Chapter 26: Visitors Again
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
Fangzheng checked through his shared photos and as expected there were a lot of pictures he had posted when he was still in school. He felt down when he realized that some of the pictures were not posted by him. From the description, it was obvious that it was the work of the monk One Finger!
When he saw the last picture, his face turned blank! It was taken when he was a one-year-old, his pants had a hole in them exposing some delicate areas! Not too much of a problem as many others had a naked childhood picture themselves, the problem was his legs were spread, naked b.u.t.t-cheeks s.h.i.+mmering in the light. He stood there with his little pole swinging in the wind, his one-year-old self standing there in a make-belief combat posture! Worst of all the mat beneath it was wet, forming a large darkened pool…
That was when Fangzheng finally understood what Fang Yunjing meant by adorable. He struggled to control his embarra.s.sment, hands clenched into fists as he tried to calm his breathing.
Fangzheng quickly set the picture to private, cutting all others from being able to access it. He exchanged a few words with Fang Yunjing and after confirming that she had not seen that picture, he released the breath he had anxiously been holding.
Meanwhile in Jida Chinese department’s female dormitory, a bespectacled lady-like beauty was sitting on her bed wearing pajamas. She secretly saved the baby picture before it had been set to private. She answered Fangzheng with a mischievous smile, “Master, have you taken the pictures I mentioned?”
Fangzheng immediately sent Fang Yunjing the pictures. However, she was left stunned the moment she saw it.
“Heavens! Master, what cell phone model do you have!? This image quality, it couldn’t be any worse! Just zooming in a little makes it all blurry…” Fang Yunjing frowned as she stared speechlessly at the pictures. She felt that she had a reasonable amount of skill in the art of Photoshopping but when faced with such a low-resolution picture, she felt helpless.
Ma Juan heard the commotion and came over with a grin. “Yunjing, is this taken by Master?” She chuckled softly, “Is he joking? This level of quality is depressing!”
“Enough. Cut it out. You’ve seen him. Master is a monk that’s separate from this world. He probably doesn’t bother with things like cell phones, which means you end up with situations like this. This could be an issue, how are we going to promote One Finger Temple without pictures?” Fan Yunjing ended her sentence with a grunt.
Ma Juan glanced at her with raised brows, “That’s an easy problem to solve. Why don’t we send a better phone to Master? I’ll pay for it!”
“You’re paying for it?” Fang Yunjing laughed. “I forgot you were that rich.”
Fang Yunjing and Ma Juan talked it over before suggesting it to Zhao Datong and Hu Han but were met with their vehement objections! The reason was that they wanted to be included in anything that could improve their relations.h.i.+p with Fangzheng!
Each of them donated five hundred yuan to get Fangzheng a new cell phone.
The cost meant Fang Yunjing couldn’t buy as many snacks, Ma Juan led a life less luxurious, Zhao Datong had to remove the mountain-climbing shoes from the list of items he wanted to buy, even though he had been saving up for quite some time and Hu Han had to buy a months supply of instant noodles. He frowned as he stared down at the new provisions, “Datong, these will be our meals for an entire month! Are you sure we won’t die from eating this?”
Zhao Datong waved his hands in dismissal, “I ate this often back when I was in high school. It’s fine. You’ll just have constipation if you eat too much. But that won’t be a problem, I still have two boxes of digestive biscuits. I’m willing to share!”
Hu Han muttered a string of curses.
Meanwhile Fangzheng did not realize that his pictures had caused the students so much trouble. After seeing how Fang Yunjing did not reply after a few minutes, he decided to go offline. Throwing the phone aside, he went to bed.
On the second day just after dawn, three rovers drove into One Finger Village. At the entrance, the Cadillac in front stopped and wound down its windows and the driver asked a middle-aged man that was sweeping the courtyard, “Uncle, how do we get to One Finger Temple?”
“You want to go to One Finger Temple?” asked the man curiously as he paused his sweeping and leaned over his wall.
“I heard that One Finger Temple is rather efficacious. We’re here to take a look. Uncle, how’s the scenery up on the mountain?” asked the man.
“Scenery? How much can there be? We have grown used to it after seeing it day in and out. If you want to go to One Finger Temple, just follow this road. When you see a trail, turn in. However, your cars definitely won’t be able to enter the trail, you’ll have to walk,” answered the middle-aged man.
“Alright. Thanks.” The man nodded before stepping on the accelerator and leading the way for the other rovers trailing behind him.
The three luxurious cars received quite a bit of attention upon entering the village. The middle-aged man who was sweeping the courtyard ran around to spread the news. It did not take long for the news to sweep through the village.
“Did you hear? Three SUV’s entered the village. They were all luxurious cars! I heard they want to go up One Finger Temple. Why do you think they are going? To pray for children?”
“Forget it. Who would go to a G.o.d-forsaken place like One Finger Temple to pray for children? In my opinion they are just here for a stroll. Don’t fret over it.”
“Perhaps, news of Yang Hua’s family matters has spread and the city people are here to pray for children?”
A middle aged man glared at him “For Yang Hua to have children, it’s the result of his family’s hard work. They went to the hospital three times in as many months. They spent more than ten thousand and had eaten all sorts of voodoo recipes. Who knows if any one of those voodoo recipes actually worked and this matter has nothing to do with One Finger Temple? Others might not know but it’s not like we don’t know what One Finger Temple is like. Others might not know of Fangzheng’s skills but how can we not? He might be abbot but if we say he’s a little brat, he’s a little brat.”
Du mei just happened to walk past, she frowned as she overheard him. “Hey, Dog Song, what do you mean? I don’t like the sound of that. Repeat it for me! You think I won’t feed you to the fishes?”
When Dog Song saw Du Mei, it was like a mouse running into a cat. He quickly disavowed everything and made his escape, “I can’t be bothered with you.”
Although Dog Song’s sounded unpleasant, the villagers believed his words to be reasonable. No one believed that One Finger Temple was truly efficacious.
Tan Juguo came over and reprimanded the lot of them. “What’s all this din about? Stop making things up so early in the morning. I’m warning all of you, One Finger Temple is to be strongly supported by our village. In the future when outsiders come say it as nicely as possible and don’t put a damper on it.” They turned obedient after his words but if they would follow them after he left was the question.
Beneath Mt. One Finger, five young adults stood dumbfounded.
“Heavens, this road sucks… If I knew it was like this, I wouldn’t have come!” A fat guy dressed in a sweater and leather jacket grumbled as he stared up the narrow mountain trail.
“Enough Fatty, aren’t you constantly talking about losing weight? Well, here’s your chance. Let’s head on up!” An extremely thin man with a Korean hairstyle and noticeably high cheekbones answered with a mocking glance.
“Monkey, can we not talk about losing weight? Take a look. This trail… has this got anything to do with me being fat? Is this trail even walkable?” asked Fatty.
A bubbly girl grinned as she bounced up after tearing at a withered blade of gra.s.s. Jiang Ting the rookie nurse from the hospital replied, “Fine, fine. We’re just here to have fun. Weren’t you the one that was curious if One Finger Temple truly is as efficacious as the rumors say? Since we’re here let’s go up and take a look.”