Chapter 3: Ah Chou and Niu Niu

  That winter, Niu Niu's mother fell ill. Perhaps she could have withstood an ordinary illness, but this time it was different. She was very seriously ill, and day by day, Niu Niu's mother grew weaker and more haggard. Eventually, she couldn't even struggle to go out and beg anymore.

  One day, the frail and thin Niuniang lay in the broken temple, with sunlight shining on her body. The sun was still radiant, but her complexion remained pale and wan.

  Niu Niu lay on her mother's body, crying helplessly. Ah Chou was on the other side, with tears welling up in his eyes, but he held them back and didn't let them fall. Since that afternoon when he cried for a whole day in Huan Shan Village, crying until his eyes were swollen and hoarse, he hadn't cried again, as if his tears had dried up since then.

  Niuniu's daughter held Niuniu's thin hand with one hand and pulled A'chou with the other, her eyes were so sad, that kind of helplessness, desolation, nostalgia, attachment and pain mixed together in her gaze, it was heartbreaking to see.

  "Ah Chou, Niu Niu... I'm counting on you..."

  Niuniu knew that Ah Chou was still young and that this stubborn child refused to go begging. He couldn't even take care of himself, but she had no one else to entrust him to. The beggars in the temple all shunned her, looking at her with cold eyes as she lay dying, unable to see a shred of sympathy in their numb gazes.

  "Niuniu..."

  Niuniu's mother let out a long sigh, her frail hand weakly placed on Niuniu's head, gently stroking it a few times before slowly passing away. Her eyes remained open, and a single tear rolled down from the corner of her eye to her cheek.

  "Mother! Mother......"

  Niu Niu hugged her mother's body and burst into loud sobs.

  Ah-Chou's eyes turned red, he bit his teeth and held back tears as he gently closed Niu-Niu's eyes and stood up to walk out.

  Niu Niu lay on her mother's body, crying all the time. When she cried until she had no strength to cry out loud, Ah Chou came back.

  Ah Qi was like a little dog that had rolled around in the mud, covered in dirt all over his body. He walked back to the broken temple with no energy, sat down next to Niu Niu with a thud, and panted for a long time before pulling up the half-broken bamboo mat and pushing Niu Niu's mother onto it, grabbing hold of the mat and dragging her out of the broken temple.

  On the lawn by the small river, Ah Chou dug a hole with a stick and his hands.

  When people die, they should rest in peace.

  His loved ones, his parents, and his sister all turned into a pile of ashes in the raging fire. At that time, he was like Niu Niu, only crying in terror and helplessness. After regaining some consciousness, he escaped from the mountain village. Now he at least has the strength to let Niu Niu's mother rest in peace, rather than becoming a discarded corpse in a ditch.

  Ah-Chou used his worn-out and blood-soaked hands to bury Niu-Niu in a pit, stuck a small wooden board in front of the grave as a makeshift tombstone, and then had no more energy to move.

  From then on, Ah Chou and Yaoyao relied on each other for survival, like siblings.

  She no longer calls him ā Chǒu, but instead calls him ā Xiōng, and he still calls her Niū Niū.

  Ah-Chui still insisted on stealing and was often beaten, so the two of them were often hungry.

  Niuniu was taken care of by her mother since she was young, and she didn't quite understand how to beg. Often, the territory where she could get something would be occupied by other beggars, so she couldn't get much to eat. One time, she was bitten by a vicious dog raised by a family, and she couldn't move for several days. Ah Chou also couldn't steal anything, and Niuniu was about to starve to death.

  A'chu was like a desperate wolf, crouching beside the dying Niu Niu, staring at her with a mournful gaze. Niu Niu had no idea what A'chu was thinking, in fact she had never been able to understand him. All she knew was that A'chu was good to her, and since their mother's death, he was the only family she had left in this world.

  Ah Qi gazed at her with a distant look, staring for a long time before tightening his emaciated belly with a grass rope and walking out with weak steps.

  The beggars in the temple immediately became indignant, saying that Niu Niu's mother had raised a white-eyed wolf, Ah Chou had abandoned Niu Niu to fend for herself and no longer cared about her, but they couldn't bear to take out a piece of food they had begged for.

  Niang Niang didn't believe them, she didn't believe that her brother who climbed high up the tree to touch birds' eggs for her, who used branches to swat flies for her, and who caught small fish for her to eat would abandon her. She believed that her brother would come back, perhaps... her brother had gone to dig a grave for her, just like when he buried their mother.

  She thought that she would soon see her mother, and her heart was filled with joy and tranquility. Thinking that she would have to part with her brother from now on, she felt a pang of reluctance and melancholy. She didn't know what the world of death was like, but her instinctive attachment to life and fear of death made her heart full of apprehension.

  She waited for a long time, thought for a long time, until she no longer had the strength to think. The beggars' angry buzzing stopped. Niu Niu saw that her brother was back, he walked with energy but his hands were not worn out and did not have mud on them. He held the broken clay pot in his hands, which contained half a pot of hot congee.

  Ah Qi fed Niuniu mouthful by mouthful, feeding her directly from his own mouth.

  Their lives are as cheap as wild grass on a field ridge, no matter how many people trample it, it will still stubbornly survive.

  Niu Niu is alive again.

  This winter, the warmest spots by the fire pit had all been taken over by other beggars. The two children were at the farthest end, their heads right under a broken hole in the temple roof. Snowflakes gently fell on them, and they covered themselves with straw, hugging each other tightly to ward off the cold using each other's body heat.

  Spring arrived, and Ah Ge transformed from a stuttering, shy, and awkward beggar into a clever and capable little beggar.

  The boy who used to be so stubborn, willing to steal and get beaten, has gotten used to being a beggar. Perhaps in his heart he still hides a bit of stubbornness, a bit of pride, a bit of persistence, but for Niu Niu's sake, he deeply buried all these in his heart.

  In spring, the rain is like silk and thread, weaving a dense net in the sky.

  Ah Chou and Niu Niu ran barefoot in the rain-soaked ground, like a pair of fish in water.

  Their shoes were worn out and could no longer be repaired. Niu Niu had turned into a mound of yellow earth, and could no longer weave grass shoes for them.

  Ah Chou and Niu Niu ran under a clump of banana trees, the large banana leaves became their umbrella, although the rainwater still flowed down along the leaves, but it was much more comfortable than pouring directly on their faces.

  Ah Chou took out the steamed bun from his bosom, but it had already been soaked and ruined by the rain. Ah Chou's face fell. The clever Niuniu quickly comforted him: "Brother, don't worry, today we ate a lot of mulberries and our teeth are all loose, if the steamed bun is too hard, we can't bite into it."

  She said, making an effort to give her brother a smile, revealing a small, newly grown cute little tiger tooth.

  Ah Chou ruffled her hair, and it became messy like a bird's nest.

  Two people each holding half a steamed bun wrapped in tender banana leaves as cups, scooped up rainwater and took turns drinking the water and eating the buns to fill their bellies.

  The rain, still as gentle as silk threads...

  In the summer, something happened that prompted Ah Chou and Niu Niu to leave the broken temple, so they didn't even have a place to stay.

  That summer night, the moon was full.

  Ah Chou was awakened by a burst of crying and shouting. He woke up to find that the strong young beggar nicknamed Xiao Lang, who also lived in this broken temple, was pouncing on Niu Niu's body, tearing at her already tattered clothes, and his stinky mouth was randomly kissing her.

  Niang Niang was still young, she didn't know what the little wolf wanted to do to her, but a girl's intuition made her know that something terrible would happen to her, so she burst into loud crying.

  The beggars in the ruined temple were all awakened, they looked at everything that happened before their eyes with a warm and eerie gaze, no one spoke, as they watched, their eyes even became eager to try, that kind of gaze was very strange and also very frightening.

  Ah Chui was startled awake, he looked at everything that happened in front of him, and suddenly turned into another person. Perhaps that person had been locked in his heart's prison all along, tortured and nurtured by hatred and shame, long ago transformed into a ferocious beast, now the gate was wide open, and the beast was released.

  A'chou's eyes were bloodshot, the veins on his forehead bulging one by one. He let out a furious roar and pounced on Xiaolang's body, scratching, clawing, and biting with his entire body as a weapon.

  Xiao Lang transformed into a real wolf!

  His thin body, the strong little wolf only needs to flick his hand, and he can throw him against the wall and turn into a meat pie. But at this time, he doesn't know where he got so much strength, he sticks to the little wolf's body, fighting to the death. Frenziedly attacking, he first bit off half of the little wolf's ear, and then tore off a piece of flesh from the little wolf's shoulder.

  Xiao Lang let out a pained cry, his fists pounding against Ah Chou's body one after another. The blood spewing from Ah Chou's mouth splattered Xiao Lang's face, but all he got in return were razor-sharp teeth. When Xiao Lang saw the savage glint in Ah Chou's eyes at that moment, like a wild wolf, he suddenly realized that Ah Chou, who often spaced out, might have already gone mad. He finally collapsed and fled, howling.

  Ah Chou's face was covered in blood, his eyes were swollen, and he had a lump of indistinct flesh clutched between his teeth. He crawled back to Niu Niu, who was wailing, and tightly hugged her.

  A beam of bright moonlight shone down through the hole in the temple roof, illuminating Ah Qiu's body. His face was covered in fresh blood, and his fierce gaze swept across the faces of all the beggars, like a wounded wolf defending its territory. Word by word, he said: "Whoever wants to bully her will have to kill me first!"

  The beggars all fell asleep, as if nothing had happened, and the only sound left in the broken temple was Niu Niu's crying. Ah Chou held her, the pale moonlight shining on them, after a long time, Ah Chou suddenly silently shed tears, this was also the first time Niu Niu saw him cry.

  Niang Niang was frightened, she thought Ah Xiong was in great pain, so she stopped crying. She carefully approached him and gently blew air on his swollen eyes with her thin hands, gently rubbing his bruised face. All she wanted to do was stop Ah Xiong's tears, seeing Ah Xiong cry made her heart ache, this ache surpassed her fear.

  But Brother Ah's tears kept flowing more and more, so Niu Niu also started crying.

  A'chu hugged her tightly, choking with sobs: "Niu Niu, I'm so scared, I've really become a beggar! I'm afraid... one day, I'll end up like them, a walking corpse. Niu Niu, Brother A'chu has really become a beggar!"

  Niang Niang couldn't understand what her brother was saying, he often said strange things that she just couldn't comprehend, but she knew that her brother truly cared for her. Since their mother's passing, her brother had been the only family member left in this world, whether or not she understood him didn't matter, as long as she knew he was good to her, that was enough.

  She raised her small face, looking at Brother's tearful eyes. His eyes were so sad, that kind of eyes seemed to be the same as Mother's when she passed away suddenly, helpless, desolate and sorrowful, making people's hearts break.

  Niuniu was very afraid of losing him, just like losing her mother. She cried and hugged Ahchu tightly, saying: "Brother wants to do what, then do what. No matter what brother does, Niuniu will follow brother together, whether it's being a beggar or a thief, as long as it's with brother, everything is fine!"

  Ah Chou and Niu Niu left the broken temple overnight, fearing that the panicked wolf would return. With only courage, they couldn't protect themselves. They still begged for alms because it was their only means of survival. However, Ah Chou had made up his mind to find something to do, he wanted to live like a human being.

  Because of their departure, a legend belonging to them began.

  Legends have always been created by miracles.

  What is a miracle?

  Miracles can be extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, or they can be a multitude of coincidences coming together to form a wonderful convergence.

  It's a miracle belonging to A Jiu and Niu Niu, with coincidence, extraordinary people, and extraordinary things!