Chapter 56 "An old grudge has just been settled..."
The demon leaned back against the wall, panting heavily, its breathing rapid.
Bao'e pressed her tongue against his, about to push it in, but was pulled away by the traveler.
Sun Wukong asked, "Wumiao, what do you want?"
Bao'e said, "Let's see if he's mute."
Why do you think that way?
“Brother, you don’t know, this method is quite obvious.”
The pilgrim sneered, "You fool, don't try to fool me. Go, go! Don't let your worldly thoughts get in the way and talk to him. If he refuses to speak, I, Old Sun, will just beat him to death with my stick, lest he cause further trouble!"
He pushed Bao'e while simultaneously drawing his stick, intending to strike the demon.
Unexpectedly, a gust of wind slipped in through the window crack, and Cang Shuo also turned into a gust of wind and disappeared without a trace.
Bao'e jumped up and down in anger: "Senior brother, what should we do? What should we do? He got away! If you hadn't pulled me back, I would have held onto him. How could I have let him get away?"
The traveler said, “Don’t rush, don’t rush. We can’t get anything out of this demon. Fine, he and that Great King Linggan are both creatures of the river. Tomorrow we’ll find a way to capture them and send Master across the river.”
The two of them then went to bed.
As dawn approached, Bao'e was suddenly awakened by the cold.
She huddled under the covers, shivering from the cold. She quickly covered her nose, pressed her ears together, buried her head in her chest, and muttered to herself, "How can I be so cold? Could I be dead, a lonely, chilly ghost? Alas, how pitiful, how pitiful. My head hurts too; it must be from the chains of that soul-reaper."
"Senior sister, senior sister!" someone called out to her from outside.
Bao'e recognized Wujing's voice and said, "Wujing, you're dead too?"
“Senior sister, don’t talk nonsense. You were perfectly fine, how could you die?” Sha Wujing said. “It’s snowing outside. Master ordered me to bring the luggage over so you could take an extra layer of clothing and not get too cold.”
Bao'e stretched her neck and peered out.
Sure enough, everything outside the window was a vast expanse of white, the snow gleaming brightly; it was snowing heavily.
She pulled her head back in and mumbled, "Where are the clothes? They were worn out last winter, and the cotton wadding was scattered all over the ground. I almost got mistaken for a molting goose and carried off by the tigers in the mountains. It's only autumn, how come it's snowing already? Wujing, you go. I won't come out. I'll just stay under the covers and shiver a bit, and I'll be warm."
Sha Wujing said, "Master will teach you to wear his woolen coat."
"Go away, go away, go away!" Bao'e refused to answer anymore and continued to talk nonsense to him, "I am currently enduring the cold to cultivate myself. Your fate is too low, so I can't say much to you."
Sha Wujing had no choice but to leave.
Before long, the traveler returned.
He shouted, "Wu Miao! Wu Miao!"
Bao'e said, "Wumiao is not here, you should look for somewhere else."
"Don't talk nonsense!" the traveler said cheerfully. "It's broad daylight, aren't you going to observe a vegetarian diet?"
"Eat, eat!" Bao'e said. "Senior brother, please ask that old man Chen to bring a few more people to serve me. Eight or nine wouldn't be too few. I'm a little unable to move, so I'll just eat vegetarian food on this bed."
The traveler said, “Alright, you can guard this quilt. It’s just a pity to waste all that fine fabric.”
Bao'e peeked out one ear and asked, "What kind of good fabric?"
Wukong said, "Old Man Chen, to express his gratitude for saving his son, has arranged to buy some fine cotton cloth and is about to make clothes."
Bao'e sat up abruptly: "What kind of cotton fabric is it?"
“But I want to choose for myself.” The traveler turned and left. “Alas, what a pity, what a pity. He is willing to give it to you. If you don’t want it, then so be it. I’ll go and tell him right away.”
"Don't go!" Bao'e rolled out of bed, no longer afraid of the cold. "Brother, you should have said so earlier. I didn't mean to take his cotton-padded coat, but he was so sincere that I couldn't refuse."
After she quickly finished washing up, the two of them took hands and went to the living room together.
Along the way, one could see endless dark clouds and heavy snow covering the ground.
Once inside, the tailor took her measurements.
Sanzang was speaking with Elder Chen: “Old benefactor, the seasons here are quite different from those in our Eastern lands. It has snowed so heavily so early.”
Old Chen smiled and replied, "It is different. In previous years, there was frost and snow here as early as August. Please stay and enjoy yourself. It's not too late to leave when the weather clears and the snow melts."
Sanzang's face remained worried as he sighed, "I wonder when the sky will clear and when the snow will melt."
“Even if the weather clears and the snow melts, it won’t be easy to travel,” Bao’e said. “We must kill that Great King Linggan before we can leave.”
Upon hearing this, Old Chen was extremely grateful. Seeing her clever and beautiful appearance, he said, "You have endured countless hardships on your journey westward. You have truly suffered. To be frank, I had a difficult time with my children. I was over fifty before I had a son. If I had been younger and had a daughter, she would be about your age now."
Bao'e laughed and said, "Grandpa, don't look at me like this. According to my age, you should call me Great-Grandma."
Old Chen was greatly surprised: "How old is this female bodhisattva?"
"Over a thousand years old, I eat and sleep every day, and I can't remember the exact number."
"Oh my, incredible, incredible!" Old Chen exclaimed in surprise, "He's just like a god."
The fool said, "I have been a human, I have been a god, and I have rolled in the grass. People often say 'all beings are not all beings,' old man, you and I are no different from the mountains, rivers, birds and beasts."
Old Chen seemed to understand but not quite, and cupped his hands, saying, "I have learned a lot."
A servant came to invite them to breakfast, so the master and his disciples went to eat.
When the heavy snow stopped, Old Chen noticed that Sanzang was still sullen, so he arranged for his servants to clean the garden and invited him to the snow cave to chat and relieve his boredom.
Before the new clothes were even tailored, Old Chen sent someone to buy several ready-made sets, saying he would just have to make do with them.
Bao'e was never one to sit still, and wearing a new outfit made her extremely happy. She had no desire to enjoy the snow scenery and instead wandered around alone.
It is now late autumn, and the scenery of the twelfth lunar month is already visible. The flowers and trees in the yard are all weighed down by heavy snow, making it difficult to see their original appearance.
She thought to herself that it was rare to wear new clothes, and that just wearing a few braids was too plain, so she excitedly pushed aside the snowdrift, picked a slightly wilted begonia, and was about to put it on her ear.
Good Bao'e, playing by herself, was having an uncontrollable time.
She was in the middle of a great time when she suddenly realized someone was watching her.
The fool turned around abruptly and met a pair of sinister eyes; it was the demon named Cang Shuo.
Their eyes met, and the monster suddenly took a stone from his bosom and handed it to her.
Bao'e shouted angrily, "You scoundrel! No wonder you ran away. You were looking for a hiding place to beat me up in secret! How utterly disrespectful! Take this!"
She raised her rake, roused herself, and struck him on the head.
The demon seemed puzzled, but still drew his sword and parried the attack.
As the two drew near, Bao'e felt that his eyes were strangely familiar.
She stared at him for a moment, then suddenly recognized the stone and exclaimed in surprise, "Brother, is that you! No wonder you look familiar. Although I don't know your name, I've seen you before."
It turned out that the night she had thrown a stone into the Tongtian River to test its depth, and that stone was the very one he was holding.
Seeing that she had stopped fighting, Cang Shuo sheathed his sword and reached out his hand again.
"Still a troublemaker." Bao'e thought he was demanding an explanation from her, but she said, "Brother, I'm an honest man and I've never bullied anyone. It was dark that night, and I couldn't see, so I hit you with this stone. It wasn't my intention, so please don't be angry. I've seen you come to me with this stone time and time again, so you must have a temper. You're really a hero. No need to say anything more, hit me once too. I won't dodge or avoid it; I'll let you do whatever you want with me."
As she spoke, she made a snowball and handed it to him.
The monster listened patiently to her words, though it was unclear whether it understood or not; its expression remained unchanged.
Only when he saw her hand him a snowball did he furrow his brow slightly, looking at the snowball and then at her.
Bao'e pushed it forward again: "Go ahead and hit me, I won't run away."
Cang Shuo's expression was subtle.
After a long while, he seemed to sigh, and then broke off a piece of silver scale from his body.
The scales were stained with blood, which made Bao'e stare blankly: "Brother, even if you're a hero, you don't need to be so 'distinguished' in front of others."
Without uttering a sound, the monster suddenly took the snowball from her hand and placed the silver scale in her palm.
The fool nodded repeatedly: "Impressive! Even if you wanted to smash someone, you'd have to trade scales for it."
Na Cangshuo took a step forward, cupped her face in his hands, leaned down, and pecked her forehead with a kiss.
This series of actions truly confused even the naive man who was used to being pampered. He thought to himself: Is this scoundrel an idiot? I told him to throw snow at people, but he just talks.
She was confused when she suddenly heard someone call out to her: "Wumiao, Wumiao!"
The monster heard the noise, grabbed her, and tried to take her away.
Good Bao'e, however, stood firmly like a mountain, unyielding and impossible to move, yet she still managed to reply, "Senior brother, I'm here, what do you want me to do?"
The closer the shouts got, the more helpless Cang Shuo had to turn into a whirlwind and leave.
The Monkey King and Sandy arrived together. The Monkey King laughed and said, "This fool doesn't know anything. Instead of enjoying the snow scene with his master, he's picking Chen's flowers here."
Bao'e: "There was an old grudge that was just settled."
The traveler wondered, "What old grudge?"
Bao'e fell silent.
The traveler became even more suspicious: "Fool, your words seem to suggest you're planning to cause trouble."
“Don’t frame someone unjustly,” Bao’e said. “I also have private matters that I can’t discuss with others.”
“Eldest brother,” Sha Wujing laughed, “Senior sister is always talking nonsense. Perhaps she’s too cold and is just spouting nonsense again.”
“Wumiao, you are a cultivator, you should be immune to heat and cold, but your fortune is too low!” The traveler laughed at her, and then said, “Come on, that old man is warming tea in the snow cave.”
Bao'e tucked the scales into her sleeve and then went with the two men to the snow cave.
When we went in, Old Chen was recounting old stories.
"Elder, you may not know, but there used to be a mermaid demon in the Tongtian River that often tricked and harmed passersby. It was a different kind of trick than the Great King Linggan's."
Sanzang then asked, "Could it be that you transformed into an innocent drowning person and tricked him into going into the river?"
"No, no," the old man said, "it's a 'fake marriage by chance'."
Bao'e laughed: "So what if it's a marriage by chance? How can there be a fake one?"
Bao'e looked a little dazed and murmured, "But it sounds somewhat familiar."
The traveler laughed at her: "You fool, you've never encountered a mermaid demon before, so why does this sound familiar?"
Old Chen continued, "This 'fake marriage by chance' is a scheme that uses sorcery to bewitch passersby, trick them into agreeing to a marriage, and then drags them into the water to drown them."
This frightened Sanzang so much that he clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha, it really is that harmful demon. Old benefactor, are there still mermaid demons now?"
“But now it’s gone,” Old Chen said. “Ever since that Spirit King came, there have been few other monsters around here, and he alone has been called the King.”
Just then, he ordered someone to bring them vegetarian wine and fruit, which they ate.
The next day at dawn, Sanzang heard passersby on the street say that the Tongtian River was frozen solid, and the ice was thick enough for people to walk on. There were already people crossing the river.
He hurriedly told his apprentices to pack their luggage, saying they would cross the river on the ice.
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Author's Note: Bao'e's creation: Throwing stones at people [angry]
What the merman saw: a token [gold ingot] and a marriage proposal [red heart].
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Bao'e said, "Go ahead and fight back." [Helpless]
The merman heard: "Let's get married right now! Immediately! Quickly!" [Fireworks][Heart][Hug][Panda Head][Heart]
Mermaid: [Okay]
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