The next morning, Yun Xiao was again woken up by the golden monkey. Waking up in pain, he was just about to curse the golden monkey when he remembered his mother's words.
Putting on his most welcoming face, he smiled his best towards the golden monkey.
"Good morning Mr Golden monkey."
Just as the words left his lips, he felt that it did not sound right. He tried again.
"Good morning boss monkey."
"NO NO NO!. A monkey cannot be my boss." He was just about to try again when the golden monkey walked up to him and rubbed his head, like a father patting his son's head.
He noticed the smug smile on the monkey's face and this irritated him to no end.
"Sorry, that came out wrong, from now onwards we are partners. I will be the big boss and you will be the little boss. I will call you little gold."
The monkey looked visibly upset. It much preferred to be called boss monkey.
With a "humph", the monkey turned its head away in protest.
"Dont worry little gold, tonight i will share with you mother's cooking. She cooks the most delicious
meals ever. She puts in fragrant spices that makes the aroma irrisistable. When she cooks meat, you will feel like the meat melts in your mouth like butter. And when she cooks vegetables, its so tasty and crunchy that you will the earth nourishing you like how it nourished the vegetables when it was growing in the earth. Trust me, its like eating heaven itself. Mother's cooking is so yummy. Once you have a bite, you will want it everyday."
Noticing how excited Yun Xiao was as he was describing mother's cooking, the monkey started drooling. Yun Xiao noticed the drool and went on and on about how delicious and yummy the food mother cooks. Finally the monkey relented and bowed its head. Food was obviously the way to this monkey's heart. In the monkey's heart, it thought, as long as you feed me these wonderful food, you can be the big boss.
Yun Xiao laughed and said, "Good, good, good" three times, trying to imitate his mother when his mother was pleased with him.
"Come little gold, lets go hunting now, we will catch ourselves a fat rabbit for mother to cook."
With that one boy and monkey left to terrorize the entire forest.
Sitting on a tree top, Yun Xiao scanned the surroundings. With his now enhanced eyesight and his handmade bow and arrow, he was looking for a fat rabbit. 3 hours passed and still no rabbit to be seen. Little Gold sat patiently with him, eagerly anticipating the delicious dinner tonight and having a fat rabbit as well.
Just as Yun Xiao was about to move to a different location, he saw a white blur streaking past a vast plain 1300 meters away. He saw it stop at some vegetation and started to eat. Seeing the size of the rabbit, Yun Xiao exclaimed,
"That's our prey. We going to have a fat a delicious rabbit tonight. Hahaha."
"Damn, i cant hit that far away, lets get closer." He once tried to shoot the golden monkey with this same bow and remembered that it can only shoot a distance of approximately 200 metres.
The two moved silently towards the rabbit. Once they were within 200 metres, Yun Xiao stopped moving altogether. Like a statue, he did not move. He looked like a professional hunter as he cleared his mind and started to focus. In his mind there was only the rabbit.
Gently he pulled out his bow and nocked the arrow. Beads of sweat can be seen on his brows. Taking a deep breath, he let the arrow fly. Fly it did, right towards the rabbit. Yun Xiao was excited and so was little gold as they could see that the trajection of the arrow was boumd to hit the rabbit right on its hind leg. And when the arrow was about 1 metre from the rabbit it fell. The startled rabbit immediately took off.
"Damn it all, i misjudged the distance."
Yun Xiao was visibly disappointed.
"Sorry little gold, no rabbit tonight. I promised mother i would hunt a rabbit today and now we dont have any. Its about time I head home. I am sorry, lets do dinner tomorrow. I am too ashamed to bring you back for dinner especially when i promised mother that i would get a rabbit."
Little Gold look horrified. Since the morning it had been fantasizing and drooling about dinner and now there is no dinner for ut. It could not accept this.
Little Gold started to scream and jump around to show its displeasure. The constant screeching by little gold made Yun Xiao feel very bad.
"I really am sorry little gold, i know i did indeed promise you to eat mother's cooking but hope you can understand, i dont want to be seen by mother as "not contributing yet has no shame to invite others." I really want to bring you as promised but please, lets wait till we hunt a rabbit or bring back something good as well."
Little gold calmed down after hearing this and after seeing Yun Xiao's sombre expression.
Yun Xiao said his goodbye to Little Gold and started to make his way back to the cave.
After walking about 10 minutes, his head was hit by a stone seed.
"Ouch!"
Turning around, he saw little gold beckoning him to come over from about 10 metres away.
"What is it? I told you i am sorry and will bring you tomorrow if we manage a successful hunt."
Little Gold threw another stone seed at him. It came right at him and he had no way to dodge it. All he could do was to see the stone seed coming directly towards him. This time it hit Yun Xiao's body.
"Ouch. Stop it little gold."
But before he could finish the sentence, little gold once again threw another stone seed at him.
Yun Xiao managed to dodge it in the nick of time otherwise this stone seed would also hit his head.
Losing his temper, Yun Xiao shouted,
"Stop it little gold."
Again, another stone seed flew his way before he could finish the sentence.
Losing his patience , he started to run towards little gold.
"If i catch you, im having golden monkey for dinner tonight."
Little gold immediately took off seeing Yun Xiao bellowing and charging right at itself.
Yun Xiao chased little gold for what seemed a long time before little gold ran up a tree.
At this moment, Yun Xiao was more tired than angry and he was about to give up and call it a day when another stone seed was thrown. Only that this time, it was thrown very lightly and it fell right in front of him with a very soft thud.
Looking up the tree, he saw little gold jumping and gesturing as if he wanted Yun Xiao to come up the tree as well.
After Yun Xiao confirmed that little gold was trying to ask him to come up the tree, Yun Xiao immediately climbed up the tree till he go to where little gold was at.
Then suddenly, little gold took a step back, and the point where little gold stood previously revealed a hatch.
Intrigued, Yun Xiao just watched quietly as he say little gold lift the hatch and made its way into the tree.
Without thinking, Yun Xiao ran after him into the tree.
At first it was nothing but darkness, then suddenly the whole place illuminated in splendid golden light.
There were many things he saw, but the first thing he noticed was rows upon rows of golden dragonblood fruits stacked into neat piles. There were at least 80 rows of it.
With his mouth agape, Yun Xiao just stared at the sight in front of him not moving a muscle.
Little Gold came up to him, rubbing its tummy to show it was hungry as if saying, now u wont go back empty handed, can i come for dinner now?