Chapter 47 Traveling Notes

We went to the beach as planned. The monkeys were no longer visible, but I didn’t take that to mean that they were gone for good. There was nowhere for them to take cover on the beach since there were few trees, so they probably decided not to follow us so aggressively.

But we also knew that these monkeys were bound to launch a sneak attack in order to get their revenge against us. It seemed that the monkey we had fought today was the current monkey king.

We armed ourselves and waited in the truck for a while, but no monkeys ever came. So, we got out and moved the tables and chairs to the beach. In this direction, we could only see the sunrise and not the sunset, but the setting sun on the other side would definitely turn the clouds here into an ink painting.

This was one of the best beaches on the island, with sand that was very fine and a coastline that was very long. There weren’t many people here; only a few older guys from the Northeast who were fishing with fishing rods, but they moved farther away after they were done.

We put down the windproof picnic stove, set up the lounge chairs, and started making tea.

Fatty’s friend kept urging us to go swimming, saying that there was a huge reef about a hundred meters off shore that was constantly hit by the waves. The water there was supposedly very clear.

The three of us put on our goggles and swam over to it. The average water depth here was only about six meters, and after swimming about fifty meters off shore, the waves had little impact on us. We dove below the water’s surface and found that the area below was a mixture of reefs and sand filled with octopi, squid, and various crabs.

From a general perspective, the surrounding environment made me feel like we had returned to the undersea tomb.

Fatty started chasing the small squid, looking just like Patrick Star from SpongeBob.⁽¹⁾ Poker-Face was more like a huge, flexible fish in the water and started burrowing into one of the reef clusters. This was very dangerous to do, but it seemed like he had found something. Soon, he came back out and motioned for us to follow him in.

We swam behind him into the reef cluster, where the waves weren’t as strong. All the surrounding reefs were covered in oyster shells and barnacles, which would break immediately if they got pushed up by the waves.

We carefully swam to the center and found that there was a sunken ship there. It wasn’t an ancient one, however, but a modern one. It was quite large and covered in marine life, so it must have been down here for some time.

The sunken ship was at least ten meters deep, but the light here was very good. Sunlight streamed down from overhead, creating a gorgeous Tyndall effect. A school of tuna came swimming out from one end of the reef and disappeared at the other end.

This was probably a haven for the nearby marine life, because it was impossible to trawl here.

We played around for a while, floated to the surface, and then climbed onto the reef. I had never seen so many crabs crawling on a reef before. They were so densely packed together that I couldn’t help but feel my scalp tingle.

These were all flower crabs. Fatty said that they didn’t look tasty at first glance since their shells were black and their legs looked like tiger mosquito legs, which we southerners hated the most.⁽²⁾ Overall, they gave off an evil vibe.

As we rested on the reef, the sun gradually sank towards the horizon, casting its dying rays over a large area. The whole sky now looked like a subtly-colored oil painting.

The waves were so loud that we didn’t bother speaking and just quietly watched the horizon slowly darken. Then, before the surroundings became completely dark, we jumped back into the sea and swam back to the beach.

Fatty’s friend served us a few bowls of simple noodles, along with some tea. We all ate very well since we were hungry after swimming.

Then, we packed up our things and with the sea breeze blowing around us, headed back to the village.

It was completely dark on the way back. Fatty stopped at the supermarket by the village entrance. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “The monkeys are still there! I just looked in the rearview mirror and saw that they’ve entered the village. There’s going to be a fierce battle tonight, so we need to build some fortifications and set up some traps.”

I followed Fatty’s line of sight and saw the betel nut forest. It was dark inside and really did seem to be the perfect place for an ambush.

I nodded and smiled evilly.

As we were making our purchases, I kept pondering over the question of how we could eliminate the monkeys’ hatred, because if we didn’t subdue these monkeys now, I was afraid it would become an endless problem in the future. In the end, the simplest way was to catch the monkey king.

Once the monkey king was captured, the other monkeys would definitely disperse. Moreover, I had to defeat the monkey king in public and cause it to lose its prestige among the other monkeys so that it would take some time for it to rebuild its status once it returned to the other monkeys. By the time it stabilized its power again, it probably wouldn’t remember much about this time.

I laughed while thinking about it. For some reason, the idea of fighting with these monkeys was making me really excited. Maybe I didn’t like the bitter hatred I saw in the monkey king’s eyes when it looked at me before.

<Chapter 46><Table of Contents><Chapter 48>

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TN Notes:

(1) Patrick is an obese pink starfish from the American cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants.  

(2) Flower crabs are on the left and tiger mosquitoes are on the right:

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We have 3 chapters to go, then an extra, and then I’ll start on “Queen of the West’s Ghost Banquet”. I think I’ll take a day or two off before starting the latter so that I can reread the previous 2 books. I’m already crying just thinking about the Bon religion stuff again. Kill me now _(:3 」∠)_

Pic added 8/26/2023 (fan translation courtesy of me).