Chapter 2

By the time I boarded the boat with Master, I’d made my peace with it.

The secret to a relaxed life was looking half-dead already.

My three senior fellow disciples flew overhead on their clouds.

Below, I waited serenely for death.

A demon never passed up ingredients delivered straight to its door.

The river, so calm a moment ago, suddenly churned. A great wave rose directly beneath our boat without so much as asking permission. The demon rowing us—sorry, the boatman—said, “Hold on tight!”

“Ha ha.”

Quite the performance.

Sure enough, the next instant, the wave flipped the entire boat, sending Master and me tumbling and flailing into the river.

Master clung to me. “Jiaojiao, save me! Save me!”

I tried my best to kick him away. “Let go, Master! Let go!”

“You’re the main character! You won’t die! Trust me!”

“Let gooooo!”

The demon cheered from beside us. “Fight! Fight!”

Ha ha.

Kidnapped again.

Thanks to Master’s tireless efforts.

The demon tied Master and me up separately with waterweed. I struggled a little, only to discover that the more I struggled, the tighter it grew.

Master’s skin was delicate. After barely a couple of attempts, the weeds had already bitten into his flesh.

Smelling the delicious scent of his blood and flesh, I started to lose it. “Master, stop moving.”

“You smell so good I can barely think.”

Tang Sanzang’s flesh really was the ultimate elixir. The fragrance left me half out of my mind, drooling uncontrollably.

Oh, God. I wanted to switch sides! Right now!

The demon looked on in horror. “Why does your disciple look even more eager to eat you than I am?”

“Amitabha,” Master said. “She does tend to be like that.”

“You two seem to be pioneering a whole new sort of master-disciple relationship.”

After the demon left, Master and I stared at each other.

I decided to strike first. Slurping back my drool, I demanded, “Master, there wasn’t a soul for miles along that river. A boatman suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Didn’t you find that strange?”

He paused, looking awkward. “It was a little strange, I suppose.”

“Then why insist on having him take you across?”

Master smiled and spoke slowly. “Jiaojiao, if he were an ordinary man, we would have crossed the river, wouldn’t we?”

“And if he were a demon?”

“If he were a demon who meant to harm others, I would be captured. Wukong would then come to rescue me and rid the place of its demons. No one else would die at their hands, and peace would return.”

This was odd. I felt as though I was being talked into something. My brain put up a struggle. “Could we perhaps just kill the demon directly?”

Master’s face was serene and compassionate. “But what if he never meant me any harm?”

“Or if he were willing to repent and pursue goodness?”

“Jiaojiao, aren’t you a demon who wishes to turn over a new leaf and do good?”

I went still.

I remembered the day I became his disciple. Layers of clouds hid the sun, dimming the daylight. Amid flying sand and stones, Eldest Brother’s golden-hooped staff stopped above my head, a fierce killing intent bearing down on me.

I knelt and knocked my head against the ground, begging for mercy. I lied that Guanyin had sent me to wait there for the pilgrims.

The lie was so clumsy I found it laughable myself.

I’d thought, What rotten luck. I’ve only just arrived in this world, and I’m about to die.

But Master was merely surprised for a moment. Then, under everyone’s suspicious gazes, he smiled and helped me up. “I see.”

“Then you shall be their Little Sister.”

I stood there stunned for a long time.

Back then, I’d been glad his compassion made him so easy to deceive.

Now, I resented him for it.

I turned my head and stubbornly pressed on. “What if Eldest Brother doesn’t reach you in time and you die?”

“Then I shall begin again.”

“If ten lifetimes aren’t enough to obtain the true scriptures, there will be an eleventh.”

“I cannot simply leave these demons to harm people.”

Oh, you bald man.

You couldn’t even save yourself, yet you wanted to save the world.