Chapter 82: The Maiden Seeks Yang; the Primal Spirit Guards the Way

Now to return: Bajie hopped down the mountain and found a narrow path. He followed it for five or six li before he suddenly saw two female demons drawing water at a well.

How did he know they were demons? Their headgear was a bamboo-fiber topknot more than a foot high, a most unfashionable thing.

The fool went close and called out, "Monster."

The two heard him and flew into a rage. They said to each other, "This monk is so lazy. We do not even know him, and we have never used such familiar speech with him before. Why is he calling us monsters?"

Then they grew angry and seized the water-pole to strike him on the head.

Bajie had no weapon and could not block them. He took several blows and fled up the mountain, crying, "Brother, turn back. The monsters are fierce."

Wukong said, "How fierce?"

Bajie said, "Down in the hollow there are two female demons drawing water from a well. I only called them once and they hit me three or four times with the pole."

Wukong said, "Why did you call them monsters?"

Bajie said, "Because they were monsters."

Wukong laughed. "Then they did not beat you enough."

Bajie said, "Thank you very much. My head is already swollen, and you still say not enough."

Wukong said, "Gentleness lets the world go anywhere, but stubborn strength cannot move one inch. Those are local monsters, and we are monks from afar. You are all hands, but you still need a little courtesy. If you call them monsters, of course they will hit you. A man should put ritual and music first."

Bajie said, "I know nothing about that."

Wukong said, "You grew up in the mountains eating people. Did you not know there are two kinds of wood?"

Bajie said, "I do not know. What kinds?"

Wukong said, "One is poplar wood, and one is sandalwood. Poplar is soft. A skilled carver can use it to carve sages or shape images of the Tathagata, gild them, paint them, inlay jade, and decorate them with flowers. Then ten thousand people come to burn incense and bow, and it receives boundless merit. Sandalwood, on the other hand, is hard. In the oil-shop they take it to make washing tools, clamp an iron hoop around its head, and beat it down with an iron hammer. Because it is stubborn, it suffers that pain."

Bajie said, "Brother, if you had told me that earlier, I would not have been beaten."

Wukong said, "Go back and ask them properly."

Bajie said, "If I go back, they will recognize me."

Wukong said, "Then change yourself first."

Bajie said, "Brother, even if I change, how should I ask?"

Wukong said, "When you get there, bow first. See how old they are. If they are about our age, call them miss. If they are a little older than us, call them grandmother."

Bajie laughed. "What a miserable errand. We have come all this way, and you want me to treat them like kin?"

Wukong said, "I am not asking you to claim kinship. I am asking you to coax the truth out of them. If they have taken Master, then we can strike at once. If they have not, then we will not waste our time."

Bajie said, "That makes sense. I will go again."

The fool tucked the rake at his waist, went down into the hollow, shook himself, and changed into a black, fat monk. He swayed and lumbered up to the two demons and bowed deeply.

"Grandmother, this poor monk pays his respects."

The two were delighted.

"This monk is a fine one. He knows how to bow and how to greet people properly."

They asked, "Reverend, where do you come from?"

Bajie said, "Where do I come from."

They asked, "And where are you going?"

Bajie said, "Where am I going."

They asked, "What is your name?"

Bajie said, "What is my name."

The two laughed.

"This monk is not only handsome but also amusing. He talks in a smooth, agreeable way."

Bajie said, "Grandmother, why are you drawing water?"

The two said, "Monk, you do not know. Our old mistress captured a Tang monk in the cave tonight and is preparing to entertain him. The water in our cave is not clean, so she sent us to fetch this pure water where yin and yang meet, to prepare a vegetarian feast for the Tang monk. Tonight she means to marry him."

Bajie heard that and hurried back up the mountain, shouting, "Brother Sha, bring the luggage. We might as well divide things up."

Brother Sha said, "Second Brother, divide them up for what?"

Bajie said, "Divide them up. You can go back to the Flowing-Sand River and eat people again. I will go to Gao Family Manor and visit my wife. Senior Brother can return to Flower-Fruit Mountain and be a sacred king. The White Dragon Horse can go back to the sea and become a dragon again. Master is already in the monster's cave and is being married off. We should all find our own living."

Wukong said, "You fool, there you go talking nonsense again."

Bajie said, "Your son is the one talking nonsense. Those two water-hauling demons just said they were preparing a vegetarian feast for the Tang monk and going to marry him."

Wukong said, "The demon has trapped Master in the cave, and Master is still waiting for us to rescue him. Why are you saying such things here?"

Bajie said, "How are we supposed to rescue him?"

Wukong said, "You two lead the horse and carry the luggage. We will follow the two female demons and use them as a guide. When we reach the gate, we will all strike together."

Bajie had no choice but to follow.

Wukong kept far behind the two monsters. They entered deeper and deeper into the mountains, for a distance of ten or twenty li, and then suddenly disappeared.

Bajie was startled.

"Master has been taken away by a daytime ghost."

Wukong said, "What sharp eyes you have. How did you so quickly see through his true form?"

Bajie said, "Those two monsters were carrying water just now, and then all at once they vanished. If that is not a daytime ghost, what is it?"

Wukong said, "They must have slipped into a cave. Let me look."

The Great Sage opened his fiery eyes and searched all over the mountain, but he saw nothing moving. Only on the steep cliff ahead stood a finely worked gate tower, delicate as carved flowers and stacked in five colors, with three eaves and four clustered corners.

He went close with Bajie and Brother Sha. On it were six large characters:

Sink-Sky Mountain, Bottomless Cave.

Wukong said, "Brothers, this monster has set up a gate tower here, but we still do not know where the door opens."

Brother Sha said, "It is not far, not far. Search carefully."

When they turned around to look again, they saw beneath the gate tower and at the foot of the mountain a great stone slab, more than ten li around, with a hole in the middle as wide as a bucket. The stone around it had been polished smooth.

Bajie said, "Brother, this must be the demon's entrance and exit."

Wukong looked and said, "Strange. Old Sun has escorted Tripitaka all this way and seen plenty of monsters, but never a cave like this one. Bajie, you go down first and test how deep it is. Then I will know whether I can go in and save Master."

Bajie shook his head.

"That is hard, that is hard. My body is so heavy that if I slipped and dangled down there, I do not know whether I would reach the bottom in two or three years."

Wukong said, "Is it that deep?"

Bajie said, "Look for yourself."

The Great Sage bent over the hole and peered down carefully. Good heavens, it was deep indeed. The drop was more than three hundred li around.

He turned back and said, "Brothers, it really is deep."

Bajie said, "Then go back. Master cannot be saved."

Wukong said, "What sort of nonsense is that? Do not grow lazy and do not let your heart go slack. Set the luggage down here and tie the horse to the gate tower pillar. You take your rake, Brother Sha takes his staff, and block the cave mouth. I will go in and find out what is what. If Master is indeed inside, I will use my iron staff to beat the monster out to the gate, and then you two can block him from the outside. That is what is meant by inside and outside working together. Only after the demon is beaten dead will Master be saved."

The two obeyed.

Wukong sprang down into the cave. Rainbow clouds blazed under his feet, and auspicious light surrounded his body in thousands of layers.

Before long he reached the deep interior, and there everything was bright and clear, with daylight, wind, flowers, grass, and fruit trees all the same as on the surface.

Wukong said, "This is a good place. When I was born, Heaven gave me Water-Curtain Cave. This is also a blessed grotto-heaven."

As he looked, he saw another gate tower with two dripwaters, all ringed with pines and bamboo, and within it many houses.

He thought to himself, "This must be the monster's residence. I should go in and ask around. Wait a moment. If I go in like this, she will recognize me. Let me change."

He pinched a spell and shook himself, changing into a fly. He fluttered lightly onto the gate tower and listened.

There he saw the monster seated high in a grass pavilion. Her manner, compared with the way she had looked when Wukong rescued her in the pine forest and captured her at the monastery, was altogether different. She was dressed still more prettily:

Her hair was piled in a cloudlike knot, black as a crow's wing; she wore a green velvet jacket embroidered with flowers.
One pair of golden feet was just half-bent; her ten fingers were like spring bamboo shoots.
Her face, round and white, was like a silver basin; her red lips were smooth as cherries.
A woman so properly formed and fair could even make Chang'e on the moon seem pleased to meet her.
Today she had captured the scripture pilgrim and was ready to take her pleasure in a bridal bed.

Wukong did not speak, only listened to what she would say. After a while, she broke into a smile and called out, "Little ones, bring out the vegetarian feast at once. I am going to eat with Brother Tang and marry him."

Wukong laughed to himself.

"So it really is true! I thought Bajie was joking."

He thought further, "Let me fly in and see where Master is. I do not know what is in the old monk's heart. If the demon has already worn him down and he is willing to stay here, perhaps there is no need to rush."

He spread his wings and flew deeper inside. There, under the eastern corridor, in a red paper lattice where the light was bright above and dim below, sat Tripitaka.

Wukong flew straight through the lattice and landed on the monk's bald head. "Master."

Tripitaka knew the voice and cried, "Disciple, save my life!"

Wukong said, "Master, this is no good. The demon is already arranging a banquet for you and plans to marry you after the meal. If you father a son or a daughter here, that would still be your line, one way or another. Why worry?"

The elder ground his teeth and said, "Disciple, ever since I left Chang'an and you took me up at Two-Boundary Mountain, I have never once taken a mouthful of meat or wine, and never once had any evil thought. Now that this demon has captured me and wants to force me into marriage, if I lose my true yang, I will fall back into rebirth and be thrown behind the Black Mountains for ever. I will never turn back."

Wukong laughed.

"Do not swear oaths. Since you truly wish to go west and seek the scriptures, I will take you out."

Tripitaka said, "The road in was plain forgotten by me."

Wukong said, "Do not say you forgot it. This cave is not one you walk in and out of. We came in from above and had to bore downward. Now that we are saving you, we must bore upward.

If your fortune is good, we may strike the cave mouth and get out. If your fortune is poor, then we still have a long, stifling wait ahead."

Tripitaka wiped his tears.

"This is such a hard matter. What are we to do?"

Wukong said, "Nothing special. That demon has prepared wine for you, and there is nothing for it but to drink a cup. But drink it quickly, and let there be a happy froth on top. I will turn into a tiny gnat and fly beneath the foam. Once she swallows me, I will crush her heart and liver, tear apart her guts, and kill the monster. Then you will be able to escape."

Tripitaka said, "Disciple, that is not how a good man behaves."

Wukong said, "If you keep talking goodness, your life will be lost. The monster is the root of harm. Why be soft with her?"

Tripitaka said, "Very well, very well. I will only do what you say."

Truly, the Great Sage guarded Tripitaka, and the scripture monk could rely only on the Handsome Monkey King.

Before they had finished speaking, the demon had already made her preparations and come to the eastern corridor outside the door. She opened the lock and called, "Reverend."

Tripitaka did not dare answer.

She called again, and still he did not answer.

Why would he not answer? He was thinking, "When the mouth opens, the spirit scatters; when the tongue moves, trouble begins."

But another thought came to him: "If I keep my mouth shut and refuse her, I fear she may harden her heart and kill me at once."

He was caught between advance and retreat, mind asking mouth, mouth asking mind. Still doubtful, the monster called once more, "Reverend."

Tripitaka had no choice but to answer, "Madam, yes?"

That one word from his mouth felt like a mountain of flesh dropped from his body.

People say Tripitaka is a monk of true heart. How could he answer a female demon in this way? But at that moment his life and death were hanging by a thread. He had no choice. Outwardly he answered, but inwardly he desired nothing.

The monster heard him answer and opened the door. She helped Tripitaka up, took him by the hand, pressed shoulder to shoulder with him, and leaned close to whisper. Every gesture was full of delicate charm and flowering coyness.

Tripitaka, by contrast, was filled with misery.

Wukong laughed to himself in hiding.

"I fear the master is being charmed by her and may in the end lose his resolve."

Truly:

The true monk suffers hard when he meets a seductive beauty; the monster's grace is not false to praise.
Her green brows were like willow leaves, her red cheeks like peach blossoms.
Her embroidered shoes showed a pair of hooked phoenix tips, and her cloudlike hair rose high at both temples.
Smiling as she took the master's hand, she sent orchid and musk drifting all over his cassock.

The monster led Tripitaka to the grass pavilion and said, "Reverend, I have prepared a cup of wine. Let us drink together."

Tripitaka said, "Madam, I do not eat meat or wine."

The monster said, "I know you do not eat meat. The water in this cave is not clean, so I especially ordered pure water from the mountain top where yin and yang mate. I have prepared a vegetarian feast of fruit and vegetables for you, only to play with you."

Tripitaka followed her inside and looked around. Sure enough, there it was:

At the entrance were embroidered tassels and colored knots; the whole courtyard was full of perfume from golden incense burners. There were black lacquered tables inlaid with flowers and woven bamboo trays. On the tables were strange delicacies; in the trays were rare vegetarian dishes. Apples, olives, lotus kernels, grapes, walnuts, jujubes, persimmons, hazelnuts, pine nuts, lychees, longans, chestnuts, water caltrops, dates, and oranges, all gathered according to the mountain's produce; vegetables were fresh as well: tofu, gluten, black fungus, young bamboo shoots, mushrooms, shiitake, yam, yellow essence-root. There was glasswort and daylily stir-fried in green oil; cowpeas and long beans seasoned in mature sauce. Cucumbers and gourds, ginkgo and turnips. Eggplants were peeled and sculpted into quail shapes, and winter melons were cut into square balls. Sweet potatoes were simmered soft and mixed with sugar; white radishes were boiled and dressed with vinegar. Pepper and ginger made everything fragrant; salt and plain broth were balanced in perfect harmony.

The monster lifted her pointed jade fingers and held out a shining gold cup full of wine to Tripitaka.

"Reverend brother, fine man, please drink this cup of union wine."

Tripitaka shyly took the cup and poured it out into the air as an offering. In his heart he silently prayed:

Protective heavens, guardians of the five directions, the four duty officers:
I, monk Chen Xuanzang, since leaving the Eastern Land and being secretly guarded by Guanyin Bodhisattva and all you spirits, have come to bow at Thunderclap and seek the scriptures from the Buddha. Now on the road I am trapped by a monster, forced into marriage, and this cup of wine is being given to me. If this is truly a vegetarian wine, I will make myself drink it, still hoping to see the Buddha and complete the work. If it is meat wine and I break my precept, I will sink forever into the suffering of rebirth.

Sun Wukong, meanwhile, had shrunk himself small and hidden like a sound-message at Tripitaka's ear, so that only Tripitaka could hear him and no one else. He knew his master usually liked wine made from grapes, so he told him to drink a cup. The elder had no choice but to drink, and quickly filled another cup and handed it back to the monster.

Sure enough, the cup rose into a little froth. Wukong turned into a gnat and flew lightly under the froth. The monster took the cup in both hands, but did not drink. She set it aside, bowed twice to Tripitaka, and said a few coy words of affection.

Then she raised the cup to her lips, but the froth had already settled away and the insect showed itself. The monster did not know it was Wukong, only that it was a bug, so she flicked it with her little finger.

Wukong saw the trick was failing and knew he could not enter her belly that way. So he transformed into a hungry hawk.

Truly:

Its talons were jade, its eyes gold, its wings like iron.
A fierce and noble bearing gathered the clouds.
Foxes and rabbits panicked at the sight of it; they scattered for a thousand li.
Hungry, it rode the wind after sparrows; full, it rose high to the heavenly gate.
Its old fists were hard as steel and could hurt a man.
Once it had its aim, it scorned even the high heavens as too close.

It flew up, spread its jade claws, and with a single noise overturned the feast table. The vegetarian fruit, the dishes, the bowls, the cups, and the goblets all flew to pieces. Tripitaka was thrown aside, and the hawk flew out. The monster was so frightened her heart and soul broke in two, and Tripitaka's bones and flesh went soft as well.

The monster trembled all over, hugged Tripitaka, and said, "Reverend brother, where did this creature come from?"

Tripitaka said, "I do not know."

The monster said, "I spent so much thought arranging this vegetarian feast to entertain you, and I do not know where this winged beast came from to smash all my household goods."

The little monsters said, "Mistress, breaking the household goods is one thing, but the vegetarian dishes have all been spilled on the ground and are dirty now. How can we use them?"

Tripitaka clearly understood that Wukong had worked his magic. How could he dare say so aloud?

The monster said, "Little ones, I know what it is. Since I have trapped Tripitaka here, heaven and earth will not have it. That is why this thing was sent down. Gather up the broken furniture and carry it out. Prepare more wine and dishes, meat or vegetarian, I do not care. I will take heaven as witness and earth as matchmaker, and then I will marry Tripitaka."

She sent the elder back to sit in the eastern corridor, and that is enough of that for now.

Now to return: Wukong flew out, showed his true form, and came to the cave mouth shouting, "Open the gate!"

Bajie laughed. "Brother Sha, Brother has come."

The two of them spread out their weapons.

Wukong jumped out, and Bajie came forward to seize him.

"Have you seen the monster? Is Master inside?"

Wukong said, "Yes, yes, yes."

Bajie said, "Is Master suffering inside? Is he bound, or is he being steamed or boiled?"

Wukong said, "None of that. They are only arranging a vegetarian feast to do that thing to him."

Bajie said, "Lucky you. You got to drink the wedding wine?"

Wukong said, "Fool, Master's life is hanging by a thread. What wedding wine?"

Bajie said, "Then how did you come back?"

Wukong told them what had happened after he saw Tripitaka and worked his transformations.

"Brothers, stop making wild guesses. Master is already here. This time I am going back in, and I will surely rescue him."

He turned around and slipped back inside, still transformed into a fly, and perched on the gate tower to listen.

He heard the monster, puffing with anger in the pavilion, say to the little monsters, "Whether meat or vegetarian, bring it all out. Burn the paper offerings. I have asked heaven and earth to stand as matchmakers, and I am determined to marry him."

Wukong heard this and laughed to himself.

"This monster has not one shred of shame. In broad daylight she keeps a monk in the house and arranges him like this. No hurry. Let Old Sun go in and look again."

With a hum, he flew under the eastern corridor and saw his master sitting inside, tears running down both cheeks.

Wukong slipped in, perched on the elder's head, and called again, "Master."

Tripitaka knew the voice and sprang up, grinding his teeth in hatred.

"Monkey, some people are bold because they have a body of bravery. You are bold because your whole body is bravery. What good is your transformation if you can only smash household goods? You have only made the monster more eager, and now she is arranging a meal without caring whether it is meat or vegetarian. She means to sleep with me. What is to be done?"

Wukong said with a quiet smile, "Master, do not blame me. I have a way to save you."

Tripitaka said, "Where can I be saved?"

Wukong said, "When I flew out just now, I saw a garden behind her. You trick her into going there to play. I will rescue you."

Tripitaka said, "What sort of rescue can be done in a garden?"

Wukong said, "When you get her into the garden, wait until you reach the peach trees and do not go any farther. I will fly up into the branches and become a red peach. If you want fruit, take the red one first. That red one will be me.

She will surely want one too. Give her the red one. If she eats it in one bite, I will be inside her belly. Then I will tear open her skin bag, rip out her liver and intestines, and kill the monster. Only then can you get out."

Tripitaka said, "If you have such power, why not just fight her? Why go into her belly?"

Wukong said, "Master, you do not know the way of it. If this cave were easy to enter and leave, I could fight her as I pleased. But the roads in and out are narrow and difficult. If we just start a fight, her whole nest, old and young alike, will pile onto us, and where would that leave me? We must do it this way so everyone can come out clean."

Tripitaka nodded and believed him. "You must stay with me."

Wukong said, "I know, I know. I am on top of your head."

The master and disciple finished their plan. Tripitaka raised himself up and, holding the lattice with both hands, called, "Madam, madam."

The monster heard him and laughed, hurrying over to him.

"Fine brother, what is it?"

Tripitaka said, "Madam, I left Chang'an and have traveled west all this way, with mountains every day and water every day. Yesterday I lodged at Sea-Quelling Monastery and happened to catch cold and fall into a bad sickness. Today I have sweated it out and am a little better. Then I was fortunate enough to be taken into your immortal house. But I have sat all day and my mind feels dull and uneasy. Could you take me somewhere to stroll and loosen my spirits?"

The monster was overjoyed.

"Fine brother, you really do have a pleasant spirit. I will take you to the garden for a stroll."

She called, "Little ones, bring the keys and open the garden gate. Sweep the path."

The monsters all ran to open the door and clear the way.

The monster opened the lattice and supported Tripitaka as he came out. Look at all those little monsters, smooth-faced and powdered, graceful and pretty, crowding around and escorting Tripitaka straight to the garden.

What a monk he was, silent in the brocade-clad crowd, dumb and deaf among the silks and flowers.

If he had not had that iron heart set on the Buddha, no second wine-and-lust mortal could have sought the scriptures.

When they reached the outer edge of the garden, the monster said softly, "Fine brother, this place is a good one for strolling and clearing the mind."

Tripitaka walked in with her hand in his, lifted his head, and looked around. It was indeed a splendid place.

There were winding paths all over the ground, all sprinkled with green moss. Graceful windows stood everywhere, half-hidden behind embroidered blinds. When the breeze moved, the Sichuan brocade and Wu silk curtains stirred lightly; after the rain, the place gleamed with skin and bone as bright as ice and jade. The sun burned the fresh apricots, red as if fairies had spread out their rainbow robes to dry; the moon shone on the plantain leaves, green as if Yang Guifei were waving a feather fan. By the white walls, ten thousand willows sang with orioles; around the quiet pavilions, a whole courtyard of begonias fluttered with painted butterflies. There were towers named Fragrant-Mist, Blue-Eyebrow, Hangover-Curing, and Lovesickness, each stacked in rising splendor with vermilion blinds and hooks of tendon. There were terraces named Sour-Holder, Plain-Robe, Painted-Brow, and Four-Rain, each standing grandly with bird-script painted on the plaques. There were ponds named Bathing-Cranes, Washing-Wine-Cups, Moon-Delight, and Washing-Sashes, with green duckweed and bright algae shining beside the gold fish. There were halls and studios named Ink-Flower, Strange-Box, Pleasant-Sport, and Cloud-Admiring, where jade cups and porcelain goblets floated in green foam. Above and below the ponds and pavilions stood Taihu stones, purple crystal stones, parrot-stone, and brocade-river stones, all planted with clumps of tiger-whisker rushes. East and west of the studies and towers were wooden rockeries, green-screen mountains, Howling-Wind Mountains, and Jade-Lingzhi Mountains, all thick with phoenix-tail bamboo. Over the tea stands and rose arbors, close by the swing frame, the whole place looked like a brocade tent and a silk curtain. There were peony rails and herb-anise thickets, dragon-eye and magnolia pavilions, all meeting one another like a green-walled embroidered screen. The begonias and peonies competed in rich bloom, red and purple against each other. Night-blooming jasmine and star jasmine grew fragrant year after year. The jade smile flowers dripped with dew, fit for a painter's hand; the scarlet hibiscus blazed into the air, fit for a poet's line. As for the scenery, there was no need to boast of the Isles of the Immortals or Penglai. Compared with the flowers there, even the famous yellow and purple peonies would not count for much. If one came there in the third spring month to watch the flower games, only the jade qiong blossom would be missing from the garden.

Tripitaka walked with the monster and admired flowers after flowers, never seeing the end of the strange blooms. They passed many pavilions and towers and truly seemed to be going deeper and deeper into a better and better place. Then Tripitaka looked up and found themselves at the edge of the peach grove.

Wukong pinched the top of Tripitaka's head, and the elder knew at once. He flew up into the peach branches and changed himself into a red peach. It was red indeed, and lovely to look at.

The elder said to the monster, "Madam, your garden flowers smell sweet and your branches are heavy with ripe fruit.

The flowers are fragrant and the bees are competing to gather; the fruit on the branches is ripe and the birds are competing to peck. Why are the peaches on this tree not all the same color, some green and some red?"

The monster smiled. "If Heaven had no yin and yang, the sun and moon would not be bright; if Earth had no yin and yang, grass and trees would not grow; if people had no yin and yang, there would be no distinction between man and woman. These peaches get their color from the same principle. On the sunny side, where the sun strikes them first, they ripen and turn red. On the shaded side, where there is no sun, they remain green. That is the law of yin and yang."

Tripitaka said, "Thank you, madam, for teaching me. Truly I know nothing of this."

He reached out and picked a red peach. The monster also picked a green one.

Tripitaka bowed and held out the red peach to the demon.

"Madam, you like color. Please eat this red peach. I will take the green one."

The monster really did switch and, thinking herself lucky, said, "Good monk, truly you are a real man. Though we have not yet been husband and wife for a single day, you already show such tenderness."

She smiled happily and gave Tripitaka a kiss. Then Tripitaka took the green peach and ate it. The monster raised the red peach and bit into it.

She opened her red lips and showed her silver teeth, but before she had a chance to bite down, Sun Wukong, being unusually impatient, rolled himself over and tumbled straight into her throat and down into her belly.

The monster was frightened and said to Tripitaka, "Reverend, this fruit is dangerous. How is it that I could not bite it open before it went rolling down?"

Tripitaka said, "Madam, it was just a newly opened garden fruit and eager to be eaten, so it went down quickly."

The monster said, "It had not even spat out the pit, and it was already gone."

Tripitaka said, "Madam, your intent was beautiful and your feeling was kind. The fruit was so pleasing that it went down before it had time to spit the pit."

Inside her belly Wukong resumed his true form and called out, "Master, do not answer her any more. Old Sun has got to work."

Tripitaka said, "Disciple, go easy on her."

The monster heard him and said, "Who are you talking to?"

Tripitaka said, "I am talking to my disciple Sun Wukong."

The monster said, "Where is Sun Wukong?"

Tripitaka said, "In your belly. Was that not the red peach you just ate?"

The monster panicked.

"That is the end of me. The monkey head has crawled into my belly, and I am dead."

Then she turned to Wukong and cried, "Sun Wukong, why have you schemed in every way to crawl into my belly?"

Wukong said inside, "Nothing much. Only that I have eaten your six-lobed liver and lungs, your three-fur-seven-hole heart, and I have cleaned out all your five viscera until you are left like a bamboo clapper spirit."

When the monster heard that, she was so frightened that her soul flew apart. Trembling all over, she clutched Tripitaka and cried:

Our old bond was tied with the red cord in a former life, and fish and water were once joined in deep affection.
Who knew the mandarin ducks would now be split apart, or the phoenixes carried east and west?
The Blue Bridge flood makes the matter impossible, and the smoke of the Buddhist temple leaves our happy meeting empty.
This whole affair, carefully planned, must now end in parting. In what year shall I meet you again?

Inside her belly Wukong heard it and feared that the elder's mercy might make him fall for her tricks again. So he began to punch, kick, brace himself, and twist about, working his body in every direction until he nearly burst the skin bag open. The monster could not bear the pain. She fell down in the dust and lay there for a long while without daring to speak.

When Wukong saw her silent, he thought she was dead, so he relaxed his grip a little.

Then the monster caught her breath again and called, "Where are my little ones?"

As it happened, when the little monsters had come in through the garden gate, each of them had gone their own way to pick flowers and play at tugging grass, leaving the monster and Tripitaka alone to exchange soft words.

When they heard her call, they all rushed back. Seeing her lying on the ground, her color changed and her mouth groaning, they hurried to help her up and gathered around her.

"Mistress, what is wrong? Did you suddenly get belly pain?"

The monster said, "No, no. Do not ask. There is already a person in my belly. Hurry and send this monk out. If you do, I will keep my life."

The little monsters really did come to carry Tripitaka.

Wukong shouted from inside, "Who dares carry him? If you want your mistress to live, then send my master out first. Once he is outside, I will spare your lives."

The fiend had no choice. She cared only for her own life. So she struggled up, put Tripitaka on her back, and hurried out of the garden.

The little monsters followed behind.

"Mistress, where are you going?"

The monster said, "As long as the moon is still held over the Five Lakes, why should I worry where to cast my golden hook? Carry this fellow out and I will find another head to fasten on."

What a demon she was. She rode a cloud all the way to the cave mouth.

There she heard the crash of weapons ringing in confusion.

Tripitaka said, "Disciple, I can hear weapons outside."

Wukong said, "That is Bajie moving his rake. Call to him."

Tripitaka called out, "Bajie!"

Bajie heard him and said, "Brother Sha, Master has come out."

The two of them drew their rake and staff.

The monster carried Tripitaka out of the cave.

As the old verse says:

The mind-monkey in secret brought down the evil fiend; the earth-and-wood ministers received the holy monk at the gate.

As for how the demon's life ended, that must wait for the next chapter.