Four hundred years ago
I never had hope
Just struggling forward in the mud
I don't know where to sleep
1. Jujube Tree
In a two-story courtyard in Datong Prefecture, everything comes back to life in spring, and the jujube trees in the courtyard begin to sprout.
Affected by the war, many people in the city fled south. The city was extremely depressed. The hawking of tea and horse trade was no longer lively. Those who did not flee south stayed at home and lived cautiously.
Lai Siyuan sat under a jujube tree, holding a dirty kitten in his arms.
She had just rescued it from the monsters in the mountains. The kitten was covered in blood, with its hind legs curled up, and looked seriously injured.
Being held like this by her, she wanted to struggle, but the girl said softly, "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you," and she calmed down.
"You must have been bullied by them for a long time."
Her voice was not loud, but light and clear, as pleasant as a mountain stream.
"Your ear is busted, your hind leg is broken, and it seems you have a lot of old injuries."
She picked up the liquor in front of her, cleaned the kitten's wound, wiped away the blood, applied some crushed Panax notoginseng, and clumsily bandaged it with a clean cloth.
The kitten gasped in pain, its eyes fierce, and the long nails in its claws stretched out in pain, but it did not open its mouth to bite her.
"Daddy said you are a cat demon that has developed intelligence. Those monsters surrounding you probably want to kill you and take your demon spirit, so you have to escape down the mountain."
The kitten drooped its ears and didn't respond to her. Its black tail coiled around Lai Siyuan's feet, looking pitiful and stubborn.
"You are under my care now." Lai Siyuan gently stroked her head, his eyes serious. "From now on, this will be your home. As long as I, Lai Siyuan, am here, I will protect you."
She picked up the kitten and stood up, carefully wrapping it in the tattered cloak in her arms, leaving only the stubborn little head exposed, and its little ears twitched with pleasure.
The strong wind blew through the deserted long street, raising dust and pouring into the yard, lifting the corners of her clothes. Her embrace gave her the rare warmth in the troubled times.
The kitten raised its head and gently rubbed her chin with the top of its head, as if it believed her words that it would protect itself.
2. Name
The afternoon sun shines into the courtyard, the wind blows through the jujube trees, and the newly sprouted buds sway gently.
Lai Siyuan sat on the ground with the courtyard door half-open. In front of her was a yellowed copy of "Lai Buyi Lu", with the pages pressed down by a wooden paperweight to prevent them from being blown away by the wind.
The paper figurine blank was lying crookedly on the side, the ink had not dried yet. Her paper-cutting skills were very poor, and the paper figurine was extremely ugly.
She made up a formula, followed the hand seals drawn in the book, and muttered something.
"The six Jias open together, rise!"
The paper figure on the ground didn't move at all, but the ink suddenly exploded and covered her face.
Lai Siyuan was stunned and wiped off the ink with his sleeve without even putting his hand down.
The black and white kitten lying on the bamboo mat not far away opened its eyes lazily and said in a tone of disdain and calmness: "You made the wrong seal. The left hand should be Yang, and you used the Yin position. Didn't your father tell you that?"
Lai Siyuan froze when he heard that. After a moment, he pounced on it, looking at it with shining eyes: "Ah! You can talk!"
The kitten was held so tightly by her that the wounds on its body were a little painful. It struggled twice but failed to break free. It could only continue to hum: "You are too noisy. I am not those stupid animals. It is not normal for me to talk."
"Great!" Lai Siyuan completely ignored her complaints. "You finally spoke! I thought you hadn't cultivated enough to speak!"
The kitten rolled its eyes, flicked its tail, and said, "You are a low-level monster. I am almost learning how to transform!"
"So you are a powerful little monster. Do you have a name? All big monsters have names." She said happily.
“…”
"Yi Ning."
"Yi Ning?" She thought for a moment, tilted her head and smiled, "Which Yi and which Ning?"
The kitten licked its paw, thought for a moment, and then said, "Bao Gai Yi, the fierce and fierce one."
"Ning, it suits you quite well. You always grin at people." Lai Siyuan took out a brush and carefully wrote two words on the paper: Yi Ning.
She picked up the pen and wrote down "Lai Siyuan," smiling and saying, "This is me. My name is Lai Siyuan, but everyone calls me Xiaowu. You can call me that too."
The kitten looked at the two neatly written characters, then glanced at her and said in a low voice, "Your handwriting is so ugly."
"If you can do it, come on!" She simply stuffed the brush over to him.
The cat scratched the pen with its claws for a long time, and finally, it clumsily pressed it with its elbow, dipped it in ink, and wrote the weird character "猛".
Lai Siyuan took a look and laughed unrestrainedly: "Hahahahaha, isn't your writing even uglier?"
"Believe it or not, I will bite you!"
"I don't believe it. If I wanted to bite you, I would have done it a long time ago." The girl smiled even more happily.
Yi Ning pressed his claws against her mouth: "You're so annoying."
The wind swept through the treetops, and the sunlight fell obliquely on the two people, a man and a cat. Their shadows intertwined on the ground, like tender buds growing quietly in troubled times.
3. Cooking
In a small village south of Taiyuan, the spring wind is still a little cold. The snow on the mountains has just melted, the wild grass is slightly sprouting, and the creatures in the mountains are just waking up.
A man and a cat were crawling behind the grass. Lai Siyuan held his breath, holding a snare made by his father in his hand.
She stared ahead and saw a gray rabbit hopping and stopping beside the bushes, its ears perked up.
Yi Ning quietly crouched at her feet and whispered, "Xiao Wu, you're breathing too heavily. You'll scare it away."
Lai Siyuan swallowed his saliva and whispered, "Then go ahead, Ning Ning, just move your claws and it'll be finished."
Yi Ning: "I'm a monster, not a hound. No!"
Lai Siyuan: "Don't talk so noble when you're a monster that can't even eat meat."
Yi Ning swung its tail at her face. Lai Siyuan grabbed it and was about to scold her, but the rabbit seemed to hear the noise and scurried away into the bushes.
"Oh no! He's trying to run away!" Lai Siyuan jumped up from the ground and said, "Hurry up and chase him!"
The cat flashed and pounced into the air. When it came back, it was holding the unlucky rabbit in its mouth, with its black tail raised high, looking very proud.
She shook her head, threw the rabbit to the ground, licked her paws and straightened her beard, and said seriously: "Why are you shouting? It's a matter of control. As expected, you can't do it without me."
Lai Siyuan smiled and patted her head, picked up the rabbit, and Yi Ning jumped onto her shoulder. They walked home with the cat, "Ning Ning is awesome. Let's go back and have a snack."
Their courtyard is at the entrance of the village, with two low blue brick houses. Smoke rises during the day and stars hang high in the sky at night. It is their shelter after fleeing from Datong.
Old Mr. Lai sat outside the house, cutting bamboo and staring blankly at the talisman paper drying on the ground, occasionally coughing.
On the tattered wooden table were two copper coins, a bottle of ink, a page of birth chart, and next to them were eggs and dry food sent by the villagers.
Seeing Lai Siyuan coming back, his grayish-green face showed a kind expression and asked, "What did you catch today?"
"Rabbit!" Lai Siyuan put it next to the pot and rolled up his sleeves. "We can eat meat today!"
Mr. Lai smiled and praised her: "Oh, that's great, then we should open a jar of wine to celebrate today."
Yi Ning jumped to the stove and was about to steal a piece of meat to eat, but Lai Siyuan slapped him and said, "Hey, hey, hey, why are you stealing food?"
"I caught the whole rabbit. Can't I eat a bite of you?" She licked her paw and said with confidence.
Lai Siyuan rolled his eyes in annoyance, but still rubbed her head gently.
Melting icicles dripped from the eaves, the yard was muddy, and steam rose from the stove. The firewood crackled, and the air was filled with the aroma of rabbit meat, mixed with the aroma of soy sauce, which drifted on the wind and drifted towards the quiet countryside in the distance.
The war was not yet close to them. At this moment, there was meat in the pot, the fire was still warm, and the people were not separated. Everything was still good.
Four | Transformation
It was late at night, thunder was rolling in the sky, and the wind made the jujube tree in front of the door rustle and its branches sway constantly.
Lai Siyuan was awakened by a muffled thunder. She sat up, hugged her knees and looked at the sky outside the window. The sky and the earth were moving strangely. It was not an ordinary thunder. Her heart was stuffy as if it was pressed by an unknown force.
She turned her head and looked back at the quilt, and the little bad black and white cat was gone.
She immediately got out of bed, put on her coat, and went out with a lantern.
Lai Siyuan is now twenty-three years old, in good shape, and he returns to his old house in Datong Prefecture with his cat.
Now that the war has temporarily stopped, her father passed away in Taiyuan half a year ago. People who try to understand the secrets of heaven never live long.
According to her father's last wish, fallen leaves must return to their roots, she took advantage of the fact that the world was a little calmer and spent half of her family fortune to send her father's body back to Datong for burial.
The city became increasingly desolate, with few people walking on the official roads. She worked for many days to repair the dilapidated old house. Fortunately, she knew some magic and could drive paper and wooden figures to help her. The little monster Yi Ning could only lie there lazily and call for when to eat.
It was so late at night and no one knew where it had gone. Lai Siyuan searched the front yard with a lamp for a long time but could not find any trace of it.
She walked to the backyard and saw the black and white kitten huddled under the old locust tree at the back of the yard, with its eyes tightly closed. A demonic aura emanated from its body, and the dead leaves on the ground moved without wind.
The little girl is no longer the pitiful and skinny girl she was when she first came to this yard. Now her skin is shiny and smooth, her breath is calm, and her body is strong. She is curled up under the tree and the light shining from her body is constantly changing.
Lai Siyuan was shocked to find that the little girl was trying to transform again, so he quickly stepped back, put the oil lamp on the ground, covered his mouth and did not dare to disturb her.
The night was dark, the thunder in the sky was getting closer and closer, the clouds were flashing with lightning, and the cat's body suddenly swelled up and demonic patterns appeared all over its body. It growled in pain, its voice full of unyielding and stubbornness.
Lai Siyuan raised his hand and put up soundproofing stickers around the walls of the house to prevent the neighbors from thinking that some ferocious beast had come down the mountain to eat people.
This was its third attempt to transform. The first two times, it was struck by lightning and lost its cat-like form. It took a long time to recuperate before it grew its fur back.
Only monsters that have transformed are qualified to practice immortality. Becoming an immortal is the long-cherished wish of monster spirits. Lai Siyuan took care of the injured monster without any complaints. As long as the little guy is not afraid of pain, Lai Siyuan will support anything he thinks is good.
Her body swelled to half a person's height. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning came from the sky and struck the top of the old locust tree. The trunk instantly became charred.
The wind was blowing fiercely, and Lai Siyuan had to hold on to the wall to keep his footing. The spiritual energy in the yard was surging, blowing up dead leaves and sending them flying all over the yard.
Yi opened her eyes suddenly, her clear yellow pupils were full of stubbornness, she was muttering something, and her whole body was glowing.
What followed was a continuous stream of thunder and lightning. The lightning made Lai Siyuan squint his eyes. The scene was a bit too big. Little guy, we are in the city now, not the countryside like before.
The thunder stopped, the sky and the earth were quiet, and suddenly heavy rain began to fall.
The cat crawling on the ground disappeared.
Lai Siyuan was overjoyed. He took off his outer robe, raised his eyebrows and smiled as he approached the old locust tree that had been chopped to death.
The naked girl, her hair wet from the rain, stood barefoot in the mud, half leaning against a tree trunk, gasping for breath.
Her eyes were filled with disbelief, as if she was surprised by her own success. She had not yet fully adapted to this new body and was completely unable to perceive her current situation.
Lai Siyuan wrapped her in his outer robe. She looked up at him and said, "Damn it! Why am I still shorter than you, Xiaowu? I thought I wouldn't have to look up at you after I transformed."
Lai Siyuan chuckled and pinched her ears as usual, "Why, you're not convinced?"
Yi Ning puffed up her cheeks in defiance, but her curved almond eyes betrayed her good mood.
Lai Siqi took her back to the house, fetched some water to help her wash up, and used a handkerchief to wipe her hair. Lai Siyuan lifted the white hair on her forehead, and she asked softly, "Does it hurt?"
Sitting on the wooden bench, Yi Ning buried his head in her waist, hugged her and said sullenly, "It hurts."
Lai Siyuan patted her back soothingly. She said, "But it's worth it. Xiaowu, you're not alone anymore. I'll be with you from now on."
The wind blew into the hall with rain, the lights swayed slightly, and two shadows stuck together swayed on the wall. The storm was coming, fortunately they were not alone.
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