The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 195: Longzhi

If it wasn't a fox, was it a dog? I wondered. Che Zhong said, "This kind of thing is called a Longzhi. It's similar to a fox, and is often mistaken for them. It's very rare now. This thing usually consists of nine things acting together: one female, which is very big, and eight males that are relatively small. The males often lay together on the female's back, and because their bodies are very slender, the Longzhi is generally said to have nine heads and nine tails. In terms of identification, the legend of the nine-tailed fox came about because many people misunderstood the Longzhi."

"Bullshit." I said: "I can tell just by hearing the name that it's something from an ancient book. You say that's what it is, but what basis do you have? Did your family used to raise them? Or have you eaten one?"

Che Zhong said, "You're the young master of the Wu family and you don't even know this? Not only do you not know, but you still don't believe it? Your grandfather was the first person to discover the Longzhi. Sixteen dogs died when he caught the first one."

I was stunned for a moment, and Che Zhong continued: "You know how powerful your grandfather's dogs are even when they fight alone. Back in those days, when all sixteen dogs stood up to fight, even Black Back [1] wouldn't dare pull out his knife. The fact that sixteen died at one time shows that Longzhi aren't only vicious, but must have a certain intelligence. Your grandfather later dispatched his most treasured dogs to catch the first Longzhi."

I knew what kind of dogs he was referring to. My grandfather's favorite five dogs were field dogs, which were now called Chinese prairie dogs. Even though they hadn't been specially bred, the color of their fur was still quite good.

Grandpa had picked all five of them up from different cities while he was traveling around everywhere. He used to take liquor and bones in search of wild dogs in the middle of the night, and always managed to find the king of the local wild dogs with the strongest aura. He would then lure them in with the liquor and meat bones, and kidnap them.

These wild dogs were difficult to tame because they had a strong distrust of humans, but Grandpa always had a way to lure them in with all kinds of beautiful dogs and delicious food. For Grandpa, humans and dogs were the same thing— especially when it came to males— so their weaknesses were too clear.

But he encountered five dogs in his lifetime, which he couldn't tame under normal conditions. In addition to becoming their master, he also became friends with them. Without exception, all five of them were black dogs, and he named them after the five masters and disciples in "Journey to the West". The oldest and most difficult one to deal with was a big dog named Tang Seng. He had the largest number of heirs because of his longevity, and I had the honor of meeting his son a few times. I only heard about the other four dogs when Grandpa's disciples and assistants talked about them.

"I wish Houzi was here." This was what I heard the most when I was a child. The dog was a legend among legends. He ran seventy kilometers of mountain roads in a day to save a village when Zhang Qishan was fighting bandits. He ended up vomiting blood and dying, and when Grandpa found him, he had been skinned and eaten by the villagers. Zhang Qishan was so angry that he smashed all the ancestral halls in the village and put Houzi's bones in their place. He told them that from that day forward, the dog was their ancestor, and they weren't even as good as dogs.

Someone with ulterior motives later found out about this incident, and Zhang Qishan was severely punished. After that, Grandpa wasn't willing to take his dogs out handle these things.

It was because of this that I understood that if Grandpa dispatched his five dogs, he must have been in a tight spot, and was probably willing to risk his life.

"Although the sixteen dogs died, they also dealt a heavy blow to the Longzhi. But it took half a month for your grandfather to track it down again, and by that time, it only had two heads left. Houzi bit it and broke its neck, and it died." Che Zhong said. "Later, your grandfather went looking everywhere to try to catch more of these things."

"Why?" I wondered. "My grandfather wasn't a pretentious prick like some of those rich English guys. It wasn't like he had nothing to do. He had hundreds of dogs he could use to hunt foxes."

"It's because the Longzhi wasn't a wild animal either. It was another person's dog." Che Zhong answered. "I think your grandfather saw this and started specially training his dogs to deal with those people. You may not know this, but your grandfather raised a group of special military dogs and police dogs in northwest China. Luo Ruiqing [2] personally asked him to breed dogs. At that time, your grandfather's condition was that all the dogs had to be raised in a village by the youngest son of each family. After they were raised, the dogs would join the army together with the youngest son, and become military dogs. Because the youngest son's future was integrated with these dogs, they received the best education and care, and also cultivated extraordinary feelings. These children and dogs later entered the central government to do security work."

I knew nothing about Grandpa's history. It wasn't that I didn't care, it was just that when I could finally understand these things, I had grown old enough that I wasn't hanging around my elders very often.

I looked at Che Zhong, only now realizing that he definitely wasn't an ordinary person. He not only knew so much, but it was also information from so long ago. Unless he had more than a casual relationship with my grandfather, it was impossible to know so much.

And when he spoke, he didn't use any hearsay words like "legend had it" or "I heard that". In fact, his manner of speaking was so calm and reliable that I was sure that what he said was a fact. And it was something he was very certain of. This kind of attitude meant he either personally experienced it, or had heard it since childhood.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked again, not ready to give up until I had an answer.

"You shouldn't ask me this question, I can't answer it," Che Zhong said.

"Then what should I ask?"

"You should ask me what I do." Che Zhong replied.

"What do you do?" I asked emotionlessly. I was used to these kinds of games, so I wouldn't let myself be angered by him.

"I'm the owner of a kennel." Che Zhong said: "This kennel was built in Dali, Yunnan. It's one of more than a dozen kennels your grandfather built. Ten years before he died, your grandfather sold all the kennels to the government. I ran the smallest one, and since it hadn't yet reached the level of the others, he sold it to me. He didn't charge me a cent. The only thing he wanted me to do was to give you a dog, and teach you how to get along with it."

I was stunned, and looked at his pocket, but he immediately covered it with his hand: "Not this one. This is my son. If you kill me, he dies with me."

Can you be more worthless? I asked myself.

He said, "Longzhi are very difficult to handle. Did you say you killed one before?"

When I nodded and explained how I killed the one before, he said, "You were lucky. When you killed it, there was only one small one on it. The other small ones must have been nearby. I don't know why they weren't with it, but if they were, you would have died ten times over. The most important one must not have been there." 

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Notes:

[1] Sixth Master of the Mystic Nine.

[2] (1906-1978) He was a Chinese army officer and politician, general of the People's Liberation Army.