"Dr. Lin, please stay here with me tonight. Don't mind."
"Mr. Zhang, you're too kind. Thank you."
As Lin Jiansheng said this, his eyes drifted towards Lu Mingran again.
At that time, Lu Mingran was just passing by. Since Lin Jiansheng looked at him again, he looked back openly and once again envied Lin Jiansheng's hair.
At this moment, Lin Jiansheng avoided his gaze and refused to look at him.
Lin Jiansheng thought to himself, "This monk is looking at me with a half-smile, he's really unfathomable. I wonder what he's thinking."
Soon, a servant came and led Lin Jiansheng to the guest room.
Lu Mingran was staying in the room where her master had lived. Having only eaten a bowl of porridge that night, Lu Mingran was a little hungry and went out to find something to eat. She happened to pass by Lin Jiansheng's room and found that he didn't seem to be asleep yet.
And it sounded like he was on the phone.
Lu Mingran understood; he knew this was a scene from a novel, and Lin Jiansheng was reporting the general situation to his superiors. He remembered the lines very clearly.
But wait a minute...
Standing outside the door, Lu Mingran, with the help of the system, seemed to hear a few lines of dialogue that were slightly different from what she expected:
"Yes, Mr. Zhang's children haven't come yet; he lives alone."
"There's one more thing. I didn't see Master Tongrong. I only saw a wicked monk next to him."
...
Lu Mingran: Hmm? A demonic monk? What demonic monk?
Chapter 44 Want to get on the small boat? No way (3)
In her confusion, Lu Mingran thought of a question.
Lin Jiansheng's voice was a bit loud.
Although this is a fictional world, and according to the setting, even if Lin Jiansheng were to make a phone call with a megaphone, no one would hear him, out of kindness, Lu Mingran felt she still had to remind him.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingran knocked on Lin Jiansheng's half-closed door.
After a few sounds, Lin Jiansheng pushed open the door. But when Lin Jiansheng saw Lu Mingran, he was visibly stunned for a moment.
He paused for a moment, then interrupted Lu Mingran, speaking first:
"Master, please wait a moment. I will speak to you after I am ready."
Huh? Lu Mingran was a little confused. It's just talking. What kind of preparation is needed? Do you have to check your mouth and throat before you speak?
However, Lu Mingran was too embarrassed to ask, so he just stood there dumbfounded and waited until Lin Jiansheng finally got ready and appeared in front of him dumbfounded as well.
As Lin Jiansheng walked, his clothes made a jingling sound.
By the light in the room, Lu Mingran saw that Lin Jiansheng had two Buddhist amulets around his neck and silver bracelets with runes engraved on his wrists—the key point was that he had them on both hands, and they were designed like prison-themed items.
Besides, Lin Jiansheng smeared cinnabar on his forehead, which made Lu Mingran want to reach out and dip her hand in the cinnabar to write a big "king" character on his forehead.
"Master, I'm ready. Speak."
Lin Jiansheng took a deep breath, ready to die, and resolutely refused to look Lu Mingran in the eye.
Now Lu Mingran knew who the demonic monk Lin Jiansheng was talking about was.
Lu Mingran recognized those things; they were all lent to Lin Jiansheng by his colleagues before he left. They said that Boss Zhang had a master guiding him, so he had to be careful and use them to protect his life.
But wait a minute, didn't you only use these during the boss battle?
Who gave you the right to use them against me!
————————
Since he's been called a demonic monk...
So, how could he live up to this title if he didn't do some of the things a demonic monk should do?
Lu Mingran decided not to go looking for food and instead headed home.
This room was where her master used to live, and everything in it was arranged with great care. Following her master's instructions, Lu Mingran first offered incense to the two memorial tablets on the small table—these were the memorial tablets of a couple who had been murdered by Boss Zhang.
After that came the chanting of scriptures, supposedly to help others pass on to the afterlife, but in reality, it was to suppress the spirits of the dead. Lu Mingran, of course, didn't know how to chant scriptures, so the system planned to take control of his body to help him.
Lu Mingran hesitated for a moment. Based on the novel's plot and what he could see at hand, Boss Zhang really had too many lives on his hands. Take this couple, for example; the whole family of three died at one of Boss Zhang's construction sites. Their son's body was used as a human sacrifice and poured into a cement pillar, and it has not been found to this day.
The system guessed Lu Mingran's thoughts and said that it was fine if he wanted to recite other scriptures that would benefit them, but this would speed up the backlash against Boss Zhang—according to the mission requirements, he could not die silently, but had to die knowing why.
"Then I'll do it quickly."
The system granted Lu Mingran's request and took control of his body. Soon after, Lu Mingran lost control of himself and could only feel himself kneeling on a prayer mat, his eyes closed, his lips moving slightly as he chanted some scriptures at an extremely fast pace.
The atmosphere in the room became extremely oppressive. Lu Mingran heard the woman's laughter and felt something tugging at his eyelids.
Gradually, Lu Mingran's consciousness detached, and another "him" stood to the side, seeing himself sitting upright on the futon chanting scriptures, while the small boxes on the table were trembling violently. The more violently the boxes trembled, the redder the large patch of skin from the monk's neck to his chest became, as if it were about to burn.
No matter how the situation changed, the man's face always remained cold and indifferent, as if the rapidly rising body temperature had nothing to do with him.
Lu Mingran had never seen himself like this before, and he stared in disbelief. It wasn't until the ancient jade pendant around his neck suddenly emitted an extremely soft green light that he returned to his body and abruptly opened his eyes.
"The color on your skin won't fade for now," the system said. "You and your master always have some strange reactions after doing things for Boss Zhang. This is something I did to help you get away with it."
Oh, actually, apart from her skin looking a little red, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong.
Lu Mingran's legs had gone numb from kneeling, and he stood up unsteadily. Just then, there was an ancient bronze mirror in front of him. He pulled at his collar to examine his skin, and unconsciously a smile appeared on his face, the corners of his lips curving upwards.
System: "Stop laughing, or you'll really become a demonic monk."
————————————
Lu Mingran was woken up by a commotion the next day. It seemed that some reporters had come to interview her in the lobby downstairs, and there was a chaotic mess.
He went up to the second floor and looked down, only to see Lin Jiansheng dealing with these people all by himself. This teacher had never seen anything like it before; he just stood there reciting his lines.
"I'm sorry, my patient needs to rest."
He could only repeat these words over and over again, and that was enough. Because this was a charade orchestrated by his department, designed to convince Boss Zhang that choosing Lin Jiansheng was the right decision.
The reporters dispersed in twos and threes, and the hall returned to calm.
"Ding"—a news pop-up appeared on the phone quickly, the cover photo showing Lin Jiansheng being interviewed by a group of reporters. Surrounded by reporters, Lin Jiansheng, dressed in a sharp suit, adjusted his glasses with one hand, reciting a carefully crafted, seamless lie. Beside him, the black headline was eye-catching: "Zhang, a wealthy businessman, is suspected of suffering from depression."
The department had altered Lin Jiansheng's appearance and identity, and the name published in the newspaper was also a pseudonym, so no old acquaintances would recognize him.
Lu Mingran read the comments. Half of them were saying that depression is a very serious matter and shouldn't be exploited to gain sympathy. The other half were young girls saying that when they had money, they would definitely hire Dr. Lin to stay by their side, saying good morning to them and good night to them.
Oh? You've booked this person?
Lu Mingran moved her phone away and looked at the man.
The person downstairs was indeed as described in the comments section: pale skin, impeccably dressed, and perhaps even more so.
Well...
With such great skin, it would be a shame not to get cupping done.
Lu Mingran lowered her head and typed these words in the comments section, then finished her work and continued watching Lin Jiansheng.
Tsk, scum.
Lin Jiansheng, who was still standing in the lobby, noticed the amused gaze from upstairs and looked up, meeting Lu Mingran's eyes.
Lu Mingran continued to look at him this way, feeling it was very fair.
If you look at me with the eyes of someone looking at a demonic monk, then I will look at you with the eyes of someone looking at a scoundrel.
And so, the monk upstairs and the doctor downstairs silently stared at each other. The nanny wondered what Dr. Lin was looking at with his neck craned back, and whether his neck hurt. Liu Ma, who was mopping the floor, was annoyed that Lu Mingran was standing there in her way and was blocking her way, so she circled around Lu Mingran.
When Boss Zhang returned, the two finally moved to a different spot and sat facing each other at the long table, waiting for him.
As soon as Boss Zhang arrived, he noticed the red mark on Lu Mingran's neck and said thank you for your hard work. At that moment, Lin Jiansheng also looked at Lu Mingran's neck.
His gaze was full of tension and a hint of disdain. As Lu Mingran looked at his expression, the words "demon monk" that he had mentioned last night played on repeat in her mind.
What kind of wicked monk are you? I'm here to force you back onto the podium, okay?
When Lu Mingran got down to business, she noticed that Mr. Zhang had barely uttered a single sentence in Cantonese when she sternly told him:
“Please speak Mandarin, sir.”
"Come on, repeat after me: rice, fruit, this is the table..."
Mr. Zhang suspected that Lu Mingran was playing him for a fool.
But the young master was teaching with utmost seriousness, so serious that Boss Zhang swallowed countless swear words and opened his mouth to repeat one of them.
"Oh dear, that's still not right."
Suddenly, a sentence that should have been spoken by Lu Mingran was uttered by someone else.
Lu Mingran turned her head in surprise, only to see that Lin Jiansheng, who had been quiet just now, had rolled up his sleeves, his temper mixed with a hint of patience.
"Come on, follow me and pronounce the pinyin: sofa, shi a—sha, sha—..."
Well, the monks finished teaching the doctors and then they started teaching the monks.
Boss Zhang felt the curse he had finally managed to swallow suddenly being shouted in his ear: "Let me curse! Let me curse!"
Lu Mingran: ...? Why did you suddenly go back to your old profession, male lead?
Lin Jiansheng: Little Master, why did you start my story with the word "teacher"?
This time, after exchanging glances, Lu Mingran and Lin Jiansheng quickly reached an agreement and immediately began to smooth things over.
Lu Mingran coughed softly and then laughed:
"Dr. Lin, I know Mr. Zhang has recently been suffering from depression. What you just did... was it situational therapy?"
Lin Jiansheng's smile was also mechanical:
"Yes, talk therapy, it's called talk therapy."
After saying that, the two of them looked at Boss Zhang together.
————————
The talk therapy ended in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. However, afterward, Boss Zhang privately instructed the nanny that he must not let Dr. Lin and Master Mingran sit too close together in the future, otherwise, the two of them would try to give him talk therapy whenever they got together, and he really couldn't handle such VIP treatment.