Chapter 14: Hu Li

Chapter 14: Hu Li

In the chaotic night, amid the ruins of the broken temple, on one side was a silver-haired, fox-tailed girl squatting among shattered bricks and rubble, her mouth stuffed with rotten vegetable leaves dug out of a garbage bag, while on the other side stood Yu Sheng, who had died three times, staring dumbfoundedly from behind a broken wall.

They faced each other quietly through the darkness like this, and for a first meeting, not counting that earlier headbutt, Yu Sheng would probably never forget a scene like this for the rest of his life.

Then he saw the fox-tailed girl slowly widen her eyes, as a tremendous shock and delight, perhaps mixed with a little disbelief, gradually filled those golden-red pupils. She finally stood up, still clutching a handful of vegetable leaves, and then, as if suddenly waking from a dream, raised a finger toward Yu Sheng and made a choking sound from her throat: “A person!? Ah, a person! You’re a person?! You... who are you? Where did you come from...”

Yu Sheng had already prepared an opening speech, including how to introduce himself, how to ask this girl about the situation, and how to express that he was broad-minded enough not to mind the earlier favor of a headbutt. Yet the moment she spoke, he froze. Most of the words he had prepared vanished from his mind, and he only felt that her reaction was not what he had expected.

What did she mean by “you’re a person”? Was him being human really that shocking to her? Had she never seen a human before, or had it simply been too long since she had seen one? And more importantly...

Whether it was an illusion or a misunderstanding, Yu Sheng felt that her reaction was as though she were seeing him for the first time. Yet she had clearly already seen him when he was fighting that monster. Of course, the way they had met then had been somewhat unconventional. After this headbutt specialist smashed into him, his overall silhouette had probably looked very different from how it did now, but at the very least, his face should not have changed much...

Even if the girl had not carefully inspected the scene after the collision, she should at least have had some impression of the soul who died beneath her forehead, rather than looking at him now as though she were seeing a complete stranger for the first time.

“We’ve... met before,” Yu Sheng finally said after holding it in for two or three seconds. “Just now, out in the clearing. You said you were coming to save me... don’t you remember?”

The fox girl tilted her head, seemingly genuinely unaware of what Yu Sheng was talking about, but her attention quickly shifted elsewhere. She pointed at the bag of kitchen garbage on the ground, and her eyes seemed to glow in the darkness: “That... belongs to you?”

She spoke with strange pauses, as though it had been so long since she had communicated with another person that she had to think and remember before speaking each word.

Yu Sheng replied in a strange tone, “Uh, yes...”

“Can I... eat it?” the fox girl asked quickly. There was still a trace of stumbling in her speech. Then she tightened her grip on the vegetable leaves in her hand, as though using immense willpower to resist the urge to stuff them directly into her mouth. Her lips moved as she chewed what she had already eaten, and then she glanced at Yu Sheng again and hurriedly asked, “I’m... hungry. I want to eat. Sorry...”

Her hands trembled slightly. Her voice was urgent, yet she kept restraining herself through sheer willpower, as though what she was suppressing was not merely her appetite, but something even more dangerous than hunger, something already on the verge of losing control.

Yu Sheng blinked in a daze, feeling as though he had just seen faint shadows floating behind her. The shadows slowly spread from afar, like hunters lurking in darkness waiting for the moment their prey let down its guard.

But the shadows quickly vanished again.

Yu Sheng stepped out from behind the broken wall. He had already sensed that something about the girl before him was not right, though that tangled mass of tails was already strange enough by itself, but he still boldly walked forward. “You can’t eat that stuff. It’s all...”

He found himself unable to continue, because he had never been hungry to such an extent before.

Meanwhile, the girl had already slowly crouched down, apparently no longer willing to wait for Yu Sheng’s response, intending to pick up the scattered leftovers from the ground.

“Wait! I think I have something to eat!” At that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly shouted to stop her. He seemed to have remembered something, and while speaking, he rapidly searched through his pockets.

In the end, he pulled out two individually wrapped bread rolls and a palm-sized chocolate bar. He had originally intended to keep them as a late-night snack.

Because of his work, he had a habit of staying up late at night.

The fox girl watched Yu Sheng’s actions with a trace of caution and confusion. Yu Sheng walked over to her and demonstrated how to tear open the bread wrapper. As the plastic ripped apart, the aroma of bread spread into the air. The girl’s eyes instantly lit up, and then, almost at a speed that left afterimages behind, she grabbed Yu Sheng’s hand and tried to stuff both the bread and his hand into her mouth.

Yu Sheng nearly failed to react. Not only was the girl unbelievably fast, but she was astonishingly strong as well. He practically used all his strength to yank his arm back, barely managing to pull it free before this fox bit off his fingers. Even so, one of her sharp canine teeth scraped a small cut across his index finger, and blood quickly seeped out.

“Holy crap, just how long have you been starving...” he could not help muttering.

The girl seemed completely unable to hear anything around her. She rapidly stuffed food into her mouth as though she wanted to force it directly into her stomach. Her cheeks bulged, and every time she chewed, her eyes widened. Yu Sheng was genuinely worried that she would choke to death in the next second, but she forcibly swallowed everything, and then her gaze immediately landed on the second bread roll.

“Slow down first. Catch your breath. If you keep eating like that, you’ll choke to death.” Yu Sheng had no choice but to block her path and look seriously into her eyes. “Got it? Do you understand?”

“I... understand...” The fox girl nodded vigorously while swallowing her saliva.

Only then did Yu Sheng hand over the second bread roll and watch as she awkwardly struggled with the plastic packaging. Her technique was wrong, but her strength was astonishing. Almost instantly, she shredded the wrapper apart. She tore the bread in half and shoved it toward her mouth, but halfway through, she seemed to remember Yu Sheng’s warning, or perhaps realize how precious the food was. Hurriedly, she slowed down, tore the bread into tiny pieces, and placed them into her mouth with extreme restraint.

At the same time, her gaze repeatedly drifted toward Yu Sheng’s hand, settling on the final piece of chocolate.

“This is choco...” Yu Sheng casually began as he prepared to hand over the chocolate, but halfway through raising his hand, he hesitated and his expression became somewhat strange.

After thinking rapidly for several seconds, he finally called inwardly, Irene.

The doll inside the painting immediately exploded into his mind with her noisy voice: “Yu Sheng! What happened to you just now? Why did you suddenly stop responding again? And no matter how much I called you, I couldn’t...”

“The situation here is complicated. I’ll explain later. Right now I need to ask you something...”

“You... fine. Ask.” Irene sounded displeased, but in the end she helplessly chose to be patient.

“Dogs can’t eat chocolate, right?” Yu Sheng suppressed the strange feeling in his heart. He secretly glanced at the eagerly expectant fox girl opposite him and tried to keep his voice serious.

“...Right,” Irene replied, feeling the question was completely baffling. “It’s toxic to dogs. But why are you suddenly asking that? You’re trapped in an Other Domain and you still have time for this random...”

Yu Sheng ignored the rest of her rambling. “Can foxes eat it?”

“Foxes probably can’t either... maybe?” Irene hesitated. “They’re both canines, after all. Let me tell you, a lot of human food is toxic to species other than humans. Honestly, your menu is insane. Forget animals, even to a different species like me it’s basically a collection of poisons. Strong alkalis with every meal, acidic liquids constantly poured down your throats, biochemical compounds passing through your intestines, decaying substances swallowed by the mouthful...”

Yu Sheng interrupted the chatterbox again. “What about a fox that’s cultivated into human form?”

Irene was finally left speechless: “...What?”

It turned out that even the chattiest chatterbox could not withstand such an abrupt and absurd topic change.

“I mean a fox that transformed into a human. You know, a fox immortal, a fox spirit.”

Yu Sheng spoke rapidly in his mind because he noticed that the fox girl before him was almost done with the small bread roll and was clearly about to come for the chocolate in his hand.

“Does a fox immortal still count as a fox? Is it more human or more fox? If it’s mostly fox, does a fox immortal count as a canine?”

Irene: “...What exactly is happening over there?!”

“There’s a fox over here that’s practically starving to death. White hair, red eyes, and nine tails, or maybe six or seven. They’re all tangled together so I can’t count properly. But all I have left is a piece of chocolate.”

Irene listened blankly, then displayed astonishing adaptability and replied, “If it’s got nine tails already, it’ll definitely be fine. If it doesn’t even have that much cultivation, then what was the point of growing all those tails? Were they supposed to be propellers for swimming? Hey, wait. What exactly is happening over there? Didn’t you say this was an uninhabited Other Domain? How did a...”

As soon as Yu Sheng heard the first half of her answer, he felt it made perfect sense. Without bothering to respond to her continued chatter, he handed the chocolate to the girl, though he still remembered to add a warning: “You can have it, but try only a little at first. I’m worried it might be bad for your body.”

“Th... thank you!” The fox girl hurriedly accepted the chocolate. After clumsily opening the wrapper, she carefully took a bite.

A look of amazement appeared on her face. Then she narrowed her eyes slightly, as though immersed in immense happiness.

“Well, that’s all I’ve got. There’s no more.” Yu Sheng shook his head and spread his hands. “I don’t know if that’s enough to fill you up... uh, and I don’t even know what to call you.”

“Thank you,” the fox girl said again. This time her gratitude was far more solemn than before. Only after she was no longer quite so hungry did she look into Yu Sheng’s eyes, raise a hand, point at herself, and speak with a serious expression: “Hu Li.”

“Huh?” Yu Sheng failed to react immediately.

“Hu Li.” The fox girl pointed at herself and slowly smiled. “I have a name!”