“I remember now, there’s a place called Mojiatuan near Laobieshan. Are you from Mojiatuan?” the landlady asked, raising an eyebrow.
Molopo smiled and nodded, handing the six cleaned fish in his hand, which he then put in a plastic bag, to the two women.
"Hey? How much are your crucian carp per pound?" Suddenly, another woman came over.
"Is this crucian carp wild? How much is it per pound?"
...
Seemingly influenced by the chanting of sutras during the New Year, Molupo was no longer ignored by the women. People came one after another to ask about prices and buy fish. Wang Yao and the two women carrying crucian carp stepped back slightly, giving the spot in front of the stall to other people who came to buy fish.
"Stop chanting." Wang Yao watched the increasingly lively scene at Molupo's stall, and quietly nudged Hui Shuo. Finding that Hui Shuo was unmoved and still chanting, Wang Yao couldn't help but increase the pressure with his elbow. "Stop chanting!"
"Ouch!" Hui Shuo exclaimed softly, stopping his chanting. "Father, Mother, what are you doing... Huh? Why did I take the wooden fish out again?"
Seeing Hui Shuo's surprised expression, Wang Yao shook his head. "You're asking me? I'd like to ask you the same thing. He always starts chanting scriptures for no reason, and strange things always happen when he does. This needs to be investigated carefully."
As Hui Shuo stopped chanting, Wang Yao hurriedly looked at Mo Luopo and found that Mo Luopo seemed to have returned to normal. Even though Hui Shuo stopped chanting, the women were still crowding together to buy his crucian carp. Wang Yao couldn't help but wonder.
Could it be that Molupo's inability to be seen by women was completely resolved by Hui Shuo's recitation of the scriptures? Did this solitary man really need to be influenced by Buddhism? How could things happen so coincidentally? Wang Yao still couldn't believe it.
"This person is alright, he's fairly good-looking, no flat nose or crooked eyes," the proprietress said from the side.
"Yeah, even though he's selling fish, he's dressed cleanly and neatly. Did you notice? There's not a speck of dirt under his fingernails," Fang Xia added.
After hearing her words, Wang Yao noticed that Mo Luopo's fingernails were indeed clean. Logically speaking, how could someone who fishes, butchers, and sells fish, who is constantly dealing with dirt, have clean hands?
But Molopo really was; his fingernails were clean and white, even cleaner than those of an average person, in Wang Yao's opinion.
After cleaning each fish, he would vigorously wipe his hands with a rag, cleaning each fingernail as well—a habit he had clearly developed long ago.
"It's said that old bachelors are all a bit of a germaphobe, don't you think?" the proprietress asked Fang Xia again.
"How would I know?" Fang Xia replied, frowning, looking somewhat displeased.
“Let’s go back. I’ll come back to check on Fang Xia tomorrow…” Wang Yao looked at Fang Xia, unsure of how to address her.
"Just call me Sister Xia," Fang Xia said with a smile.
"Um... Sister Xia, do you think my relative is having any difficulties finding a partner? What exactly is it about him that women find repulsive?" Wang Yao asked.
"Well... I really can't say. Actually, when women look for a partner, especially older women, they consider many factors. If you ask me, your relative isn't bad-looking, and her clothes are neat and tidy, but I don't know what her family situation is like," Fang Xia said, frowning.
Like the landlady, she didn't know that it was Hui Shuo's chanting that made them see Molopo. They all thought they were seeing things, so they didn't mention that Molopo was difficult for women to see. After all, such a thing was too incredible and beyond their comprehension.
So Fang Xia was just thinking about it from the perspective of a typical woman choosing a partner. It seemed that apart from being an old bachelor, Mo Luopo really didn't have any faults. She couldn't help but feel puzzled and secretly wondered if Mo Luopo had some kind of personality flaw.
However, she assumed that Wang Yao was a relative of Molupo, so she couldn't say these things directly. She could only bring up his family situation. In fact, judging from Molupo's clothes and demeanor, his family situation wouldn't be too bad, according to Fang Xia.
The four of them watched for a while longer, but the landlady, worried about the inn, decided to go back first.
Although Wang Yao wanted to stay a little longer, he felt that the problem of Molupo wouldn't be solved so easily. But standing there like an idiot was really boring. He figured Molupo wouldn't run away, so he would come back to check on it tomorrow morning.
He had some other things to do next, so he simply took Hui Shuo, the landlady, and Fang Xia back with him.
"Father, Mother, is everything done?" Hui Shuo asked Wang Yao quietly on the way.
"No, it's quite troublesome." Wang Yao shook his head.
"Then why are you in such a hurry to go back? Let me use Buddhism to influence him!" Hui Shuo said anxiously.
"You monk are quite interesting. Can Buddhism really control whether or not someone wants to get married?" the landlady laughed from the side, and Fang Xia couldn't help but smile as well.
“You don’t know, my Buddhist teachings are very powerful,” Hui Shuo said, his eyes wide.
Fearing that the fake monk would bring up some kind of ritual for the deceased again, Wang Yao hurriedly tugged at Hui Shuo's monk's robe, then turned to Fang Xia and the proprietress and smiled.
“My monk friend is a bit stubborn, you don’t need to take it to heart.”
"I didn't mean it. I just saw you were troubled by this, so I thought of using Buddhism to influence him." Hui Shuo was very dissatisfied after hearing Wang Yao's explanation. After all, for monks, persistence is not a good word, so Hui Shuo felt a little wronged.
“Hui Shuo, think carefully, what exactly happened to you at the eighteen temples of Yunling?” Wang Yao changed the subject and asked a question that had been puzzling him for a long time.
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