on to you.”

“We old fellows can finally enjoy some peace.”

Huiming still had food in his mouth. Hearing this, his eyes widened so much the rice nearly fell out.

“Shishu, I…”

Shishu waved a hand.

“Don’t refuse. If not you, then who?”

“Take the temple fair for example. Your shifu and I could never learn something like that. We can chant scriptures, sure, but we don’t have the brains for this sort of thing. This temple can’t function without you.”

Huiming slowly chewed the food in his mouth.

Originally he had gone to recite scriptures to calm his emotions. Now he became even quieter.

After a long while, he finally nodded.

The sweet eight-treasure rice had long since turned bland and tasteless from being chewed too long.

Shishu patted his shoulder again.

This time it was no longer the touch used on a child, but the gesture of placing a household’s burden onto the shoulders of its pillar.

“You eat. I’ll go talk with your shifu.”

The abbot was meditating in his Zen room.

Seeing Shishu arrive, he sighed softly.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t pressure the child like this. He never willingly chose to become a monk. Over the years he’s earned so much money for the temple already. That should count as repaying our kindness.”

“If he truly could live the life of an ordinary person…”

Shishu’s face immediately darkened.

“That depends on what kind of life it is. That family, are they good people?”

All the children in the temple had been abandoned at the gates.

The monks never knew which family abandoned which child, but the parents themselves certainly knew.

Especially since there were no children in the temple around Huiming’s age, it became even easier to identify him.

Ever since Huiming took charge of the temple fair, one family had started showing up.

At first they sought out the abbot and Shishu, crying about how they had once been too poor to survive and only then abandoned the child.

Later they secretly sought Huiming out several times too, clinging and pestering him.

Earlier that day, Shishu had seen the couple arrive at the temple fair again, shrinking nervously in a corner while trying to find a chance to speak with Huiming.

Then Huiming had immediately gone into the main hall to recite scriptures.

What other worries could he possibly have?

“That boy’s secretly saved up quite a bit of money over the years. I’m not blaming him for saving money. He earned it himself. We’re the ones who benefited from it.”

“But does that family suddenly want to acknowledge him because their conscience awakened?”

“Isn’t it because of the money in his pocket?”

The temple fair had run for so many years. Everyone knew the temple was wealthy now. Everyone knew Huiming had money.

Shishu grew more and more indignant.

“Once they coax all his savings away, what kind of life will he still have? He’d be better off staying here in the temple.”

“It’s not that I insist on keeping him as a monk. If he found some caring girl or ge’er to marry, had a couple children, and lived a good life, I’d be happier than anyone.”

“But parents who could abandon him back then aren’t worth anything at all!”

“This child never had parents to love him growing up. Of course he longs for parental affection. I’m afraid a few soft words will fool him. I’d rather play the villain myself!”

The abbot frowned.

“You’re a monk. Watch your language.”

Shishu shut his mouth.

Watch his language?

He himself had been abandoned at the temple gate too. He did not know who his parents were.

He possessed no Buddhist wisdom whatsoever.

After studying Buddhist teachings for a lifetime, he still had not learned them properly, nor attained peace.

He simply hated parents like that.

And he simply pitied the children he had raised himself.

The next day when Lian Ou came again, Huiming was nowhere to be seen.

Though he himself had not appeared, he had not broken his promise either. He sent a little novice monk to receive them and gave the siblings, who had arrived bright and early, an exceptionally good stall location.

By the time the Fifth Month Festival ended, most of the decorative knots in the little bundle had sold. They had earned quite a tidy sum.

Lian Ou was especially happy. Carrying the money pouch, he went to settle accounts with Shen Qing, his little face flushed with excitement.

“Every first and fifteenth day of the month there’s a temple fair. Even though they only last one day instead of several during major festivals, it’s perfect for clearing out the flawed pieces I make. From now on I’m going every month!”

Now that his hands had become much more practiced, fatigue was unavoidable.

Shen Qing did not really care about the small profits.

Still, seeing that after just a few days of setting up stalls, Lian Ou seemed entirely different, speaking louder, standing straighter, even daring to meet people’s eyes while talking, he felt quite pleased.

So he encouraged him even more to make his own decisions and also taught him how to keep accounts.

“You decide for yourself. But calculate your time carefully too. Running a stall takes an entire day. Don’t end up earning less than you would from working at home. That would be more loss than gain.”

Lian Ou tilted his head thoughtfully.

“I can bring my work over there. Business isn’t constant anyway. When there are no customers, I can keep making knots. And when customers come, Rong-jie can help receive them.”

Shen Qing gave the same answer as always.

“You decide for yourself.”

Lian Ou calculated things carefully on his own and felt there was no problem.

After returning home, he found a little basket to hold scissors and thread. Next time he brought it along.

Decorative knotting was fairly complicated. By now he counted as skilled labor. His fingers flew so quickly others could not even see the process before a knot was finished. He was not afraid anyone would steal the technique.

Working while minding the stall saved a great deal of time.

Unexpectedly though, it also led to trouble.

Mid-Autumn Festival was another major celebration.

Starting from the tenth day of the eighth month, Miaoqian Village grew lively again.

Lian Ou still arrived early as always, found the novice monk, secured a good stall position, and continued working while minding the stall.

But a wealthy-looking village woman, dressed rather extravagantly by countryside standards and clearly from a rich household, became fixated on a pair of mandarin duck knots Lian Ou was currently weaving.

Naturally, Lian Ou refused.

“All these knots are made for my employer. Our employer owns Cuihua Shop in the northern district of the county town, right beside the blooming sausage shop.”

“If Auntie wants mandarin duck knots, there are ready-made ones in the shop.”

“The items here at my stall all have flaws and can’t be sold in the shop, so my employer lets me clear them out at the market.”

“The one in my hands is a good piece. I can’t sell it.”

The items sold in the county shop and the countryside temple fair were obviously priced differently.

If the woman truly wanted to buy from the county shop, she would already have done so.

So the wealthy auntie said,

“You child are too rigid. Once the item’s in your hands, if you don’t say whether it’s good or flawed, how would your employer know?”

“I’ll give you ten extra copper coins. Make me a pair of matching red mandarin duck knots. You can secretly keep the extra ten coins for yourself, can’t you?”

Lian Ou did not want to argue with her further.

After rummaging through his stall for a while, he found two flawed mandarin duck knots.

“If Auntie really wants them, you can take these.”

The wealthy auntie rolled her eyes disdainfully.

“My family is marrying off a daughter. How could we use flawed goods? What if her married life turns unlucky later?”

“You just make me a pair of bright red ones. Red means flourishing fortune. I should be thanking you.”

“Then Auntie can go buy them in the county town. I only sell flawed pieces here.”

“How can you be this stubborn?”

“I’ll give you fifteen extra coins, alright? How much can your employer possibly pay you? Those bosses are all black-hearted anyway. If you can take advantage, why not take advantage…”

She could insult anything else, but once she dragged Shen Qing into it, Lian Rong exploded like a little firecracker.

“Who are you calling black-hearted? My Qing-ge isn’t black-hearted at all! You’re the greedy one! You don’t want to spend proper money but still want good stuff. Dream on!”

“We already said we won’t sell it! Are you forcing a cow to drink water by shoving its head down?”

Lian Ou’s expression darkened too. He tossed the half-finished mandarin duck knot into his basket and stood up.

“We’re not doing this business anymore.”

The wealthy auntie had wasted so much effort arguing, only for this ge’er and little girl to remain stubborn as rocks in a latrine pit. The surrounding vendors had already begun watching the spectacle.

Unable to save face anymore, she glared furiously at Lian Rong.

“Who are you calling names, little brat? Watch your mouth!”

By the time Huiming arrived, Lian Ou was shielding Lian Rong. One side of his face already bore a slap mark, and two bloody scratches ran across his neck.

“What is going on here?!”

Huiming’s face turned black.

Nearby spectators quickly explained the situation.

“She came with her sisters-in-law. Four or five grown women surrounding one ge’er and an eight- or nine-year-old girl and beating them.”

“Whether the business deal works out or not is another matter, but hitting children really isn’t human.”

The wealthy woman argued back,

“That little brat started mouthing off first!”

“But the kid wasn’t wrong! You wanted to pay street-stall prices for county-shop goods. Isn’t that greed?”

“If the child spoke badly, you could’ve scolded her back. Why hit people?”

…

Huiming signaled with his eyes.

Several junior monks immediately surrounded the wealthy woman’s family with monk staffs, driving them away.

The temple fair had operated for many years now. Troublemakers had appeared before, and procedures for handling them were already established.

First the offenders would be expelled.

Starting the next day, nobody from their village would be allowed to set up stalls at the fair.

Only when the village head personally brought the troublemakers to apologize and guarantee proper punishment according to village rules would the matter be considered resolved.

Their temple housed forty or fifty grown men young and old. With staffs in hand, who were they supposed to fear?

Meanwhile, Lian Ou nervously covered his neck, terrified Huiming would chase him away too and forbid him from setting up stalls anymore.

He feared disappointing Qing-ge.

Huiming bent down and picked up the mandarin duck knot that had been stepped on during the scuffle. Brushing dirt off it, he handed it back to Lian Ou.

His gaze swept once over the hand covering Lian Ou’s neck.