I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 65: The Secret Method to Capture Sun Wukong Alive
Snowflakes were floating in the sky. Wu Cheng'en and Li Chunfang were chatting around the fire, while Lin Shisan and Sun Yue were frozen into snowmen.

Three quarters past midnight, in the kitchen of the Lin family courtyard.

The master and the apprentice sat at the table, shivering. Biyun brought two bowls of plain noodles to the table, topped with two slices of smoked pork.

If you don't eat garlic with noodles, the flavor will be half gone. Biyun took two heads of Laba garlic from the jar and placed them on a plate on the table.

Lin Shisan put his hands around the bowl of noodles and finally felt a little warmer.

Sun Yue opened his bloody mouth and sucked the noodles into his mouth like a dragon sucking water. He then picked up the Laba garlic from the small dish and chewed it in big mouthfuls.

The master hasn't even started eating when his disciple's bowl is already empty.

Biyun said, "I've never seen you eat so much. Okay, I'll cook another bowl for you."

Sun Yue smiled and said, "Master's wife is just like my own mother. When you are paralyzed in bed, I, as your son, will definitely honor you well."

This sounds like dirty talk, and I don't know if he is just making it up or is speaking the truth.

Biyun scolded, "You kid need to learn from your master how to say nice things to flatter people. I am still your mother. You are one year older than me."

Biyun cooked another bowl of plain noodles and took off the outer coat she wore for cooking: "You guys continue chatting. I'll go see if Xiaochuan and Hu'er have gone to bed."

After his wife left, Sun Yue said, "I just asked the sedan bearer and found out everything. The person who went to Wu Chengen's house was Li Youtang from the Ministry of Rites. I didn't expect that Li Youtang had a personal relationship with him."

"That's not an ordinary monkey. It's a monkey from a close friend of a big shot. Should we still steal it?"

Lin Shisan asked back: "Who has higher authority, the Imperial Household Department's Chief Penman or the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites?"

Sun Yue replied: "In terms of rank, the Right Vice Minister is more senior. In terms of actual power, the Pen-holding Master is more senior."

Lin Shisan said, "That's it. This Li Youtang is a well-known good man in Beijing. To put it nicely, he is weak and honest, and to put it bluntly, he is a coward."

"It was precisely because of his weakness and kindness that although he did not join either the Yan Party or the Xu Party, both parties could tolerate him."

"Besides, we are just stealing a monkey from his best friend. We will return it in ten days. We are not trying to kill his best friend."

This is the current situation of the officialdom in the capital. If you don’t form a clique, you will have no roots in the officialdom. If you have no roots in the officialdom, even the seventh-rank flag of the Jinyiwei will not give you face.

Sun Yue asked: "Tomorrow is the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, so why don't we go in the evening? We can finish our work earlier and wait for the New Year peacefully."

Lin Shisan said, "Okay. Let's go to Zhuniapao Hutong tomorrow night to have some cold weather."

It was already midnight. Sun Yue said goodbye and left, and Lin Shisan returned to his bedroom and got into bed.

Single people have no idea how warm and happy it is to have a lovely wife in your bed in the dead of winter.

Two moments later, Lin Shisan, whose face had turned blue from the cold, was now sweating profusely.

He instructed his dazed wife, "Prepare some braised chicken and bacon tomorrow and send someone to deliver it to my master."

Biyun asked, "Why don't you go yourself?"

Lin Shisan said with a smile: "How can a serious person like me go in and out of Yihonglou when I have nothing to do?"

Biyun narrowed her eyes and said, "Come on. I've seen you go there often. You said you were going to ask your master for advice on how to play with pets, but who knew you were going to play with pets or people."

Lin Shisan swore, "God and heaven are my conscience! I have something free to use at home, why should I bother looking for something that costs money?"

Biyun scolded, "You make it sound like I'm even more despicable than the girls in Yihonglou. But it does make sense."

After breakfast the next day, Lin Shisan went to Yihonglou to deliver New Year's goods to his master Zhang Bo.

Zhang Bo, the old man, slept until the sun was high in the sky. There was a "fragile candle" of 28 years old in his quilt.

Lin Shisan was extremely embarrassed, so he put down his New Year's goods and left. When he reached the door, he sighed, "Alas, when it comes to being free and easy, no one can compare to my master."

At midnight that night, Master Lin Shisan and his apprentice sneaked to Zhuniapao Hutong again.

Outside Wu Cheng'en's courtyard, Lin Shisan began to use his secret method to catch the monkey. He first took out a few pieces of dry firewood from a bamboo basket and poured kerosene on them. He then placed an iron basin on the dry firewood and a porcelain bowl next to it.

Sun Yue picked up a large wine pot, took a sip, and poured the wine into an iron basin and a porcelain bowl respectively.

Sun Yue complained, "Humph, it's a shame to give a pound of fruit wine to that monkey."

Fruit wine, also known as monkey wine. Macaques like to use tree holes to store various wild fruits. Over time, the fruits ferment into wine in the tree holes.

I don’t know how to say “wine” in monkey language, but what I can be sure of is that macaques love it the most.

During the Hongwu period, a monkey catcher accidentally smelled wine outside a tree hole. He scooped up a sip and tasted it. Guess what happened?

Sweet and refreshing, with a fruity aroma. It's so authentic and beautiful!

From then on, there was a kind of "Hundred Fruit Wine", also known as "Monkey Wine", in the wine shops of the Ming Dynasty.

Catching monkeys with fruit wine has become a secret method used by monkey hunters.

Sun Yue poured good wine, and Lin Shisan placed a leather case next to the dry firewood. The leather case was only as thick as a cow's eye. It was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. It was surrounded by a circle of rubber bands.

Lin Shisan took out half a chopstick that had been thinned three times from the bamboo basket, put it into the leather case and stretched it out, until the hole in the case became as thick as the mouth of a bowl.

Finally, he put a banana and an orange into the leather case, and the monkey-catching device that combined the functions of luring and capturing was set up.

Sun Yue whispered, "Master, shall we start catching them?"

Lin Shisan nodded: "Yeah."

Sun Yue struck a tinder and ignited the dry wood.

Soon, the fruit wine in the iron basin started to bubble over with the fire, and the aroma of the wine filled the entire Zhuniapao Hutong.

In the monkey's den under the pomegranate tree in the courtyard, Sun Wukong was sleeping on the soft hay.

Suddenly it sniffed, and after a moment it opened its eyes. The aroma of the fruity monkey wine almost drew its soul away.

Sun Wukong came out of the monkey den and walked forward, smelling the aroma of wine. When he reached the courtyard wall, he jumped out of the wall in two or three leaps.

After climbing over the wall, it walked a few dozen steps in the alley, following the smell of wine to the fire. On the fire was an iron basin, in which the fruit monkey wine was already boiling.

Sun Wukong was smart, so he didn't know how to take the wine from the fire. It would take a long time to wait for the fire to go out and the wine to cool down. He was so anxious that he scratched his head.

Just as it was getting anxious, it caught a glimpse of the porcelain bowl next to it.

Sun Wukong picked up the porcelain bowl and sniffed it. Wasn't the bowl filled with the monkey wine that he had always loved and drank before he was captured and tamed?
It’s still cold and drinkable!
Sun Wukong gulped down the Hundred Fruit Monkey Wine.

Macaques like to drink but not in large quantities. After drinking such a large bowl of wine, the naughty monkey immediately became drunk.

I saw Sun Wukong's two monkey legs shaking like a drunkard.

When people are drunk, they like to eat some fruit to sober up. The same is true for monkeys.

But where can we find fruits in the alleys in this cold winter?

Suddenly, Sun Wukong saw a leather case next to him, which contained a banana and an orange.

Being drunk, it was naturally not as alert as when it was sober. It put its monkey hands into the leather case to take bananas and oranges.

"Snap", when it stretched out its hand, it knocked off half of the thin chopstick and immediately triggered the mechanism.

The tendons on the leather case contracted to relieve the force, and the case tightened, firmly enclosing its pair of monkey hands in the case.

The frightened Sun Wukong sobered up a lot. He made loud monkey calls, "Squeak, squeak, squeak," hoping to wake up the owner of the yard to save his life.

At this moment, a pair of hands firmly grasped the fur on the back of its neck.
As the saying goes, the viciousness of human beings is far worse than the ferocious beasts in the mountains. Terrible, terrible.

(End of this chapter)