So Yun Zhaozhao's debt repayment plan had been postponed indefinitely for now.
And leaving that spare money sitting around would be a waste. She might as well invest it.
The next day, Yun Zhaozhao went to the older woman's village and found the village chief to discuss leasing farmland. Since the fields were sitting idle anyway, and Clear Breeze Temple's earlier kindness in giving away free pastries had earned it goodwill among the villagers, many of them said they were willing to rent their fields to the temple at a discount after hearing why she had come.
Worried that the elderly villagers couldn't make the decision themselves, Yun Zhaozhao specifically asked them to call their family members living elsewhere and discuss it with them. Then she had the village chief compile the exact acreage and a list of names before calling Lawyer Wang to ask him to draw up a farmland lease.
Perhaps because he had already experienced far too many things that struck him as utterly baffling, Lawyer Wang had now reached the point where nothing Yun Zhaozhao proposed could surprise or ruffle him anymore.
He asked Yun Zhaozhao just one question. "Once you lease these fields, are you planning to farm them yourself with those two Daoist priests from Clear Breeze Temple?"
Yun Zhaozhao denied it. "Of course not! How could just a few of us possibly farm that much land? We'll definitely hire people."
Lawyer Wang said, "Even if you hire people, you still need someone of your own supervising them. How could you rest easy without that? And just having someone supervise isn't enough. You need someone who regularly works the land and is good at
farming
to help keep an eye on things."
Yun Zhaozhao already had the right person in mind, so she didn't hide it from Lawyer Wang. "You don't need to worry about that. Clear Breeze Temple has outside help now. You know that abandoned back courtyard we had? I've hired someone to plant some fruit trees there. The person looking after them for us is an elderly gentleman who specializes in working the land. Once these fruit trees are taken care of, I'll ask him to help supervise the farming."
As Lawyer Wang listened, he couldn't help wanting to sigh again. "Can't you just focus on running your temple? First fruit trees, now farmland. Anyone who didn't know better would think you dreamed of becoming a farmer!"
Yun Zhaozhao said, "A temple abbot who doesn't want to become a farmer isn't a good leader."
Lawyer Wang: "..."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "Besides, I've been forced into this. If we don't find some kind of breakthrough, our temple might soon be staging a horror show where someone gets needled to death during acupuncture."
Lawyer Wang: ...Sigh. Another day spent worrying about Clear Breeze Temple's fate.
Lawyer Wang had one good quality: no matter how little sense Yun Zhaozhao's decisions made to him, once she had made up her mind, he would generally support her. So when she asked him to draft a farmland lease, he still found a way to get it done, even though it wasn't his area of expertise.
With the contract in hand, Yun Zhaozhao went from being a poor abbot of Clear Breeze Temple to a poor small-scale farmer.
Before renting the fields, Yun Zhaozhao had already discussed with Lin Banxia's grandfather that she would put him in charge of managing them. So as soon as she got the lease, she handed full responsibility for the fields over to him.
The old man had spent his whole younger life farming, and his attachment to the land ran deeper than his attachment to people. Besides, Lin Banxia now counted as an unofficial member of Clear Breeze Temple, so Yun Zhaozhao felt perfectly comfortable leaving the fields to him.
The old man was conscientious, too. After making a circuit of the rented fields himself, he determined which were suitable for wheat and which for other crops... He also made all the arrangements for the Clear Breeze Tea Yun Zhaozhao had previously considered. To put everything into action as quickly as possible, once he and Yun Zhaozhao had finalized the plan, he left Clear Breeze Temple and went back to devote himself to farming.
Although these fields couldn't resolve Clear Breeze Temple's immediate crisis for now, for some reason, Yun Zhaozhao felt a little more grounded.
Jingting understood perfectly well where that sense of security came from. "That's how people are. With grain in your hands, there's no panic in your heart!"
Yun Zhaozhao nodded, then said to Jingting as if something had suddenly occurred to her, "I remember you mentioning that you could play the suona?"
For once, Jingting looked sheepish. "A little."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "Practice when you have some free time. It never hurts to have another skill. You never know when it might come in handy."
Jingting thought that made sense. So during that day's livestream, he specifically dug out the suona his master had given him, which he hadn't touched in a very, very long time, and began practicing in front of his viewers.
The moment the suona sounded, the entire livestream first fell into a deathly silence.
Only afterward did someone timidly type in the public chat: [Did your insults finally kill someone? You've even brought out the suona?]
Jingting lowered the suona and said coldly, "...Would you like to be the first person my suona sends off?"
That person: [No.]
The others: [But seriously, Daoist Priest, why are you playing the suona out of nowhere?]
Before Jingting could answer, someone knowledgeable in the livestream explained on his behalf: [Daoist priests play all kinds of wind, string, and percussion instruments and sing when performing rites to deliver the souls of the dead. The suona is just one of them.]
After that explanation, everyone stopped asking questions and settled down to appreciate Daoist Priest Jingting's suona playing.
But once they listened, they discovered that his suona sounded hundreds of times worse than his insults.
It was a hoarse sound that truly seemed to have fate gripping it by the throat, teetering on the edge of running out of breath.
Everyone in the livestream shook their heads and sighed as they listened. Strangely, though, Daoist Chang Kong, over on the other side of the stream, seemed unable to hear the awful suona at all. He was still unhurriedly preparing a salted fish and eggplant casserole.
Previously, Daoist Chang Kong had filled the courtyard with salted fish drying in the sun, but he had never gotten around to eating any. Jingting had even squandered one on feeding stray cats. Today, Daoist Chang Kong finally got to work on them.
He prepared fresh eggplants, diced chicken, seasonings such as scallions, ginger, garlic, and chili bean paste, as well as green and red chilies. Then he washed and peeled the eggplants, cut them into short pieces, heated oil in a wok, and fried them until golden. He set the fried eggplant aside, cut the salted fish into pieces of the same size, and put them in a clay pot with the diced chicken to fry until fragrant. Next, he added the scallions, ginger, garlic, and other ingredients and stir-fried them, before finally adding the fried eggplant and enough water to cover everything, then leaving it to simmer.
With the clay pot bubbling and steaming in the background and Daoist Priest Jingting's suona summoning souls in the foreground, the viewers watching the livestream suddenly had the illusion that Clear Breeze Temple was about to serve a funeral banquet.
After two days, Jingting couldn't keep playing the suona anymore. For one thing, he had never liked playing instruments or singing. Back when his master had followed him around nagging him to practice, he still hadn't managed to learn, much less now.
Of course, the other reason was that someone had complained, saying his playing was so awful that it had scared the children at home into tears several times.
Jingting had no objection to being told his playing sounded awful. What really left him speechless was why someone with children at home would watch his livestream in the first place. Didn't they know that even without the suona, his livestream was hardly suitable for children?
Unable to play the suona, Jingting returned to his old trade and started taking orders to insult people.
This time, the customer was a child, reportedly in middle school. She said she was allergic to many foods, but her family never seemed to believe her, especially her grandmother. Every time, her grandmother would deliberately hide foods she was allergic to inside other foods, then coax her into eating them. In mild cases, she would break out in red rashes all over, but in severe cases, she even had to go to the hospital for injections and IV drips. Her parents had argued with her grandmother about this many times, but although her grandmother would readily agree in front of them, she would go right back to her old tricks and do as she pleased once their backs were turned.
The girl had privately asked her grandmother why she did it, only for her grandmother to say that allergies weren't real and children were just being fussy.
The girl finished by saying that she was genuinely worried her grandmother would get her killed one day.
With the previous problems he had encountered, Jingting had simply solved them by insulting people. This time, though, he felt that insults alone might not solve the problem.
So he advised the girl, "You've seen those blood kinship tests in TV dramas, right? Next time your grandmother messes with you, just go berserk. Take a needle and prick her. Say you want to do a blood kinship test. Some people don't know pain until the needle goes into their own skin. Oh, and if you don't dare prick her yourself, I can recommend an heir to a traditional Chinese medicine family, our Clear Breeze Temple's future divine physician. Our divine physician here isn't good at anything else, but she's number one at sticking needles into people."
Divine Physician Lin, the legendary number one at sticking needles into people: "..."
Chapter 26
At first, Lin Banxia thought Jingting was insulting her and was about to lose her temper. But after carefully listening to the whole story, she began playing along on her own without him needing to say anything more.
Unlike Daoist Chang Kong, she wasn't socially anxious, nor was she afraid of appearing on camera. So she went back to her room to fetch her medical book and silver needles, then began demonstrating to the girl how to make someone bleed with a needle.
Honestly, asking Lin Banxia not to make someone bleed might have been a little difficult. But if you wanted her to make someone bleed, you really had found the right person.
Step one: Lin Banxia first taught her to open the silver needle case.
"See this box of silver needles? First, pick out the thickest, longest one. If you're using them to scare someone, just grab a whole handful."
Step two: Lin Banxia opened the medical book Traditional Chinese Medicine Family, then taught her how to locate acupuncture points for bloodletting.
"For bloodletting, there are points like Yintang, Lidui, Shaoshang, and Shangyang. For proper bloodletting, I'd definitely recommend Shaoshang, which is at the tip of the finger. But if you're trying to scare some stubborn old person who refuses to listen, I recommend going straight for Yintang... You know where Yintang is, right?"
As she flipped through the book, Lin Banxia read aloud, "Yintang is in the depression between the inner ends of the eyebrows... In other words, roughly where Erlang Shen's third eye is. Just think about it. If someone aimed a silver needle right there and told you they were going to let your blood, who wouldn't be scared?"