Chapter 36: The Pitiful Mountain King

By the time Dou Ming had finished his nap, three bundles of neatly stacked firewood had already been placed not far from him.

The little demons who were afraid of Dou Ming were huddled in the woods with their heads poking out, just waiting for Lord Dou Ming to wake up so he could carry the firewood down the mountain and exchange it for money to buy new roof tiles and build a house for their Little Temple Master.

The little sparrow said Lord Dou Ming had said that building a house would need lots and lots of money. How could the demons of Yunling Mountain let their Little Temple Master live in a roofless house?

Whoever went poor, it could not be the cub. Whoever went hungry, it could not be the Temple Master. No matter what, their Little Temple Master was the head of Yunling Mountain. On any other mountain, the Little Temple Master would be the mountain king of Yunling Mountain.

How could they let their mountain king have nowhere to live? If word got out, the demons on Yunling Mountain would be laughed at by the demons from other mountains.

The monkey spirit sat on a branch with his fist clenched, his voice impassioned. “We have to earn money for the Little Temple Master! We have to build a big house for the Little Temple Master!”

“Yes!” The little squirrel very much agreed. “We have to work hard gathering firewood to sell for money!”

“Our Little Temple Master has to have a house!” the little deer chimed in.

The little rabbit hopped back and forth under the tree. “We have to save money!”

The little demons moved through the forest in high spirits, some carrying branches in their mouths, some rolling logs along with their heads, and some joining forces to lift a section of deadwood. In a short span of time, they had piled three bundles of firewood in the clearing. The monkey spirit specially braided vines into ropes and tied the firewood tightly.

Once everything was done, the little demons burrowed into the woods and waited for Dou Ming to wake up.

The tiger first opened his eyes halfway. Lazily, he opened them and closed them again several times before Dou Ming finally opened them completely. He stretched in contentment and rolled twice on the ground. Only then did he get up and slowly pace beneath the tree.

The little sparrow on the branch chirped. Lord Dou Ming, we gathered lots of branches in the woods. Carry them down the mountain and exchange them for money.

Dou Ming strolled lazily over to the firewood and stretched out his nose to sniff it. There was no damp smell at all; it was all dried branches. He opened his mouth wide and yawned, changed into human form, and without another word, hoisted one bundle of firewood onto his back and headed down the mountain.

The little sparrow flapped its wings and followed beside Dou Ming. “Chirp, chirp, chirp.” Lord Dou Ming, there are two more bundles of firewood. Aren’t you going to carry them down too?

Dou Ming tossed out three words. “Can’t carry them.”

A gentle breeze blew through the mountain forest, brushing over his face and carrying away threads of heat. Dou Ming carried the firewood on his back, his steps light as he followed the forest path down the mountain. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he put down the firewood and went straight to the water vat.

Xiao Cong heard the movement and gently pushed the door open. He saw Dou Ming holding the water ladle and gulping down water. Perhaps one ladle of water did not quench his thirst, because Dou Ming drank another.

The ladle was casually tossed back into the water vat, splashing up a tiny spray of water before bobbing gently on the surface.

Dou Ming raised his hand and wiped his mouth roughly, then asked Xiao Cong softly, “Why did you wake up so early today?”

Xiao Cong had not napped at all. Without the big tiger to nestle against, and not daring to get too close to Xi Jue, he had taken a small stool while the other demons slept and sat by the door, leaning against Chuyi and the little lamb, sewing the small cotton outfit all noon.

Xiao Cong spread the finished little outfit open for Dou Ming to see. “The clothes are done. When the Temple Master wakes up, we’ll have him try them on.”

Dou Ming nodded and casually took a strip of dried eggplant from the winnowing basket in the courtyard, stuffing it into his mouth. A grassy taste immediately filled his mouth. Dou Ming spat the eggplant out with several “ptui, ptui” sounds. “What is this? It has no flavor at all.”

“Dried vegetables Xiu Niang set out for winter,” Xiao Cong said. He kicked the dried eggplant into the vegetable garden. “Don’t let Hua Qi see it. He worked on this all morning and seemed really tired. At noon, he even had Tuo Tuo pound his back for him. If he sees you wasting dried eggplant, Hua Qi definitely won’t let you off.”

Dou Ming grumbled softly.

Xiao Cong pointed toward the kitchen and said, “Xiu Niang saved a plate of food for you. There are flatbreads in the basket hanging from the roof beam.”

Dou Ming happily stepped into the kitchen and immediately saw the large sea bowl on the table covered with a wooden pot lid. He muttered, “Xiu Niang really is a good human.”

He had only taken a couple bites of flatbread stuffed with vegetables when Dou Ming’s ears twitched. Keenly, he heard Chun Hua crying in a catlike voice. Xiu Niang’s voice soon followed. “Mama’s good Chun Hua. You’re hungry, aren’t you? Let’s change your diaper, then you can nurse.”

Who knew whether human cubs had some special way of passing messages to one another, but Yun Shan in the north room started crying too. Hua Qi’s voice rang out. “Hungry, huh? Tuo Tuo! Go milk the goat.”

Tuo Tuo cried out unhappily, “Hua Qi, you kicked my butt again!”

Dou Ming bit off a big mouthful of flatbread and thought to himself that Hua Qi would not learn Xiu Niang’s gentleness even if he spent another five hundred years trying.

After a clattering bout of chaos inside the room, Tuo Tuo pushed the door open with one hand covering half his butt and ran out, puffed up with anger.

Seeing Dou Ming eating, Tuo Tuo very naturally grabbed a flatbread and tore it open, then reached for the chopsticks. But Dou Ming slapped his hand away. “Xiu Niang saved this for me!”

“So what if she saved it for you? What’s wrong with me eating a little? Didn’t you eat your fill on the mountain?” The little ginseng spirit was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He pinched a piece of vegetable leaf from the bowl and immediately ran away. With that single vegetable leaf, he sat beneath the tree and nibbled on his flatbread.

Tuo Tuo had taken a big bite. He chewed it carelessly and tried to swallow, only to choke on the flatbread so badly his eyes rolled back. One hand covered his throat while the other, still holding the flatbread, waved at Xiao Cong. Haltingly, he said, “X-Xiao Cong, get me, get me some water.”

Xiao Cong hurriedly ladled a scoop of water from the water vat, jogged over, and handed it to Tuo Tuo.

After using the water to wash the flatbread down, Tuo Tuo patted his chest, his face full of regret. “You can’t eat flatbread too fast.”

Dou Ming leaned against the doorframe, the flatbread in his hand stuffed full of vegetables.

“Dou Ming, let me dip my flatbread in the soup,” Tuo Tuo said, raising his flatbread and looking at Dou Ming expectantly. “It’s too dry. I can’t swallow it.”

“No. I’m going to dip my flatbread in the soup later,” Dou Ming said mercilessly. “If the flatbread is too dry, eat it with water. Xiao Cong, ladle him another scoop of water so he doesn’t choke again later.”

No one could snatch food from a tiger’s mouth.

Tuo Tuo took a bite of the dry, flavorless flatbread and muttered in his heart, you and Hua Qi are both bad demons.

Xi Jue carried Yun Shan out. Xiao Cong ran over with the little clothes in his hands. “Yun Shan, look. These are the new clothes I made for you. Let’s try them on.”

Yun Shan, who had just eaten his fill, was in a good mood. When Xiao Cong took off his clothes, he thought Xiao Cong was playing with him and twisted his little body, giggling. As he laughed and laughed, drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. Xiao Cong had no time to take off his clothes and quickly pulled a little handkerchief from his clothes, carefully wiping the drool from the corner of Yun Shan’s mouth.

Under Yun Shan’s open clothes, his tender white little chest rose and fell. The ribs that had once been clearly visible were now all hidden beneath flesh. He grinned with his toothless little mouth, his face full of cheerful delight.

“What’s making him so happy?” Qiu Sheng came over carrying Chun Hua. Seeing Yun Shan laughing nonstop, he could not help smiling too. “Let me hold Yun Shan and see how heavy Yun Shan has gotten.”

Qiu Sheng put Chun Hua into the cradle, bent down, and picked up Yun Shan.

As soon as Yun Shan entered Qiu Sheng’s arms, his expression changed at once. The corners of his mouth drooped, and he looked like he was about to cry. Frightened, Qiu Sheng quickly put him down. “Why is he shy with strangers now?”

Shy with strangers? Xiao Cong remembered that back on the mountain, Hong Shan had wanted to hold Yun Shan too. Yun Shan had looked like he was about to cry then as well. At that time, Hong Shan had said he was a demon close to the Little Temple Master.

Xiao Cong picked Yun Shan up from the cradle, and Yun Shan’s face showed no sign of wanting to cry at all. Instead, a smile appeared on his face again. He really was shy with strangers. As expected, Xiao Cong was a demon close to the Little Temple Master. Xiao Cong pressed his lips together and secretly smiled.

“Yun Shan’s new clothes are sewn?” Xiu Niang saw at a glance that the clothes on Yun Shan were not the ones she had made. She came over, held the clothes, and looked back and forth at the stitching twice before praising, “These stitches are so dense and solid. Better than mine.”

Xiao Cong, who was holding Yun Shan, smiled shyly.

The cicadas in the trees started calling again, rising and falling.

Under the tree, Hua Qi and Xiu Niang were cutting chilies and eggplant pieces together.

After Dou Ming finished the flatbread, he patted the flour from his hands, turned back, and hung the basket of flatbreads up on the roof beam again.

Once he reached the tree, he scampered up in a few quick moves.

Qiu Sheng stopped his work and looked up at Dou Ming. “What are you climbing the tree for? There aren’t any bird eggs up there.”

“These cicadas are too noisy. I’m going to pull them down.” Dou Ming hunched his back and lay quietly on the tree. Unlike his usual careless personality, he now looked very much like a silent predator lying in wait.

Dou Ming really was still a child after all. Qiu Sheng shook his head and knocked away with a wooden mallet, fitting the wheel and the cart body together with mortise and tenon joints.

Xiu Niang cut the eggplant a few times, then stopped her knife and looked worriedly up at the tree. Dou Ming pinched a cicada and casually flung it away. The cicada first dropped through the air, then flapped its wings and flew up, landing on an even higher branch.

Dou Ming: ...He had forgotten. Cicadas had wings.

He climbed even higher with light hands and feet. Xiu Niang called out worriedly, “Dou Ming, come down. Climbing too high is dangerous.”

“It’s fine. I’ll catch a few and come down.” Dou Ming caught two cicadas in the tree and nimbly descended.

He brought the cicadas in front of Yun Shan’s eyes. With his other hand, he flicked one cicada’s belly, and the cicada immediately let out a shrill cry.

Yun Shan opened his eyes wide and stared at the cicada, curiously stretching out his little hand.

Dou Ming placed the cicada into Yun Shan’s small hand.

Yun Shan failed to hold it properly, and the cicada fell straight from his hand onto his face. He was so frightened that he opened his mouth wide and froze in a panic, not daring to move. The cicada crawled two steps and actually crawled right into Yun Shan’s mouth.

Dou Ming was startled and hurriedly reached out to pinch the cicada.

“Waaah—” Yun Shan burst into loud tears.

Dou Ming’s finger, which had reached into Yun Shan’s mouth, was bitten instinctively. A human infant’s toothless gums were soft, and the bite did not hurt at all. Dou Ming did not dare force Yun Shan’s mouth open, so he could only coax him softly. “Yun Shan, let go. I’ll take the cicada out.”

Hua Qi’s heart ached. He smacked Dou Ming away and said in an unfriendly tone, “Why did you give him a cicada to play with? He’s this small right now. He can’t play with anything!”

Yun Shan’s mouth was now closed, and Hua Qi could not see where the cicada was. He also could not bear to pry Yun Shan’s little mouth open, so he had no choice but to ask Xiu Niang beside him for help. “What do we do?”

“What else can we do? Open his mouth. Don’t let him swallow the cicada,” Xiu Niang said anxiously.

Hua Qi hesitated for a moment, then reached out and forcefully opened Yun Shan’s mouth. Dou Ming quickly withdrew his hand. The cicada had already crawled to Yun Shan’s throat. Hua Qi hurriedly pinched the cicada out and threw it away.

Yun Shan was still bawling, tears continuously falling from the corners of his eyes.

Hua Qi held the pitiful human cub in his arms and, using the method Xiu Niang had taught him before, walked while rocking him, gently coaxing him. “Good little darling, don’t be scared. Mama’s here. Darling, don’t be scared. Mama’s here.”

After saying this a dozen times in a row, the Little Temple Master in Hua Qi’s arms only kept his mouth wide open and wailed nonstop.

The method from last time was not working. Hua Qi again asked Xiu Niang for help. “Xiu Niang, what do we do? Why is he still crying?”

Xiu Niang touched Yun Shan’s little face and said in distress, “Could his soul have been frightened away? I’ve heard that children’s souls are light, so they’re easily startled. If their soul falls away, they cry easily, and they can also get a fever.”

Hua Qi touched Yun Shan’s little hand and said with certainty, “His soul didn’t fall away. Everything’s fine.”

“Then why does he keep crying?” Xiu Niang did not know either.

Chun Hua in the cradle also started crying in a thin, delicate voice. Xiu Niang quickly held Chun Hua and soothed the children together with Hua Qi.

But no matter how Hua Qi coaxed him, Yun Shan just cried, showing no sign of stopping at all.

Xiu Niang said in a panic, “Could he be sick? Qiu Sheng, hurry and go find Old Zhang to take a look. Huh?”

Why was Yun Shan’s little mouth swollen? There was a red, swollen patch beside his mouth. Could the cicada be poisonous? But she had never heard of cicadas being poisonous. Before cicada nymphs turned into cicadas, they could even be eaten.

In an instant, Xiu Niang linked everything from before and after together in her mind. Finally, her eyes widened as she looked at Hua Qi. “Were you chopping chilies just now and didn’t wash your hands?”

Hua Qi froze for a moment, then nodded. “I—I didn’t wash them.”

“Tuo Tuo, help me hold Chun Hua.” Xiu Niang stuffed Chun Hua into Tuo Tuo’s arms, quickly took a towel down from the clothesline, wet it with water, wrung it half dry, and wiped around Yun Shan’s mouth several times.

Yun Shan’s crying slowly grew quieter. In Hua Qi’s arms, he sobbed and sniffled, looking every bit like a poor little thing. Hua Qi looked at him and did not dare reach out, afraid the chili still on his hands would touch Yun Shan again. He muttered softly, “My fault, my fault. Next time I’ll definitely pay attention.”

“If your hands have chili on them, you can’t touch a child,” Xiu Niang said. “A child’s face is tender.”

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