This was an uncertain matter, something Lu Mingran dared not even think about.
"Old Yan, you must live."
After saying this, Lu Mingran walked out of the hotel room. At this moment, Lao Yan on the bed moved a finger, but Lu Mingran did not see it.
Lu Mingran went outside and boarded the bus he knew very well. This time, the driver even smiled at him, like an old acquaintance.
The car started moving, and Lu Mingran, feeling sleepy, gradually fell asleep.
As she slept, for some reason, Lu Mingran felt a coolness on the top of her head.
Is it because the window is open and the wind is too strong?
Lu Mingran, still half asleep, reached out and closed the window.
No, my head is still cold.
Lu Mingran subconsciously touched her head...
Wait a moment.
A bloodcurdling scream erupted from inside the carriage: "Where's my hair?"
The driver calmly continued driving.
As if the system had anticipated this, it quickly handed Lu Mingran a mirror and, in a barely perceptible gentle voice, coaxed him:
"Little Lu, look! Who is this handsome monk in the mirror?"
Lu Mingran looked at it and was stunned.
After a while, Lu Mingran said, "System, I request to swear."
"Hmm...you go ahead and say it..."
Lu Mingran almost burst into tears:
"That handsome monk from the Queen Mother of the West is me!"
Author's Note: I didn't shave Xiao Lu's head. I swear.
Chapter 42 Want to get on the small boat? No way (1)
Early in the morning, a black sedan drove along a misty mountain road. The people in the car all looked serious, and the person sitting in the back left seat by the window was so nervous that he dared not breathe loudly.
That person's name was Lin Jiansheng.
A month ago, Lin Jiansheng was just an ordinary junior high school teacher who spent his days leading his students to explore the ocean of knowledge. He was often having a great time, but halfway through, he would realize that more than half of his students had not yet entered the water.
These days were a bit chaotic, but still peaceful and happy, until March 12th.
Behind the school are mountains. This year, the newly appointed principal, with his first three initiatives, has taken to the mountains—he wants to lead the students to plant trees and have a meaningful and genuine Arbor Day.
As the homeroom teacher, Lin Jiansheng was basically in a state of rage that day, to the point of wanting to vomit blood. It was just planting a tree, but he saw so many dramas in his students: two boys fighting over helping a girl carry a bucket of water, a scene straight out of a Hong Kong gangster movie, and even more unexpectedly, a plot reminiscent of a horror movie.
The tree pits were dug in advance, and the students only needed to bury the saplings in them. One boy was eager to try with a shovel, but after shoveling it down, he felt like he had hit something hard.
It's bone, white bone.
Later, some villagers came and shouted for the students to disperse, saying it was a sheep bone and that they should bury it somewhere else. However, Lin Jiansheng stood still.
He saw a pair of animal paws wrapped around the waist of the boy holding the shovel. Lin Jiansheng couldn't recognize what kind of animal it was, but judging from its height, if it wanted to wrap around the boy's waist, it should be standing upright at this moment.
The scene flashed by.
After returning home, Lin Jiansheng felt uneasy and couldn't sleep soundly. The next day, the bad thing he had feared happened.
The boy asked for leave, saying he was seriously ill.
This mountain area is poor. In the past, there have been cases of students falling into ditches, and when the parents heard about it, they turned around and ran away, fearing that they would have to pay medical bills. Based on past experience and because of his own unease, Lin Jiansheng went to visit the families.
To Lin Jiansheng's surprise, the boy was sitting right at the door of his house, his face rosy and his hands busy picking corn.
Lin Jiansheng was just thinking that everything was fine when suddenly, the boy looked at him and smiled. The first thing he said sent chills down Lin Jiansheng's spine.
The boy spoke in a tone that sounded like a woman, and he was speaking a dialect from another region that was completely incomprehensible to Lin Jiansheng. Lin Jiansheng was stunned on the spot.
Then Lin Jiansheng saw those claws again.
At this moment, two men dressed in Zhongshan suits came out of the house. The one in the lead was called Lin Jiansheng, while the other waved his hand to signal him to be quiet and stared in the direction Lin Jiansheng was looking.
The parents said the two people were relatives.
A week later, the boy recovered and returned to school, while Lin Jiansheng suddenly received a notice that his file had been transferred and that he should report to a unit in the city the next day to start work.
After graduating from university, Lin Jiansheng was assigned to this place. For him, being able to transfer to the city was certainly a good thing, but the news came too suddenly.
Moreover, that organization wasn't a school, and it didn't seem to have anything to do with his major.
Lin Jiansheng felt like he had been tricked.
Take today for example. He was woken up early in the morning from the dormitory and got into the car with a few colleagues to carry out a mission. After washing up, Lin Jiansheng sat on the edge of the bed, obediently watching his colleagues continue packing.
A baton, a flashlight, a blood-stained knife...
Lin Jiansheng: ...What kind of weird stuff are you guys bringing? I'm ordering you, in the name of the disciplinary office, to put away all the controlled knives!
Lin Jiansheng squeezed into the same vehicle as these people. Now, the fog in front of the vehicle had dissipated, and Lin Jiansheng saw something that looked very familiar.
It was a swallow kite hanging on a tree branch. If Lin Jiansheng remembered correctly, he had seen it about ten minutes ago.
Beside him, the fat man, who was struggling to squeeze in with others, also saw it and spat out, "Damn it, we're in a maze."
Then someone said, "Open to the left."
The road to the left is a dead end.
If it were Lin Jiansheng a few days ago, he would have already shouted, "I want to go back to teaching!"
Lin Jiansheng was already used to it. When the car crashed straight into a large locust tree, and everyone was in a sorry state, he calmly said:
"I want to go back to teaching."
It turns out it wasn't a maze, but a genuine case of getting lost.
The task for the day was completed, but everyone was punished because one of the vehicles was totaled.
That evening, Lin Jiansheng was called into an office. As soon as he entered, he saw a smiling man wearing a Zhongshan suit.
He had seen this man before, at the student's house.
After some casual conversation and insincere greetings, the man suddenly gave a wicked smile, clapped his hands, and had a safe brought up.
Lin Jiansheng's eyes lit up.
The man opened the box and showed it to him. Inside were hundreds of file folders with his photo on them, but with completely different personal information.
Lin Jiansheng's eyes darkened.
"Come on, pick an identity."
As the man ran his thin fingers over each file folder, he looked up and scrutinized Lin Jiansheng's face. Boxing champion, private bodyguard... one identity after another flashed through the man's mind before his fingers finally stopped on one of the folders.
"Psychological counselor, you are educated, and Mr. Zhang is too lazy to investigate in detail, so you are suitable."
As he spoke, the man looked at him and smiled, "Nearsighted?"
"Your eyesight is excellent."
"No, no, I look more presentable with glasses on."
The man had actually prepared a pair of non-prescription glasses with thin gold frames. Lin Jiansheng thought they were old-fashioned, but he still tried them on.
The man's eyes lit up:
"Lin Jiansheng, do you know what a 'refined scoundrel' is? Well, you're pretty much like one."
Lin Jiansheng: ...I am a respectable people's teacher, and you are the one who is a degenerate scoundrel.
He thought to himself, and reached out to pull off his glasses, when the man suddenly said:
“I saw you going up the mountain in the middle of the night for your students, digging up the bones without changing your expression.”
"Put it on, it suits you well."
Lin Jiansheng stopped.
He put on his glasses, which meant he was about to take on a new mission.
The man said that you made a mistake today, and if you don't take on this task, you won't even be able to teach anymore.
After saying that, a dozen or so photos were laid out on the table.
The man showed him the photos while explaining them:
"Zhang Yier, the wealthy businessman, makes a lot of money, and he's a really bad person."
“We suspect that he and others used demons to harm people, as well as that he was involved in several previous crimes.”
"He's going on vacation soon, and coincidentally, he's short of both bodyguards and therapists."
Lin Jiansheng understood; this meant he was being asked to gather information.
"But you should be careful of one person."
Across from him, the man's expression suddenly turned serious.
He picked out a photo and pushed it in front of Lin Jiansheng, then pointed at it heavily with his finger several times:
“He was accompanied by a highly respected figure, Master Tongrong.”
Lin Jiansheng lowered his eyes and his gaze fell on the old photograph.
The photo shows an old monk meditating and chanting sutras in front of a Buddha statue; he looks kind and benevolent.
But as Lin Jiansheng looked around, his gaze involuntarily drifted to another spot.
On the right side of the picture, a young monk stands with his head bowed and his eyes closed. The light of the setting sun shines on his face, outlining a gentle golden hue.
————————
The sound of the wooden fish drum was incessant.
After getting off the bus, Lu Mingran arrived at the gate of a temple, and her clothes were changed into simple monk's robes without her realizing it.