Karma Reveals the Child's True Parentage

Lin Xiaosu had not noticed at all. He crouched at the cave entrance. "Let me ask you something. Why did you say that family's child wasn't their own flesh and blood?"

"Just count it as me farting! All right?" the Daoist said.

"No. That's not a proper answer!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Don't forget, you haven't used up the three thousand yuan I gave you last time. If you don't give me a satisfactory answer, you'll have to refund me!"

Last time, following the Daoist's rate for seeking enlightenment—one yuan per character—he had paid three thousand yuan up front, then gone down the mountain after exchanging only a few words.

In theory, the Daoist still owed him well over a thousand characters.

The Daoist shook his head and sighed. "Since you seek enlightenment, this humble Daoist shall explain. The Heavenly Dao has Karma, and the Human Dao has Karma as well. Through my Insight Eye, I observed that this child has no karmic connection to the old man and his wife. Instead, he has a karmic connection to that younger male cousin. Thus, I declared that this child was not the elderly couple's biological grandson, but that cousin's flesh and blood. You came up the mountain seeking enlightenment, young brother, and lavished a thousand pieces of gold. This humble Daoist sincerely expounded the Dao, uttering three thousand golden words of wisdom. With this, the debt of our Dao-bound encounter is settled!"

Zhou Mei's eyes widened. "Old man, I was there both times you opened your mouth. At one yuan per character, did you really say three thousand characters?"

"Counting characters alone, there were only two thousand. However, during that time, this old Daoist passed wind several times, a thousand streams of air, which were also the voice of the Great Dao..."