CHAPTER 56

Ji Gong surprises an outlaw in the forest; headmen meet the holy monk in a wine shop

“GOOD, Cloud Dragon Hua,” the monk said. “Where have you been?” The poisoner looked as if he would like to flee in his terror.

Now, where had Ji Gong been? After he had risen halfway through the night and left the inn, the two headmen, Chai and She, did not dare to go back to sleep. They were afraid of what might happen the next morning when they would have to pay the bill, because they had no money. Therefore, they also got up and climbed over the courtyard wall. Arriving at New Moon Village in the morning, they entered the town and noticed a teahouse nearby. They walked in and saw a number of local headmen sitting and drinking tea. “We are trying to find a monk,” said Chai. “Have any of you seen him?”

“His case just passed the magistrate’s desk this morning,” one of the local headmen said.

“What for?” asked Chai.

“Isn’t that the monk who was secretly married?” asked the headman.

“No,” replied Chai. “The one I’m asking about is a poor monk in rags.”

Then another headman spoke up. “Just now I heard that outside the east gate there was a poor monk who stopped some people carrying a coffin. Why don’t you go there and look?”

The two, Chai and She, hurried to the area outside the east gate and looked, but Ji Gong had left. They went back and forth, looking in restaurants everywhere, but with no success. Finally, in a small wine shop that also sold food, they found him.

“Good enough, you’re here,” said Headman Chai. “You ran off during the middle of the night. We two men don’t deserve this kind of punishment. Explain yourself.”

“Just sit down, you two,” said the monk. The two sat down and the monk called for food and drink. When it was brought, the two hungry men fell to eating. After a few moments, the monk stood up and said, “Excuse me,” and walked out.

He passed through a door on the west side of the wine shop and went straight out. A little later he was walking along a towpath on a narrow strip of ground between a stream and a canal. Coming from the opposite direction was a mule with a young woman riding on it its back. A man was leading the mule. He was an ugly-looking man with a head shaped like a rabbit’s, and eyes like a snake’s. This man was Kang Cheng, and the woman was Kang Deyuan’s daughter. The evil-hearted rascal had decided to sell his niece for several hundred ounces of silver and use the money to buy a wife for himself.

That morning while his uncle was away, Kang Cheng had tied the mule in the alley near her father’s shop and then told the girl that her father wanted her to wait for him there. Then he simply picked her up and seated her upon the mule. She was afraid to get down by herself, and he had walked off along the towpath leading the mule. The girl was unwilling to go, but her uncle said, “Your father is waiting further along.”

Of course, Ji Gong knew all this and stood still in the middle of the towpath, blocking the way.

“Go back, monk,” said Kang Cheng.

“You go back,” countered the monk.

“We’ve a mule here,” said Kang Cheng.

“I’m a man here,” said the monk.

“Haven’t you noticed that we have a guest of the hall here?” asked Kang Cheng. Now the homes of wealthy Chinese often had a large room, called the guest hall or library, in a separate courtyard to the east. To the west, the first courtyard usually included the servants’ quarters, while the family lived in a courtyard further back to the north, and sometimes even further to the west from there. Guests of the hall were usually not invited into the family’s quarters, and sometimes the guests included women from outside who filled the men’s wine cups and made themselves pleasant company.

Kang Cheng thought that he would impress the monk by saying that they were going to a wealthy home, but the monk replied, “I myself have been the guest of great officials.”

“But we cannot turn around,” said Kang Cheng.

“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.