allendalepharm Chapter 1040 Freshly Ground Noodles
Chapter 1040 Freshly Ground Noodles
Su Wanwan was completely stunned.
She went to see Tang Sanzang again.
Tang Sanzang stood by the stairs, a string of prayer beads still in his hand, his expression somewhat complicated, but he finally sighed softly: "What Benefactor Chu said... is not entirely without reason."
Upon hearing this, Su Wanwan seemed to be nailed to the spot.
She's not crazy.
It's not that they've gone crazy.
Rather—this whole thing was fundamentally different from what she thought.
Her throat tightened, and after a long pause, she managed to squeeze out, "You all knew all along?"
"Monkey King and I found out a little earlier," Chu Yang said. "Master didn't find out as early, but he understands about the same thing now."
"Why...why is this happening?"
"Why?" Chu Yang smiled, but the smile was somewhat cold. "Because many so-called 'major events' in this world are never just events; they are also a matter of face, a declaration, and rules set for the Three Realms. If Buddhism wants to spread its teachings eastward and establish a merit that shakes the Three Realms, it needs a sufficiently respectable story. This story must include sincerity, asceticism, eighty-one tribulations, demons blocking the way, gods and Buddhas rescuing them, and finally, the completion of the merit."
"But for a story to be engaging, it can't be too smooth," Sun Wukong added from the side. "So there always have to be some bumps along the way."
"Then those monsters..." Su Wanwan's voice tightened, "...like Yueze, they might also be—"
"The incident at Yueze wasn't entirely like that," Chu Yang interrupted her. "Some of the chaos was genuinely out of control, and some of the evil spirits weren't orchestrated by anyone. But if you ask whether the whole path was being watched, pushed, and manipulated—yes."
Su Wanwan opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything for a moment.
Her mind was in complete turmoil.
All the mountains, rivers, cities, demonic aura, temples, escapes, fights, dangers, and gasps for breath that I had seen along the way seemed to have been peeled away at this moment, revealing another completely different truth behind them.
The thing she cared about most, the thing that made her most anxious, and the thing she felt she couldn't slack off on, was actually not what she thought it was from the very beginning.
No wonder.
No wonder Chu Yang and Sun Wukong weren't flustered at all.
No wonder they always act like they're watching some kind of adult show for children; they don't say it, but they never actually follow the line.
No wonder Chu Yang repeatedly led the team astray from "what it should be".
Her mind went blank for a moment, but her tone suddenly became more urgent: "Since you knew, why didn't you say so sooner?"
Chu Yang looked at her: "Would you have believed me if I had told you earlier?"
Su Wanwan choked.
She wanted to argue back, but found that she couldn't.
If Chu Yang had suddenly told her in a serious tone a few days ago that many of the difficulties on the journey to the West were deliberately set up by the higher-ups, she would most likely have just thought he was talking nonsense again.
"So, you're like this now... because of this?" She slowly clenched her fingers. "Because you don't want to go along with the wishes of Buddha and Guanyin?"
"Yes." This time, it was Chu Yang who answered her.
He took two steps forward and stood in the center of the hall, the lights flickering in his eyes.
"What they want is a predetermined path. When to suffer, when to turn misfortune into good fortune, when to perform a great act of heroism, when to achieve perfect merit—it all has to be according to their script. But I'm not willing to do that."
His tone was flat, not even heavy, but every word he uttered was delivered with great steadiness.
"Monkey King isn't happy either."
Sun Wukong grinned, but his smile carried a hint of his old sharpness: "I hate it when people lead me by the nose."
"Master was willing to go on the pilgrimage because he was truly devoted to Buddhism and wanted to bring the scriptures back to the East," Chu Yang continued. "There's nothing wrong with that in itself. But that doesn't mean we have to obediently play out a grand performance to satisfy them. Why should we force ourselves to accept every difficulty they set for us? Why should we have to step into any place they want to cause trouble for us? Why must we suffer convincingly along the way to be considered sincere?"
Su Wanwan stared at him blankly.
"So you weren't fooling around the whole way..." she said softly.
"Of course not." Chu Yang raised an eyebrow. "We're telling them that it's not entirely up to them to decide which way to go."
"They want us to rush, so we slow down a bit. They want us to suffer, so we find a nice place to stay. They want us to head straight west, so we take a detour, look at the mountains and rivers, listen to music, eat fish, and admire the flowers. If we encounter any troublesome monsters, people we need to save, or fights we need to fight, we won't shy away from any of them. But other than that, they want us to follow their pre-drawn path every step of the way—dream on."
Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong laughed heartily: "I love that line of yours."
The lobby was very quiet.
The shopkeeper and waiter were dumbfounded, shrinking to one side and not daring to breathe, not knowing how much they had actually understood.
Tang Sanzang gently closed his eyes, and after a long while slowly said, "Benefactor Chu, Wukong, although I know what you say makes sense, the eastward spread of Buddhism is ultimately for the benefit of all living beings."
"Master, I know." Chu Yang turned to look at him, his voice softening. "That's why we didn't say we wouldn't go. We must retrieve the scriptures and save the people; we will reach the Western Paradise anyway. We just won't go in the way they specify."
Tang Sanzang remained silent for a while, and finally let out a long sigh.
"I understand," he said. "But sometimes when I think about how this journey should have been peaceful, but instead involved so many calculations, I can't help but feel a sense of loss."
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue: "Master, don't be so pessimistic. We're already on our way. I'll protect you, and my brother will protect you too. The fox seems pretty good at fighting now. Let whoever wants to scheme, scheme. Let's just go our own way."
These words, though crude and blunt, somehow dispelled some of the oppressive suffocation.
Su Wanwan remained standing there, motionless.
Chu Yang's words were still echoing in her mind.
It turned out to be the case.
It turns out he did take the pilgrimage seriously.
On the contrary, he saw things more clearly than anyone else, and he was less willing to admit defeat than anyone else.
Not following the arrangements, refusing to follow the script, and unwilling to mold oneself and those around them into a miserable figure for others to watch on stage—this is not perfunctory, not lax, not foolish, but a sharper, more stubborn, and more unyielding seriousness.
She suddenly remembered those seemingly casual stops along the way.
Fish by the lake, clouds on the mountaintop, wind in the bamboo forest, lights in the night market, sunset on the grassland, the flower goddess festival in Peach Village, braziers and sweet potatoes on a snowy night, rain outside the temple gate when spring thunder falls.
It turns out that none of those things were "convenient".
It was Chu Yang who, in his own way, gradually pulled this pre-arranged journey to the West out of the script of "how to suffer".
He wasn't delaying.
He's robbing me.
They must reclaim the breath, the steps, the choices, and even the joy that should have been theirs along the way.
The fire that had been building up in her chest for so long suddenly transformed into something else, burning hot, blocking her heart and leaving her speechless for a moment.
Seeing that she hadn't spoken for a while, Chu Yang raised an eyebrow: "What's wrong? Finished yelling and now you're dumbfounded?"
Su Wanwan raised her eyes to glare at him, but for the first time, she lacked any imposing manner: "You...you knew I was so anxious, yet you kept quiet."
"Didn't I tell you? You didn't believe me even though I told you earlier."
"Then you can explain it properly!"
"When have I ever failed to explain?"
"You call that an explanation?" she snapped, about to explode with anger. "That's just giving me a perfunctory answer!"
"Oh." Chu Yang nodded. "That's true."
Su Wanwan: "..."
She was still feeling shaken and a little heartbroken, but his self-righteous attitude almost made her lose all her energy.
Sun Wukong, watching from the side, couldn't help but laugh: "I knew it, brother, with that mouth of yours, you'd piss someone off a second time sooner or later."
"Shut up, Monkey King!" Su Wanwan finally turned her fire on him.
"Why close it?"
"Because you knew it too! And you didn't tell me!"
"I've told you several times, it's impossible to be wrong, you just don't believe me."
"Then why can't you explain it clearly?"
"Wasn't that clear enough?" Sun Wukong scratched his head, and actually thought about it for a moment. "It seems it wasn't clear enough. It's just that you're getting quite agitated."
"Sun Wukong!"
"Hey, why are you calling me 'brother'?"
Seeing that she was about to explode again, Tang Sanzang finally sighed and chanted a Buddhist prayer: "Alright, alright. Now that we've talked things out, everyone, please stop arguing. This is also my fault; I didn't speak clearly to Miss Su, which caused her to misunderstand for so long."
Su Wanwan was deflated when she heard Tang Seng say that.
No matter how anxious she was, she couldn't take it out on Tang Seng.
Besides, looking back now, the one who seemed most like she was "seriously seeking knowledge" along the way was actually the fox who joined halfway. Her genuine anxiety seemed particularly...foolish in front of these three.
Her face flushed slightly, and she whispered, "I...I don't blame Master."
"I know," Sun Wukong replied with a grin. "Your fault is mainly your brother's."
"I blame you too!"
"Thick-skinned, not afraid of monsters."
Chu Yang looked at her and suddenly said, "Do you still think we're just sightseeing?"
Su Wanwan choked for a moment.
She wanted to say that you two were, at least on the surface, that's what you were. But the words caught in her throat when he said, "Go your own way."
In the end, she could only bluntly say, "...it didn't stop you from sightseeing."
Sun Wukong slapped his thigh and laughed loudly, "That's right!"
Chu Yang chuckled, as if he had finally calmed her down: "Isn't that perfect? We won't go along with their wishes, and we won't mistreat ourselves. Why not?"
"But..." Su Wanwan was still a little worried, "What if Buddha and Guanyin knew that you were deliberately not following their path, wouldn't they—"
"Won't they be upset?" Chu Yang continued, "That's their business."
"Aren't you afraid?"
"What's there to be afraid of?" he said calmly. "Since they want the stage, they won't dare to actually smash it. Besides, someone still needs to retrieve the scriptures, and someone still needs to protect Master. Monkey King, me, and you now are all variables that they can't easily change on this journey."
Sun Wukong cracked his knuckles: "I'm actually hoping they'll cause more trouble. They always follow the script, and they still complain it's boring."
Su Wanwan looked at him, then at Chu Yang, and suddenly felt a strange, indescribable feeling.
She used to think Chu Yang was too arrogant, like a troublemaker who didn't care about rules. But only now did she truly see one thing clearly—
He didn't break the rules because he was undisciplined.
He was even more unwilling to comply because he knew all too well who wrote the rules and who they were written for.
That kind of defiance was not a momentary impulse, nor was it a show of bravado.
Rather, it was unwavering.
Knowing full well that someone was setting up a game ahead, they still insisted on leading their own people past the edge of the chessboard without even glancing at the squares.
The frustration in her heart suddenly dissipated, and the anger that had accumulated along the way slowly transformed into another complex emotion.
But she still sounded a little unconvinced: "Then next time you should at least tell me in advance, don't keep me in the dark again."
Chu Yang raised an eyebrow: "Tell you what? Tell you that staying at the hotel tonight isn't laziness, it's rebellion against the arrangements?"
"You can speak more normally!"
"Even if I say it's normal, you might not understand."
"you--"
"Alright." Chu Yang leaned back against the counter, his tone finally softening. "If something like this happens again, I'll tell you sooner rather than later. Are you satisfied?"
Su Wanwan snorted: "That's more like it."
"So you're not in a hurry to get going now?"
"..." She paused, her ears burning, but she still forced herself to say, "I'm worried because you won't tell me. It's not... it's not that I don't want you to see the scenery."
Sun Wukong immediately seized the opportunity: "Oh, I understand. It means that next time I go to the hot springs, I have to inform the fox first."
"Sun Wukong!"
The tense atmosphere in the lobby was completely disrupted by this sentence.
The shopkeeper and waiter finally dared to breathe.
The white donkey brayed again in the backyard.
As night deepened outside, the city lights began to illuminate the town one by one. After the rain, small stalls selling late-night snacks had already set up by the stone bridge, and the aroma of noodle soup wafted into the inn on the wind.
Chu Yang looked outside and suddenly said, "Now that we've made things clear, let's not waste our time arguing tonight."
Su Wanwan was still fuming: "What do you mean?"
"A new stall has set up at the bridgehead, selling sweet fermented rice balls and pork wontons." Chu Yang glanced at her. "Want to go?"
Su Wanwan was taken aback: "Now?"
"If we don't go now, the dumplings will be sold out."
"But didn't you just say—"
"As I just said, I won't go along with their wishes, but I won't treat myself badly either," Chu Yang said slowly. "The city's night view after the rain is quite nice, and the lanterns under the bridge are beautiful. Since we're already staying here, it would be a waste not to take a look around."
Sun Wukong was the first to raise his hand: "Go!"
Tang Sanzang sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation: "You guys..."
"Master is going too," Chu Yang said. "There's a vegetarian noodle stall on the other side of the bridge. The owner said they use noodles freshly ground this morning, and the broth is very clear."
Tang Sanzang was taken aback, and was actually somewhat tempted.
Su Wanwan stood there, looking at the people in the room, and suddenly felt like laughing.
They had just had a huge argument, and now they were going to stroll along the bridge at night, eat glutinous rice balls, and drink wonton soup. In the past, she would have thought it was absurd. But at this moment, the tightly strung string in her heart actually relaxed a little.
Perhaps this is what they are really like.
It's not about being arranged to suffer, or about dutifully playing a role in someone else's play. It's about arguing and making a fuss, but after the arguments are over, going out together to find food, see lanterns, and walk across bridges.
She pursed her lips, but couldn't help asking, "So... are you leaving tomorrow?"
Chu Yang looked at her, a half-smile on his face: "Let's go."
"real?"
"Really." (End of Chapter)