A monkey show could be regarded as a long-established folk craft. In the past, when cultural life had been scarce, a shout on the streets could have immediately signaled to hundreds of people to gather around. Men, women, and children would put down the things at hand and flock to watch the monkeys perform.
There are couples who put on monkey shows like this, and there were also circus monkey shows, but the format was similar.
The man took a few steps around the field, striking his gong and observing the number of onlookers. He had to balance waiting for more people and avoiding a lengthy wait as it wore away other people’s patience.
Seeing that the number was no longer increasing, he put down the gong and made a circle around him. “My wife and I are here today in your precious town to perform a monkey show for you,” he said. “We will not do a lot of talking, but young or old, if you have some spare cash, please give us some as a form of encouragement. Those who don’t have money, if you enjoy what you see, do consider giving us something so we can get food to eat. My wife and I thank you for being here!”
“Good!”
“Good!”
“Get started! If it is good, you’ll get our money!”
People were not afraid to offer free applause. Besides the people who were filming on their mobile phones, the others applauded and urged the man to start soon.
“Well! This is the beginning! Let the boss of the monkeys give everyone a song: ‘Two Springs Reflecting the Moon!’”
With that, the man took a monkey to the center of the open space, stuffed a toy erhu and a bow into its hand, and began to play “Two Springs Reflecting the Moon” with a portable speaker. The monkey also did its thing, holding the erhu in one hand and the bow in the other. It looked around from time to time, looking quite the part.
After the song “Two Springs Reflecting the Moon” was finished, people applauded. After all, it was a free show, and they could not ask for too much.
At this time, the man pulled out the second monkey and said, “My family’s monkeys are versatile. The boss is a musician, and the second one knows tricks. Let the second one perform a somersault for everyone! It is as good as those monkeys you see on TV!”
“My children, start marching!”
As he said this, he began to periodically shake the thin iron chain in his hand, and the monkey also moved along with his movements.
He kept on shaking, and the monkey didn’t stop.
The difficulty was much higher than that of the first performance.
People watched, concentrated, and applauded spontaneously.
However, after the monkey flipped more than a dozen times, its physical strength was depleted and did not do one properly. It eventually fell to the ground.
People laughed, and someone called out, “Get up and turn it over! Turn over a few more times! Just like that! Do ten more and I will give you a hundred yuan!”
The man’s face was blank, and he reached out and picked up a short whip. He slammed it on the ground next to the monkey, and it left a deep scar on the ground. It was as loud as a firecracker.
The monkey stood up and trembled on both legs, staring at its owner in horror.
“Hey! Thank you! This was a mistake on its part. The following is the official performance!” The man smiled at the voice. “Come, my child, show your skills to this gentleman!”
The monkey stood up and did a few more somersaults. The difference from the last time was that every time it flipped, the whip would hit the ground as if in warning that if it made a mistake, the whip would “mistakenly” land on it…
“WeChat collection, one hundred yuan.”
“WeChat collection, ten yuan.”
“WeChat collection, five yuan.”
The performance was perfect, and all ten somersaults were performed to perfection. Everyone cheered loudly, and the gentleman who’d requested it paid the one hundred yuan generously. The others watching the fun also gave from five to ten yuan. Besides, with the economy as it was right now, no one would be worked up with five to ten less yuan in their pockets. Five yuan may not even be able to buy breakfast.
The man had a wide smile on his face, and he threw a few peanuts to the exhausted monkey as a reward.
Next, he took the third monkey to perform the trick of a monkey riding on a dog.
The monkeys were obviously afraid of the two big dogs. They were afraid of dying, but they had to be forced to ride on the dog. The man took them on the leash and played the old version of the classic track “Journey to the West.” It brought about a lot of laughter.
“You take the burden, while I lead the horse…”
Of course, the performance could not be as simple as this. In the middle, he gave the dog a secret signal, ordering the dog to jump up and fling the monkey on its back to the ground as if to scare it. The monkey was scared to death, but it still tried to climb onto the back of the dog again.
The fourth monkey performed a monkey climb for everyone—it juggled on the poles that had hastily been put together.
Due to the iron chain around its neck, the monkey made a major mistake in juggling. It accidentally let the chain wrap around the pole and almost strangled itself. The performance certainly failed, but the man had experienced this before. He improvised immediately and said that this performance was called “hanging the money.” However, not everyone was a fool. Perhaps only the primary school students would believe that. Everyone could see that the monkey had been strangled until it was spewing foam at its mouth. This was definitely not part of the performance, but what did this have to do with them? They were just spectators, and most of them were not going to pay.
Although no one debunked the man’s lies, few people had given him money.
The man brought out the last monkey that had not yet appeared. It was the new monkey who was not very obedient and always wanted to escape. He wanted to use this monkey to turn the situation around and make more money before leaving the place. He would make a trip around Binhai City for a week before traveling to other cities.
He had accidentally obtained this monkey.
It was unbelievable. When the stall had been set up in the previous place, this monkey had seen its peers and been silly enough to approach them. It had tried to untie the chains around their necks.
When he’d seen this scene, he had been stunned, but he’d reacted very quickly. He had immediately claimed that it was part of the performance. Then he had made a secret signal to the two dogs and ordered them to stop the monkey from running away. It had then been tied up with a chain and locked away with the other monkeys.
He suspected that the monkey had run away from other monkey keepers. When it had appeared, there had been a toy keyboard in its hand… But after careful inspection, it was not quite like the others because there were no traces of a chain on its neck. Long-term shackles on the neck would make the hair on their necks be abrasively scraped off, and there would also be clear scars.
Anyone who put on monkey shows would use the iron chain around the monkey’s neck. Even the monkeys in the circus were no exception. The circus did not need to chain the monkeys during the performance but still had to chain them up during training. This was to prevent any unnecessary issues. A monkey that was anxious may bite a person.
He smiled and said to the onlookers, “Everyone, young and old, this monkey is the youngest and is also the grand finale of our show. Its performance, I dare to guarantee, is something that you have never seen before. Can all of you guess what it is?”
With that, he pointed to the toy keyboard it held in its hand. “It can type words.”
