Monk Jing from Tongshou Temple was nearly in tears.
Really, even though he was holding back, tears were already spinning in his eyes.
How sinful!
He was originally just a bottom-of-the-barrel street swindler, occasionally relying on his not-too-bad skills in poker and mahjong to scrape together a bit of cash in the lowest-end gambling dens, of course, not too much.
If he won too much, he would be discovered.
If discovered, his hands would be chopped off.
He didn't want that.
He wanted to live a long life and be buried peacefully.
So, he mixed in carefully and lived on.
As for finding a proper job?
He did that before he was fifty, too.
Convenience store clerk, chopping vegetables at the diner, car washer, parking attendant, etc., he had done them all.
Those were the happiest times of his life.
Although they were hourly jobs, not formal employment, and didn't pay much, he could still earn a little every day, and occasionally even get a free work meal.
