Chapter - 1
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Once upon a time, there was a mountain, and on that mountain was a temple. Inside the temple, there was a young monk named Bu Zhi.
At the foot of the mountain, there was a town, and in the town lived a wealthy man with a foolish son named Ho Laosan. Ho Laosan was the third son in his family, with two older brothers already, but being the legitimate son, he was treated like a little Buddha by his family. As a result, he grew up to be a domineering and infamous fool, known for his lustful acts and reckless indulgence.
To understand just how promiscuous Ho Laosan was, Bu Zhi had firsthand experience.
"Brother, it's getting late. If you don't leave the mountain soon, you won't be able to go back tonight," Bu Zhi said.
"Hey, bald donkey, can't you see I'm carrying luggage?" Ho Laosan threw his arm over Bu Zhi's shoulder and shook the small bundle in his hand. "I've told my family that I'm coming up the mountain to pray for my parents today."
Bu Zhi hesitated, then handed over the key to his room.
"Now that's what a brother should do!" Ho Laosan grinned.
Although the temple had several guest rooms for devotees to stay in, Ho Laosan’s notorious reputation meant that staying with other guests would surely cause trouble. So, Ho Laosan had to stay in Bu Zhi's room. The others also felt that with Bu Zhi, a calm and kind-hearted monk, watching over Ho Laosan, he might be more obedient, allowing them to feel at ease with him staying in the temple.
As Bu Zhi went to fetch a broom, he overheard two lay Buddhists quietly discussing Ho Laosan.
"That Ho Laosan, I heard he actually kidnapped the young master of the Qian family."
"Yeah, my aunt saw it with her own eyes when she was delivering goods to the Qian family. Ho Laosan came with a bunch of servants and forcibly took the young master of the Qian family away."
"Ho Laosan is a beast. It's one thing for a perverted man to have sex with young women, but this man doesn't even spare men..."
...
When Bu Zhi returned to his room, the infamous scoundrel was lying on the bed, munching on fragrant beans while reading a novel.
"I just finished my work, and heard that you kidnapped someone again?," Bu Zhi asked Ho Laosan.
Ho Laosan nodded. "Yeah. Ah, you don't know, the Qian family’s young Master is really born with the wrong gender. He’s so delicate and sexy. Those big round eyes, that fluttered look, his plumped lips ,they’re so captivating."
Bu Zhi: "..."
"Probably inherited his mother's charm. Old Master Qian is a beast. I heard that when he took his mother, she was only about thirteen, younger than his second daughter..." Ho Laosan continued, detailing how Old Master Qian was a beast. "His mother died during childbirth—she was just too young to give birth properly—such a pity for both of them. He never had a mother’s care, and Old Madam Qian never liked his mother, so she treated him badly. He’s been mistreated in the Qian family, even the servants bully him."
Bu Zhi lowered his head and recited sutras, not wanting to engage with Ho Laosan.
Ho Laosan knocked the sutras out of Bu Zhi’s hands and forced his attention. "So, I got a great deal. Heh, I gave Old Master Qian a hundred taels of silver and got them to let me take his son back as a servant."
Bu Zhi: "They say you kidnapped him in broad daylight."
"It wasn’t really kidnapping. Old Master Qian agreed to it. They even said they’d give me a contract to sell him!" Ho Laosan grumbled, "Ah… of course, I’d never use a thing like a contract to threaten a beauty. But he didn’t want to leave with me at first, so I had to use some... persuasion..."
A contract to sell someone? Bu Zhi didn’t understand worldly matters, but he had heard that the Qian family was quite a prestigious household. Could a wealthy family really sell their own son?
Bu Zhi thought that young Master Qian's life in the Qian family seemed truly miserable. Perhaps leaving there was better for him.
After a moment of hesitation, Bu Zhi finally said, "Brother, please treat Master Qian well."
"I will, of course. You know I’d never treat a beauty poorly, right?" Ho Laosan grinned.
"I don't know."
"You old bald donkey! You don't know! I’m just like, I gave my heart to the bright moon, but alas, the bright moon shines in a gutter... I’m so pitiful! I saved him from that den of wolves, and instead of being grateful, he threatened me. He said if I touched him, he’d kill me and then kill himself."
"..."
"Old bald donkey, he’s going to kill me! He’s threatening me with death! Then he said he’d kill himself after killing me!"
"..."
"Come on, bald donkey, say something comforting!"
“Benefactor, fate cannot be forced.”
“Dogs can't spit out ivory,” came the retort.
“Benefactor, I am a monk, I don't understand worldly matters.”
“Yes, yes, I know you don't understand,” said the other with a sigh.
“But… Benefactor, do you truly like Young Master Qian?”
“Of course, I like him very much.”
“You say that every time you kidnap someone.” Bu Zhi sighed.
Indeed, this was the seventh time that Ho Laosan, after abducting someone, came to him to complain about how little regard he received in return. It seemed to repeat itself every six months like clockwork.
“Yeah, I like them so much, yet he don't even glance at me... and threaten to kill himself every time I make a move.”
“This is the fourth one who’s threatened to kill himself,” Bu Zhi added dryly.
Ho Laosan perked up: “Ah, so you’ve been counting for me? So boring..”
“...”
“Heh, you care so much about my matters yet still pretend not to understand the ways of the world?”
Bu Zhi shot a glance at Ho Laosan, who was grinning while munching on fragrant beans, and couldn't help but roll his eyes. “Stop eating in bed. It’s a hassle to clean up if you drop anything.”
“You’re such a nag,” Ho Laosan grumbled as he climbed out of bed, shoving the fragrant beans into Bu Zhi’s arms, using his robe to wipe his greasy hands. “Here, I brought these beans from down the mountain. I tasted them for you, they're quite good. I won’t chat with someone who’s clueless about romance or sexual intimacies. I’m going to send my feelings to the moon now.”
Great, he brought me fragrant beans but ate half of them himself? Bu Zhi watched Ho Laosan leave to admire the moon, then patiently tidied up the mess he’d left behind. Bu Zhi picked up the worldly novel Ho Laosan had been reading, closed it, and stacked it along with the rest of the novels on the shelf.
By worldly relationship standards, Bu Zhi and Ho Laosan should be called childhood friends. When Ho Laosan was five, he had followed his mother up the mountain to pray for something. Bored, he wandered into a group of monks chanting scriptures, and saw Bu Zhi sitting at the back, chanting with his senior monk.
“Hey, how come you’re a monk so young?” little Ho Laosan asked, sitting next to Bu Zhi.
Bu Zhi, still playful at that age, quickly lost focus on the chanting.
One of the senior monks, knowing Bu Zhi was young and not able to chant clearly, allowed him to play with the little boy.
“I’ve been here since I was little,” Bu Zhi replied.
Bu Zhi had been found by the monks one morning at the temple gates, quietly watching the sky and sucking on his fingers without a sound. The abbot, seeing his blank stare and lack of attachment to worldly matters, decided he would make a good monk and gave him the name Bu Zhi, meaning “no attachment.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m four,” Bu Zhi replied.
“We’re close in age! I’m five,” Ho Laosan replied cheerfully.
That was probably the beginning of their fateful relationship. In fact, when they were young, Ho Laosan was quite charming, though mischievous. He often helped Bu Zhi clean or tidy up the temple just so he could play with him. The monks all liked the young Ho Laosan.
Ho Laosan’s transformation into the current tyrant probably began four years ago when he turned 14. Ho Laosan came from a wealthy family, and being the legitimate child, his parents were eager for him to marry and settle down.
One day, Ho Laosan came to the mountain crying, telling Bu Zhi that his mother wanted to marry him off to the third young miss of the Wu family.
The monks, who had been living in the secular world before becoming monks, laughed at Ho Laosan for not understanding the nature of marriage. They explained how marriage was a great joy in life, and the pleasures of the bridal bed were comparable to entering the palace of eternal bliss.
Looking at Ho Laosan crying, Bu Zhi found himself at a loss for words when Ho Laosan asked,The monks had described marriage so grandly, yet why were they now all monks, calling the women they once loved “benefactors or sisters?”
“Well… you want to go for a walk?” Bu Zhi asked, not knowing how to comfort him.
...
However, that walk seemed to awaken a desire in Ho Laosan.
The two, seeking new sights, ended up in a brothel.
One night in the pleasure district, young and innocent Ho Laosan awakened to become the perverted Ho Laosan.
There are rumors in the streets that it was a beautiful courtesan who taught Ho Laosan the ways of indulgence.
The awakened lecherous Ho Laosan, even before the grand wedding procession of the Wu family’s Third Miss, couldn’t wait to climb the wall and peek at her.
But Third Miss Wu was a proper young lady. Could she be so casually teased? Though the Wu family wasn’t as powerful as the Huo family, they were still respectable. With Ho Laosan’s unreliability, the Wu family naturally refused to marry their daughter to him. They returned the betrothal gifts and quickly arranged for her marriage to Li Xiucai, the son of a family friend.
Rumors circulated that the bully Ho Laosan climbing the wall wasn’t just about "taking a look." If the girl’s reputation hadn’t been sullied, how could the Wu family have married her off to the already fallen Li family? However, Li Xiucai and Miss Wu were indeed a good match, so it was a happy occasion.
As the night grew deeper, Ho Laosan skipped back to his room holding a grasshopper.
"Here, isn't it cute?" Ho Laosan waved the grasshopper in front of Bu Zhi.
"Not bad."
"Come on, I saw you were reading alone, so I brought this to keep you company. You should thank me."
"Attracting insects," Bu Zhi complained as he carefully placed the grasshopper into a small vase on the table. "What are you going to do this time?"
"Hmm?"
"It's already the seventh time. No, adding that time with Miss Wu, it’s the eighth time. The person you have your eye on has finally escaped from your clutches — they’ve escaped eight times already."
"Hahaha," Ho Laosan laughed. "Eight times already. This should be enough, right? My reputation as the ‘Demon of Lust’ should be loud enough now?"
"Benefactor, being called the ‘Demon of Lust’ is not a good reputation."
"I quite like this title. If I become a demon, you’ll come to save me, right, Master Bu Zhi?"
As he spoke, the mischievous grin on Ho Laosan’s face slowly faded into a faint smile. That expression was very charming. Bu Zhi thought to himself, why does this great demon of lust keep calling others beautiful? He should look in the mirror sometimes, as he himself is even more handsome.
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