THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Eavesdropping Part 4

"We departed with big apprentice brother yesterday at Hengyang," he said. "He told us to come first. By now he is probably already sober, and will be here soon."

"He got drunk again?" the girl frowned slightly.

"Yep," the man dressed as a porter answered.

"This time he really drank his fill," the man with the abacus cut in. "He drank from morning till noon, and then from noon till dusk. He probably drank at least twenty to thirty liters of good wine!"

"That's not good for his health! Why didn't you talk to him?" the girl admonished.

The man with the abacus stuck his tongue out and made a face. "If big apprentice brother would listen to other people's advice, then the sun would have risen from the west. But I guess if the little apprentice sister tried to stop him, then he might drink one liter less." Everyone laughed at these words.

"Why did he start drinking like that? Was he celebrating something?" the girl asked.

"You'll have to ask him about that," the man with the abacus replied. "I think he figured he would see his little apprentice sister when he came to Hengshan town and felt really happy about it, so he decided to celebrate."

"Nonsense!" the girl sniffed, yet she sounded quite pleased.

Lin Pingzhi listened to the joking among these fellow apprentices. "It seems this girl really likes her big apprentice brother, very much," he thought. "But if that second apprentice brother is already so old, the big apprentice brother must be even older. The girl is just only sixteen or seventeen, how could she fall in love with someone so old?" He thought a bit longer and then found an answer. "Ah, yes. The girl has pox-marks all over her face. She is way too ugly. No one else would take her, so she has to love an old drunkard."

Then he heard the girl asking again, "So big apprentice brother started drinking since yesterday morning?"

"I guess if we don't tell you the whole story, you just won't leave us alone," the man with the monkey conceded. "Yesterday morning the eight of us were just about to start the trip when big apprentice brother suddenly detected the scent of some great wine from the street. We checked it out, and found a beggar drinking out of a wine calabash. That really piqued big apprentice brother's sense of wine, so he went over to talk to the beggar, praising his wine, and asking what kind it was. The beggar replied that it was monkey wine, and big apprentice brother asked what monkey wine was. The beggar then answered that monkeys in western Hunan Province knew how to use fruits to make wine. The fruits those monkeys used were the freshest and sweetest, so the wine made from them was the best, as well. The beggar had walked into the monkeys' domain by accident, and the monkeys happened to be away, so he stole three calabashes of wine and also caught a small monkey. See, this is him." He pointed to the monkey on his shoulder. One of the monkey's legs was tied to his wrist by a line. The monkey kept rubbing its head, scratching its cheeks, and making faces; it looked very comical.

The girl looked at the monkey and burst into laughter. "Sixth apprentice brother, no wonder your nickname is Monkey-Six. You and your little friend here look just like twins."

"We are not twins," Monkey-Six said with a straight face. "We are fellow apprentices. This little fellow is my big apprentice brother, and I am his junior." Everyone burst into loud laughter.

The girl laughed as well. "Aha, you are making fun of big apprentice brother. Wait till I tell him about this. He'll be sure to kick your behind."

"How did your brother end up in your hands?" after some giggles, she asked again.

"My brother?" Monkey-Six was lost for a moment. "Are you talking about this little critter? Well, that's a long story. It's going to give me a headache!"