Now, Ao Tu had won his wager with Wukong, earning three blows.
Ao Tu kept those three blows on account for the time being, to deliver another day.
By the time Wukong had supplied the remaining silver, it was already late, and beginning work would be inconvenient. Ao Tu agreed that construction of the bridge would begin the following day.
The imperial commissioner had already recruited the twenty thousand laborers required, except that he had conscripted them for corvée labor, whereas Ao Tu ordered him to make them hired laborers instead.
The chief difference was that corvée laborers had to work without pay and even provide their own food, while hired laborers would be employed at Ao Tu's expense.
The next day, the imperial commissioner sent the twenty thousand laborers to the riverbank and ordered his subordinates to prepare a grand groundbreaking ceremony.
Tang Sanzang and his disciples also came to watch how Ao Tu would build the bridge.
Ordinarily, a groundbreaking ceremony for a bridge like this involved prayers and sacrificial addresses, offerings to deities such as the Earth God and the River God, ritual masters invited to perform rites to dispel calamities, and theatrical troupes invited to perform dragon and lion dances to ensure that construction went smoothly.
But considering that Ao Tu was himself a Dragon God, the imperial commissioner did not invite anyone to perform a dragon dance.
Ao Tu watched the ceremony quietly, without interfering at whim.
After the ceremony ended, Ao Tu ordered the laborers to stand in two groups, ten thousand on the left and ten thousand on the right. He flew into the air, some thirty feet above the ground, so everyone could see his appearance clearly.
The laborers gathered in a dark, dense mass of bobbing heads, looking up at Ao