Xixia Town, Dayong Dynasty
“I’m not leaving!” Three-year-old Tangtang gripped Wu’s thigh for dear life, her dark, round apricot eyes filled with earnestness. “Aunt Wu didn’t keep her word, you’re still seven copper coins short!”
They had clearly agreed before she came that acting as a filial descendant and mourning on behalf of the family would be ten copper coins in total!
She had cried with all her heart and soul without slacking off even a little bit, and her throat was getting hoarse… Why was Aunt Wu only giving her three copper coins?
A trace of grievance welled up in the bottom of Tangtang’s heart. If this kept up, when on earth would she be able to save enough coffin boards for her master?
“Considering the effort you put in, giving you three copper coins is already pretty good! Take your coins and get lost immediately, or I won’t give you even three!”
Wu cursed bad luck inwardly, using a great deal of effort to pry Tangtang away.
If not for her late father-in-law’s dying wish, she wouldn’t have given even three copper coins to this little swindler.
She spent every day following that stubborn old Taoist from Xixia Taoist Temple to bluff and swindle people around these ten miles and eight villages, yet many people actually revered this pair as high-ranking immortals.
“Aunt Wu…” Tangtang clutched her copper coins and muttered, “If the copper coins aren’t enough, Grandpa won’t be able to be reincarnated and will cause big trouble at home…”
A flash of irritation crossed Wu’s face. She reached out her finger and poked Tangtang forcefully on the forehead, leaving a few red marks.
“You little swindler, talking utter nonsense! Having lived in the Taoist temple for two years, do you really think you’re an immortal now? Scram! Or I’ll have people beat you out!”
Wu curled her lips. Wanting to swindle her? This little sham priest was still far from it!
She couldn’t care less if others wanted to play the fool; anyway, she sat upright and walked straight, and she never believed in ghosts or deities!
Tangtang lowered her head in dejection, unhooking the dusty cloth purse from her waist and carefully stuffing the copper coins inside.
“Tangtang isn’t sad. As long as I work hard and cry for a few more families, Shifu’s boards will definitely be enough…” The little girl softly comforted herself, wiping her tears with her sleeves and turning to leave.
By the time she returned to Xixia Taoist Temple, the sky had already grown dark.
“Tangbao, you’re back?” A pitch-black little crow flew two circles around Tangtang, landing steadily on her shoulder.
“Yaya, look what I brought you?” The moment she saw the little crow, Tangtang threw the unpleasantness of the day to the back of her mind.
Only to see the little girl magically produce half a piece of dry, hard flatbread, offering it to the little crow like a prized treasure.
Aunt Wu had given this in the morning, and she had only dared to eat half of it herself.
The little crow tilted its head, its dark, round little eyes spinning and spinning, before it fluttered its wings and flew onto the top of Tangtang’s head after a moment. “Tangbao eat, Yaya is full!”
It was a bird that could fly, capable of finding wild fruits and bugs to eat on its own. No matter what, it would never starve to death.
Yet Tangbao was different from it; always not eating enough would make her sick! It didn’t want Tangbao to lie on the boards like her master!
Tangtang swallowed hard, struggling to ignore her rumbling stomach, and held the half piece of flatbread a little higher. “Shifu said we must know how to share. Yaya and Tangtang are good friends, Yaya eat!”
Ever since Master lay down on the boards, she had to go out every day to cry at funerals for copper coins. Yaya guarded Master in the Taoist temple and couldn’t even eat a single full meal a day; its pretty feathers weren’t as glossy as before…
Thinking of this, Tangtang couldn’t help sniffing. She no longer had a master, and she couldn’t afford to lose Yaya too.
“I can’t finish an entire crow’s share, let’s split it into two halves and eat together!” The little crow thought for a long while, fearing that Tangtang would refuse, and hurriedly added, “If Tangbao doesn’t eat, Yaya won’t eat either!”
Left with no other choice, Tangtang could only break her palm-sized flatbread in half, handing the larger half to Yaya.
Tangtang finished eating quickly and walked by the moonlight toward the room where Daoist Qingfeng lived.
Pushing open the door, she saw a hard wooden bed draped with a grayish-white coarse cloth sheet. Daoist Qingfeng, with his grayish-white complexion and tightly closed eyes, lay quietly upon it.
Tangtang moved her feet to the bedside, her eyes turning red when she spoke: “Shifu…”
If it were before, upon hearing her little disciple’s grievance-laden voice, Daoist Qingfeng would have bounced three feet high long ago, shouting about going to settle accounts with whoever made his disciple unhappy.
Seeing that the person on the bed didn’t move, Tangtang stood on tiptoe and gently shook Daoist Qingfeng’s arm.
“Shifu, Tangtang doesn’t want you to wash up anymore… Shifu, wake up…”
“It’s all Tangtang’s fault, it’s Tangtang’s carelessness for not noticing Shifu wasn’t feeling well…”
“Tangtang is a wild little kid without a daddy, I don’t want to not have a shifu either…”
The little girl’s intermittent sobbing made Yaya’s heart ache intensely, leaving it to clumsily pat Tangtang’s shoulder with its wing.
“Thud—” Following a loud crash came the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, along with a faint, muffled groan.
With teardrops hanging on her eyelashes, Tangtang looked over in astonishment and spotted a large, pitch-black unidentified object.
At this moment, she couldn’t spare the energy to be sad. Picking up the half-section peach-wood sword from Daoist Qingfeng’s bedside, she slowly shuffled toward that large lump.
Standing on Tangtang’s shoulder with all its feathers ruffled, the little crow stared fixedly with its pair of dark little eyes at the unidentified object.
Holding its breath in nervousness, Tangtang boldly poked the thing on the ground, then tilted her head to listen closely for a moment.
Breathing!
It’s a live person!
“Tangtang, it’s a person!” The little crow cried out at the top of its lungs, then flapped its wings and landed on the person’s body.
A heavy, pungent smell of blood rushed into their noses, wafting strong enough to make Yaya wave its wings continuously: “The person is bleeding, they’re hurt!”
Tangtang froze for a moment, taking short steps forward to see by the moonlight a large patch of deep crimson bloodstains staining his light-colored robes.
The little girl gasped in shock, taking two steps back and sitting flat on the ground.
She turned her head to look at Daoist Qingfeng on the bed. Could it be that Master manifested his spirit upon hearing her words?
But Master struck much too heavily. What should she do if he beat someone like this and they couldn’t wake up?
Using both hands and feet, Tangtang scrambled up and hurried back to her room.
When she came back out, her hands already held a bottle of medicinal powder for wounds and a roll of gauze.
This was a dad that Master had gone to great effort to catch; she couldn’t let down Master’s heartfelt intentions!
“Tangbao, what if they’re a bad person?” Seeing Tangtang return, the little crow asked worriedly.
The origins of this bloody lump of a person were unknown, and it was afraid Tangtang’s good intentions wouldn’t be rewarded…
“Yaya, don’t worry! This is the dad Shifu found for Tangtang!” The little girl’s eyes shone brightly.
Master was the best master under heaven, even more responsive than the little turtle in the wishing pool!
With eyes full of disbelief, Yaya knew Daoist Qingfeng had been lying on the boards for several days already. Where on earth did he go to find a dad for Tangbao?
It opened its beak, but ultimately swallowed the words back down.
Fine! As long as Tangtang was happy, a dad was a dad!
If this bloody lump of a person turned out to be ungrateful, it would call a bunch of good crow friends to peck him all over until he was full of bleeding holes!