Chapter 48: Chapter 46: The Farm Dog and the Starveling

With sweat pouring down his back, his hair soaked, and his fingers black with dirt, he finally stood up to take his hat off and fan himself with it. The sun was straight above him bearing down with all its midday strength and Lang Lang frowned to himself. Where had the time gone!? He felt like he had only just set the cup of rice porridge beside Hong and started working on planting for the season and now it was already midday. Where had the morning bird cries gone? When did the sun reach the top of the sky?

 

He placed his hands on his hips and sighed. Time sure flew when you were having fun!

 

Two withered old hands clasped his and he looked down at the kindly soft face of the elderly Chang. “Oh Lang Lang,” she said. “You didn’t have to help this old woman, my grandson would come help me in the afternoon.”

 

“It’s fine,” Lang Lang said kindly, moving one of his hands to clasp her hands between his. “I finished my own rows and when I saw you by yourself I couldn’t just leave you alone.”

 

Chang shook her head with a smile, “ahh, nothing I can’t handle by myself. My husband called me an ox for a reason.”

 

Lang Lang laughed, “Little Sister Chang became very strong! I think an ox would be envious. But still, I’m fine with helping you whenever you need. Remember, the doctor said you should only push yourself until noon, at most!”

 

“Very well then, and I will always have a cup of broth and a bone ready for you, how about that?” Chang insisted, reaching up to pat Lang Lang’s head. He leaned into the touch slightly, sighing as it sent a familiar warmth into him. Nearby, the laughter of children echoed as they raced around the fields and a concern stirred in his cold chest.

 

“Oh!” Lang Lang stepped away from the old woman to look around back into the village. It was really more of a large town, verging on a city at this point, with houses clustered beside buildings and a variety of materials used in their construction that gave the entire place a messy patchwork look. But every street began, or ended, in the center where the shrine was. “Ah, I have to go check on the little girl!”

 

“Then go ahead! Don’t let this old lady keep you any longer than she already has!” Chang encouraged.

 

Lang Lang politely bowed out with grace at Chang’s bidding and placed his hat back on his head. With a sweep of his tail he went back the wide dirt road to the shrine. People were bustling about, waving or calling out greetings to him as they went about their day. He waved or called out back to them. He knew each of them by name, every single one of them. From the ones he plucked from hopeless despair and suffering, to those who had never known a life outside the village.

 

A woman in fine clothes appeared, holding baskets of flowers. She paused in her step to look at Lang Lang. “Hey! What are you doing? Weren’t you helping Chang?”

 

“I finished for the day,” he replied. “You should come help me one day, we’ll finish even sooner.”

 

“You want this old lady to work the fields!?” The woman said, incensed. “You’re excessively cruel, my lord.”

 

“Sister Hua, why are you out so early anyway?” Lang Lang glanced back at the basket. Just flowers.

 

“I wanted to try selling early in the morning, but then I got caught up in something,” she replied awkwardly.

 

“Sister Hua was gossiping again, wasn’t she?”

 

“Urgh, you say it like I’m a child spreading lies,” she huffed. “Besides, I need some way to entertain myself. You should really invest in building a stage here for plays or something.”

 

Lang Lang tipped his head at the suggestion. “...A stage? Oh! That’s actually a really good idea! I should ask some of the old men about it. Thank you!”

 

Hua shrugged, “you’re welcome I guess. I’m going home now. Too much daylight makes me sick.”

 

Lang Lang waved good bye to the woman and carried on in his trip.

 

Merchants bickered with bargainers and people dashed here and there, some going home, others heading to the plentiful fields that surrounded the village. Children ran around the legs of adults as street vendors hawked their foods or crafts.

 

Yet the center of the town was eerily quiet as he approached the shrine. No matter how welcoming he was, the humans and animals had a natural avoidance of a place steeped in such darkness. Even with the sun high in the sky, he could feel the air noticeably become cooler as he went to the door of the shrine, the bone chimes swaying in an unfelt breeze.

 

The shrine looked small outside, but as his nexus he could make the inside as large as he wanted to. He stepped inside and felt a familiar invigorating chill rush through his bones, the sweat vanishing from his body as he approached the statues of his mistress and himself.

 

He ignored the image of himself to stare up at the face of his long gone mistress. Her face was serene and warm and inviting and everything he remembered. His hands reached out and touched the wood that had been carefully carved to mimic the flowing fabric of a skirt.

 

“I wish you were here,” he said out loud to the statue.

 

His fingers traced downwards slowly to the offering bowl at her feet. Someone had left a spindle of silk, flowers, and a small satchel of seeds.

 

“You would like it here, I always say that but I really mean it. He wouldn’t have hurt you here,” he continued, seeing flames in his mind. The scent of burning flesh and fur. His throat became dry. “Everything is peaceful here, the people are kind… you said once it’d be an ideal world if people were nice and helped each other. So I’m doing that, I’m doing the best I can. I can’t change people but I hope that if I’m nice, the kindness will spread to others.” He felt his shoulders shaking and tried to steady them.

 

His hands dropped to his sides but he continued looking up at the serene face staring down at him, “...if you were here, you’d see how nice people can be and you would be happy. I’m still going to get stronger, like you said I should. I couldn’t… I couldn’t protect you, but maybe by doing this I can make your will come true?”

 

He ached, terribly. He could feel old wounds manifesting again in his soul, but he swallowed the pain down and smiled, “I hope you’re somewhere nice.”

 

Lang Lang walked around the statues to the door behind them and went through. It opened into a short hall that had several other doors. There was only one that was open and he immediately went into it.

 

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Inside a small girl laid on a small wooden bed curled into a defensive ball like a scared puppy. Next to her was a small table with untouched dried out rice porridge. Lang Lang sighed in worried exasperation as he picked up the wasted food and sat down next to the little ball.

 

“You didn’t eat at all,” he commented, rubbing her back. He could feel her spine pushing against the skin and removed his hand. This could no longer go on. Lang Lang thought he had gotten through to her before but she had just as quickly receded back into her shell. Zhu Er was a strange little girl. All pale, scarred, small and red haired with a stance more like an abandoned puppy than a child. When she spoke, which was rare, she had a bouncy halting accent and clearly had only recently begun picking up on the language.

But he had dealt with near feral children before. Some spent their entire lives with Lang Lang. He was fine with that so long as they eventually became happy. But Zhu Er was going to have a very short life if she kept refusing to eat!

 

“...Go… away…” the small voice hissed weakly. “I don’t like you.”

 

His ears flattened. He got up and left the child to go clean out the cup and get more rice porridge in the small kitchen near her room. What sort of life had she lived up to now? To have such a distrusting heart. Was it the fault of the people she had called out to? He crouched down next to the hearth to watch the rice and water settle in the pot.

 

If his mistress was there, maybe she would have the gentle touch needed to make Zhu Er open up again.

 

Lang Lang hardened his heart for what he would have to do. He did not like making anyone upset but sometimes one had to do unfortunate things for long term good.

 

This was something he learned a long time ago.

 

After the rice had been reduced to a somewhat sticky and mostly mushy consistency he filled a larger bowl with it this time and took the ladle with him as well for good measure.

 

Lang Lang walked down the hall again and back into the room where she remained in the same position he had left her in. He walked over to her and sat down on the bed beside her while holding the food in front of her. “Zhu Er, you need to eat.”

“.......No.”

 

“Please, you’re getting so small,” Lang Lang pleaded, leaning over her and resting a hand on her ribs. “You might die if you don’t eat.”

 

“No…” she shook her head.

 

He rolled her onto her back and looked down at her. Her cheeks had never been particularly plump but now they were sunken and her eyes were dark even though she did nothing but sleep. He held the food out to her. “Please eat, Zhu Er.”

 

“No.”

 

“I won’t keep asking,” he warned in a stern voice. He summoned up all of his strictness and steeled himself for the answer he hoped would not come. She moved her eyes dully in their sockets to look up at him. He gave her a small hopeful smile in return. “Just a bite or two, okay? Just so you get better. I want to help you, little sister.”

 

She drew in a dry breath and spoke so quietly he barely heard her word, “no.”

 

Lang Lang’s smile vanished into a soundless snarl. “I won’t be nice anymore then, little sister,” he answered as he pinched her nose shut. She was too weak to do much more than raise her skinny hands to uselessly pound at his arm. He glared down at her as she stared up at him in terror. He looked down at her with frustrated worry, waiting for her to give in as her face started gradually turning red. “Open your mouth.”

 

She pursed her lips and sank brittle nails into his arms.

 

“Little sister, I don’t like being mean but I’ll break your arms and crush your nose if I need to,” Lang Lang spoke darkly, flashing his sharp teeth at her in warning. He really did not like being cruel or mean to his people but sometimes there was no other way. “I’ll break every little finger and pull out all your teeth.” He meant none of it, but the black tone of his speech made her eyes grow ever wider.

 

Finally she opened her mouth to take a deep gasp of air, and before she could shut it he shoved some of the clumpy rice porridge into her mouth. Then he covered her mouth with his hand instead and stared down at her until she finally swallowed the lump of food in her mouth.

 

He felt a sense of relief inside that he did not show on his face. Finally she had eaten something! But while earlier he would have been fine with the single bite, his patience had run out.

 

Picking up the ladle he scooped another small mouthful of the rice porridge and pressed it against her lips. Zhu Er immediately pursed her lips again and tried to turn her head.

 

“Again then?” He pinched her nose shut again and brought his face close to hers. “Don’t think I won’t hurt you, little sister. You’re being very bad. Do you want to see what happens to bad people?” His voice was icy and his fingers squeezed a little harder.

 

This time she relented far more quickly.

 

Gradually he got her to eat everything that was in the bowl without any more painful coercion. She hiccuped and cried a little through the bites and muttered in gibberish to herself. Once she had finished everything in the bowl Lang Lang pulled her into his lap and wrapped her in a blanket. He tucked her head beneath his chin and rubbed her back. “Zhu Er I’m sorry,” he said softly to her. “You need to eat though. You’re so thin. I promise you things aren’t bad here, and I won’t do it again so long as you promise you’ll eat now okay?”

 

She garbled something, then said weakly, “I want Liu Xie and Uncle Rui and Gege and Bo and Mama and home and…” She started babbling in a strange bouncing language.

 

Lang Lang shook his head and held her more firmly, “I can’t give you them. But things are nice here. I promise. You don’t need to like me, Zhu Er. But you need to get better. One day you’ll get to go into the village and make lots of friends and you’ll be happy. I promise.” He said softly, kissing the top of her head and continuing to cradle her in his arms.

 

Things were good in the village. One day he hoped she would realize that. Even if she hated him, she could find happiness elsewhere in the village and that would be fine with him.

 

He just had to keep trying, to comfort her and gently coax her from her pain built walls. Maybe if the people she called out for were nice, they could stay too if he ever found them.

 

Lang Lang rubbed her back and remained still as she settled into sleep. He closed his eyes as well to rest for a while. He still wanted to go check on the fields later when the sun had gone down and speak with the doctor.

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