The story begins with the bride marrying off her daughter, and the woman, at the age of one hundred,

A lone plume of smoke rises from the vast desert.

The yellow sand dunes rise and fall to the horizon.

The treacherous waters and desolate mountains.

The mysterious stream winds its way to the underworld.

That year, a monkey and a human rested at the foot of a beautiful mountain.

Leaning against a blue stone, Chang Shou looked increasingly emaciated, his stench of decay emanating from him. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he was still alive, he would have looked like a crystal skull covered in wrinkled black skin.

Horrifying, creepy, foul-smelling, chilling, ominous...

Chang Shou's cloudy, presbyopia-stricken eyes, which made everything blurry, fell on the busy golden monkey shadow, and he was filled with emotion.

He turned his head with difficulty, his neck joints creaking like a rotten wooden door opening and closing, harsh and unpleasant, conveying a sense of impending collapse.

Looking at the road he had come from, Changshou was overwhelmed with emotion and thoughts.

Since leaving the Red Land, they have been traveling for seven years, and spent six years in Xiniuhe Prefecture searching for immortality.

During this time, they traveled to many places, saw many landscapes, and witnessed many people and events:

Searching for water in the vast desert, lingering in lush oases, stargazing under clear night skies, fishing by mountain streams, escaping from cannibalistic tribes, seeking lodging in tribes at the dawn of civilization, and leaving behind seeds of enlightenment and literacy in primitive tribes...

He once encountered a fierce tiger on the road, but was smashed to pieces by a monkey's punch.

He once encountered demons and was led away by monkeys to escape.

He once chased after immortals for thousands of miles, only to be ridiculed for his delusional fantasies.

We've sheltered from the rain together, stolen wild eggs together, endured hunger together, huddled together, and hidden from the world, our lives hanging by a thread...

They searched and encountered setbacks along the way, but they also comforted each other and never gave up.

Even if!!!

Three years ago, he became completely unable to walk.

Three years ago, he finally lost all his teeth.

Three years ago, he lost all his vitality.

Three years ago, he gradually began to emit a foul odor.

Three years ago, he needed to feed the monkeys himself, take great care of them, and even clean up their excrement and urine.

……

But no one regretted it.

No one backed down.

They were all holding their breath and straining with all their might.

The long journey of the river could not stop them.

Having traveled thousands of miles, his face covered in frost and snow, he aspires to immortality and seeks the Dao with no return.

……

Thinking back on this journey filled with hardships, battles, joys, and sorrows.

Chang Shou forced a smile, enduring the pain of his muscles being pulled, and revealed a smile that was uglier and more terrifying than crying.

Nine years of cultivation.

Seven years of torment.

Three years of living a life worse than death.

He had long since become indifferent to life and death, his heart completely withered and devoid of any zest for life.

Especially now, when every breath feels like a sharp knife ripping through my trachea, and I'm completely burdened by this monkey.

Changshou had long since given up on becoming an immortal or hoping to prolong his life.

One should accept one's fate.

He had tried, struggled, and fought, and even if he died far from home, he would have no regrets.

He's clinging to his last breath.

Besides the fact that the monkey was unwilling to give up and insisted on taking him with him, even saying that he would take his skeleton with him on his journey even if he died, it was also because Changshou wanted to see the monkey find Fangcun Mountain and see him walk to the front of Sanxing Cave.

We spent seven years together, day and night.

Seven years of meticulous care.

Seven years of sharing life and death.

In Chang Shou's eyes, the monkey had long been his cross-species relative, his grandson who transcended blood ties and race.

He had long since given up scheming, giving up trying to take advantage of the monkey's good fortune.

Accompany the monkey to the end.

It has become Changshou's last obsession.

Otherwise, he feared that if he died halfway through, the monkey would be all alone, without anyone to confide in. Right now, living a life worse than death, at least he could be a sounding board for the monkey when it was confused, anxious, sad, or happy.

This gives the monkey an outlet for its negative emotions.

Make the monkey feel that someone is with him and understands him.

In my past life, I read that Luo Guanzhong briefly mentioned the years of his pursuit of the Dao: the Monkey King visited the immortals but failed to find one... and before he knew it, eight or nine years had passed...

It's an understatement to an observer.

But for the monkey, it was an unforgettable and arduous journey, a painful and mentally and physically exhausting ordeal.

Traveling thousands of miles alone in search of the truth is too arduous!

Physical suffering is only superficial.

The important thing is the heartache, the emotional loneliness, and the inner struggle.

Chang Shou knew clearly that he had unknowingly become the monkey's emotional comfort.

After leaving Flower Fruit Mountain, he was like an orphan wandering the world alone, stumbling into it with a dazed look, cautiously learning to read and write, and anxiously seeking the Dao and asking about immortality...

After a year of wandering, I entered his world, which was like a blank sheet of paper being drawn on. I stayed with him day and night, talking about everything under the sun, sharing joys and sorrows, teaching him to observe the stars, having barbecues with him, teaching him arithmetic, removing dry branches from his head, brushing the dust off his body, catching lice from his fur, telling him stories and all sorts of stories that I made up...

He single-handedly left a significant mark on his blank world.

Three years ago, when Changshou came to his senses and looked around again, he found that he had become the only relative of the monkey outside of Flower Fruit Mountain, and that the monkey had taken up a certain place in his heart.

And he had long since unknowingly come to regard the monkey as a part of his life.

This innocent and lively monkey, who always retained a childlike heart, became his new concern.

Perhaps this is retribution.

Good causes lead to good results, and bad causes lead to bad results.

Because he had schemed against the monkey and benefited from its care, he now had to live a life worse than death to repay his debt.

Changshou's emotions are complex and his mind is complicated.

---

"Old man, it's time to eat."

The monkey's voice interrupted Changshou's recollection.

As if he hadn't smelled the foul, deathly stench emanating from him, the Monkey King walked to Chang Shou's side without changing his expression, carefully helped him up, and gently poured the crushed, liquid food into Chang Shou's mouth through a bamboo tube.

The movements should be as gentle as possible.

They were afraid that Chang Shou would choke or swallow something.

After serving Changshou and carefully wiping his mouth, the Monkey King walked aside and began to eat by himself.

Halfway through the meal, a sound suddenly came from the mountain.

Changshou had long been deaf and needed the monkey to shout in his ear to hear him, but he hadn't heard anything yet.

But the Monkey King had already pricked up his ears to listen.

The sound gradually approached and became clearer as it drew nearer.

"Watching chess as the axe handle rots, chopping wood with a clanging sound, strolling slowly along the valley's edge. Selling firewood and buying wine, laughing wildly and indulging in self-satisfaction. On the high autumn path, facing the moon, I rest my head on the silver pines..."

Upon hearing the words, "Where we meet, there are either immortals or Taoists, sitting quietly and reciting the 'Huang Ting'," the Monkey King was overjoyed and scratched his ears and cheeks.

They realized they had encountered another immortal.

They didn't even have time to eat their fill.

The Monkey King quickly packed his bags, slung Changshou over his shoulder, and hurried off in the direction the sound came from.

Swift as the wind.

Soon the fallen leaves in the mountains will start to fall.

Soon after they disappeared from sight, the fallen leaves continued to swirl and drift in the air, finally settling down after a few breaths.

Walking through the trees and forest, the distance is shortened.

The Monkey King saw a burly woodcutter.

The woodcutter's song was loud and clear, and even though Changshou's hearing was failing, he could still hear the lyrics in fragments.

As the distance closes further, the lyrics gradually become complete.

In an instant, he became agitated, his decaying body trembling like a leaf, and an aura of death seemed to surge within him.