Side Story 3: The Demon-Catching Adventure of the Deer Fairy (Part 3)
Tingshan rushed back to the mansion as soon as he finished school, fearing that the puppy might lose its life in the dead of winter.
It snowed heavily again today, and his shoes and socks were soaked in the muddy snow. Tingshan sighed. The servants in his courtyard had caught a cold and gone to rest a couple of days ago, so he was the only one left in the courtyard. He had no choice but to find a broom and shovel the snow in front of the door into a pile to the side. After doing all this, he rubbed his frozen red hands and ran back to the inner room.
"Our little yellow dog is so tenacious," he said with a smile, seeing the puppy curled up obediently in the blankets. He prepared some rice cereal and carefully fed it to the puppy. "You don't want to die, do you?"
He found the little yellow dog three days ago in the dry bamboo grove behind the courtyard. When he first found it, it was lying on the dead leaves, its whole body frozen. Tingshan immediately took off his outer robe to wrap it up and took it back to the mansion to warm itself by the fire, which saved its life.
Eat slowly, don't rush.
He gently stroked its slightly matted fur. The puppy was thin and long, with an unhealthy yellowish-brown coat. It was several sizes smaller than other puppies, which broke Tingshan's heart. Such a small puppy must have never had a full meal since birth.
Luckily, I met him; he will definitely raise it to be plump and healthy.
"Second Young Master, the Old Madam wants you to come over."
The servant's voice came from outside the door. Tingshan responded, wrapped Xiao Huang in another blanket, changed his shoes and socks, and went outside.
"Tingshan, your elder brother is returning to the capital tomorrow. How about you go with the honor guard to welcome him back?"
The old lady skimmed the foam off the tea, looked her youngest son up and down with affection, and chuckled, "Your brother has been gone for five years. The child who used to follow you around has grown up now. He might not even recognize you."
"Mother, I will go." Tingshan smiled.
As he got closer, the old lady could clearly smell the lingering animal scent on his clothes. Her smile faded slightly, replaced by a look of helplessness.
Her youngest son is good in every way, except that he loves to play with cats and dogs, which is simply outrageous.
The Ting family is a family of military generals. Her eldest son, Ting Yu, has practiced martial arts since childhood and has been appointed a general at the age of twenty-one. Her younger son, Ting Shan, is quiet and gentle by nature, loves literature and calligraphy, and is a promising student. The old lady dotes on these two children, but she still cannot accept Ting Shan condescending to serve those beasts.
She had talked about these things with her youngest son many times, but despite Tingshan's seemingly weak appearance, he was excessively stubborn on this matter. He used to keep more than ten cats and dogs in his yard, and foxes and ferrets were everywhere. He only sent the animals away after arguing with her. She thought her youngest son would not keep them anymore, but who knew that he would bring in some other things.
The next day, before dawn, Tingshan entered the palace, greeted the military officers who were on good terms with Tingyu, and then sat quietly to the side, waiting to set off with the army.
"Brother Tingshan!"
An excited female voice came from the corner. Tingshan turned around and saw the Fourth Princess crouching behind a pillar, waving at him. He looked around and saw that no one paid attention to him, so he got up and left his seat.
"Fourth Princess, you've sneaked out again," he whispered.
“It’s alright,” the fourth princess stuck out her tongue, tugged at his sleeve, and giggled, “My tabby cat has had several kittens, and they’re just a month old today. Take a look and see if there’s one you like and take it home.”
Tingshan paused, and the Fourth Princess turned to look at him: "What's wrong?"
“I probably can’t keep it anymore, otherwise my mother will be angry,” he said, and then told her about finding the little yellow dog. “If my mother doesn’t let me keep the little yellow dog, I’ll have to ask you to take it with you.”
"Oh, I see," the fourth princess clicked her tongue in disappointment, then cheered up and patted her chest, "Don't worry about leaving it to me!"
Tingyu's return diverted half of the old lady's attention. With spring approaching, there was still no news of Tingyu going back to the battlefield, indicating that the national situation was still acceptable, which put everyone at ease. Xiao Huang was also growing up day by day.
It's just that it's not quite the same as a regular yellow dog...
It wasn't very big, but its body was getting longer and longer, and its bark wasn't "woof woof" but "squeak squeak". Tingshan was surprised and hugged it in his arms and stroked its head.
"Little Yellow, you are actually a very rare breed, aren't you?"
Tingshan lowered his head and kissed the top of its head, then pinched its paws.
After adopting Xiao Huang, he never kept any other animals. He hid Xiao Huang very well and never let the old lady find out.
Little Yellow is extremely intelligent, much smarter than ordinary yellow dogs. It can learn many things after being taught only once and is very good at pleasing people.
Tingshan often felt that it must know that the old lady didn't like it. Every time the old lady came to his courtyard, Xiao Huang would hide in advance, which made Tingshan feel a little sad.
"Little Yellow, would you like to go to the market?" Tingshan scratched its belly and asked softly.
"Squeak!"
Little Huang happily climbed up and down on him, finally nestled in the crook of his neck and rolled around comfortably twice.
Tingshan happily put on a scarf and went out. Little Huang was quite quiet outside, not moving at all. If you didn't look closely, it would be easy to overlook its presence.
From then on, he always wore this little scarf around his neck whenever he went out.
No matter how well Tingshan and Xiaohuang hid, if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet.
One summer, Xiao Huang was sleeping soundly on a cool bamboo mat, feeling hot. Ting Shan yawned and had just dozed off when he heard a scream that sounded like a thunderclap in a clear sky.
"This is...this is Wong Tai Sin!"
Tingshan suddenly opened his eyes and saw the old lady leaning on her cane, pointing a trembling finger at Xiao Huang, who had also been startled awake. Her cloudy eyes widened as she looked at her son in disbelief.
"Tingshan, why is there a Wong Tai Sin by your side?!"
Wong Tai Sin?
Who is it, Little Yellow?
Little Huang was frightened by the old lady and instinctively tried to burrow into Tingshan's arms, but the old lady grabbed her son's arm and continued to insist, "Son, I've always known that you've been keeping a beast by your side, but why is it Huang Daxian!"
"Spending too much time with Wong Tai Sin will get you cursed!"
“Mother, you’ve got it wrong,” Tingshan said, looking at Xiao Huang standing there blankly, as if it understood what the old lady was talking about. “Xiao Huang isn’t some kind of Yellow Immortal, it’s just a yellow dog.”
"This is a weasel!"
The commotion in the courtyard attracted Tingshan's older brother, Tingyu. Tingshan wanted Tingyu to say a few words on his behalf, but to his surprise, Tingyu's expression hardened and his brow furrowed: "Tingshan, why are you keeping company with a weasel?"
How could it be a weasel... Tingshan found it ridiculous, but seeing the expressions of alarm on his mother and brother's faces, he couldn't laugh at all.
No matter how much he pleaded, the old lady remained steadfast in her decision to throw Xiao Huang out.
And she actually did it.
—
"Fourth Princess, please help me find this weasel."
Tingshan looked much thinner, with dark circles under his eyes and a slight pursing of his lips as he handed the portrait to the Fourth Princess.
“Brother Tingshan, I’ve heard about what happened to you,” the Fourth Princess said solemnly as she put away the portrait and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I will do my best.”
"Then, thank you very much, Fourth Princess."
Tingshan's departing figure was thin and frail. He also liked to wear white. When the Fourth Princess looked at him from afar, he didn't seem like a human anymore, but rather like a lonely ghost.
The weasel hid its shrewd eyes behind the leaves and saw everything.
When the old lady threw it out, she deliberately concealed it from Tingshan and placed it in a ravine hundreds of miles away from the Ting family mansion.
But she was also stubborn but soft-hearted. She didn't just abandon it and leave. Instead, she put some food next to it and murmured "Amitabha" several times before leaving.
The weasel possessed more spiritual energy than other weasels, but even so, it wasn't until the following winter that it found Tingshan.
The first snowfall of the year was a heavy snowfall. The weasel used the snow as a blanket and only dared to hide secretly in places where Tingshan could not see it, for fear that its scent would give it away again.
It settled down around Tingfu and did nothing but gaze at Tingshan from afar.
More than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the weasel sometimes feels sad and wonders if Tingshan has forgotten about it.
But he hasn't kept any pets in all these years. Perhaps... he still misses it in his heart.
The weasel wasn't sure.
But just after New Year's Eve that year, the old lady hurriedly summoned Tingshan, saying that she had a gift for him.
It was a black puppy, as black as ink, with glossy, shiny fur, clearly well-cared for.
It wasn't that the old lady had given in, but she didn't want to see her youngest son continue to be so taciturn, and she wanted to mend the remaining affection between mother and son.
Consider this puppy as compensation for him.
Just as the old lady had predicted, Tingshan gradually became happier every day with the little black dog as his companion, and he was no longer as thin as before.
Unfortunately, some are happy while others are sad, and the weasel is one of the sad ones.
It disliked the little black dog, which had taken away Tingshan's affection.
Even though it hadn't received that kind of affection in a long time.
Tingshan must have forgotten about it. The weasel howled in pain. It once wanted to bite the little black dog to death, but in the end, its longing for Tingshan overcame its inner demons. In the end, it only sniffed the little black dog's scent, as if trying to find the lingering ink fragrance on Tingshan.
It tucked its tail between its legs and left the pavilion, looking back every few steps.
Perhaps it will never come back again; at least that's what the weasel thought at the time.
Five years later, Tingshan died from a sudden epidemic. While the Ting family was making arrangements for his funeral, a weasel came. It sneaked into Tingshan's study when no one was paying attention, wanting to find something worth remembering and take it away.
It used its claws to rummage through the scattered Xuan paper on the table. Suddenly, a strong wind blew by, and the snow-white Xuan paper sank to the ground, revealing two portraits that had been deliberately hidden underneath.
The picture above shows a black dog climbing a tree, lively, playful, and adorable.
The image below uses only a few strokes to depict the shape of a weasel. The little weasel is resting its head on a bamboo mat, with a green bamboo leaf in its mouth.
But the weasel couldn't take the painting away and could only watch helplessly as the old lady burned it.
The ashes were still warm, but the weasel stood coldly and rigidly on the inconspicuous windowsill, unable to move.
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