CHAPTER 42

Two heroes are almost killed in the Dong Family Hotel; the Chan monk brings retribution to robbers

JUST when Lei Ming and Chen Liang were about to kill the robber Wang Gui, he had pointed and said someone was coming. Then, as the two turned their heads to look, he ran into the woods, with the two running after him.

“Run, you slippery scoundrel,” they shouted. “You thought we were no better than you.”

At a little distance away there was a swift-running creek that was quite deep and about nine feet wide. Wang Gui jumped into the water and swam to the other side. Lei Ming and Chen Liang thought of following him, but Chen Liang said, “That’s enough of him,” and they turned back.

Gao Guangrui, the young man whom they had saved, came up to them saying, “If it had not been for you two great sirs, I would certainly have lost my life at the hands of that robber.”

“What is your name, who are you, and why were you traveling along the highway with such a ruffian?” asked Chen Liang.

“My name is Gao Guangrui. I had stopped at a restaurant in the Village of a Thousand Gates…” and so he went on to tell the whole story.

“We are not men of the Greenwood,” Chen Liang told him. “We are giving you back these thirty ounces of silver.” With that he handed the young man his silver.

Gao Guangrui could not praise their kindness enough. “You two saved my life. I live just in the next village, Youlong. We have a famous money exchange. Please come and see me there, or at my uncle’s in Linan.”

The two then drew aside. Chen Liang, who was especially warm-hearted, said, “Let us watch him until he is safely home. We are not in a hurry. Later, we will find a place, somewhere to pass the night.” So they followed Gao Guangrui until they saw him reach home.

By this time they were beginning to feel hungry and a light rain was falling. At last Chen Liang said, “We must find an inn where we can eat and sleep. It is getting late.”

“Just ahead there is an inn where I once stayed,” Lei Ming responded. “It is the Dong Family Inn. They are very friendly. About a year ago I stayed there while I was sick and the manager, a man named Dong, was most helpful. But I do not know whether that old man is still there or whether the manager has changed.”

Chen Liang agreed. “We will stay at this Dong Family Inn.”

When they came to the next village, one street ran from north to south. “This is it,” said Lei Ming.

On the east side of the street they entered the gate of an inn. Facing them was a large standing screen of masonry that completely blocked the view from the gateway. Going around the screen they found themselves in a large courtyard. The main building, a large one-story structure with a veranda, was on their left to the north. There were two smaller buildings at right angles to it, on the east and west.

On the veranda a small table was set, and on it was a gauze lantern. A man was sitting at the table eating and drinking. As he saw Lei Ming and Chen Liang enter, he extinguished the light with a single motion of his hand. Lei Ming and Chen Liang did not pay any attention to this and did not see who it was. The waiter called to them to come into the building on the east side and seated them.

Now this inn was no longer the same Dong Family Inn that it had once been. This was because the old manager had died and the two young managers who succeeded him had no interest in the business. They spent most of their time with a certain Wang Gui, drinking and gambling. One day Wang Gui said, “You two young managers should entrust the business to me. Every year I could give you several strings of cash for doing nothing.”

This Wang Gui was an unmarried man and unsociable by nature. He gathered about him several men of the Greenwood as waiters and men of all work. Whenever there were solitary travelers with valuable luggage, they would murder them. The group was already becoming wealthy with their ill-gotten gains.

Wang Gui liked to brag to the others about his exploits and spoke of himself as a famous member of the Greenwood, but this was mostly empty talk. No one really knew anything about his abilities. Tonight he had returned with his clothing soaked and an ear gone. Indeed, the bleeding could not be entirely stopped. One of the waiters who loved to joke asked: “How come there’s an ear missing and the clothes are all wet?”

“I was in a restaurant, eating,” said Wang Gui, “when a fight broke out. In the confusion a fellow with a knife cut off my ear. The man with me ran after him and the fellow jumped into the river. I went in after him, but he escaped and I got my clothing wet. A number of people helped me out of the water, so I had to stand drinks all around. Some of them will probably be here tomorrow to see how I am doing and wish me well. Give me some dry clothes and something in the way of hot food to put inside me.”

The waiters believed him and did not inquire further. They brought him a change of clothes and made him two dishes of food. Wang Gui was sitting at the table drinking, and the more he thought, the more he regretted his adventure. “It was lucky that I made two flying leaps—otherwise Lei Ming and Chen Liang would have killed me.”

Just as these thoughts were going through his head, he heard voices outside. He thought of telling the waiter to bar the door, but the man was already inviting the two guests inside. When he saw them, he almost took to his heels again. He put the lantern out and went quickly into the north building. Once inside, his heart was still beating wildly as he wondered whether the two had gone into the east building or whether they were still in the courtyard.

After a while he called one of his helpers inside. “Did you recognize the two men who just arrived?” he asked.

“No,” the waiter replied, “I didn’t.”

“One of them is called Borne by the Wind, Lei Ming,” Wang Gui explained. “The other, the one with the light complexion, is the White Monkey, Chen Liang.”

“The names are famous among us,” said the waiter. “We must treat them well and not ask them to pay the bill when they leave.”

“Let me tell you,” said Wang Gui, “These two men are my enemies.”

“What could you have against them?” asked the waiter.

“Today I was traveling from the Village of a Thousand Gates with a merchant. I was coming through the woods with him. Just as I was about to make my move, Lei Ming and Chen Liang came up and said, ‘How are you, Uncle Wang?’ I asked, ‘What are you to rascals up to?’ They answered, ‘Just looking things over.’ I did not say anything, and then they both came at me and wouldn’t stop. They cheated me out of the money I would have gotten, and I not only lost the money, but they made me lose an ear. Now we will kill them and it will serve them right. I will have my revenge. You can divide whatever silver there is. I don’t want it.”

“That’s it, then,” the waiter said.

Wang Gui whispered in his ear. “Do this and such and so forth.”

The waiter nodded his head.

When he arrived at the east building, the waiter asked, “What will you two men eat?”

“What do you have here?” asked Chen Liang.

“We have fried bean curd, boiled bean curd, and dried bean curd.”

“We don’t eat bean curd. Do you have anything else?” asked Chen Liang.

“Nothing,” replied the waiter. “Our manager took everything to somebody’s wedding, including most of the help. He even lent them the cooking utensils. We can roast two chickens with some cabbage. We have no little wine pots to warm the wine. We have wine in two-catty bottles.”

“Then we will have a two-catty bottle and a pair of roast chickens,” directed Chen Liang.

After they had waited a while, the waiter brought everything in. Lei Ming and Chen Liang each drank a few mouthfuls of wine. Then Chen Liang said, “Not good. Brother, why am I becoming confused?”

“I’m beginning to feel the same way,” said Lei Ming.

Suddenly Chen Liang cried out, “It fits! We have fallen into the cave of the ear.” Then he and Lei Ming both turned and fell to the ground.

“Master,” the waiter called out to Wang Gui, “these two are finished.”

At this time, Chen Liang was still able to hear, and recognizing the answering voice of the spirit of the Green Sprout, Wang Gui, he knew that he had not long to live. The waiter watched them for a little while and then went to talk to Wang Gui.

“Somewhere about them they have a purse with thirty ounces of silver that I had taken from the merchant. There is another with five ounces that they took from me. Whatever they have, I don’t want it. That is for you waiters.”

The waiter was not especially eager to kill them. Whether they had gone against the Greenwood or not, the two men were famous. “First Wang Gui was talking about revenge and now he is talking about money,” he thought. But the waiter did not dare to say what he was thinking.

Prepared to do the deed or not, the waiter took the knife and went out of the north building to kill Lei Ming and Chen Liang, but just as he approached the east building, he heard someone knocking at the gate and saying, “Open the gate! Open the gate! I came here to sleep.”

Wang Gui, hearing the noise, called to the servant: “You had better find out who that is—but don’t let him see me.”

The waiter went to the crack in the gate and called, “Who is it?”

The voice outside repeated, “I came here to sleep.”

“We don’t have any empty chambers,” the waiter said.

“If you don’t have any in the north building, one of the side buildings will do,” the voice outside insisted.

“There’s nothing in the side buildings either,” said the waiter.

Then from outside the voice said, “If the side buildings are full, let me sleep in the shed.”

The waiter opened the gate a little and looked out. There was a monk. Now, the one who had just arrived was Ji Gong. He had been at the little inn with the two headmen. When they had finished eating and drinking, one of them said, “This is a convenient place, teacher. Let us all stay here overnight and go on in the morning.”

“Good,” said Ji Gong. They made arrangements to stay and went to bed. At the second watch, the monk woke them up and said, “Get up and we’ll go catch Cloud Dragon. He’s out in the woods.”

“Is this really true?” they asked.

“It is true,” said the monk.

The two got up and left the inn with the monk. It was raining and still very dark. After a while one of the two headmen asked, “Teacher, where is Cloud Dragon?”

“I don’t know,” answered the monk.

“That’s not what you said before,” said Headman Chai.

“I called you out to stroll about in this rainy scene,” the monk said. “The rain comes down from up above and underfoot it is all mud. At such a time it would be nice to be sleeping in bed, wouldn’t it?”

The two headmen, Chai and She, could hardly control themselves, but they did not speak. The monk went on with them until they arrived at the Dong Family Inn. The monk asked them to make a bundle with their outer clothing, into which he put some stones to make it larger in appearance. Then he knocked at the gate.

When the waiter said there was no room, the monk persisted. “I don’t want to go elsewhere. I have some valuables here and I am afraid to be out on the road. I’m afraid I will lose them. I’m begging you to let me stay the night.”

When the waiter opened the door a little and saw him, he exclaimed, “You’re a monk! What is this talk of valuables?”

“I’m carrying them secretly,” said the monk.

“What’s that you’re carrying?” asked the waiter.

“Crystal, cat’s eyes, agates, and all sorts of semi-precious stones and little antique jewels in curious shapes,” the monk answered.

When the waiter heard that, he went in and told Wang Gui. “Outside there is a monk who is secretly carrying a pack with valuable little treasures of all sorts. Shall we get rich this time? It may be worth tens of thousands and we will each have seven or eight thousand as a share.”

“That’s good then,” said Wang Gui, “but first lock the door of the east building. Bring the monk into the north building.”

And so the waiter went and opened the door to the monk who had come to aid Lei Ming and Chen Liang.