Side Story 4: The Demon-Catching Adventure of the Deer Fairy (Part 4)
Flowers bloom in spring, willows and locust trees fill the summer, ancient vines adorn the autumn, and withered grass hides the winter.
Year after year, the wind and frost have caused Tingshan's tombstone to deteriorate. When the old lady was alive, she would personally come to clean it for him during festivals and sit in front of the tombstone for a whole day, talking to herself incessantly.
Later, the old lady also passed away, and only the fourth princess would occasionally come to visit.
However, the fourth princess had also reached marriageable age. When she last came, she was only nineteen years old, but there were already strands of silver hair around her temples.
"Brother Tingshan, please forgive me for not being able to come and accompany you anymore."
The once arrogant and domineering girl now wore a bitter smile, her face full of sorrow. She had her long hair tied up, and her brows showed a maturity and composure beyond her years. The cold jewels hanging from her hair collided with the stone tablet, making a dull sound.
“The Great Zhou Kingdom is declining, having fought countless wars year after year, and suffering defeat after defeat. Last month, Brother Tingyu fell on the battlefield, which was only ten miles from the capital. The morale of the Great Zhou army is low, and it is no longer a force to be reckoned with,” she took a breath, her eyelashes trembling slightly, “The Great Zhou Kingdom is about to perish.”
"The Jiang Kingdom sent an envoy to convey the Jiang Kingdom's king's decree requesting that the direct descendant of the Great Zhou princess go to marry him. With the national tragedy imminent and things having come to this point, Father Emperor had no choice but to agree."
"The fifth day of next month will be the day I marry into the Jiang Kingdom," the Fourth Princess stood up, ignoring the dust that clung to her magnificent dress. She circled the monument twice, then stopped and knelt down. "Do I look good, Brother Tingshan?"
"This is a wedding dress sent by the State of Jiang. I was thinking... to wear it and show it to you."
The fourth princess pursed her lips and rested her head on the tombstone, just as she had done when Tingshan was still alive. She leaned on Tingshan's shoulder and watched the sunrise and sunset together.
"I feel like all of this is unreal, Brother Tingshan. Tell me, how could it have come to this?" She swallowed back the tears welling up in her eyes and forced a smile that was more like a grimace. "I miss you so much. I want to go back to when I was little, back to the day I came to you with a litter of newborn tabby kittens. Brother Tingshan, I'm so scared. I don't want to marry the King of Jiang, who is a year older than Father. But I can't leave. If I leave, what will happen to Father? What will happen to the Great Zhou? What will happen to the people...?"
The Fourth Princess had never spoken these words to anyone else. Leaning against the Tingshan Stele, she poured out the words that had been weighing on her heart for a long time, seemingly only by Tingshan's side could she briefly be a spoiled little sister.
Snowflakes fell in a soft patter, as large as goose feathers, making the bright red dress look like a pool of spilled blood, a glaring pain.
That's when the weasel jumped out.
The fourth princess was asleep with her eyes closed. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, the weasel would have thought she had frozen to death in front of Tingshan Tomb.
It hopped and skipped to the top of the tombstone, sizing up the fourth princess with its beady black eyes.
"...It's you."
The fourth princess opened her eyes at some point, her past innocence buried beneath the snow. Her eyes were vacant and unable to focus for a long time.
She reached out, wanting to touch the weasel's head, but it hovered in mid-air.
The weasel did not hide.
The fourth princess did not press it down either.
"I remember you, Little Huang."
The fourth princess simply used her hand to shield its head, creating a makeshift shelter from the heavy snow.
“I have seen and drawn your portrait countless times. It turns out you have never left and have always been by Tingshan’s side.”
The weasel tilted its head.
"You must miss him a lot, right?"
"After I marry into the Jiang Kingdom, you'll be all I have left here, Tingshan. But what if you leave too?"
It won't leave.
At this time, the weasel did not yet possess the ability to speak human language. It simply stood up, grabbed the fourth princess's hand with its two front paws, and left two shallow rows of teeth marks on it.
The fourth princess withdrew her hand and giggled twice. "Is this a farewell gift you gave me? Thank you."
"I'm leaving now. If I don't go back soon, Jiang Guo will send someone to urge me to return."
The shadow overhead suddenly disappeared, and the weasel straightened up, watching the fourth princess in her wedding dress walk further and further away, disappearing into the wind and snow.
With this, the last person in the world who cared about Tingshan also passed away.
The fourth princess did not have a good life in the Jiang Kingdom. Two years after the marriage alliance, she had a son with the king of Jiang Kingdom, but he died before he was a year old. The fourth princess's health was damaged during childbirth, and she suddenly lost her beloved son. She died of depression the following month.
On the day of the Fourth Princess's funeral, the weasel also went, but the mountains and rivers were far away. By the time it rushed there, the coffin had already been closed and the princess had been buried. In the end, it did not have time to see the Fourth Princess one last time.
—
Tingshan's tomb gradually fell into disrepair.
Just as he loved in his lifetime, many small animals have come to make their home near his grave over the years. A weasel lazily lies in front of the altar, teasing a gray rabbit missing an ear with its raised tail.
It thought that if the days to come continued like this for the next hundred years, it wouldn't be too bad.
However, an uninvited guest arrived at the tomb today.
"Hey weasel, you don't have to hit me every time you see me."
The black dog panted heavily, shook off the bald patches on its body, and scratched the ground helplessly with its paws. "Your skills are not even enough to fill my teeth."
"Get out of my way!"
The weasel bared its teeth. "I just hate black dogs. And not just this time, but the next time I see you, I'll still kick you out."
But the black dog was absolutely right; it was no match for it.
It held back in its words during these encounters.
The black dog's face suddenly turned cold, and it growled a warning: "Don't be so stubborn! If it weren't for the fact that you're a weasel, I would have eaten you whole!"
“I don’t want to disturb your peace. This place has excellent feng shui and is a good place for cultivation. I only want this little bit of spiritual energy. There is no conflict of interest between us, so there is no need to make such a fuss.”
That makes sense, but...
But it just doesn't like dogs with black fur.
It always believed that the appearance of that little black dog from back then had replaced its place in Tingshan's heart.
If not, if not...
How could he have made an exception and kept that little black dog after not adopting any living creatures for ten years?
He had long forgotten about it.
Spirits and monsters are foolish and simple-minded; they can't seem to get around many things.
Seeing the weasel remain silent, the black dog thought it had persuaded it. It wagged its tail and was about to jump onto the stone tablet to lie down and sleep when the weasel suddenly sprang up and chased after it, biting wildly.
"Get out of here! You're not welcome here!"
The black dog was also enraged. It engaged in a fierce battle with the weasel, but always hesitated to kill it because of the weasel's identity as a spirit. The battle ended with the black dog running away.
"Owner......"
The weasel curled itself into a ball, licked its torn and bleeding hind legs, lay on Tingshan's tombstone, and still thought of itself as the little scarf from that year, whimpering pitifully.
"Can I only like Xiao Huang?"
"Could you please not leave that little black dog behind?"
"Master, do you love that little black dog more than the ugly little yellow one?"
Keting Mountain will never answer it again.
Only the endless cold wind caressed the stone tablet, producing a long, hollow sound.
After that day, the weasel seemed to be possessed. It no longer squatted by the stele on Tingshan every day. Apart from its indispensable daily cultivation, it would take the initiative to lurk in towns and villages on the first and fifteenth of each month, looking for dogs with black fur all over their bodies, skinning them alive, and offering their skins in front of the stele on Tingshan.
It would even wear a black dog skin on its body and imitate them, clumsily wagging its tail from side to side and making off-key "woof woof" sounds.
It almost obsessively dressed itself up as a black dog, as if doing so would deepen Tingshan's affection for it.
Ke Tingshan has been dead for hundreds of years, and he has been reincarnated countless times. The weasel's actions serve no purpose other than taking hundreds more dog lives and moving himself.
"Master, I really, really miss you."
The weasel crouched in the soft grass and rolled around.
The soft grass under the warm sun was warm and dry, as if Tingshan was still caressing it.
Year after year, month after month, it relentlessly slaughtered black dogs. But there weren't enough black dogs nearby for it to kill at will, and it refused to leave the tombstones. So it gradually loosened its restrictions: it not only targeted black dogs, but any dog with dark fur was also brutally killed by its claws.
For a long time, ordinary people have blamed the mysterious disappearance of dogs on dog thieves, but no matter how hard they wait, they can't catch a single hair on the head of these so-called dog thieves.
Indeed, who would have thought that all of this was the work of a weasel spirit revered as the Great Immortal Huang? And who could have guessed that such a heinous story was hidden behind the lost dog?
The weasel's dog-stealing skills became increasingly proficient. Relying on its hundreds of years of cultivation and Taoist practice, it gradually became unscrupulous and no longer confined to the first and fifteenth of each month. Whenever it had time, it would rush down the mountain, carrying a dog skin to present to Tingshan.
It had been a long time since it had encountered such a purebred black dog. The weasel walked on the roof of the palace, eyeing the emperor's beloved dog with predatory intent.
It was an old dog, nearing the end of its life, yet its fur remained glossy black.
It had long coveted this fur, but due to the tight security, it had never been able to obtain it.
Cedar, you have no one to blame but yourself for being unlucky enough to have such fine fur.
The weasel looked the dog up and down with a sinister gaze, having risked half its life to steal it. Ignoring the dog's painful howls, it carefully removed the sleek, black dog skin.
Even after being pinned to the ground by Lu Yixin, it never felt the slightest bit of regret for what it had done.
If it had to say something, it only regretted that it hadn't concealed its whereabouts and had inadvertently fallen into the hands of the two.
Of course, since things have come to this point, there's no point in saying anything more.
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