by Guo Xiaoting
The fox spirit laughed when Ji Gong had finished his story. “You are a naughty monk. Perhaps we would make a good pair,” she said, smiling enticingly at the monk.
But Ji Gong said, “I said we were kindred spirits because we both like to make friends with human beings. I know that you are fond of Ma Jing’s wife, but she is a good woman and would not want you to do harm to anyone. As long as you continue to help her and do not eat people or do other mischievous and malicious things, I will let you go.”
“Foolish monk,” the fox spirit said, “How can you imagine that you can tell me what to do and what not to do? What powers do you have, and where do they come from?”
“For one thing, I was born into a human body to people who had prayed for a son,” he replied. “I do not occupy the dead body of an animal that was found while it was still warm from the life that had just left it. I came into this world to help a few people from making foolish mistakes, to ease their pains and sorrows, and to prevent some of the greater evils from occurring. The spirits of darkness will always cause trouble for mankind, but as long as people live upon this earth, those dark spirits can never extinguish the spirits of light.”
At these words, the enraged fox spirit let out a roar and started toward the monk, but Ji Gong raised his hand and said, “I am not like that monk meditating on the mountain. I did my meditating some time ago. If you approach too closely, you will never again be able to use that fox’s body and transform it into the likeness of a human being!”
A short time afterward, when Ma Jing had been revived by Ji Gong, the robber saw the dead body of the fox lying stiff and motionless. The fiend that had been about to eat him was nowhere to be seen. He realized that Ji Gong had saved his life, and he knelt to perform the kowtow.
“Ma Jing,” the monk said, “your wife is a good woman. That woman you saw in the temple was not your wife, but a fox spirit. You must treat your mother and your wife kindly and not criticize your wife if a ghostly spirit comes to visit her. Tomorrow, when people find the body of the man you killed and the body of the fox, they will come to you for advice. Tell them to gather a great quantity of dry yellow reeds and place the bodies upon the pile. Then they are to burn the bodies until there is nothing left. The fox will never harm you again.
“But before the fox is burned, you must call your friend Li Ping and explain that the thing he saw was not your wife but a fox spirit. Bring him here and show him the fox and he will understand. Your friendship with him will be completely repaired. Now I must ask you to deliver Cloud Dragon Hua into my hands.”
“I will treat my mother and my wife better than before,” Ma Jing said, “but I cannot betray a friend.”
“I did not think you could,” said the monk. “Though you may be his friend, he is not yours. Sooner or later he may bring sorrow to you and your family. You must tell him to leave, and those two young men who are with him, too. I can take him into custody whenever I am ready.”
CHAPTER 50
Ma Jing parts from his guests; Ji Gong lends his robe
MA Jing went into his house and told the three who were still hiding in the cellar that they would have to leave the house. Cloud Dragon Hua left immediately and fled directly south, while Lei Ming and Chen Liang left later. As Cloud Dragon ran, he couldn’t see or hear the monk following behind. They passed over low hills and through little valleys, into a place where there was no sign of people or dwelling places. It was in the first light of morning that Cloud Dragon began to catch sight of the monk ahead, and yet still see him following behind. “I no longer know whether I am chasing the monk or the monk is chasing me,” he thought. He remembered the story of how the monk had appeared wherever the two men had fled in the forest.
At length, while passing over a small stone bridge, he saw the monk peeping out from underneath an arch. Hua was upon him in a flash. With several swift stabs the monk was dead, but it was not Ji Gong that Cloud Dragon Hua had killed. The monk was the White Tiger, the false monk who had escaped from Ma Jing by crashing through the latticed window of the temple. His masquerade was over.
Cloud Dragon Hua left the road and ran through the meadows, swamps, and thorny thickets, until looking back he no longer saw Ji Gong behind him. “At last,” he thought, “I have given him the slip.”
Now, when Ji Gong had ceased chasing Cloud Dragon Hua, he turned off on a side road. After walking for a while, he came upon a crowd of people all looking toward the center. Ji Gong pushed into the crowd and saw that they were looking at a young man lying beside the road. He was stark naked, without a stitch of clothing on or near him.
The people were asking questions. One asked, “What kind of a business is this?”
The young man said only, “Wa.”
Another asked, “Where do you come from?”
The young man said only, “Wa.”
A third asked, “What is your name?”
Again the answer was the same: “Wa.”
“He is trying to ask for some water,” exclaimed Ji Gong.
“Where is there some water?”
One of the people pointed to a well nearby and said, “But the water is too far down to reach, and no one has a bucket and rope.”
Seeing that no one was going to help, Ji Gong walked over to the well and promptly disappeared.
“The monk has fallen into the well!” someone cried. When they approached the well, they saw that the monk was holding on to the well curb with his hands. He had dropped his oily hat into the water and was grasping it with his feet. Then he pulled himself up as he managed to keep some water in his hat. Once out of the well, he gave a drink of water to the young man, who, then able to speak, exclaimed, “Cursed monk!”
The onlookers immediately began to reproach him. “How can you curse this monk who has just gone to so much trouble to get you a drink of water—and in his own hat, too!”
“You do not understand,” said the young man. “My name is Jiang and my personal name is Wenkui. I live outside the north gate of Youlong in the Jiang family hamlet. I am a graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Recently, being short of money, I went to the house of my aunt in Linan and was returning with two hundred ounces of silver.
“The day was hot and I had walked a long distance when I suddenly felt a terrible pain in my stomach and sat down here. Shortly, a tall monk dressed in a saffron robe came by. His head was shaven and he wore a rosary with 108 beads around his neck. He asked me what was the matter, and I told him about the pain in my stomach. He then gave me a black pill. When I said ‘cursed monk’ just now, I meant not this monk here but that one, for immediately after taking the medicine, I was unable to move. I could see him taking the two hundred ounces of silver out of my pack, and after that I knew nothing until I awoke with people looking at me and all my clothes gone.”
“Someone give him something to wear,” said Ji Gong. But no one would give him anything. The monk then put his ragged robe around the young man, which left Ji Gong in an even more disgraceful-looking costume, all full of holes. The two then walked away, leaving the unhelpful crowd behind.
After a while the two came to an inn. Ji Gong led the young man inside. The waiter, upon seeing them, took them for a couple of beggars, but he let them sit down and brought the food that Ji Gong ordered. The young man looked at the food and said, “I won’t eat.”
“How is that? Why won’t you eat?” asked the monk.
“I will not eat food for which I cannot pay,” said the young man.
“Eat up and talk about it later,” admonished the monk. “If they want to beat us, we’ll be selling a couple of blows for the meal. If we are lightly beaten, that’s it. If we’re severely beaten and injured, they will have to take care of us until we’re better.”
The waiter who was listening had by now realized that this man was a monk, and thought it most amusing that the monk would be willing to be beaten for a meal. However, just then two men walked in and one said loudly, “Oh there you are, Monk.”
CHAPTER 51
Ji Gong writes a strange order; Chen Liang observes Cloud Dragon Hua’s companions
AS these two men entered the inn, the waiter noticed that they were dressed just alike, in gray trimmed with white. They were, in fact, the two headmen, Chai and She. Since Ji Gong had left them and gone off in the midst of a game of hide-and-seek, they had wandered throughout the night searching for him. The next day they reached the New Moon Village without any money between them. They were hungry, and all that day they had walked about the village without seeing Ji Gong, who was actually sitting in Ma Jing’s east room eating pastries. That night they had missed him when he was on the way to the temple and encountering the fox spirit. After that, they had failed to see him when he had chased Cloud Dragon Hua out of the village during the night. Hour by hour they were getting hungrier and hungrier. At last they saw the monk walking with the young man who was wearing the monk’s cloak just as the two turned in to the inn.
When they saw Ji Gong, they immediately began to complain. “Good!” exclaimed Chai. “You are here eating and we have been two nights and a long day without anything to eat.”
“Why didn’t you eat?” asked Ji Gong.
“We had no money,” said Chai.
“We had no money,” repeated She.
The listening waiter said to himself, “Another two without money.”
Then the monk again asked the headmen, “If you’re hungry, why don’t you eat?” Chai and She sat down and began to eat ravenously.
Going to the manager, the waiter said, “First, we have a monk and a young man dressed only in a monk’s ragged cloak. Then we have two men dressed just alike in gray who say that they haven’t eaten for two nights and a day. Probably none of the four have any money!”
“Wait until they have finished eating and then we’ll talk about it,” the manager said.
Just then they heard someone talking outside the door. One of them said, “Well, well! Let’s go in and have something before we go on our way.”
Two men came in dressed in the latest fashion, with short jackets and everything made of expensive strong silk material. One had hair that was dyed red, with clothing in colors that matched his hair. The other was dressed all in white except for occasional touches of color. They were Lei Ming, nicknamed “the Wind Borne,” and “the White Monkey,” Chen Liang. They had stayed at Ma Jing’s a bit longer than Cloud Dragon Hua, but not as long as Ma Jing had asked them to stay. Chen Liang had explained to Ma Jing, “We have business elsewhere, but we will stay until dawn and then say goodbye.”
“At least have some breakfast,” Ma Jing urged.
“We really are urgently pressed,” said Lei Ming. They parted in the friendliest manner possible. At the inn they immediately went into the back dining room, and there they saw Ji Gong with Chai, She and a young man in Ji Gong’s cloak. Both went at once and bowed reverently to Ji Gong.
The proprietor, seeing how well the two men were dressed, now followed their example and went to the table. Though he decided to bow reverently to the monk, he thought that the whole business was very strange.
“Teacher,” asked Lei Ming, “where did you come from, and why are you half dressed? Who is this person to whom you have given your monk’s robe?”
Ji Gong told the whole story of what had happened to the young man. When Lei Ming and Chen Liang clearly understood, the monk said, “Chen Liang, would you take Jiang Wenkui to a tailor’s and buy him a set of scholar’s clothing appropriate to his bachelor’s degree? He will need shoes and a cap as well.”
Chen Liang nodded in assent. At the shop he was able to buy everything needed, including the proper white socks. When Jiang had put them all on, they came back and returned the monk’s robe, and then they all sat down together, calling for more food and wine.
“Do either of you have enough money to replace what Jiang here has lost?” Ji Gong asked his two young friends.
“I have four ingots of gold,” said Chen Liang. “If I gave him two ingots, I would still have two ingots left. Each ingot can be changed for fifty ounces of silver.”
“And I have fifty ounces of silver I can give him,” said Lei Ming. They took out their money and gave it to Jiang Wenkui.
“I was already in your debt, and now with this, how can I thank you enough?” said Jiang Wenkui.
“Oh, it is nothing, really,” responded Lei Ming. “Within the four seas all men are brothers!”
Then they all sat eating and drinking for a while until Lei Ming and Chen Liang drew Ji Gong away to another table out of earshot. “What are you up to?” asked the monk.
“Teacher,” said Chen Liang, “have mercy on us. How can we show our faces if you take Cloud Dragon prisoner? We beg you not to take him.”
“Not take Cloud Dragon?” said the monk. “That can be easily managed. Chen Liang, go out and get a large sheet of paper and an envelope. Then go to the cashier here and borrow a writing brush and ink.”
Chen Liang did not know what the monk wanted to write, but he got the paper and other things and brought them to the monk. Ji Gong turned his back to them and wrote for a long time. Then he put the paper in the envelope and sealed it. Then he drew a picture of a wine shop sign on the envelope.
“I am giving you this envelope to take with you,” he said. “After you have escorted Jiang Wenkui to his home outside the north gate of You-long, go into town through the north gate, and on the west side you will see a wine shop with this sign. Enter the shop and go upstairs. Sit down at a table there and read this letter of mine. If Cloud Dragon Hua does not commit the deed mentioned in the letter tonight, I will not capture him.”
Lei Ming and Chen Liang had no idea what was in the monk’s letter, but they nodded their heads in agreement. “I have asked you to escort Jiang Wenkui safely to his home. If he does not reach his home safely, all is over between us and I will then certainly have your lives!” admonished the monk.
“Yes,” the two replied.
“Remember,” the monk went on, “if you do not escort Jiang Wenkui properly, if you do not go through the north gate, if you do not go to the wine shop known as the Meeting Place of the Immortals, it will be all over between us. The monk will be through with you! Then, if you do not go straight upstairs, find a table against the wall, and then open the letter, I will be through with you and will want your lives! Then have a meal, and after you have eaten, pay the bill and leave. That is it.”
Lei Ming and Chen Liang listened. Both agreed that everything must be done from the beginning to end in the exact order and manner that Ji Gong had described. They finished eating and paid the bill.
Ji Gong turned to the young graduate and said, “Jiang Wenkui, I am sending these two men to go with you as far as your home. Now leave with them.”
Jiang Wenkui knelt and kowtowed to Ji Gong. The three young men said goodbye to the monk. It was only ninety li to Youlong, and before they realized it, they had arrived.
“Now that we are almost at my home, won’t you come in and sit for a while?” asked Jiang Wenkui.
“No, we have other things we must do,” said Chen Liang. “Why don’t you just go in? Jiang Wenkui begged the two to stop, but they could not be persuaded. Again he thanked them and they parted.
Lei Ming and Chen Liang passed through the north gate into the town and walked along the street looking for the wine shop. Of course, in a moment they recognized the Meeting Place of the Immortals with the famous quotation from the poet Li Po, in which he declared that he could not go aboard the emperor’s barge because he had become a spirit imprisoned in a jug of wine.
As they entered the restaurant, they saw great cooking ranges on both sides. They passed into the back, where there were crowds of people, and saw a stairway against the rear wall. Upstairs there was a somewhat similar arrangement so that they again had to pass the cooking ranges in order to go forward. At last they found a table against the wall.
Just then, they heard loud voices as th
ree men entered the floor below from outside. One of the voices they recognized as belonging to Cloud Dragon Hua. Chen Liang went partway downstairs and peeped around a corner. It was indeed Cloud Dragon Hua, with two men who seemed particularly rough. Returning to the table, he told Lei Ming, “Brother Hua has two evil-looking men with him.”
“Pay no attention,” said Lei Ming. “We should be reading our teacher’s letter to see what he says.”
Chen Liang was shocked at what he read, and exclaimed, “Brother! Look at this! This is terrible!”
“But I cannot read,” said Lei Ming. “What would I look at? Read it to me.”
Chen Liang replied, “Teacher’s letter is in eight lines. Listen while I read what it says.”
High-minded heroes ever prevail.
To save Cloud Dragon as you have begged
Tonight in Youlong at the third watch
Find Zhao Towers within the north gate.
Thoughts of seizing a lovely maid
Fill a wicked robber’s head.
If by Cloud Dragon the deed’s not done,
Tomorrow to Hangzhou I’ll be gone.’
After Chen Liang had looked at the letter for a while, he said, “Brother, our teacher is saying that Cloud Dragon is going to the Zhao Family Towers to abduct a girl. And the monk also says that if Cloud Dragon doesn’t accomplish this act tonight, then he will not arrest him. Whether this is true or false, he is telling us to keep a secret watch and prevent it from happening. Let us ask how to find the Zhao Towers.”
“That’s right,” said Lei Ming. The two then ordered four dishes. When they had finished eating and drinking, they paid the bill and left. By that time Cloud Dragon and his friends had left, and therefore did not see Chen Liang and Lei Ming. Outside the restaurant they headed north until they saw coming toward them an old man with white hair.