Ch13 - Monkey (1/2)
After General turned into a monkey, he would hunch a bit. But since he had a huge physique in the first place, even if he was slightly hunched, he was still half a head taller than Yu Hao. He said, “I’ve turned into the Monkey King.”
General shook his monkey head violently a few times; water sprayed out everywhere and splashed onto Yu Hao’s head. General looked down at his torn and tattered pants before saying, “This is really uncomfortable. Let’s talk after we go down the mountains, it’s too dangerous here.”
Yu Hao thought about his weapon, yet General said, “As long as you summon it, it will return.”
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Yu Hao stretched his hand out and recalled the time when his staff first appeared. A white light really did flash as it appeared in his hand again. General reminded Yu Hao, “Don’t use your strength, it’ll rouse their vigilance.”
Yu Hao uttered an “un”, then let General put one hand on his shoulder as he supported him before they slowly moved towards the peak. Within the darkness, rustling sounds could be heard all around them, as if something was currently spying on them. Scattered green lights lit up behind the snow slope. Yu Hao sensed something and turned around, but all the green lights disappeared again.
“Snakes.” General said, “They’re all snakes.”
Yu Hao’s heart was full of doubts. It’s impossible for this place to be his dreamscape; a sea monster that looks like Cthulhu and icy cold polar regions wouldn’t appear in his dream. The only answer he could infer from this was that General was currently trying to save someone else, and for some reason, he had been summoned over as well. But why would he be summoned to someone else’s dream?
They walked to the bottom of the mountain surrounded by jagged rocks of grotesque shapes. The accumulated snow on the windward face of the mountain had been blown off. General had recovered quite a bit; he climbed up first before he stretched his hand downwards, then pulled Yu Hao onto a protruding rock. The two of them sat on the rock as they looked far into the distance.
General shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked around like he was searching for something.
“Where’s the shield I gave you?” Yu Hao had a vague conjecture that it might have been because he gave a part of the “totem” in his conscious world to General that they had developed a strange connection, so he had been dragged in here as well.
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“Here.” General stretched his furry finger out and flicked the golden circlet on top of his forehead.
Yu Hao, “……”
With the sword on his back, General squatted in front of the pitch-black rock and looked into the distance as he faced the north winds; his tattered cloak drooped behind him.
“What should we do?” General muttered to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Yu Hao said, “Are you Sun Wukong now?”
General looked down at his own body, then looked at Yu Hao with a strange look in his eyes, “Isn’t that obvious?”
Yu Hao asked again, “I gave you a shield, but why did it turn into the circlet on your head? Where’s your Dinghaishenzhen1?
General shrugged helplessly, “How would I know?”
Yu Hao thought, this is so weird. He scrutinised General doubtfully; General pondered for a short while before he stretched his finger out and pointed under the tree, “Look.”
A group of black snakes were spreading out as they covered the snowfield below them. General mumbled, “This person’s dreamscape is even darker than yours. If it was just dark then so be it, but it’s so damn cold too. This is really troublesome……”
Yu Hao was shivering from the cold. He thought, it was already cold enough in the day yet he still had to endure the cold at night in his dreams, why is he so miserable?!
General warned again, “Don’t die, if you die here you will never be able to return. And don’t ask so many questions, I can’t explain many things clearly. In any case, after I entered this dream, I became a huge monkey for no reason.”
“Then……what about that?” Yu Hao tested the waters as he tugged the golden circlet on his head. General said, “It can’t be taken off! I’ve tried! Ouch! Don’t touch it!”
They had hugged and said their goodbyes underneath the sunlight that illuminated the universe. After that, Yu Hao always wondered where General would go. Perhaps he would go and save more people like himself.
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He gradually regarded him as a hero. He had thought that he would never be able to see him again in this lifetime, but now they were suddenly reunited. His heart was overwhelmed by the excitement and joy he felt, and a lot of his doubts had been thrown to the back of his mind in an instant.
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Yu Hao, “Then who does your form depend on? The owner of this dreamscape?”
Yu Hao couldn’t really understand it. General was a suit of armour when he first appeared in his dreams; logically speaking, if he “wasn’t human”, then Yu Hao definitely wouldn’t have seen him before and would thus have no inherent impression of him. In accordance with this inference, General ought to show up clad in armour in this stranger’s dream as well, but why did he turn into Sun Wukong?
General snapped his fingers; a flame burst out in between his long fingers, then he waved it towards the ground. The group of snakes that were climbing up the rocks were afraid of the flames so they immediately dispersed. General suddenly jumped and leaped onto another protruding rock. He stretched his long arm out as he climbed the rocks and stretched one hand out to Yu Hao.
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Yu Hao tried to emulate General’s leap, but he couldn’t jump onto that piece of rock. His leg slipped and he let out a loud cry as he almost fell into the group of snakes below, but General’s hand had grabbed onto him tightly in midair.
Yu Hao realised that his speed, strength and reaction time had reduced considerably.
“It’s normal,” General pulled him over to another rock and said, “for your strength to weaken. To be able to scare that monster away was already quite a feat.”
Yu Hao thought of what General said to him when he had last entered his dream: when the owner of the dreamscape is banished, the strength of outsiders in the dream will weaken.
Yu Hao, “But you’re still stronger than me.”
“That’s a given.” General wrapped one arm around Yu Hao and stretched his other hand out to grab a neighbouring protrusion.
Yu Hao, “……”
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General had to take care of Yu Hao and climb from one bare rock to another at the same time which was extremely troublesome. A short while later, he thought of a plan. He pulled Yu Hao’s arm and made Yu Hao hug him around his furry neck so that Yu Hao could hang from his body, then he increased his jumping speed and continued his ascent without stopping.
“But where does your strength come from?” Yu Hao asked.
“My self-awareness, self-confidence and constant suggestion.” General looked up to differentiate between the canopies, “You will slowly turn into the kind of person who you believe yourself to be.”
Yu Hao answered, “That’s impossible ba, then wouldn’t I be invincible?”
General said, “The key is, do you really believe that you’re invincible? There are people who always declare that they have a strong mind, but just a few sentences can agitate them into a frenzy of rage.”
Yu Hao, “There are some people who mistakenly think that they are invincible, but the moment they suffer a small setback, they’ll choose to retreat and escape……I think I sort of understand now.”
“Correct understanding of the self and a candid self-confidence are the sources of your strength.” General answered.
General held Yu Hao with one hand — monkeys have arms that are so long they could tie a knot — which encircled his waist, and his thumb could still casually and gracefully be fastened onto Yu Hao’s waistband.
“I can heal you.” Yu Hao hugged him and moved along with this huge monkey, “I have that ability.”
General, “Un, you can.”
Yu Hao, “Does having this ability mean that you think I have the capability to heal?”
General didn’t look at Yu Hao anymore as he said, “Didn’t I already tell you? Why are you still so dumb? Don’t you also believe that the current you can heal others?”
“Ah?” Yu Hao said in surprise, “Do I? I’ve never thought about it before though?”
General didn’t talk anymore. Yu Hao observed the side of General’s monkey face, but a monkey’s expression isn’t very obvious — it only had a reddish face and thick sideburns. General suddenly turned around; Yu Hao wasn’t paying much attention and their lips almost met inadvertently in a kiss. The two of them quickly put some distance in between them. Yu Hao felt his face burn up, and thought that his face must be as red as this monkey’s butt right now……
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General, “If you keep asking so many questions, I’ll kick you out of the dreamscape.”
Yu Hao quickly said, “Okay, I won’t ask anymore.”
General went to the cliff at the end of the dense forest, took off his boots and tied them around his waist before he climbed up on all four limbs with Yu Hao on his back.
Yu Hao suddenly asked again, “General, you’re actually human. Did I guess that right?”
General suddenly stopped moving; a gust of wind blew by.
“Get lost! Good night!” General suddenly said.
Yu Hao instantly opened his eyes and woke up in his dormitory.
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“I was wrong! General!” Yu Hao cried out in regret, but it was too late. He had actually been chased out from a dream!
He turned over impatiently as he tried to sleep again, but he couldn’t fall back asleep. So he got up to drink some water before he went back to tossing and turning in his bed. However, it was daybreak before long. Yu Hao wailed for a moment before he hugged his blanket and sat up. He really wanted to slap himself twice. Why did I have to talk so much? I really might not be able to see him again this time!
After daybreak, Yu Hao couldn’t fall back asleep, so he could only wash up with a bed of messy hair before going out to work as a leaflet distributor. The temperature had been dropping for the past three days, and it was even colder today. He shivered in the bitingly cold wind and tried his best to hide behind shelters to distribute his leaflets. He shot an envious look at the person adorned in a huge cartoon doll costume who was jumping around.