Chapter 4

"Are you going to make me your king?" The stone monkey suddenly felt his mind couldn't keep up.

"The monkey king can only be one," an old monkey jumped in front of the stone monkey and said.

"Did you spend the whole night arguing about this?" The stone monkey slapped his head, feeling speechless.

"Then how should we choose the monkey king?" the old monkey asked. This question was a bit profound for them, probably because the "monkey king" was proposed by the stone monkey, so they came to him.

"Didn't I say it yesterday?" the stone monkey asked expressionlessly.

"Did he say it?" The old monkey turned to the left, and the monkey on the left shook his head.

"Did he say it?" The old monkey turned to the right, and the monkey on the right shook his head.

They must have been too excited and forgot.

The stone monkey sighed and pointed to the waterfall, saying casually, "There's a cave behind the waterfall. Whoever can go in and come out safely will be the monkey king."

"But can anyone go in?" the old monkey asked.

The monkeys shivered at the sight of the surging water: "It's deadly."

"If it weren't deadly, wouldn't everyone be the monkey king?" the stone monkey said helplessly.

The group of monkeys nodded one by one, seemingly finding the stone monkey's words very reasonable.

History seemed to return to its track, though in a different way, it was the same point.

The monkeys started chattering again, enthusiastically discussing how to enter the cave, without even doubting whether the cave really existed.

It seemed that monkey brains were not much better than pig brains.

Of course, the discussion was fruitless. Human brains couldn't figure it out, let alone monkey brains. But they were unwilling to give up. The monkeys all longed for a life where they didn't have to pick their own fruit, someone would pick lice for them, and they could have any female monkey they wanted.

Among these discussing monkeys was naturally the old monkey who had just spoken to the stone monkey.

The old monkey carried a pile of fruit to the edge of the deep pool, determined to become the monkey king. Taking advantage of the few words they had exchanged, the stone monkey shamelessly went over to mooch, eating back yesterday's breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one go. When the stone monkey, who had sworn not to starve, started planning for today's dinner, the old monkey finally couldn't stand it and kicked him away, pretending not to know him.

Thus, the stone monkey, who had finally eaten his fill for the first time since coming to this world, began to plot how to become the monkey king, a life where he wouldn't have to pick his own fruit, someone would pick lice for him, and he could have any female monkey he wanted... cough, cough.

When the midday sun shone fiercely on the earth, all the monkeys hid in the shade to cool off, and the stone monkey finally thought of a safe and reliable method.

However, he couldn't do it alone, so the first politician in monkey history was born, and this politician began to issue empty promises.

"Do you want to be a monkey general?" the stone monkey caught a strong-looking monkey and asked.

A new term was born in the monkey community.

"What is a monkey general?" the monkey scratched his head and asked.

"It's... almost like the monkey king. You don't have to pick your own fruit, someone will pick lice for you, and other monkeys will listen to you, but you only listen to the monkey king."

"Can I have any female monkey I want?" the monkey asked.

"Cough, cough... Normally, no, but you're lucky. As my monkey general, you can." The stone monkey stared straight at the monkey, put his hands on the monkey's shoulders, and said earnestly, "Come on, as long as I become the monkey king, you'll be the monkey general!"

"Do I have to jump the waterfall?" the monkey asked.

"No. As long as you do what I say, I guarantee you'll be the monkey general." The stone monkey grinned.

In no time, he had successfully persuaded nine strong monkeys. Just as he was about to persuade the tenth, a monkey pulled him aside.

"Brother, do you want to be a monkey general? Just like the monkey king, but you don't have to jump the waterfall!" the monkey said.

The stone monkey's face turned black. In this era, there was competition in everything. These monkeys clearly didn't know what they wanted, but they had already formed groups.

Looking at the groups of monkeys and then at the nine monkeys behind him, the stone monkey gave up on persuading another one.

With these nine monkeys, the stone monkey began his plan. He first found some stones and ground them hard, forming crude stone knives. Then, he taught the monkeys to use the stone knives to cut the longest and thickest vines, tying them together like making a whip, and soon two long and thick ropes were born.

"Boss, what's next?" a monkey asked.

At this point, not only the nine monkeys following him were amazed, but all the monkeys were curious, stretching their necks.

"We're going up the mountain!" the stone monkey raised his hands and said.

The nine monkeys followed him up the mountain, and the other monkeys also followed out of curiosity.

At the top of the mountain, the stone monkey tied one rope to the middle of the other, then tied the end of the other rope to a large rock, and the other end to a tree at the top of the mountain.

"Good plan!" A golden oriole nearby tilted its head, swallowed the worm in its beak, and exclaimed, "This is the smartest monkey I've ever seen, almost as smart as humans."

Under the stone monkey's command, the nine monkeys, including the stone monkey, carried the large rock step by step to the edge of the waterfall and threw it down along the waterfall.

"Bang!" A deafening sound, a huge splash, and all the monkeys screamed.

The stone monkey tugged the rope: "It's tight, no need to retie it."

Then, he led the group of monkeys down the mountain again to the deep pool, pulling down the other end of the rope tied to the middle of the rope hanging over the deep pool and tying it to a tree trunk.

Thus, a suspended structure formed by two ropes and a rock was created.

All the monkeys watched quietly, their eyes fixed. They had never seen such wisdom, just as they had never seen humans.

Under the gaze of all the monkeys, the stone monkey pulled another vine, tied it to himself, and tied the other end to the large rope.

This was a safety rope. Even if something went wrong, he wouldn't die. Then, he waved his hand, and four monkeys, holding stone knives, climbed to the top of the mountain.

Seeing four furry heads appear at the top of the mountain, the stone monkey inserted a stone knife into the vine at his waist and climbed onto the horizontal rope.

"Oh-oh-oh~" The monkeys all exclaimed, waving their arms excitedly. In this wild place, the monkeys didn't think too much; they just howled when they were excited.

Soon, the stone monkey climbed to the edge of the waterfall along the 20-degree inclined rope. The wind brought mist, and the rope vibrated from the rushing water, with some water droplets even splashing onto him, making his heart race.

A twitch in the corner of his eye, an involuntary fear, but he had no way back.

In this place, he could only follow this path, or what else could a monkey do?

He was even worse than a monkey, unable to climb trees or hunt, relying on the charity of other monkeys to survive. One day, if the tiger at the foot of the mountain no longer feared him and swallowed this monkey who couldn't climb trees, it would be so easy.

Behind him were the howls of the monkeys, in front of him was the surging waterfall. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and continued to climb, facing the baptism of the waterfall.

The roar of the water drowned out the howls of the monkeys, and the world seemed to be left with only him. The water falling from a height hit him with great force, making him feel cold to the bone, and the force was even more terrifying.

He had prepared mentally, but it was still not enough. Under the force, he lost his grip and fell quickly.

"Turns out Sun Wukong jumping the waterfall is so difficult," he thought at that moment.

The safety rope saved his life. He hung in mid-air, the ring on the large rope sliding down to take him away from the waterfall's range, finally stopping halfway.

After a long time, he caught his breath. Wiping the water from his face, his ears finally recovered, and he heard the howls of the monkeys again, which calmed his heart a bit.

"I can't give up," he said, tugging the safety rope again, and climbed back onto the large rope, slowly moving towards the waterfall.

The cold water hit him again, and he felt as if it wasn't water but hail. The hail not only hit his body but also struck his heart, washing it clean, leaving only the will to move forward.

Finally, he failed again. This failure left him exhausted, and he hung motionless halfway down.

The distant monkeys stopped howling, perhaps thinking the stone monkey was dead.

After a long time, no monkey remembered exactly how long, as they all held their breath, time seemed to slow down. The stone monkey moved again, climbing back up the large rope, still heading towards the waterfall.