A Light Knock, and the Door Exploded

He looked down at his furry arms, then at his own lean, small frame, then recalled Tang Sanzang's thick arm lifting the White Dragon Horse. The corner of his mouth twitched twice.

With a helpless look on his face, he wondered who the real monkey was.

Sun Wukong sighed, pushed off the ground with the tip of his foot, and turned into a streak of golden light as he gave chase. Its trailing glow carved a bright arc through the darkening mountain woods before swiftly vanishing toward the monastery.

Before long, Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong arrived before the Zen monastery.

The monastery was even more decrepit than it had looked from afar. Its walls were rammed yellow earth, their surfaces weathered into mottled patches by wind and rain. Great sheets of plaster had fallen away, exposing the straw-mixed yellow clay bricks beneath.

Moss and weeds covered the tops of the walls. Several ferns poked out through cracks in the masonry, swaying faintly in the night breeze.

The main entrance was a pair of black-lacquered doors. The lacquer had cracked into dense, fine lines like wrinkles on an old man's face. Most of the bronze studs had turned green with rust, and only a few still retained their original yellow sheen.

The door knockers were a pair of bronze beast heads, each with a bronze ring through its nose. One of the rings had broken in half and hung crookedly from its mount.

The words on the plaque were barely legible: "Guanyin Zen Monastery." Most of the gold paint had peeled away, leaving only a few ragged strokes clinging to the plaque. It looked as though no one had maintained the place in a very long time.

A thin layer of cobwebs also draped the plaque, with several shriveled insects