Chapter 84: Victory and Defeat
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
Thinking back to his words and the words that were said before him, Ouyang Huazai suddenly came to the realization that the past few decades he had lived had been for nothing! His words were in the form of a wild script but now, it looked like wild gra.s.s! It was bulls.h.i.+t and not worth a thing! The words in front of him now were what true words were. A single character was like a dragon, and two characters were worth their weight in gold.
Ouyang Huazai fell into a daze right there and then. Many people turned perplexed. How ugly was the text that it caused such a reaction in Ouyang Huazai?
When people came over to take a look, one by one they felt as if they were struck by lightning. Was this written by a person?
And at that very moment, Fangzheng had finally finished all his errands. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself, “Although it’s rather menial, it has become a habit. If I don’t finish it, it feels like back when I was playing truant. My heart just feels unease. Now, with everything done, I can finally while my time away in peace.
Just as he said that, there was knocking on the main door.
Fangzheng was baffled. What now? The compet.i.tion was done. He had finished writing, so why did they come knocking again? A huge group came, with not one of them burning any incense. All they knew was to make a din. They lacked basic courtesy!
Fangzheng opened the door and saw a group of people outside staring at him with reddened eyes.
Fangzheng was surprised as he took a deep breath and said, “Amitabha. Patrons, is there anything?”
“Little Monk, were these words really written by you?” Ouyang Huazai was the first to ask.
Fangzheng frowned and said, “That was written by This Penniless Monk. Why? Do you have any questions, Patron? This Penniless Monk already said earlier that he doesn’t know how to write. The words written can hardly be placed on a pedestal of elegance-”
Puah! Puah! Puah!
The moment they heard Fangzheng’s words, quite a number of people nearly vomited blood!
The ones that came today were basically all members of the Calligraphy a.s.sociation. Which one of them lacked skill? Although their completed works of calligraphy might not be sold for large amounts of money, it was not a problem for any of them to earn their meals in return. That was actually what they were most complacent about.
However, when they compared their works with Fangzheng’s calligraphy, they felt that theirs were worse than s.h.i.+t! And the calligraphy that they viewed as divine was nothing but trash in Fangzheng’s eyes! Then what was the calligraphy they produced? Worse than trash?
Wasn’t this too much a face smacking!?
Thinking back to their complacent att.i.tudes and thinking back to how they had viewed Fangzheng with contempt, as well as the way they had mocked him, all of them began blus.h.i.+ng. They yearned to bore a hole into the ground and hide in it. It was too much of a face smacking! It was painful!
Ouyang Huazai stared intently at Fangzheng. Fangzheng had a perplexed look as he thought to himself, “Does this guy like men? System, if I get raped, it’s not considered a violation of the precepts, right?”
The System answered in all seriousness, “It’s considered!”
Fangzheng was immediately rendered speechless. He thought to himself, “That counts as well? Alright, then it looks like This Penniless Monk will have to kill today.”
“I refuse to believe that!” at that moment, Pancake Face yelled suddenly.
“You don’t believe it?” Monkey was infuriated and grabbed Pancake Face’s collar, yelling, “Say that again?”
“Kacha!” There was a flash as Monkey saw Chen Jing lower his camera. He said eccentrically, “As expected of a wild evil monk. No one saw him write those words. Who knows if he took out a piece of work that had already been completed while no one was paying attention. There is no room for reason, and violence is used once we probe further? What boors!”
Monkey was incensed as he pointed at Chen Jing and shouted, “Punk, watch your language!”
“I’m watching it well. There’s no need for you to remind me,” Chen Jing said with a snort.
Wu Changxi said angrily, “Chen Jing, don’t you speak nonsense! How did we prepare it ahead of time? The topic was raised by President Jiang Songyun himself. How can we prepare it ahead of time? If we prepared it ahead of time, doesn’t it mean that we have colluded with President Jiang Songyun?”
When Jiang Songyun heard that, his face sunk as he turned grim.
When Chen Jing saw this, he gave a faint smile, but it ended up hurting the wounds he had received from Fatty. He grimaced in pain as he said through gritted teeth, “President Jiang will naturally not collude with this evil monk, but there is this one thing in this world that is called luck! ‘Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff’ is just too famous. It’s not impossible that you got a calligraphy expert to write it for you ahead of time.”
“You!” Wu Changxi was extremely infuriated.
Fangzheng frowned when he saw the turn of events. Chen Jing had been finding fault with him from the beginning. He still did not learn his lesson after being beaten. What an irritating fella!
However, Jiang Songyun heaved a sigh of relief and said, “What Little Chen said might be a little unorthodox, but it is logically sound.”
“Jiang Songyun, don’t you know shame at all?” Wu Changxi said angrily.
Jiang Songyun said, “Wu Changxi, mind your language. Although the chances of what Chen Jing said are very low, it cannot be eliminated! The ones that saw the Little Monk write were only limited to the few of you. All of you are on the Little Monk’s side. How can we believe your words? It cannot be proven unless the Little Monk writes another. If the words are the same, I’ll naturally have nothing else to say.”
“You might not believe them, but what happens if I confirm?” at that moment, Jing Yan spoke out.
“Jing Yan, you?” Chen Jing immediately turn anxious when he saw Jing Yan speak out on Fangzheng’s behalf.
Jing Yan did not even bother looking at him as she said, “Why is there a need to go through this trouble? Master is a man beyond this world. This is a temple, and it’s not suitable to make a din here. The compet.i.tion was something Master did not wish to partic.i.p.ate in, yet you forced him to do. Now, you still want Master to rewrite it? Isn’t that showing him too much disrespect? Don’t you want proof? Take out the camera. My cameraman recorded the entire process. If you want to see it, go ahead!”
With that said, Chen Jing’s face immediately turned green. He had found Jing Yan somewhat strange from the beginning. He was surprised that she had offered to help the young monk grind the ink! Now, Jing Yan was even speaking up for the young monk. He only felt greener with envy.
He had caused trouble for Fangzheng because Fangzheng had released the wolf on him, biting him. He had been disgraced in front of Jing Yan, so he wanted revenge. But now, his jealousy exceeded everything else.
“Let me see!” at that moment, Ouyang Huazai spoke out. Jiang Songyun and company looked each other in the eye and immediately followed.
A video was a video after all. Many things could not be captured, especially the stance and state Fangzheng was in when he was writing. However, it could at least prove that the calligraphy was written by Fangzheng!
Everyone exchanged looks and were left speechless. Jiang Songyun’s face turned slightly red. This figurative slap was truly painful!
Ouyang Huazai looked at Jiang Songyun and then back at Fangzheng. He murmured into Jiang Songyun’s ears and said, “President Jiang, on this matter, I think…”
“I get it. Don’t worry. I know what to do,” Jiang Songyun nodded without waiting for Ouyang Huazai to finish his words.
“President Jiang, can we announce the outcome now?” Wu Changxin asked.
Jiang Songyun nodded and took a deep breath. “The young monk’s calligraphy is indeed not bad. It’s very magnificent and Buddha-like. It is truly rare for the words to look like a portrait. He has the style of a master.”
With that said, Wu Changxi, Fatty, and Monkey were overjoyed. However, Fangzheng frowned. Were his words really that good? Why didn’t he know? Compared to the true Dragon Buddha Epithet, his words were nothing but a pile of stinking s.h.i.+t!