They were raised on the mountain out back...
Didn't that make them those legendary wild free-range chickens?
He had heard their meat was delicious, especially in soup.
Seeing Xu Fugui's thoughtful expression, Grandpa Lin assumed something was wrong with his arrangements, so he asked, "What's the matter?"
Xu Fugui gritted his teeth. "Then does Clear Breeze Temple still need anyone to raise chickens? I volunteer!"
Grandpa Lin: "...???"
After volunteering to transplant rice, Xu Fugui now wanted to volunteer to raise chickens. This time, not only did Yun Zhaozhao object, but even his daughter Xu Tingting objected.
Yun Zhaozhao objected because she felt hiring someone specifically to raise chickens was too uneconomical. After all, raising chickens wasn't like transplanting rice, which could be finished in three to five days. Raising chickens was a very long process, taking three to five months at the shortest, or anywhere from six months to a year at the longest. Besides, according to Grandpa Lin's plan, he would fence off an area on the mountain and another in the courtyard, letting the chickens roam on the mountain in the morning and shutting them in cages at night, so they wouldn't need anyone watching them full-time.
Xu Tingting objected because she thought her dad was getting a little obsessed.
Since both Xu Tingting and Yun Zhaozhao objected, Xu Fugui's grand chicken-raising plan ultimately never came to fruition.
However, Yun Zhaozhao reassured Xu Fugui that if Clear Breeze Temple needed anything in the future, they would call on him anytime. Meals would, of course, be included.
Xu Fugui said, "Then it's a deal!"
Yun Zhaozhao thought, So this is a foodie's determination? It feels like they can overcome any obstacle for a bite to eat.
Xu Fugui had previously promised Lin Zhaozhao that he would help promote Clear Breeze Temple's rice paddies, wheat fields, and tea plantation, so after they finished transplanting the rice, he made another trip on his own and took plenty of photos.
Xu Fugui was quite good at photography, but not so good with filters, so after taking photos, he would usually send the ones he liked to Xu Tingting and ask her to edit them.
This time was no exception.
The photo Xu Fugui sent Xu Tingting showed Old Master Lin wiping away sweat in the tea plantation, holding a straw hat.
Old Master Lin's white hair was the most eye-catching color in the entire image, followed by his sun-bronzed skin and the yellow straw hat in his hand.
Behind Old Master Lin stretched vast expanses of green tea bushes, and farther back in the shot were rolling mountains and drifting clouds.
Xu Tingting enlarged the photo as far as it would go, pondering how to edit it. A roommate passed by and couldn't help stopping to look.
Her roommate asked, "Where is this? The scenery looks pretty nice! There's even a tea plantation."
Xu Tingting replied casually, "Over by Clear Breeze Mountain. Near Clear Breeze Temple, the place I told you about before."
At that, her roommate seemed to suddenly remember something. "Speaking of Clear Breeze Temple, I think I saw it while scrolling through livestreams recently! Is there a chubby Daoist there who's really good at cooking, and then a skinny Daoist...?"
Xu Tingting nodded in surprise. "Clear Breeze Temple does have a fat Daoist and a skinny Daoist, but they livestream too? How come I didn't know? What's their account?"
Her roommate said, "Let me find it for you. I think it's called Clear Breeze Temple something or other..."
Her roommate searched her phone for a while and soon found Jingting's livestream account. By coincidence, just as they tapped into it, Jingting came online and started streaming. Intrigued, Xu Tingting sat down with her roommate to watch his stream.
This was Xu Tingting's first time watching Jingting's stream. Before watching, she had wondered what a Daoist could possibly do on a livestream. To her surprise, as soon as it began, orders started pouring into the chat.
Dazzled by the flurry of activity, Xu Tingting asked her roommate in confusion, "What are these people doing?"
Her roommate couldn't help laughing at her. "And you call yourself an unofficial member of Clear Breeze Temple! Don't you know Daoist Priest Jingting is a lot of people's internet mouthpiece now? The kind who tells people off on someone else's behalf, though he does it for free. And he's hilarious. Maybe he's afraid telling people off will cost him merit, because he taps a merit wooden fish every time he finishes. Now he sometimes makes me want to buy a merit wooden fish to tap myself."
Telling people off?
Xu Tingting thought back for a long time. As far as she remembered, Daoist Priest Jingting had always seemed quiet and polite whenever she saw him. Apart from being extremely thin, her impression of him was that he was extremely hardworking. Almost every time she visited, she saw him sweeping back and forth through Clear Breeze Temple with a large bamboo broom taller than he was, like a silent sweeping monk.
But Xu Tingting had never seen Daoist Priest Jingting tell anyone off. Never mind telling people off-she felt he barely even spoke in private. It wasn't just Daoist Priest Jingting; Daoist Chang Kong didn't seem to like talking much either. The only person in all of Clear Breeze Temple who seemed to enjoy talking was Yun Zhaozhao.
Yet just as Xu Tingting was thinking this, she heard Daoist Priest Jingting say sarcastically on the stream, "My advice to certain young ladies is this: it's fine not to have a brain, but don't go growing one at random, because that new brain of yours might not be a good one at all. It might be the legendary love brain."
Xu Tingting: "..."
Jingting continued, "In my opinion, a love brain is comparable to a terminal illness. At the current level of medical science, it's absolutely incurable. Take this viewer named 'Love Above All,' for instance. She clearly passed the written civil service exam, but to be with her boyfriend, she decided to give up the interview and find a job in his city instead... For a woman so self-sacrificing and full of universal love, I suggest considering becoming a Buddhist nun. Because if you don't enter hell, who will?"
Xu Tingting: "..."
Jingting said, "I think everyone should learn from our temple master, because she never has a love brain. Oh, of course, she doesn't have a career brain either. She spends all her time diligently pushing other people to work on their careers, then sits back and reaps the rewards herself. If you don't believe me, let me do a little experiment for you..."
Holding his phone, Jingting walked over behind Yun Zhaozhao, who was some distance away, and asked her seriously, "Temple Master, suppose a really handsome man confessed to you right now and said he really, really liked you. What would you give him in response?"
Without turning around, Yun Zhaozhao replied, "Give him what? A position as legal representative?"
Jingting wore a smile. "A little information for our viewers: a legal representative is commonly known as the fall guy. You see, this is why our temple master became a temple master at such a young age. Come on, repeat silently after me: reject the love brain and reach the pinnacle of life."
Xu Tingting: "..." Luckily, she had never dated anyone. Otherwise, after hearing Jingting's brainwashing speech, she would have had to go break up with her boyfriend.
Chapter 35
Yun Zhaozhao was, of course, joking with Jingting, because Clear Breeze Temple didn't have a legal representative at all. After all, it wasn't a conventional company; it fell under the Religious Affairs Bureau.
But Jingting didn't actually care what Yun Zhaozhao said. What he wanted was that complete lack of a love-brained attitude.
So once Yun Zhaozhao finished speaking, he walked away with his phone. The viewers had been quite curious about this young temple master and wanted to wait for her to turn around so they could see what she really looked like, but Jingting walked away with the phone far too quickly. After flooding the chat for a while, they gave up.
Then Jingting found a love-brain quiz somewhere and began publicly testing his fans' degree of love-brainedness right there on the stream.
He grandly called it rooting out the love brains around them so they could all head toward glorious lives together.
Xu Tingting and her roommate couldn't resist taking Jingting's test too. Xu Tingting was diagnosed with a mild case of love brain, while her roommate was diagnosed with a severe case.
Xu Tingting had worried her roommate would be upset, but to her surprise, her roommate was actually quite pleased with the result. "You know, this test is pretty accurate. My best friend has called me love-brained before too. She said whenever I start dating, it's like I disappear, and she can't find me anywhere."
"..."
For a moment, Xu Tingting didn't know what to say, so she could only smile. Deep down, Xu Tingting herself disapproved of love brains. She felt that if one person in a relationship absolutely had to develop a love brain, it would be better if it were the guy, because a slightly love-brained guy could make the relationship sweeter, whereas a girl who developed a love brain usually met a rather miserable end.
But Xu Tingting only thought these things and didn't say them aloud. Even after four years of attending university and sharing a room together, she and this roommate weren't close enough to criticize each other's romantic relationships. Besides, Daoist Priest Jingting had just said that love-brained people couldn't be talked out of it. They would turn back on their own once they hit a wall.
Daoist Priest Jingting was still streaming, but he had stopped criticizing love brains and started streaming Daoist Chang Kong cooking instead.
Today, Daoist Chang Kong was making morel soup.
He first washed the morels thoroughly, then simmered them with dendrobium and pork bones into a pot of soup. Morels and dendrobium were both highly nutritious, and their flavors complemented each other, bringing out the best possible flavor in the soup.
In weather like this, when warmth was only just returning and the chill still lingered, a morel, dendrobium, and pork bone soup like this was undoubtedly an excellent way to nourish the body.
Watching the soup bubbling and steaming in the pot, Daoist Chang Kong couldn't help chatting casually. "Soon, all kinds of wild mushrooms will be coming up on Clear Breeze Mountain. A lot of them are good for soup, and even the ones that aren't can be chopped up for dumpling filling. Oh, have you ever had dumplings stuffed with wild mushrooms? Their texture is different from ordinary mushroom dumplings. They're crisper and more fragrant, and since they're wild, they're certainly a little more nutritious than ordinary mushrooms too..."
Jingting interrupted Daoist Chang Kong's lengthy speech. "Stop asking them. They definitely haven't. But that's all right. If I get the chance, I'll livestream myself eating them for everyone to watch."