by Guo Xiaoting
“And I will not turn around,” said Ji Gong.
“Monk,” cried Kang Cheng, “you are detestable!”
“And you are really something!’ said Ji Gong. Then he pointed and said, “O Mi To Fu! I command!” and Kang Cheng was paralyzed.
The monk then walked off, leading the mule with the young woman still on its back. When he came to the wooded area and saw Cloud Dragon Hua, he stopped the mule, walked up, and started to speak.
The moment Cloud Dragon Hua saw Ji Gong, he turned and ran, with the monk following him. At this time Lei Ming and Chen Liang were still conscious and able to speak. When Yang Ming asked them why Cloud Dragon had poisoned them with the iron-headed darts, Chen Liang said, “When I was at Linan and wanted to become a monk, Ji Gong was going to accept me as his disciple. They even had water ready to shave my head, but then I ran away. Later I heard that because Cloud Dragon Hua had stolen the pearl coronet from the prime minister, killed a man in a restaurant, and murdered a nun, Ji Gong had been sent to arrest him. We begged Ji Gong not to arrest Cloud Dragon Hua. The monk promised not to do so if we prevented Cloud Dragon from abducting the girls from the Zhao Towers. That was why Cloud Dragon was angry at us.” But now Chen Liang was no longer able to go on talking because of the pain from his poisoned wound.
Yang Ming, after hearing Chen Liang’s story, exclaimed, “Oh, Cloud Dragon, after some of the things you have done, even if you had not poisoned me, our friendship would be at an end!”
The old man, Kang Deyuan, had been listening, and now asked Yang Ming, “How do you feel, sir?”
“I’m finished,” said Yang Ming. “I cannot go on.”
“You must not die,” urged Lei Ming. “It does not matter if we two die. Neither of us has a father or a mother, nor a wife and children. When we die, we die, and that is all. Everything will be over for us. But you still have an old white-haired mother, a wife, and a young child. What will become of them?”
As Lei Ming said these words, they touched Yang Ming’s heart and he was filled with regret. Lei Ming was in agony and Yang Ming’s suffering was even greater than before. Chen Liang and Lei Ming were both unconscious now, but Yang Ming’s eyes were still open and he was still able to speak. In the distance among the trees the monk became visible. He walked in an odd way, as if he were lost and did not know where he was. Yang Ming called to the old man, “Go to the monk and see if he is all right.”
Kang Deyuan went to meet the monk, and taking him by the hand, led him to where Yang Ming and the two men were lying on the ground. “How is it with you, monk?” asked Yang Ming. “Were you also poisoned by one of Hua Yun Long’s darts?”
“No, but I wish I were dying instead of you three people,” said the monk. “I feel that I am a worthless creature who has no reason to live, and yet I see others dying, while I am still forced to live and despise myself.”
“Tell me,” said Yang Ming, “why you wish to die. You are still much younger than I am.”
“When I first became a monk and was given my monk’s certificate,” Ji Gong related, “my teacher, who lived in poverty wearing rags not much better than these I wear today, gave me two ounces of silver and told me to go and buy two complete sets of monk’s clothing, one for each of us, so that he could present me to the other monks. I took the money, went off, and never went back. I spent the money on food. I had thought that some day I might return, but I have never had as much as two ounces of silver since that time. My ingratitude has been a reproach to me ever since that day. Now, seeing you three about to die, I feel that I should have died instead.”
“Come now,” said Yang Ming, “even though I must die, there is no reason for you to feel as you do. I still have a few ounces of silver here. Take it, buy two sets of monk’s clothing, and go back to your teacher.” With these words he handed the monk the silver in his pocket.
The monk looked at it and said, “But this silver is all broken up into little pieces—the silver I had was much better looking.” Then he turned and started to walk off.
Yang Ming could not help thinking, “I did a good deed and this is the thanks I get. This monk is not a very nice person.”
Just then the monk turned back to him, and looking at his clothing remarked, “There is one other favor that you could do for me. Those clothes you are wearing are not going to be of much use to you when you are dead. If you would give them to me, I could sell them for a little money and save their being wasted.”
At that, Yang Ming could not restrain his feelings. “What kind of a monk are you?” he exclaimed. “You have no decent human feelings!”
“Good! Good!” said Ji Gong. “You are not dead after all!”
Ji Gong then placed a piece of medicine in the mouth of Chen Liang, who awakened and said, “Holy monk, you have saved my life.”
But the monk scolded him saying, “I asked you two to go beyond the limits of Youlong district and you failed to do so. As a result, Cloud Dragon Hua poisoned you. As your teacher, I must say a prayer for you after you are dead.”
“Save us, teacher,” begged Chen Liang.
“I will try, but it is not certain that the medicine will save you,” the monk said. Then he put a piece of medicine in Lei Ming’s mouth, and in a little while the two were as before.
“Please save our brother Yang Ming, too,” Lei Ming asked.
The monk then gave a piece of the medicine to Yang Ming as well. When Yang Ming was able to stand again, Lei Ming told him, “This is the senior monk, Ji Gong, from the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat.” Yang Ming knelt and performed the kowtow to Ji Gong.
“Lei Ming,” said Ji Gong, “go along the towpath a little way until you see a man standing in a trance. Throw him in the water, and when he comes out of his trance, tell him that he must go a hundred li from here and never return. If he ever comes back or bothers his uncle or his cousin, I will have him severely beaten.”
Yang Ming then asked Ji Gong, “Holy monk, is there some way that you might help Kang Deyuan to find his lost daughter again?”
“Do not worry,” said Ji Gong to the old man. “Your daughter is just outside these woods.” The monk clapped his hands and the mule came walking into the woods, with the old man’s daughter on its back.
“You have given me back my daughter!” cried the old man.
“But I have sent your nephew far away,” said the monk.
“Why?” the old man asked.
Otherwise he would try to harm you again,” replied Ji Gong.
Kang Deyuan thanked Ji Gong again and walked away, leading the mule with his daughter on its back. Then Ji Gong asked Yang Ming, Chen Liang, and Lei Ming to go with him, and they went northward.
CHAPTER 57
The warrant for Cloud Dragon Hua is stolen; the holy monk lies for a banquet
AHEAD, passing through the intersection on the way to the town, was a crowd of officers and men with several local headmen at the front, leading Ji Gong’s headmen Chai and She in chains. How could such a thing have happened?
Now, after the monk had gone over the wall and left the inn, there was a terrible scream. Chai and She awoke and saw that Ji Gong was gone. They called the waiter and looked everywhere about the courtyard, but Ji Gong was not to be seen. The waiter went from door to door, asking each guest if he had seen Ji Gong. At the north building there was no answer. “Where could he have gone?” asked the waiter. “The gate is locked.”
The two headmen went back to their room. “Let us see if we still have the warrant for Hua Yun Long’s arrest made out by the Lord Protector,” said Chai. In the pack they found the oiled paper envelope. With the passing of days it had become a little the worse for wear at the corners. Inside was the warrant with the Lord Protector’s seal still intact, although badly stained with water that had leaked through the cracked oiled paper.
“At least that is still safe,” said Headmen She, and the two went outside again. A little later they saw a dark figure slip out of their door and swiftly disapp
ear. They gave chase, but the dark figure vanished without a trace.
“Let us go back in and see if we have lost anything,” said Chai. To their horror, the warrant was gone. As they rushed outside, they saw the waiter standing near the front office with a lantern in his hand.
“Come and see what has happened,” She shouted to the waiter.
“What is it?” the waiter asked.
“We have lost something important,” answered Chai.
“No wonder,” said the waiter. “Three of you come here and only two of you are left. Now you say you have lost something as if it were our fault. Ask anyone if it is not true that our place hasn’t been open for a year and a half—and even though jokers like this are always coming around, our business has always been reputable.”
Headman Chai was frantic and the waiter was becoming abusive. Now the manager came out. Before becoming proprietor of this inn, Yang Guodong had been in charge of all the headmen in Longyou. He was a man of substance and there was no one who did not know him. When he asked what the matter was, the waiter explained. “Three people came together to the inn, including a monk. We don’t know where he has gone, and these two men say that they have lost something.”
The proprietor, upon hearing this, immediately said, “Good! It must be that the monk has taken something away. They are trying to defraud us. Waiter, go and ask all our other guests staying here whether they have lost anything. If anything has been lost, we will ask these two men for it.”
The waiter then shouted out, “All guests staying in this inn, look and see if you have lost anything.” Lights began to show in all the rooms, and every occupant said that nothing was missing. When he went to ask at the north room, no one answered.
“The teacher in the north chamber did not say whether he had lost anything or not, though I asked several times,” said the waiter. “There is no reply from inside the room.” The waiter pushed the door to the room, and it swung open. Then he lifted the bamboo curtain hanging in the doorway and stepped inside. There was a lamp burning in the room, and looking around he saw something by its light that made him make a long, low sound like that of a deer bleating. The terrified young waiter turned and ran outside.
Everyone asked, “What is it?”
The waiter was unable to speak for a long time. Then he exclaimed, “Oh, mother! I was frightened to death!”
Everyone crowded into the room to look, and saw the headless form of the fierce-looking monk half-sitting, half-reclining in the chair, with his head close by on the floor.
“Don’t let those two men escape!” directed the proprietor as he sent word to the magistrate’s yamen. “It must be that poor monk who came with them who cut off the head from the monk in here.”
“That’s right!” everyone agreed. They quickly went to the east chamber and seized Chai and She.
“That poor, ragged monk killed the other monk and then ran away. You two must know something! We must go to the magistrate, and there must be no delay,” said the proprietor.
Headmen Chai and She did not know what was going on, so what could they say? Everyone was shouting and the proprietor was saying, “Don’t let these two go! In a little while we will give them over to the guard.”
Soon the officers, soldiers, and headmen arrived. “You are going to the magistrate’s yamen,” said Headman Liu as he fastened chains upon their wrists and ankles.
“Why are you locking us in chains?” asked Chai.
“There is to be no talking now,” said Headman Liu.“Whatever you have to say can be said when you reach the audience chamber.”
Headmen Chai and She had been frantic because they had lost the warrant, and now they were accused of murder. They secretly hated Ji Gong in their hearts. As day broke, the officers and men of the guard left the hotel, with the headmen leading Chai and She at the head of the procession as it moved toward the magistrate’s yamen. At the intersection Ji Gong, who was coming from the opposite direction, met them.
“Well, you two,” he said. “After all, foggy day bright dawn, still need flower handle to pick calabash. No hurry when picked throw to the winds, tear apart still alive, call winds to cave. Make you two stop floating. I will have to go to the magistrate.”
When Headmen Chai and She heard this, they simply stared at him.
Now, what were these apparently meaningless phrases that Ji Gong had just spoken to Chai and She? They were actually the black language of the Yangtze River. “Foggy day” meant “during the night”; “Need flower handle to pick calabash” meant “Take knife and cut off monk’s head”; “No hurry when picked throw to winds, tear apart still alive, call winds to cave” meant “Don’t run away—let the officers take you.”
Headman Chai asked, “Good monk, who taught you to talk like that?”
“Wasn’t that the way you two taught me?” countered the monk.
The listening officers said, “Teacher is a friend of theirs.”
People were saying, “Go to the magistrate.”
Ji Gong said, “I’ll go! A friend is a friend.”
At that time a young servant at the yamen who had been carrying a handcuff and chain stepped up and snapped the handcuff on Ji Gong’s wrist. Then, as he started leading the monk along, this little yamen servant said, “The monk is really quite friendly.”
“Well, so you have me,” said Ji Gong to him. “Would it be too much to ask you to treat me to something on the way?”
At that request, this servant, who had only recently started work said, “Go on! That would be getting too friendly for me. If I gave you a drink, I would never get rid of you.”
“You stingy little thing!” exclaimed the monk. “I was giving you a chance to establish your reputation and you missed it! I’m not going to the yamen with you!” Then he pulled the chain out of the young fellow’s hand and leaped onto a wall, and then up on the roof of a house beside the road.
Headman Liu, seeing this, slapped the young servant’s face and said, “You went too far and you’re delaying things.” The young servant did not dare reply.
“Teacher, please come down and have some refreshment,” called Head-man Liu. “I will invite you.”
“I have no quarrel with you,” replied the monk and crawled down. “What is your honorable name, Headman Liu?”
“You’re a man with feelings to call me Headman Liu and then to ask my honorable name,” said the headman.
“Well, where are we going, since you’re inviting me?” asked the monk.
“Just opposite the Longyou yamen,” answered headman Liu. “There is a large restaurant that has everything, whatever you want to eat or drink, and I’m not stingy. I have an account there, though I haven’t a cash in my pocket.”
“That’s it, then,” said the monk. And so as they went along toward the yamen, there on the south side of the street was a restaurant called the Inn of the Three Virtues. The monk and everyone else went inside and sat down in the hall to the rear.
“Now, monk, you’re a good friend, so you won’t make us waste a lot of time. You can describe all these cases later on,” said Liu.
“I will describe all,” said the monk, “and hold nothing back.”
“About that case outside the south gate—that’s yours, isn’t?” asked Headman Liu.
“That’s mine,” said the monk.
“And that case outside the north gate at the famous money-changer’s gate. That is also yours,” said Liu.
“That’s mine,” said the monk. “Whatever needs to be said, let’s say it after we eat.”
“Also good,” said Liu. “Afterward, when we have finished eating and get to the guardroom, you can tell the whole story and we can write it down. That will be it.”
“Let’s eat first,” said the monk. “Waiter, come here.” Headmen Chai and She knew that the monk was not doing things in good faith, and only wanted to eat a meal at someone else’s expense.
The waiter came and asked, “What will Teacher have?”
“What can you bring us?” asked the monk.
“Right now we have pastries,” replied the waiter, “as well as everything to make a banquet.”
“Fill up the table with one of your best banquets,” said the monk. In a little while the table was covered with tasty-looking dishes. The wine was heated. There were cold dishes and hot ones. The table could hold nothing more.
“Headman Chai and Headman She, you two are not eating!” the monk exclaimed. “You see I am eating!” And indeed he was.
Headman Liu was thinking that the monk caused one to think. With all these capital crimes behind him and the punishment that surely must lie before him, the monk could still eat until he was completely satisfied.
When the waiter was called to calculate the bill, altogether it came to ten ounces of silver and four coins. “Put it on my account,” said Headman Liu. Then they left with the monk, together with Chai and She.
Arriving at the guardroom at the yamen, Liu asked, “Monk, now tell us: what about the case at Scholar Gao’s flower garden outside the south gate, when the Daoist went to exorcise the demon. What became of the Daoist’s missing head?”
“I don’t know,” replied Ji Gong.
“Now, monk, this is not right,” said Headman Liu. “Just a little while ago you said that you were involved in the case outside the south gate. You said you did it and now how can you not know about it?”
“I said that outside the south gate I stole a little chicken,” answered the monk, “but I didn’t kill anyone. I’m not brave enough for that.”
“And outside the north gate, that senseless killing. Torn apart as a fox or wildcat might do. That was yours, wasn’t it?” asked Headman Liu.
“No,” replied the monk. “Outside the north gate I stole—I’ve forgotten whether it was a fox or a wildcat—and went off with it. I did nothing more.”
“That’s not it at all!” exclaimed Headman Liu. “I never asked you about stealing anything. That case at the Yang family hotel outside the east gate, when the monk’s head was cut off. That was you!”