The Buddha's Tale of the Nine-Colored Deer

"Rise."

Xuanzang slowly extended a hand, gesturing for him to stand.

Zhu Wuneng raised his head in disbelief, his little eyes, washed clean by tears, filled with astonishment. "Master... you... you're accepting me?"

Xuanzang's expression remained calm as he nodded slightly.

"Though you have yet to rid yourself of greed, anger, and delusion, you harbor no desire to harm others. That is rare and precious. But the demon within your heart has not been fully vanquished. One careless step could send you falling back onto the demonic path. All the more reason for you to remain beside this humble monk, receiving guidance at every moment and cultivating at every turn."

"Having taken the precepts, you are already a disciple of the Buddha. If this humble monk refused you, I would be cutting off your path to life. That is not the conduct of a monk."

Zhu Wuneng stood stunned for a long while.

"Master... I..." Zhu Wuneng's great mouth twisted, and his tears began flowing again.

"I'll obey! From now on, I'll always obey!"

Beside them, Sun Wukong slung the Golden Cudgel over his shoulder. Watching the scene, he could not help rolling his eyes and grumbling to Little White Dragon behind him. "Look at that. This idiot sure has luck on his side. When Old Sun became a disciple, there were gifts from the Bodhisattva and oaths to swear. They put me through hell."

"But this idiot? A couple of kowtows, a couple of sobs, and Master's heart fills with compassion. Since when did the threshold get this low?"

Little White Dragon, Ao Lie, who had been standing silently in the background like part of the scenery, nodded repeatedly. Now he too could not resist muttering softly.

"The Great Sage is right. I'm a proper prince of the Dragon Palace, and I'm still just an attendant carrying the luggage! Why does this pig get to become our second senior brother the moment he arrives?"

For once, the two did not bicker. They stood on the same side.

Before master and disciples had finished speaking, a rustling came from beneath the table.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Elder Gao crawled out, his hair hanging loose, still clutching the broken half of his cane in a death grip. Seeing that the pig demon was not only alive but had been accepted as a disciple by this monk from Great Tang, he felt fury surge straight to his heart.

"Venerable monk! He's a monster! A scourge!"

Elder Gao pointed at Zhu Wuneng, spittle flying, his pampered old face twisted with venom.

"You're an enlightened monk! How can you fail to distinguish right from wrong? He seized my daughter, ate through my fortune, and ruined my family's reputation! Taking him away would be letting a tiger loose in the mountains! You must kill him today! Kill him and end the threat for good! Only by cutting off that pig's head and hanging it at the village entrance can you restore my family's good name!"

Zhu Wuneng had already risen to his feet. At those words, his massive body shuddered, and he lowered his head to hide the sorrow in his eyes.

Xuanzang did not grow angry at these words.

He merely turned and quietly regarded the hysterical Elder Gao. His gaze was clear as water, yet unfathomably deep, as his Dharma Eye manifested.

"Elder Gao, I have already accepted Wuneng as my disciple, which makes me his elder. Since you put it that way, shall we settle the accounts?"

"Settle the accounts?"

Elder Gao froze. A flicker of panic crossed his cloudy eyes, but his shamelessness quickly smothered it.

"What accounts? This monster ate my food, lived under my roof, and filled my perfectly good home with foul smoke and chaos! And you want to settle accounts? Venerable monk, surely you aren't siding with this monster?"

Xuanzang ignored Elder Gao's sophistry. His gaze passed over the old man and settled on Gao Cai outside the doorway, who had been peering about timidly, eager to watch the spectacle but afraid to enter.

"Young benefactor Gao."

Xuanzang's voice was not loud, yet it carried a strange, penetrating power.

Gao Cai stiffened all over. Instinctively raising his head, he met Xuanzang's golden-glowing eyes just as the Dharma Eye manifested.

In that instant, Gao Cai felt as though needles were digging into his back, as though he had been stripped naked and set beneath the blazing sun.

Gao Cai stammered, "H-holy monk."

Xuanzang asked softly.

"Young benefactor Gao, sorry for the trouble. Your master says that Zhu Wuneng ate through the family fortune and brought misery upon this place-that he is a scourge. Could you judge fairly and speak the truth?"

Under the gaze of Xuanzang's Dharma Eye, Gao Cai cried out, his voice close to tears, the words spilling like beans from a bamboo tube. "It... it was the monster... no, the son-in-law who did it!"

Elder Gao panicked and tried to silence him. "Gao Cai! You..."

"Shut up."

Sun Wukong had already had enough of this ungrateful old man. With a cold snort, he planted the Golden Cudgel against the ground, frightening Elder Gao into swallowing his words.

"Three years ago, the family only had a dozen-odd mu of poor farmland. They were merely a little well-off! After the son-in-law arrived, he used his enormous strength and worked day and night! He cleared those hundreds of mu of wasteland out back, dug the irrigation channels, and built this new house... he even hoisted the main beam of this hall into place all by himself!"

"The master said... said there was no need to pay him wages, just give him something to eat. In these three years, the family's grain stores have grown more than tenfold! They've made a fortune!"

Gao Cai collapsed to the ground. Each of those plain truths landed like a slap, leaving Elder Gao's pampered old face alternating between livid and pale.

Though the hired hands and servants around them dared not speak aloud, the looks they cast his way brimmed unmistakably with contempt, accompanied by furtive whispers.

"You... you people..."

Elder Gao's fingers trembled as he pointed at Gao Cai, then at the ring of servants. His chest heaved violently. Clearly, he was furious-and so ashamed he wished the earth would swallow him.

Xuanzang withdrew his gaze and looked at the deathly pale Elder Gao. His tone was gentle, but every word pierced the heart. "Elder, did you hear that? I wonder, have you heard the tale of the Nine-Colored Deer?"

Seeing this, Sun Wukong tucked the Golden Cudgel under his arm and nudged Little White Dragon behind him with an elbow. Lowering his voice, he wore a wicked grin that said, "I knew it."

"Hey, Little White Dragon, listen closely. Here it comes. Master's signature trick is about to begin again. If this old man isn't left crying for his father and mother today, Old Sun will write his name backward."

Sure enough, Xuanzang straightened his cuffs and said in an even voice, "The Sutra of the Buddha's Tale of the Nine-Colored Deer records: 'Long ago, beside the Ganges, there lived a divine deer whose coat bore nine colors and whose antlers were white as snow. One day, a drowning man was swept along by the river's current.'"

Here, Xuanzang paused, his gaze sweeping over Elder Gao's deathly pale face.

"The drowning man was saved. He kowtowed in gratitude and vowed to become the deer's servant to repay this great kindness. The deer said, 'I have no need of a servant. Only do not reveal my whereabouts after you leave, for people covet my hide and antlers and will surely come to kill me.' The man swore an oath to heaven and departed in tears."

At this point, Xuanzang stopped walking. His gaze passed over Zhu Wuneng, who stood there with his simple, foolish face, his eyes now full of longing as he looked toward the rear hall.

"Later, the king offered a great reward for the Nine-Colored Deer's hide and antlers. Hearing of the reward, the man conceived an evil thought: 'Though this beast saved my life, a beast is still a beast. How could that compare to my wealth and glory?'"

"And so he entered the palace to inform on the deer, then led a great army to surround and hunt him down."

Xuanzang leaned forward slightly, his eyes like two bottomless pools of icy water.

"As the king drew his bow and nocked an arrow, the Nine-Colored Deer asked through his tears, 'Your Majesty, who revealed my whereabouts?' The king pointed to the drowning man. The deer cried out in grief, 'This man once nearly drowned, and I risked my life to save him. He swore never to speak of me. Yet now, driven by greed, he has broken faith, cast aside loyalty, and turned upon his benefactor!'"

"The king was deeply ashamed upon hearing this and rebuked the man: 'Even a beast knows affection, yet a man knows no loyalty!'"

Xuanzang stared at Elder Gao. "You once swore an oath to heaven and welcomed him into your family as a son-in-law, saying you did not mind that he had neither home nor livelihood. Now that your household prospers and you have reached dry land, you despise him for being a demon, despise him for his ugliness, and seek to bring in outsiders to kill him for the sake of your so-called 'reputation' and 'good name'!"

Shame and anger mingled in Elder Gao, turning his face the dark red of pig liver.

"Even so! Even so!"

Looking at the servants pointing and whispering around him, his humiliation erupted into rage. As though clutching at his last straw of salvation, he shrieked.

"No matter what you say! He's a monster! Humans and demons walk different paths! He... he forced himself upon Cui Lan! That is a fact!"

"This monster locked Cui Lan in the rear courtyard for half a year! He kept father and daughter from seeing each other. Surely he's already... already...! Oh, my poor daughter! Is this terrible disgrace the fault of my greed too? I'm doing this for my daughter!"

Zhu Wuneng, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly raised his head and protested urgently. "No! Old Pig didn't! I already promised the Bodhisattva. How would I dare..."

Creak-

Before he could finish, a faint sound came from behind the broken door to the rear hall.

Every gaze turned toward it.

A woman emerged, slowly stepping out with one hand braced against the doorframe.