Sun Wukong and I are building our business together on Flower Fruit Mountain.

Chapter 11 The Monkey Breaks the Mold

Holy crap.

Lin Chen stared at his phone screen, his finger hovering in mid-air, as if he were frozen in place.

He had just come down from the mountain and was sitting in the driver's seat of his van, preparing to go back to the village to buy some dry food, when his phone was bombarded with messages, turning it into a vibrating screen. He had over 999 unread messages on WeChat, the red circles on Weibo notifications had turned into ellipses, and the number of private messages in his inbox was off the charts; he couldn't even open them all.

All that can be seen is the live stream clip he uploaded to the video platform, which has already garnered over eight million views and is still climbing at a visible rate.

More than nine million.

Ten million.

It has 1.8 million likes and 600,000 shares, and the comment section has been completely overrun.

The first top comment made him laugh: "I thought it was CGI, but the rock that Sun Wukong shattered when he landed really exploded! There was even dust on the ground!"

Second comment: "Wait, did you guys notice that his clothes were wet after he transformed into a giant eagle? The special effects couldn't be that extreme, could they?"

The third one is even more outrageous. A netizen with the ID "Old Li from Huaguo Mountain" posted a video that was filmed at some unknown time. In the video, a monkey is squatting on a tree looking at a mobile phone. Its posture is just like that of a netizen addicted to the internet, and it even knows how to swipe the screen.

The comments section went wild: "Is this monkey watching short videos???"

"I got caught slacking off at work by my boss, but monkeys get praised all over the internet for slacking off. Where's the justice?"

"Is it possible... that this monkey isn't acting?"

Lin Chen rolled down the car window, took a deep breath of the cool mountain air, and his mind raced.

Things were bigger than he had imagined.

He initially thought the viewership during last night's live stream was already outrageous—four million people watching Sun Wukong transform into an eagle, the barrage of comments crashing his phone—but it was a live stream, it would be over soon. The problem was, someone saved the clip, added editing and background music, captioned "Brothers, I think I saw the real Sun Wukong!" And then it went viral.

It wasn't a minor explosion; it was the kind of explosion that even his former creditors would send him WeChat messages asking, "Does your scenic area really have the Monkey King?"

"Lin Chen, you didn't actually hit the jackpot, did you?"

He glanced at WeChat; the former business partner who had once berated him mercilessly and chased him to his rented apartment for debt was now sending a message with a completely different tone. Lin Chen didn't reply, tossed his phone onto the passenger seat, and started the car.

When he arrived at the village store, before he even got out of the car, he saw several elderly men and women gathered around looking at their phones. One of the men had a voice so loud it could be heard halfway down the street: "Let me tell you! Those monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain are no ordinary creatures! My grandfather's generation passed down the story that there really were magical monkeys living on that mountain!"

Lin Chen paused for a moment as he opened the car door.

"What clever monkeys? They're just a bunch of wild monkeys, and they're really fierce. Last year they even stole the peanuts I was drying."

"You don't know anything! My grandpa said that back in the Qing Dynasty, someone saw a golden-haired monkey on the mountain. It was taller than a person when it stood up and could talk! Later, the government sent people up the mountain to catch it, but they searched for three days and couldn't even find a single monkey hair. That monkey could turn invisible!"

"Pshaw, your grandpa was probably drunk and just bragging."

"I didn't believe it back then either, but look at this now, isn't that thing flying in the video golden? Isn't it taller than a person? Tell me!"

Lin Chen closed the car door, leaned back in the driver's seat, and twitched his lips.

Goodness, he even dug up local unofficial history.

He took out his phone and searched for "Legend of the Monkey King of Huaguo Mountain". The moment he pressed enter, more than twenty related results popped up on the page. The first one was a blog post written by a local history enthusiast ten years ago, with the title: "A Study of the Monkey King of Huaguo Mountain: The Prototype of the Monkey King May Really Exist".

Lin Chen clicked on the article, which was quite long and quoted extensively from local gazetteers and oral traditions. Its core argument was simple: the Huaguo Mountain area has a long-standing legend of a magical monkey, and these legends are remarkably consistent in their details: golden fur, the ability to speak human language, the capacity for transformation, and the protection of the mountain and its monkey troop. The article even included an old photograph from the Republican era, so blurry that only a dark figure could be seen standing at the mountain gate, but the figure's proportions were clearly not those of a normal person.

The last comment was posted yesterday: "Is the blogger still alive? Is this what you're talking about?"

The accompanying image is a screenshot from Lin Chen's live stream, showing the moment when Sun Wukong transforms into a giant eagle and soars into the sky.

Lin Chen took a deep breath.

This post was published at 2 a.m., and in just ten hours, it has already received over 50,000 likes.

He placed his phone face down on his lap, pushed open the door, and got out of the car.

A few elderly men were still arguing outside the convenience store. Lin Chen walked past them, grabbed a bottle of water and a pack of compressed biscuits, only to find he had only twenty yuan in cash left. Just as he was about to scan the code, the proprietress grinned and said, "You're Lin, the guy from the mountain who runs the tourist area, right?"

Lin Chen was taken aback: "You know me?"

"Oh my, who doesn't know you! My daughter stayed up all night watching your livestream yesterday, saying you have a flying monkey there, and she's been insisting on going this weekend." The proprietress said, stuffing a bag of braised eggs into his bag. "Here, have this. Can you get my daughter an autographed photo?"

Lin Chen: "..."

He carried his things out of the convenience store and found that there was another crowd gathered at the door, but this time it wasn't elderly people, but several strangers carrying video cameras and holding microphones.

A young woman in a windbreaker rushed up to him, almost shoving a microphone into his mouth: "Hello! Are you Mr. Lin Chen, the person in charge of Huaguo Mountain Scenic Area? We're from Tiannan News. Your live stream video yesterday caused a huge stir online. We'd like to talk to you about that 'flying monkey.' Could you tell us if it was special effects or real?"

Lin Chen subconsciously took a step back, his gaze sweeping over the camera behind her. The red dot was lit, indicating that it was recording.

He quickly went through the current situation in his mind: the internet was abuzz with excitement, the media was scrambling to find him, doubts and exclamations were flying everywhere, and local legends were being dug up to corroborate his claims... At this point, he could neither deny nor admit it. Denying it would be slapping himself in the face, while admitting it would be putting the words "Monkey King" on the judgment table for the entire internet to dissect.

He needs an answer that neither denies nor admits.

Lin Chen unscrewed the mineral water bottle, took a sip, and then gave the camera a perfectly professional smile: "As for this question, I suggest you come to the scenic area yourself and see for yourself. Seeing is believing."

The female reporter was clearly dissatisfied with the answer and was about to press for more information when Lin Chen turned and walked towards the bread cart, calling out as he went, "The trial operation reservation channel will go online at 8 PM tonight. Follow our official account for a surprise."

He climbed into the driver's seat, closed the door, started the engine, and shifted gears—all in one smooth motion.

In the rearview mirror, the group of reporters were still discussing something when a male cameraman carrying his equipment started walking up the mountain. Lin Chen shouted through a megaphone, "The mountain isn't fully developed yet, tourists are prohibited from entering! I'm not responsible if anyone falls!"

The cameraman paused, then sheepishly retreated.

Lin Chen drove the car back up the mountain and parked it under the crooked old peach tree. When he got out of the car, he saw Sun Wukong sitting cross-legged on the stone platform in front of the Water Curtain Cave, holding a banana in his hand, but staring at the little monkeys squatting in a circle on the ground. The little guys were lined up in an orderly row, stretching out their paws one after another.

The Monkey King peeled the banana, broke off a small piece, and tossed it over. The little monkey at the front of the line caught it and happily skipped away. The next one immediately took its place, stretching out its paw and waiting.

Lin Chen paused for two seconds, then asked, "You taught me?"

Sun Wukong didn't even look up: "I, Old Sun, don't teach this. These kids learned it themselves while watching your live stream the other day."

"They learned from watching my live stream?" Lin Chen walked over, squatted down, and looked at the monkeys lined up more neatly than elementary school students. "They...are watching a live stream?"

"What do you think?" The Great Sage threw the last piece of banana away, clapped his hands, and said, "Your phone stays on all day, but those monkeys are watching it more intently than you are. The other day, one of the little ones was even imitating your speech, and the first thing he said was, 'Please type 666 in the comments.'"

Lin Chen: "..."

He suddenly felt a strong sense of absurdity; his scenic area hadn't even opened yet, and the monkeys had already learned to interact via live streaming.

Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps came from down the mountain. Lin Chen turned around and saw a dozen or so villagers wearing cloth shoes and straw hats, panting as they climbed up the platform. The leader was an old man in his sixties with a white beard, but his eyes were sharp and piercing.

He immediately stared at the group of monkeys lining up for bananas, his mouth agape: "My goodness... these monkeys really know how to line up?"

Lin Chen stood up: "Who are you?"

"I'm from Dawangzhuang at the foot of the mountain! I saw a video of your place on my phone yesterday, but I didn't believe it, so I brought a whole carload of people up here today to see for myself!" The old man said as he walked forward, squatted down next to the monkey team, and reached out to touch the head of a little monkey.

The monkey squeaked and dodged away, staring at him warily.

The old man didn't get angry when he didn't find it. He stood up, turned around, and shouted to the people behind him, "There's really a line! Come and see!"

The people behind surged forward, scattering the monkey team's formation. The little monkeys scattered in fright, one even leaping onto the Great Sage's shoulder and curling up into a ball.

Sun Wukong didn't move, but merely glanced at Lin Chen.

Lin Chen understood immediately and cleared his throat: "Dear uncles and aunties, this is a construction site for the scenic area, and it's not open yet. What you're doing is considered unauthorized trespassing..."

"Don't give me that!" a woman in her forties interrupted him. "Where's that big bird you showed in your livestream? Let me see it fly again!"

"Yes! Let's fly!"

"My grandson said it was fake, but I made a bet with him: if you can fly again, I'll believe you!"

Lin Chen was surrounded by a group of people, feeling both amused and exasperated. He glanced at Da Sheng and saw that the latter was leaning against the stone wall with a faint smile on his lips, clearly enjoying his misfortune.

"Everyone, it can't actually fly; it was just for the live stream effect..."

"What a load of crap!" A young man held up his phone, the screen displaying a clip from the viral livestream. "The rock shattered! Special effects can shatter rocks? You think we've never been to a movie theater?"

Lin Chen: "..."

Just then, a tourist took a bottle of mineral water out of his bag and tentatively offered it to a large monkey perched on a tree stump. The monkey tilted its head, glanced at him, and surprisingly reached out a paw to take it, unscrewed the cap, and tilted its head back to drink a mouthful.

The entire room was silent for a full three seconds.

Then a burst of exclamations erupted.

"It opened the bottle!"

"It can screw on bottle caps!!"

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, the way it drinks water is exactly like my second uncle!"

The tourist who handed the water had tears in his eyes and his voice was trembling: "I...this is the first time in my life that a monkey has served me water..."

Lin Chen watched this scene with a complex expression.

To be honest, he couldn't tell whether it was the monkey's true intuition or the imitative behavior he had been brought up by Sun Wukong in the past few days, but it did happen, and it was witnessed by more than a dozen pairs of eyes at the same time.

Some people started filming videos, some started live streaming, and some called their friends to come quickly.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Lin Chen squeezed out of the crowd, took out his phone and glanced at the time: four o'clock in the afternoon.

He strode to the temporary shed on the hillside, turned on his computer, and posted a notice on the scenic area's official account:

"The Huaguo Mountain Scenic Area Trial Operation Reservation Channel will officially open tonight at 20:00. The first 1000 users who make a reservation will receive a photo signed by the Monkey King. The first day of the trial operation is limited to 30,000 people, and will close when full."

The accompanying picture is a real photo of the Water Curtain Cave. Lin Chen deliberately did not add any filters and even preserved a monkey's butt on the edge of the photo.

After he finished, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to rest.

At 5 o'clock, before the reservation channel even opened, more than 10,000 messages of "waiting in" had already flooded the backend.

At 6 o'clock, someone dug up the full text of the blog post "A Study of the Monkey of Huaguo Mountain," which became a trending topic on another platform with the hashtag #Legend of the Monkey of Huaguo Mountain#.

At 7:00 AM, six media outlets, including Tiannan News, Toutiao Express, and City Express, successively published follow-up reports about Huaguo Mountain. The headlines were varied, with some playing the skeptical card: "Is the Monkey King really here? Experts say there may be a fake," others playing the exclamation card: "Millions of netizens witness the monkey's supernatural powers, is it special effects or a miracle?", and still others playing the sensational card: "The thousand-year-old legend of the monkey in Huaguo Mountain reappears today, and villagers say their ancestors saw a golden giant monkey."

But no matter what labels were used, every report garnered over a million views.

Lin Chen scrolled through the comments section and noticed a subtle shift in the tide. Criticism still existed, but it was no longer overwhelming—because a flood of videos from the scene were appearing on the platform. There were videos of villagers queuing for bananas, tourists filming monkeys getting water, and someone even filmed a baby monkey making a "V" sign at the camera.

You call this special effects? Who would believe that? You say it's all from training? How long would that training take? How many years do monkeys live?

At 7:40, Lin Chen's WeChat exploded.

It was a message from a former creditor, and this time the tone was completely different: "Lin Chen, I was wrong about what happened before. When does your scenic spot open? I'll bring my whole family to support it. We can talk about the ticket price."

Lin Chen didn't reply, but he knew that the winds of change had completely shifted.

It's exactly eight o'clock.

The reservation channel went online on time.

Lin Chen stared at the backend data, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the desktop.

In the first second, there were seven hundred people.

Ten seconds, three thousand people.

At the thirtieth second, there were 9,300 people.

In the fifth minute, the number of tests exceeded 30,000.

In the fifteenth minute, the score was 45,000.

In the thirtieth minute, the score was 72,000.

Lin Chen watched the number keep jumping up and suddenly felt a little thirsty. He picked up the mineral water bottle on the table, unscrewed it, and took a sip.

Then he saw a number that made him spray water directly.

At 22:03, two hours and three minutes after the reservation channel went online, the total number of reservations was 108,647.

Lin Chen put down the water bottle, slowly turned his head, and looked at the entrance of the shed. Sun Wukong was standing there at some point, holding a half-eaten peach in his hand, looking at him with an expression that said, "You mortals are really scary."

"What's wrong?" the Great Sage asked.

Lin Chen pointed to the computer screen: "Do you recognize these numbers?"

The Great Sage leaned closer for a look, "One hundred thousand."

"Yes." Lin Chen swallowed hard. "This is the number of people who have booked to work here today."

Sun Wukong almost dropped the peach in his hand.

He was stunned for a long time before he finally managed to utter a sentence: "When I, Old Sun, wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, I only brought 47,000 monkey soldiers with me."

Lin Chen laughed, a loud laugh that carried far into the night.

He stood up and patted the Great Sage on the shoulder: "Then tomorrow, you'll take 100,000."

"Nonsense," Lin Chen lit a cigarette, the flame flickering in the night, "What working person doesn't work overtime?"

Moonlight fell on the waterfall in front of the Water Curtain Cave, shimmering with a silvery-white light. In the distance, below the mountain, one could vaguely see the headlights of cars converging towards Huaguo Mountain—one, two, five, a dozen or so, like some silent signal foreshadowing the storm that was about to break tomorrow.

Lin Chen stubbed out his cigarette, opened his memo app, and began writing down tomorrow's notes.

The first item reads: We might need to add more people tomorrow; 30,000 tickets might not be enough to sell.