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Chapter 85 Pigsy, do you want a wife?

In the woods outside the market, a clearing has been cleared out, and several rough stone tables are now neatly arranged with food.

These were naturally obtained hastily by the two boys, Jinlu and Yinlu, under Chen Guangrui's guidance.

Chen Guangrui glanced at the arrangement, then at the jade bottle that the silver furnace attendant was clutching tightly in his hands, and said to the silver furnace attendant,
"It's about time, release them."

The Silver Furnace Boy was already flustered. Upon hearing this, he felt as if he had received a pardon. He immediately made a hand seal, chanted incantations, and pointed at the mouth of the bottle. The golden light sealing the mouth of the bottle disappeared instantly, and the bottle trembled violently.

A soft "pfft!" sound.

A foul, fishy smell spread out, and then a huge figure was thrown out of the bottle in a disheveled state, crashing heavily onto the open ground.

That figure was none other than Zhu Bajie!

His entire body was covered in black fur that stood on end, mud and grass clippings, and his long mouth was panting heavily, while his two large, fan-like ears flapped frantically to expel the heat.

He seemed quite frightened by what he had experienced inside the bottle; the muscles on his already ugly face twitched slightly, as if he had just had a terrible nightmare.

Having just steadied his massive body, he nervously looked around. His gaze swept over the wary Golden Furnace Boy and the Silver Furnace Boy, who was frantically putting away the bottle, before finally settling on Chen Guangrui, who stood calmly in front of him.

His gaze swept over the unbelievably lavish spread of delicious food on the stone table, and his cloudy little eyes widened suddenly. He snorted, "Hey!"

With a booming voice, Pigsy pointed at the table full of food and asked in a deep voice, "What...what does this mean? Are you sending me off? Are you making me die a full-eaten ghost before I go to the executioner's block?"

His tone was uncertain; although his gluttonous instincts had somewhat overwhelmed his fear, he still doubted the purpose of this delicious meal.

Chen Guangrui smiled slightly and reassured them.
"You've misunderstood, Marshal. This isn't a last meal for your head; it's a special treat to calm your nerves and wash away the dust of your journey. The two boys were ignorant and acted rashly, offending you just now. They are truly ashamed. This is an apology; please don't take offense, Marshal. Please sit down; filling your stomach is the most important thing."

"A misunderstanding?" Zhu Bajie's small eyes darted around, staring intently at Chen Guangrui's face, seemingly trying to discern the truth of the matter. But the pungent aroma of meat wafting from the table made his throat tighten.
Without any hesitation, he plopped down heavily on a large rock, grabbed a ripe, red peach, and took a big, satisfying bite.

"Mmm...so sweet! These are really good peaches! A hundred times better than the wild fruits I, Old Pig, usually pick to satisfy my cravings!"

Just as he was enjoying his meal, he suddenly remembered the crucial matter and began to curse at the Golden Furnace Boy and the Silver Furnace Boy.
"Pah! Apologize? Be more reckless? You two immature little bulls, I, Old Pig, am working hard in Gao Village, carrying manure and planting crops. What business is it of yours, some god in heaven?"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, holding a roast chicken in one hand and talking to Chen Guangrui in Cantonese.
"I was struggling with that dung bucket when, lo and behold, these two little jinxes fell from the sky! They came right up and asked me if I wanted to go to heaven with them to become officials? I, Old Pig, had just enjoyed a couple of days of peace. Can't I stay in the mortal world for a while? I politely asked them to leave, but instead, without saying a word, they pulled out a broken bottle and sucked me in. Do you think I don't know what that thing is?"

He patted his muscular, hairy chest, his face full of grievance and anger.
"That bottle was pitch black inside, and the fumes made me dizzy and nauseous. It was so stuffy and hot that I almost suffocated! And that hissing sound, I could hear my own flesh cracking. Are you trying to turn me into a pill or something? This is outrageous! Even if we take this to the highest official in heaven, I, Old Pig, will still be in the right!"

His roar shook the mountains and forests, clearly indicating that he had suffered greatly inside the bottle, and his anger could not be resolved with just one meal.

The two boys, Jinlu and Yinlu, turned red and white in turns after being scolded by him.

Jin Lu forced a stern face, but his little fists were clenched tightly in his sleeves. He glared fiercely at Zhu Ganglie, but ultimately felt guilty and didn't dare to talk back.

The silver furnace was so frightened that it shrank back behind the gold furnace and held the treasure bottle even tighter.

Both of them instinctively looked to Chen Guangrui for help.

Chen Guangrui remained calm and said, "Marshal, please calm down. They are indeed young and ignorant, and acted without thinking. This meal is a sincere apology and also to show that we have no malicious intent."

He paused, watching Zhu Bajie still angrily tearing at the roast chicken, then suddenly changed the subject, asking with a smile:
"But speaking of which, Marshal, it's quite nice of you to be playing around in the mortal realm instead of being the Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng... It's just that, isn't something still missing?"

"What are you lacking?" Zhu Bajie was taken aback for a moment, then looked up and asked in a greasy voice, "What am I lacking? I have plenty of food, and I have plenty of strength!"

Chen Guangrui revealed a mysterious smile and lowered his voice, saying, "What I need is a wife who understands my needs, can sew and wash clothes, and can live a good life with me..."

"Wife?" Zhu Bajie's eyes lit up instantly. He licked his greasy lips, then lowered his head somewhat shyly, the tips of his two large, fan-shaped ears turning pink as he mumbled bashfully.
"This... no rush, no rush! I'm working at Master Gao's house! Old Master Gao said that if I'm diligent and hardworking, and do a good job, in a year or two, he'll arrange for his beautiful daughter Cuilan to marry me."

As he said this, a wistful smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

"Oh? Grandpa Gao really said that?"

Chen Guangrui's smile deepened, tinged with amusement.
"He said how long he would make you work, and how to determine if you've done a good job. Is there any written agreement, a written promise to you?"

He casually posed one question after another, making Zhu Bajie's expression increasingly unpleasant.

"...This...this wasn't explained in detail,"

Pigsy was stumped by the question, and the smile on his face froze.
“I’m an honest man. He said he would marry me off if I did a good job, so I believed him. I did all the heavy and dirty work for his family, from carrying manure and water to plowing the fields and building walls. I worked hard without complaint, and he even praised me for being diligent.”

Chen Guangrui sighed, his tone tinged with regret.
"Tsk! Marshal, you were once a commander of 80,000 naval troops in the Milky Way, and now you've been tricked by a peasant from the mortal world with empty promises? That old man Gao is just trying to use the title of 'daughter and son-in-law' to coax you into working like a slave for his family!"

“Look, now his fields in Gao Village are thriving and his granaries are full, but where is your wife? Has he ever said when he would ‘do a good job’? Has he ever taken you to the government office to get a marriage certificate? I’m afraid that when that time really comes, he’ll just find some excuse for you to ‘not do a good job’,”

"For example, if they think you eat too much? Or that your appearance frightens their daughter? Then you can just brush it off! You, the dignified Marshal Tianpeng, will become a laughing stock among mortals and neighbors, being played and used by a mortal manor lord, and wasting years of hard labor for nothing?"

"He wouldn't dare!" Chen Guangrui's words pierced Zhu Ganglie's heart. He jumped to his feet, his massive body slamming into the stone table, causing it to shake again. His face instantly turned a deep purplish-red, and he snorted heavily.

"I, Old Pig, have worked tirelessly for his family from dawn till dusk! I've broken more than a hundred carrying poles! How could he... how could he lie to me? No way, I'm going back to settle the score with him right now!"

He roared, rolled up his sleeves to reveal his thick, hairy arms, and turned to rush out of the forest.

"Wait!" Chen Guangrui quickly stopped the enraged wild boar. "Marshal, calm down! If you rush back like this, when Grandpa Gao and the people in the village see you, won't it confirm that you are a vicious vixen who 'abducts women'? Even if you are in the right, you will be in the wrong!"

"Then the county yamen runners, and even the monks and Taoist priests they hire, will all come after you. When your Miss Cuilan sees you like this, she'll probably faint from fright. How could she possibly be sincere with you then?"

"This..." Zhu Ganglie seemed to be nailed to the spot, his steps abruptly halted.

He scratched his messy black mane in frustration. "What am I going to do? My wife is going to break up with me? All those years I've been treated like livestock for nothing?"

"No, no!" Chen Guangrui pressed his massive body back down onto the stone bench.

"As for the solution, I've already thought of one for the Marshal. The one who tied the knot must untie it; whoever is responsible for this matter should be the one to solve it. The key is the word 'getting things done'."

He glanced at the two boys, Jinlu and Yinlu, who seemed somewhat bewildered.

“Look, these two are the celestial attendants under Laozi’s command. Have them choose a good piece of irrigated land next to Gao Village where you are working, and build a village there. Then you can go to their village.”

"Farm as you always have. Work as a laborer as you always have. The wages they pay you will be several times higher than those in Gao Village. The houses they build for you will be a hundred times more comfortable than the shacks in Gao Village. And the grain in the granaries will be ten times fuller than in Gao Village!"

Pigsy's little eyes lit up again.

Chen Guangrui said,
“Gao Village prospered because of your diligence and strength, Marshal. Now that you, the backbone of the village, are gone, how can those tenants and farmhands do the work you did? Their village is probably going to decline.”

"When that time comes, if Old Man Gao hears that you've gone to the neighboring village, do you think he'll be anxious? If he can't beat you even with force, what do you think he'll do when he's at his wit's end?"

Listening to Chen Guangrui's words, Zhu Ganglie seemed to think that when that day came, it would be strange if Gao Taigong didn't personally send his daughter to him.

Thinking about this, I couldn't stop smiling.

"Wonderful!" No sooner had Chen Guangrui finished speaking than the Silver Furnace Boy beside him suddenly jumped up excitedly.
Hearing that he could build a large estate, he was even more excited than Zhu Bajie, pulling Jinlu Tongzi along with a look of longing in his eyes.
"We'll have a manor now!"

As he spoke, he imagined how he would show off his impressive estate to the surrounding villages.

Jin Lu's attention was also diverted by this sudden "task". Although he still had a stern face, he saw that Zhu Ganglie had gone from initially rejecting the two brothers to now accepting them.

If that's the case, then he could wait until he's more familiar with Zhu Bajie before considering how to tell him about returning to Heaven.

Pigsy sat on the stone bench, his greasy hands supporting his chin, his small eyes darting around.
The more he thought about it, the brighter his eyes became, and the corners of his mouth began to stretch uncontrollably upwards, eventually revealing a sly, silly smile, along with his huge, protruding ears flapping happily.

"Hehehe... Good! This method... sounds interesting!"

Pigsy chuckled, and with his greasy hands, skillfully picked up a red peach from the stone plate, took a large, satisfying bite, and mumbled:

"Hmm... these peaches are really sweet! No matter how many peaches we've eaten in Gao Village, none of them are as sweet as this one! That's it... we'll do it! Once the two kids have finished building their village, I, Old Pig, will go there and see what that old man does!"

As he spoke, he actually got up, wiped his mouth with his greasy tattered clothes, picked up the rake he always carried, and was about to walk out of the forest. The way he strode around was as if he were getting married today.

Chen Guangrui, however, noticed what Zhu Ganglie said: "No matter how many peaches he ate from Gao Laozhuang, none of them were as sweet as this one today!"

"This is the sweetest thing today"...

These words were like a tiny flash of lightning, giving Chen Guangrui a sudden inspiration.

He suddenly remembered that at the post station in Chang'an, the postmaster had described with great enthusiasm the sweetest peaches in the world.

The postmaster also said that the peaches came from an old farmer in Liangjie Mountain, as did the monkey with the hairy face and thunderous mouth.

This is the key clue that he has been searching the entire market for today but has been unable to find!

Now, Zhu Bajie so confidently praised this peach as sweeter than any he had ever eaten in Gao Village...

And these peaches happen to come from this place.

Chen Guangrui could almost feel his heart skip a beat. Without making a sound, he reached out and picked up the last peach left on the plate.

Zhu Ganglie had already walked far away with his rake on his back. Jinlu and Yinlu were excitedly whispering together about building a large estate, and no one noticed Chen Guangrui's tiny movement.

Chen Guangrui brought the juicy red peach to her lips and took a small bite. The flesh was crisp and tender, and the sweet juice burst in her mouth instantly, refreshing and fragrant.

"As expected..." Chen Guangrui's eyes brightened slightly, barely able to suppress the shock in his heart.

Very sweet indeed!

At first, Chen Guangrui was worried that the postmaster's peaches were indistinguishable from the extremely sweet ones. What should he do if he encountered two peaches that were both very sweet?
But as soon as he took a bite of the peach, all his worries vanished.

After just one bite, he was certain that this peach was the sweetest peach in the world, as the postmaster had said.

Without much hesitation, Chen Guangrui walked directly to the Golden Furnace Boy and the Silver Furnace Boy and casually asked, "Did you buy all these things at the market? Those peaches were quite sweet, did you two eat any?"

(End of this chapter)