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.”