Tethering a Dog

The Zhou family sat around the long table, heads down as they ate.

Their movements were like crows drinking water, or wild dogs digging up a grave.

Strange and stiff, eager and vicious.

Throughout the room, the sounds of swallowing and chewing rose and fell.

Anyone eavesdropping outside might have thought something unclean was inside, gnawing on a corpse.

Zhou Yang ate with his head down as well, raising it only when he reached for a dish with his chopsticks, taking the occasional furtive look around.

He swallowed another large mouthful of hard rice and hurriedly raised his head, casting a seemingly casual glance at Zhou Heigou.

This man surnamed Zhou, who might have been human or a ghost, seemed to relish the food before him. He wolfed it down, his chin smeared with blood, looking more like a vicious ghost than a vicious ghost.

From the way he ate, Zhou Yang could discern nothing.

He couldn't use it to tell whether Zhou Heigou was human or a ghost.

A living person couldn't eat dead people's food for long without some special means.

When Zhou Yang first began living in Guan Village, he had been nowhere near as thin as he was now, like a stalk of wheat straw. Even now, he could only maintain his basic bodily functions by eating very small amounts of dead people's food each day.

If he ate large amounts of it for a long time, he would probably become a dead man himself.

Now that Zhou Yang had the Breathing of the Ghost, he could eat dead people's food without worry and even use the Breathing of the Ghost to draw nourishment from food harmful to the living.

Was Zhou Heigou in a similar situation, then?

Had he also mastered some breathing method like the Breathing of the Ghost?

Zhou Yang was just about to look away when Heigou seemed to sense something. He suddenly glanced sideways, meeting his eyes.

Heigou grinned, his expression growing rather gentle. He looked at Zhou Yang's bowl and said, "What's wrong, third brother? Don't you have enough rice in your bowl? Here, I'll give you some of mine."

As he spoke, he picked up his bowl and tipped all the half-cooked rice in it into Zhou Yang's.

Zhou Yang's expression stiffened.

Just then, everyone else at the table turned to look at him.

Under their gazes, he seemed to have no choice but to force a smile and accept Zhou Heigou's "kindness." "Thank you, second brother. This is enough for me. Sorry to trouble you any further..."

"What trouble?

"We're family. We should all be close to one another.

"You always used to hide in your room instead of eating with us, and you grew distant from us." The smile on Zhou Heigou's face broadened. He brought over another bowl and tipped most of the bloody meat in it into Zhou Yang's bowl too. "Look how thin you are.

"Eat more, third brother..."

Zhou Yang's smile was stiff, and the veins at his temples bulged slightly.

Seeing his expression, Zhou Heigou grew even more smug, the provocation in his eyes almost tangible.

At that moment, Huang Shaozi spoke up with a beaming smile. "That's right. How wonderful it is for our family to love one another like this!

"Yang'er, I'd say you were wrong about your second brother. He may not have a kind word to say, but he cares for his little brother in his heart!

"Go on, Yang'er, eat. Eat more..."

Huang Shaozi watched him eagerly.

Zhou Yang finally lowered his eyes and bent over his food.

He deliberately chewed the rice, lung tissue and clotted blood in his mouth with a crunch.

His cheeks bulged again and again.

The sight made Zhou Heigou even smugger.

In Zhou Heigou's eyes, it's best if I stay a nobody he can push around as he pleases.

It would be best if, even when he dies, he never suspects I was the one who did it...

Zhou Yang pondered silently.

The dead people's food he swallowed gradually turned into streams of icy energy that moved beneath his skin. As the cold energy seeped into his flesh and blood, a sense of strength gradually rose through his limbs and bones.

The weakness in his body faded a little more.

Dead people's food was now very useful to Zhou Yang too.

He wished he could eat more of it every day-but at home, each person's share at every meal was fixed.

Now that Zhou Heigou had given his share to Zhou Yang, it was exactly what Zhou Yang wanted.

After the meal, Huang Shaozi stacked the bowls from the table into a pile, and Zhou Yang hurried over to wipe the table.

Watching him make himself useful, Zhou Heigou seemed uninterested.

Before the meal, he had clearly been competing with Zhou Yang for chores, trying to ingratiate himself with their mother. After a single meal, he felt that Zhou Yang posed no real danger to him after all, and he lost interest in currying favor with his mother.

Huang Shaozi saw all of it.

Zhou Laogou sat at one end of the long table, watching his wife and children clear away the bowls and chopsticks. He tapped the table, and the whole family turned to him, knowing he had something to say.

His expression was wooden as he said slowly, "Our family has an old chain, and the Dog King Family's dog is about to have pups."

"Once the Revelation Ceremony is over, Heigou'er will be working with the village patrol.

"I'm planning to use that old chain to tether a young hound from the Dog King Family and bring it back for Heigou'er to take with him."

At his words, Zhou Heigou's eyes lit up, and his face filled with delight.

One look at Zhou Heigou's expression told Zhou Yang that the pups born to the Dog King's dog must be very useful!

But it seemed the old chain handed down in the family was also needed to bring one of the Dog King Family's pups back.

Zhou Yang hadn't yet figured out the details, so he kept his expression neutral and listened from the corner.

"Yes, there are ghosts outside the village, and they're dangerous.

"We should bring back a dog for the children to lead along and protect themselves when they go out on patrol." Huang Shaozi echoed Zhou Laogou, but just as Zhou Heigou was nearly unable to contain his joy, she abruptly changed tack. "After the Revelation Ceremony, Yang'er has to join the village patrol too...

"If the old chain goes to Heigou, what about Yang'er? He's much frailer than his second brother."

Zhou Heigou's expression froze, and he turned to look at Zhou Yang.

Zhou Yang looked blank and dazed, as though he hadn't yet grasped what was happening.

"They're both your sons. It wouldn't be right for one to have something and the other to go without," Huang Shaozi added.

Hearing her, Zhou Laogou raised his eyes to Zhou Yang in the corner.

On that wooden face, his eyes were dark and deep.

He stared at Zhou Yang without expression for a while, then suddenly said, "Heigou loves me. Yang'er doesn't.

"He might not make it through the Revelation Ceremony.

"The old chain goes to Heigou.

"If Yang'er makes it through the Revelation Ceremony, give him the bell we have left at home. Let him take it to the smithy and ask A Fu to make a new chain-but he'll have to go to another household and ask for a young hound himself.

"There are only a few pups in the Dog King Family, and only the old chain can tether them."

Huang Shaozi lowered her head. Though she appeared to hold the highest position in the family, she didn't dare raise the slightest objection to Zhou Laogou's words.

Zhou Heigou lifted his head and shot Zhou Yang a look full of contempt and malice.

In this family, he did have some standing after all.

Even Zhou Yang hadn't expected Zhou Laogou to like Zhou Heigou so much.

And whether or not Laogou liked Heigou was enough to determine Heigou's standing in the family.

What, then, had Zhou Heigou done to make Laogou like him so much?