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The valiant Pearl spent two hours hunting and piling up a mountain of prey beside a mountain stream.
After the red fox ate a few, the rest of the prey were all painstakingly made into jerky by Baozhu.
Baozhu originally wanted to hang the dried meat in the cave where she used to live with her sisters, but she didn't expect that after not returning for more than half a year, the cave would be ruined by that stupid red fox. Not only did it smell bad, but the depths of the cave were also piled with the bones that her family had left over.
However, the rough furniture that Baozhu had made herself before was still intact, no different from when she left.
Seeing this, Baozhu held her tongue and refrained from fighting the red fox. Instead, she summoned Li Zhi and asked him to use talismans to clean up the cave.
She was outside arguing with her sisters.
"The bones are all thrown in there, and you don't even bother to throw them out! Was this how the house used to be? If you're this lazy, one day this hole will be flooded with bones! I might as well drown all seven of you!" Baozhu glared at the red fox and shouted.
The red fox nervously flicked its tail and turned its head away from her.
Baozhu was furious. She tilted her body and poked her head in front of the red fox: "I'm talking to you, and you're pretending not to understand!"
The red fox snorted and simply turned around, presenting its rear end to the pearl.
Baozhu turned around and brought her face close to the red fox, determined to stare at her sister.
In this way, Baozhu chased the red fox around in circles three times, completely dispelling the red fox's guilty conscience. The fox jumped three feet high in anger and shouted loudly at Baozhu with a sense of righteous indignation.
She even dared to talk back!
Baozhu was so angry that she jumped three feet high and opened her mouth to shout loudly.
The two sisters blocked the entrance to the cave and barked wildly, startling countless birds and completely blocking Li Zhi's way after he finished his work.
Li Zhi, dragging a cart full of bone fragments, huddled in a corner of the cave, observing.
He had a gut feeling that Baozhu and her sister-in-law's quarrel was just a quarrel that would end in bed, and they would make up on their own after a while. But if he tried to persuade them, he might end up getting himself into trouble and causing them to turn against him.
Thinking this, he secretly peeked outside the cave again.
The male fox outside, with its five cubs, huddled silently behind a large tree, only its six furry tails visible.
Li Zhi nodded. Although his brother-in-law was just a wild beast, they shared the same view.
So Li Zhi waited patiently for a while longer, and finally it quieted down outside.
He peeked out and saw the red fox whimpering, lying on its back on the ground, rolling around erratically like a water snake.
Baozhu looked down at her with an air of authority, without saying a word.
After rolling around for a while, the red fox didn't hear Baozhu's voice, so it stopped and looked up. Seeing Baozhu staring straight at it, it quickly lay back down, pretending to wear the ground down, rolling around and whimpering.
His red hair turned yellow from rolling around, and his head and face were covered in yellow dust.
Baozhu couldn't help but burst out laughing.
The red fox immediately seized the opportunity, scrambling to its feet and rubbing against the pearl with a pitiful expression.
"Alright, you'll have to be careful from now on."
Baozhu transformed back into human form and squatted down to brush all the yellow dirt off the red fox.
Just then, Li Zhi walked up from behind and said to Baozhu, "Everything is ready. I've set up an array inside, so the dried meat won't spoil even after a few years."
Baozhu turned around, her face showing no anger whatsoever, and smiled as she thanked Li Zhi, "Thank you so much, you're the best."
Six foxes from behind the big tree also gathered around. The nephews looked curiously at Baozhu's human form, and soon they covered her skirt with their fur.
Li Zhi and the male fox exchanged a glance.
"From now on, I'll have to rely on you to take care of things more often," Li Zhi earnestly told it.
The male fox let out a puzzled "caw".
After cleaning up the cave for the red fox, Li Zhi followed Baozhu's instructions and set up many formations in the mountains to prevent any foolish hunters from coming up and harming the great monster, King Baozhu, and his sister's family.
After all this was done, it was getting dark. Baozhu and the red fox bid each other a reluctant farewell, and Baozhu promised to visit the fox in the mountains every month during her stay in Qiling before she and Li Zhi went down the mountain together.
They didn't plan to stay overnight in the village; once they got down the mountain, they drove their horse-drawn carriage back to the county.
When they arrived, it was rare for the Yiren Temple in the county to have a Celestial Master from the capital come to visit. Moreover, one of the two Celestial Masters was a demon Celestial Master named Baozhu, so they were given great importance and were given a lovely private courtyard.
They returned to the courtyard, settled the horses, tidied up, and then rested.
In the middle of the night, Li Zhi suddenly opened his eyes.
In the darkness, he felt Baozhu straddling his waist.
Then, she seemed to slowly lean down and bring her lips close to Li Zhi's ear.
"Returning to this familiar place, I couldn't sleep, so I didn't want to let you go so easily."
The fox spirit bit her prey, wrapping her body around him again and again, until she let out a satisfied sigh.
The power flowed among them, never ceasing.
When Baozhu regained consciousness, she noticed that there were still traces of demonic energy in Li Zhi's body. This had been happening frequently since the day they confessed to each other, and she had long been used to it. But at this moment, a thought struck her, and she slowed down.
Li Zhi noticed, and he gently stroked Baozhu's back, asking softly, "What is it?"
Baozhu buried her head in Li Zhi's arms and smiled, "It's alright."
Li Zhi wanted to ask more, but Baozhu held his chin and forcibly shut his mouth.
The next day, after Baozhu and Li Zhi went to the yamen to complete the formalities, their short but not long vacation came to an end, and they began their new life.
Qiling County was a small place, and there were hardly any unusual events throughout the year. Baozhu and Li Zhi's new life was quite leisurely.
However, their leisurely days were shattered after only a few months.
It was getting hot then, and when Baozhu was on duty, she always felt very unwell. She couldn't sit or stand properly, and soon she broke out in a cold sweat.
Upon seeing this, Li Zhi quickly asked for leave and took Baozhu home.
He bustled around in the courtyard, fetching water for Baozhu and gently wiping her exposed skin. He also suspected that Baozhu's clothes were too tight because of the hot weather, so he loosened them a bit.
Baozhu remained silent, letting Li Zhi do as he pleased, staring blankly out the window.
Li Zhi turned pale with fright. He grabbed Baozhu's hand and said in a trembling voice, "What happened? Don't scare me. Is your soul not fully developed yet?"
Baozhu was startled, as if she had just seen him. She looked at him and blinked.
Li Zhi kissed her hand and forced a smile, asking, "What's wrong?"
After he asked the question, Baozhu frowned and remained silent for a long time.
Then, Baozhu's lips slowly turned up involuntarily. She raised an eyebrow, leaned close to Li Zhi's ear, and whispered, "We're having a child."
Li Zhi heard every word clearly, but he didn't understand the sentence.
He was stunned, and subconsciously asked, "What did you say?"
Baozhu grasped Li Zhi's hand, looked at him with a smile through her tears, and said, word by word, "We have a child."
After saying that, she pulled Li Zhi's hand to her abdomen.
Li Zhi stood frozen in place, feeling as if he were suddenly enveloped by a huge, overwhelming heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump.
He couldn't tell if the voice was his own, Baozhu's, or the child's.
Or perhaps, it was his heartbeat, Baozhu's heartbeat, and the child's heartbeat intertwined, creating a deafening roar in Li Zhi's heart.
Before returning to Qiling County, Baozhu never thought that she and Li Zhi would have a child, but after seeing the red fox, she had a premonition—this life is already so different, having another child is not a strange thing.
Baozhu had this idea, so she was somewhat prepared. When the day actually came, she wasn't too panicked. Instead, she was able to sit aside and watch Li Zhi make a fool of himself.
Upon learning this news, Li Zhi was utterly devastated.
He kept muttering that he was going to cook for Baozhu. When he went out, he tripped on the threshold. When he was adding firewood, he was in a daze and almost burned down the kitchen. When the fire started, Li Zhi could only stand in front of the stove, not knowing how to put it out.
Baozhu, who was laughing so hard she was doubled over, came over and put out the fire, saving Li Zhi from the predicament.
In both her lifetimes, Baozhu had never seen Li Zhi so distraught. Her heart was filled with warmth and sorrow. She wiped the dust off the tip of Li Zhi's nose with her sleeve, then touched his face and said softly, "Don't be afraid, I'll be alright."
Li Zhi grasped her hand, asking in alarm, "Really?"
Baozhu nodded vigorously and said, "It's true, I promise, I will never abandon you."
Tears glistened in her eyes, and his eyes were no less wet.
After this chaotic day, Li Zhi seemed to have returned to normal—unless Baozhu woke up in the middle of the night and found him carefully listening to the sounds in her abdomen.
He was able to go to work normally and calmly cook a whole table of Baozhu's favorite foods every day. Apart from being extra careful about Baozhu's every move, their lives returned to what they used to be.
However, none of them knew how long a monster would stay in its womb if it had a child.
Li Zhi, taking the case of an ordinary person for the time being, deduced that the child would be born in ten months. He busily prepared things, counting down the days, and learned a lot from experienced midwives, afraid of missing anything.
But after summer, autumn was almost over, and five months had passed, but Baozhu's belly still hadn't grown bigger. If it weren't for the fact that he could still feel the baby lazily moving around in Baozhu's belly every day, Li Zhi would have been scared to death. He was more and more nervous every day, and even the sound of a pin falling in the house could startle this expectant father.
Baozhu, however, was at ease. She comforted Li Zhi, saying that since the child had half demon blood, she must have extremely strong vitality. Perhaps she just wanted to stay a little longer.
And so, the days passed one by one, and before we knew it, it was the second New Year after everything had restarted.
This New Year, Baozhu and Li Zhi have new expectations and new reluctance to part.
When winter ends and the ice in the north melts, they will have to end their travels and return to the capital. They don't know when they will be back next time. Baozhu is worried about the red fox on the mountain, so she starts preparing dried meat for her sisters' family again. This time, she buys all the dried meat in Qiling County in one go and wants to go hunting on Yonglian Mountain.
Li Zhi stopped her, telling Baozhu to leave everything to him. He rolled up his sleeves and went into the mountains, returning with a cartload of simply prepared game.
After delivering the food to the red fox on the mountain for the last time, Baozhu transformed back into a fox, gently licking her sister as she bid her farewell.
The red fox's children had all grown up and left it, and it had transformed back into its plump fox form. This fox, who had been well cared for by Baozhu and was now glossy and shiny, called out to Baozhu as she transformed into human form and prepared to leave.
Baozhu stopped in her tracks.
The red fox stepped forward and carefully rested its head on the pearl's belly, remaining motionless for a long time.
Baozhu stood quietly, not daring to lower her head, only daring to look up at the clouds in the sky.
"I will tell her, I will bring her back to see you, she and I will never, ever forget you."
Baozhu murmured in a language the red fox couldn't understand, but the short-tempered red fox showed no impatience whatsoever.
It remained motionless, listening to the movements inside the pearl's belly.
Only when the cloud in the sky drifted to a place where the pearl could no longer be seen did the red fox slowly take a step back.
It stared at the pearl for a very long time.
Then it let out a soft cry and stepped aside.
Baozhu didn't look at it again and walked straight towards Li Zhi, who was in the distance.
But Li Zhi's gaze passed over Baozhu and looked behind her. He was staring at something, his eyes constantly moving forward.
Baozhu knew what he was looking at, and of course she also heard the clattering footsteps behind her.
But she didn't even dare to turn her neck.
Li Zhi sighed inwardly and helped Baozhu into the carriage.
They drove the carriage down the mountain, and only when they were almost out of the mountain did Baozhu dare to hold Li Zhi's hand tightly and slowly look back.
There was a fire in the mountains.
Her sisters stood on the mountain where they were born, quietly watching the carriage drive away.
The red fox did not follow them down the mountain.
Baozhu did not ask Li Zhi to stop the carriage.
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