"Thank you for the reminder, courageous hero, but I have important matters to attend to here..." Sun Erzhuang, being broad and fat, usually felt tired after standing for a while. Now, carrying the heaviness of a dead body, he had been standing for quite some time and was already very exhausted.
He carefully put down the corpse of his mother and cupped his hands towards the big man in front of him, "Brother, you must have just come from outside the temple. Have you seen my donkey?"
"Donkey?" The big man smacked his lips as if savoring the taste, "Donkey meat is delicious. It’s been a long time since I had it..."
Sun Erzhuang’s eyelids twitched, and he hurriedly said, "I’m talking about my cart-pulling donkey. Brother, have you seen it? There is also a coffin on the cart."
"Oh! You mean that cart-pulling donkey!" The big man clapped his hands, pretending to suddenly understand.
"Have you seen it, brother?"
Sun Erzhuang’s nostrils flared, and he thought, "If you haven’t seen it, then why make such a fuss?"
The big man seemed oblivious to Sun Erzhuang’s irritation. He looked up at the sky and reminded, "You’d better leave quickly. There are monsters in these mountains. Your donkey might have been eaten by it. If you don’t leave soon, you might be eaten by the monster too!"
Sun Erzhuang frowned, "Monsters? What monsters? I’ve lived around here for nearly twenty years and never seen any monsters."
The big man glanced at Sun Erzhuang and said calmly, "You haven’t seen them because you haven’t encountered them. Those who have seen them have all become its prey, so naturally, no one else knows about it."
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I’d like to ask what kind of monster it is."
The big man seemed a bit fearful, "I can tell you, but you must promise not to be scared!"
"Go ahead, I’ll listen."
"Alright, I’ll tell you. Are you sure you won’t be scared?"
"What’s there to be scared of? We’re two big men, with more masculine energy than a furnace blaze. Even if there were one or two little monsters, who knows who would scare who!" Sun Erzhuang’s mother used to be a shaman, and this fat man obviously knew a thing or two.
The big man laughed when he heard this, smiling warmly, "Aren’t you worried about me?"
Upon hearing this, the layers of flesh on Sun Erzhuang’s neck trembled.
"Big brother, stop teasing me. Don’t be fooled by my size; I’m actually quite timid. Can we just have a normal conversation?"
The big man put away his smile and said eerily, "I’m not the monster I’m talking about. It’s a creature that has recently appeared on Old Platform Mountain. Its name consists of a single character—Biao!"
"Biao?" Sun Erzhuang was utterly confused.
What is Biao? As an old saying goes, "When a tiger has three cubs, one must be a Biao!"
Another explanation is that the character "Biao" has three strokes, which represent wings. A tiger with wings is a Biao.
Regardless of the explanation, a Biao essentially originates from a tiger, but it is different from an ordinary tiger.
According to ancient texts, a Biao is the third cub born to a tiger that has multiple offspring.
Generally, a mother tiger gives birth to only one to two cubs at a time. If she has three, she can’t raise them all.
So what happens then? The mother tiger will abandon the smallest one, letting it fend for itself.
As the saying goes, "Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are in the heavens."
Since Biao grows up without motherly love, it harbors deep resentment. If it survives, the accumulated resentment makes it even more ferocious.
Moreover, Biao looks a bit different from regular tigers.
Because Biao are often abandoned by their mothers or left to feed on scraps later, they don’t grow as strong and appear much smaller than regular tigers.
Additionally, Biao lacks the characteristic stripes of tigers, having a solid-colored coat instead.
From a distance, it looks like a large cat.
Despite this, the weak-looking Biao is extremely ferocious and will even kill its own kind.
If a Biao survives and grows up, the first thing it will seek is its mother tiger, and it will bite its mother alive to death.
The second thing is to find its elder brothers, who must also die by its hands.
Seeing that Sun Erzhuang was not convinced, the big man continued describing how ferocious and formidable the Biao was.
Sun Erzhuang burst out laughing after hearing this.
"According to you, Biao hates its mother and elder brothers. I’m not its brother. Even if such a monster exists here, it wouldn’t come to harm me."
"What am I afraid of?"
The big man coldly sneered at these words, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly turned towards the forest behind them.
In the dark woods with rustling leaves, something seemed to be approaching.
The big man’s eyelid twitched, and he turned back, "Fatty, just stay in the temple. No matter what noises you hear outside, don’t come out. Remember that!"
"This place is desolate. I’ll go back to the temple as you said, but where are you going?" At this point, Sun Erzhuang suddenly realized something, "By the way, it’s late at night. What are you doing wandering around this deserted temple?"
The big man blinked meaningfully, "With your stupidity, no wonder she kept you around to take care of you... Oh well, I’ll come back to find you later!"
With that, the big man crouched down, a strange wind blew up, and Sun Erzhuang’s eyes were blinded by the wind. By the time he regained his senses and opened his eyes,
the figure of the big man was nowhere to be seen!