21 The Sleeping Lingji Bodhisattva

Sometimes it is so annoying dealing with this Sun monkey. I will help him no matter what, but he deliberately repudiates the debt. What can I say? I still have to help him, but I am just cursing him in my mind.

Longnv and Shancai are waiting for me to poke his lie out to embarrass him. They both look at me with a drama-watching face.

I look at Sun Wukong. He seems confident and I am afraid that if I point his lie out, his self-esteem will be hurt. After a while, due to the fact that I have no other choices, I say to Longnv: 'Didn't you see Sun Dasheng hasn't returned the son of the white foxes? Get the fox and bring it to the mother fox.'

I say to Sun Wukong: 'This return is really on time. His idiot mom has been looking for him for no less than ten days. This baby fox is really carefree. He knows that his mother is looking for him but he is having fun playing with you.'

Sun Wukong hears this and he looks at the ground nervously. He raises his eyes to look at me once a while. He scratches his hands and he doesn't seem comfortable.

This troublesome monkey has never been scared of anyone in the sky or on Earth since he was called Qitian Dasheng who made havoc in Heaven. He never feels timid in front of anyone. Yet, now he overcautiously stands to face me and stutters: 'Yes, bodhisattva's words are right. This baby fox is too naughty.'

I say to Sun Wukong: 'It is great that you came on time. The mother fox is being crazy after she lost her son. She is digging every bit of soil in my Nanhai. You know how worried a woman can be if she lost her child. Now if she sees that you have brought her son back, she will treat you as her big benefactor. Just wait here and I shall call the white fox yokai to thank you herself.'

After that, I hypocritically say to Longnv: 'Laugh? What are you laughing about? Is the mother white fox still at the back hillside? Call her here. Her idiot son is back!'

Before I could finish my words, Sun Wukong pulls my sleeve immediately and hurries to say: 'Bodhisattva, please listen to Old Sun speaking.'

He wants to say something, then he swallows his words back. His monkey face turns red and looks up at me with his anxious eyes. After a while, he acts like a leaking balloon: 'I shall tell you the truth! This is not the real son of the white fox yokai. It...it is just a random one I caught from the wild!'

He says despondently: 'On that day, I was busy finding Huian Xingzhe. I don't remember where I dropped the baby fox and it just got lost. I thought Nanhai was a peaceful place that he couldn't go missing. I didn't think of finding him after losing him either. But I cannot sense him anymore when I went to search for him. Then, I knew that I had caused a big trouble.'

Sun Wukong keeps his head down and glances at me secretly: 'I wanted to apologize to bodhisattva in these days but you know that I Old Sun's temper is like this. I have never admitted anything wrong done by me. Now this thing happened, and I wasn't willing to apologize so I have lost the best chance to find him back. Now my shifu is in trouble so I have to beg bodhisattva' for help. Then I thought that I haven't found that baby fox that my heart cannot rest. Hopelessly, I just came up with this stupid way to cheat you!'

A while after he finished his words, he looks at me to wait for any words from me. I don't speak and he says boldly: 'This stupid idea was not made by me actually. It was my fellow urging me! If it wasn't for him, how would I do such a shameful thing today!'

He doesn't dare to speak openly when he is in the wrong. When he talks about his fellow, he thinks he is right.

I have no other choice but say: '...Yes yes yes. It is the fault of others no matter what. It is just not your, Qitian Dasheng's, fault. Did you mean that?'

Sun Wukong makes a forced smile and looks at the ground. He scratches the back of his palms and says: 'It is my fault. Bodhisattva, you are a big being and please forgive me.'

I say: 'Sun Wukong, do you not know that how big a trouble you have caused! The son of the white fox stole the Xiandan made by Taishang Laojun and drank the elixir sent by Queen Mother of the West after you left! He also picked a petal from my lotus pond and attached it to his face! From then on, no one can recognize his thousands of transformations! This little fox is so clever since he is little, but he is bad! He will definitely cause more troubles when he grows up! Possibly, he will be more troublesome than you!'

Sun Wukong looks at the ground and strikes his head despondently: 'It is all Old Sun's fault. It is all Old Sun's fault. One day when I don't protect the Tang monk anymore, I will do nothing but go searching for the little fox. I will do it!'

I say: 'Let it pass. It is in his fate that he will have such a fortune. It is hard to say whether this fortune is good or bad for him. Now you came here again. Is anything wrong with your shifu?'

He says: 'He is again caught by a tiger yokai to the Yellow Wind Cave! The tiger is not strong but his king has a wind-blowing treasure!'

Sun Wukong says in a huff: 'It is so rare! In the past, Old Sun had been around here and has never seen such a hard-working man-eating yokai! Even if he likes to eat humans, but he even catches humans from other yokais' territories. This world has really changed. When we were yokais during the past, we never did things in such a manner. We respected each other and now today's yokais are degraded. In these five-hundred years when Old Sun wasn't out, the outside yokais have learned bad. What a degradation!'

As we are talking, a sickly cold feeling occurs in my body. It makes me feel like I was in a frozen world and I shiver.

I turn around. Longnv, Shancai, and Sun Wukong are still standing there. There is no cold wind blowing at me. There is no a sudden change of the weather. It is just me.

Before I could ask Sun Wukong what happened, a low sobbing comes into my ears as if someone is weeping and murmurs: 'Guanyin sister, hurry to save me!'

I look around confusedly but no one is talking. After a while, I ask Sun Wukong: 'Have you heard anyone speaking?'

Sun Wukong stares at me and says confusedly as well: 'Only I am talking. No one else is.'

Then I look at Longnv and Shancai. They both shake their head. Obviously, none of them have heard this calling for help.

No long after that, the voice sobs again: 'It is all over. It is all over. Even Guanyin sister cannot come to save me. I will definitely die this time.'

Wait a minute. Why do I think this voice is familiar...?

Isn't this voice from Sun Wukong's shifu?!

The little monk seems to be talking to himself. I hear him crying and sobbing: 'It is all the fault of my two disciples. They just wanted to chase that yokai and now I am caught. No one responds to my calling for help. I am alone here and will be soon eaten by those yokais after they open my chest and belly. How can I go to Western Paradise to receive the scriptures...'

...This little monk can even talk so much to himself when he is alone.

I am all-knowing and if I turn on my ability, all the voices who are burning incenses for me can be heard. Their voices aren't loud, but the voice of this little monk is such a noise. I cannot hear anything else as soon as he speaks.

After a while, I hear him murmurs again: 'But I have promised Guanyin sister to receive the scriptures from the Nalanda Temple in Western Paradise...'

I remember that two days go when we were having a meeting in Western Paradise, Tathagata had a brainstorm and he asked us what to do if the disciples of the Tang monk failed to save him. It is true that there will be many difficulties on their way. No one can promise the Tang monk will be always safe. He has died nine times. He should succeed in his tenth life. If he dies again this time, it will embarrass us.

When Tathagata spoke about this, none of us responded. Although I made the outline for his eighty-one difficulties, the details were designed by Tathagata. If he made it hard and the Tang monk couldn't survive, then it was his fault.

Yet, he is the boss. We didn't dare to say his wrongs. Thus, everytime when he mentions anything related to the actual difficulties, we all look at the ground. After a while, he will forget it.

Who knows that on that day, Tathagata insisted on giving the Tang monk an ability so that he could ask for help from all deities. Everyone would then know the Tang monk was in trouble and the ones nearby could go to help.

At that time, I stood up to disagree with his idea. My point was that if the Tang monk's trouble was known by everyone, it would make us seem useless. It would be a shame on us.

Therefore, Buddha took a tumble and said: 'Right, right. Our inner things shouldn't be known by others. Let's solve these by ourselves.'

I watched his face and thought he was going to find a special telephone operator just for the Tang monk to tell his trouble to any deities around.

Who knows that after giving the ability to Xuan Zang, his calling just naturally connects to me. Everytime he is caught, I have to listen to his "Guanyin sister, hurry to save me", "Guanyin sister, I am dying", "Guanyin sister, where are you", and something like these. It cannot be more annoying.

When he wasn't Xuanzang, I had to listen to his non-stop talking all the time in Western Paradise. Now he has been banished to Earth to be a human and I still have to listen to his non-stop talking. This sinning fate is never going to end!

I say to Sun Wukong: 'Your shifu is caught. You shall find ways to save him. Why are you coming to me?'

Sun Wukong says: 'That yokai has a treasure which can blow fierce winds. Those wind and sand cause ache to my eyes. I was burned for forty-nine days in the furnace of Taishang Laojun. My eyes have been smoked by the fire and they cannot face wind blows. Thus, I cannot fight that yokai. I heard that yokai saying that he was not scared of any deities in the world but Lingji bodhisattva, so I want to find someone called Lingji bodhisattva to help me. But I have been searching and couldn't find him, I just come to you for a direction.'

I say: 'Lingji doesn't live far from me. However, he sleeps nine-hundred years in one-thousand years. If you wake him up, he will not be happy.'

In the past, I knew that I was not the real Guanyin bodhisattva. I am a fake one who became Guanyin bodhisattva by accident. Sometimes, I thought that it couldn't be just one fake buddha here.

Who are the real ones and who are the fake ones among my colleagues in Western Paradise? Possibly, there will be some who are just like me who came from another world. However, when I saw that everyone is working seriously, I doubted that I might be the only hapless guy, until one day, I met this Lingji.

Others are just like what I had heard about in my previous world. Only he is different from my previous knowledge. He sleeps all day. He sleeps during Buddha's teaching. He sleeps when he is teaching. He can even fall asleep when he is walking. He doesn't preach but he has a lot of followers. What a weird phenomenon.

I doubt that his followers might all be those who would like to be like him, sleeping all day long.

I am afraid that Sun Wukong cannot wake him up by himself, so I take Sun Wukong with me to the Little Sumeru Mountain. As we arrive at the gate, I ask the child guarding the gate: 'What is Lingji doing?'

The child recognizes me and he immediately salutes to me: 'Guanyin bodhisattva, our bodhisattva is preaching.'

Since he said that, I know Lingji this dude must be sleeping. I and Sun Wukong kick to open his gate and later his doors. We pick him up from his bed and ask: 'Tathagata has asked you to regulate the behavior of the Yellow Wind Demon. How come he is killing beings and making sins in the mountain and has caught the Tang monk?'

Lingji still hasn't fully woken up. He confusedly opens his eyes and looks at me. After a while, he says: 'Guanyin sister, why are you here?' After another while, he asks again: 'Who is the Tang monk? Is he important?'

Every seniors in Western Paradise knows that I am not a sister, except for this Lingji.

Thus, I doubt that he is a fake one.

I: '...He is Xuan Zang.'

He blinks his eyes and looks more confused: 'Who is Xuan Zang?'

I: '...The Golden Cicada.'

Then he finally realizes: 'Oh! I know that chatterbox!'

...

I say to myself: probably before he went to bed last time, the Golden Cicada had not been banished. He has slept for too long and has missed a lot.

Sun Wukong says: 'Bodhisattva, my shifu is caught by that yokai. We don't even know whether he is alive right now or he has been eaten!'

Lingji looks at the ceiling without any focus in his eyes. Although he cannot be fully awake, he says confidently: 'Don't worry. Don't worry. Tathagata gave me a Wind-freezing Pearl. I also have a Flying-dragon staff. I shall surrender this yokai in no time.'

He says and climbs out from his bed. He stumbles in his room to search things in his closet and cabinets with his half-open eyes. After a while of searching, he suddenly opens his eyes fully and becomes awake. He trembles and looks back at us straightly.

We stare at each other and no one wants to say anything.

Lingji trembles again and stutters: 'Rip. This Tang monk shall not be saved within a short time.'

Sun Wukong says anxiously: 'Bodhisattva, this cannot be a joke!'

Lingji also fretfully scratches his bald head and he stomps and walks around in the room. He feels he is wronged and murmurs:

'But both my Wind-freezing Pearl and the Flying-dragon staff are gone.'