A song from Chengdu revived a closed-down pub.

Upon returning to Qin Province, Su Fan went to a nunnery.

A nun led him through the corridor and stopped him in front of a meditation room.

Su Fan stepped inside and immediately saw the old nun leaning against the bed.

Seeing Su Fan enter, she forced herself to sit up straight, coughed a few times, and then said, "You're here."

Su Fan sized her up for a few seconds and asked, "Do you know me?"

The old nun said, "Of course we know each other. Not only do I know you, but according to seniority, you should call me 'Auntie'."

Su Fan didn't show the surprise or excitement she expected; he simply looked at her calmly and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

"In Buddhism, I am a Buddhist disciple; in the secular world, I am your family."

"and then?"

"Aren't you surprised at all?" the old nun asked, somewhat taken aback.

Su Fan replied in a nonchalant tone, "What's there to be surprised about? I can't just burst into tears every time someone comes up and says they're my relative. Over the years, many people have wanted to be my relatives."

The old nun stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly chuckled softly: "Your temperament is somewhat similar to that person's when he was young."

Su Fan casually asked, "You're not talking about my parents, are you?"

"Do you want to know who your biological parents are?"

"I don't want to," Su Fan replied crisply.

"Why? Aren't you even a little bit curious?"

Su Fan said calmly, "Why should I be curious? No matter the reason, the result is that I ended up in the orphanage. In your Buddhist terms, all phenomena are empty, but cause and effect are not. My result today is the cause of that day. The cause has been planted. Whether we pursue it or not, it cannot change the fact that I grew up in an orphanage. Don't you Buddhists talk about letting go? I haven't even become a monk yet, but I've already let go."

The old nun was silent for a moment, then suddenly sighed: "You see things very clearly, but what if there's more to the story?"

"So what? I don't want to bother them, and they shouldn't bother me either. Let's all stay in our place and live in peace. Isn't that great?"

The old nun sighed and said, "Let me tell you a story."

Before Su Fan could refuse, she had already begun.

Many years ago, a group of educated youth were sent down from Beijing to Shaanxi Province. Among them were two young people, a man and a woman, who had grown up together and could be considered childhood sweethearts.

Later, the elders of both families were exonerated and reinstated to their original positions. However, the woman was already pregnant and about to give birth, so the two did not return to the capital immediately but stayed in a hospital in Qin Province to await delivery.

As luck would have it, a local farming family's daughter-in-law also gave birth at this hospital on the same day as that woman.

The family knew about the background of the two educated youths and had wicked thoughts. They didn't want their children to end up like them, toiling in the fields all their lives.

So they asked a relative who worked at the hospital to switch the two babies after the birth of their first child.

This was done so secretly, without anyone noticing.

But Heaven is watching what people do.

On the day they were discharged from the hospital, the family was on their way back in their farm vehicle when they got into a car accident. Everyone in the family except the child was killed.

The relative who was responsible for the switch, who was also a nurse at that hospital, felt extremely guilty looking at the child she had brought back from the car accident scene.

She didn't have the courage to stand up and tell the truth, nor did she have the face to see the child's biological parents.

Finally, she left the child at the gate of an orphanage.

She herself shaved her head and became a nun, devoting herself to Buddhism and the ancient lamp.

Surprisingly, when that child grew up and was separated from the orphanage, the house he was assigned was the old house of that farmer's family from back then.

Perhaps, this is fate.

The old nun finished her story.

Su Fan didn't fail to understand; rather, he understood it all too well.

This isn't just telling a story; it's clearly about his background.

That child who was switched at birth was him.

Su Fan sighed, "What goes around comes around; no one escapes the judgment of Heaven!"

The old nun looked at him: "Did you understand?"

"What's so hard to understand? You became a monk to atone for your sins, didn't you?!"

"Yes."

Su Fan shook his head and said, "No, if you really wanted to atone for your sins, you should have told the truth back then. Your becoming a monk was just an escape because you were afraid to face it. Did you think that shaving your head, wearing a monk's robe, and chanting 'Amitabha' a few times would cleanse your heart? It won't cleanse it. What you're cultivating isn't Buddhism, it's just peace of mind."

The old nun said, "I didn't stand up because I didn't want my sister's family to risk their lives for this identity to be destroyed by my words."

These words made Su Fan laugh in anger: "Ha~ You actually use the life and death of your sister's family to comfort your own selfishness. How ironic. What have you been chanting Buddhist prayers and eating vegetarian food for the past few decades? It seems that you haven't been chanting Buddhist prayers at all, but just an excuse to make yourself feel at ease."

"Amitabha."

"You summoned me here just to hear these things, didn't you? Now that you've said them, what's next? Do you want me to be moved? Do you want me to forgive you? Or do you want me to use this truth to claim kinship? Master, you're still scheming. You're not scheming about my background, you're scheming about whether you can rest in peace after you die."

The old nun bowed her head and chanted a Buddhist prayer, then said, "Years ago, an old Taoist priest came here and said, 'The Buddhism I practice is fake, but the debts I owe are real. It seems that some things are ultimately unavoidable.'"

Su Fan thought to himself, "Could that old Taoist priest be my master?!"

At this point, the old nun said, "Now that you know the truth, what do you plan to do?"

Su Fan retorted, "It's not about what I plan to do, it's about what you plan to do. You summoned me here because you want me to acknowledge my ancestors, or because you want me to forgive you?"

The old nun stared at Su Fan for a while, then sighed and said, "Your father is called Ye Wangcheng, your mother is called Zhao Ling, and the person who swapped identities with you is called Ye Xuan. It's quite a coincidence that you two met a few days ago. I knew then that fate is something you can't escape."

"You only understand now? You should have understood twenty years ago."

Do you want to reclaim your identity?

"Do you think I really care about that status? Let alone a rich family's young master, even if the entire Ye family were offered to me, I might not even look at them."

"Amitabha……"

Su Fan said, "Don't pray to Buddha yet. If this were someone else, we could all be fine and not bother each other. But if it's that Ye Xuan, absolutely not."

The old nun asked, "You can be so magnanimous to others, why can't you be the same to him?"

"Master, you're being too attached to appearances again. Even now, you still don't want me to break the ice. To put it bluntly, although you're in the Buddhist order, you're still thinking about your real nephew."

"But that child is innocent."

Su Fan scoffed, "Innocent? Hmph~ He's the beneficiary of the whole thing. You call him innocent? If this counts as innocence, then let me ask you, if a robber kills someone for money and gives the loot to his son, who then lives a life of luxury, and when the police come knocking to demand the return of the money, the robber's son says, 'I'm innocent, my dad stole the money, don't come after me.' Do you think that son has no shame?"

"Amitabha Buddha... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"Alright, let me make it clear to you that I have no interest in the Ye family's young master's status, but I also disapprove of his usurpation of the family's position. Therefore, I do not intend to let him go. After all, forgiving him is a matter for Buddha, and what I want to do is send him to see Buddha."

After saying that, Su Fan opened the door, then stopped and added, "Alright, I won't disturb the master's cultivation any longer."