黄皮子讨封

Elders in the Northeast once told an old story, saying that long ago there was a young man traveling on the road at night.

It was winter, the snow had fallen, and the moon was bright; the snow on the road was white with a hint of blue. He was returning from town to his village, and had to walk over ten li of mountain road. When he reached the bottom of a slope, there was a grove by the roadside; as the wind blew, snow fell rustling from the branches. He quickened his steps.

Just then, something stood in the middle of the road.

That thing wasn't very big, standing in the center of the road, looking like a person but not quite like one. It stood on its two hind legs, its forelegs tucked against its chest, its fur yellow and gleaming, and a pair of eyes shining in the snow. The young man looked closely: it was a yellow weasel, also known as a yellow spirit.

The young man stopped. The elders had taught: if you meet a yellow spirit blocking the road at night, don't provoke it, and don't run. It stood there motionless, and he stood still too—man and beast, separated by ten or so steps, looking at each other.

The yellow spirit spoke. Its voice was thin, like a woman's, but also like a child's: "Do I look like a person, or like a god?"

This is what the elders call "seeking investiture." The yellow spirit had cultivated for many years and wanted to become something; it wanted to find someone to say a word for it: if you said it looked like a person, it could take human form; if you said it looked like a god, it could become an immortal. But whether it cultivated the evil path or the righteous path, once it got that word from you, it would have a karmic tie with you.

The young man's heart thumped. He remembered several methods the elders in the village had spoken of: some said, don't answer, pretend not to hear, turn your face and walk away; some said, answer, answer "like a god," and you'll be safe—gods are gods, it owes you, and won't harm you; and others said, never answer "like a person," because once it gets investiture and takes human form later, it might come to repay your kindness, or it might come to collect a debt—either way, it would be stuck to you.

He gritted his teeth, said nothing, and didn't walk away; he simply put down the bundle on his shoulder, slowly squatted, and grabbed a handful of snow. The yellow spirit asked again: "Do I look like a person, or like a god?"

The young man gripped the snow, lifted his head, his voice trembling a little: "I think you look like a yellow weasel."

The yellow spirit was stunned. After a while, the light in its two eyes dimmed all at once. It lowered its forelegs, flopped onto the ground, returned to its four-legged form, and darted into the grove by the roadside, disappearing in a flash.

The young man stood in the snow, not coming to his senses for a long time. He returned to the village and told the elders what had happened. The elders listened; some said he was brave, some said he was foolish, saying many people wanted to curry favor with it, but he went and told the plain truth, ruining decades of its cultivation. Others said, not good—it remembers you.

What happened afterward, every elder tells differently. Some say he never met it again in his life; some say that a few years later, all the chickens in his house disappeared overnight, and the whole courtyard was full of yellow fur. Which is true, no elder can say for sure.

But there is one thing everyone agrees on: if you meet something standing on the road at night and it asks you a question, never answer casually."

#Paranormal #短篇故事 #民间故事