[Journey to the West] The Great Demon King of Flower-Fruit Mountain

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This novel will be completed and enter the paid section on August 2. Paid chapters begin at Chapter 48, so please don't buy them again if you've already read them!

New novel coming soon: Dream of the Red Chamber: The Wood-and-Stone Bond. Summary at the very bottom.

About this novel

Feng Xi appeared on Flower-Fruit Mountain with no memories. In a foul mood, she wanted to kill some monkeys, but was always stopped.

Fortunately, Flower-Fruit Mountain had plenty of monkeys for her to boss around, and her neighbor, the East Sea Dragon King, offered her treasures as tribute to persuade her to spare the great stone out in the sea. So Feng Xi reluctantly restrained her murderous urges and took the advice of a certain presence in her mind: she switched careers and took up farming.

Whenever she got bored, she'd go pick fights with the seventy-two demon kings next door for fun, and bring back free labor to till her fields while she was at it.

When she wasn't fighting, her favorite pastime was bullying the little monkeys, making them massage her legs and shoulders and serve her tea and water.

One day, the great stone full of spiritual energy she'd been coveting suddenly took human form, turning into a fluffy golden monkey.

Because of that monkey, Feng Xi discovered that there was an enormous place in the heavens where she could farm!

New novel coming soon:

After watching the 1987 adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, I fell for its canon pairing. Here's the summary.

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Lin Daiyu's perspective:

After returning from Suzhou, Daiyu felt that Baoyu was acting strangely. He used to hate studying, but now he would sit there with a pained expression and study, without even needing Second Uncle to nag him.

Sometimes he would look at her strangely, too. If Baoyu hadn't still bickered with her as usual and cheered her up afterward, Daiyu would have thought he was possessed.

Baoyu often reminded Daiyu to take care of her health and get more exercise. Before she knew it, her health had improved, and Baoyu no longer made her cry. Daiyu blinked and thought perhaps she and her father had been mistaken. Baoyu really was someone she could entrust herself to.

Later, when the Jia family fell into decline, Baoyu ran around working for the family and became a man who could stand tall and shoulder his responsibilities overnight. Daiyu saw how he protected the women and children of the household, and together they supported their own little family and sheltered their sisters from hardship. They lived safely and happily all their lives.

Lin Ruhai's perspective:

In a dream, Lin Ruhai saw Baoyu living a dissolute life. He instinctively knew his daughter had been entrusted to the wrong person. As he lay dying, he couldn't help resenting the Jia family for deceiving him. Unfortunately, regret could change nothing, and he passed away with Daiyu's sobs in his ears.

Perhaps Heaven took pity on him. After Lin Ruhai died, his soul did not return to the underworld. Instead, he followed Daiyu to the Jia family...

Jia Baoyu's perspective:

When Jia Baoyu heard that Cousin Lin had returned, he jumped up with joy. But before long, he checked the latest news and discovered that a "ghost uncle" only he could see had appeared beside him.

The ghost uncle was a lot like Cousin Lin: he knew poetry, music, social etiquette, and just about everything else. But he was incredibly strict when teaching Baoyu, and Baoyu couldn't even complain to Grandmother about it.

Over time, Baoyu threw tantrums and wanted to give up. Even his father had never been so demanding of him. He'd even had the "wicked" thought of asking Grandmother to find a Taoist priest to drive the ghost away.

But after his tantrums, Baoyu still dutifully continued studying with his ghost uncle, because his uncle had told him that only by studying hard could he become a support for Cousin Lin and the other girls in the family.

Even so, Jia Baoyu still didn't like studying. He hated it, but worked hard at the things he disliked, learning to grow into a responsible man who could shoulder his duties. He didn't want the girls in his family to end up like the unfortunate women he'd seen. Most importantly, he wanted to become Uncle Lin's son-in-law and marry Cousin Lin.

Theme: Make things for yourself, and you'll have enough to eat and wear.