Sun Wukong might’ve had the flashy title Great Sage the Equal of Heaven, but let’s be honest, he was basically a heavenly freeloader. No real job, no salary, just vibes. Still, he was living the dream: three hot meals a day, a palace full of servants, and no responsibilities whatsoever. He spent his days roaming around Heaven, making friends, calling the Supreme Daoist Trinity “Boss,” and casually greeting the Four Heavenly Emperors with “Your Majesty.” He even buddy-buddied with the stars, constellations, and heavenly generals like they were old drinking pals.

One morning in court, the immortal Xu Jingyang spoke up: “Your Majesty, this Great Sage the Equal of Heaven has been wandering all over Heaven like he owns the place—fraternizing with stars, ignoring ranks. If this keeps up, he’s going to stir up trouble. Maybe give him a real job to keep him busy?”

Jade Emperor nodded. “Makes sense. Let’s have him look after the Peach Garden.”

Monkey was thrilled. “A promotion? Sweet! What’s the gig, Your Majesty?”

Jade Emperor smiled. “Since you’ve got nothing better to do, you’ll be in charge of the Peach Garden. Guard it well.”

Wukong raced over to the garden. At the gate, Earth God tried to stop him, but he flashed his credentials. “I’m here on official imperial business.” Earth God bowed and called all the gardeners, water-carriers, and peach-pickers to greet their new boss.

Inside, Wukong was dazzled. Peach trees in full bloom, fruits blushing red, green, and purple. It looked like paradise. Some peaches ripened every 3,000 years and granted eternal youth. Others every 6,000 years and could make you a god. And the rarest kind? Every 9,000 years. And those could make you immortal like the universe itself.

Wukong’s eyes sparkled. From that day on, he visited the garden almost daily, strolling through pavilions, sniffing blossoms, and inspecting the fruit. No more wandering the halls of Heaven. He had found his happy place.

One day, seeing a bunch of ripe peaches, he drooled. Too many people around to sneak a bite, though. So he played it cool:

“You all wait outside. I’ll rest in the pavilion for a bit.”

As soon as they left, he ditched the official robes, scrambled up a tree, and gorged himself on peaches until he couldn’t eat another bite. Then he climbed down, brushed himself off, and called everyone back like nothing happened. This became a habit. Wukong couldn’t get enough.

Then came trouble. Queen Mother of the West was throwing her famous Peach Banquet. She invited all the top-tier immortals, including Buddhas, Master Bodhisattvas, emperors, sages, you name it. And she sent seven rainbow-robed fairies to pick the ripest peaches.

But when they got to the garden, they were stopped at the gate.

“New rules,” said Earth God. “You’ll need permission from the Great Sage himself.”

“Where is he?” asked the fairies.

“He’s napping in the pavilion.”

The fairies headed in. But when they got there, all they saw were Wukong’s clothes and hat. He’d shrunk himself to two inches tall and was napping under a leaf after another peach binge.

The fairies were stumped. An immortal guessed, “He probably got bored and wandered off again. Just start picking. I’ll go find him.”

They began harvesting, but quickly ran into a problem: most of the ripe fruit was gone. Only a few hard green peaches were left. Turns out, Wukong had already cleaned out the orchard. One lone peach, half-red, half-white, still hung on a southern branch. A fairy reached out......

And BOOM! Wukong woke up.

He grew back to full size, yanked his golden cudgel from his ear, and roared, “Who dares steal my peaches?!”

The seven fairies dropped to their knees in terror.

“Great Sage, please don’t be angry! We’re here on orders from the Queen Mother of the West to pick peaches for the banquet. We couldn’t find you. We were afraid of delaying the main task, so we just picked out a few first. Please forgive us, Great Sage.”

Wukong’s face softened into a grin. “No harm done. Now tell me, who’s invited to this little party?”

They rattled off a guest list longer than a royal wedding: the Buddhas, Master Bodhisattvas, emperors, sages, immortals, even gods from the Hell.

Wukong’s smile vanished. “And me, the Great Sage, am I on the list?”

The fairies looked at each other. “Um… we don’t think so.”

Wukong snorted. “She didn’t invite me? I’ll see how it is. ”

With a muttered spell, he froze the fairies in place, then took off on a cloud straight toward the Jade Pool.

On the way, he ran into Barefoot Immortal and hatched a plan.

“Jade Emperor sent me to help direct the guests to the Tongming Palace before the banquet,” he lied.

“Thanks for the heads-up!” said Barefoot Immortal. Then, he rushed off.

Wukong morphed into his form and waltzed into the Peach Banquet like he belonged there.

The party hadn’t started yet, but the setup was divine: crystal tables, jeweled chairs, heavenly wine, celestial snacks. Wukong wandered around in awe and spotted immortals brewing wine in the corridor.

Stomach growling, he cast a sleep spell on them and slipped into the wine cellar. He drank. He feasted. He partied hard—alone.

Suddenly, mid-burp, panic hit. “Wait… what if someone sees me? I gotta bounce!”

In his drunken stumble, he took a wrong turn—right into Taishang Laojun’s Tushita Palace.

“No big deal,” Wukong thought. “Might as well drop in and say hi.”

No one was around. Taishang Laojun was giving a lecture somewhere. Wukong peeked into his alchemy room  and found several gourds of golden elixir pills.

“These are worth a fortune… would be a shame to waste them.”

He swallowed the golden elixir pills as if eating snacks.

Full and tipsy, Wukong froze. “I’m in so much trouble. Jade Emperor’s gonna kill me! Time to vanish before anyone notices.”

With that, he turned invisible, slipped out the Western Heavenly Gate, and flew straight home to Mount Huaguo.

Down below, banners waved. His demon generals and seventy-two cave lords were drilling troops. Wukong landed with a triumphant yell: “I’m back!”

All the demons dropped to one knee.

“The Great Sage has returned!”

Back in the mountain cave, a bunch of curious demons gathered around and asked, “So, Great Sage, how was your hundred years in Heaven as an official?”

Sun Wukong chuckled. “Hundred years? More like a few months!”

One of them teased, “Come on, you know the saying: one day up there is a whole year down here!”

Wukong shrugged, grinning. “Well, I gotta say, Jade Emperor was actually pretty polite. Gave me the title ’Great Sage the Equal of Heaven,’ built me a palace, and even put me in charge of the Peach Garden. All was fine until the Queen Mother of the West threw a fancy banquet and didn’t invite me. That ticked me off. So I snuck in, stuffed myself with peaches and heavenly wine. On the way out, I accidentally wandered into Taishang Laojun’s manor and downed a few of his magic pills, too. Thought I’d better make myself scarce before someone noticed.”

The demons burst into laughter and threw a welcome party on the spot. Wukong took a sip of the local coconut brew, scrunched his nose, and muttered, “What is this stuff? Tastes awful!”

The two demon generals, Beng and Ba, laughed. “You’ve gotten spoiled by Heaven’s finest wine. Coconut juice is all we’ve got!”

Wukong grinned. “You guys are seriously missing out. Tell you what, I’ll sneak back up there and grab a few more jars of the real deal. Everyone gets half a cup, and bam—immortality guaranteed!”

The cave exploded with cheers.

Without missing a beat, Wukong somersaulted into the clouds and slipped invisibly into the grand Peach Banquet. Up in the Jade Pool, all the wine-brewing, water-fetching, and fire-tending immortals were fast asleep. Wukong slung one jug over his shoulder, grabbed two more in his hands, and tiptoed out with the finest celestial wine.

Back at Mount Huaguo, he rounded up the monkeys and threw an epic “Heavenly Wine Party.” They drank, danced, and laughed like there was no tomorrow.

End of this chapter. Thank you for reading!

This is just the serialized version of Journey to the West (modern retelling). If you want to read the full book faster, check out the complete, easy-to-read English and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional) version on Amazon.

Enjoy Chinese literature? You can also explore my other full, easy-to-read classics like Water Margin, The Injustice to Dou E, and more on Amazon.