The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

“You still staring at me?!” Red Boy was about to attack when he finished his sentence.

Lone Wolf whispered, “A friendly reminder, if you were to fool around, Master would be angry. Once he’s angry, he will recite scriptures…”

Red Boy shivered as he stared back at Lone Wolf. He growled fiercely, “You will be skinned sooner or later and made into a rug!”

He ignored the dumbfounded Xie Ming and carried the large water buckets down the mountain. Xie Ming rubbed his eyes and prodded Xiaolei. “I wasn’t seeing things, right? How old is that kid? Six, seven? How was he able to carry such huge buckets? Holy cow, was he born with divine strength?”

“I’m afraid he can only carry the buckets down but not up. Alright, get back to work. We are almost done. Soon we can return and take a break.” said Xiaolei.

Xie Ming nodded and smiled. “But I feel that the child is extraordinary. By the way, is there a child wearing a dudou in the village?”

Xiaolei was stunned. “Don’t think so. He came from One Finger Monastery. Is there anyone other than Venerable Fangzheng in One Finger Monastery? I’ve never heard of any…”

“Forget it. I don’t want to think about it. Get back to work.”

The duo got back to work while mumbling. The construction team’s progress was speeding up and the mending of the mountain path was quickly coming to an end. The team’s standards also raised the nearer the end they were, afraid that something bad would happen with the finish line in sight.

The workers at the mountainside saw Red Boy walking with meter-tall water buckets. He even had to tiptoe at times to prevent the water buckets from touching the ground. Everyone was alarmed when they saw the child. Such a tiny child carrying two large buckets? They laughed. The child’s size when compared to the buckets was just too humorous and cute.

The cute child did not say anything cute but, “What are you looking at? Do it some more and I’ll dig your eyes out ! I’ll throw you into a pot!”

Everyone exchanged looks before roaring in laughter. No one thought anything of Red Boy’s threats.

The foreman even stepped forward and said with a chuckle, “Hey, little guy, why are you so powerful? What’s your name? Tell Uncle… Are these buckets of yours fake? Are they made of paper?”

As the foreman spoke, he attempted to lift a water bucket and was left dumbfounded. It was actually real! Made of metal! The two empty buckets were not light. It would be fine for an adult but… he was a f**king child!

Red Boy yearned to smack the group of assholes to death but with a supervisor behind him and Fangzheng’s words fresh in his mind, he did not dare kill them. He would probably be punished for a year or even longer. He could not handle that. With a snort, he decided to ignore the people for out of sight, out of mind. He rushed to the spring source and filled up two buckets full of water. He then proceeded up the mountain under the dumbfounded gazes of all the workers.

Red Boy looked at the person who teased him about not being able to carry the buckets. All of them looked like in a daze and this made him feel a little satisfied. Till he realized something… Inwardly he howled in fury. “I’m the mighty Boy Sage King but to think I have been reduced to such a pathetic state that I need to gain the approval of mortals. Sigh…”

But thinking back to how he would be restrained and tricked in various aspects at One Finger Monastery, Red Boy realized that his present situation was not so bad!

Once Red Boy left, the workers exchanged looks and rubbed their eyes. It was unknown when the cigarette in the foreman’s mouth had fallen to the ground. “Holy shit, am I seeing things? This child actually carried that much water… How heavy is that?”

“Even the average adult would not be capable of doing that. A meter-tall bucket is way too heavy.”

“Is this child possessed?”

“Could it be some strange illness? He’s in fact an adult and his body and bones are strong…”

“That makes sense. According to the classic Chinese novel, The Plum in the Golden Vase, Wu Dalang carried rather heavy things when he was selling flatbread.”

…

Everyone thought about it and came to a conclusion that it was the only explanation that made sense.

Not long later, Red Boy came down once again. Everyone saw him moving like he was flying. He charged straight to the spring source, drew the water and went back up again. He did this several times without even resting. Everyone watched in astonishment, their mouths unable to close. They exclaimed how odd he was!

Finally, after Red Boy made his sixth trip, the foreman could not help but ask, “Brother, you are so strong! How old are you?”

“Brother my ass! You are too young to be my grandson!” Red Boy rolled his eyes at the foreman. Then with a flick of the tiny plaits on his head, he ran off.

Everyone laughed loudly. The foreman looked embarrassed as he remarked in a teasing manner, “Did this guy grow up eating explosives?”

Little did he know that Red Boy grew up eating True Samadhi Fire, something much more potent than explosives.

Knowing that Red Boy was hot-tempered and with him admitting that he was old, everyone just assumed he was inflicted with dwarfism. Therefore, everyone looked at Red Boy differently when he came down again. The impressed and shocked feelings now turned to pity.

Red Boy could not be bothered with the mere mortals. He did not say a word and continued fetching water.

On the mountain top, Fangzheng saw that the water in the Crystal Rice paddy was increasing. He also smiled even more happily. “Not bad, not bad. He’s indeed the demon offspring of a great demon. This strength and speed. Hehe… is much more efficient than This Penniless Monk. This Penniless Monk has decided to leave the future irrigation of the Crystal Rice paddy to Jingxin.”

Fangzheng flicked his sleeves and returned to One Finger Monastery.

At that moment, Red Boy returned. He charged into the backyard, poured the water in the Buddha Vat, before getting some water out again before sending it to the Crystal Rice paddy. Lone Wolf took the time to go over to Fangzheng. “Master, Fourth Junior Brother’s mouth is too vicious. Nearly everyone he met on the way was scolded by him. He wanted to throw everyone he saw into a pot… This child is too violent…”

Fangzheng nodded. He had made Lone Wolf follow Red Boy to watch over him. But there was also the additional intent of having a spy to know how brattish the boy was. But from the looks of it, the boy was truly extraordinarily brattish! Hoping to make him practice Buddhism willingly and obediently would be difficult…

“It’s no wonder Bodhisattva was so generous, giving ten thousand merit points at one go. This child truly goes to the extreme of the extremes.” Fangzheng felt conflicted.

At that moment, Fangzheng’s cell phone rang. He realized that it was from an unfamiliar number. Fangzheng did not think much as he immediately picked it up…

“Hello, is this daddy?” An unfamiliar child’s voice sounded on the other end on the line.

Fangzheng was taken aback. Daddy? He looked around and down at his monk robes. After confirming that he had not renounced asceticism and was still a monk and that he did not have a wife, as well as that it was no dream, he answered. “No, Young Patron, you called the wrong number.”

Since it was a wrong number, Fangzheng did not say anything else. He hung up.