Father is a villainous Buddhist disciple? He'll just be beaten into the light of the righteous

After having a heart-to-heart talk with his old man, Shen Ji's mood did indeed improve a lot.

When people are in a good mood, they get hungry.

But the food wasn't ready yet, and his stomach was growling. Shen Jiyuan scolded him for not listening to eat more breakfast, and then helplessly went to the kitchen to ask if they had any cooked food for the child.

The kitchen auntie smiled and put two cured pork ribs in a bowl for him. "These are cured pork ribs from our own pigs. They smell so good."

Shen Ji's eyes lit up when he saw the cured pork ribs. He smiled and took the bowl, saying, "Thank you, Auntie!"

"No need to thank me." The aunt waved her hand. "It's not just you guys, the crew also loves our cured pork ribs. Xiao Lin always buys some to take away from here."

"Xiao Lin?" Shen Ji paused.

"Oh, look at me, his name now is Bai Xi, they say it's some kind of stage name," the aunt said with a smile. "Oh dear, we don't know anything about these things. His real name is Ke Lin, but we all like to call him Xiao Lin."

Shen Ji and Shen Jiyuan were both taken aback. After exchanging a glance, Shen Ji asked casually, "Auntie, are you very familiar with Teacher Bai? He's my idol!"

The aunt sighed and waved her hand, saying, "To say we're close would be presumptuous of me, and I'd be too embarrassed to do that."

"But Xiao Lin used to be from our village, so naturally we know him a bit better than others."

Shen Ji feigned surprise and said, "What? Teacher Bai is from Yunxi Village? But the online information says that Teacher Bai was an orphan after the trial?"

The aunt sighed, "It's a long story. He was indeed from our village before, but after his parents died, he was sent to an orphanage."

"Back then, our village was very poor. Zhao Daming didn't have any brothers or sisters, and Ke Lan was even worse off. No one in the village could take them in, so the two brothers were sent to an orphanage by the old village chief."

"The internet says they are orphans, and that's not wrong."

Shen Ji munched on the ribs, nodding in surprise. "So that's how it is! My goodness, Teacher Bai is really amazing. He has no background or capital, yet he still managed to make a name for himself in the entertainment industry."

"Indeed, Xiao Lin is quite capable."

"But I heard that his wealthy friend also helped him a lot. When his younger brother went abroad, it was that friend who helped him too."

Shen Ji's gaze darkened, then he feigned surprise and widened his eyes. "A wealthy friend?" he whispered gossipy, "Auntie, are all those things said online true?"

The aunt was taken aback. "What is it?"

Shen Ji lowered his voice even further and moved a few steps closer stealthily, "Everyone online is saying that Teacher Bai is being kept by a sugar daddy. Is that true or not?"

The aunt waved her hand, somewhat angrily, "What? What do you mean by 'kept woman' or 'kept woman'? That's really awful. If Xiao Lin were really kept, would she be in this state now?"

"What kind of sugar daddy is he? Those are just friends from his orphanage!"

Shen Ji's eyes widened. "An orphanage can have such wealthy friends?"

The auntie only had a vague understanding of it. She frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "I heard it from someone else. He was supposedly the illegitimate son of some rich family, but he was later found and taken back."

"His friend sponsored his and his brother's schooling."

"I heard that Xiao Lin's decision to act in a TV series was suggested by his friend."

The aunt smiled and said, "His friend is a very nice person. Later, he even sent Xiao Wei abroad. I heard he's doing big business overseas. He hasn't come back for so many years, and we've almost forgotten what he looks like."

While gnawing on a rib, Shen Ji clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "Wow, this friend is really a good person. How come I've never heard Teacher Bai mention him before?"

"Auntie, do you know who that friend is?"

Speaking of this, the aunt exclaimed, "You know what, I've actually seen that child before."

Shen Ji paused. "You've seen him before?"

The aunt said, "Well, the two Lin brothers are still children from our village. Although we didn't have the means to adopt them back then and could only send them to the orphanage, we didn't completely abandon them."

"Back then, whenever people in the village had time, they would visit them at the welfare home every few days."

"I bought them a piece of clothing and delivered it to them when I went to the county once. When Sister-in-law Ke was still alive, she helped me a lot. I can't be an ungrateful person, can I?"

"Xiao Lin was only thirteen or fourteen years old at that time. When I went there, he brought his friend with him. I even gritted my teeth and bought that kid a piece of clothing too."

"Xiao Lin introduced him to me back then. The child's surname was quite unusual and rarely seen, so I had a particularly deep impression of him."

After finishing a pork rib, Shen Ji threw the bone into the trash can, picked up another one, and gnawed on it. He smiled and said, "What's your surname that you've been thinking about for so many years, Auntie?"

"Hey, believe it or not, it's really rare."

"Well..." The aunt thought for a moment, seemingly unable to come up with an adjective, "It's like a grass head, a sun in the middle, and a big Mo at the bottom."

Shen Ji's pupils contracted in surprise. "Mo..." He concealed the emotion in his eyes, took a bite of a rib, and said, "It's not Mo Yan, is it?"

"Huh?" The aunt was taken aback. "How did you know?"

Shen Ji said calmly, "Someone online dug it up and said that Teacher Bai's sugar daddy is Mo Yan. Netizens have dug really deep and said all sorts of things."

"I'm not a fan of Teacher Bai," he chuckled, "but I still follow everything about Teacher Bai and have read a lot of gossip about him."

"However, netizens ultimately failed to uncover any information about Mo Yan."

"There is a wealthy person with the same name but a different surname and given name, named Mo Yan," Shen Ji clicked his tongue. "But that Mo Yan is the head of the Sheng family, and it seems he doesn't have much contact with Teacher Bai."

The aunt said, "Isn't that just one person?"

"Alone?" Shen Ji looked up in surprise.

"Yes," the aunt recalled for a moment and said, "It was just one person. I was at the orphanage the day that child was taken back by his family. I watched him leave."

"I even saw him on the news later."

"But my name had already been changed to Mo Yan by then. I even asked Xiao Lin about it, and he said that his family made him change it that way, saying that it was to take his mother's surname or something. I don't really understand."

"Sigh, rich people's lives are probably different from ours."

The aunt chuckled as she spoke, "The surname Mo is rare enough, but the surname Mo is even rarer. Yet, there really is someone with the surname Mo in our village."

"But Sister-in-law Mo is no longer with us."

"When she first came to our village, many illiterate people thought her surname was Hei (meaning black), haha."

"Speaking of which..." Auntie frowned and recalled for a moment, then said with some emotion, "When Xiao Lin's friend went home, I think I also saw Sister Mo at the orphanage."

"I thought she was going to deliver something to Xiaolin and the others."

"I had planned to come back from the county with her. Back then, many famous families in the village could give us a ride back with their tractors for free."

"But in the blink of an eye, I couldn't see her anymore."

The aunt shook her head. "Oh, why did I suddenly think of this?"

She smiled at the almost empty ribs in Shen Ji's hand and asked, "Are you still hungry? I have some braised beef, would you like a piece?"

Shen Ji waved his hand, "No need, it's almost time to eat. I'd like to have some good food later, thank you, Auntie."

The auntie said, "No need to thank me, it's nothing."

"Then we'll head out first," Shen Ji said with a smile. "Auntie, I'll come back later to buy some cured pork ribs to take home, they're so delicious."

"I'll bring some back for my grandma to eat too."

"Okay, then come back when you leave, and I'll pack it up for you."

"Okay, sure."