There is a restaurant across the street, which is also the idiot’s exclusive “canteen”. He often eats from the泔水桶 at the back door.
Le Jing planned to go to that restaurant for dinner
Before leaving, Mei Yingliang suddenly said, "Senior, wait a moment."
Le Jing: “?”
He opened his eyes and made hand gestures with a serious face: "Let me calculate which foot I should take first."
Le Jing: “…” You are not blind.
"It's the right foot!" Mei Yingliang breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, we can set off now."
Le Jing looked at him speechlessly, and suddenly began to doubt his own judgment. This person is not actually a cultivator, but a lunatic, right?
…
When Le Jing was leading Mei Yingliang to enter the restaurant, they were stopped by the waiter. He waved his hand in disdain, "Get lost, you are allowed to come here? Don't affect our business, it's unlucky!"
Mei Yingliang was startled and reflexively looked at his senior's face. He looked normal, which made him feel relieved. Fortunately, his senior was not angry.
Come to think of it, the boss is here to save the world, so naturally he won't bother with an ignorant mortal.
So...it's time to improve your favorability!
Mei Yingliang stepped forward and angrily shouted, "How can you talk like that? What right do you have to chase us away? Is this the way you treat guests in your restaurant? Everyone who comes is a guest, don't you understand? We are not eating without paying!"
The waiter was dumbfounded. His eyes moved back and forth between the dirty little beggar and the old Taoist priest. He asked hesitantly, "Are you two together?"
Mei Yingliang held her head high and puffed out her chest, "Yes, is there any problem?"
The waiter was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and said with a flattering smile: "No, no problem. Sorry, I am shortsighted. Gentlemen, please come in~"
Mei Yingliang turned sideways and said to Le Jing respectfully, "Please go first."
The waiter was standing behind them, watching the interaction between the old man and the young man in surprise. The two of them were so strange to get along with. The old man was so old, but he just bowed and nodded like a grandson in front of the little beggar, and his waist was bent like a cooked shrimp.
He muttered quietly, "Two psychopaths."
…
Under the guidance of the waiter, Le Jing and Mei Yingliang sat down in a private room on the second floor.
"Senior, what do you want to eat?"
Le Jing didn't bother to be polite with him. It wasn't his money anyway, so he said to the waiter generously, "Bring me all the signature dishes in your restaurant."
He is so hungry now that he can eat a cow!
"Okay, please wait a moment." The waiter left with a smile on his face.
The food came up quickly. Le Jing didn't care about the table manners. He tore off a big chicken leg and stuffed it into his mouth. He swallowed it in two or three bites and then said to Mei Yingliang in a hypocritical manner, "I'm sorry, I'm too hungry, so I'll eat first. Do you mind?"
Mei Yingliang had already been dumbfounded by his smooth series of movements, and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "I don't mind, I don't mind."
He said that it was not easy for this senior who crossed the mortal world. In order to enter the world, he not only had to pretend to be a little beggar, but also had to learn to eat on time like ordinary people. No wonder he was a big shot, the hungry look he acted was too realistic.
"Why are you looking at me? Don't you want to eat?"
Mei Yingliang looked at the table full of delicacies with a tangled look, and said awkwardly: "I have been fasting for many years..."
Put down the chicken leg in your hand first!
Le Jing saw Mei Yingliang almost bit off half of the chicken leg in one bite, and she looked even hungrier than him. Then, Mei Yingliang burst into tears.
"???What’s wrong with you?"
“Meat…” Mei Yingliang cried with tears and snot all over her face. “I haven’t eaten meat in years. Ever since I started fasting, I’ve been starving in the mountains every day. It’s so hard for me…”
"…Eat slowly, don't choke."
"Senior, what's the point of practicing Taoism? I can't even eat a bite of meat!"
"…Well, that's pretty useless."
Mei Yingliang picked up his bowl and cursed, "This rubbish cultivation world will be destroyed sooner or later!"
Le Jing: ...As long as you are happy.
…
Since ancient times, it has been easy to make friends at the dinner table in China. Le Jing and Mei Yingliang were eating while he was talking to them quietly. When they were halfway through the meal, he had almost stripped Mei Yingliang's underwear off.
It turned out that Mei Yingliang did not forget to set up a fortune-telling stall while looking for someone, which was inspired by his senior brother.
Mei Yingliang said: "Our branch is based on divination. Everything can be calculated. In order to improve proficiency and accuracy, we must practice divination regularly. My senior brother said that even if I come to the mortal world, I can't give up my practice, so he gave me a suggestion and asked me to set up a stall on the street to tell fortunes."
Le Jing understood it immediately. Isn’t this equivalent to doing math problems?
Mei Yingliang opened her bright eyes and couldn't help complaining, "Alas, in the early days, I had no customers for fortune-telling. Later, I figured it out because I was too young! In our line of work, the older you get, the more popular you are. Mortals only want to ask white-bearded old men to tell their fortunes. If this white-bearded old man is blind, then he is a living god in people's minds!"
Now there were only two of them in the room, and Mei Yingliang simply didn't bother to disguise himself. He chanted a spell and transformed himself from an old man with white hair and beard into a young and vigorous black-haired Taoist priest.
He stretched his muscles, which made some crackling sounds, and let out a long breath, "I'm finally relieved."
Le Jing: ...Okay, this at least proves that he is really a cultivator, not a madman.
Mei Yingliang smiled embarrassedly: "To be honest, I am a junior with low strength. I have just established my foundation and am not proficient in divination. I only have some mediocre skills. I am sorry to make you laugh."
His mediocre skills are certainly not good enough in the world of cultivation, but they are good enough to fool ordinary people.
But he was not well-educated and had limited experience, so he always made mistakes. Fortunately, this branch of his family was good at talking, so they could always make things right.
He couldn't help but mutter, "No wonder the elders in the sect always say: It's better to speak well than to calculate well, and it's better to lie well than to speak well."
Hearing this, Le Jing's expression had become a little subtle, so their sect is actually full of charlatans?
While they were eating and drinking, Le Jing also learned a lot of gossip about the world of cultivation from Mei Yingliang, which was really eye-opening.
In Mei Yingliang's description, the monks all have unique personalities and are true to their natures!
"Our sect's Elder Mu is a true character who also likes to play the role of a beggar. I wonder if you know him, Senior?"
Le Jing: ...What’s wrong with the cultivators in this world?
But this does explain why Master Mei called him senior.
“No.”
Mei Yingliang still felt a little regretful, "What a pity, I think you two must have a lot in common. If you come to our Linqing Sect one day, you can come and play with our Elder Mu."
Le Jing's eyes flashed, "If there is a chance."
When ordering, Le Jing felt that he was so hungry that he could eat a cow, so he ordered more than a dozen dishes at once. Now he was full after just a little bit of eating, and the rest of the dishes were almost taken by Mei Yingliang. Looking at his eating posture, he almost licked the plate.
I don't know how he can hold so much food in his stomach.
Can this cultivation method also make the stomach bigger?
Mei Yingliang didn't dare to let the old senior wait for him too long. He reluctantly put down his chopsticks and bowl, and slowly regained his rationality. He laughed dryly and said, "In fact, practicing Taoism is quite useful, really. As long as we can become immortals, we will be liberated and can do whatever we want in the future."
Le Jing had heard this many times before: "As long as you get into college, you will be free and can have fun however you want in the future."
Le Jing was silent.
According to the routine of teachers and parents throughout the ages, he was skeptical about the idea of becoming an immortal and being liberated.
Just like when you go to college, freshmen will hear this sentence: As long as you choose the right major, you will beat the college entrance examination every year.
But Mei Yingliang was right about one thing.
"As long as you can become an immortal... you can do whatever you want in the future."
True freedom is not to be reckless and reckless, but to be able to choose the life you want.
In Le Jing's opinion, the ultimate purpose of practicing Taoism is to break free from the shackles of the universe and gain the greatest degree of freedom. By then, he can go anywhere in the world.
Mei Yingliang also knew that judging from his performance just now, what he said now was undoubtedly unconvincing.
It was also his fault that he had a weak will and his soul was easily corrupted by a few pieces of meat. It turned out that what his senior brothers said was right, meat was the greatest evil!
If it wasn't for the purpose of having dinner with his senior, he would not break the rules and eat. That's right!
Mei Yingliang happily put the blame on her predecessor and finally found peace of mind.
He exchanged a few more pleasantries with Le Jing, saying enough compliments, then he touched his nose and said to Le Jing embarrassedly: "Senior, um, you said before that you would help me find someone..."
Le Jing smiled and said, "I do have a clue."
Mei Yingliang was overjoyed, "I wonder what price I will have to pay?" He was ready to bleed heavily!
The boy put away his smile and said seriously: "Answer me a question first."
Mei Yingliang was even more nervous when he saw this, and said seriously: "You say."
"Answer honestly, what do you think of your Linqing sect?"
Although Mei Yingliang was at a loss, he still answered honestly: "It's good. Our sect is the largest sect of Taoists within a radius of ten miles. The once-in-a-decade Ascension to Immortality will be held in our sect."
"The Ascension Gate?"
"Yes, there are only a few days left. I wonder how many outstanding disciples we can select from the mortal world this year."
Le Jing understood a little bit. It sounded like the Ascension Gate was a way for the Taoist sects to select disciples from the mortal world.
"How can I get to the Ascension Gate?"
Mei Yingliang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly said, "Senior, do you also want to accept a disciple? It just so happens that I will be going back in a few days, and you can go with me then."
Le Jing knew he had misunderstood, but he didn't explain.
Just like what he told Li Shuran during the Republic of China: "I have traveled through the long river of time, and all I seek is the word freedom."
“Freedom is detachment, freedom, wandering, walking alone, going up to the west tower alone and looking at the loneliness of the endless road to the horizon. It is also what my heart desires, and I will not regret moving forward even if I die nine times.”
All he wants in this life is freedom.
In order to gain freedom, he would also embark on a monastic journey.
Now that the opportunity is before him, he will naturally do whatever it takes to seize it and not miss it.
The author has something to say:
He went to Taoism, but ended up becoming a Buddhist. Is this a distortion of human nature or a loss of morality?
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