Little Alpaca – Chapter 80

Volume 2: Fuzhu Huodou

In This World, She Only Recognized Fuzhu.

Caring for someone had always been a matter beyond one’s own control.

No matter one’s identity, status, or those profoundly mysterious twists of fate, none of it should be a reason to sever affection.

Perhaps, Fuzhu and Huodou were meant to be fated enemies, but back then, Fuzhu’s heart had softened; she had spared that small Huodou who no longer had any power to resist.

After spending so much time together, they had long since come to see each other as the most important person in their lives, to see Mount Ao’an as their home, and to see Xun Chi as their family.

On this hidden immortal mountain, Fuzhu became Jian Li, and Huodou became Yue Zhuo. They were no longer the malevolent beasts the world wanted to hunt down and kill, but just two young girls, relying on each other day after day.

If one were to say that being like water and fire are incompatible¹ was the destiny of Fuzhu and Huodou, then… wasn’t the little one who once claimed to dislike gods and immortals, dislike humans, and dislike this place even more, now slowly coming to accept everything here, also a kind of destiny?

Yi Qiu said stubbornly, “If being destined for opposition from birth is a kind of fate, then for opposing people to come together must also be fate.”

“There are so many gods and immortals, and the mortal realm is so vast, yet back then, it was Xun Chi who happened to meet Fuzhu. The world says the righteous and the evil stand opposed, but he, a god, took in a demon beast. That moment of soft-heartedness was fate.” As Yi Qiu spoke, her eyes couldn’t help but redden. She bit her lip, her hands unconsciously clenching the hem of her clothes. “Fuzhu subdued Huodou and should have destroyed her Primordial Spirit², but because of another moment of soft-heartedness, she let her stay. This too is fate… You Yan, whether you believe it or not, some people, even if separated by layers of mountains and vast seas³, are destined to find their way to each other.”

“…” You Yan turned away in silence, saying nothing more.

Seeing that You Yan no longer responded, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but reflect on her own tone just now.

A moment ago, she had seemed very unhappy… and while the unhappiness was real, and the defiance was real, she truly hadn’t meant to deliberately anger You Yan.

She knew that those in the play have feelings and loyalties, while the observers are dispassionate and unfeeling; it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But she suddenly felt that You Yan’s words had made her angry…

Perhaps it was because she had always been a petty person.

To be wrong meant one should apologize… but You Yan was probably angry right now. What would be the best way to apologize?

You Yan: “You’re right. I was being stubborn.”

Yi Qiu: “Huh?”

What was happening?

Was You Yan admitting she was wrong? This bird woman was capable of such a clear self-assessment as “being stubborn”?

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but perform a tactical lean back⁴ slightly, frowning as she glanced to the west—could the sun in Jian Li’s memory rise from the west?

“This is no longer Fuzhu’s memory,” You Yan said, following Yi Qiu’s gaze. “What are you looking at?”

“I… I’m looking for the sun.” Yi Qiu pouted, stopping just short of saying, “I think there’s something wrong with you.”

You Yan, however, seemed not to understand at all and said flatly, “It’s an overcast day.”

You Yan wasn’t wrong. It was an overcast day.

On such an overcast day, Jian Li left Mount Ao’an, leaving Yue Zhuo by Xun Chi’s side.

Jian Li’s thinking was simple: as long as Fuzhu and Huodou were no longer together, they would no longer harm each other.

And Jian Li could leave Mount Ao’an, could once again become the Fuzhu in the eyes of the world. As long as Yue Zhuo remained Yue Zhuo, anything was acceptable.

Because she could control her own power, but Yue Zhuo could not yet.

She could be without care, without companionship, but Yue Zhuo, with the seal still within her body and having just taken human form, could not.

Jian Li: “From now on, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of her… I’ve written down everything she likes. I know this is a lot of trouble, but please try… try to humor her a bit. She doesn’t understand things yet. It will be better after some time…”

Xun Chi: “Are you really leaving just like this, without any explanation? Why not give her a reason? If you hide it from her like this, aren’t you afraid she’ll resent you for abandoning her in the future?”

Jian Li: “I am afraid, but compared to her resenting me, I… Never mind. Just remember our agreement.”

That day, Jian Li did not finish her sentence.

She left Mount Ao’an and returned to the chaotic mortal realm that had never treated her with kindness.

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but think that Jian Li’s unfinished words must have been—Compared to her resenting me, I’m more afraid that after she learns the truth, she would rather die than not be by my side.

After that day, this place became Xun Chi’s memory.

Before Jian Li left, she asked Xun Chi to help keep that secret. So, Xun Chi had been coaxing Yue Zhuo, telling her that Jian Li had just gone to the mortal realm to travel and have fun.

In the severe cold of winter, the weak little black dog curled up by the stove, sneezing with little sparks. Seeing the blanket nearly catch fire, she frantically patted it out with her small paws for a long time.

“Jian Li, honestly, going out to play without taking me… If there was a fire, I’d have to put it out myself.” She muttered under her breath, scooted closer to the stove, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.

When the winter snow melted, Yue Zhuo’s body had recovered considerably. She finally transformed back into her human form and spent her days running and playing in the mountains.

In early spring, the chill had not yet dissipated, and the flowers had not yet bloomed.

She was still that mischievous little girl, and with Jian Li gone, she had become much more unrestrained.

Xun Chi once again found himself with a headache, chasing after her every day just to prevent her from causing trouble.

“Can’t you be a little more obedient?”

“When is Jian Li coming back?” Yue Zhuo raised her head, her pair of beautiful red pupils gazing at Xun Chi, filled to the brim with longing. “When she comes back, I’ll stop making trouble.”

“…”

“Xun Chi, can you go find her and bring her back?” Yue Zhuo said. “Or you can let me out, and I’ll go find her. When she’s had enough fun, I’ll come back with her.”

“…”

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Just wait a little longer,” Xun Chi said, reaching out a hand to rub the silly girl’s hair, hoping to offer some comfort.

Seeing this, Yue Zhuo immediately ducked, deftly slipping under Xun Chi’s raised arm. She then turned back, made a funny face at him, and ran off with a cheerful laugh.

In that instant, watching Yue Zhuo’s departing figure, Xun Chi sighed softly, “Jian Li, I’ve tried my best to give her every single thing you wrote down that she likes. But what you don’t know is that she… doesn’t actually like those things all that much.”

Heaven and earth once again blurred at that moment.

“What she likes is the Jian Li who would bring those things to her,” Yi Qiu said, her eyes turning red.

“Is it really to the point where it has to be her and no one else?” A trace of confusion appeared in You Yan’s eyes. Within that confusion, a faint glimmer, impossible to discern as sorrow or joy, seemed to flicker.

Paper cannot wrap up a fire⁵; a lie will one day be exposed.

Yue Zhuo, unable to wait for Jian Li’s return, grew increasingly irritable. She seemed to revert to how she was when she first arrived, causing trouble in the mountains every few days, and her troublemaking changed in its root and intensified in its severity⁶.

She yelled and she screamed, chasing after Xun Chi whenever she had nothing to do, shouting that she wanted to go out and find Jian Li.

For a time, the books and paintings, clothes, and various furniture in the house, as well as the plants and creatures in the mountains, once again fell into a cycle of constant misfortune.

A Huodou has no concept of good and evil in its heart.

In this world, she only recognized Fuzhu. Fuzhu was all the good and evil in the depths of her heart.

Clinging to this obsession, she argued with Xun Chi on Mount Ao’an for year after year. She gradually came to understand that Jian Li hadn’t gone out to play; she had simply abandoned her.

Finally, a hundred years later, she broke through the seal within her body and escaped from this “prison” that had no Jian Li.

Xun Chi couldn’t stop her. Standing before the barrier⁷ that had been destroyed by a great fire, all he could do was sigh helplessly.

Huodou was going to find Fuzhu. In this world, no one could stop her.

All the memories belonging to Mount Ao’an completely crumbled into a million specks of dust at that moment.

In the next second, everything around them underwent a change that could turn the sky and overturn the earth⁸.

Before them was still a mountain forest, but the vegetation was entirely different from that of Mount Ao’an.

Most importantly, at this very moment, heavenly fire was incinerating the mountain, and thick smoke billowed. All living creatures were struggling, fleeing, and wailing, trying with all their might to survive, yet there was nowhere to escape.

Although this was just a memory from two thousand years ago, Yi Qiu felt for the first time what it truly meant for living creatures to be smeared in charcoal⁹.

Yi Qiu: “Is that Yue Zhuo? Why is she…”

You Yan frowned, then suddenly wrapped an arm around Yi Qiu and flew into the sky.

Yi Qiu let out an involuntary cry. By the time she came to her senses, she found that looking down from a high altitude, she could see that the mountain was surrounded by the sea on all four sides; it was a lone island.

“This place is…” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but feel lost.

“If I’m not mistaken, this should be the North Sea’s Snake Mountain,” You Yan said flatly.

【The 《Classic of Mountains and Seas: Classic of the Central Mountains》¹⁰ once recorded: “Within the North Sea, there is a Snake Mountain, from which the Snake River flows, entering the sea to the east. There is a bird of five colors, whose flight can cover an entire region, and its name is the Yi Bird.”】

The system suddenly popped out to recite from a text, stunning Yi Qiu.

This place wasn’t Xun Chi’s memory, so it must be Fuzhu’s.

But no matter whose memory it was, it was related to Huodou, and the matter of Huodou involved Snake Mountain…

The Yi Bird, Yu Su¹¹, that malicious third female character from 《Thin, Withered Branch》, was, coincidentally, the goddess of this Snake Mountain.

Everything suddenly seemed to be connected.

“Fuzhu is over there!” Yi Qiu clung tightly to You Yan with one hand and pointed into the distance with the other.

In the distance, the four-horned white deer came treading across the sea, summoning wind and rain. She expended her spiritual power to draw seawater to pour onto the lone island, but ultimately, she was too late to save the living creatures perishing in the sea of fire.

Within the embers of Snake Mountain, not a trace of life could be seen.

You Yan landed with Yi Qiu beside the white deer. Across the gulf of two thousand years, they could still feel the utter desolation.

The rain poured down in sheets. The white deer stared blankly at the scene before her. When she turned around, she saw a deity with a bird’s body and a human face, holding a five-colored bird whose wings had been burned and damaged by the heavenly fire. The deity looked upon the scene with eyes full of compassion.

After a long while, she asked the white deer softly, “Are you still going to run?”

There was no blame in her tone, yet it was like a blade that pierced into the deepest, most tender part of the white deer’s heart, the part she was most unwilling to face.

“I’m not running anymore,” the white deer said, turning back for one last look at the fire-ravaged Snake Mountain.

In her eyes, besides grief, there was a new-found resolve.

The moment all the images disappeared, Yi Qiu gripped You Yan’s arm tightly. “You Yan, that person in Jian Li’s memory, that person, she…”

Yi Qiu calmed herself down and rephrased, “She looks so familiar. I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before…”

“It’s only right that she looks familiar. Think about it, doesn’t she resemble Chao Yun¹²?”

“Ah!” Yi Qiu exclaimed in surprise on the surface, but inwardly she heaved a long sigh of relief.

Thank goodness, thank goodness, You Yan is giving me some face—even though almost all my secrets have been exposed, I’m not completely bare. I’ll cover up what I can.

“The Wood God Gou Mang… So, she and the Yi Bird had such a history.” You Yan looked up at the sky, which was growing increasingly blurry in the rain. After a brief silence, she suddenly let out a faint smile and said, “I understand now.”

“Huh?” Yi Qiu’s eye couldn’t help but twitch. “What do you understand?”

This bird woman already understands?

What in the world did she understand? How was she still completely lost in a fog, unable to figure anything out?

---

The author has something to say:

A chapter with a huge amount of information. So the question is, are there any little angels who can figure it out?

Addendum:

Some people said they couldn’t get the names straight, so let’s sort them out.

Gou Mang: Chao Yun.

Yi Bird: Yu Su.

White Deer Fuzhu: Jian Li.

Black Dog Huodou: Yue Zhuo.

An identity, a name, is it really that hard to remember……. Isn’t this about the same concept as Xiao Zhang from Year Three, Class Two?

---

---