Scripture of Days Past

However, much to Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi’s surprise, the two Chongming Birds appeared to be very friendly. After descending to the ground, they skipped over to Chu Qiguang’s side as if they wanted to nuzzle him with their huge heads.

Chu Qiguang also felt an instinctive sense of closeness to the two birds. He reached out to stroke their heads, eliciting a series of elated cries from them.

Why do I feel so close to them? Is it because of Shi?

Beast fiends were unable to take on human forms, but they still possessed higher intelligence, and these two Chongming Birds seemed to be completely obedient to him. The two birds were male and one female, and he named them Chitter and Chatter, respectively.

If these two birds are completely obedient to me, then won’t I be able to travel to places much more easily?

With that in mind, Chu Qiguang instructed Chitter to pick him up with its talons and carry him into the sky. These Chongming Birds could easily snatch up adult water buffaloes as prey before dropping them to their deaths, so Chu Qiguang was as light as a feather to them. After some thought, Chu Qiguang decided to bring Qiao Zhi along as well.

”I’m not coming with you!” Qiao Zhi immediately objected. ”I’m terrified of heights!”

Chu Qiguang ignored his objections and scooped him up in his arms. Immediately afterward, Chitter took flight, and Qiao Zhi could only scream in terror as he covered his eyes with his front paws.

Chu Qiguang held Qiao Zhi in his arms, while Chitter carried Chu Qiguang with its talons. As Chitter soared through the sky, Chu Qiguang felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration.

With these two Chongming Bird under my command, traveling and conducting reconnaissance will be a breeze! This basin could easily hold several thousand people, and with these Chongming Birds to transport me, I can come here every day!

He wondered if he could bring some of his fiendish underlings here and develop the basin into a fiendish stronghold. As he continued to recruit more and more fiends, he would eventually be able to establish a fiendish army.

Chu Qiguang wanted Chitter to take him a little higher so that he could get a better view of the area, but Chitter refused. When he asked why, Chitter could only answer with a series of unintelligible chirps and cries. This was the first time that Chitter had openly refused to follow one of his orders, so he had no choice but to give up on the idea.

After surveying the area, Chu Qiguang instructed the two Chongming Birds to drop him and Qiao Zhi off on the rear mountain behind the Wang Clan Village. The journey to the basin had taken the two of them an entire day, but the two Chongming Birds completed the journey in no more than five minutes.

Chu Qiguang instructed Chitter and Chatter to come to the rear mountain at this time every day, then sent them back to the basin. With this arrangement made, he could come to the rear mountain at this time on any day he needed their services.

Now that I’m back at the Wang Clan Village, I may as well visit Ergou’s house. I wonder how his sister is doing.

Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi had only just arrived at the entrance of the Wang Clan Village when they spotted Fine Silk and Fish Egg sitting on a branch of the old locust tree, eagerly awaiting their return.

As soon as they saw Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi, the two cats immediately jumped down from the tree.

Fish Egg threw his paws around Qiao Zhi as he wailed, ”You’re finally back, Master Qiao! We can’t keep living like this anymore!”

Fine Silk was also sobbing inconsolably. ”I don’t want to become a human anymore! I just want to be a cat!”

”How did you two learn to speak so quickly?” Chu Qiguang exclaimed.

Fish Egg released Qiao Zhi, then threw his paws around Chu Qiguang’s leg and complained, ”Your sister is insane! She only sleeps four hours a day at most. She gets up to work before the sun even rises and doesn’t stop working until it’s pitch-black at night!”

”How is that a bad thing? What’s wrong with being hardworking?” Chu Qiguang asked.

”The problem is that her ’work’ consists solely of making us work!” Fish Egg snapped.

”Exactly!” Fine Silk chimed in. ”She makes us till soil, gather compost, catch fish...”

The two cats were talking over each other as they complained about everything Ergou’s sister had made them do. She was extraordinarily patient and insistent in her lessons. For example, she had taught the two cats how to till soil for an entire morning. Then, when they still pretended not to understand, she grabbed their paws and made them perform the task over and over again until they were forced to do it on their own.

”She even tried to teach us to speak! What kind of normal person does that?” Fish Egg exclaimed.

”She thinks that she can teach cats to speak just by constantly talking to us. Now, whenever she says anything, she says it really slowly and she repeats it three times! I feel like my head’s about to explode!” Fine Silk complained.

”But it worked, didn’t it?” Chu Qiguang asked. ”Both of you learned how to speak in such a short time.”

”It only worked because we’re cat fiends, not normal cats, but she doesn’t know that!” Fish Egg snapped. ”Even though we’ve learned how to speak, we can’t speak in front of her, so she’s convinced that she still needs to try harder, and just keeps repeating everything over and over and over and...”

The two cats looked as if they were ready to give up on life, but Chu Qiguang was far from sympathetic. In his eyes, these two cats were far too mentally fragile. If they couldn’t even withstand this amount of pressure, how were they supposed to amount to anything?

Right at that moment, a tiny figure raced over, then dove headfirst into Chu Qiguang’s arms.

It was Ergou’s sister, and she yelled ecstatically, ”What’re you doing here? I came here to look for the cats!”

A disappointed look appeared on her face at the sight of Chu Qiguang’s empty hands.

”Aw, you didn’t bring back any food...”

She then turned to the two cats and reprimanded, ”Fine Silk, Fish Egg, why are you two slacking off again? Let’s get back to work! Fine Silk, Fish Egg, why are you two slacking off again? Let’s get back to work! Fine Silk, Fish Egg, why are you two slacking off again? Let’s get back to work!”

Sure enough, she repeated everything she said to the cats three times, and it was far more unbearable than Chu Qiguang had expected. All of a sudden, he gained a newfound respect for Fine Silk and Fish Egg. The fact that they hadn’t been driven insane after two to three months of this nonsense was truly a remarkable show of mental fortitude.

”Alright, you don’t have to do that,” Chu Qiguang hurriedly interjected. ”There’s no need to repeat everything three times. They understand what you’re saying.”

”No, I have to do this,” Ergou’s sister objected with a shake of her head. ”Cats are really dumb, so they may not be able to understand me even if I tell them three times. I’m planning to repeat everything to them six times in the future.”

Chu Qiguang could almost see the souls leaving the bodies of the two cats in real time.

”What happens if they learn how to talk?” Chu Qiguang asked.

”It shows me that I taught them well!” Ergou’s sister replied in a justified manner.

After asking a few more probing questions, Chu Qiguang discovered that Ergou’s eight-year-old sister was not very bright, and she stubbornly believed that she could teach cats to speak. Furthermore, she didn’t harbor much resentment toward fiends. Clearly, she was just an innocent child who still hadn’t been tainted by the poison of religion and the feudal system.