Week 7 Story: Tricking the Monkey King

Sonny, a boy that was known for creating mischiefs, was bored and had nothing to do up in Heaven. He wandered around everywhere, causing trouble and anger to all the gods he encountered. The gods all went to the King of Heaven and begged him to do something about it. Sonny had a light radiating around him that prevented others from harming him or otherwise, the gods would have done something about it. Even the King of Heaven was stuck. He didn't know what to do. A thought suddenly popped into in his mind. His wife has been nagging him to find someone to watch her peach gardens as she gets ready for the annual Peach ball. Thus, he sent Sonny to the peach gardens to help.

When he walked in the golden gates, a couple of fairies flew over. 

"Hello, your light drew us to you. What are you doing here? Are you here to take us away? Please don't we haven't been slacking!" they cried in fear.

"Calm down goodness gracious. I am just here to help out on the orders of the King. Now tell me why there are so many peach trees and what am I supposed to do with them?" he rambled on. 

"The first 1200 trees have red blossoms and small fruit, and those who eat will grow healthy. They only ripen once every three thousand years. Next, the middle 1200 trees have double blossoms with sweet fruit, and those who consume these fruits will never age. They only ripen every six thousand years. Lastly, the 1200 trees in the very back has red-striped fruit and they will allow a person to live eternally along with the Heavens. They only ripen once every nine thousand years," the fairies explained.

(Peach orchard blooming: Wikimedia Commons)

Sonny thought to himself about how he wanted his family back in the mortal world to be eternal too. His job, according to the fairies, was to make sure no one steals the peaches before the great ball that the Queen throws every year. Thus, he put his plan into place and waited one day until all the fairies went on their beauty break to put on more makeup. He stumbled to the very back of the garden and gobbled up all the peaches, putting some in a bag for his family. After, munching on all of the ripe ones, he escaped out of the golden gates and back into the mortal world. 

When the fairies got back to their break, a message was sent to them from the Queen to pick the ripe peaches in the back rows for the gods coming to the ball. They scampered down there, and all that was left was a half ripe peach hanging on the branches alone with peach cores all over the ground.

Author's Note: I basically kept everything from the original story the same. Sonny is supposed to be the Monkey King named Sun Wu Kung. I made it so it was a human named Sonny. Also, I gave more background on the gardeners in the garden. Instead of just "gardeners", I changed the, to fairies! Everything else was the same except the family, where in the case of the original story, was his ape family that he grew up with. I also gave background on how Sun Wu Kung (Sonny) was able to get rid of the gardeners. Every other detail was from the original story.

Bibliography: The Queen-Mother of the West in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921)