again we have this unfortunate business. Let me make a suggestion. Each of us should contribute two hundred cash to buy wine and several kinds of dishes to sustain all of us through the night. At the third watch the honorable prime minister will be sitting officially in the library to question the mad monk closely and severely. We then must not delay or mismanage this business. What do you all think about this?”
Everyone said, “Good, good, good. Let us do just that.” Each of them handed in four small strings of cash. One of them took charge of the purchase of food and wine, and all helped as much as necessary.
As the first watch neared, one of them said, “Let us drink.” And everyone joined in, eating and drinking.
Then Ji Gong said, “Honorable sirs, be compassionate, be compassionate. Won’t you give this poor monk a small cup of wine?”
Qin Sheng replied, “Monks are not supposed to drink wine. Why do you ask us to give it to you?”
Ji Gong answered, “Wine drowns my wicked thoughts, the fifth among forbidden things.”
“But wouldn’t drinking also be a forbidden thing?” Qin Sheng countered.
The monk laughed. “Ah, ha! The honorable manager knows a part, but not the rest. The rest includes many advantages. Heaven has the wine-y stars, earth its wine-y springs. Man has his wine-y divinity, and wine encompasses ten thousand things. Confucius said, ‘Wine is the way, but follow it reverently.’”
Qin Sheng said, “Since you know all these things, I will, after all, give you a cup of wine to drink.” Then he filled a cup to the brim and gave it to the monk.
As he took it, Ji Gong said, “Good! Good! Good! Though the day may have been long, with wine the evening is like the morning of a day of rest and great affairs are but recreation after wine.” After he had finished drinking that cup he said, “Honorable sirs, give me another cup of wine to drink.”
Qin Sheng said, “I just gave you a cup of wine and you ask for more! Truly, you have no sense of self-respect.”
Ji Gong said, “If you do not give me another cup of wine, it is because you do not have as much as a cup of kindness toward others.”
Qin Sheng filled another cup to the brim for him. The monk drank it and said, “Come! Give me one cup more. Make it three cups.”
Qin Sheng replied, “I have no more. It is not that I would not give it to you. Ask someone else.”
Ji Gong gave a great laugh, “Ha, ha! I can drink myself.” He took the wine cup in his hand and said, “Om! I command. Come, come, come!”
Then the others saw the cup fill with wine. The monk drank several cups of wine in succession and put the cup down. When the household people guarding the monk decided that they, too, would like another cup, they went one after another to the wine jug and tipped it, but nothing came out. They all began to say that the one who went to buy the food and wine had kept some of the money. Again they all looked at the jug, but it was indeed empty.
Qin Sheng did not say a word, all talk ceased, and a spirit of sadness settled over them all. Soon they slept, lying this way and that wherever they were. Then they were all transformed temporarily into ghosts and demons and instructed in their roles by Ji Gong.
As soon as the monk had seen that everyone was sleeping throughout the house, he removed his locks and chains and went toward the inner apartments to bestow just retribution. First, however, he looked for those evil servants who had been swaggering about, doing cruel deeds, while depending on their influence with the prime minister for their power. Ji Gong sought them out and gave each one a pinch.
Then he saw a man on the roof of a building to the north side, over the place where the prime minister was sleeping. He was holding in his hand a large knife with which he intended to kill Prime Minister Qin, who hated Ji Gong so much. Looking closely, Ji Gong saw that it was none other than Zhao Bin, the young fruit merchant. He had a string bag fastened at his waist to use in case he decided to carry something away. This was the same Zhao Bin who had helped Ji Gong to restore to its rightful owner the magnificent five-thunder, eight-trigram prince’s tally scroll.
On that occasion, while Zhao Bin had been inside the prime minister’s estate pretending that he was the Wei Tuo, Zhao Bin had met Yin Shixiong, who had once worked with Zhao Bin’s father as an armed escort. The two had returned together to Zhao Bin’s mother. Yin Shixiong had stayed a couple of days and then taken his leave.
Zhao Bin was only a small merchant and was not saving any money for the future. His poor old mother talked to him seriously about taking care of himself and his future. From then on, he became less careless and indolent.
On the morning of the day that Ji Gong was arrested, Zhao Bin had been at the West Lake selling fresh fruit when he saw a large number of soldiers surrounding the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat. He saw someone he recognized and went over to ask what was happening. Then he learned about how Ji Gong had beaten the managers and how Prime Minister Qin had sent the soldiers to surround the monastery, seize Ji Gong, and bring him back. He also heard that Ji Gong no doubt would be beaten to death.
When he heard all this, Zhao Bin was terribly shocked. He thought to himself, “Ji Gong was kind enough to save my own life, and now the reverend gentleman is in deep trouble. How can I not save him? My mother does not want me to go out at night! I have it. I will deceive her. I will wait until she is asleep. Then I will take that big vegetable chopping knife and go to find Prime Minister Qin at his estate, where I will kill him. Thus I will avenge my teacher, the senior monk Ji Gong.”
He slowly returned home. There his mother asked, “Why did you not sell the rest of your fruit today?”
Zhao Bin answered, “Today I did not feel well.”
The old lady said, “If, indeed, your body does not seem well, you had best rest at home.”
After the evening meal, as Zhao Bin and his mother were about to go to their beds, they suddenly heard someone knocking at the gate. When Zhao Bin heard it, he felt quite unhappy. He thought to himself, “My mother was just about to go to sleep and then someone knocks at the gate.”
When he went out to look, it was Old Lady Wang from across the way. As soon as she saw him, she said, “Zhao Bin, I have to trouble you about something. Early this morning when my son, Wang Xing, went out, he spread his carpet and arranged the fruit he was selling on the ground near the prime minister’s gate. At exactly noon a man came here, riding in a small sedan chair. He said that my son had just been stricken with cholera, and he took my daughter-in-law away with him. I have not seen either my son or his wife since, and I am very worried. May I trouble you to go and ask about them?”
Zhao Bin immediately agreed to go. He had always done such things with a willing heart. He told his mother, changed his clothes, and took the large vegetable chopping knife with him. When he left, he went straight to the neighborhood of the Qin estate. By this time it was already late. He saw that Wang Xing’s carpet with the fruit spread on it had not yet been taken away. He also saw that a guard named Guo Four was there keeping watch over it. As soon as Zhao Bin saw that the guard was someone he knew, he asked, “Headman Guo, where did my dear brother Wang go?”
Guo Four replied, “Ah, it is you, Zhao Bin. You ask about Wang Xing. Do not mention it. Today at mid-morning the second master, the prime minister’s son, called to him to come in. Wang Xing sold him some fruit amounting to a good deal of money. I was told to keep watch here. I had other things to do, and when he did not come
