Chapter 11
Xu Qingzhou froze, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
The room, which was originally pitch black, gradually lit up with white light.
Xu Qingzhou couldn't help but raise her hand to shield her eyes. Once her eyes adjusted to the bright light, she saw through her fingers that her fox was lying quietly on the ground with its eyes closed.
On its snow-white body, it treads upon a thick, hard, jet-black claw surrounded by a ring of rough bristles.
Xu Qingzhou's eyelashes began to tremble. It took her a while to gather her courage before she slowly raised her head.
A huge, powerful beast, almost reaching the ceiling, was looking down at her.
The beast resembled a tiger, but was much larger. It had sharp teeth, shiny black fur, and a long tail that trailed behind it, swaying slowly from side to side. When its two bulbous red eyes stared at her, it made a low growling sound in its throat, as if it were about to pounce and tear her apart at any moment.
With its thick right foreleg, it slowly raised it, gently kicking the fox's body forward, then slowly nudging it back.
Kick it forward again, then pull it back.
Each stroke, like a dull knife grinding flesh, was terrifying.
The fox's snow-white body lay beneath its hooves, trampled upon as if it were a dead thing.
Xu Qingzhou looked up at the giant beast, her hair damp and disheveled, clinging to her face, indistinguishable between rain and sweat, her complexion deathly pale against her black hair. Her lips trembled, and she knelt motionless, looking like a little girl terrified.
However, upon closer inspection, one can see that her hand is trembling as she slowly and subtly moves toward the knife.
As if it had noticed her little movement, the beast suddenly stretched its neck and roared at her fiercely.
A gigantic maw roared before her eyes, accompanied by a howling hurricane. Terror and despair surged to the top of her head. Xu Qingzhou covered her ears tightly, feeling that she was about to die. However, even in this dying moment, catching a glimpse of a white fox shadow on the ground, her brain didn't have time to react, but she instinctively lunged forward, kneeling down and shielding it with her body...
*
It is said that when a person is on the verge of death, even a second can feel incredibly long.
At this moment, Xu Qingzhou truly experienced this in his despair.
In an instant, countless images flooded her mind: secretly feeding the fox after taking it home; rescuing the fox from Xu Meiling's beating; sitting on the bed with the fox in her arms while listening to her grandmother tell stories; and keeping vigil in the mourning hall with the fox when her grandmother passed away...
After that, they moved into a rented courtyard together. Although life was so simple that even eating meat required a sense of ritual on a holiday, for Xu Qingzhou, with the fox around, whether the fox was obedient or mischievous, these were all very good days.
She didn't want this "goodness" to end there.
But if this "goodness" is destined to be taken back, then let it be taken back along with it.
*
The wind howled and pounded against the doors and windows, and rain was swept in and poured into the house.
Xu Qingzhou was completely soaked.
The heart, pounding violently with panic and fear, gradually calmed down amidst a long, deathly silence and chill, fueled by a resolute determination to give up. Thoughts slowly returned to normal.
Xu Qingzhou's face was tightly furrowed. After a long while, his brows slowly relaxed, and then, very slowly, little by little, he tentatively opened his eyes.
The small rented room was plunged into darkness again.
In this boundless darkness, she could clearly feel the beating of her heart and the sound of the wind and rain outside—she was still alive.
The room was quiet, with only the ticking of the clock.
There was no rolling sound from the beast's throat, no hissing sound.
Xu Qingzhou remained silent for a moment, then tentatively reached out with trembling hands.
No.
The giant beast's claws are gone.
However, before a flicker of joy at surviving the ordeal could even form in his heart, his expression froze the moment his hand reached for his chest—
The fox is gone too.
It was clearly... clearly just a moment ago in her arms!
Xu Qingzhou hurriedly groped around on the ground with both hands, but after searching all around, she only found scattered debris. Undeterred, she crawled to other areas and continued searching with her hands.
No.
Still no.
She turned around and went back to the bedside.
Chi Jun stood behind the door, quietly watching the small, dark figure crawling on its knees in the darkness. Like a robot without pain, it wandered around the room, making clattering noises as it knocked things over.
He heard her head suddenly hit something with a dull thud, and noticed that her hand seemed to have been cut by a knife, causing her small figure to shrink abruptly.
Despite repeated setbacks, she still didn't turn on the light.
It's as if as long as the lights aren't turned on, you don't have to face the reality that the fox was taken away or eaten by a giant beast.
However, the answer was destined to be forced upon her by time.
Fifteen minutes later, Xu Qingzhou suddenly stopped moving.
In the darkness, Chi Jun couldn't see her expression clearly, only a blurry figure staring blankly ahead. After a while, the small figure knelt on the ground, and her sobs gradually blended into the wind and rain.
The voice was deep and hoarse, without any aggression, yet it seeped into my heart in wisps of the damp, cool wind.
Chi Jun tightened his jaw and stared silently for a while. He then moved his right hand, and the strange light that had been faintly flashing at his fingertips as he tried to cast another illusion disappeared between his fingers with a flick of his finger.
"Hello."
From the darkness, a male voice that had never been heard before rang out.
Chi Jun stared at Xu Qingzhou, whose shadow suddenly froze, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. After a long while, he still sighed softly.
"I'm not dead yet, why are you crying?"
*
Xu Qingzhou didn't believe in metaphysics before.
But ever since her grandmother passed away, she desperately hopes that there really is another world where all the departed souls can live peacefully, and that they can reunite there a hundred years later.
Through repeated self-brainwashing, she seemed to firmly believe that her grandmother lived in another world, and her heart became much calmer as a result.
However, when I think about it occasionally, I also feel anxious and uncertain.
Perhaps it was all just wishful thinking on her part?
When a person dies, they truly disappear completely.
Thus, after accepting reality and returning to reason, Xu Qingzhou's mood fluctuated between the two, filled with hesitation and uncertainty.
However, at this moment, looking at the handsome young man sitting casually on the edge of the bed, draped in a large floral blanket, with two pointed fox ears peeking out from his head, Xu Qingzhou: "..."
Even fox spirits really exist.
What reason could there be for another world not to exist?
While Xu Qingzhou stared blankly at Chi Jun, Chi Jun raised an eyebrow slightly, also scrutinizing her, trying to glean something from her eyes.
However, five minutes have passed.
For a full five minutes, Xu Qingzhou seemed to have been acupunctured, not moving an inch.
If it weren't for the ever-changing emotions in her eyes, Chi Jun would almost suspect that she had been so frightened that she had lost her soul and was now just an empty shell.
However, in her eyes as she looked at him, there was bewilderment, shock, embarrassment, joy, and doubt—
There is no fear.
Not a single one.
Chi Jun sighed.
Indeed, even the giant beast he specially conjured couldn't scare her away, so how could she expect that the two fox ears on her head that hadn't faded yet would frighten her into tears and make her want to send him away immediately?
After a while of this stalemate, Chi Jun lost patience and couldn't wait for Xu Qingzhou's "fear" to possibly not even exist, so he suddenly snapped his fingers.
Xu Qingzhou's eyelashes fluttered as she snapped back to reality.
Chi Jun smiled and said, enunciating each word clearly, "Xu—Qing—Zhou?"
The young man's voice was elegant yet slightly magnetic. Perhaps knowing he was a vixen, his casual smile seemed to exude an indescribable allure, captivating the eye.
Xu Qingzhou was momentarily stunned, but when he came to his senses, he nodded.
She still had injuries on her face, some from Zhang Pengfei hitting her, and others from her own carelessness in bumping into things.
There was a hint of comicality in his disheveled state.
Chi Jun glanced at it, then looked away. After a while, he met Xu Qingzhou's eyes and said:
“My name is Chi Jun—as you can see, I’m a vixen.”
The term "fox spirit" is hardly a positive one in the human world...
Xu Qingzhou blinked, unsure how to react, and could only nod awkwardly to indicate that she had heard him.
Chi Jun smiled.
It was a friendly smile with a touch of playfulness.
"Thank you for taking care of me over the past two months."
He leaped lightly off the bed, walked to Xu Qingzhou, bent down slightly, and looked into her eyes.
Is there anything you want?
This means repaying a debt of gratitude.
From the very beginning, Xu Qingzhou only regarded the fox as an ordinary little pet to keep her company and relieve her boredom. She never imagined that one day it would become a human and repay her in any way.
I never thought about it before, and I never will now.
Xu Qingzhou shook his head.
Chi Jun exclaimed "Ah," his tone slightly regretful: "No, that's such a pity."
After saying that, he nodded without any regret and strode towards the door.
"Then I'm leaving."
In fact, Chi Jun did not expect to suddenly transform into human form tonight. Perhaps five hundred years is too long, and he has forgotten the torment he went through before he first took human form. Or perhaps, his spiritual power was completely wasted this time, and the process was different from when he first took human form five hundred years ago.
In short, he had no idea what was about to happen until the very last second before he was reborn as a human.
The moment he saw himself transformed into human form, in a flash, he thought of using the last bit of spiritual power he had left to create an illusion for both Zhang Pengfei and Xu Qingzhou.
The purpose of creating illusions for Zhang Pengfei was, of course, to force him to leave.
The purpose of creating illusions for Xu Qingzhou was to frighten the little girl so that she would let go of him and leave on her own.
Clearly, the second objective was not achieved.
Since that's the case, Chi Jun made a decisive decision: while Xu Qingzhou was still in a daze and unable to process such a large amount of information, he took advantage of the chaos to suggest "leaving".
As long as Xu Qingzhou didn't stop him, perhaps it could be considered a kind of "tacit agreement" to let him go?
With this idea in mind, Chi Jun took large strides without looking back. Just as he reached the door, the blanket wrapped around him was suddenly pulled away.
As Chi Jun stopped walking, an ominous premonition suddenly arose in his heart.
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