Chapter 39: Wu Song

  As Joanna walked into the elevator, Ju An turned back to the room. As soon as he entered, he saw the monkey sitting on the coffee table, picking grapes from the fruit basket and putting them in its mouth, spitting out the seeds without throwing them away, and placing them neatly at its feet, almost forming a small pile. Seeing Ju An at the door, the monkey jumped up and down, calling out "Hah, hah", with one hand still holding a grape.

  "Hey, since your evening entertainment plans fell through, come and give my legs a massage." After saying that, he stretched out his feet on the coffee table and demonstrated the massaging motion to the little monkey. The little monkey immediately put the grapes in its mouth, jumped down from the couch, and then used both hands alternately to tap on Ju An's knees. Although the monkey's strength was small, it was better than nothing.

  After a while, the little monkey became somewhat displeased, and its leg-pounding speed slowed down, with longer intervals in between. Ju An took over the fruit platter, picked up a big apple, took a bite, then pulled out the bitten-off piece from her mouth and handed it to the monkey. She gnawed on the remaining apple herself. The little monkey received the bitten-off apple from Ju An, immediately put it into its mouth, and started eating. Its two small arms began to flutter rapidly again like an engine.

  Holding the fruit plate in her arms, she gnawed on an apple and then handed the core to the little monkey. The little monkey gnawed a few times before putting the core into the pile of grape seeds and came over to continue massaging her legs.

  Look at this guy, so clever, he quietly plucked a small bunch of grapes and put them in the little monkey's hand, then patted the sofa next to him. The little monkey immediately understood, gave up hitting his legs, jumped onto the sofa and sat down, then imitated An's actions trying to stretch his feet onto the coffee table. Alas, his legs were too short, he stretched for half a day but couldn't reach the coffee table. After An said "be good", he obediently sat on the sofa, eating the grapes in his hand.

  Jū ān looked at the little monkey, who was intently eating grapes, and said: "Since they don't want you, from now on you can follow me. As your master, I'll give you a name... what should it be?"

  "Think about it, Wukong? Not suitable, others are golden hair, you are black hair, say you are Hei Xiong Guai is more fitting, but Hei Xiong Guai is too long, tongue-twister."

  The monkey chattered twice, it was unclear whether it agreed or disagreed.

  "Or call Jinlian? You're a male, that's not good. Ximen Qing? Doesn't sound right, how about Wu Song? Wu Song sounds better."

  Then he pointed at Wu Song and said: "From now on, you will be called Wu Song".

  Wu Song bared his teeth and rushed at Ju An, who snorted twice. Ju An repeated the lesson several times to Wu Song, and finally the monkey knew its name was Wu Song. Every time it was called Wu Song, the monkey would react, and if it did, it would be given food; if not, there would be none. After a few rounds, Wu Song became quick to respond to its name.

  Since there's nothing to miss in New York, of course I'm going back home. I made a direct call to the service desk to book a ticket for tomorrow, but surprisingly, they said there isn't one available until the day after tomorrow.

  No choice, might as well stay another day. Put down the phone in hand and dialed a call to home with mobile phone, asked if everything was okay at Thomas Ranch, got an affirmative answer before mentioning that I would return the day after tomorrow, no need to pick me up, I'll go back by myself.

  Watched a boring TV series, closed the TV with ease, Wu Song was watching it with relish, suddenly turned it off, Wu Song immediately jumped up, shouting "Ah", then pointed at the direction of the TV, ignoring Wu Song's protest, grabbed it and flashed into space.

  As soon as they entered the courtyard, Wu Song forgot about the TV and started playing around. Ju An took out a low-to-the-ground bed from inside the house and placed it in the courtyard, lying down on it with a blade of grass in his mouth.

  Before long, he slowly felt sleepy. Just as he was about to fall asleep, two loud noises pulled Ju'an out of Zhou Gong's arms. All he saw was Wu Song holding a small fruit from the green jade tree, and had just plucked one to give to Ju'an.

  Ji An handed over the small fruit, put it in his mouth, chewed a few times and then disappeared. He stretched out his hand to Wu Song, who immediately hid the fruit behind him, bared his teeth, and slowly backed away.

  "Damn it! Such a small fruit, who knows how long it'll take to bear fruit again. You ate one and hid the rest, only giving me one." Wu Song glared at the food-hoarding Wu Song, then climbed up the tree to see how many fruits were left. After counting back and forth, fortunately, Wu Song had only picked one string.

  After Wu Song finished eating a string, Ju An caught the guy and dragged him out of the space. If he were to be left inside, those ten or so strings of fruit would not have been enough for the guy to cause trouble for even ten minutes.

  The room was bright as day, but outside it was a dazzling New York night scene. Feeling comfortable, he thought for a moment and decided to go to sleep instead, so he went to the bathroom to take a shower.

  No sooner had he entered the lavatory than Wu Song followed him in. After a moment's thought, Wu decided that Wu Song might as well wash up too, so he didn't drive him out.

  Washing Mu Song was very smooth, I guess he didn't wash much in the pet store before, and then followed the routine of washing at home to complete a whole round.

  Jū An wiped the water clean and walked out of the bathroom. Wu Song also imitated Jū An, using a towel to wipe the water off his fur. After wiping for half a day, there was still water dripping from his monkey hair. Unable to do anything else, Jū An picked up Wu Song and placed him on the washbasin, using a blow dryer to blow hot air onto Wu Song's monkey hair.

  It's estimated that the warm air blowing on his body made Wu Song feel very comfortable, and after blowing, he actually dozed off. Then, learning from Ju An, he found a towel to wrap around his body and followed Ju An out of the bathroom.

  She spread a large bath towel on the imperial concubine chair beside the window, let Wu Song sleep on it, and then covered Wu Song with a small towel. Only then did she turn on the bedside lamp, pull down the curtains, turn off all the lights in the room, get into bed, and finally turn off the bedside lamp to prepare for sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, she saw the bedside lamp light up, and Wu Song was making a "hushing" sound, pointing at the bedside lamp.

  "Turn off the lights and go to sleep."

  Wu Song obediently turned off the bedside lamp again.

  The next morning, Ju An woke up early and as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a monkey face staring at him with blue teeth, still eating something in its mouth.

  All sleepiness was gone at once. I sat up and found that Wu Song had already started eating breakfast, which consisted of a few blueberries.

  After washing up, Ju An called Mike to tell him that he would be back tomorrow and invited Mike to dinner tonight at the same restaurant as last time.

  Mike said through the receiver, "No need, I don't like the atmosphere there. Let's just eat something light and relaxed." Then he recommended a steakhouse to Ju An.

  A boring day passed, in the evening, Wu Song was put into the living room, TV was turned on, all other rooms were locked up, only leaving a bathroom. Ju An wore jeans and shirt, went out of the door, hailed a taxi outside and told the driver the address of the restaurant.

  Found a seat and sat down, waited for a while before Mike arrived, said sorry before sitting down.

  After ordering food, Mike ate and curiously asked: "Why didn't the lady you invited yesterday come with you?"

  Ju An had no choice but to tell Mike about the detailed process and result again.

  Mike laughed and said, "If it weren't for the high-end restaurant and sending stuff, this relationship might have lasted a little longer. She was scared off. Actually, An, we're all adults, just out to relax. New York's pace is fast, you need to unwind yourself. Some people exercise, some have one-night stands, some smoke weed."

  "After some thought, he continued: 'Out of politeness, I'll comfort you a bit. What I'm going to tell you is that we have many choices, An, because we are rich people.' He said, raising the wine glass in his hand: 'Enjoy it, God bless you.'"

  Yu An looked at Mike with a serious expression, then burst out laughing and raised the wine glass beside him, lightly clinking it against Mike's and said: "God bless us."

  "God bless America, God bless us."

  Next, Mike talked to Ju An about the new move of the Democratic Party in Montana. Montana is a traditional Republican stronghold, but now some policies in Montana are being opposed by some farmers and ranchers due to rising ranch costs, giving the Democratic Party hope. In short, the Democratic Party has decided to take Montana away from the Republicans, even if they can't, they want to make a move, anyway, they can't let the Republicans feel comfortable.

  Thinking that supporting him would just mean secretly donating some money to the Democratic Party, he became a bit worried and said: "Everyone knows Montana is a traditional Republican area, if I support him like this, won't someone stab me in the back?"

  "Mac quickly dispelled Joe's concerns: 'If you fund the Democratic Party, you'll get hit by the Republican Party. So we Democrats just watch our donors get hit? Who will still donate to us? They win, they get benefits, that's right, but who messes with whose donor, everyone can't be at peace. So taking a clear stand and standing on one side is actually the safest for billionaires like you. Those in power will simply ignore you.'"

  It's also true that since you came to the US, you've had nothing to do with your mother's Republican Party. The little notebook was helped by Philips, and Mike has been busy helping out in every way. Although they have some private motives, who doesn't? You can't say that you don't have any private motives in your dealings with Mike either. As long as the Democratic Party doesn't collapse and there aren't any huge changes, I'll hang myself from this tree if I'm wrong. And compared to the Republican Party's policies, I prefer the Democratic Party's policies. Just because of one old black guy Obama being able to overturn Hillary that white woman in the party's nomination process, I'd shout out a couple of cheers too.

  After expressing his unwavering support for the Democratic Party, Mike was very satisfied, and so was Ju An. In short, everyone lived happily ever after, with colorful flags waving high and a bright future unfolding.