A quiet Friday night. The street lights of the big city are burning outside. The smell of spicy, sweet and sour food, chicken with peanuts, rice, noodles, kari and more is intoxicating.
If the smell could be nourished, Macaque would have been a balloon long ago. But a treacherously rumbling stomach suggests otherwise. You can't get enough of the smell. Macaque sighs irritably and checks his pockets. There's not even a hundred yuan in there. Macaque steps out of the corridor into the bright center of the theater. Outside the door, you can hear the shouts of happy children in the audience. "Of course, - Macaque tsks irritably, - Idiots. Well choke on your Sun Wukong. Don't even know what that dirty bastard did in his years."
Envy. Jealousy.
Macaque turns around and sees the saleswoman. A nice, pretty girl. "If she wasn't a bitch, I'd show her my staff," - Macaque chuckles to himself. This is just a regular weak girl. She won't be able to squeak a word if he steals some popcorn.
Self-centeredness.
Macaque hides in the shadows. Like a rat, he slowly moves along the wall behind the girl's back and makes his way into her shadow. While she counts the money in the cash register, he creeps out of the shadows. He is about to grab an entire piece of popcorn with his paw when the girl abruptly turns around and grabs his wrist.
"Hey-"
But before Macaque can say anything, the girl squeezes his wrist hard, grabs a bottle of oil and squirts it into Macaque's eyes. Macaque cries out, but his screams are drowned out by the screams of the children. The girl lets Macaque go in disgust.
"One more trick like that and you'll be out of this theater with your staff deep in your ass."
Disgraceful. Shame.
Macaque is furious. He's capable of snapping that nasty girl's neck with one hand... but he can't. Because then he'll have to run from people again. To be a criminal again. To be a thief again. To be alone again. But stealing is much harder now than it was in the days of ancient China.
Macaque mutters irritably to himself and goes to the bathroom. His performance is due soon.
Macaque stepped onto the small stage in semi-darkness. He washed his face and put on his black cape with red jewelry. His face could not be seen. He summoned a Chinese lamp and placed it in front of him. Out of the backstage came his marionette puppets. He is going to tell the real story of Sun Wukong.
Macaque looked around the hall.... 4 people... More than yesterday... something about it hits him, but he momentarily forgets what.
"Now you're about to see a story the likes of which have never been seen. It follows the tragic tale of a legendary warrior and how those who bring light into this world turn into complete darkness."