Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 79 - 79 79 That's What Love Is!

79: Chapter 79: That’s What Love Is!

79: Chapter 79: That’s What Love Is!

A stick of incense ago.

Zhang San was thinking about how Zhao Siyang could take him and leave this place.

After all, if he continued to stay here, he would inevitably be found by the people from the Town Martial Office.

Zhang San himself wasn’t sure if there was something on him that the Town Martial Office could use to track him down.

Especially since Shadow was about to return soon, it made it even harder for him to escape alone.

But if Zhao Siyang was around, he should have the ability to deal with Shadow.

“Zhao Siyang, why don’t you go find Third Miss Gan?”

Zhao Siyang shook his head and said faintly, “Maybe I really don’t have a heart.”

“I came here because I have no heart, hoping to be deceived.

Yet after being deceived, I didn’t even feel sad.

Zhang San, why is that?”

Why else?

Because you’re a fool!

Of course, Zhang San definitely couldn’t say that out loud.

“That’s love!”

Zhao Siyang didn’t understand much about love.

Hearing Zhang San say this, he became curious and asked, “Really?”

Zhang San immediately put on a serious and firm expression, smiled, and nodded, “Of course, you’re my brother.

If you call me Brother San, how could I deceive you!”

Not mentioning the last sentence would have been better.

Upon hearing it, Zhao Siyang gave Zhang San a blank look.

But still, Zhao Siyang felt, perhaps there was indeed something different between him and Third Miss Gan?

“If you really like someone, is being deceived also a form of happiness?”

Zhao Siyang seemed to be asking, yet it also seemed like he was talking to himself.

But when he touched his chest, he couldn’t feel the slightest ripple of emotion.

Zhang San didn’t pay attention to Zhao Siyang’s musings.

He had his own problems to worry about, let alone comforting others.

Zhao Siyang was indeed deceived, but it was clear Zhao Siyang knew from the start that he was supposed to be deceived.

But what about himself?

He had been deceived by a whole group of people!

Not right!

Zhang San thought carefully, and judging from the interactions everyone had with him all the time, he could first be sure that Wei didn’t know he was a follower of the Demon Sect.

Otherwise, Wei would never have told him something was wrong.

Xu was really a good person, kind to everyone.

Given his character, it would be hard not to show flaws, but recalling all his interactions with Xu, Xu was genuinely kind to him, not pretending.

Big Head Wang…

his brain probably didn’t allow him to deceive himself.

At least if he wanted to deceive someone, he definitely wouldn’t let Big Head Wang know about it.

Wang Ziteng didn’t even need to be mentioned, really smarter than Big Head Wang, but for some reason even easier to deceive.

The kind of stupidity that’s too clear because one doesn’t use their brain, even when they have one.

Sister Ling was also very nice to him, completely indistinguishable as a pretense.

After all, Zhang San specialized in deception and only realized after running it through his mind that among all the people, it was only Officer Bai Yucheng and Shadow who seemed a bit tense every time they saw him, and their overly polite words seemed somewhat fake.

It seems, among all the people, only Officer Bai Yucheng and Shadow knew that he had once been part of the Heavenly Punishment Sect.

So the question came, how should he escape?

So, Zhang San turned his attention again to Zhao Siyang, who seemed to be the strongest among everyone he knew at the moment.

“Little brother!

Does your Taoist temple still accept Taoists?”

Zhao Siyang was still pondering the matter of his heart and glanced at Zhang San with a look of disdain, “What do you want?”

“I heard that if you become a monk, the sins you committed before are not pursued.

Is that true?”

Zhao Siyang furrowed his brows.

Did he accidentally damage Zhang San’s brain just now?

Why did it feel like after sitting down for a while upon coming back, Zhang San was not normal?

“Where did you hear such ludicrous statements?

If you want to become a monk, you need a Tonsure Certificate, and only the government office can give you that.

So, do you guess if the government will pursue your crimes after you join my Taoism?”

Zhang San grimaced, how come this was nothing like how they show it in the dramas!

“Then can I go visit your Taoist temple, stay for a short while?

That should be fine, right?”

Zhang San had decided that life was short and the latter half of his life was just a short span of time, which was absolutely right.

“It’s not entirely impossible.”

When Zhang San saw that Zhao Siyang had agreed, he was overjoyed.

Just then, footsteps came from outside.

Following that, several figures walked into the dilapidated temple.

It was indeed the people from the Town Martial Office, led by Officer Bai.

Zhang San secretly thought this was bad!

“Humph!

Zhao Siyang, our people from the Heavenly Punishment Sect have arrived, you can’t escape!”

Zhao Siyang looked puzzled, ‘When it was just the two of us earlier, you didn’t talk like this.’

“Don’t look at me!

Even if you stare at me, even if now you rush over, strangle my neck, and use me to threaten the people of the Heavenly Punishment Sect, and then break out through the window behind and fly away with me riding a flying sword, you still won’t escape.”

For some reason, Zhao Siyang felt something.

Zhang San seemed to really wish that he would kidnap and take him away again.

Can being kidnapped be addictive?

Upon hearing Zhang San’s words, Xu was the first to react.

“The leader is reminding us, secure the back window, surround him!”

The crowd immediately rushed over, blocking every possible escape route from the small dilapidated temple.

Zhang San felt desperate.

Surrounded by the five people who had once again formed the Five Elements Mutual Killing Formation, Zhao Siyang looked confused.

“Little Taoist, let go of Wang Ziteng!”

Officer Bai shouted aloud, looking quite authoritative.

Turning his head toward Zhang San outside the Five Elements Mutual Killing Formation, Zhao Siyang’s eyes were full of confusion.

“I didn’t even touch him!”

At this moment, a martial artist from the Town Martial Office stepped in front of Zhang San, protecting him.

“Leader, we are late.”

“It’s okay.”

Zhang San said it was okay, but he actually memorized the face of this person who had just cut off his last hope of escape.

Isn’t this the fool who harassed Sister Ling last time?

He would find a chance to beat him up another time!

Bai Yucheng also quickly came over, bowing to Zhang San.

After all, Zhang San was still nominally the leader of this military unit from the Heavenly Punishment Sect.

“We are late.

Where might that female thief be now?”

Zhang San sighed helplessly, now that he was back in the same trap, what could he do but keep playing along?

“Don’t know her whereabouts, but the blueprints should still be on the female thief.

In that case, you continue to pursue her outside.

I was injured earlier, I’ll recover here.

You all go, and find those blueprints as that’s the priority, don’t worry about me.”

Xu immediately came over and said, “How could we not worry about you?

Big Head Wang, Ye Fan and I will stay…

This Little Taoist seems suspicious, we’ll keep an eye on him too.”

Zhang San waved his hands refusing.

“Although this Little Taoist was distracted by lust, I have already reformed him, didn’t you see that he doesn’t resist now?”

While Bai Yucheng started to inspect the interior of the small dilapidated temple, he said, “No matter, we’ll wait for you to recover, and then set off together.

It’s good for everyone to rest properly.”

As he spoke, Bai Yucheng went to the back window, looked outside for a moment, then turned to everyone and said, “Inside the Ghost Domain, dangers abound, one must never let down their guard, otherwise…”

Puff—

Bai Yucheng hadn’t finished speaking when a flying sword from a distance pierced his back and exited through his chest, soaking half of his body in bright red blood.

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[Note 37]

Tonsure Certificate.

This can be understood as a monkhood licensing certificate, not issued by monks or nuns in temples, but held in the hands of local government offices.

After all, in ancient times, fertility was encouraged—the more people, the more tax revenue.

Monks and nuns not only did not pay taxes or serve, but even the secular workers and peasants affiliated with religious sites often only paid taxes and served in the temples.

Under these circumstances, the quotas for religious orders were inevitably strictly controlled.

In the Tang Dynasty, this task was conducted under the Ministry of Rites’ Si Department, but in practice, authority was decentralized to local offices.

They would investigate whether the applicant’s family background was honorable, whether their character was noble, and they even had to pass a cultural literacy test, and sometimes even pay money!

In the middle of Emperor Zhongzong’s reign, a butcher who wanted to buy a Tonsure Certificate to atone for his life of slaughtering animals had to pay thirty thousand coins!

The above information is referenced from Senlin Lu’s “Guide to Settling in the Tang Dynasty.”