I really hate the Monkey King , who is always more interested in fighting than eating . It is the first day of New Year and I ’ m starving . We haven ’ t even eaten anything decent , and I ’ m starting to get really hungry . I ’ ve finished all the snacks I brought and I can ’ t find a single village around here , let alone a chef . We ’ ve got to get the “ Scrolls of Buddhism ” ( I don ’ t even know what the heck are the so-called “ Scrolls of Buddhism ”. They just sound stupid .) and translate that into Chinese . This is literally Mission Impossible because we don ’ t even have a translator and we ’ re the prime targets of goblins , demons and sometimes even gods . At least we get a cool white horse and some shoulder poles . I ’ m also dreadfully tired since we haven ’ t rested for the whole journey . Now I ’ m a bit tired and I ’ m finishing today ’ s entry .

January 3 , 629 . Gloomy OMB ( oh my Buddha ) OMB OMB OMB OMB OMB OMB OMB OMB OMB ! We defeated the Red Boy ! I can ’ t tell you about that battle now because I ’ m too tired . Good night . January 4 , 629 . Rainy So this is how it happened . We were fighting the Red Boy and we were losing . Master asked me to get reinforcements or backup since everyone else was still fighting . I really hoped that somebody else could go but alas , I was the only one we could spare . So then I went to the Buddha , unaware that the Red Boy beat me to it and pretended to be the Buddha . Later , the real Buddha came along and boy , he was mad . Imagine all the clouds in the world merging together . That was what came out of his ears . Then imagine the sun shrunk to one hundredth of its original size . That was what the Buddha ’ s eyes were like . He then punished the Red Boy severely ( he deserved it ). Glad I was looking away at the time .

January 5 , 629 . Windy We travelled across the desert today , only stopping when a mountain range came into view . The only peculiar thing about it was that it wasn ’ t covered in snow , it was covered with flames . I obviously wasn ’ t the only person who didn ’ t believe their eyes . I was also pretty sure that Master Xuanzang and the Sha Monk didn ’ t believe what was before them . Our attention only drifted away when the Monkey King announced he had spotted a village not far in the distance . We then began an hour long trek to the village . When we arrived , we found a nearly deserted settlement in the middle of nowhere . We definitely wouldn ’ t find any chefs around here , let alone delicious food . We couldn ’ t turn back ; we had spent almost the whole morning trudging across the seemingly endless desert . We asked some villagers how to get across the mountain range . Then an elder came to us and spoke :” The only way to get across the mountains is to get the fan of Princess Iron Fan . That fan alone will be able to extinguish the fire .” With this information , we quickly then cooked up a plan . We decided that the Monkey King would go and persuade the Princess to give her fan to us ( I was getting tired of him anyways ). As for the rest of us , all we could do was wait . We waited , and waited , and waited , and waited for the Monkey King to come back . After what seemed like 12 hours ( it was actually 6 hours ), the Monkey King came back with the fan . He fanned the fire , but that didn ’ t put the fire out . Instead , it made the fire even more aggressive . Oh , great . When the Monkey King finally noticed that , he sped off into the clouds with the fan again ( I hate it when he does that ). He later came back with the real fan and finally quenched the fire . We then continued our journey .

February 5 . Foggy I ’ m really sorry . I haven ’ t been writing in my diary for 1 month and I haven ’ t told you about so much stuff . Anyway , we ’ re almost to the temple ! That ’ s the good news . The bad news is that we ’ re currently in a city full of weirdoes who speak Indian . We don ’ t have a translator here so I have no idea how we ’ re supposed to get these “ Scrolls of some thingimagic ”. Oh , sorry . It ’ s the “ Scrolls of Buddhism ”. The temple is just a one-day hike from where we are now ( Delhi ). I wonder what we ’ ll find at the temple . I just hope it isn ’ t even more traps .

Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 248