284: Chapter 285: The Monster Often Visits Our Village 284: Chapter 285: The Monster Often Visits Our Village Upon seeing such a scene, Sun Wukong and the others were not in a hurry.
Instead, they pulled over a chair and invited Xuanzang to sit on it.
The few of them sat around a table, with an old man seated at the front.
“I wonder what has happened here, and why you have invited monks to chant scriptures in your ho?”
Xuanzang asked, sowhat curious.
“We have so customs here that you outsiders wouldn’t know.
Oh right…”
While they were still talking, another elder with a walking stick erged from an inner door.
This elder, leaning on his walking stick, seed even older than the one they were first talking to.
With his stick, the elder questioned, “What demons and ghosts dare to intrude into our good ho at night?”
Upon hearing this voice, the elder in front of Sun Wukong hurriedly got up to greet him.
Then he whispered, “Brother, do not speak loudly!
These are not demons.
They are high monks from the Great Tang of the Eastern Land on a pilgrimage, and though their disciples look fierce and ugly, they are kind-hearted!”
After hearing his brother’s words, the elder nodded in surprise and then set down his walking stick to exchange greetings with Sun Wukong and his companions.
He imdiately took a seat facing Sun Wukong and the others.
“Bring the tea, prepare the vegetarian al!”
After a few calls, several servants quickly appeared.
Though still visibly nervous, with two masters present, they were considerably more at ease.
Upon seeing so many people, Zhu Bajie curiously asked, “How many will serve us?”
One of the elders replied, “Eight people!”
“How will eight people serve?
Serve whom?”
The elder smiled and said, “Serve you four!”
“Oh!”
Zhu Bajie, his eyes gleaming, continued, “My handso master needs only one to attend to him, our furry-faced Elder Brother two.
As for that bad-luck-faced Junior Brother, he might require eight people, but I, I’m afraid I need twenty to serve !”
Upon hearing this, the elder nodded and said, “Indeed, I presu it’s because your appetite is much bigger!”
Zhu Bajie nodded and said, “Exactly!
I haven’t had a full al the entire journey.
It’s a fine thing to be able to eat my fill here!”
The two elders looked at each other, nodded, and said, “Rest assured, since we are fated to et, we brothers respect you monks highly and promise that you will eat your fill!”
With that, they summoned thirty-four people to serve Zhu Bajie and the others.
Soon, the household prepared a long table, inviting Xuanzang to take the head seat.
Tow long tables were set on either side for Sun Wukong and the other two to sit down.
Then they served fruits, vegetables, followed by noodles, rice, soup, all neatly arranged.
Seeing all the delicacies, Zhu Bajie hastily began to devour his food, clearly starving, as he normally ate a lot, and the journey had not allowed him to eat to his fill.
At that mont, seeing a bowl of rice, he directly poured it into his mouth.
A servant watching this, showed a surprised expression.
“How did you do that, sir?
Swallowing the food in one gulp without getting your clothes dirty?”
“How could my clothes get dirty?
I just eat it all in one go!”
Laughed Zhu Bajie.
The attendant, even more astonished, said, “Sir, you didn’t even chew!
How did you finish it so fast?”
Zhu Bajie chuckled and responded, “No need for sharp eyes, I don’t need to chew when I eat.
If you don’t believe , I’ll eat again for you to see!”
Hearing this, the attendant hurriedly served another bowl to Zhu Bajie.
Zhu Bajie took the bowl, gave it a shake near his mouth, and in an instant, the bowl was empty.
The servants, shocked by this, said, “My heavens!
What is your throat made of?
It slipped right down without chewing!”
Zhu Bajie just kept on stuffing his face with rice, noodles, fruits, and vegetables without pause.
He occasionally shouted, “More rice!
More rice!”
Xuanzang, seeing this scene, felt sowhat embarrassed.
“Disciple, eat a little less!”
Sun Wukong also laughingly said, “Yes, simpleton, eat less.
You behave as though we left you to starve in the mountains for a while, like a starving ghost reincarnated!”
Zhu Bajie, shaking his head, retorted, “As the saying goes, a al not eaten to fullness is better not started at all!”
“Is there such a saying?”
Sun Wukong glared at Zhu Bajie and decided not to bother any further.
The two elders then stood up and bowed, saying, “We are not worried even during the day.
This big-bellied elder here, we could invite a hundred and eighty people to please him.
But since tonight is getting late, we only stead so noodle dishes and prepared five dou of rice al and a few tables of vegetarian dishes for the monks and so neighbors we were going to invite.”
“We didn’t expect you to co and scare off those monks, and those neighbors were too afraid to invite.
It all went to you all.
If it’s not enough, we’ll steam more!”
Zhu Bajie nodded and hurriedly said, “Hurry and steam so more, this is not enough for my eating!”
Xuanzang, glancing at Zhu Bajie, then asked, “Don’t mind my disciple, but may I ask, esteed Old Benefactor, what is your honored surna?”
The elder smiled and said, “No worries, no worries, our last na is Chen!”
Upon hearing this, Xuanzang smiled and said, “I didn’t expect to et soone of the sa clan!”
The elder, surprised, said, “The High Monk is also surnad Chen?”
Xuanzang nodded and said, “This poor monk’s secular family na is Chen.
May I know what ritual was being perford just now?
You ntioned it’s a custom?”
At this mont, Xuanzang couldn’t help but be curious.
“This is a ritual prepared for the transcendence of souls!”
Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie nearly fell over laughing, “You two elders, don’t scare us.
How could we monks not know what a ritual is?
It’s just that we’ve prepared for other rituals, but never expected one for the transcendence of souls!”
“Your family mbers aren’t even dead, why perform a transcendence ritual!”
Sun Wukong also expressed so doubts, “Old sir, you must be mistaken, what do you an by a ritual for preparing the transcendence of souls!”
The two elders, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but sigh and said, “You who are seeking scriptures should have taken the main road, yet unexpectedly you’ve co to our place.”
Sun Wukong could only offer a wry smile and said, “We are on the main road, but a large river has blocked our way, preventing us from crossing.
Hearing so noise here, we ca over, rely seeking shelter for the night before continuing our journey tomorrow!”
Upon hearing this, the elder continued, “Then did you see anything by the water’s edge?”
Sun Wukong thought for a mont and then said, “Indeed, we saw a stone stele.
It had ‘Tongtian River’ written on it, with the note below reading: ‘Eight hundred li, rarely crossed by anyone.'”
The elder nodded and said, “If you walk up the bank a bit, about a li away from that stele, you’ll find a temple of the King of Inspiration.”
“Oh, what King of Inspiration?”
Upon hearing the elder’s words, Sun Wukong couldn’t help but be a bit astonished.
The others also showed interest.
At this ti, the two elders had tears in their eyes.
“Monk, that temple of the King of Inspiration blesses the area within a thousand li with Sweet Dew, ensuring favorable winds and tily rains!”
Sun Wukong, surprised, said, “Favorable winds and tily rains are indeed good things, so why are you so troubled?
May I know why?”
The elder, upon hearing this, beat his chest and stomped his foot, sighing heavily, “Although the King of Inspiration has graced us, he has also cursed us.
Even though he aids us with favorable weather, he also harms people by demanding to eat boys and girls, not a proper immortal at all!”
Sun Wukong glanced at Zhu Bajie and Sand Monk and said, “He demands to eat boys and girls?”
The elder nodded, “Indeed!”
Zhu Bajie then realized and said, “It seems that this ritual for transcendence you’ve prepared, is perhaps ant for your children!”
“Yes, this year it was indeed my family’s turn.
Our village consists of only a hundred families, known as Chen Family Village!”
“This king demands a sacrifice every year, one boy and one girl, along with pigs and sheep to feed him, then he will ensure our favorable weather.
If we fail to offer sacrifices, disasters may befall us!”
“Such evil indeed!”
Sand Monk also said angrily.
Zhu Bajie, sowhat moved, said, “Junior Brother Sand, this King of Inspiration is far crueler than you were!”
Back when Sand Monk was in the Liusha River, he had eaten many people, but he never specifically demanded boys and girls.
Xuanzang glanced at Zhu Bajie, then asked, “May I know how many children are in your household?”
The elder, beating his chest and stomping his feet, said with sorrow, “Pitiful, pitiful, my younger brother, his na is Chen Qing, and I am Chen Cheng, 63 years old this year, and he is 58.
It is not easy for us to have children.”
“I had no sons when I was fifty, and my friends advised to take a concubine.
I felt no choice but to do so, and found a woman who bore a daughter, now just eight years old, nad Yi Ching Jin.”
Zhu Bajie said, “What an expensive na!
Why call her Yi Ching Jin?”
The elder explained, “Since having children was difficult, I repaired bridges and roads, built temples and pagodas, and provided for monks.
I kept a book of accounts noting—three taels here, five taels there—by the year my daughter was born, it just so happened that I had used up thirty jin of gold, and thirty jin make one ching, hence the na Yi Ching Jin.”
Sun Wukong nodded, then recalling the boy, said, “Is that boy your brother’s son?”
The elder nodded, “My brother has a son, also born to a concubine, who is now seven years old, nad Chen Guanbao.”
“Between the two of us brothers, both over a hundred years old, we only have these two children, and today it happened to be my family’s turn to make the sacrifice, so I dare not refuse.”
“Due to our familial love, we first conducted a ritual of transcendence for the children.”
Hearing this, Xuanzang couldn’t help but feel somber, “This is exactly what the ancients said, ‘When old plums do not fall, new ones drop; heaven bears grudge against the childless.’
Sun Wukong, growing more curious, said, “Old sir, how much wealth does your family possess?”
The two elders thought for a mont before responding, “We have quite so wealth; forty to fifty hectares of paddy fields, sixty to seventy hectares of dry fields, eighty to ninety grass plots, two to three hundred water buffaloes, thirty to twenty horses and donkeys, and countless pigs, sheep, chickens, and geese.”
“At ho, we also have grains we cannot eat up, clothes we cannot wear out, and wealth and property, all well-handled.”
Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie was also quite surprised and said, “With such a vast estate, you are indeed able to save up well.”
The elder, puzzled, asked, “How do you know I am frugal?”
Zhu Bajie, matter-of-factly, said, “Since you have so much gold and silver, how can you bear to sacrifice your own children?
Spend fifty taels of silver, and buy a boy; spend a hundred taels, and you can buy a girl!”
“Even if you buy both, it totals only two hundred taels.
What’s wrong with keeping your own children and descendants?”
Although Zhu Bajie’s words were coarse, his reasoning was not.
The two elders, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but weep and said, “You don’t understand, that king is not an ordinary demon; he often walks through our village.”
…
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