One day he instructed his four Stalwart Generals to arrange a feast for the six other kings. Oxen and horses were slaughtered, sacrifices were made to Heaven and Earth, and the assembled monsters danced, sang, and drank themselves blotto. When he had seen the six kings out and tipped his senior and junior officials Sun Wukong lay himself down under the shade of the pines beside the bridge and was asleep in an instant. The four Stalwart Generals made the others stand round and guard him, and they all kept their voices down.In his sleep the Handsome M King s ……
All the devil soldiers rushed to the Senluo Palace and reported, “Your Majesty, disaster, disaster! A hairy-faced thunder-god is attacking us out there.”Stricken by panic, the Ten Kings who sit in the ten palaces, judging the criminal cases of the dead, hurriedly straightened their clothing and went out to look. When they saw his ferocious expression they lined up in order and shouted at the tops of their voices, “Please tell us your name, exalted Immortal.”“If you don't know who I am,” replied the M King, “then why did you send men to bring me here? ……
“Nonsense, nonsense. As the saying goes, 'The magistrate may be wrong and the sergeant may be wrong, but the man who comes to get you is never wrong.' Go and get the Register of Life and Death for me to see.” The Ten Kings invited him to come into the palace and look through it.
After charging out through the city wall the M King tripped over a clump of grass, tried to regain his balance, and woke up with a start. It had all been a dream. As he stretched himself he heard his four Stalwart Generals and the other ms saying, “Your Majesty, time to wake up. You drank too much and slept all night.”
“So you came here by stages,” the Patriarch remarked. “What is your surname?”
“I'm not surly,” the M King replied. “If people call me names it doesn't bother me, and if they hit me I don't get angry. I'm just polite to them and that's that. I've never been surly.”
“I didn't ask if you were surly. I wanted to know the surname you inherited from your parents.”
As soon as the Handsome M King saw him he bowed low and knocked his head on the ground before him many times, saying, “Master, master, your disciple pays his deepest respects.”
“Where are you from?” the Patriarch asked. “You must tell me your name and address before you can become my pupil.”“I come from the Water Curtain Cave in the Flowers and Fruit Mountain in the land of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body,” replied the M King.
The M King scampered down the tree, went up to him, and said with a bow, “Immortal child, I am a disciple who has come to ask about the Way and study under the Immortal. The last thing I'd do would be to make a row here?” The boy laughed.
“I've had a hard life,” the woodcutter replied. “My mother and father brought me up till I was about eight, and just when I was beginning to know about life my father died. My mother remained a widow, and I had no brothers or sisters. As I was the only child I had to look after my mother morning and night. Now she is old that I can't possibly leave her. Our land is so overgrown that I can't grow enough to feed and clothe both of us, so I have to cut a couple of bundles of firewood to sell in the market for a handful of coppers to buy the few pints of rice th ……
I still remember the day when I first came to the college. Being a boy of 17, I was longing for a new life as a college student; but, at the same time, I had no idea what college life would be like.
My grandmother became a widow in 1970. Shortly after that, we went to the animal shelter to pick out a puppy to keep her company. Grandma decided on a little terrier that had a reddish-brown spot above each eye. Because of these spots, the dog was promptly named Penny.
