The old man sighed and muttered to himself, "A calamity in my destiny. Alas, I hope His Majesty is just overthinking it."
Xiang Wan ate and drank, and before she knew it, she was able to stand and walk. However, she was still not used to walking on all fours, and she would fall to the ground after taking only a few steps. So she simply stopped walking and lay down wherever she fell.
The fox mother's eyes were both amused and helpless. Each time, she would use her head to pull Xiang Wan back to lie down next to her.
The fox den was enormous; Xiang Wan couldn't see the top when she looked up, and it was pitch black all around. The fact that she could see even this small patch of land was thanks to her fox-like eyesight.
She was very curious. She had been in the den for more than a month, and the mother fox had been lying beside her the whole time, but she hadn't seen her go out to find food.
As she stumbled and struggled to learn to walk, Xiang Wan was almost completely exhausted. Whenever she was about to leave her mother fox's sight, she would be carried back by her.
In this pitch-black cave, Xiang Wan longed for her legs. Despite having her mother fox by her side, she also longed to go out and see the scenery.
That day, the mother fox suddenly looked up uneasily, her eyes fixed on a certain spot, unblinking. Xiang Wan found it strange; in the dark, quiet den, what could have made the mother fox so wary?
She tried to imitate it, straining her head to look in the same direction, but she could see and hear nothing. Suddenly, the mother fox swiftly grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, leaped a few times, and placed her in a hidden stone cave. She licked her head with her tongue, then pulled over a large rock to block the entire entrance to the cave.
For a long time afterward, Xiang Wan never heard the fox mother's footsteps again, nor did she see her return.
She only learned later, after being rescued, that it was her final farewell to her mother fox.
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