Legend Management Bureau Chapter 46

[ … words ]

Du Yu finished bandaging the tiger demon’s wounds and led it down the mountain.

The tiger demon followed behind him, its eyes scanning the surroundings with vigilance. Soon, Du Yu brought it to the wooden cabin at the foot of the mountain.

Before knocking, Du Yu glanced back at the tiger demon and noticed it staring at the cabin, looking incredibly nervous.

“It seems my guess was right.”

Du Yu knocked on the door and said, “Yatou, I brought Sihuang.”

The cabin door slowly creaked open, and the old woman peeked out. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had just finished crying her heart out.

“Sihuang—” Upon seeing the tiger demon, the old woman threw herself at it, and a sorrowful expression crossed the beast’s face.

One human and one demon clung to each other, weeping bitterly.

Du Yu watched them quietly for a long time before speaking in a gentle tone. “I’ve fulfilled both of your wishes. I protected Sihuang and reunited the two of you. So, isn’t it time you fulfilled my wish?”

Du Yu fell silent for a moment before replying, “I want to know everything. About the two of you, your deceased son, and your history with the county magistrate… What exactly happened?”

Hearing this, the old woman slowly stood up. She opened the door wider to let Du Yu inside, then poured him a bowl of floral tea.

“My lord, you have shown great kindness to both of us. If you truly wish to know, then allow this old woman to tell you.”

The old woman’s weather-beaten eyes flickered. She parted her lips and slowly began to recount a profoundly tragic tale—

It was forty-four years ago when a hunter’s family moved to the foot of Mount Yunmeng.

Calling them a family was a bit of a stretch, as there were only two of them. A weathered old man and a young girl, no older than eleven or twelve, lived in that dilapidated wooden cabin.

The old man was named Zheng Liu, and the little girl had no name. The man simply called her Yatou.

The townsfolk initially assumed they were father and daughter. But after asking around, they discovered that Zheng Liu had abducted the girl from somewhere, keeping her around to eventually be his wife.

Every day or two, Zheng Liu would take his bow and arrows up the mountain to hunt, while Yatou foraged for wild vegetables near the cabin. Though their life was destitute, they never went hungry.

Zheng Liu was a highly skilled hunter, always returning from the mountain with a bountiful haul. These days continued for a long time, until one winter when he captured a tiger cub.

For some unknown reason, the cub had been wandering the mountain all alone, with no mother in sight. Zheng Liu acted decisively, piercing its hind leg with a single arrow. He then bound its four limbs with rope and tossed it into the backyard.

Seeing that the heavy winter snow was about to seal off the mountain, Zheng Liu checked the weather and calculated when to slaughter the cub to sustain them for a few days. Perhaps its pelt could even be fashioned into a new hat for himself.

Yatou, however, took an interest in the little tiger. Whenever Zheng Liu wasn’t looking, she would sneak over with bits of dried meat to feed it. She even carefully bandaged its wound and applied medicinal herbs. Perhaps in that lonely wooden cabin, she considered this little tiger to be her only friend.

Yatou named the cub Sihuang, because its golden fur shone so brilliantly.

One day, staring out at the heavy snowfall, Zheng Liu frowned and told the girl, “Yatou, I won’t be able to go up the mountain for the next few days. Let’s butcher that tiger cub tomorrow and eat it.”

Hearing those words, Yatou’s heart clenched.

The wind howled and the snow fell heavily. Outside, the tiger cub shivered in the freezing storm.

Unable to bear the thought of eating the cub, Yatou crept out that very night, untied the ropes binding Sihuang’s limbs, and set it free.

When Zheng Liu found out, he flew into a rage and beat Yatou mercilessly. Firstly, her actions had directly cost them days’ worth of rations. Secondly, she had committed a hunter’s greatest taboo—releasing a tiger back into the mountains.

If they waited until the spring blossoms bloomed and the cub had grown, it would inevitably come down the mountain for revenge.

But the immediate problem was: could their remaining rations even last until spring? For a fleeting moment, Zheng Liu was seized by the urge to kill Yatou and eat her meat instead.

After weighing his options, Zheng Liu decided to throw on his cloak and chase after the injured cub through the night. It had a wounded hind leg and had starved for days; it couldn’t have gone far. And so, on that night of swirling, arrogant snow, Zheng Liu marched into Mount Yunmeng.

He left, and never returned.

Yatou waited in the cabin for an entire night, seized by a strange premonition. Perhaps from this day forward, she would never have to see that filthy old man again.

Sure enough, the second day passed, then the third, and he still did not return. Even after the snowstorm ceased, he remained missing. Yatou survived by eating chunks of snow from outside the cabin, her body quickly wasting away until she was completely emaciated. She didn’t know how to feel. She supposed she felt awful, yet she couldn’t shed a single tear.

Finally, on the morning of the fourth day, Yatou was awakened by a rustling sound outside her door. She draped clothes over her shoulders and opened the door, only to see the lively tiger cub. It had a wild hare clamped in its jaws. Upon seeing Yatou, the cub dropped the hare in front of her and scampered off without looking back, its plump little figure leaving a trail of paw prints in the snow.

Yatou scooped up the hare, which still carried a trace of body heat, experiencing a complex swirl of emotions she couldn’t quite name.

Thanks to that hare, Yatou managed to avoid starving to death during the bitterest part of winter. From then on, every two or three days, the cub would deliver prey to her doorstep. Yatou watched as Sihuang slowly grew into a fierce, towering tiger, just as Sihuang witnessed Yatou blossom from a little girl into a young woman.

She didn’t know at what age it happened, but Yatou eventually grew accustomed to the prey Sihuang routinely delivered, almost as if the tiger were the man of the house going out to hunt for them.

The change in their routine all started on one particular day.

That day, Sihuang dropped its fresh catch at the cabin door as usual, rubbed its back affectionately against the wood, and departed.

When Yatou stepped outside to check, her face instantly drained of color.

This time, the “prey” was actually a human infant, barely clinging to life.

Panic-stricken, Yatou hurried the infant inside and scrambled to warm his freezing little body. She cooked some rice gruel to feed him, and as she watched his breathing gradually steady, the heavy stone of anxiety in her chest finally lifted.

But where had this baby come from?

Yatou hiked up the mountain to find the fierce tiger, desperate to know where Sihuang had gotten the child. Although she harbored no fear of the beast she had watched grow up, she had no way to communicate with it. Unable to uncover the baby’s origins, she was left in a difficult bind. Her only option was to go door-to-door in Qi County, inquiring if anyone had lost a child. She found no answers. Instead, it wasn’t long before rumors ran rampant through the county, claiming that the lone girl living outside of town had birthed a bastard child with some unknown man, and now the father was nowhere to be found.

Outraged by the gossip, Yatou fled the county, resolving to raise the child all on her own in the wilderness.

In the blink of an eye, many years passed, and the child was over ten years old. For all those years, Yatou kept his true origins a secret, simply telling him that she was his mother, and that his father had gone hunting in the mountains years ago and never returned.

Yatou named the boy Mengshan. She had no surname herself and didn’t know what surname to give him. Remembering that he had been brought by the fierce tiger from the nearby Mount Yunmeng, she settled on the name Mengshan.

Yatou poured all her love and devotion into Mengshan, but the boy grew up to be like a malevolent, life-draining spirit.

From a young age, Mengshan loved catching insects just to pluck off their legs one by one, watching in cruel fascination as they convulsed in agony.

As he grew older, Mengshan discovered Sihuang, who still delivered prey every few days. The boy started ambushing the tiger with sharp tools. Having watched Mengshan grow up, Sihuang naturally couldn’t bear to hurt him and would simply flee time and time again. The tiger didn’t understand what it had done wrong, nor could it tell Yatou about the attacks.

Then, one fateful day, Yatou was jolted awake by a sharp, stabbing pain in her arm. She opened her eyes to see Mengshan holding a pair of bloody scissors, and a deep, gaping gash sliced across her arm.

Horrified, Yatou grabbed Mengshan and scolded him with utmost gravity, “Mengshan! You cannot hurt people! Especially not your own mother!”

Mengshan merely offered a cold, mocking smile. “Why can’t I hurt people?” he asked. “If people can hurt animals, why can’t they hurt other people? Why does you being my mother mean I can’t hurt you?”

Yatou’s blood ran cold. Mengshan was only eleven years old that year!

No matter how much love Yatou showered upon him, she never received a shred of affection in return. As Mengshan grew older, their daily life morphed into a living nightmare.

By the time Mengshan turned twenty, he began longing for the bustling life of the county town. With its bustling streets and crowds of people, it was far more exciting than their isolated cabin. While in town, he would hear the malicious gossip about Yatou. People would hurl vile jokes about his mother and spin rumors about her seducing men. Mengshan found it deeply amusing. He would laugh along with them, then return home to gleefully repeat every filthy word to Yatou.

Hearing such filth spew from her own son’s mouth left Yatou washing her face with tears every single day. She didn’t understand why her life had to be so utterly miserable. Abducted by a disgusting old man as a child, she had finally found a reason to live, only for it to turn into a demon bent on tormenting her!

From dawn till dusk, Yatou felt as though there wasn’t a single soul she could talk to. She was drowning in an endless sea of loneliness, helplessness, and utter despair.

Until one day, Sihuang spoke.

When Sihuang first spoke, Yatou remained entirely expressionless. Perhaps the torment of her tragic life had finally driven her mad—how could the ferocious tiger she had watched grow from a cub suddenly start talking?

It was only after a long time that the sheer impossibility of the situation finally sank in. Sihuang could truly speak.

Yet, Yatou felt no fear. She was only filled with pure, unadulterated joy. Now, she finally had a companion. And her companion wasn’t some terrifying, malicious human, but Sihuang—the very creature she had depended on for survival for the past two or three decades!

Sihuang also noticed that whenever it spoke, Yatou looked so incredibly happy. So, it made sure to visit her every few days just to chat.

But what bewildered Sihuang was that whenever it bounded up to the hunters on the mountain to strike up a conversation, they would all flee in absolute terror.

They were all humans, so why were their reactions so vastly different from Yatou’s? Having just awakened its intelligence, Sihuang couldn’t wrap its head around it at all.

Sihuang gave Yatou the strength to keep living. She gave up on trying to discipline Mengshan. After all, Mengshan was nearing forty and remained a lazy idler, loafing around the county town every day. Mother and son had become total strangers, going long periods without exchanging a single word.

That was until one day, three years ago, when an incident occurred.

Even now, just thinking about it made Yatou tremble uncontrollably.