The monk scratched his head. He didn't know what had happened between his senior brother Jinglian and Miss Ali. He just felt that his senior brother Jinglian was acting strangely after he came back and even went to the Cliff of Repentance in the back mountain.
However, since Miss Ali didn't ask, and Senior Brother Jinglian told him not to tell Ali, he didn't say anything.
Afterwards, Ah Li waited for several days at the dining hall, but Jing Lian never came.
She tried to go look for him, but he wasn't there.
On this day, Ah Li found the abbot and handed him the key that Jing Lian had given her, saying, "Abbot, this is the key that Jing Lian left with me. Please help me return it to him."
The kind-faced abbot looked at the key, then at Ahri, raising an eyebrow. "Did you really leave it with you?"
The abbot's discerning eyes seemed to see through everything.
Ah Li stomped her foot and said, "Oh dear, Abbot, please don't ask anymore. Just return the key to Jing Lian for me."
The abbot stroked his long beard. "So, are you really going to go down the mountain?"
Ali nodded. "I want to go down the mountain for a walk and see the sights. If possible, I'd also like to open a noodle shop."
The abbot raised his hand and patted Ahri's head. "Go, your worldly ties are not yet severed. You never belonged here."
Ahri looked at the abbot and said, "Abbot Master, I will miss you."
The abbot put his hands together, chanted a Buddhist prayer, and said to Ah Li, "Before you leave, go see the head master. He will miss you too."
“I know, Abbot.”
Ahri clasped her hands together and turned to leave.
The abbot looked in the direction Ah Li had left, then towards the back mountain, and then, holding the key in his hand, sighed softly, "These young people nowadays..."
Jinglian is on the Cliff of Contemplation, a fact known only to the abbot and the young monk in Jinglian's courtyard.
She didn't tell anyone in a big way about Ah Li's plan to go down the mountain; she only told the abbot and the head monk.
Inside the dining hall, the head chef, knowing that Ah Li was leaving, cooked her a bowl of noodles.
It contains green vegetables, dried bean curd sticks, tofu, and shiitake mushrooms.
The head chef said earnestly, "After you finish this bowl of noodles, you can leave. I won't stop you."
"Also, you need to be more careful when you're out there. Don't be so naive as to get fooled, understand?"
The head chef watched Ahri eat her noodles, and then started rambling on and on.
Ah Li looked at the chef in front of her, who was clearly a vegetarian but was much bigger than everyone else, and obediently replied, "I know."
After Ah Li finished eating her noodles, the head chef handed her a bundle, saying, "You don't have much money, so use it sparingly. If you run out, come back, understand?"
Ahri didn't want to accept the burden.
The head chef's expression changed, and he said fiercely, "You don't listen to the head chef anymore?"
Ah Li shrank back, "You yourself are not well-off."
"You're asking for it! I may not be well-off, but I can talk to the abbot later. Now that you've gone down the mountain, who are you going to talk to?"
"Besides, there are some left over from the abbot as well."
The head chef slung the bundle over Ali's shoulder and said, "Go on, come back and visit often when you have time."
"Master chef, I will definitely come back."
"Go ahead, just remember what you said."
Ahri, carrying her bundle, looked around.
Then he carried his bag down the mountain.
The head monk and the abbot stood at the mountain gate, looking in the direction Ah Li had left.
The master chef continued, "I clearly foresaw that it would be her calamity, but now, her fate has changed."
The abbot said, "Among all living beings, there will always be someone whose fate will change."
The head monk looked at the abbot, "Senior brother, what do you say..."
The abbot closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and chanted, "Amitabha, the Buddha said, it cannot be spoken, it cannot be spoken."
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