Baozi Xishi's Struggle

After the first monk passed by, a young novice monk followed with a donation box. Although he was young, he had a serious face. He stood in front of the food stall where the monk passed by, waiting for believers who had bought scriptures to put money in the donation box. No matter how much money was put in, the young novice monk would chant "Amitabha!"

When they arrived at Shen Yu's bun stall, Li was already waiting in front of the stall with a pious look on her face. Several customers who were queuing to buy buns had also borrowed Shen Yu's basin to wash their hands and were waiting together. Their sincerity was obvious.

Although Shen Yu does not believe in Buddhism, she believes that there is a divine will in this world. Otherwise, how could she come to this world and become Shen Yuzhi?

During the Tianfu Festival, she had seen the people's devotion to Buddhism, but she was still confused as to why monks suddenly appeared today to distribute scriptures.

Although Shen Yu was confused, she did not ask the people around her, for fear that everyone knew but she was the only one who didn't know, and it would seem unreasonable to ask.

At this time, the surrounding food stalls were silent, and everyone was standing devoutly in front of their stalls waiting. Even the passing caravans did not show any strange expressions when they saw them. Instead, they respectfully bowed to the monks and their disciples, walked away with light steps.

After the monks distributed the food to her family's stall, the little monk came over with the donation box. Shen Yu paid close attention and saw that the amount of money donated by each person to the donation box was not small, with the smallest amount being a string of one hundred coins.

For convenience, people here often string together fifty-one or one hundred copper coins on a string. When putting them in, one can roughly know how much silver coins there are by looking at the size of the string.

A customer in front of Li took out two strings of 100-coin coins from his sleeve pocket and held them in his hands, waiting for the little monk to come over. Li had only hurriedly counted out 100-coin strings from his money box and waited, hesitated for a moment, and then put on another string of 50-coin coins.

Shen Yu glanced at the food stalls around him. There were at least sixty or seventy people, including the stall owners and customers. Each person paid at least one hundred coins. Many were like Li and the previous customer, who paid one hundred and fifty coins or two hundred or three hundred coins. After a round, at least more than ten thousand copper coins had been put into the box. No wonder the merit box was so big. When the little monk walked to the bun stall, it was obvious that there was a lot of money in the box, and it was quite substantial.

Shen Yu lowered her eyelids, complaining in her heart that it was easy to make money. The scripture was thin, the paper was of poor quality, and the printing was rough. Even though the price of the pens, ink, paper and inkstone was high, the paper was much worse than the rough paper she bought a few days ago. The cost was only a dozen coins at most, but she received more than 10,000 coins in a blink of an eye. Converted into silver, it was more than ten taels, enough for a farmer's family to eat and drink for more than half a year. Tsk tsk!

Shen Yu's abacus was ticking loudly in her mind, but her face was submissive and quiet. She had drooped eyelids and lowered her head slightly, looking like a devout believer.

The monk in front walked over and passed by Shen Yu. He didn't want to stop, but he took two steps, paused for a moment, then walked back and stood quietly in front of Shen Yu.

Shen Yu stood there, his businessman nature taking over. He was secretly admiring something in his heart, but suddenly he felt something strange in the atmosphere around him. He quickly put aside the abacus beads that were still ringing in his head and focused his mind. However, he caught a glimpse of a pair of monk shoes on the ground in front of him from the corner of his eye.

She looked up with some confusion, but the middle-aged monk who distributed the scriptures stood in front of her with his hands folded quietly, looking at her.

Shen Yu didn't understand what she meant. Was he begging for alms from her? Wasn't it one book per family? He wanted everyone to buy one? Wasn't that too much of a profit?

Shen Yu was thinking wildly in his mind, so he could only look at Li with confusion. Li also looked confused, wondering what this monk was going to do standing in front of Yuzhi?

After Li talked about Shen Yu yesterday, Shen Yu reflected on her behavior. She felt that since she came to the county, she had no worries and no longer carefully imitated the ancients in speaking and doing things. Suddenly, her female nature began to show up. Sometimes she felt that there was nothing normal about her behavior, and some of her behavior was too generous and attracted people's attention. When she was working at the stall today, she still combed her hair the same way she did when she worked in the restaurant. She braided her hair low and wrapped it with a headscarf, almost covering most of her face. When Li saw it, she agreed and said, "This is good. This way, you don't look like Xi Shi anymore."

Shen Yu pulled at the corner of his clothes uncomfortably. Just as he was about to ask if everyone should ask for scriptures, the monk said, "Female donor, you are not from here. How did you come here? It's strange!"

Shen Yu heard this, and in the late summer weather, a layer of cold sweat immediately broke out on her back. She tried her best to hide her shock and forced a smile. However, Li interrupted with a look of conviction, "Master chef, you are amazing. My family is indeed not from here. My family is from Dongxi Village on the edge of Anxi Town. I just came to the county town not long ago to make a living."

Li's unintentional words immediately woke Shen Yu up. Yes, why should I be panicking? I am indeed not from the county.

She took a breath and said as naturally as possible: "Master, my mother is right. My family just came to the county town not long ago."

The monk shook his head and smiled slightly. He took off a string of Buddhist beads from his hand, rolled it up, held it in his hand, and handed it to Shen Yu, saying, "The female donor has great good karma. Your kindness will bring you good rewards. Although this string of Buddhist beads is not expensive, it has been with me for more than 20 years. I will give it to you today. My Buddha is merciful and will bless you."

Li was overjoyed, and the people around him were also envious. The Buddhist beads that the enlightened monk had worn for more than 20 years could not be bought with money.

Shen Yu looked puzzled. The monk was still holding the Buddhist beads in his hand and waiting for Shen Yu to take them. Li saw that Shen Yu did not move and felt anxious. She secretly nudged Shen Yu with her elbow, and Shen Yu finally took them reluctantly.

The monk put his palms together, bowed, and chanted "Amitabha". Without waiting for Shen Yu to return the greeting, he led the little monk holding the merit box to the next food stall.

Because the monk was still not far away, everyone just talked in a low voice. After the monk distributed the food to the last stall, he put his hands together, bowed to everyone, and led the little monk away to the street outside the market.

When everyone saw the monk walking away, they all gathered around Shen Yu, stretching their heads to look at what Shen Yu was holding in his hand. The wood texture of the string looked ordinary, but it was smooth and delicate. It was obvious that it was the Buddhist beads that he held in his hand and chanted every day.

Shen Yu held the Buddhist beads in her hand, not knowing what to do. An elderly man next to her said slowly, "Girl, you have a connection with Buddhism. I heard that a high-ranking monk has come to Guangning Temple recently. Could it be this master monk? In the past, the abbot of Guangning Temple and other high-ranking monks brought their disciples down the mountain to distribute the "Venerable Lotus Sutra". Although I have never seen this master monk, I think he is also a high-ranking monk with profound Buddhist knowledge. Such a good thing, why don't you collect it well?"

Upon hearing this, Li felt that she had found a treasure. She quickly put her hands together and bowed in the direction of the master chef, muttering to herself, "Thank you, great monk, for blessing my Yuzhi. This is the favor of the Bodhisattva. Tomorrow I will go to the Bodhisattva to burn incense and donate more money for incense."

As he said this, he carefully took the Buddhist beads from Shen Yu's hand, muttered a Buddhist chant, wrapped them in a clean silk handkerchief, and stuffed them into his sleeve pocket.

When everyone saw that the monk had left and the Buddhist beads had been put away, they could only smack their lips in envy, holding the Buddhist scriptures they had requested and mumbling to themselves: "It's just Buddhist beads. This year's scriptures are also very good. After all, they were requested from the monks."