3 – The White Tiger Delivers the Sheep
The entire village was jolted awake, trembling under their quilts.
It had been many years since the village had experienced tiger troubles—were they about to start again?
Only the little dumpling slept soundly, a sweet smile gracing her face in her dreams.
When dawn finally broke, the villagers found nothing missing from their homes. Only the Bai family discovered several large paw prints in their courtyard and a plump, snow-white sheep in the abandoned pigsty!
A patch of wool was missing from the sheep’s neck, likely bitten off by a magical creature. Bai Renyi seemed to understand something and hurried over to the sheep. Gritting his teeth, he reached under its belly and felt two udders swollen with milk!
“It’s that white tiger—it brought milk for our Tiger Girl,” Bai Renyi exclaimed, overjoyed and unable to stop grinning. He rushed inside to report to his wife.
Cui Shi was still in bed because the little dumpling was clinging to her, nuzzling into her chest. If Cui Shi moved even slightly, the little dumpling would furrow her tiny brows in displeasure.
Hearing the news, Cui Shi was astonished and whispered, “How strange! Could that white tiger be so intelligent that it knows Tiger Girl has no milk to drink?”
“I don’t care if it’s strange or not. Since Tiger Girl has come to our family, she’s our child, and we must cherish and love her dearly.”
As he spoke, Bai Renyi gently pinched his little daughter’s cheek, his voice so tender it gave even him goosebumps. “Little Tigress, don’t sleep anymore. Will Daddy hold you and take you to drink some sheep’s milk?”
With so many Bai family boys before, tenderness was nonexistent.
But this little daughter was different. She was as delicate as a porcelain doll, and Bai Renyi feared that speaking too loudly might startle his precious girl.
Hearing there was sheep’s milk to drink, the little daughter opened her tiny mouth in a big yawn, her face scrunching up. She grunted and strained to open her eyes a few times before finally waking up.
Bai Renyi’s heart melted at the sight of the soft little milk dumpling.
“Little Tigress, Daddy will hold you and take you to drink milk,” Bai Renyi said, reaching out to pick up the little dumpling.
Unexpectedly, the little dumpling wriggled her small body, kicked her tiny legs a few times, grunted with effort, and let out a loud fart.
Bai Renyi, hit square in the face by his daughter’s fart, wasn’t angry at all. Instead, he took a deep breath and declared, “Even my daughter’s farts smell sweet…”
Cui Shi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here he was, a man in his thirties who had been a grandfather several times over, acting like an overgrown child—so utterly enchanted by a little dumpling!
Bai Renyi paid no mind to his wife’s exasperated eye-roll. After tending to the little dumpling’s needs, he carried her out to feed.
When his sons saw their father carrying the little dumpling, they thought they were seeing things.
Since they could remember, their father had never held them. As children, whenever they were bullied outside and sought comfort in his arms, he would roar at them until they scurried away.
Later, when they had sons of their own, they thought things might improve. But they were wrong—their father not only refused to hold his grandsons but couldn’t even be bothered to look at them!
So, they had always believed their father disliked children.
But now!
Seeing their father cradling the little dumpling, his eyes overflowing with adoration, they finally understood a fundamental truth: their father didn’t dislike children—he just disliked boys!
“What are you standing around for? Hurry up and bring the sheep inside!”
Bai Renyi’s sudden roar made his three sons jump. They immediately scrambled to lead the sheep into the house.The sheep was pure white all over, with soft wool and large, dewy eyes. Its gaze at the little dumpling was full of maternal affection, as if looking at its own child.
Bai Renyi bent down and placed the little dumpling beside the sheep. Smelling the scent of milk, the little dumpling crawled under the sheep’s belly in two quick movements. Her chubby little hands grabbed a teat, and her small mouth accurately latched onto it, sucking vigorously.
The sheep was very docile, never getting impatient no matter how much the little dumpling nudged it. The milk was plentiful, and though the little dumpling had a big appetite, she only drank half of it before feeling full.
She crawled out from under the sheep’s belly, a drop of milk hanging at the corner of her mouth. With her toothless grin, she giggled innocently at Bai Renyi.
That laugh melted Bai Renyi’s heart. He kissed her tender cheek with his stubbly face, but the prickly sensation made the little dumpling immediately furrow her tiny brows.
Seeing this, Bai Renyi burst into laughter.
Bai Sikeng and Bai Wukeng were drooling over the sheep’s milk. Bai Wukeng’s little paws were almost reaching under the sheep’s belly when Cui Shi smacked him on the head: “The sheep’s milk is for your little aunt! No one else is allowed to drink it!”
Bai Wukeng rubbed his bald head and muttered: “Sheep’s milk is for Little Piggy… no drinking!”
Despite her words, Cui Shi still milked the remaining milk the little dumpling hadn’t finished. During breakfast, all five “Keng” grandsons had a full bowl of sheep’s milk in front of them.
A minor dispute arose during breakfast because everyone in the family wanted to hold the little dumpling while eating. The men were relatively restrained, but the sisters-in-law nearly came to blows over it.
Finally, Cui Shi had to decide that the three sisters-in-law would take turns holding her in order of age, starting with the eldest daughter-in-law during breakfast.
Though the second and third daughters-in-law were dissatisfied, they didn’t dare contradict their mother-in-law.
The eldest daughter-in-law, Tian E, was overjoyed. She washed her hands thoroughly, took her little sister-in-law from Cui Shi’s arms, and trembled with excitement the moment she held her. Ah, this was what having a little girl felt like!
After marrying into the Bai family, she had given birth to Bai Dakeng and Bai Erkeng—two rascally boys who grew more troublesome by the day. They were nothing like this adorable, soft little girl who felt like holding a small cotton bundle in her arms.
While Tian E held her little sister-in-law during the meal, the other two sisters-in-law watched with envious eyes nearly popping out.
“Eldest sister-in-law, let me hold her for a bit…”
“Eldest sister-in-law, just for a little while, please…”
Tian E held the little dumpling tightly, guarding against her sisters-in-law as if they were wolves, afraid they might snatch the little one away at any moment.
…
News of the Bai family adopting a little girl, along with the story of a tiger delivering a fat sheep to them at night, quickly spread through the village.
At the village entrance stood a large stone where the women habitually gathered to chat, its surface worn smooth over years of use.
“Hey, have you heard? The Bai family picked up a little girl! They say the old couple encountered a white tiger while gathering herbs in the mountains, and the tiger brought the girl to them! Last night’s tiger roar came from their house too—some say it was delivering sheep’s milk for the little girl!” Granny Li described it vividly, as if she had witnessed it herself.
“Is it really that strange? Could that little girl be some kind of monster? Why else would a white tiger not eat her?”
“I think there’s something off about this too. If the Bai family really brought a monster home, we can’t let it stay in our village!”