559 Small-minded

"By the way, I forgot to tell you something. You could have gotten someone to help you recite the scriptures. There is strength in numbers. The number of recitals can be stacked… So there was actually no need for you to recite it all in such a silly fashion. Of course, you could also just be the leader and do only the beginning and the wrapping up. It wouldn't be that tiring, that's all."

"Dang!" The bowl and chopsticks fell onto the stove.

"System Bro!" Fangzheng roared inwardly.

However, the System had already instantly vanished and was keeping silent. Fangzheng felt as though he could see an unidentifiable biological creature run off with its tail between its legs. At that moment, he wished to kill the System to appease his mood!

The night passed very quickly. The next day, Fangzheng sat under the bodhi tree with his cell phone in hand. The first main page was a banner regarding City-Toppling Beauty!

"City-Toppling Beauty's first day box office results amount to only 20 million! Li Xueying suffers disastrous defeat!"

"Queen Snow Eagle perishes. City-Toppling Beauty's first day box office results abysmal."

"Who is to be blamed for City-Toppling Beauty's flop?"

…

Just any news article was filled with comments. All sorts of negative news and bad reviews followed one after another. Fangzheng knitted his brows tightly. He had already spent his merit, but had it been totally useless? This was not scientific!

He carefully checked the comments and slowly, Fangzheng realized a pattern. There were still good comments, but they were immediately drowned by others… Very clearly, someone was out to damage City-Toppling Beauty's results! However, why did they do so? Was there a need to do so?

At that moment, Fangzheng saw another piece of news titled: "Don't worry about City-Toppling Beauty's toppling. This year's greatest action-filled period blockbuster Frost Rain will be releasing soon! Starring many Asian superstars, we present to you this year's blockbuster! It is not something a particular beguiling film can compare with!"

Following that, there was a link that indicated that it would be aired on the 20th. Wasn't that today?

As he continued reading, he indeed saw more and more reports about Frost Rain. Furthermore, all the reports compared it with City-Toppling Beauty. They put down City-Toppling Beauty and heaped praises on Frost Rain. It was as though it was following a template.

Fangzheng pricked up his brows and said, "Whether the audience enjoys a movie should be left to them. Aren't they going overboard by putting down others?" Fangzheng also understood that certain things were not well-liked by everyone, especially movies with unique viewpoints. Not many people would like it. Most people went by the mantra: I'll mind my own business, but if people mess with me, I'll annihilate them completely.

However, from Fangzheng's point of view, annihilation was all fine and dandy, but who would notice the deaths during the annihilation process? After all, this was not fictional fantasy. Reality was just that cruel and death was inevitable. Victory might be glorious, but the deceased would only leave their loved ones in pain…

Viewing the problem from different angles naturally resulted in different opinions. Perhaps City-Toppling Beauty was not the best movie, but it suited Fangzheng's palate. If it really did not suite the palate of the masses, he could live with it turning out a flop, and he would not make any remark. However, such predatory competition seemed quite insidious.

Nonetheless, Fangzheng did not have any solutions. All he could do was monitor the situation.

Shaking his head, Fangzheng threw all his worries to the back of his mind. He went to the back of the mountains and lay in the bamboo forest to enjoy the serene and peaceful coolness.

Meanwhile, an ordinary jeep drove to the foot of Mt. One Finger. The door opened as a woman wearing a huge pair of sunglasses and headscarf alighted. She looked up at the mountain peak and behind her before heaving a long sigh of relief.

"Master, tell me what's so good about being a monk. You can't eat meat or enjoy women. All you can do daily other than daydreaming is daydreaming," asked Red Boy who was not dressed in his monk garbs today. He found the weather hot and simply wore his tiny dudou, airing his buttocks in the process. He crossed his legs and lay on the grass as he looked at the white clouds in the sky.

Fangzheng was lying beside Red Boy. His white monk robes appeared especially white on the emerald green grass as he said, "Then, what do you think is something nice to do?"

"Master, there aren't any outsiders here. I'm just airing grievances, so there's no need to lecture me," said Red Boy hurriedly when he sensed that Fangzheng's reply implied something else.

Fangzheng smiled and said, "I do not plan on lecturing you. I'm serious."

"Is that so? Then, answer me this first. Why do you want to stop being a monk in the future? Look at you now. You have property now. You have two buildings and an ancient building which is augmented with divine powers and gives off a clean and peaceful vibe. If we talk about the style, this is a renovated modern monastery with ancient aesthetics, isn't that so? This land, this quality, and this style would be the envy of countless elsewhere! At your age, few can achieve what you have achieved with their own abilities, right? Even if they do, do they have such a huge garden behind their house? You have a mountain! Then speaking of food, there's Crystal Rice, Unrooted Clean Aqua, and Frost Bamboo. Which one of those isn't the envy of others? You have no need to worry about food or drink, and you have money and territory. More importantly, your standing in your personal territory is definitely at the very top. Why do you wish to renounce asceticism even with such conditions? Isn't it good to be a monk?" asked Red Boy.

Fangzheng immediately answered with a question, "What about you? As a Child of Wealth under Guan Yin Bodhisattva, you get to be honored everywhere you go. You have status and divine powers. You live in the lap of luxury and do not need to worry about being bullied because of a huge backer. Why do you not want to be a monk?" As Fangzheng spoke, he rested on one arm as he held a stalk of bristlegrass in his mouth. He wore a look of casualness.

"I'm different from you. I'm a demon! You do not know how much freedom I had in the past… Heh heh, in my personal fief, I could say one plus one equaled three, and no one would dare rebut me! Anyone who dared do so would be thrown into a pot to be stewed," said Red Boy domineeringly.

Fangzheng smiled and asked, "And?"

"What else is there when what I say is final?" returned Red Boy with a question.

"It feels fresh for a year or two, but wouldn't you find the same old days on that mountain boring after a thousand years?"

Red Boy was taken aback. He mimicked Fangzheng and used his arm as a pillow as he held a bristlegrass in his mouth. As the bristlegrass' flowers swayed with the wind, Red Boy's emotions also swayed. Moments later, Red Boy replied, "It was indeed a little boring… The Earth Immortal World is extremely large and infinitely interesting. However, due to my limited cultivation, I could easily get into trouble if I were to wander around randomly."

"Your freedom was the same kind of freedom as a bird has in his cage. It's not true freedom."

Red Boy fell into thought. Moments later, Red Boy returned with a question, "Master, you strayed from the topic at hand. Shouldn't we be talking about you? Why did you end up talking about me?"

Fangzheng said, "Well, for me… I also yearn for freedom."

"Aren't you free now?" Red Boy was puzzled. The present Fangzheng could go anywhere he wanted without any worry for food or drink. Wasn't he free since no one controlled him?

Fangzheng smiled. "A frog in the well can only see a bird flying past and believe that the bird is free. The bird sees a fish in the ocean and thinks that the fish is free. But they do not know that the fish thinks of the bird's freedom as ultimate freedom in return. Although the world is large, it cannot be as large as one's heart."

"Master, do you have a broad heart?" asked Red Boy.

Fangzheng shook his head. "Not at all. In fact, I'm very small-minded. I was originally very easily satisfied, but now… To satisfy that tiny wish of mine, I have to forcefully squeeze a world into my heart. It's difficult."