ebookland Chapter 721 A Pure Love Warrior Charging Forward for Love
Chapter 721 A Pure Love Warrior Charging Forward for Love
As Nana watched Hu Youyu excitedly head upstairs, she turned her gaze away, but then inadvertently noticed that Ma Qiushan, who was sitting next to her, seemed a little off.
In the warm yellow light of the lanterns, Master Ma's fingers, which were holding the prayer beads, were trembling slightly, causing the glossy beads to make a soft, irregular clinking sound. His usually calm and relaxed brows were now slightly furrowed, and his eyes were somewhat unfocused, completely unlike his usual composed demeanor.
"Master Ma?" Nana leaned closer with concern, her voice even softer. "Are you... alright? Why do you seem to be trembling? Are you feeling unwell?"
Ma Qiushan was brought back to his senses by Nana's voice, suddenly realizing his lapse in composure. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his somewhat disordered breathing, his fingertips tightening as he gripped the prayer beads. He forced a reassuring smile, but his voice was lower and hoarse than usual: "No... nothing. Perhaps... um, I do suddenly feel a bit cold." He paused, as if to add more persuasiveness, and then added, "As people get older, their blood and energy aren't as vigorous as yours, so feeling a chill at night is quite common."
Hearing Ma Qiushan's words, Nana reached out with some confusion, lingering her hand in the cool night air for a moment—the evening breeze caressed her skin, carrying a just-right refreshing coolness; although cooler than during the day, it was certainly not enough to make her shiver. She glanced at Ma Qiushan's slightly tense profile, understanding that he might have other reasons for not wanting to elaborate, so she considerately refrained from pressing the matter, simply smiling gently: "Then please take care to keep warm; the night air can be a bit chilly."
Just then, Hu Youyu excitedly knocked on the door of room number 5.
The intense keyboard clatter and game sound effects inside the room abruptly stopped. A moment later, the door creaked open, and Lin Bufan, with his slightly messy hair, poked his head out, his face still radiating the excitement of his dominance in the game.
"Hello, hello!" As soon as Hu Youyu saw Lin Bufan, he immediately put on a warm smile and introduced himself in a very familiar manner: "I am Hu Youyu, I live in room 4. I usually sing at the Ancient City Bar. Everyone calls me Lao Hu! I heard that a new neighbor has come, so I brought some barbecue for a late-night snack. Come down and have some, and get to know each other?"
"Okay, Lao Hu, that's great! You go first, I'll be right down!" Lin Bufan readily accepted Hu Youyu's invitation, grinning to reveal two rows of neat white teeth.
He retreated back into the room and quickly returned to his computer. The game was in full swing, and his character was crouching in the bushes with his teammates. Lin Bufan's hands flew across the keyboard as he typed a message in the team chat:
"Alright, I'm done playing with you four rascals. I have an important diplomatic engagement downstairs. You bastards, Jiahe, Wenwen, and that other one... Oh, and Big Stone, you can go play with your eggs!"
The moment the message was sent, the game channel exploded, with teammates' angry outbursts flooding the screen like a torrential downpour:
Sang Biao: "You unfilial son, you unfilial son, you heartless bastard who only cares about women! You promised to fight until dawn! Now you're AFK, may you be struck by lightning!"
Jiahe: "Brother!!! You can't do this! You promised to double my allowance next week if you helped me win this game! This is fraud! Blatant fraud!"
Wenwen: "Brother-in-law, you've gone too far! We're about to be deployed! This is desertion at the last minute, you'll be court-martialed!"
Luo Yan: "You bastard! This is my promotion match! My points! My rank! I'm going to make Da Bao put wasabi in your cola!"
Lin Bufan chuckled as he watched the scrolling comments on the screen. Without a second thought, he quit the game and shut down his computer in one swift motion. He casually ruffled his slightly disheveled hair and cheerfully opened the door to go downstairs.
Down in the courtyard, Hu Youyu saw Lin Bufan come down and enthusiastically handed him a skewer of sizzling beef: "Come on, don't be shy, this barbecue is the best in Yunmiao Village!"
While enjoying her skewers, Nana couldn't help but complain, "Of course! This is the best barbecue place out there. If it's not number one, who is?"
"Thanks, Lao Hu!" Lin Bufan took the barbecue and sat down casually on an empty chair. He took a bite of beef and glanced at the three people present—the cheerful Hu Youyu, the gentle Nana, and... Ma Qiushan, whose body seemed to sit up a little straighter almost imperceptibly after he got off.
Lin Bufan seemed completely oblivious to Ma Ye's subtle tension. While chewing on his roasted meat, he greeted Ma Qiushan with a bright smile: "Hey, Old Ma's here too! How's it going? Your legs aren't numb anymore, are they? I told you, more movement improves blood circulation. See, I have some free time now, let's have a little sparring session..."
"Cough cough!" Ma Qiushan coughed suddenly, as if he had choked on the air. He quickly waved his hand to interrupt Lin Bufan, his tone slightly hurried: "Alright, alright! Mr. Lin, the matter of sparring... we can discuss it later, later! Let's... let's eat first, so as not to disappoint Youyu's kindness." As he spoke, he quickly picked up a skewer of grilled mushrooms and began to eat them intently, as if the mushrooms were some kind of work of art that needed careful study.
As he was eating, Ma Qiushan suddenly noticed that apart from Lin Bufan still enjoying his skewers, Nana and Hu Youyu had stopped and were staring at him blankly!
Seeing this, Ma Qiushan asked curiously, "Eat up, why are you all staring at me?"
Nana and Hu Youyu exchanged a glance, both seeing disbelief in each other's eyes. Finally, Hu Youyu spoke first, pointing to the skewers of grilled mushrooms in Ma Qiushan's hand, his tone filled with surprise: "Master Ma, you...you've always insisted on not eating after noon, haven't you? It's already midnight..."
Ma Qiushan's hand, holding the skewers of grilled mushrooms, suddenly froze in mid-air, his expression instantly solidifying. He then realized that he had been startled by Lin Bufan's "sparring" remark and had instinctively tried to find something to do to mask his nervousness, which had caused his carefully constructed persona to crumble!
“Uh… this…” Ma Qiushan’s fingers tightened unconsciously as he twirled the prayer beads, his mind racing, but he forced himself to remain calm. He slowly placed the mushroom skewers back on the plate, cleared his throat, and tried to salvage his image as a wise and enlightened person: “Ahem… you are all unaware of this. The path of cultivation values naturalness and harmony, and one should not be too attached to appearances. This practice of not eating after noon was originally a precept established by the Buddha for his disciples. Its original intention was to reduce desires and diligently cultivate, not to be a rigid dogma.”
His gaze swept over the curious faces of the group, and he continued in a serious tone, “For example, this barbecue was brought back by Youyu with a sincere heart to share with the neighbors. This is a good deed, and also an act of charity. If I were to refuse it outright because of my attachment to the rule of not eating after noon, wouldn’t I be going against Youyu’s good intentions, creating discrimination, and only increasing my attachment? The Diamond Sutra says: ‘One should abide nowhere and yet give rise to the mind.’ At this moment, letting go of the attachment to the rule of not eating after noon, responding to things as they come, with the mind not abiding, is true practice. The saying ‘eat when hungry, sleep when tired’ is the same principle. Moreover…”
Ma Qiushan paused, seemingly considering his words, before concluding with a touch of magnanimity: "Occasionally making an exception to experience the warmth of human life and the kindness of neighbors, tempering one's heart amidst the hustle and bustle of the world, may allow one to glimpse one's true nature more effectively than simply retreating into seclusion. Therefore, this skewer... is delicious, delicious!"
This seemingly profound and well-researched explanation left not only Hu Youyu and Nana speechless, but even Lin Bufan, who had some knowledge of Mount Maqiu through movies and TV dramas, completely bewildered.
Hu Youyu scratched his head: "Master Ma, your reasoning sounds quite reasonable, but something just doesn't feel right..."
Nana smiled gently and considerately followed up, saying, "Whatever Master Ma says goes. As long as you feel comfortable, that's all that matters."
"Free and easy, naturally free and easy." Ma Qiushan picked up his teacup and took a sip, concealing the slight embarrassment that was hard to detect. However, his eyes secretly glanced at Lin Bufan, afraid that he would bring up the matter of "sparring" again.
Lin Bufan gave Ma Qiushan a thumbs up, his face filled with undisguised admiration: "Brilliant, Old Ma! As expected of a cultivator, you explained the principles so clearly and thoroughly! To be able to talk about breaking precepts... no, about responding to things as they come, in such a fresh and refined way, full of Zen wisdom, your level is definitely at this level!" As he spoke, Lin Bufan shook his thumb vigorously again.
Lin Bufan's praise was genuine. After all, unlike his unreasonable and persistent arguments, Master Renma's sophistry, which was based on classical texts, seemed much more reasonable and well-founded, and was worth copying and learning!
Ma Qiushan couldn't discern how genuine Lin Bufan's "praise" was, so he simply gave Lin Bufan a mysterious smile and didn't reply.
Seeing this, Hu Youyu laughed and naturally took over the conversation. He looked at Lin Bufan curiously: "Brother Lin, stop talking about Master Ma, let's talk about you. Why did you decide to come here? Are you here for tourism?"
Lin Bufan put down the skewers in his hand, took a tissue to wipe his mouth, then straightened his back, put on an expression that was a mixture of solemnity and deep affection, cleared his throat and said, "I am a pure love warrior who charges forward for love!"
Upon hearing Lin Bufan's sudden introduction, the three people in the courtyard were stunned.
Ma Qiushan paused, his hand still holding the prayer beads, and murmured in confusion, "Charging forward for love?"
Nana blinked too: "Pure Love Warrior?"
"Who is it? Who is it?" Hu Youyu immediately perked up, leaning forward and scanning back and forth between Lin Bufan and Nana with a mischievous smile. He lowered his voice and asked, "Brother Lin, you wouldn't happen to be... here for our Nana, would you?"
"Hu Youyu! Are you looking for a beating?!" Nana's face instantly turned red, both ashamed and angry. She stood up and swung at Hu Youyu.
Hu Youyu quickly covered her head and dodged, laughing and begging for forgiveness: "Oh! Just kidding, Nana! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay!"
Nana glared at him, then sat up straight, straightened her clothes, and couldn't help but look at Lin Bufan, her eyes sparkling with gossip: "So... did you come for Hongdou or Nanxing?"
Lin Bufan blinked, a naive and innocent expression on his face, as if he were saying something perfectly natural: "Why can't it be for the two of them!"
As soon as Lin Bufan finished speaking, the courtyard fell into an eerie silence.
The rustling of leaves in the evening breeze was exceptionally clear.
The atmosphere at the scene was so awkward that it almost seemed to solidify.
Damn it, do you even know what pure love is?
Hu Youyu was the first to recover from his petrified state. He coughed twice, trying to break the suffocating silence, and quickly changed the subject to a safer one: "Ahem... Well, Brother Lin, you really have... lofty ambitions! By the way, after chatting for so long, I still don't know what you do for a living? Did you resign this time, or did you take a leave of absence to relax?"
"Work? It's pretty varied, and it might be a long story." Lin Bufan picked up a skewer of roasted potato chips, took a bite, and said casually, "First of all, I guess I'd also consider myself a musician."
"A musician?" Hu Youyu's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this, and he leaned forward involuntarily. "A fellow musician! Brother Lin, what style do you play? Are you a songwriter or a performer? Have you released any works?"
Lin Bufan slowly swallowed the food in his mouth, cleared his throat, and put on a very humble expression, but what he said was anything but humble: "As for style, it's hard to define, after all, I'm quite versatile. Pop, rock, folk, R&B... I can basically handle them all. As for my role—songwriting, singing, arranging, producing, I guess I'd call myself an all-rounder."
I debuted at a superstar level. My singing voice... well, let's just say it's a voice kissed by God. As for songwriting, I can casually whip up a hit song, easily topping the charts. My arrangement and production are decent too; I can handle various styles. And I have some dancing experience; my fans insist on crowning me the Asian Dance King, and I simply can't refuse their kind requests.”
Hu Youyu was stunned, his mouth twitching wildly: "Wait, wait a minute, Brother Lin, are you serious? I've never heard of you in this circle before?"
“Perhaps my other identities are too dazzling,” Lin Bufan said helplessly, his expression so sincere that no one could find fault with him. “Compared to that, the identity of a musician seems a bit… well, not worth mentioning. So it’s normal that it hasn’t spread much and you haven’t heard of it.”
Then, Lin Bufan continued, counting on his fingers, as if reciting a familiar story: "Besides being a musician... I can barely be considered a self-made, incredibly wealthy young entrepreneur! I also do some charity work, donating hundreds of millions every now and then! Oh, right, I also know a little about medicine, specializing in treating all kinds of terminal illnesses, known as the 'Miracle Doctor Lin Who Brings the Dead Back to Life.' I recently cured a patient with late-stage pancreatic cancer! Occasionally, when I'm bored, I also do some scientific research to improve the global level of science and technology. Of course, this is only part of my titles. As for the others, I won't go into detail, otherwise I might not be able to finish talking for three days and three nights!"