Free M/M Fiction

Later, in the autumn when the village’s wealthy Zhang family was marrying off their daughter, A Fu was called to help with the wedding. Fu Lan washed the clothes that the puppy had wet with urine and went to the edge of the field to collect dried cow dung, which he did every day. Dried cow dung could be used as fuel, and once he collected enough, he wouldn’t have to chop wood. Every noon, Fu Lan brought the puppy and the black cat to collect cow dung.

“Hey, little fool!” someone shouted at Fu Lan. Fu Lan turned his head and saw a farmer calling him. Some of these farmers called him the Meng family’s eldest son, and some called him a fool because he was very quiet, like a fool who didn’t know how to speak.

“Your foster mother is going to get married and won’t need you anymore.” The peasant man laughed.

After he finished speaking, other men and women also came around to tease him, “Yes, little fool, what about you and your younger brother? Come to my house and be my son, okay?”

Fu Lan asked in confusion, “Get married?”

“Of course, didn’t your foster mother go to Zhang’s house to work today?” A woman with a tanned face covered her mouth and laughed. “Zhang wants her to be his concubine. Poor child. The puppy is one thing; after all, he’s her own child. She’ll probably take him in and enjoy the benefits together. What about you?”

Someone laughed. “It’s simple. Just look at how this child does tasks so diligently. He’s kept the puppy fat and healthy. She’ll definitely bring him into the mansion as a servant. Marrying one gets you three. Zhang won’t lose out!”

The puppy was unusually well-behaved and timidly snuggled up to Fu Lan, looking up at him and reaching out his hand. “Big brother, hold me.”

Fu Lan picked up his basket and the puppy, the soft body of the child resting against his chest. The puppy buried his head and said, “I miss my mother.”

The men and women in the field muttered behind them. Some even shouted “little fool” with laughter. The idle chatter was like a fire, burning the field. Fu Lan didn’t turn back, and the two walked home, one step at a time.

Auntie Shen led A Fu into the Zhang mansion. Today, there was a celebration, and the mansion was adorned with red cloth and lanterns hanging from the beams.

Auntie Shen led A Fu in with a joyful face. She was one of the few people in the village that A Fu had befriended. After not taking care of the puppy properly, she came to apologize to A Fu yesterday and said she would make amends by helping her find work. The job was to help the bride dress up, and the work was light but well-paying.

The further they walked, the fewer people there were. The courtyard was made of green tiles and white walls, with blue-white stone slabs covering the ground, and damp moss growing out of the cracks. A Fu looked down at her toes, which were like small bamboo shoots, peeking out from under her skirt.

Without realizing it, they had already entered the inner courtyard. Auntie Shen pushed open the door to the room and pulled A Fu inside. The old woman had great strength. Her hand that was grasping A Fu’s wrist was rough and powerful, like a pair of pliers. A Fu felt that something was amiss. Auntie Shen had already lifted the beaded curtain, and several maids stood in front of a black lacquered dressing table. The stool was empty, as if waiting for its new bride.

A Fu asked Auntie Shen, “Where is the bride?”

Auntie Shen grinned and said, “The bride is you!”

A Fu was startled, and several maids rushed forward, pressing down on her shoulders and forcing her to sit in front of the dressing mirror.

“Big sister, what are you doing?!” A Fu asked.

Auntie Shen leaned her head next to A Fu’s face, and the dressing mirror reflected the faces of two women, one old and one young. Auntie Shen stroked A Fu’s shoulder and said, “Madam, please calm down. I’m only doing this for your own good. Look, Master Zhang’s family is wealthy and one of the richest in Wu Jiang. If you marry him, your future will be bright.”

A Fu sneered. “Auntie Shen, is this how you treat your friends?”

Auntie Shen was about to persuade her again when a man in a round-collared jacket pushed aside the curtain and walked in.

“Madam, why must you be like this?” The man had a fair complexion, slanted eyes, and a charming and handsome appearance. “Instead of being a widow, why not come with me? I have admired you for a long time, and I will treat your child as my own. In the future, your son will be my son, and I will pay for his education and examinations in Beijing.”

“Yes, yes,” Auntie Shen chimed in. “A Fu, don’t be foolish. Your husband, the sword immortal, has long abandoned you. As a woman, you should marry a man.”

A Fu sneered at Zhang Luo Huai. “You look so unremarkable, but I never expected you to come up with such a vulgar scheme to deceive me into entering your mansion. I spit on you! You should take a look in the mirror and reflect on your despicable behavior. Even if I were to marry a pig, I would never marry you!”

Zhang Luo Huai made a gesture, and the others rushed forward to press down on her shoulders. However, A Fu was thin but strong. She easily overpowered them, pushing aside the maids and trying to run out. Zhang Luo Huai stepped forward to block her way, using the curtain to shield himself. A Fu grabbed a candlestick to threaten him to move away, but Zhang Luo Huai refused to budge and reached out to grab the candlestick.

“Get out of the way!” A Fu screamed. In the struggle, A Fu swung the candlestick, hitting Zhang Luo Huai’s face solidly and making his head jerk to the right.

The crowd was shocked, and A Fu was frightened too. She was strong, but if she killed someone, she would end up in jail. Seeing that he was standing steadily and seemingly unharmed, A Fu tentatively said, “I will compensate you. Please let me go.”

Auntie Shen stomped her foot and said, “Look at what you’ve done! How can we fix your victim’s face? Master Zhang, how are you feeling? Shall I call a doctor?”

Zhang Luo Huai gradually turned his face back, and Auntie Shen and A Fu’s faces changed slowly. His whole face was crooked, with his nose and mouth twisted to the left, the right side of his face sunken in a pit, and his left eye squeezed up to his forehead, forming a seam. He squirmed his mouth that had been punched crooked, and his voice became sharp and thin, “Madam, that hurt me so much.”

A Fu recognized his voice and suddenly remembered that he was the bald-headed old Daoist!

Everyone paled and couldn’t speak, and a few maids behind them screamed and fainted. Auntie Shen held A Fu’s arm tightly and managed not to faint. Zhang Luo Huai noticed their pale faces and glanced at himself in the mirror, seeing his twisted face.

His face was so twisted that no expression could be seen, but he said in a slightly deeper voice, “You’ve ruined my face.”

A Fu said with difficulty, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

Auntie Shen trembled and said, “Master Zhang, I have nothing to do with this. I’ll leave first.”

Zhang Luo Huai extended his five fingers and grabbed Auntie Shen’s face. She immediately froze like a puppet. Her blood and flesh evaporated in an instant. Her face withered quickly, revealing dry bones. A Fu watched as Zhang Luo Huai sucked her flesh and blood dry, leaving only a skeleton behind.

He looked at A Fu with his crooked mouth and said coldly, “Fix my face, or you’ll end up like her.”

A Fu’s heart was pounding, but she still had to force a smile and walk up to him, “Okay, okay, I’ll help you fix it.”

When she touched his face, it was cold and wet, not like a human face, but like a muddy lump soaked in water, sticky and disgusting. A Fu straightened his nose and moved her fingers to his half-closed eyes. With a sudden determination, she poked her two fingers into his eyes. Zhang Luo Huai screamed. A Fu pushed him away and ran out.

A faint ringing sound came from behind her, and suddenly her legs lost their strength. A Fu was surprised to find that she couldn’t move. The soul-capturing bell rang three times, and she stiffly turned around and walked step by step towards Zhang Luo Huai. He stood beside the floor lamp, his face a mess, a blur. A Fu screamed in her heart not to go, but she still couldn’t control herself and walked up to him.

“Has Fu Lan ever told you?” Zhang Luo Huai leaned in close to her face, just a hand’s span away, and his cold, hissing breath brushed against A Fu’s face. “Demons have elevated senses. Even if they have no eyes, they can still ‘see’. Be a good girl and stay here, and we’ll be reunited as a family tonight.”

After returning each abducted child one by one, A Fu brought the puppy, Fu Lan, and the black cat back home.

A Fu’s thatched cottage was at the village entrance. They walked to the end of the gravel road, turned onto a muddy dirt road, and then turned past a dilapidated wall with tall walls and diamond-shaped windows. The houses with tall walls and diamond-shaped windows became increasingly distant, gradually turning into brick and earth houses, and then into thatched huts. Finally, they crossed a field in the dark and came to a solitary little thatched hut at the foot of the eastern hill. There was a black locust tree growing beside the door, and its black leaves cast a dark shadow. That was where A Fu and her son lived.

As soon as they entered the door, A Fu knelt down with the puppy and said, “Thank you both for saving us. I have nothing to offer but live chickens and ducks. I hope you will accept them.”

The black cat licked its lips but couldn’t move even if it wanted to. It got so fat because of the food puppy shared with it every day. When it heard about the live chickens and ducks, the black cat cleared its throat and said, “Oh no, no, no, it was just a small favor to save a little child. But if you insist on showing your gratitude, we won’t refuse. That’s settled then. Boil the chicken and make the duck into salted duck. I have a light taste, so remember to add more onions.”

“So you are a demon who eats cooked food. What about this young master?”

“He eats and drinks the northwest wind. Don’t mind him. You just need to take care of me,” the black cat replied.

The puppy broke free from A Fu’s grasp and pounced on Fu Lan, saying, “Big brother!” Fu Lan was startled and pushed his head away. The puppy was persistent and stuck to Fu Lan. Fu Lan pushed him away again, and the puppy twisted his body and dived into his arms.

The puppy took out a packet of braised pork from his arms and opened it. He said, “It’s cold. There’s no meat to eat at home today, so I ran all over the village to find two pieces. I was going to give them to you, but I was caught by the strange old man on the way.”

Fu Lan patted him on the head.

A Fu was surprised and said with a smile, “So you are the new friends that the puppy mentioned. Before going to bed, he always talks about how he met a little boy and a cat. He used to talk about playmates he had met, but they turned out to be either mud dolls he had made himself or friends he had imagined. Once, he even took his own shadow as a friend. I thought this time was the same.” She reached out and touched the puppy’s little body and said, “This child has been playing alone since he was young. I am too busy to take care of him. Thank you both for accompanying him these past few days. I am deeply grateful.”

“No problem, no problem.” The black cat also smiled. “This old man is very happy to see this cute child.”

“But, puppy.” A Fu turned her head and smiled. “Weren’t you staying at Auntie Shen’s house? How did you meet Brother Cat and Young Master?”

She smiled with a slightly sinister expression, but at that time Fu Lan was naive and didn’t understand how to read people’s expressions. Fu Lan only found out later that this woman, A Fu, was not to be trifled with, and by then he was already her godson. When they ran out of oil at home, he took the puppy with him to buy soy sauce, and happened to see A Fu fighting in front of someone’s house. It seemed that the female owner had cheated A Fu out of her wages, and accused her of seducing men. A Fu beat the couple until they were disheveled and humiliated, and when she looked up, she saw her two sons standing in the crowd.

A Fu straightened her clothes and put two big coins in his palm, patting his head and saying, “Go buy some fruit to eat.”

When a woman goes crazy, even demons and monsters will keep their distance. That was the lesson Fu Lan learned at that time.

However, A Fu didn’t get angry when she found out that the puppy had been taken away by the black cat to become its food, and that he had stolen chicken and braised pork from Auntie Shen’s house. Perhaps because the black cat and Fu Lan were present, she just smiled and kindly told the puppy not to do it again, and that she would apologize to Auntie Shen tomorrow. The puppy knew his mother’s character well, and shook like a sieve. The black cat was surprised that this fearless child was acting like this.

A Fu poured two cups of tea, took Fu Lan’s hand, and asked about his background. Fu Lan answered all of her questions: he came from southern Xin Jiang, was picked up by a black cat, who was a cat demon, and had been looking for old temples all the way. He arrived at Wu Jiang a few days ago. Under the lamp light, the woman’s eyes were warm and gentle, and Fu Lan inexplicably felt that she looked like the goddess Nuwa in the temple. As long as he was under the dark eaves of a temple, it was like coming home.

Finally, she asked, “You have nowhere to go. Do you want to stay at my house? Auntie Shen doesn’t take good care of the puppy, and I don’t want to bother her anymore. If you help me take care of the puppy, as long as I can eat chicken butts, you will definitely have chicken legs to eat in the future.”

Only A Fu would dare to ask two demons to take care of her child. She was a bold and reckless woman, and this was not the most outrageous thing she had ever done in her life. The black cat agreed to everything just to get chicken, duck, and pork. Although taking care of the little puppy was actually left to Fu Lan.

Fu Lan became the most capable nanny in Wu Jiang. He learned how to make rice porridge, stir-fry vegetables, wrap dumplings, make fruit cakes, and help the puppy wash urine-stained sheets and clothes that were covered in mud and dirt. Sometimes he even had to clean the yard, although the house was not big, with only one thatched house as the main hall.

After Fu Lan arrived, A Fu slept in the main bedroom. Fu Lan, the puppy, and the black cat slept in the same room. To save money, the family did not often light a lamp. The main room was dark, with only two dim lamps on the ancestral tablet (1). A dripping red candle was placed on the altar. It wasn’t Fuxi or Nuwa who was enshrined, but A Fu’s man, whose name was written on it, “Daoist Shen Wei Ascends to Immortality.”

“This is my man.” A Fu wiped the plaque carefully with a wet cloth. The dim light reflected on her face, giving her a sinister smile. “When I was pregnant, he went south to the immortal mountain and never returned. I think he has become an immortal. You see, I’ve set up a plaque hoping he will bless us mother and son to be safe and healthy.”

The black cat felt a little cold and said, “This is not good. In all these years, I’ve never heard of anyone mastering Daoism and becoming immortal. By doing this, aren’t you cursing him to death?”

“Oh.” A Fu smiled, with her eyebrows and eyes curved. “If he doesn’t want to become my man, I’ll just treat him as dead.”

The black cat: “…”

The family also had trouble sometimes. The puppy was mischievous and once cut the black cat’s whiskers while it was asleep. When the black cat woke up and looked in the mirror, it felt ashamed and refused to come out from under the cabinet. A Fu was furious when she came back and shaved the puppy’s head with a razor.

The puppy cried so much that it felt like the sky had fallen. “I have no hair left!”

“You have no hair, and Lord Cat has no whiskers,” A Fu scolded, holding his ears. “What good is it to have you around? You only bring chaos! Tomorrow, I’ll chop off your hands.”

“I don’t want you as my mother!” The puppy wiped away his tears and rushed into the bedroom. He wrapped his bald head in a blue cloth with floral patterns, packed a small bundle, and pulled Fu Lan’s hand, ready to leave.

Fu Lan was at a loss, and A Fu pulled him over. “What are you doing? If you want to leave, then leave. Why are you holding your brother?”

“My brother is leaving with me!” the puppy shouted.

A Fu pulled Fu Lan over and scolded, “You’ve gone mad! You go by yourself! The farther away you go, the better! I shouldn’t have given birth to you in the first place!”

The little puppy had indeed run away from home, and Fu Lan stood there dumbfounded for a while before deciding to follow him. The puppy walked aimlessly with a small bundle on his back, and Fu Lan silently followed him. With a floral cloth wrapped around his head and the bundle on his back, the puppy looked like a mistreated young woman. Later, when the puppy’s stomach growled, Fu Lan took out two copper coins and bought him a steamed bun. The two boys, one big and one small, squatted on the roadside and watched the people passing by. Some passersby threw a few copper coins at their feet when they saw them.

At night, the puppy caught a cold and developed a high fever. Fu Lan carried him back home, and the black cat had already come out from under the cabinet, rubbing against the unconscious puppy. A Fu opened the puppy’s bundle and found that there was only his father’s ancestral tablet in it. This little kid had run away from home without taking anything but his father, whom he had never met.

That was the first time Fu Lan had seen A Fu cry.

A Fu once said that in this lifetime, people travel far and wide, covering thousands of miles, just to meet someone or reunite with someone. A Fu didn’t say who that person was, but the black cat secretly told Fu Lan that it was Qi Shen Wei. Sometimes, A Fu would stand under the eaves lost in thought. Fu Lan later learned that they had knelt and worshipped heaven and earth there and become husband and wife.

“Getting married is a promise, Fu Lan,” said A Fu, who was drinking under the eaves on a day when the leaves were falling all over the sky like withered butterflies. “Promise to treat your spouse well for the rest of your life and always keep them in your heart.”

Fu Lan’s heart was always still, like smoke and water, boundless. But at that moment, his heart suddenly stirred, as if he had a longing.

“Can I marry puppy?” Fu Lan said. “I will treat him well for the rest of my life and always keep him in my heart.” He thought for a moment and said, “A Fu, I traveled over many mountains and crossed many rivers from southern Xin Jiang to Wu Jiang, just as you said, to meet him. Is the puppy the person I’m supposed to meet?”

A Fu was stunned for a long time, looking at this black-haired, black-eyed boy in a daze. His eyes were calm, and every word he spoke was serious.

“Okay,” A Fu said with a smile, her face flushed from drinking too much. “If you haven’t changed your mind when you grow up, I’ll marry the puppy to you.”

Footnotes

1. Ancestral tablet – an object that is used in some cultures to honor and remember deceased ancestors. It is usually a rectangular piece of wood or other material that is inscribed with the names of ancestors or their photographs.