Chapter 138 — Decadence
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
Before the rest of the words could leave his mouth, the haggard-looking man had vanished before his eyes—and the next moment, when Old He came to his senses, the man was already seated at a wooden table inside the inn. On the table lay a silver ingot, enough to eat and drink in that little inn for three days without ceasing.
Naturally, Boss He was delighted, and hurried to serve wine and dishes. What surprised him, however, was that this customer and his monkey actually stayed in his little shop for three full days and nights, and even today showed no sign of setting out on the road.
The man's spirits were plainly very poor. In three days, Boss He had not seen him speak a single word or smile a single time. Each time Boss He brought wine and food to the table, the man merely gazed silently at the wine pot, then slowly drank.
Only this customer's capacity for liquor seemed remarkably poor. Each time he drank a little—Boss He reckoned less than half a pot—the man would collapse onto the wine table, dead to the world. In contrast to his master, the three-eyed monkey the man had brought left Boss He staring open-mouthed in amazement.
To be honest, Boss He had run his shop here for years. Remote as the place was, plenty of traveling merchants passed through, so he counted himself a man of some experience. Yet in these three days he had sworn to himself countless times that he had truly met the most prodigious drinker—the monkey with the greatest capacity for wine—in all his life.
In the space of a single day and night, the monkey had drunk dry every drop of fine wine in Boss He's stock, including a jar of strong nu'erhong that he had hidden beneath the old locust tree behind the shop.
And the monkey still looked unsatisfied. It scratched its ears and cheeks, looked all about, hopped around for a good while, and then screeched "chi-chi" at Boss He without pause. Boss He did not speak monkey, but even a fool could tell what the creature wanted. He had meant to pay it no mind, but the monkey was clever as a ghost—it had secretly stolen back the silver Boss He had put away and now waved it back and forth right in front of him.
Boss He had no choice. Besides, the customer had already paid enough silver, so he had no option but to send his assistant to fetch wine from Xiaochi Town overnight. At first he was rather annoyed, but as time passed he actually came to like the monkey. And apart from its fondness for drink, the three-eyed monkey had no other bad habits. On the contrary, it often played and frolicked in the shop, and when in good spirits it would even perform a few tricks—such as conjuring a cluster of flames out of thin air in its palm. Not only did Boss He stare wide-eyed, but the merchants passing through these past few days were all delighted by the show and lingered longer in his shop, earning him more silver.
The master of the gray-furred, three-eyed monkey was the exact opposite of his lively pet. Most of the time he lay sprawled in sleep, reeking of wine. When he woke now and then, he would only stare blankly around him. Occasionally, when the monkey ran back to his side, a bit of light would return to his eyes; he would lazily reach out and stroke the monkey's head, then seem to recall some sorrowful matter, pick up the wine pot and drink again—and before long he was lost in dreams once more.