Chapter 3

When he saw the troop of monkeys, the entire forest's noisy howls suddenly stopped. One by one, the dark, round figures clung to the trees, motionless, with their round eyes blinking and staring at him.

"Where is the Monkey King?" the stone monkey shouted loudly. Actually, he had intended to join the troop first and get a couple of fruits to eat, and deal with challenging the Monkey King later. But he had been fantasizing too much, and his confidence had skyrocketed, causing him to skip the part about joining the troop.

After saying that, he clearly regretted it a bit. Without eating, where would he get the strength to fight the Monkey King? But since the words were already out, how could he back down now?

So he lifted his head and puffed out his chest, looking resolute.

A large gray monkey leaped and grabbed a vine, swinging to the top of the stone monkey. "What do you want with the Monkey King?"

"I want to challenge him," the stone monkey said loudly.

"But we don't have a Monkey King," the monkey scratched its head and said.

Instantly, there was a three-second silence.

"No Monkey King, then why are you asking me to find the Monkey King? Are you making fun of me!" The stone monkey lowered his head, picked up a stone, and threw it with all his might at the gray monkey, but the gray monkey easily dodged it.

The monkey swung back to the branch and jumped happily. "We don't have a Monkey King, hahaha~"

Instantly, the entire troop of monkeys became lively. "We don't have a Monkey King, no Monkey King. Hahaha~" All the monkeys were jumping and chattering on the trees, acting crazy.

The stone monkey's face turned black. He really couldn't understand what these monkeys were happy about. Could it be to mock him? Oh, no wonder none of the ten thousand monkeys in Sun Wukong's troop could inherit his legacy. It turned out that, except for himself, all the others were foolish.

"Shut up! Be quiet—!" The stone monkey shouted loudly, but no monkey paid attention to him.

"Be quiet—! Be quiet! Quiet!" He kept roaring, kept roaring until his voice was hoarse and he started coughing violently. Only then did the monkeys finally quiet down.

"No Monkey King! Then we'll choose one!" The stone monkey said breathlessly, thinking that even if they were foolish, they would be easy to manipulate, and he might become the Monkey King right away.

If he became the Monkey King, he wouldn't have to go hungry, right?

"What does the Monkey King do?" a monkey asked.

"I don't know," the monkeys shook their heads one by one.

So the monkeys started chattering and jumping again. "We don't know, we don't know. Hahaha~"

The stone monkey felt a bit frustrated. These monkeys were impossible to communicate with. Even if they could speak human language, it was still impossible to communicate. But he had to communicate! After all, he needed this long-term meal ticket.

He tried to explain, "The Monkey King is the king of the troop. Everyone must obey the king's orders, no exceptions."

Then another monkey said, "So the Monkey King doesn't have to pick fruit himself, right?"

"Right!" The stone monkey gave it a thumbs up. This was exactly what he wanted.

"Then will someone help him catch lice every day?"

"Exactly!"

"Then can he have any female monkey he wants?"

"This..." The stone monkey was getting frustrated. Didn't the book say that an old monkey would jump out and say whoever jumps the waterfall would be the Monkey King? Why did he have to tell them what the Monkey King was?

"Wu Cheng'en is a liar!" the stone monkey cursed fiercely.

A monkey jumped up, climbed high on a vine, and shouted, "I want to be the Monkey King!"

"Me too!"

"Then let's all be the Monkey King!"

"Then who will catch lice and pick fruit?" an old monkey asked hesitantly.

"Him!" All the monkeys pointed at the stone monkey.

"Shut up!" the stone monkey shouted, "Choosing the Monkey King requires a fight. There can only be one Monkey King, and whoever wins gets to be it!"

"Why do we have to fight?" a monkey asked, puzzled.

"Because the strong are respected!" the stone monkey said solemnly, but the monkeys didn't buy it. They were all acting crazy.

"I think there can be many Monkey Kings!" a monkey shouted loudly.

Instantly, the entire troop of monkeys cheered, as if they preferred the idea of multiple Monkey Kings.

The stone monkey felt even more frustrated.

After another round of nonsensical arguments, the stone monkey decisively turned and left. "This is a farce! A farce!"

In the evening, he came to the deep pool he had visited earlier, lying down and catching his breath.

He pinched his tail, feeling quite strange. He had never thought he would have a tail one day...

Listening to the roar of the waterfall, he looked up at the sky, looking bewildered.

After a while, he sat up and gazed at the waterfall.

"Can I really jump that waterfall?" the stone monkey couldn't help but think of the *Journey to the West* he had read before, feeling quite disdainful.

The nearest shore was more than twenty meters away. How could he jump that far?

He should have mourned his fate, but his growling stomach wouldn't allow it. But what could he do about it?

He wobbled to his feet, feeling weak all over, as if he might just lie down and die. But in fact, he couldn't sleep.

Holding a wooden stick, he drew a line on the ground, took a powerful leap, and then measured the distance.

"This monkey's body seems much better than my previous one, but it's still just a normal body. The distance to jump twenty meters is too far. Pole vault? I haven't even seen a single bamboo stick." He sat down disappointedly, hunched over and gazing at the pond.

"Even if I could jump, what's the point? They're all Monkey Kings now." He thought of the absurd monkeys again. Were they really the ones from *Journey to the West*?

All signs pointed to no.

But the stone monkey refused to believe it, or rather, he stubbornly insisted, like covering his ears and stealing a bell. Perhaps believing that he had transmigrated into Sun Wukong rather than just a regular stone monkey in some place had become his last hope.

If he lost that last hope, the stone monkey would probably collapse immediately.

The sun set.

He was silent, and his stomach was even hungrier. Looking around, there were only leaves to eat, but he wasn't a horse.

He suddenly wondered, would it be more comfortable to transmigrate into a horse? At least he wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing, right?

The distant monkeys were still chattering nonstop, seemingly still excited about the "Monkey King" topic, which was annoying to hear.

Sighing, the stone monkey decided to think about something to distract himself from the hunger.

"Next week is the final exam... Damn! Why am I thinking about these trivial things? It's already like this, who cares about exams." The stone monkey had never felt that exams were such a wonderful thing before: "Think about the current problem. Why did I transmigrate here? Forget it, transmigration never has a reason."

The three laws of transmigration: 1. No explanation before transmigration; 2. No responsibility after transmigration; 3. No return ticket for transmigration.

"I should think about what to do next. Right, I can't be the Monkey King, but I can cultivate and learn the seventy-two transformations like Sun Wukong. Patriarch Subhuti won't ask for a Monkey King's ID. But where is Patriarch Subhuti? Sun Wukong met him by chance, can I meet him too? Is there even a Patriarch Subhuti here?" Thinking about this, the stone monkey shook his head, trying to shake off the thoughts that would crush his confidence: "Maybe I should set off tomorrow."

"Go to the human world... I can't even survive here, a monkey, and I might end up on a plate." The stone monkey shook his head again, not wanting to think about this troubling issue. He decided to think about something happier.

"I must go to the Underworld and tear the Book of Life and Death, or I'll die. I must also raid the Dragon Palace to get the Golden Cudgel. But the Heavenly Palace... I'd better not mess with it, I need to be low-key. Anyway, no matter what, if Buddha wants to bet with me, I won't fall for his trick."

The stone monkey lay on the ground, gazing at the starry sky, lost in endless reverie. He yawned lazily, sat up, looked around, and then lay back down disappointedly.

"If only I had a cigarette to smoke. I decided that after learning the seventy-two transformations, I'll first turn into a cigarette. A soft one, yes... a soft one will match my identity as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong. I must be a real tycoon."

A goldfinch flew over the stone monkey's head and landed on a nearby branch, muttering to itself, "This monkey is quite special. I feel he's different from other monkeys."

"Yeah, I think so too. His butt isn't as red," a crow sneaked up and chatted.

"Get lost! I mean he sleeps on the ground. Have you ever seen a monkey sleep on the ground? You ignorant crow, get lost! Do you want to bring me bad luck by being so close?"

Not far away, the stone monkey tossed and turned, muttering in his sleep, "Zixia, I'm coming."

"Zixia? What's that?" the goldfinch thought.

When the sky was still dim at dawn, the stone monkey woke up, hungry. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a dozen pairs of eyes blinking at him.

"What are you doing?" He was startled and moved back a few inches, only to realize he was surrounded by monkeys.

"Monkey King," a monkey scratched its head and said.

"Do you want to make me your king?" The stone monkey suddenly felt his mind was a bit slow.