In the fat monk's view, one or two taels of silver was perfectly reasonable.
But Jing Zhe said that this was a lie the thin monk made him tell, which means that the price of the incense is far more than that!
So he asked in a low voice, "How much silver did you actually spend on this incense stick? It must have cost more than one tael of silver, right?"
Jing Zhe nodded, gave the fat monk a thumbs up, and looked on with admiration.
"The eminent monk was indeed incredibly prescient!"
Stop flattering me!
The fat monk interrupted Jing Zhe angrily, "Quickly tell me how much you sold!"
He's already getting impatient.
Jing Zhe shook his head, looking somewhat troubled: "High monk, but that high monk instructed me that once I tell you the price of one or two taels of silver, I cannot say the original price again!"
"Say it when I tell you to!"
Fearing being discovered, the fat monk glanced around and deliberately lowered his voice, saying, "If you don't tell me the original price, believe me, I won't let you into the temple to participate in the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering!"
"Please don't do that, Venerable Monk! I've already spent twenty taels of silver. If you still won't let me participate in the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering, I'll have lost out!"
"Twenty taels?!?!?!"
The fat monk shouted it out, and the tall monk next to him turned around and asked in confusion, "Why are you shouting for no reason instead of hurry up and sell incense?"
"N-nothing..."
The fat monk was startled awake this time and hurriedly waved his hand. Only then did the tall monk turn back and continue selling incense.
Jing Zhe deliberately covered his mouth, looking remorseful, as if he had let something slip. This expression only reinforced the fat monk's belief that the price was twenty taels of silver.
In fact, the reason why Jing Zhe went to such great lengths to fabricate such a high price was simply to make the thin monk and the fat monk fight like dogs.
He just knocked the skinny monk unconscious with a punch, but he couldn't kill him, so it won't be long before the skinny monk wakes up and comes to the temple to cause him trouble.
Therefore, he deliberately put on a show, and the fat monk now believes it without a doubt. Even if the thin monk wakes up later and says that he was beaten by Jing Zhe and didn't get a single penny, the fat monk will definitely think that he deliberately wanted to keep the twenty taels of silver for himself and won't believe him.
With the fat monk helping to distract the thin monk, he won't have time to worry about being bothered by him again.
Sure enough, the fat monk is now completely convinced.
Actually, it wasn't just because Jing Zhe acted well, but because the thin monk was that kind of person in real life. He and the fat monk had agreed that whenever they saw a wealthy person from out of town, they would take them out and extort money from them, and then they would split the money 50/50. However, the thin monk never extorted much money each time, and said that if he asked for more, the people wouldn't give him any. The fat monk was a little suspicious, but he didn't have any evidence.
Now, Jing Zhe's words completely confirmed his many guesses. It seems that the thin monk hadn't failed to get the money; he had simply taken it himself! The reason the thin monk did this was because he was addicted to gambling. Whenever he had money, he would run down the mountain to gamble. He was already heavily in debt, and now that he had sold twenty taels of silver, he couldn't wait to run down the mountain.
"That bastard! We're not letting him get away with this!"
The fat monk gritted his teeth and said.
"What did the high monk say?"
Jing Zhe asked with a look of "curiosity".
"nothing."
"That's what the fat monk said."
"Hurry up and buy it, why are you taking so long?"
"Yeah, someone hesitates for ages, wondering whether to buy it or not."
"If you're not going to buy, then get out of here right now, don't delay our business!"
At this moment, the people behind saw that the people in the queue next to them were moving forward while their own queue was standing still, and they immediately became dissatisfied and began to urge them on.
"Venerable monk, may I enter now?"
After Jing Zhe finished asking, he saw the fat monk take out a short incense stick. "Buy another short incense stick. It doesn't have to be twenty taels. Just give me ten taels!"
"..."
Jing Zhe was stunned. He hadn't expected the fat monk to be so greedy, practically desperate to sell. He'd heard the thin monk had "sold for twenty taels of silver," and he was even planning to rob him outright.
"Too many."
"Five taels is fine too."
"I won't buy it."
"If that's really not possible, three taels will do, at least three taels, no less! You can afford twenty taels of silver, what's three taels to you?"
The fat monk spoke earnestly.
"Three taels of silver is nothing to me, but I've already bought long incense sticks, there's no reason for me to buy short ones too!"
"You can't come in unless you buy short incense sticks!"
"If the high monk won't let me in..."
Jing Zhe sneered, then shouted, "This long incense stick of mine cost me two—"
"Hurry up and come in, hurry up and come in!"
Upon hearing Jing Zhe's shout, the fat monk broke out in a cold sweat and quickly pulled him forward, pushing him into the temple.
What a joke! If he exposes the skinny monk, wouldn't that implicate him as well?
...
The previous incident was just a minor episode and did not affect Jing Zhe's mood.
Once inside Peach Blossom Temple, Jing Zhe realized that the temple was called Peach Blossom Temple not only because it was located on Peach Blossom Mountain, or because of the surrounding peach blossoms.
Because the Peach Blossom Temple also has peach trees planted there, and the variety seems to be different from the ones outside the temple. As Jing Zhe walked all the way from the foot of the mountain, he saw that although the peach blossoms on the mountain were red, most of them were pink. However, the pink blossoms were piled up on top of each other, and as far as the eye could see, the whole mountain was red.
However, the peach blossoms on the peach trees in Peach Blossom Temple are all bright red, with extremely vibrant colors. Compared to the peach trees on Peach Blossom Mountain, the number of peach trees in the temple is not large, but their colors are even more outstanding.
This is probably why the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering wasn't held directly on Peach Blossom Mountain, but instead "went to the trouble" of holding it at Peach Blossom Temple.
The Peach Blossom Temple is very large. Although there is a constant stream of tourists and students coming in, it is not crowded. Moreover, everyone who enters the temple carries incense and goes into the main hall.
Jing Zhe followed the crowd to the hall and found a huge Buddha statue standing in the center of the hall. It was ten meters tall and extremely imposing, its body radiating golden light.
What's bizarre is that the Buddha is holding several peach blossoms carved from some unknown material, instantly making its originally sacred image seem incongruous and quite comical.
It truly lives up to its name as Peach Blossom Mountain and Peach Blossom Temple. Even the Buddha statue is said to be a peach blossom immortal. It's truly amazing.
However, everyone was used to this and found it unsurprising. After entering the temple, they all came to the foot of the Peach Blossom Buddha, knelt down and offered incense. Many people also put money into the donation box at the foot of the Buddha before kneeling down to worship, showing great piety.
At the foot of the Buddha stood an old, decrepit monk, who was clearly the abbot of Peach Blossom Temple. Two middle-aged monks stood on either side of him, nodding as people threw incense money, chanting sutras.
————
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