Chapter 14: Foxy
Under the chaotic night sky, amidst the ruins of a crumbling temple, a silver-haired, fox-tailed girl crouched among the broken bricks and rubble. Her mouth was stuffed with rotting vegetable leaves scavenged from a garbage bag. On the other side of a shattered wall stood Yu Sheng, who had already died three times. He stared at the scene in shock, unable to process what he was witnessing.
They stood there, separated by the darkness, locked in a silent standoff. This unexpected encounter—excluding that earlier headbutt—was something Yu Sheng would probably never forget.
Then, the fox-tailed girl’s eyes slowly widened, a mix of immense surprise and disbelief washing over her golden-red gaze. Eventually, she stood up, still clutching a handful of wilted leaves, and seemed to suddenly snap out of her daze. Pointing a trembling finger at Yu Sheng, she choked out words as if they were caught in her throat:
“Human!? Ah, a human! Are you… are you really human?! Who… who are you? Where did you come from…?”
Yu Sheng, who had already prepared his opening speech—complete with self-introduction and a casual inquiry into the situation—found himself completely at a loss. The girl’s reaction was far from what he expected, and his carefully rehearsed words crumbled away.
[What does she mean by ‘you’re human’? Is it really that shocking to her? Has she never seen a human before, or has it just been too long since she last did?] More importantly…
Yu Sheng couldn’t shake the feeling that her reaction was as if she were seeing him for the first time, despite having clearly met during his earlier battle with the monstrous creature. Sure, their initial meeting was unconventional—mainly involving a brutal headbutt—but his face hadn’t changed since then, right?
Even if she hadn’t inspected the ‘crime scene’ after knocking him out, she should at least remember the person she headbutted to death, right? Yet, she looked at him now like he was a complete stranger.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Yu Sheng finally couldn’t help but speak up, “We… kind of met earlier—just outside on the open ground. You said you came to save me… did you forget?”
The Fox Girl tilted her head, clearly puzzled, but quickly her attention shifted elsewhere. She pointed at a bag of kitchen waste on the ground, her eyes practically glowing in the night.
“Is that… yours?” she asked, her words coming out in strange, halting bursts as if too much time had passed since she last spoke to another person.
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, his tone skeptical, “Uh… yeah?”
“Can I… eat it?” the Fox Girl blurted out hastily, still stammering a bit. She clenched the leaves in her hand tighter, as if fighting a powerful urge to stuff them straight into her mouth. She glanced at Yu Sheng again, desperation clear in her eyes. “I’m… hungry. I really want to eat… sorry…”
Her hands trembled slightly, and despite her eagerness, she seemed to be holding herself back—not just from her hunger, but from something even more dangerous that was on the verge of losing control.
For a moment, Yu Sheng thought he saw faint shadows lingering behind her—dark tendrils stretching from the distance like hunters lurking in the gloom, waiting for a lapse in their prey’s willpower. But the shadows dissipated as quickly as they appeared.
Summoning his courage, Yu Sheng stepped out from behind the broken wall, aware that something was undeniably wrong with this girl—beyond just her chaotic tails. Still, he cautiously moved closer.
“Those things aren’t edible—they’re…” He hesitated, unsure how to explain to someone this desperately hungry.
The girl crouched back down, clearly too hungry to wait for his response, reaching for the scattered scraps of food on the ground.
“Wait! I think I have something to eat!” Yu Sheng suddenly shouted, rummaging through his pockets. Finally, he pulled out two small, individually wrapped loaves of bread and a palm-sized bar of chocolate—originally meant as his midnight snack.
The Fox Girl eyed his movements warily, but when Yu Sheng tore open the bread’s wrapper and the scent wafted out, her eyes lit up like stars. In an instant, she lunged forward, snatching his hand—bread and all—and nearly shoved both into her mouth.
Yu Sheng barely had time to react. The girl’s speed was terrifying, and her strength even more so. It took all his might to wrench his arm free before she accidentally bit off his fingers. Though he managed to pull back, one of her sharp canine teeth still nicked his index finger, drawing a thin line of blood.
“Damn… how long have you been starving?” he muttered.
The girl, oblivious to his words, continued stuffing the food into her mouth with such reckless abandon that Yu Sheng worried she might choke. Even as her cheeks bulged from the packed bread, she forced it down, eyes glinting with a feral hunger. Yet, as her gaze fell upon the remaining piece of bread, Yu Sheng had to intervene.
“Slow down! You’ll choke if you keep eating like that,” he cautioned, blocking her path. Meeting her eyes with a stern look, he added, “Got it? Understand?”
The Fox Girl swallowed hard and gave a hasty nod. “I… understand…”
Only then did Yu Sheng hand her the second piece of bread, watching as she struggled to tear open the wrapper. Her method was clumsy, but her strength easily shredded the plastic, splitting the bread in two. This time, she remembered his warning and slowed down, breaking the bread into small pieces before cautiously placing each one into her mouth.
As her gaze kept wandering toward Yu Sheng’s hand, her eyes locked onto the last small piece of chocolate.
“This is chocolate…” Yu Sheng said casually, preparing to hand it over. However, his hand stopped halfway, and his expression grew somewhat peculiar.
He thought rapidly for a few seconds before calling out in his mind, “Irene.”
The loud, lively voice of the Doll erupted in his head instantly, “Yu Sheng! What happened just now? You suddenly went quiet, and no matter how much I called, you didn’t…”
“Things are complicated here. I’ll explain later. First, I need to ask you something…”
“You… fine, go ahead.” Irene’s tone sounded somewhat displeased but ultimately resigned herself to patience.
“Dogs can’t eat chocolate, right?” Yu Sheng fought the odd feeling in his chest, sneaking a glance at the expectant Fox Girl across from him, trying to maintain a serious tone.
“…Right,” Irene replied, sounding puzzled. “That stuff is toxic to dogs. But why are you suddenly asking this? Even stuck in the Otherworld, you still have time to…”
Yu Sheng ignored her rambling. “What about foxes?”
“Foxes probably can’t either… I guess?” Irene hesitated. “They’re part of the canine family, after all. Look, many human foods are toxic to non-human species. To put it bluntly, your diet is like eating poison mixed with strong alkalis, washing it down with acid, pouring biochemical agents through your intestines, and scarfing down rotten substances…”
Yu Sheng cut her off before she could rant any further. “What about fox immortals who’ve cultivated into human form?”
Irene was stunned into silence. “…Huh?”
Even the ever-chatty Doll couldn’t withstand such an absurd shift in conversation.
“I mean, foxes that have transformed into human form—Fox Immortals. You know what I mean? Are they still considered foxes? Are they more human or more fox? If they’re still more fox, would they still be classified as canines?” Yu Sheng spoke rapidly in his mind, noticing that the Fox Girl had almost finished the small bread and was eyeing the chocolate with growing intent.
Irene was genuinely baffled. “…What exactly is going on over there?!”
“There’s a starving fox girl here—white fur, red eyes, nine tails… maybe six or seven, they’re so matted together I can’t count. And I’ve only got one piece of chocolate left.” Yu Sheng explained briefly.
Irene paused, then responded with unexpected acceptance. “If she’s got nine tails, she should be able to handle it. If she can’t survive a bit of chocolate after reaching that level of cultivation, what are all those tails for—acting as propellers when she swims? Wait, hold on! I thought it was supposed to be an uninhabited Otherworld! How did you run into a…”
The first half of her reasoning sounded surprisingly reasonable to Yu Sheng, so he quickly handed the chocolate to the Fox Girl without bothering to respond to Irene’s ramblings. However, he still couldn’t help but caution her, “Here, you can eat it, but try a little first. I’m not sure if it’s good for your body.”
“Th-thank you!” The Fox Girl hurriedly accepted the chocolate, fumbling with the wrapper before taking a careful bite.
A look of surprise crossed her face, and then she slowly squinted her eyes, as if she had been swept away by overwhelming bliss.
“That’s all there is,” Yu Sheng remarked, shaking his head and spreading his hands. “I don’t know if it’s enough to fill you… uh, by the way, what should I call you?”
“Thank you,” the Fox Girl said again, this time with even more sincerity. Now that she wasn’t as hungry, she looked straight into Yu Sheng’s eyes, then pointed at herself with a serious expression. “Foxy.”
“Huh?” Yu Sheng was momentarily confused.
“Foxy,” she repeated, pointing to herself again, slowly breaking into a smile. “I have a name!”