A Short Story Collection with Non-Human Protagonists - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Dream About the Little Fox

To welcome Lu Xiaokui’s arrival, Auntie Liu and Grandma Gu prepared a massive spread of food.

Longjing Shrimp, Steamed Black Carp… a table brimming with dishes, all of which happened to be Tang Yanqing’s favorites.

The junior sister, her hair tied in two pigtail braids, had cheeks flushed red from the plum wine. Holding her wine glass, she spoke with high spirits: “You guys have no idea, my Senior Sister is truly a character! Last Halloween, she wore a white lab coat, cosplaying as a zombie doctor. She hung an LED sign around her neck that said ‘Specialist in Curing Love-Brain.’ The teachers at the school infirmary actually mistook her for a real medical student and tried to send her to the ER for backup…”

Tang Yanqing grabbed a braised goose leg and stuffed it into Lu Xiaokui’s mouth. “If you say another word, the rice in your bowl is going to start sprouting.”

“No, I insist on telling it!”

Lu Xiaokui puffed out her cheeks, resisting stubbornly.

“And then there was that time we went to the village for fieldwork. Senior Sister was holding a compass, swearing up and down she’d lead us to buried treasure. A group of us carried hoes and dug for half the night. We actually dug up a jar, and guess what? It was the Village Chief’s secret stash of private savings! The Chief was fuming, swinging a rolling pin to chase us away. At that critical moment, his wife caught him and dragged him back—he had to kneel on a washboard for a week!”

Grandma Gu laughed until she doubled over. Tang Yanqing didn’t process more than a few words; her gaze was stealing glances at Liu Jin.

Perhaps due to the treatment this morning, Liu Jin’s complexion had almost completely recovered, with no trace of illness left.

Tang Yanqing watched as she stood up to serve soup. A few stray strands of hair brushed against the back of her neck, light as willow catkins, drifting with her breath. The warm glow of the chandelier flowed over the bridge of her nose, and the porcelain spoon made a soft clink against the rim of the bowl.

The wind from the electric fan was too sultry.

Tang Yanqing took a large gulp of plum wine. The tart liquid slid down her throat, leaving a brief, sweet aftertaste.

“Don’t drink so fast, be careful not to hurt your stomach again.” Liu Jin’s fingertips pressed against the rim of the cup in Tang Yanqing’s palm, nearly touching her knuckles. Coming from those crimson lips, every word sounded soft.

“Fine. Can’t be late for my shift at the school infirmary later,” Tang Yanqing joked nonsense.

Liu Jin was amused by her, her eyes turning soft and warm.

Feeling a tightness in her chest, Tang Yanqing shifted her gaze away as naturally as possible, terrified that Liu Jin would discover her shameful, hidden feelings.

“So, what kind of ‘treasure’ are you planning to dig up this time?” Grandma Gu asked.

“The boss has already decided—he wants us to investigate the Fox Immortal!” Lu Xiaokui blurted out. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Moqiao City used to have a Fox Immortal Temple. They say making wishes there was incredibly effective, and the incense offerings were very popular! Unfortunately, real estate development tore it down a few years ago, so fewer and fewer people know about the Fox Immortal now…”

As the words fell, the air lapsed into a moment of silence.

Both Grandma Gu and Liu Jin seemed at a loss for how to respond.

“Save your breath and eat your food. If you were as prolific at writing your thesis as you are at gossiping, neither of us would be worrying about our progress,” Tang Yanqing smoothed things over. This junior sister was extroverted, which was good, but her mouth was simply too loose.

Liu Jin set down her chopsticks, her eyelashes casting a soft shadow on her cheekbones, her smile lingering.

“I visited that Fox Immortal Temple once, long ago; I have some memories of it. It’s late today, so you two should rest first. When you’re free some other day, I’ll tell you about it. I don’t know if it will be of any use.”

“That’s wonderful! Of course it will be useful!” Lu Xiaokui cheered. “Thank you, Auntie Liu!”

At the bottom of her glass where the ice had finished melting, Tang Yanqing’s slightly stiff reflection was visible. She didn’t like hearing others use that name.

Auntie Liu… it would be best if she were only my Auntie Liu.

After the feast, Tang Yanqing helped Lu Xiaokui carry her luggage upstairs.

It was currently the tourist off-season, so the inn had no other guests and was surrounded by silence. The courtyard was lush with foliage, plated in a thin layer of moonlight.

— “Ow!”

While climbing the stairs, Lu Xiaokui nearly fell, stumbling and grabbing Tang Yanqing’s arm. Her palm was burning hot.

Tang Yanqing caught Lu Xiaokui’s wrist and placed that “burning” hand onto the railing. “Nursing fee is eighty, deducted from your salary.”

Lu Xiaokui let out a heavy sigh.

“Senior Sister, you’re such a ‘Steel Straight Girl,’ you have no sense of tenderness toward the fair sex at all!”

Tang Yanqing didn’t argue. She simply pushed the suitcase to the second-floor hallway and turned to leave.

“Tomorrow morning at nine, I’ll come get you on my bike. Don’t sleep in.”

The floorboards shook a few times—Lu Xiaokui was stomping her feet behind her.

Tang Yanqing waved her fingers dismissively. “This building is an antique. Take it easy, I’m not helping you pay for damages.”

The stomping stopped for a moment, then resumed even more urgently.

“Auntie Liu, Grandma Gu, I’m heading back now. I’ll leave Xiaokui in your hands,” she said, saying goodbye back in the dining room.

Liu Jin followed her out.

“Aqing, it’s dark. Don’t go back tonight.”

Tang Yanqing lowered her head.

Opposite her dirty canvas shoes stood a pair of black velvet high heels, the straps inlaid with pearls, wrapping around the woman’s ivory, jade-like ankles.

“It’s okay, I’ll call a car.”

“…Then I’ll wait with you.”

The two stood side by side on the curb.

The night breeze brought the cloying scent of osmanthus from Liu Jin’s body. The streetlights merged their two shadows into one.

The tipsiness gradually surged up, making Tang Yanqing’s face burn fiercely.

“It hasn’t been peaceful in the city lately. Be careful and don’t go running around alone.”

Liu Jin was perhaps the last person in the world who would nag her like this.

Tang Yanqing replied in a small voice, “I know.”

The headlights of a black sedan illuminated the entrance of the alley.

Tang Yanqing got into the car and drove several meters before she dared to look back.

A slender silhouette stood in the night, like a stroke of cinnabar painted onto a gloomy ink wash. Like the afterglow of a boiling sunset.

“So pretty. Your girlfriend?” the driver joked.

Through the rearview mirror, Tang Yanqing shot a glare at the pudgy, middle-aged man.

“Is your company’s primary business ride-hailing, or conducting a census?”

“Aiyoo, I was just trying to ‘ship’ you two like you young people do. Sorry about that,” the driver apologized with a sheepish grin.

The house was pitch black.

She flipped on the lights. More than half of the living room was filled with cardboard boxes—all records and medicinal materials left over after the clinic closed. She truly had no heart to organize them.

On the altar stood three small black-and-white photos.

Father, mother, and the recently deceased grandfather.

An entire life spent performing medical miracles, yet in the end, they could not save themselves.

Tang Yanqing lit a stick of incense and fell asleep immediately.

A plum-scented mist wrapped around her, sinking her into a nebulous dream.

She dreamed of their first encounter in a past life.

During the Great Cold of the 23rd year of the Chengping era, Tang Wanzhi ran into the Bodhisattva Temple, clutching a white fox she had rescued from a hunter’s trap.

Not even the county chronicles recorded exactly when this old temple was built. No monks or priests resided there, yet the incense offerings never ceased. The nameless Bodhisattva, its paint peeling and mottled, stood silently upon a lotus pedestal, looking down upon all living beings with solemn majesty.

The fluffy little thing whimpered in Tang Wanzhi’s arms. Like a human, its amber eyes were filled with glistening tears.

Tang Wanzhi tore a section of her sleeve to wrap the fox’s bleeding hind leg and stuffed half a piece of osmanthus cake—originally meant as an offering to the Bodhisattva—into its mouth.

“Don’t be afraid. I will protect you.”

Tang Wanzhi glanced out the door at a crooked ancient willow tree and decided on a name for the fox.

“From now on, you’ll be called… Aliu.”

From then on, Aliu lived in the ancient temple. Tang Wanzhi visited every few days.

“Good Aliu.”

She would always sit under the willow tree, using a wooden comb to carefully untangle the matted fur on the fox’s tail. The white fox would roll over to show its belly, its head gently rubbing against her palm while making a purring sound like a kitten.

The pilgrims all knew that Miss Tang had found a spiritual fox. When they came to the temple to pray, they would bring extra fruit to help feed it.

Aliu was incredibly smart.

It would catch fish for the fishermen and dig soil for the herb farmers. In spring, it would retrieve kites that children had lost; in the dead of winter, it would curl up on the laps of the frail elderly, acting as a pure white heater.

When the willow catkins took flight, Tang Wanzhi would take Aliu to Wuyuan Mountain to see the peach blossoms.

The brilliant sun warmed the grass. The human and the fox snuggled together for a nap. Peach blossoms fell, embedding themselves in Tang Wanzhi’s hair and adorning Aliu’s fur coat.

The sea of flowers was radiant.

One night, returning late, Tang Wanzhi saw a secret side of Aliu—

Several wild wolves, their eyes glowing eerie green, were circling the Bodhisattva Temple.

Aliu shielded the girl under the offering table, its white fur bristling, letting out sharp, piercing howls.

Whether it was because of Aliu’s intimidation or the Bodhisattva’s intervention, the wolves eventually did not enter and retreated in defeat.

Tang Wanzhi lowered her head and kissed its snowy back to soothe the frantic fox.

“It’s okay, Aliu… it’s over.”

The fox transformed back into a soft, docile fluff, snuggling obediently into her arms.

All the quiet, beautiful years ended with the great rain of the 25th year of Chengping.

The rain fell for an entire month.

Towns were swallowed by floods. Refugees scrambled to climb Wuyuan Mountain. Within a few days, they had exhausted the food in their packs and could no longer fill their bellies.

Aliu began to catch fish.

It would drop the fattest crucian carp in front of pregnant women, then curl up in a rocky crevice itself to gnaw on a few sour, rotten green fruits.

At first, the people just starved together.

But soon, hunger turned some people into beasts.

A butcher named Xu, accustomed to taking lives, was the first to cast a predatory gaze upon Aliu.

He clutched a bone-stripping knife that could cut through iron like clay and crept toward the rocky crag where the white fox was sheltering from the rain.

“Aliu, run!” Tang Wanzhi screamed.

“Shut up, you brat!”

Several strong men pushed Tang Wanzhi aside and gave chase together.

Seeing Aliu running further and further away, the butcher violently hurled the bone-stripping knife at the white shadow.

The blade closed in, but the fox dove headfirst into the floodwaters at the foot of the mountain, narrowly escaping with its life.

On the mountain full of refugees, not a single person raised a hand to protect it.

Tang Wanzhi only felt that it was ridiculously absurd.

On the seventh day, the butcher’s elderly father breathed his last. He wailed all night, his piercing cries nearly tearing through the curtain of rain.

The living scrambled for weeds and tree bark. The air was thick with the stench of decay, like a living hell.

Tang Wanzhi was so worried about Aliu that she waded through knee-deep mud, searching the entire mountain. She searched from the peak to the valley, crossing a dozen hectares of farmland that had turned into marshes, finally arriving at the Bodhisattva Temple.

The ancient temple was trapped in water, nearly collapsed. The Bodhisattva statue had completely lost its color, revealing the soaked wood grain.

Aliu, with blood and tears in its eyes, lay prostrate on the offering table.

— It was actually kowtowing to the Bodhisattva.

The starving people wanted to eat its flesh and blood, yet it held no grudge, staying in the Bodhisattva Temple to pray for the common people.

In the face of great disaster, the human heart was inferior to the heart of a fox.

Tang Wanzhi pressed her palms together and knelt firmly beside Aliu.

“This believer, Tang Wanzhi, is willing to trade her life to beg the Bodhisattva for mercy upon the young and old of this city…”

She bowed her body again and again, her forehead striking the cold, wet stone tiles, a pain like a knife rasping.

Threads of blood seeped from her brow, merging with Aliu’s tears, staining the petals at the Bodhisattva’s feet red.

An unknown amount of time passed until the morning mist became hazy.

Tang Wanzhi was trapped between fainting and deep sleep. Aliu lay on her lap, its breath faint.

Half-awake, she saw the nameless Bodhisattva descend step by step from the lotus platform.

“All things are impermanent; all living beings suffer.”

The Sanskrit voice was like a clear spring from a snow-capped mountain, washing over the decaying beams. The mottled walls shimmered with a seven-colored divine light.

“In the past, a merchant leader sacrificed his body to feed a tiger; today, I see a white fox weeping blood to pray to heaven. This creature has accumulated merit over past lives and should attain Bodhi. However, the two of you have an emotional entanglement spanning multiple lifetimes, like an ancient locust tree entwined with vines, impossible to part—”

The Bodhisattva’s hand formed the Varada Mudra (the boon-granting gesture). Looking down at the girl and the white fox in the pool of blood, shadows of a thousand Buddhas appeared behind the deity.

“Breaking the nine-lifetime marriage covenant between you two can trade for the salvation of the common people today.”

Tang Wanzhi was stunned, looking up at the deity before her. “…What does the Bodhisattva mean by this?”

The Bodhisattva’s voice sounded both far and near, accompanied by the chanting of countless sutras.

“If the covenant is broken, this fox’s tribulation will be complete, and it will immediately become an immortal. You will need to burn your finger as an offering to the Buddha, and then undergo a thousand more tribulations. Through nine lifetimes of reincarnation, you will taste the bitterness of love and parting; even if you meet again amidst wind and dew, it will be but a dream or a phantom. Are you willing to accept this tribulation?”

Tang Wanzhi looked back.

Outside the door was a world of corpses; beside her was a dying spiritual fox.

Tears washed away the dust on her face as she lowered her head and kowtowed.

“I am willing.”