19 Zhu Bajie in the Gao village

Sun Wukong was cyring out "Guanyin bodhisattva you harmed me again" on his way here to my Nanhai in order to find me trouble and beg for my help, but he glares his eyes big after one tumble of his Jing Dou Cloud in front of me. He stands still shocked with his cudgel trembling in his arms as if he was a falling leaf in the air. He sacredly looks up at me and at the little white fox in my arms: 'Bodhisattva, why are you covered with fox body hair with the fox odor?'

I helplessly take off a wisp of white fox hair from my hair like an abandoned old mom. I sigh sadly and say: 'That black bear brought all the yokais in the wild to Nanhai for Huian to beat for fun. I didn't agree with this but Huian is happy as he is playing with yokais. Huian was weird since he was little. He seldom is happy or speaks. He has few friends. I don't want to make him upset by driving those yokais away.'

After that, I pet the little fox who is closing his eyes in my arms: 'Today he invited a white fox yokai. The white fox brought his family here, but probably that white fox yokai is a stupid one who doesn't know how to count. He left his son here.'

Sun Wukong: '...'

The baby fox is a timid one and he curls up into a furry white ball as soon as he sees Sun Wukong. He is trying to hide deeper in my arms. It is just a moment that I did not pet him, he whimpers. It is a little smart one.

I catch the tail of this baby fox sadly and pick him up in the air, shaking him in front of Sun Wukong: 'See. This little baby just peed on me.'

Sun Wukong is stunned for a while and mumbles: 'Bodhisattva is kind and hugging a baby yokai.'

I say sorrily: 'I wanted to drown him in my lotus pond no less than ten times during these hours when he is staying here. Then I said to myself that I couldn't do this because I was a bodhisattva and I couldn't kill. If he just dies in my pond, it will be hard to clean my pond. Later he will just contaminate all my pond with his corpse. That is going to be disgusting and troublesome.'

Sun Wukong: '...'

I pinch his little palms as I pick him up in the air: 'Ayyy, I don't know what kind of difficulty you are facing, but Wukong, you have seen that my Nanhai right now is in chaos. The black bear who should be guarding my mountain is still looking for yokais for my disciple to beat. My disciple beats anyone he sees. I cannot leave here. If you have any difficulty, just solve it by yourself.'

Sun Wukong places his cudgel horizontally in the air and says angrily: 'Bodhisattva, you promised me that you would help me if I faced an unsolvable difficulty. Are you regretting now?'

I rub the hair of the little fox baby and say sorrily: 'Wukong, you are Qitian Dasheng Sun Wukong. I do not believe that there will be any other yokai who is stronger than you. My Huian had no friends when he was little. He is really happy right now and I will let him play this time no matter what. Why don't you just solve this difficulty by yourself? Ah?'

Sun Wukong plants his cudgel on the ground and says: 'You make it sound easy. You do not know what kind of difficulty I am facing!'

'Let me ask you first: Is Zhu Wuneng the designated disciple by you for my shifu?'

His tone makes me like someone who owes him that I wonder if that Zhu Wuneng ate his shifu that he got so mad.

I say: 'This Zhu Wuneng was the Marshal Canopy in Heaven, commanding one hundred thousand of heaven soldiers. His position was high and noble. It was just because a small fault that he was banished down to Earth. He was highly respected, and he should be qualified to protect your shifu to Western Paradise.'

Sun Wukong sits on the ground because my words just annoyed him: 'Although he...you don't know that this Zhu Wuneng has married a wife in that Gao village and now he is someone's son-in-law!'

'Bodhisattva, you didn't know. The old father-in-law requested us to surrender a yokai and he said that Zhu Wuneng forced to marry his daughter. Later after a fight between I Old Sun and him, he told me that this old father-in-law called Zhu Wuneng to marry his daughter formally because Zhu Wuneng was a hard-working guy. He swept the floors, dredged the ditches, carried bricks and tiles, planted crops, mixed mud to build walls, farmed, dug, harvested, and made wealth. Everyone in the Gao village from then on has silk clothes, gold accessories, flowers, fruits, and vegetables. All these are earned by Zhu Wuneng, but now the Gaos are rich and detest Zhu Wuneng being an ugly yokai. They lied to Old Sun that he was a rapist and paid Old Sun to kill him!'

I say: 'It is a weakness shared by humans that the Gaos cling to the better ones and detest the lower ones or break the well after getting water. It is Zhu Wuneng's fate that he must be a protector of your shifu to Western Paradise. Since the Gaos do not welcome him, it is better for him to just leave with you. He can leave everything behind and join you guys with himself without any connection uncut. Why is this bad?'

Sun Wukong says: 'Bodhisattva ah! First, I am not reconciled to be used by the Gaos to break up a marriage. Second, you didn't know that the daughter of the Gaos doesn't want Zhu Wuneng to join Buddhism.'

'She is just a female who has obeyed her father's word to marry a yokai. Now she has been occupied by this yokai for years. Although this yokai is ugly, he treats her with his true heart and takes care of her parents, earning them money and properties. Now he scared away their relatives that the parents also blamed her for marrying to a yokai that she contaminated the fame of the Gaos. They accused her for scaring away relatives. Although Zhu Wuneng transformed to a human during the marriage, he is in his pig form when they asked him to make them money and to do hard work. Now they are rich and are searching for daoists to kill this son-in-law!'

'Yes, it is true that Zhu Wuneng should come with my shifu to receive the scriptures, but the daughter of Gao will not have a bright future once he leaves. According to her family, she has been contaminated by a yokai. It is hard for her to remarry. She will be either living alone or commit suicide. Everyone within the influence of the Gao village knows that she has married a yokai. Who will be willing to marry her? Both the relatives from her mother's branch and her father's branch look at her like a monster. Only the yokai treats her with real passion. Now she is crying to keep Zhu Wuneng by her side.'

I say: 'What a sin it is. I told that pig yokai to avoid alcohol and be a vegetarian and wait for you two to find him, but he went to bring disaster to a daughter of a family. What can be done?'

Sun Wukong despondently says: 'Bodhisattva, don't forget that my shifu's mother committed suicide at the end after she was forcibly occupied by the robbers and was finally saved.'

After that, he throws his golden cudgel away and sits below my lotus seat sorrowly: 'Tell me, what can be done? Human rules are human rules. I think if Zhu Wuneng just leaves with my shifu, the daughter of the Gaos will commit suicide within three days.'

I say to him: 'Now you know death is a big deal. How come you didn't know it when you were fighting and killing in the past? Yet Wukong, back to our topic, being alive or embracing death is their own fate. Humans float and sink in their own fate. Deities cannot get involved in these. If humans are going to chain themselves with rules, that is their fate. I cannot interfere.'

As soon as Sun Wukong hears me saying that I am not going to regulate this, he strikes his cudgel on the ground and jumps up angrily: 'You are the goddess of mercy Guanyin bodhisattva. You sweep away three disasters and save eight calamities. Why can't you save a girl?'

I say: 'There are thousands of ten-thousand of oppressed women. Am I going to save them one by one? When humans die, they hate deities for controlling their lifespan; When they live, they hope deities to break the rules to save them. Where shall such a good deal be? They harm themselves. They hate themselves. Even if deities want to help, the problem will never end.'

Sun Wukong says angrily: 'You don't even save one person. How can you save all the beings! I don't care! You are the kind Guanyin bodhisattva! If you don't care for her, no one can save her in the world!'

I see that he is getting angrier that I have no other choices: 'You make it sound easy. Can you count the exact number of the oppressed people? Can you help them all? If not, saving one person will not work. I have been living for too long and I have seen too much life and death on Earth. Cause and effect. Wukong, even for cause and effect, there will be unfairness. Let alone the Earth. If that daughter of Gao dies, she will have a good marriage in her next life because in this life she has been doing good deeds and enduring sufferings. Why do you want her to live and suffer in this Gao family?'

The voice of Sun Wukong is higher and higher. He is almost shouting: 'Then I will save one whenever I see one! I do not care! If she deserves a good treatment, she shall enjoy it in her current life! She shall not endure all these sufferings and die miserably to seek a better future life! Once humans die, they die! Once they die, there will be nothing left!'

'Even though their souls reincarnate, the original one has been gone. It died totally! It will never be reborn!'

He is being unreasonable again and loses his temper. He suddenly pulls my sleeve and shouts at me: 'Say! Do you regulate this incident?'

My sleeve is pulled by him and I am both annoyed and amused. I ask him: 'What will happen if I regulate it? What will happened if not?'

Sun Wukong says angrily: 'If you regulate this, you will still be my admiring Guanyin bodhisattva. If you don't, you are no different from those bastard deities from in Heaven! I will not protect the Tang monk to receive the scriptures. I shall be bothering you in your black bamboo grove and I will say to anyone I see: Nanhai Putuo Luojia Mountain Guanyin bodhisattva is an indifferent bastard! He watches people dying and his words are not trustworthy! What kindness and passion!? All are lies!'

...

Fine fine fine. You win. You win. I shall regulate this.

I tuck the naughty baby fox biting randomly in my arms into Sun Wukong's arms. I warn him: 'If he bites you or pees on you, do not kill him. His idiot mom is going to take him back.'

Then, I dust off the contaminated air on my body with my vyajana and say to Sun Wukong: 'Let's go. Keep this baby fox and if it dies, it will be your fault.'

Sun Wukong: '...'

On the next second, I and Sun Wukong have arrived at the Gao village standing on clouds. We see two houses one after another. One has Zhu Wuneng and the Tang monk. The other has the Gaos.

Here, Zhu Wuneng says to the Tang monk: 'Shifu, my wife was married to me formally although I accepted Guanyin bodhisattva's request to receive the scriptures with you. I should stay with my wife until she dies. Now if I just leave her alone, how can I pacify my heart? Why don't you just go, and I will catch up after one hundred years?'

The Tang monk is shocked: 'Wuneng ah, don't be kidding. I am a human as well. After a hundred years, I will be an old man as well. I will have gotten the scriptures and you will not have another chance to reverse your fate!'

There, the parents of the daughter are discussing as well.

The father-in-law rubs his white hair and sighs: 'Ayyy, this yokai was going to leave with the monk, but the girl doesn't want him to leave now. What can be done?'

Mrs. Gao says: 'Find another good man for her, husband.'

Mr. Gao strikes the table and says: 'A good man? I am afraid that no one will ever marry her! If she had married a worthless man, we could find a better man for her, but she has been married to a yokai! How many years they have been together on a bed? Who will want her right now?'

After this, Mr. Gao glances at another middle age man on the other side. He whispers to Mrs. Gao: 'I am afraid that she will not want to kill herself in the future.'

Mrs. Gao suddenly bursts out her tears and she cries out, throwing herself on him: 'She is your most loved daughter. You have been treating her well since she was little. How could you just let her kill herself? Even if she cannot get married again, she can stay at home. She can stay with parents for the rest of her life!'

The middle age man in front of them says: 'Sister-in-law, it is a yokai who she has been married to. Yokais have been an enemy of humans since the beginning. Yokais have eaten so many humans, and all of us in this region cannot hate yokais more! Now it is fine when this yokai is still here. If he leaves in the future and your girl doesn't want to kill herself, I am afraid that the Gaos will be in a big trouble from them now! If there is someone who is evilly causing troubles, he will come and burn down the houses of the Gaos and kill the children of the Gaos!'

'Sister-in-law, you didn't know. Yokais have been an enemy of humans since the very early beginning. Those who betrayed their side always end more tragically than yokais! We have married our girl to a yokai and what a good amount of fortune he has earned for the Gaos? We have so much property now and people are envious. Then, all these will be their excuse to vent out their inner demons!'

Mr. Gao sighs: 'Do you believe that I am willing to let my daughter die? Only if she dies, all other children in the Gaos can survive. We have no other choice.'

Mrs. Gao is so sorrowful that she is going to faint. She just keeps saying "My poor daughter" and at last she falls into unconsciousness.

Mr. Gao sees that his wife doesn't want to agree with him, so he hints to one of his best servants: 'Go get a bowl of poison. If the girl doesn't want to leave cleanly, then force that bowl of poison into her throat.'

I and Sun Wukong are standing outside their windows and we have listened to all these conversations. We are too shocked to say anything.

After a while, Sun Wukong is holding his cudgel and doesn't know what to do. He asks me depressed:

'Now this thing has gone so far. What can we do?'