Chapter 34
Cheng Yanjin ultimately failed to come up with a solution for the stand-in issue. As a result, he had no interest in organizing any parties or having fun these past few days, spending all his time around Lin Langyi, and when asked, he would confidently answer, "I'll be her bodyguard!"
He should have made the most of every moment before being locked up and had a blast, like the last hot pot before dieting or the last bachelor night before his wedding. He filled his schedule early on, but in the end, he didn't get to use any of it.
Lin Langyi didn't mind. She had a free driver during the day and someone who was becoming more and more skilled at serving her at night. It was a life of revelry every night, which made her feel different lately.
In this life where Cheng Yanjin was always at her beck and call and call, he finally managed to confirm that Lin Langyi and that bean sprout had temporarily lost contact.
Heaven has eyes!
Hard work really pays off!
After he posted these two updates, his friends were all asking him what cathartic thing had happened to him. Some even joked that he had challenged his fiancée's authority many times and been defeated, so today he was finally able to keep a straw mat to sleep on the street after being kicked out after an argument.
Cheng Yanjin glanced at the replies in his WeChat Moments and noticed that they contained a lot of references to his wife. He suddenly realized that, without realizing it, his friends had begun to accept Lin Langyi's influence on him. He had also been unaware that he had cared about her for so long over such a small matter, and was even willing to refuse all entertainment activities for her sake, staying by her side every step of the way before being put in solitary confinement.
This is outrageous! And terrifying!
He is clearly a person who pursues absolute freedom, so how could he turn around and actively bind himself to her?
This is really not something he would do.
Cheng Yanjin couldn't figure it out himself, but he subconsciously felt that he shouldn't be elevating Lin Langyi's importance so much.
So, at this point, the retreat camp actually turned out to be somewhat useful!
On May 25, he was finally imprisoned in Laoshan Temple.
He was like those people inside and outside the walls, pretending to be mature before going in, thinking that this was a good place to adjust his relationship with Lin Langyi.
After locking him up... let him out!!
Cheng Yanjin woke up at four o'clock for the first time not because he hadn't gone to sleep yet, but because he had to get up for early reading.
The moment he got out of bed, he felt like killing Lin Langyi.
Four o'clock! He wouldn't even get up this early to watch the sunrise in Fiji.
He was urged to the main hall in a daze. The chanting of sutras began, like a thick silk cloth wrapped around his ears, making his head buzz. Cheng Yanjin felt that this thing was not praying for blessings at all, but preparing to send him away.
The more he listened, the more agitated he became. Yet, he remained kneeling in the hall for nearly an hour. When he turned his head, he saw Chu Hong, who also looked as if he had lost his parents, and he immediately became angry.
He shouldn't have listened to Lin Langyi in the first place. He should have just beaten up Chu Hong on the spot for angering her. As a result, Lin Langyi later turned around and used him as a target to establish her authority, sending him to jail.
Cheng Yanjin was so angry he wanted to grind his teeth. The more he looked at Chu Hong, who was just sitting there with his lips moving as if chanting scriptures, the more displeased he became.
After finishing his morning reading, it was time for breakfast. Chu Hong stared at the plain porridge and side dishes in front of him with a bitter face, feeling that since it wasn't his biological clock's mealtime, he had even less appetite.
Cheng Yanjin lifted Hai Qing's clothes and sat down next to him with a thud, his arm pressing heavily on Chu Hong's shoulder like steel bars. Chu Hong, who was still half asleep, immediately swayed and quickly straightened his back.
Cheng Yanjin asked with concern, "Are you unable to eat?"
Chu Hong nodded frantically.
As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Yanjin immediately took the bowl of clear porridge in front of Chu Hong with his free hand, tilted his head back and finished it in one gulp.
The empty bowl was placed back in front of Chu Hong. Because the movement was too rough, the bowl shook and bumped into the fried dough stick next to it.
Cheng Yanjin gave a strange "Ouch!" as he caught the fried dough, then, like a bully, he took a big bite and glared at the dumbfounded Chu Hong.
"Brother...this is mine."
"Didn't you say you weren't going to eat?"
Chu Hong looked miserable: "I just don't have much of an appetite, but I'll eat after I've had a little time to think it over."
Cheng Yanjin swallowed the biscuit in big gulps: "Stop dawdling. Don't you know breakfast time is only twenty minutes? After you finish eating, go get to work. I'll help you eat, and you help me with the work."
The work was varied and diverse. Of course, washing dishes and mopping the floor were not the only tasks. In addition, they also had to wash lay Buddhist robes, clean rooms including toilets, and do farm work in the green and naturally grown vegetable fields behind the mountain!
Cheng Yanjin kicked Chu Hong in the back of the knee: "Go clean the toilet."
Public bathhouses were built on squat toilets. In the communal bathhouse, you had to squeeze in a shower whenever you could, because you might need to take a shower while you were taking a dump. You also had to be careful not to step into the toilet with either foot.
As soon as Chu Hong entered the bathroom, his face turned deathly pale, and his eyes stung, on the verge of tears.
"Brother Yanjin, how do I take a shower here?" he stammered. "I sweat a lot, I can't go a day without showering."
Cheng Yanjin's face was also not good, and his blood pressure seemed unstable, but he still wanted to deceive Chu Hong: "What do you know? You're ignorant because you haven't been to university. This is how public bathrooms are in Chinese universities."
Chu Hong was shocked and gripped the mop handle tightly with both hands: "A half-curtain, built on top of a squat toilet?"
Cheng Yanjin couldn't stand the smell, and only answered after walking quite a distance away, "Yes, clean it up quickly!"
"I want to go abroad, I want to go abroad..." Chu Hong nodded repeatedly, his belief firm, "I don't want to stand in the pit with my legs spread apart to take a bath."
Cheng Yanjin was forced to do laundry. He only regretted that Chu Hong was only one person and couldn't be split in two. While rubbing the coarse hemp in his hands, he cursed Lin Langyi mercilessly.
He was soaked through before he was even halfway through his shower, and the thought of the conditions in the public bathroom made him curse even more vehemently.
Why buy silk pajamas? Don't even think about having any hand-washed items in your home.
He will never wash clothes for that ruthless woman again in his life!
After washing clothes, it was time for class. Chu Hong smelled bad and absolutely refused to take a shower, so Cheng Yanjin dragged him to a clean toilet stall, turned on the showerhead, and rinsed him with cold water without even having time to adjust the water temperature.
Chu Hong cried his eyes out, as if taking a bath here was an insult to his chastity. He cried out that he wanted to go home and that he would never dare to bully Lin Langyi again.
"Shut up!" Cheng Yanjin cursed him. "If you have the energy to howl like that, go howl for Lin Langyi to hear."
He acted immediately, as if he had wanted to make this call to Lin Langyi for a long time. As soon as the call connected, he handed it to Chu Hong and gestured for him to do his part.
Chu Hong cried his heart out into the phone, filled with remorse and despair, repeatedly saying, "Sister-in-law, I was wrong," "Sister-in-law, I'll never do it again," "I'll always respect you from now on, please talk to my cousin and let me go home, sob sob..."
Lin Langyi remained remarkably quiet on the other side, like a parent patiently scrolling through their phone while waiting for their child to finish crying. Only when Chu Hong had completely run out of wailing did she say regretfully:
"That's all in the past. I didn't take it to heart at all. Besides, it was Grandpa who suggested that Yan Jin go to Laoshan Temple. He didn't mention you at all."
Lin Langyi thoughtfully helped others strengthen their brotherhood: "It's probably because Cheng Yanjin likes to invite you along; he treats you like a younger brother."
Chu Hong's voice cracked: "He listens to you! He listens to you! Sister-in-law, please plead for me, I really can't stay here."
"How could he listen to me..."
Chu Hong said urgently, "Everyone in our circle knows he listens to you now!"
Cheng Yanjin's eyebrows furrowed: "Nonsense! Who told you that—"
Chu Hong suddenly handed the phone back, his eyes filled with hope: "Your sister-in-law wants to chat with you for a bit."
Cheng Yanjin took it and held it to his ear: "Hello?"
Lin Langyi said succinctly: "Do your own work."
Cheng Yanjin hung up the phone immediately. Facing Chu Hong's expectant gaze, he said coldly, "Keep going."
Chu Hong took a very sad bath with a long face.
After showering, they had to go to class to read the Lotus Sutra and study the law of cause and effect. Both of them were exhausted. They kept dozing off during the morning class, but they were still required to recite aloud.
Chu Hong sang his heart out with all his might, treating the scene like a karaoke session, earning high praise from the head monk who rewarded him by allowing him priority to continue the ritual procession after it ended.
I can't live like this anymore.
Finally, it was noon. Chu Hong was starving, and Cheng Yanjin was also hungry, but they still had to go to the field to pick vegetables. The field was full of green organic vegetables grown by the temple itself, and they needed to pick them basket by basket.
Cheng Yanjin has excellent physical fitness, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get tired. He knows how to maintain steady breathing during endurance sports and how to instantly increase initial velocity during explosive sports, but he didn't know that doing farm work in the fields was such a terrible thing.
He didn't know that he had to straighten up from time to time while working, otherwise his back would become stiff. Of course, Young Master Cheng didn't need to know such life tips.
He was so engrossed in chanting "Lin Langyi!" as he pulled up the vegetables, his hands moving roughly, breaking off many of them as he did so, his hands so heavy it seemed he was trying to cut Lin Langyi in two.
When he finished his work and suddenly straightened up, his body trembled violently, as if he had been struck by lightning. He immediately clutched his numb side, feeling sore and painful that he could barely stand.
Chu Hong had long since collapsed under the tree, no longer caring about the dirt. Perhaps it was because he had broken his "precept" of taking a bath in a pit for the first time, and he wouldn't feel so guilty about taking a bath after sweating. Now he was just sitting on the ground, panting heavily.
"Brother? Is your back hurting?"
Cheng Yanjin was about to scold her, but before he could open his mouth, Lin Langyi's sweaty forehead, her pointed chin as she lay down, and her captivatingly beautiful eyes under the light flashed through his mind.
When you're young and full of energy, some feelings come on very strangely. Even when he was exhausted, he could come back to life just by thinking of her.
Cheng Yanjin shook his head, quickly pulled down his shirt hem, and gritted his teeth: "Bullshit! My back is fine."
Chu Hong's face lit up with hope: "The abbot said that in a couple of days we should pick all the wax apples from the trees over there, keep some and sell the rest; and we also need to process the radishes in the field that can be pickled... Brother, your back is good, why don't you do it?"
Cheng Yanjin rolled up both trouser legs, revealing his honey-colored, muscular calves. He gave Chu Hong a sinister look, then slammed a hoe into the ground. Sweat dripped from his arm onto the ground, quickly soaking through.
Chu Hong shuddered, looking at the hoe deeply embedded in the soil, and quickly changed his tune: "Let's work together, let's work together, brother, my back is fine too."
After all that work, the two guys who initially insisted that no one could sleep until nine o'clock were already nodding off in the hall when it was time for evening classes.
Now I finally understand why the little monks in movies and TV shows always doze off. Who wouldn't fall asleep under such inhuman treatment!
Every day is filled with work: today we sort through donated rice, flour, and oil in the warehouse; tomorrow we hold a charity sale and distribute porridge; the day after tomorrow we mend and clean door curtains... The answer is that working can eliminate negative karma and accumulate good fortune. There are also endless scriptures to recite, causing both physical and mental suffering.
Other lay Buddhists, who are already devout believers, do not see this as torture, but as a form of spiritual practice. However, Cheng Yanjin and Chu Hong do not.
Three or four days passed like this, and the two of them felt that they were almost completely free from worldly desires.
Cheng Yanjin's resentment towards Lin Langyi grew day by day, especially because she had never visited him or made a single caring phone call!
Even though Chu Hong's father was busy, he still managed to come and see his son. He even gave 30,000 yuan as a donation to the temple, and afterwards, Chu Hong was assigned less work.
Cheng Yanjin suddenly remembered Lin Langyi's words: "This is also a small society."
He then followed suit and donated a portion of his WeChat balance, finally managing to slack off occasionally and have his whims turned a blind eye.
However, Cheng Yanjin felt that this was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause.
So, on a whim, he transferred the remaining balance to Lin Langyi all at once.
Lin Langyi wasn't even enthusiastic about receiving money. Instead, he eagerly held his phone like a waiting stone, waiting for a response after making the transfer. Before he even received the payment notification, the class bell rang first.
Cheng Yanjin reluctantly put down his phone, and was also absent-minded while chanting the sutra. He finally waited until it was over and immediately ran to check the messages. He was finally able to see that Lin Langyi had received the money.
And they even sent a greeting!
Overwhelmed with emotion, he realized for the first time that giving away money could be such a blissful experience.
Pearl: [How's your cultivation going?]
Cheng Yanjin stared at those six short words with lingering interest, grinning for a while like a stupid dog that had been thoroughly beaten and then given a sweet treat but never learned its lesson. He then replied:
[He has cultivated himself well, but his six senses are impure; he is gluttonous, lazy, and lustful.]
He thought for a moment, then deleted the last four words and changed it to a question:
Why don't you ever come to see me?
Lin Langyi isn't replying again; I wonder what she's been busy with all day.
Cheng Yanjin became angry again. After thinking it over, he realized that the reason he was suffering was because he and Lin Langyi had not formed a united front.
He conceded defeat, he accepted it. He took a step back this time and planned to have a proper negotiation with Lin Langyi again.
Anyway, since he didn't listen to her, he was the one who suffered in the end, while Lin Langyi was the winner in the end after going around in circles.
On June 3rd, Feng Congning will ask him for a night off, as it is Yuan Pingran's birthday banquet.
Cheng Yanjin decided to seize this opportunity.
The bean sprout incident had always been a thorn in his side. He thought that by physically distancing himself from Lin Langyi, the matter would be over. However, life in the temple was too monotonous, so he would think about it every time he had a spare moment.
This phenomenon was so strange that he felt like a bird that had been imprisoned for too long. If things continued like this, even if he were released from the cage, he would not know what the words "unrestrained" meant.
But he couldn't watch her every moment, which made him feel awkward and he didn't like being like that.
If Lin Langyi could take the initiative to shift her attention and stay away from Bean Sprouts No. 1 and No. 2, that would be great.
After careful consideration, Cheng Yanjin came up with a win-win solution. He felt he could use this as leverage in negotiations to retreat in order to advance.
Lin Langyi may not know how much truth he had in his initial words during the marriage proposal, nor how sincere he was in wanting to cooperate, but that doesn't matter. He will show magnanimity and ease at the banquet, which will surely satisfy her.
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