Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4 - 7 2018 | Page 217

The Journey to the East
The SMIC Private School Shanghai, Huang, Cindy -15
S
un Wukong heard birds chirping when he walked through the long corridor of the imperial. He
looked up and found two mockingbirds flapping their wings and pecking each other so hard that both
of them got scratchers all over their body. Wonder what they were doing, he stopped to watch:
Both of the mockingbirds were blue. One was darker and the other one lighter.
Their wings were rounded with white patches on the
Upper and lower surfaces that were visible when the wings are outstretched.
The lighter one seemed to be weaker, who was being continually knocked down from the tree. The
darker bird chirped happily and jumped into the nest but ignored the other female mockingbird who crept
up the branches, attacked from the back. The dark mockingbird was overwhelmingly shocked at the attack
and fell down the tree, while the winning couple jumped into the nest which once belong to the darker
mockingbird.
Sun Wukong sympathetically picked up the loser and put it on another branch, poor little thing , he
thought.
"Your Majesty." the servant reminded, "The Buddha is waiting for you." Sun Wukong stood up with
the last look at the mockingbird and found him hidden into the branches of the tree and disappeared.
***
The Rulai Buddha lived in the most luxurious palace among all the others.
"My dear child, come here." She murmured.
Sun walked up and lowered his furry head to shown respect.
The Buddha smiled, "As the descendant of the great monkey king, we believe you have the power to
complete the holy mission to the east. The Jade Emperor have selected a young man to bring the sacred
texts of Buddhism all the way to Tang Dynasty to spread Buddhism. While you would be in charge to
protect the safety of this man, you should always obey and follow him. Understand or not?"
"Yes, your majesty." Sun replied respectfully.
"Good," The Buddha nodded "Pack up your belongings, and you will leave right now."
Sun is glad to take over such a mission. He hopped into his room and threw necessities into his bag.
When he walked out of place, he accidentally crashed into somebody who was walking in.
"What the…" He was ready to spill, but all of a sudden found a pig face looked down at him. He jumped
back and saw this pig-face man dressed in grayish cotton clothes and was holding a spade.
"Ah sorry, I was rushing." He offered a hand to pick Sun up, while Sun accepted his hand, still in great
awe.
"So I guess you are Sun Wukong, the Monkey King." Pig-face figure cleared his voice, and made a
short introduction, "I am Zhu Bajie, I’m going with you on this journey. Rulai Buddha assigned us to help
you on the journey to the east; we are your companion," Bajie said, but didn't seem that exciting compared
to Sun.
“God who in the world actually want to go on that journey? I’m satisfy with my life here.”
He
leaned slightly toward the side of Sun and chitchatted: “You know what? The time I heard it’s Tripitaka
who will lead us, I know this journey would be screwed.”
Sun raised his eyebrow. “Why so?”
“Don’t you know?” Bajie leaned back, crossed his shoulders. “He is the only student of Rulai Buddha.
Rulai gave him everything. He had been pampered and spoiled so badly.”
When Sun, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujin walked out of the palace, a man in white is already there waiting for
them. It’s Tripitaka. He looked young, not more than 30 years old, he was riding a white horse, and was
waiting impatiently at the gate.
“Finally, don’t y’ all know the time?” Tripitaka saw them, looked annoyed. He waved to have them
follow him.
Together, this bizarre group, went on a journey to the east.
***
The mid-summer sun shone directly to the three tired men, they had just come to the Gobi Desert these
days and with a lack of drinkable water, all four of them are devastating. They barely spoke throughout the
whole journey, the heat had forced them to saved their energy and moved forward.