Chapter 116 The Singing Dog Creates Animals!
After handing over the manuscript of "Back to the Ming Dynasty" to the Novel Daily for copying, Yao Xiaoyu began to enjoy the New Year in peace. Because her parents still considered her too young when she was at home, Yao Xiaoyu didn't really have much of a concept of what to prepare for the New Year.
In the past two years, she was busy making money. At the end of the year, apart from preparing some food, Spring Festival couplets, firecrackers and the character "福" (good fortune), she just got by so casually. But this year, she finished her tasks ahead of time and had a lot more time, so she wanted to do things more carefully.
"...If it's not enough, just let me know."
Yao Xiaoyu pointed to the silver coins on the table, ignoring Zhou Chunhua's complicated gaze—how could she possibly spend her precious time buying things? Although Shanghai was prosperous, it was only busiest during the three festivals of the year, when many vendors would appear on the streets with their novel products for a limited time, and Yao Xiaoyu would rush to see the excitement.
"They're gone."
Yao Xiaoyu didn't stay at home for long. Seeing that Zhou Chunhua had accepted the silver dollars for buying New Year's items, she took Tao Xiaoxiao out. Recently, an animal performance troupe had come to the street corner, and today was the last day. If she didn't go and see it, she would have to wait until next year.
The rickshaw sped along, carrying people, and soon arrived at the street corner. Several circles of people had already gathered around the circus troupe. Yao Xiaoyu, holding Tao Xiaoxiao's hand, squeezed to the front after a few twists and turns, but she didn't see the big wolf, little monkey, and lame tiger that Tao Jingu had mentioned. There was only a man with a downturned mouth and three-white eyes holding a leash, talking incessantly about the half-person-sized dog in his hand.
This dog looked quite different; it had long front paws, thick hind legs, and its face even resembled a human's to some extent. Yao Xiaoyu felt a little uncomfortable the moment she saw it.
"My dog is extraordinary; he can sing, do math, write, and circle around..."
The man was chanting a rhyme he had probably made up. Yao Xiaoyu, who was used to seeing smart modern dogs, lost interest after a couple of lines and casually asked the man next to her about the whereabouts of the previous juggling troupe.
The prevailing modern view is to reject animal performances, but this circus troupe is different. Their animals are all creatures that have lost their competitive edge in nature. The wolf is missing most of its rear end, the monkey's tail is severed at the root, and the tiger playing with the ball is even worse, its leg is lame...
Animals in this condition would not survive in the wild where survival of the fittest prevails. Although animal performances are tiring due to training, they can at least get some food. Yao Xiaoyu doesn't know if they want to live like this, but living is probably better than dying.
"They were chased away by this person."
The person Yao Xiaoyu asked happened to be an auntie who had arrived earlier. She looked at the man who had slapped the dog with disdain, but when she met the little girl's curious eyes, she casually explained the whole story.
The circus troupe came over in high spirits today, but this guy sat down here early and refused to leave, insisting on talking about first come, first served. If you push him too far, he'll make the dog next to him kowtow.
"The blows hit the ground hard, and blood was drawn in just a few moments."
The aunt felt heartbroken whenever she thought about that scene. The dog was so well-behaved and smart; she couldn't understand how the man could do such a thing.
The circus troupe that took in so many disabled animals must have been people who loved animals. They couldn't bear to see the dog being tortured until its head was bleeding, so they sighed and went to another street. The man, however, felt no remorse for the dog. He just wiped the blood off the dog's head haphazardly and then yelled for people to gather around to watch the dog perform and make money.
The two men were discussing the new location the circus had moved to. Meanwhile, the dogs in the enclosure, at the man's request, began performing. First, they did simple addition and subtraction, then they invited those around them to do multiplication and division. Some people, amazed, actually asked questions.
What is four times eight?
"Woof woof woof..."
The dog barked almost thirty times in one breath. When it stopped to catch its breath, the whip lashed out at it. Dogs can't speak, so each bark counts as one. If it stopped before barking enough, it was a mistake and would be punished. [1]
"Awoo..."
The dog let out a pitiful howl and collapsed to the ground. Yao Xiaoyu felt uncomfortable listening to the wail, but at the same time, she felt that something was wrong.
"Hey, look, this dog can even cry."
Some people exclaimed in surprise, and everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and they also saw the tears in the corner of the dog's eyes. They all marveled at it.
The man then had the people surrounding the dog give it some math problems. This time, they were all small numbers. The dog barked all at once and was finally spared another beating. Yao Xiaoyu, who had been about to leave, stopped and stared intently at the dog.
Her reason told her it was just a smarter, ordinary dog, but her intuition was pounding wildly.
The man didn't notice anything wrong with Yao Xiaoyu. After letting the dog do some counting, he had it demonstrate riding a small car and then dancing on its two legs. Although the movements were a bit strange, it was just a dog, so everyone cheered and applauded. Then they asked when the dog could sing.
"Those with money, please support us financially; those without money, please show your support by coming and taking a look..."
These are common solicitation lines for acrobatic performances. The man kept presenting containers of money to the crowd, but only had Gou'er perform the ball-stepping and fire-walking tricks, followed by arithmetic dances. The promised singing was repeatedly postponed. Yao Xiaoyu watched Gou'er's performance with a furrowed brow.
For some reason, she could always see a human-like quality in dogs.
"Interesting, really interesting!"
A young master wearing a pearl headband heard the dog barking about arithmetic and clapped his hands, laughing as he said, "How shrewd men are! The money container is handed over in the blink of an eye." The young master was not stingy and threw in two silver coins. The clinking sound was particularly pleasant, which made the man's smile even more exaggerated.
"What song would you like to hear? I'll have this dog sing it for you."
Yao Xiaoyu looked at the dog on the ground. The dog stared intently at the man, its eyes filled with hatred and an indelible fear. Yao Xiaoyu's heart was in turmoil—animals also have feelings, but such complex emotions...
Yao Xiaoyu rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on. She always felt like she was just a thin veil away from something, but she couldn't see through the fog. Meanwhile, the man over there had already made the dog start singing. The young master's allowance was equivalent to what he used to earn in a day. Sure enough, the big city was better; even beggars could eat meat soup and preserved meat.
The dog singing was just a gimmick; everyone was prepared to only hear the tune. But when the dog sang after being whipped twice, they were shocked—the sound was a bit muffled, but the words were definitely audible.
Compared to everyone's amazement, the unclear but still accurate singing was like a bolt of lightning to Yao Xiaoyu, and she finally remembered why she felt that the dog was strange!
There is a story in "Zi Bu Yu" about a dog with long front paws, bear-like hind legs, and human-like ears and nose—but in the story, this dog is made from a child!
But she remembered that the dog sang quite clearly... Yao Xiaoyu turned her head up and down to find the right angle and saw the huge scar on the dog's throat when it tilted its head back.
Yao Xiaoyu considered herself a fairly calm person, but when she saw the man trying to please the young master, her mind went blank for a moment.
"Keep him under control... don't hurt him yet."
Yao Xiaoyu whispered to Tao Xiaoxiao, still holding onto a sliver of hope—what if she had made a mistake?
Tao Xiaoxiao never questioned Yao Xiaoyu's orders. She stepped forward, grabbed the man's hand, and somehow pulled out strips of cloth to start tying him up. Before the young master could even think of a new song he wanted to hear, the man was already bound like a crab, lying on the ground in a daze.
Tao Xiaoxiao's actions should have attracted a lot of attention, but the man had just focused all his attention on pleasing the young master and ignored everyone else, which made the onlookers very dissatisfied. In addition, there was a circus troupe two streets away, so the people left in twos and threes.
When Tao Xiaoxiao was tying people up, besides the young master and the guards, there were only seven or eight others. They knew the saying that too many people die quickly, so they simply ran away when Tao Xiaoxiao made her move.
"If you turn left and then right along this street, you'll find a circus troupe where you can see tigers."
Yao Xiaoyu said to the people following the young master that she did not want more people to pay attention to this place, but she also did not have the habit of making things difficult for the workers.
The young master's guards understood and nodded gratefully to Yao Xiaoyu. They cooperated perfectly to take the man away. Yao Xiaoyu also had Tao Xiaoxiao take the man to a corner for questioning. She was not short of money. If she had really wronged the man, she could give him double or even more of the reward that the young master originally wanted to give him, as compensation for the man's mental distress.
Please, God, let her know that the dog this man, who seems like a good person, has is just a dog. She can buy it and adopt it. She really wants to spend money!
Yao Xiaoyu prayed fervently, she had never hoped so much that she could spend the money!
Hope shattered.
...
"Tell me, where is he from, and how did he end up in your hands?"
Tao Jingu asked with a smile. After Yao Xiaoyu confirmed that there was indeed a child under the dog skin, she brought the man to Tao Jingu's side. The man had committed more than one sin. Tao Jingu had people under him who were good at recovering large amounts of memory and could take out everything from the man's stomach.
Yao Xiaoyu didn't count on the national power of this era. Those corrupt officials were good for nothing but extortion and bribery. As for finding hidden gems in the mud?
She can only rely on the pity system for every gacha pull, and is identified by the black box as someone with extremely bad luck. How could she have such good luck... Besides, good people can't do this job.
The child dressed in a dog skin glanced at Yao Xiaoyu, wondering why this person suddenly smelled bitter. She thought about it but couldn't figure it out, so she stared intently at the man again.
The news of his parents is still in his mind; we can't let him get away.
Yao Xiaoyu handed the dog, child, and man over to Tao Jingu and went home. A week later, Tao Jingu brought Yao Xiaoyu two pieces of good news and one piece of bad news. The good news was that the man had revealed a lot of information about human trafficking and was now dead. The bad news was that the child had also died.
Yao Xiaoyu: ? ? ?
Tao Jingu sighed when talking about this: The child's parents were ordinary people who had this daughter when they were over forty years old. They cherished her like the apple of their eye since she was a child. But when they went to buy a sugar painting, the man snatched her away. The two of them were heartbroken and only thought about finding their child.
A year ago, the mother was trampled in the chest by a horse-drawn carriage traveling in the wrong direction and died on the spot. Half a year ago, the man collapsed on the way to look for someone and never opened his eyes again. Even the funeral arrangements were made by the neighbors pooling their money.
"After hearing this, the child pounced on the man and bit his throat off."
Tao Jingu felt a pang of sadness when she thought of the little tooth that had fallen to the ground. The child had killed the man, and she herself had also died that night. She had taken the child to the doctor, who said that the child's skin had been damaged during the molting process, and he was only alive by a single breath. Now that he had no more ties, his breath had naturally stopped.
This child is quite sensible... Before leaving, she specifically asked her to thank Yao Xiaoyu.
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Author's note: A small detail: The child reunited with his parents, and the three of them will be reborn in the modern era as a happy family.
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[1] The author took a deep breath and tried it himself. He could probably shout about twenty-seven times, so he used that as the character's lung capacity.
[2] From Volume 10 of "Zi Bu Yu": Singing Dog - Its two front toes are longer than dog claws, and its hind feet are like a bear's. It has a small tail, and its ears and nose are like a human's. It is completely unlike a dog, but its whole body is covered with dog hair.
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