Volume 2: The Way That Can Be Told Chapter 97: Deceptive Acts After walking a few more steps, he saw a child holding a hot bun, standing in a corner and eating it with relish. The child seemed oblivious to anything else, completely focused on the hot bun. Seeing this, Wukong felt a long-lost sense of happiness and unconsciously stood aside to watch. Just then, a vicious dog suddenly rushed out of a narrow alley. The dog was extremely thin, with eyes glowing faintly green; clearly starving, it lunged straight at the bun in the child’s hands. The child was still unaware of the danger. Seeing the urgent situation, Wukong sent a beam of true energy from his fingertips, hitting the dog’s abdomen. The dog let out a pained cry, crashed against the yellow earth wall, and died instantly. Worried that the child might be frightened, Wukong went over and said, “Go back inside and eat.” The child, though finding Wukong’s appearance strange, saw kindness and comfort in his eyes, so it nodded and headed back inside. At that moment, a woman with a barrel-like figure came out of the narrow alley. Seeing the dead dog and only Wukong and the child nearby, she started screaming, “Someone! My baby! My baby is dead!” The woman had a fierce expression, with bulging muscles on her face, giving her a domineering look. After shouting a few times, a man indeed appeared in the alley. Seeing the man, she screamed even louder, pointing at Wukong and saying, “You damned monkey! Why did you kill my baby? Give me my baby back!” Hearing her words, the man grabbed Wukong and started punching him. Wukong quickly blocked the attacks and apologized with a smile, “It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.” Unbeknownst to them, many people had gathered around. The man held Wukong and said to the crowd, “This monkey killed my child for no reason. What do you think should be the punishment?” Wukong hurriedly replied, “It wasn’t without reason; I did it to save this child.” The man shouted, “Nonsense! This is my own child! Who needs you to save him?” Wukong explained how the vicious dog had tried to snatch the hot bun from the child’s hands. There was an old man standing nearby; from his position, surrounded by the crowd like stars around the moon, it was clear he held considerable authority. Indeed, after hearing Wukong’s account, someone said, “Right or wrong, it’s up to Elder Meng to decide.” The man, still skeptical, released Wukong and went to Elder Meng, saying, “Elder Meng, please look at this matter…” The old man with the surname Meng stroked his beard and said, “This is simple. If this monkey hurt that vicious dog to save your child, it’s understandable. Surely you won’t blame him—after all, human life is more important to you.”
The woman persisted insistently. With a swift glance, she sat down on the ground and wailed, “My dear child, you’ve followed me for ten or twenty years—how could you just leave like this?”
Elder Meng frowned and said, “Get up first; I haven’t finished speaking. What I heard just now was only that monkey’s side of the story. We don’t know if it’s true or false. If he didn’t kill the dog to save the child, then he’s guilty!”
Hearing this, the woman immediately stood up, brushed off the dust from her clothes, and said, “That monkey must be lying. My dear child understands people’s hearts—he would never hurt a child!”
Wukong hurriedly said, “It was indeed that vicious dog that tried to harm people; otherwise, why would I kill it for no reason?”
Elder Meng said, “You two, stop arguing. Only you and the child were here just now. Just ask the child, and we’ll know the truth.” Wukong nodded—this Elder Meng seemed reasonable after all.
Hearing the old man’s words, the woman rushed to the child, pulled him over, and asked, “My dear, tell your mother why that monkey killed our child.”
Wukong, fearing the child might not have seen clearly what had happened, quickly interjected, “That vicious dog tried to snatch your bun earlier—have you forgotten?” Elder Meng hurriedly said, “Don’t speak. Let’s hear what the child has to say.”
Dozens of pairs of eyes were fixed on the child. Wukong felt somewhat nervous at this moment. He dared to defy the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas without fear because he believed justice was on his side and what he did was right, so he acted with confidence. Now, even though only a small vicious dog had died, he still wanted to prove his point. If the child lied, then he would be in the wrong.
With his abilities, he could simply stomp his feet and leave, but wouldn’t that be the behavior of someone with a narrow mind?
The child said, “Just now, I was standing here eating my bun when that monkey came over and tried to take it from me.”
His voice was soft, but to Wukong’s ears, it sounded like thunder. Wukong widened his eyes and asked, “What did you say?” The child was startled and quickly hid in his mother’s arms, then continued, “Our child saw him bullying me, so he went up to bite him, and that’s when he was killed by the monkey.”
In just two short sentences, everything was made clear—Wukong had stolen the bun and killed the dog, acting like a complete bandit.
Elder Meng was so angry that his beard trembled. Pointing at Wukong, he said, “At first, I thought you were a kind person. Luckily, the child is clever; we almost fell for your tricks, you monkey!”
How could Wukong not know that the woman had her hand underneath, secretly twisting the child’s thigh, while whispering something in his ear. What truly pained him most was that the child had bright, clear eyes; when he lied, it sounded so genuine that even Wukong, who knew the truth, felt confused. Had he really intended to snatch the bun from the child’s hands just now?
How sad and lamentable—since when has human hearts become so deceitful, and when will it end?
But at this moment, there was no time for Wukong to overthink. As soon as the old man surnamed Meng spoke, several young men surrounded him, grabbed Wukong, and beat him mercilessly.
Though Wukong resented their inability to distinguish right from wrong, he did not fight back. These mortal beings could hardly withstand his punches and kicks. He simply used a distraction spell, and his true form left the circle, standing aside to watch coldly.
The woman shouted from the side, “Don’t kill him! I need him to guard my child for me.” The men stopped beating him and tied Wukong’s fake body to a tree by the road with a rope.
Seeing that it was difficult to escape, Wukong decided to play a trick. He cast a spell, causing the fake body to tilt and stop breathing, its body collapsing limp. Someone exclaimed, “Bad! The monkey is dead!” They went over and checked the fake body’s breath—sure enough, it was lifeless.
The woman cursed, “What bad luck! If I kill him, won’t my child die for nothing?” Seeing Wukong tied to the tree and dead, the child suddenly shed tears.
Wukong’s true form, watching from nearby, felt a slight comfort. After all, the child was still inexperienced in the world and knew how to show compassion. He heard the child crying, “Mom, I want a monkey to play with! I really want one!” The woman snapped, “The monkey is dead! What’s there to play with?” But the child persisted, crying and saying, “You promised me! If I said that, I’d get a monkey to play with.”
In his urgency, the child blurted out everything the woman had taught him. The woman, ashamed and angry, pulled the child’s ears and dragged him back home. The old man surnamed Meng was stunned. He glanced at Wukong, dead and tied to the tree, sighed heavily, and stomped away. Seeing how things had turned out, the people around gradually dispersed. On the road, only a dead monkey remained, tied to the tree, utterly desolate.
Wukong’s true form, watching clearly from afar, understood everything that had happened. He no longer felt resentment; instead, it turned into boundless compassion. The child lied, causing me to be captured, and I responded with deception to escape.
It seems the cause and effect are clear: he gained nothing, and I suffered no loss at all. Yet what these two deceptions brought was nothing but the coldness of the world… Wukong used a spell to return his true spirit to the fake body on the tree. Fearing it would shock the world, he also used invisibility magic to leave the town. After walking for a while, feeling his magical energy depleted, he abandoned his powers and continued on foot along the main road.