A Crosstalk Version: Wukong Takes the Fall

Ao Guang, Dragon King of the East Sea, is on the verge of bankruptcy due to pearl smuggling and losses in fixed assets. Hearing that the Stone Monkey has been born, he sets a trap: using the “Sea-Calming Needle” as bait, he disguises this strategic asset, which should have been booked at a cost of 13,500 jin in salt certificates, as a “voluntary gift” to Sun Wukong. Once Brother Monkey takes the needle, Ao Guang immediately destroys the altered inventory ledgers and joins the other three Sea Dragon Kings in “reporting” the matter to Heaven, pinning all responsibility for the missing asset on the “demon monkey’s robbery.” Sun Wukong has no idea he has been made the scapegoat in the Dragon Palace’s asset restructuring. Instead, having obtained a magical treasure, he becomes even more brazen.

The Jade Emperor appears to appoint Sun Wukong as “Keeper of the Imperial Stables,” but in reality he dumps him into a disaster under the Imperial Stud system: the official horse ranch in Xuanfu has long been plagued by corruption, and large numbers of horses have died of disease. When Sun Wukong realizes his position is an insult and rebels against Heaven, the Jade Emperor immediately holds him responsible for the “injury and death of the heavenly horses,” launching a propaganda campaign to “suppress the demon monkey.”

The Peach Banquet becomes the flashpoint for a financial black hole. The Queen Mother secretly pockets the estate income from the 3,600 peach trees, then conceals the losses by citing “inventory discrepancies.” The Jade Emperor’s trusted aides inflate the price of imperial wine to line their own pockets. When Sun Wukong causes a disturbance, they blame the “discrepancies in the accounts” on the “monkey’s drunken rampage.” The Old Lord of the Heavenly Court follows suit, pinning the losses from misappropriated funds invested in golden pills on “Sun Wukong’s theft,” then disguising the cost of repairing the Eight Trigrams Furnace, which has fallen into disrepair, as “compensation for damage caused by the demon monkey” to secure a budget.