Chapter 12 Human-Faced Dog: Suzune
That wasn't a hallucination; it was a real human-faced dog.
In the height of the early summer rainy season, after a long day's journey, even the rows of shady trees lining the official road could not shield us from the sweltering heat and humidity.
Tang Yu took out her homemade mint-scented teaspoons and gave them to several people to hold under their tongues, which would help them stay alert and refreshed, and prevent heatstroke.
However, Xiao Fangliang was ultimately too delicate and frail to withstand such weather.
His face was deathly pale, his lips were tightly pressed together, and he put the book aside, not looking at it again for a long time.
It was Tang Yu who first noticed something was wrong; she herself was sweating profusely, but Xiao Fangliang was completely sweat-free, leaning listlessly against the car wall, looking as if his soul had been evaporated.
The wheel rolled over the stones, causing a violent jolt, and his whole body lurched forward.
Tang Yu reacted quickly, grabbing his shoulder, "Xiao Fangliang!"
I reached out and touched it; despite the heat, the back of his hand was ice-cold.
"Stop!" Wang Shanyue called out to halt the caravan and immediately lifted the curtain to enter.
Xiao Fangliang had already lost consciousness. The person who used to be so clean now had limp hands hanging down on the ground, and his face was deathly pale.
Wang Shanyue panicked immediately, "What's going on?"
"It must be the lingering heat that made him carsick." Tang Yu frowned, carefully helped the man up, and handed him over. "Quickly take him to the shade of a tree, loosen his clothes, and give him some water."
Wang Shanyue carried the person out of the car and rushed into the forest. But the ground was covered with fallen leaves and mud, and he paced back and forth anxiously. The person in his arms had tightly pursed lips and deeply furrowed brows, clearly feeling extremely uncomfortable. He couldn't care less about anything else for the moment, and gritted his teeth as he placed the person next to a relatively clean rock.
He thought to himself: I guess I'll just have to take the scolding.
First, she loosened his collar to let him breathe, revealing a patch of white, jade-like skin. Then she went to remove his outer robe, but with a "ding," a small, delicate sleeve arrow slipped from Xiao Fangliang's sleeve.
"Huh?" He paused for a moment, picked it up, and examined it closely for a long time. "Isn't this... the Tang Clan's hidden shuttle?"
Unlike ordinary sleeve arrows, the sleeve shuttle is light and agile, with an arrowhead as thin as a willow leaf. Hidden patterns are concealed within the cold metallic luster, a unique mark of Tang Clan hidden weapons.
He had heard of it before, but this was the first time he had seen the real thing.
At this moment, Tang Yu was walking over with medicine when she saw what Wang Shanyue was holding and was suddenly stunned.
She used three hidden shuttles in haste to save Zhizhi, but only two were found afterwards... It turned out that Xiao Fangliang had secretly kept the third one.
Her expression hardened, and she feigned just the right amount of surprise: "This is my hidden blade, how... how did it end up here?"
“Ah Liang probably found it novel and secretly kept it.” Wang Shanyue didn’t suspect anything and handed the medicine back to her as he took it.
He then asked curiously, "Is this a hidden weapon from the Tang Clan?"
"I bought this on the black market for self-defense. Oh, it's from the Tang Clan." Tang Yu looked as if she had just realized something.
Wang Shanyue, being naive, believed it to be true and even introduced it: "This is the Tang Clan's hidden shuttle. It flies like a leaf or a flower, and can hit objects several meters away silently. This is the first time I've seen it. The design and production are so exquisite. It truly deserves to be called the Tang Clan, the number one hidden weapon in Sichuan."
As he spoke, he checked Xiao Fangliang's forehead temperature. It had eased slightly, and his complexion wasn't as bad, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
To accommodate Xiao Fangliang, who had just recovered, the carriage needed to slow down. Wang Shanyue then sent the caravan to the next post station to make arrangements, leaving only a few people with him.
As the sun set in the west, the clouds gradually changed from the warm hues of twilight to a grayish-purple, and night fell silently.
Apart from them, there was no one else along the official road. The road ahead was as black as ink, illuminated only by the dim light of two kerosene lanterns. The surrounding dense forest was deep and secluded, with the occasional chirping of insects and the rustling of leaves in the wind carrying a strange chill.
"Rest at the post station for one night, and then travel for another day to reach Zhongjing." He glanced into the carriage and reassured them in a low voice.
Inside the car, Xiao Fangliang leaned against a soft pillow, closing his eyes to rest. Although his complexion had eased slightly, he was still weak and had no energy to reply.
Even though it was scorching hot during the day, causing people to suffer from heatstroke, the cold wind that passed through at this moment sent a chill down one's spine.
The group continued on for a while, during which no one spoke. Apart from the sound of the wind and the clatter of horses' hooves, the chirping of insects, which should have been constant and gentle, seemed to have suddenly vanished. Suddenly, all was quiet.
The forest seemed to be shrouded in something invisible, eerily quiet.
Tang Yu suddenly felt a sense of unease, and her heart tightened inexplicably.
At that very moment,
"jingle--"
A very soft bell rang from the distant, secluded forest. The sound was crisp and cold, eerily silent, as if it belonged to another world. It lingered in the darkness, seemingly able to penetrate one's very soul.
Wang Shanyue suddenly looked up; his hearing was the best, and he heard it most clearly. His brows furrowed instantly, and he raised his hand to signal the convoy to stop. Everyone fell silent.
"jingle--"
There was another sound, closer than before, yet still far away. But the person inside the carriage could hear it clearly, and a chill ran down their spine.
Tang Yu reacted quickly, raising her hand to extinguish the carriage lights.
In an instant, everyone was plunged into darkness, with only a sliver of hazy moonlight filtering through the gaps in the branches, creating a patchy, cracked effect.
Everyone listened intently and discovered that the bell rang at fixed intervals. One ring after another, shaking everyone and filling them with unease and anxiety.
Xiao Fangliang opened his eyes, his gaze weak, yet a hint of interest flashed within them.
A deathly silence reigned, the air was cold and damp, as if even the night itself held its breath. Deep within the forest, no one knew what lay hidden.
"A-Liang, Brother Yu, you two stay in the carriage." Shan Yue silently drew his sword from his waist and whispered, "I'll go check."
He had barely finished speaking when he leaped off his horse and, in a few bounds, disappeared into the woods without disturbing the night.
Deep in the forest at night, the branches and leaves blocked out the moonlight like a wall, making it difficult even for martial arts practitioners to see clearly.
He held his breath and followed the sound.
The fallen leaves beneath my feet were soft and damp with night dew, making no sound as I stepped on them. Only my own heartbeat became clearer in the still night. The closer I got, the clearer the bell seemed to ring, yet it remained elusive.
Suddenly, through the crisscrossing branches and leaves, several shadows appeared and disappeared in the mist, gray and white, so light that they seemed to float in the air.
He suddenly stopped, his expression changing drastically.
A mist rose up without warning, like silent ripples on water, slowly blurring the view.
One of the white figures suddenly stopped, its body resembling a dog, its movements bizarre, and its head suddenly tilted back in a twisted posture.
That... was a human face!
The child's features were deathly pale, his expression eerie, with a withered, lifeless look. His eyes were vacant, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he were laughing or crying.
His pupils contracted sharply as he gazed at the mountains, and a chill ran down his spine.
A gust of wind swept by, and then another bell rang, clear as if it were right beside him, reaching his ears without any obstruction.
His hair stood on end, and he suddenly turned around.
Nothing... there is nothing.
When I looked back at the white figure, in the blink of an eye, only a few wisps of white mist remained, which were then completely dissipated by a gust of wind.
A streak of crimson seemed to flash across the shadows of the trees, disappearing in an instant.
His breathing quickened, and a chill he had never felt before surged up from the soles of his feet.
That was not an illusion.
Instead, there really are... dogs with human faces.
*
Tonight, no one is destined to sleep peacefully.
Before dawn, Tang Yu had already woken up. She changed her clothes and went outside, her brows furrowing slightly as she looked at the gray sky.
The clouds obscure the moon, and the mountain breeze carries no mist.
With clouds obscuring the view and wind blowing through the forest, it should be a day when fog is unlikely to form.
But where did the mist in the forest mentioned by Wang Shanyue last night come from?
Wang Shanyue is not an ignorant child; he would not embellish what he sees with his imagination. If so, does the 'human-faced dog' he saw yesterday really exist?
Filled with doubt, she stepped out of the inn and saw that the old man who looked after the shop had also gotten up early and was cooking corn over a wood fire, the steam rising and the aroma filling the air.
The old man smiled kindly at her: "You're up early, sir. Did you sleep well last night?"
"It's acceptable," Tang Yu replied with a smile.
Suddenly, a chaotic sound came from the town not far away. The firelight flickered and people were talking noisily, as if they were searching for something.
"What a tragedy..." The old man's expression changed upon seeing this, and he couldn't help but shake his head.
"What happened?" Tang Yu asked, puzzled.
The old man sighed, "It must be that 'human-faced dog' that has appeared again and snatched away some child."
Tang Yu was taken aback. "You also know about the human-faced dog?"
“Now, who in Zhongjing and the surrounding area doesn’t know about it?” The old man’s brows were full of worry as he said in a low voice, “That white-haired, human-faced dog steals and eats children. Even if the doors are tightly closed, that vicious dog can still sneak in with the fog and take the children away silently.”
He paused, looked into the distance, shook his head and sighed, "Listen... that crying, another poor family."
Tang Yu's eyes narrowed as she looked at the distant firelight, and she could vaguely hear the heart-wrenching cries in her ears.
Finally, unable to contain her curiosity, she left the inn alone before the bodyguards got up and headed towards the town by the firelight.
As dawn breaks and night fades, the air still retains the chill of last night.
Yet the town remained bustling with life. Despite the strange events that had just occurred, vendors at the morning market were still setting up their pancake stalls and hawking their wares, as if nothing had happened.
She felt slightly dazed, but then she suddenly saw a troop of golden-armored cavalry galloping past at the corner, surrounding a small courtyard in the distance. They were heavily armed and guarded, and even the alleyways in front and behind were not spared.
Looking curiously, the general who dismounted first had a cold and stern look in his eyes. It was none other than the young general Xia Nan had met, Xie Xingzheng!
Her heart tightened, and almost instinctively, Tang Yu turned her head away, afraid that he would see her face.
But then she realized: Xie Xingzheng had never seen her dressed like a wandering doctor before... What was she afraid of?
She gave a sheepish smile, turned and walked towards the nearby oil fryer stall, tossed over two coins, and bought two fried dough cakes. She casually asked, "Why are there so many soldiers over there?"
As the stall owner flipped the fried dough sticks and watched the heat, he explained, "The 'human-faced dog' incident has caused quite a stir lately. The Emperor is furious and has ordered a thorough investigation."
He glanced towards the courtyard, his expression helpless. "The Xu family's youngest daughter went missing just now, and the neighbors are all helping to search for her. The officials arrived before dawn. Alas... what's the use?"
He shook his head and sighed, "Haven't you heard? Children carried away by human-faced dogs are never ever found again."
A sizzling sound came from the hot oil, and the golden-brown oil cakes tumbled in the pan, rising a wisp of smoke, but it couldn't dispel the chill that permeated the town.
Tang Yu took the fried dough cake, looked at the small courtyard where Xie Xingzheng was, her eyes deep and thoughtful. She took a bite of the cake and said nothing more.
What happens when a child is taken away and never found again?
But they encountered more than just Zhizhi as a child.
Tang Yu immediately understood that even if it wasn't a child's delusion as initially suspected, the human-faced dog was definitely not a ghost or evil spirit, but rather someone using it to abduct young children.
Back at the inn, Tang Yu didn't mention Xie Xingzheng to the two, only briefly saying, "Another child has gone missing in town, and the government has mobilized their cavalry; their response has been swift."
Seeing that the escort team had finished packing, she assumed that the two of them no longer wanted to interfere and planned to set off back to the capital.
But Wang Shanyue shook his head and said, "This town is only a day's journey from Zhongjing. Since we don't have any goods to escort, we can let them go back to the escort agency to report first. But if this matter is not investigated, every day we delay, more children will be abducted."
Tang Yu nodded in agreement, then raised an eyebrow and smiled: "Since it's not a ghost, then I have a way to catch this 'human-faced dog'."
As she spoke, she took two things out of her bosom.
As the morning light grew brighter outside the shop, the two initially couldn't see clearly that the bundle of silk thread in their hands was almost transparent in the light, while the other object was a bell that reflected golden light.
"How do we catch it with this?" Wang Shanyue asked, puzzled.
Tang Yu chuckled lightly, a sly glint in her eyes, "No rush, you'll find out soon enough."
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