The Beautiful Boss's Personal Bodyguard
Chapter 574 - 573

Chapter 574: 573

The little monk’s hand hitting the wooden fish gradually stopped, he let out a long sigh and helplessly shook his head. "Master, since you’ve said as much, then I have nothing to hide anymore. Remember last time, I think it was on the seventh of last month, you got a bit too drunk down at ’Flower World’, and then..."

"Brat, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

The old monk, with a guilty conscience, hurriedly covered the little monk’s mouth with his hand while looking around nervously, fearing someone might overhear. After ensuring no one was eavesdropping, the senior monk finally released his hand from the little monk’s mouth, his expression turned very serious, "Kid, you can mess around with food but definitely not with words!"

The little monk sighed again. "Ah, who’s to say otherwise? Just a few more receipts in the pocket, who knows when they might accidentally end up in the temple mistress’s hands during sleepwalking, and then... well, tsk tsk."

"The so-called going with the flow is nothing more than following one’s heart. Yuanguang, it’s just a trip down the mountain after all. If you wish to go, then go."

The old monk affectionately stroked his beloved pupil’s head, clicking his tongue in empathy. The little monk smiled slightly and put his palms together, "Master is a high monk who has reached enlightenment, with deep cultivation, truly a role model for your disciple, and a target for our learning. Your disciple will take his leave now."

One little monk, dressed in white with a shaven head, slowly walked away, his shoulders shaking nonstop;

An old monk in a tattered kasaya sat cross-legged on a cushion behind, his shoulders also shaking nonstop;

Only the former was laughing, while the latter was fuming.

The trembling senior monk, watching the departing figure, suddenly lost his shivers and just smiled knowingly. He was still entangled with his feelings about this disciple, "Just tell me why you would give up being a Bodhisattva to come mingle in the worldly society."

...

The Lantern Festival fair on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the first fair of the New Year. Its status is not easily shaken by any ordinary fair. In Shanxi’s Qianyang, the second fair is held on the fifteenth day of April in honor of the earth.

Above is Heaven, below is Earth.

The vast sky holds the universe; the great earth bears humanity. Gratitude towards the land is something everyone holds in the most reverent part of their hearts, definitely not restricted to those earth temples built across the land of Huaxia.

This morning, Zhang Lin and her mother dressed up anew, especially for this crazy shopping trip; the little monk still looked like a humble Bodhisattva, uncompetitive and silent, specifically to carry things for these two women.

At the entrance of Two Zen Temple, a farewell between men and women.

"Old man, wait for my return. I’ll bring you back an electric rice cooker so you won’t have to cook with firewood anymore."

The high monk urgently waved his hands, "That won’t do, we don’t have electricity up in the mountains; it would be a waste to buy it."

"No worries, it’s cheap. Let’s just buy it for now, and we’ll have made a profit once we get electricity. Right?"

The high monk nodded with downturned eyes, repeatedly agreeing.

"Let’s go."

Zhang’s Mom took Zhang Ling’er’s hand, and they walked down the mountain together. The little monk beamed with joy next to them, finally getting a chance to be with Ling’er. This was his favorite thing to do. He didn’t care about how his master behind sternly glared at him. The little monk just casually reassured with a promise to protect mother and sister and even showed off the small pocket on his chest that Ling’er had sewn for him like it was a token of power.

That pocket contained the trump card against the big monk.

"Hey hey, high monk, your disciple is quite interesting, huh."

The high monk glared, "Scram, go tidy up the courtyard and pave it with bricks!"

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get a pleasant response, Ye Tian didn’t mind and obediently ran to the backyard to start paving bricks. After all, he wasn’t too lonely with the actual leader of the Sixth Group by his side. Although this fellow always had a stern face, he was talkative. Ye Tian’s questions were almost always answered.

"Did you want me to come back just to lay down my life for you?"

"Mhm."

"Why? With someone like me, there shouldn’t be any value in using me, plus I hold a deep grudge against you all. I might bite back at any time, and still, you dare to employ me?"

"It’s not about daring to use someone, but about whether they can be used."

Ye Tian rolled his eyes, "Pfft, isn’t that the same thing?"

"I don’t know much about your affairs, but I can roughly guess without you telling me – it’s just sacrificing yourself for the mission. Actually, many people have faced similar situations. To not go too far back, I’m actually an example. You think I became the team leader effortlessly? Once during a mission, it was I who stayed behind to cover our retreat. The sole purpose was to convince the enemy that we were truly defeated, otherwise, they wouldn’t have left me, the team leader, as a bait. Of course, the result was the annihilation of the enemy, but now I have two pieces of Exorcism Bullet lodged in my body. Don’t look at me like that; you’ll know about Exorcism Bullets later. Not everyone has your skills and fate; the Twelve Heavenly Stems and the Twelve Earthly Branches were established at a great cost. Otherwise, why would we be struggling to find people to fill the vacancies of the Twelve Earthly Branches?"

Ye Tian stopped looking at him and just lowered his head to place the paver on the ground, saying, "Do you think that trying to persuade me like this will work?"

Zhang Liang was taken aback and then said, "I just wanted to try. I didn’t have much hope. The files say you are a very... confident person."

"Do you mean to say shameless?"

"I never said that."

"Heh, I don’t know how you managed to become a negotiator; how can you not be clumsy with words? Don’t you know that you should ’attack the heart above all, attack the person secondary’?"

"I’ve always been bad at speaking; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been sent out to lead missions."

Ye Tian laughed, "Courthouses are full of scholars, while the worldly society is filled with swordsmen. Those who brandish swords seem powerful but in truth are no match for the mere thin lips of the scholars. As the saying goes, ’Martial folks stumble upon affairs, scholars stumble upon nations.’ It’s the same principle."

"You know more about principles than those people do."

Ye Tian raised an eyebrow, "Those people? Which people?"

The trough now contained just the right amount of freshly mixed cement. "You’ll find out sooner or later."

"Heh, you think I wouldn’t know just because you’re not saying? They’re just some acid-tongued scholars. Looks like you have suffered quite a bit."

The courtyard fell a lot quieter, a yard with its pavers being laid, looking like a puzzle that hadn’t been completed yet, and the rest, just waiting for someone to fill them in.