Chapter 137 Taoist Priests Can Get Married
Master Zhang looked at Song Chunxue with great interest.
"See? Your child is quite perceptive. It's better for him to learn something than to waste his life in a daze."
"It's a pity you can't read, otherwise even without someone to guide you, you could still learn something from the books and notes I left behind."
Song Chunxue's gaze darkened.
Yes, it's a pity she can't read.
“Mother can learn, and besides, Mother already knows some characters, she just doesn’t know how to write them.”
Sanwa looked at Song Chunxue with a serious expression. "The teacher has said that learning to read is not difficult. There are only about two thousand commonly used characters. If you start learning four or five characters every day, you will learn more than a thousand characters in a year. The rest will be much easier. Just learn one character at a time, and learn every day. Before long, you will be able to read too."
Song Chunxue looked at Sanwa in surprise, her heart surging with emotion.
A strange feeling spread throughout my body, as if a sprout breaking through the soil had suddenly gathered strength.
Yes, she's only thirty-six. Even if she dies earlier this time, she'll still have thirty years left.
If you learn one character a day, you'll eventually learn them all in thirty years.
Whether she acknowledges it or not, she's going to get old anyway.
This time, she didn't want to keep focusing on her child, or on her own sadness, regret, and helplessness, so she slowly passed away.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning. Don't even mention four or five characters. If you can learn three or two every day and stick to it for a month, the rest will be much easier." Master Zhang drank a bowl of soup in a few gulps and reached into his cloth bag.
He always carries his cloth bag with him, and it's unclear whether he takes it off when he sleeps. It doesn't look big, but it's filled with a lot of things.
“Here you go. Don’t even think about traveling around like me, swindling and cheating—no, I mean, solving problems for the world,” Master Zhang said earnestly, looking at Song Chunxue. “This is the first book I learned to read. Take it and look at it. If you encounter anything you don’t know, have the child teach you. Don’t feel ashamed.”
"If a person gives up many things because of face, then he will be trapped in his own little world for the rest of his life because of that little bit of pride."
Song Chunxue blankly took the yellowed, curled-edge notebook, but the handwriting on it was still very clear.
"Let me see." The fourth son grabbed the notebook and flipped through it. "Although Mother learned to read a little late for her age, but..."
Three pairs of eyes fell on him simultaneously.
The fourth brother felt that Master Zhang's eyes were inexplicably frightening.
The words that were about to come out of her mouth changed, "Nothing is impossible for a willing heart. As long as Mother can persevere, we will succeed."
Master Zhang nodded.
"For other things, a lack of money is a stumbling block, but for this matter, the stumbling block is one's own laziness. At the moment of birth, one's fate may be predetermined, but one can still cleverly seize opportunities and, through many insignificant things, gradually change one's destiny."
"We cannot give up on ourselves just because the outcome is already decided."
The third child asked in bewilderment, "Then what is destiny? Can the things we work hard to do really change destiny? What am I changing by doing what I'm doing now?"
Master Zhang smiled mysteriously, raised his hand to stroke his glossy black goatee, his eyes clear and bright, like a pair of shining pearls.
"Life is like an exam paper. Your predetermined fate is like the questions that God gives you, and you can only answer certain questions. But your continuous efforts will change your thoughts and ideas, and will change every word you write. If you do it right, the examiner will judge you by his own standards. The final result will change with every little bit of progress you make."
Song Chunxue and her son only partially understood what they were hearing.
Master Zhang picked up another half of a black flour pancake. “It’s like you were going to have soup and bread today, but if you chew slowly and carefully every day, it’s much better than if you wolf it down every day. If you can maintain this good habit for a lifetime, your stomach will suffer less when you get old.”
"Although you will still die, your stomach will suffer less. Even if you occasionally eat moldy food, you will be more likely to get through this difficult time than someone who eats and drinks rich food without restraint every day."
The third brother and the fourth brother were completely confused; what did this have to do with fate?
Song Chunxue laughed, "I understand. Just like last time, if I hadn't let Master Zhang into the house and had instead chased him away as a fraud, the boss's curse wouldn't have been lifted, and I wouldn't have received so much money just for buying a few fortune talismans."
She took the tattered notebook from the fourth brother's hand. "Master Zhang would never have given me this book, much less have said these words."
"Even if I am destined to die alone and have no one to rely on, I will not be trapped in pain and resentment every day because I have learned to read and write."
She looked directly at Master Zhang with a gentle smile in her eyes.
"It's like I know when I'll die, but if I start now to exercise moderately, practice daily, do standing meditation and Tai Chi, I won't be bedridden from a stroke when I'm old. If I can't avoid this calamity, it will be by creating difficulties for me through other weaknesses and vulnerabilities, causing me unbearable pain. If I make up for too many vulnerabilities, fate can only bring me unexpected disaster. Senior brother, don't you agree?"
Master Zhang shook his head repeatedly.
But he really appreciated being called "senior brother".
"Yes and no. If the cycle of cause and effect is real, if accumulating merit by doing good deeds every day exists, like silver that offsets suffering, then you will not encounter these pains in the future, and you may even pass away peacefully in your sleep on the day of your death."
Song Chunxue felt a slow, hot sensation in her chest, like a pot of boiling water that suddenly surged and overflowed from her eyes.
She smiled, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, stood up, and said loudly, "Then I will acknowledge you as my senior brother. I will need your guidance in the future."
Sanwa stared intently at Song Chunxue. Although he couldn't explain why, seeing his mother like this made his heart burn.
The fourth brother's feelings were mixed. Although this Taoist priest Zhang was quite capable, it seemed like he was going to lead his mother in some kind of nonsense.
If the people in the village knew that Mother had listened to the Taoist priest's words and was not only going to read and write, but also to cultivate herself?
That would be outrageous!
But he also felt that what Master Zhang said made a lot of sense.
Moreover, Mother had a thought in her mind: she wouldn't be stuck with endless work all day long, the endless hardship and exhaustion, but would have a new way of life, which seemed pretty good.
If their mother can write letters, read storybooks, and know about things outside the village in the future, then he can brag to everyone that his mother only started learning to read in her thirties but succeeded.
It makes me quite proud.
“Junior brother, you’re too kind. Once you’ve thoroughly mastered what’s in this book, I’ll risk being expelled from the sect by taking you to meet Master. If he knew that I had taken in a particularly hardworking disciple for him, he would surely forgive me for stealing his knowledge from others.”
"..." So that's why he tricked her into becoming his junior brother?
"Master, why is it junior brother and not junior sister?" the fourth brother asked curiously. "My mother is clearly a woman."
"Well, junior sisters and junior brothers are the same, and female Daoists can also be called fellow disciples. Moreover, most worldly people have filthy thoughts, so this can save a lot of trouble."
"Although we in the Zhengyi sect can marry and have children, in my eyes, women are just trouble."
The fourth brother's eyes lit up. "Taoist priest, can you get married?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
