But in any case, with the young Daoist Priest Jingting around, Yun Zhaozhao had saved herself the cost of buying surveillance cameras for the time being.
Clear Breeze Temple did not feed idlers. Since Daoist Chang Kong was responsible for three meals a day, young Jingting would handle cleaning and guarding the premises.
Jingting had no complaints about this arrangement, since he had nowhere else to go anyway. Besides, staying at Clear Breeze Temple meant he could eat delicious food.
When Yun Zhaozhao and Daoist Chang Kong set up their stall selling hibiscus cakes outside Qingfeng Park during the day, Jingting stayed behind to guard Clear Breeze Temple.
Having had his home robbed once, Jingting was now more alert than a police dog when it came to standing guard.
Whenever an idle stranger came within ten meters of Clear Breeze Temple, every hair on his body bristled.
That day, Jingting stayed behind alone to guard Clear Breeze Temple as usual.
In the afternoon, a heavily pregnant woman suddenly arrived at Clear Breeze Temple. Looking closely at her features, she was quite pretty, and she was not very old, probably only in her early thirties.
But she looked haggard and was plainly dressed.
With such a big belly, she had actually come to this desolate, remote temple alone, without a single person accompanying her. That alone left Jingting with a less-than-favorable impression of the unborn child's father, whom he had never met.
Despite his bad temper, Jingting was quite patient with the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and pregnant women. So when the pregnant woman stood by the pool watching the fish, Jingting took the initiative to drag a chair over. "Sit down and watch. Standing is tiring!"
Zhang Yun jumped when Daoist Priest Jingting suddenly appeared behind her. Once she realized he was speaking to her, she immediately accepted the chair and thanked him quietly. "Thank you, young Daoist. Sorry for the trouble."
Jingting said, "No problem. Take your time watching. I'll get back to work."
With that, Jingting took his broom and began sweeping the fallen leaves from the courtyard and steps. But when he returned after finishing, he discovered that the pregnant woman was no longer watching the fish. Instead, she was silently crying as she faced the pool.
Jingting was young and hot-tempered. How could he bear to see a pregnant woman crying? He tossed aside his broom and went over again. "What are you crying about?"
Sniffling, Zhang Yun still did not forget to apologize to Jingting. "I'm sorry, Daoist. I'm just in a bad mood. Have I disturbed your meditation? I'll pull myself together and leave right away."
Jingting said, "You haven't disturbed me. I just can't stand seeing pregnant women cry. When you cry like this, even my Dao heart starts wavering. So tell me, what exactly are you crying about?"
For a moment, Zhang Yun really did not know where to begin.
She had married far from home and moved to this city. She had met her husband through a matchmaking date. Back then, he had been fairly attentive, and his parents had seemed kind and approachable. So much so that when Zhang Yun had originally had the chance to move out of her in-laws' home and set up a household of their own, she had turned it down herself.
But after the wedding, her parents-in-law had shed their kindly premarital faces and pushed every household task, big or small, onto her. Whenever she complained, her husband would only urge her to be more patient.
By then, trying to move out and live separately had become a task beset by a thousand hardships.
As time passed, Zhang Yun felt that she was the outsider in that home, and only those three were truly family.
She wanted a divorce, but she was pregnant; yet if she stayed, life was simply too stifling...
Living under the same roof as her in-laws was already emotionally exhausting. To make matters worse, her husband was actually flirting with a female colleague. The more Zhang Yun thought about it, the worse she felt, which was why she had been unable to stop her tears while watching the fish.
Jingting was an
orphan
who had grown up in a Daoist temple with his master, so he really had no experience handling these domestic matters. But in his view, there was only one solution when someone made you angry: curse them right back.
Zhang Yun hesitated. "Can cursing back really solve the problem?"
Jingting said, "No. But it lets you blow off steam!"
Zhang Yun said, "..." Amitabha, that really does sound reasonable.
Still, reasonable as it sounded, after thinking it over, Zhang Yun did not dare. Actually, it was not so much that she did not dare; mostly, she simply could not win an argument. There was no helping it. Some people were clumsy with words from childhood. During arguments, neither their minds nor their mouths could keep up, and when pushed too far, all they could do was cry. Besides, she could not work now because she was pregnant. Whenever she argued with her husband, he shut her down with a single line: "You're not even working or earning money now. Why do you have so many complaints every single day?"
Jingting thought for a moment and said, "How about this? Give me ten yuan, and I'll have this argument for you."
Zhang Yun was both surprised and delighted. "...Will ten yuan really be enough?"
Jingting said, "Oh, the money doesn't matter. Mostly, I've just loved arguing with people since I was little."
For a moment, Zhang Yun did not know what to say. After struggling for a while, she managed, "...You Daoists at Clear Breeze Temple have some pretty unusual hobbies!"
Zhang Yun's husband, Du Chunsheng, was at work that day when he suddenly received a call from an unknown number. At first, he thought it was a scam or someone selling insurance, so he hung up immediately.
But every time he hung up, the caller rang again, with something of a fight-to-the-death determination.
With no other choice, Du Chunsheng stormed into the stairwell to answer it.
The moment the call connected, he heard a fairly polite voice on the other end. "Hello, is this Mr. Du Chunsheng? I have an argument I'd like to have with you."
Du Chunsheng said, "Who are you? Are you sick in the head?"
Jingting said, "You're the one who's sick. Your wife's heavily pregnant, and you're arguing with her. Tell me yourself, isn't there something wrong with you? Oh, I get it. You're not sick, you're brainless. Now I'm starting to suspect that what your wife's carrying isn't your child at all, but your brain."
Du Chunsheng said, "...???????"
Jingting spoke so quickly that Du Chunsheng had no chance to get a word in. "Let me tell you, ever since I was little, what I've hated most is disgusting men like you who wear one face before marriage
and another after
marriage. Before the wedding, it's always 'you're my heaven, you're my earth, you're my darling, you're my life.' The moment you're married, you burrow wherever there's filth and lick wherever there's a stink. What, were you a floor scrubber in your past life? Does it make you uncomfortable if you don't lick something dirty?"
Du Chunsheng said, "..."
Jingting said, "And don't think I called to curse you out. I'm actually guiding you to salvation. Don't complain that my mouth is filthy or my insults are nasty, either. My mouth may be filthy, but my heart is clean. Unlike you-you're filthy from head to toe, and only that wretched mouth of yours is clean. You've been taking this tongue-lashing for ages without saying a single word back."
Du Chunsheng said, "..." Fuck, I'm calling the police!!!
Throughout Jingting's argument with Du Chunsheng over the phone, Zhang Yun listened beside him with her mouth forming an "o." Her admiration flowed as endlessly as the surging waters of the Yellow River, and like a waterfall plunging from the ninth heaven, it cascaded a thousand miles.
Only after Jingting hung up did Zhang Yun say admiringly, "Are all you Daoists this good at cursing people out? I thought people who renounced the world had their six senses purified and were free of desires!"
Jingting said, "Was I cursing anyone just now?"
Zhang Yun said, "...Weren't you?"
Jingting smiled faintly. "Of course not. Usually, anything that makes me unleash a torrent of abuse isn't human."
Zhang Yun said, "..." Nice. A perfectly closed loop of logic.
Yun Zhaozhao and Daoist Chang Kong also had excellent results selling hibiscus cakes at Qingfeng Park that day. A group of elementary school students had come to the park on an autumn outing, so, luckily, well over half the hibiscus cakes Daoist Chang Kong had made that day sold.
With a good grasp of social niceties, Yun Zhaozhao gave the few remaining cakes to the security guard at the entrance,
a middle-aged man.
When the two returned to Clear Breeze Temple empty-handed, they saw Jingting sitting on the steps outside, holding a ten-yuan banknote up to the sky and examining it.
Yun Zhaozhao said, "Where did you get that money?"
Jingting said, "I earned it myself."
Daoist Chang Kong looked at him warily. "You didn't sell my smoked cured pork while I was away, did you?"
Jingting said, "Who sold your cured pork? I earned this ten yuan with my own genuine skills."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "What genuine skills?"
Jingting said gleefully, "I cursed a lay devotee's husband out so badly he wanted to call the police. This is the reward she gave me. I've known since I was little that fighting costs you money in compensation, but this is the first time I've seen arguing make money. I feel like I've discovered a new road to riches."
Yun Zhaozhao was speechless for a moment, then said faintly, "...Jingting, having you really is my good fortune."
Jingting genuinely thought Yun Zhaozhao was praising him, and he actually blushed. "Stop praising me like that. You're embarrassing me. Besides, Brother Changkong won't be happy if you put it that way. You should say having both of us is your good fortune."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "..." Forget it. I'm tired. Let it all be destroyed!
Chapter 9
For a while, Yun Zhaozhao was very worried that the husband who had been cursed into withdrawal would really come to Clear Breeze Temple and have the police arrest someone. Fortunately, several days passed without a ripple, and only then did she quietly let her heart settle back into her stomach.
Although the threat of the police had been averted for now, she still could not help warning Jingting, "Don't go around cursing people out for no reason."
Jingting said, "Don't worry. I have a great temper."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "...Guess whether I believe that?"
Compared with Jingting, Daoist Chang Kong was the one who could truly be considered good-tempered. He generally did not lose his temper without reason, unless someone touched his food.
For example, that morning, sparrows had stolen a tiny bit of the corn Daoist Chang Kong had hung beneath the eaves to dry, and he had stood in the courtyard cursing the birds for a full half hour. Still not satisfied after cursing them himself, he had Jingting help him curse them for another half hour.
Early that morning, Clear Breeze Temple was as lively as a marketplace.
Because of this bizarre start, Yun Zhaozhao inexplicably had a feeling that today would be a special day.
Sure enough, by noon, Clear Breeze Temple welcomed two familiar faces.
One was Mrs. Wang, who had come to collect the smoked cured pork she had ordered earlier.
The other was Xu Fugui.
This time, Xu Fugui brought Yun Zhaozhao some good news-the photographs he had taken of Clear Breeze Temple on his last visit had made it into the local newspaper.