Chapter 78 Brain
The old monk is dead?
Qing Bai was stunned for only two seconds before coming to his senses. Calculating the time, it was about time.
Judging from the old monk they saw in the crack, who looked so old that he looked like a monster, it could probably be considered a happy funeral.
Old Man Tang, however, was not as sensible as Qing Bai. He yelled as if his father had died and he hadn't inherited the estate: "You lied to me! How could a wizard die? A wizard can't die!"
Perhaps he was running out of breath. After yelling a few words, he immediately hushed his voice and said in a low voice, "Are you afraid that the mage will help me? The mage said he would help me. Even if I die, as long as this body is still there, he can let me open my eyes again!"
"The wizard promised me! He will grant me immortality!"
Ai Chan looked coldly at Old Man Tang, who lay limp on the ground, as if he were looking at a puddle of mud. "There's no such thing as immortality in this world. All life will eventually die, it's just a matter of sooner or later."
These were the words the old monk said to Old Man Tang back then. Ai Chan heard them through a crack today and repeated them word for word.
Old man Tang looked up at the cicada, his cloudy eyes filled with rotten emotions like anger and jealousy.
He said, "People like you... people like you, how could you possibly understand the suffering of us mortals! You don't understand... you don't understand at all, how it feels to age and decay every day, every night, every meal, every breath! I don't want to die! I just don't want to die!"
"Someone like me..." Ai Chan shook her head and suddenly laughed, "You don't really think I'm some so-called Zhugu or reincarnated Living Buddha, do you?"
Although Old Man Tang did not respond, his expression clearly revealed his thoughts.
Ai Chan seemed to be suddenly in the mood to talk. While carefully rubbing the skull in his hand, he said curiously, "But after all, not even living Buddhas are immortal. Living Buddhas of all generations will grow old and die, just like ordinary people. Everyone will reincarnate after death. There's nothing different."
"What are you envious of?"
"Or are you afraid not only of death, but also of going to the underworld where you'll be rewarded for your merits and punished for your sins, without even the chance to be reincarnated as a human?"
Old man Tang's face, which looked like old tree bark, twitched uncontrollably.
Finally, Fatty Qi added: "...quite self-aware."
Old man Tang is very stubborn. Of course, it is difficult for someone like him who spends the rest of his life pursuing "immortality" not to be stubborn.
Especially after he had enjoyed the benefits of his 'life extension', feeling the pleasure of time seemingly slowing down for him, he could no longer bear the gradual loss and demise that should have occurred... In less than a quarter of an hour, his hair, once merely gray, had been completely covered in white. And that white wasn't pure silver, but rather a tinge of yellow, like the withered white of a winter's night of frost. Just like him, he exuded an indescribable twilight and deathly aura.
Old Man Tang's withered arms barely supported his shriveled upper body. With the support, he seemed a little more energetic. He half-closed his eyelids, not even glancing at the people present, and simply said, "I want to see the Master."
Ai Chan raised her chin and pointed out a clear path for him: "Turn left and walk all the way back. The tomb is behind the temple."
Old Man Tang sneered: "I don't believe it. The mage will not die."
The conversation between these two people was like a cycle, and they returned to the starting point as they talked.
Although Ai Chan's faith was no longer firm, his years of vegetarianism and Buddhist chanting had cultivated a good character. Faced with such a cowardly old man, he could still hold his temper and say, "If you think that way, I can't help it."
Well... the atmosphere suddenly became weird as soon as the classic scumbag quote came out.
Ai Chan has a good temper, but Qi Xiaopang has a quick temper, and Old Man Tang's stubborn look is really irritating... No, it's the monkey who is angry!
The fat boy watched for a long time and finally couldn't stand it anymore before he decisively started talking on the microphone: "The ancients were right, an old man who doesn't die is a thief!"
"You don't want to die, but you're using someone else's life to survive. Aren't you afraid of retribution?"
"Kindness?" Old Man Tang forced a smile. He had aged so quickly that the fat between his skin and bones seemed to have vanished, leaving him looking like a skeleton covered in skin. It was an eerie sight, especially with his cheeks uncovered. No matter what expression he made, he only had a fake smile. "Is this considered retribution?"
Qi Xiaopang was choked by the man's shamelessness, and then a nameless anger burned away his rationality: "How can this be called retribution?!"
Qi Xiaopang pointed angrily at the bones on the ground mixed with rags and black mud, and said through gritted teeth, "Since you've done something like exchanging your life for another's, of course I'll only pay you back when you become like this!"
Although it looked like it couldn't understand human language, the Monkey King could still understand Qi Xiaopang's body language. It looked in the direction of Qi Xiaopang's finger, and when its eyes fell on the tiny white bones on the ground, the whole monkey trembled twice, as if an invisible electric current split the chaos in its eyes - it had been there the whole time, but it had never seen it until now...
Qing Bai's eyes passed from the stunned Monkey King to the black shadow of the little monkey next to him. Ever since Old Man Tang started to go 'crazy', the little monkey has become quiet. Although it is just a blurry black shadow without facial features or even limbs that are difficult to distinguish, thanks to his telepathic nature, Qing Bai still keenly sensed the emotions hidden deep in the sticky black shadow... It is afraid, it is very scared.
The source of the little monkey's fear obviously couldn't be the Monkey King or Qi Xiaopang. Jiunian and him watching from the sidelines for so long could also be ruled out. There was no need to mention the mob that was once again beaten to the ground by the monkeys. The only ones left were Old Man Tang and Ai Chan.
Old Man Tang was afraid of him because of himself, but Ai Chan’s behavior was a bit unreasonable. After all, they were friends, and the little monkey had always relied on him before, so it didn’t make sense for him to be afraid of him suddenly... That was the skullcap in Ai Chan’s hand that was a combination of the magical powers and bones of many great monks.
Qing Bai recalled Ai Chan's action of putting the Kabara around Qi Xiaopang's neck from a distance. It was obviously not just to awaken the little fat boy's mind. It also successfully prevented the little monkey shadow from trying to become Qi Xiaopang's "mother's little monkey". It seemed that this magic weapon really had some magical powers...
"A scheme? What scheme did I do?" Old Man Tang's hoarse, unpleasant voice interrupted Qing Bai's thoughts, forcing him to turn his attention back to the passionate confrontation between the old man and the young man. "I didn't kill anyone or set any fire. I just accidentally implicated an unlucky little monkey. But afterwards, I built a temple and erected a statue for it, and I even worship it every year... What's the matter? You want to seek justice for it?"
Old man Tang said this lightly, and when he mentioned "accidentally" and "bad luck", he deliberately increased the volume, sounding even more arrogant and fearless.
Qi Xiaopang was so angry that he threw all the good morals of respecting the elderly and loving the young out the window. He pointed at Old Man Tang's nose and said, "Did you do that carelessly? It was clearly premeditated and malicious!"
When Qi Xiaopang was trapped in the clay statue, he was not completely unconscious. He was caught up in, or watching a past event from a first-person perspective.
...That was the memory of a little monkey. In front of it were long stretches of pictures filled with deep and light green, accompanied by the fragrance of plants and trees. There were flowers, grass, sour and sweet wild fruits, annoying cicadas that kept chirping all day and night and kept the monkey awake, and a mother who would hold it and catch insects for it... It also had a little bald friend who was different from its other companions and had no hair.
It was very happy every day, especially after it met its friend the little bald head. The little bald head was very smart. Knowing that it couldn't sleep because of the noise made by the cicadas and it hated cicadas, it taught it to catch cicadas and use them as small fans to play with. It also tied the cicadas' legs with straw stalks and let them fly. The little bald head said that as long as there were enough cicadas and the straw ropes were strong enough, the cicadas could even carry them flying!
How many is enough? A hundred?
So the little monkey's biggest worry changed from the cicadas being too noisy to where to keep them after it found a hundred of them.
However, before it had caught a hundred cicadas, it was caught by humans. At first, it wasn't too scared because the little bald guy was there, as well as the old bald guy who always watched them quietly from a distance when it and the little bald guy played together. But this time seemed a little different. The little bald guy fell asleep after just playing with it for a while, and the old bald guy wouldn't let it leave. It didn't understand, it didn't want to play with the old bald guy...
The old bald man didn't want to play with it either, he just wanted to eat it.
...The happy memories end here, and only pain remains.
It was tied up into a ball, and a pair of claws that were thinner than the oldest monkey in the tribe kept smearing smelly mud on its body. When one layer dried, another layer was smeared on it. In the end, only its head was left exposed.
The old bald man gave it to an old man who laughed non-stop when he saw it, and laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe. Then they uncovered its top...
One time, when the little monkey secretly went to the backyard of the temple to look for the little bald head, he saw the monks in the temple grinding beans and cooking tofu pudding. The big pot of steaming yellow and white tofu pudding was so tender that it fell apart with a slight shake... The little monkey then realized that there was such tender tofu pudding in his head.
…The last thing I remember is the sound of slurping soup.
Now, whenever Qi Xiaopang closed his eyes, the sound of him wolfing down the soup would echo in his mind, along with the pain as if his brain marrow was being sucked out mouthful by mouthful. And the culprit in front of him actually said it was "accidental" and "bad luck"!
"Okay, I admit it. I have bad intentions, and I planned it all along... Then what?" Perhaps knowing that his life was hopeless, Old Man Tang acted arrogantly, "What do you want to do to me? What can you do to me?"
"For a monkey, ha, a monkey!"
Old Man Tang cast his gaze towards Ai Chan and said maliciously, "Buddha said that all beings are equal. So, are you going to avenge that monkey and your friend today?"
The little monkey's shadow shrank, and the green light in its eye sockets flickered faintly like a candle flame blown by a cold wind.
Qi Xiaopang was so angry that he gnashed his teeth and wished he could tear the old man's head off. Ai Chan was also secretly wishing him well.
Old Man Tang continued, "For your master's sake, I'm kindly reminding you that it's useless to call the police. It's been too long. Even if you get lucky and run into a stubborn policeman, the most they'll give you is a fine. I only have money left now, so I suggest you settle this privately—"
"You really only have money left, not even your brains." Qing Bai said coldly, "They say that old people become wise, but you are an exception. You are still so... naive at your age."
"You still can't understand the situation even when you are about to die."
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