I Dug Up a Fox Spirit - Chapter 3

The next morning, I half thought the night before had been a dream.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself on the floor.

Qi Yu was sprawled across my bed, tail raised, waving at me.

“Morning. What’s for breakfast?”

“…You slept in my bed?”

“I’m a noble nine-tailed celestial fox,” he said, perfectly justified in his own mind. “How could I sleep on the floor? Naturally, I took the bed—”

My hand shot up. “Heaven, strike him!”

A bolt of lightning actually turned through the gap in the window and cracked against the tip of his raised tail.

Remarkable!

I’d never seen lightning go around a corner before.

Qi Yu bristled. “Zhao Xiaoman! You—”

“Again!”

The second bolt chased him around the room. He darted behind me and crowed, “Can’t get me! Heh-heh!”

Before he’d finished, the bolt plunged underground, then shot up through the soles of his feet.

Qi Yu shuddered all over and began smoking.

“Don’t sleep in my bed again.”

I dusted off my hands.

He crouched in the corner, silently shedding tears as thick as flat noodles.

I cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge.

Qi Yu refused it. His eyes were fixed on the hens strolling around the yard.

“No eating the chickens.”

“Then… what about an egg?”

He swallowed.

“The eggs are for selling.”

“Not even one?”

“No.”

I counted on my fingers. “I’ve counted all ten chickens. If so much as a feather goes missing, you’re getting struck by lightning. I keep count of the eggs too.”

He ground his teeth. “Wasn’t your Zhao family rich back then? How did it end up with a miser like you?”

I pushed a hoe into his hands. “Weren’t you impressive back then? How did you end up in my clutches?”

“Well… circumstances change.”

I told him to hide his ears and tail and come dig sweet potatoes.

He strained for ages, but the ears stayed stubbornly upright.

He said he’d been sealed away too long. His cultivation hadn’t recovered yet.

I found Dad’s old hat and plonked it on his head, then wrapped a strip of cloth around his tail.

He looked ridiculous, but at least the face was still nice.

When I took him to the field, Auntie Zhou from next door craned her neck.

“Xiaoman, where did you find such a handsome young man? Your dad’s only just gone. Don’t let someone take advantage of you!”

She lowered her voice. “Look at that narrow waist, those pale hands. Does he look like a farmhand? His face is as pointed as a fox spirit’s…”

My heart lurched.

But Auntie Zhou went on, “Don’t tell me… you bought him from a brothel? Those boys are all looks and no use. You’ve wasted your money!”

“What respectable lad goes around with a head of red hair?”

Qi Yu swung his hoe so fast it whistled. “Who says I’m useless?”

In no time, he’d dug up every sweet potato in the field.

He’d even done Auntie Zhou’s ridge.

She opened her mouth, about to laugh with delight, but I pointed next door. “You’ve crossed the boundary.”

Qi Yu frowned. In a flash, he’d buried all her sweet potatoes again.

Auntie Zhou said nothing.

He happily shouldered our basket of potatoes and leaned toward me on the way home.

“My hands are blistered… Could I have an egg as a reward?”

“Who would have dared make me do this in the old days?”

I hesitated. “One egg… if I get to touch your ears.”

Qi Yu lifted his head proudly. “I am the Fox King! As if I’d bow down for a single—”

An hour later, he was cradling a bowl of tender yellow egg custard, his eyes narrowed in bliss at the smell.

“Make this again, and I’ll let you touch them again. Deal?”

“The tail too.”

“…Deal.”

That evening, after counting the chickens, I sent Qi Yu to bring in the geese.

He was gone so long that I suddenly remembered: foxes ate geese too!

I rushed out to find him. Three big white geese were chasing him all over the yard, one clamped firmly onto the tip of his tail.

I charged over, seized its neck, and pulled it off.

Qi Yu cradled his tail and sobbed. “My fur’s coming out…”

There really was a little bald patch. It was swollen too.

Once the geese were in, he sat beside my bed hugging his tail and sniffling. “A mighty fox brought low, bullied by geese… It bit me! Aren’t you going to do anything?”

“Like what?”

“Let me bite it back!”

“Only on the backside. No eating it.”

His ears drooped.

I found some ointment and rubbed it on. “I’ll boil you a goose egg tomorrow.”

“Are goose eggs better than chicken eggs?”

“They’re tasty too.”

“All right, then.”

He wiped his eyes. “And I want the bed tonight. Otherwise I won’t have the strength to work tomorrow.”

I thought it over. Dad always said you had to feed an ox if you wanted it to work.

So I agreed.

Who knew Qi Yu slept so badly? In the middle of the night, he rolled down to my feet. Half-asleep, he mistook one for a pig’s trotter and put it in his mouth, mumbling, “Mmm… lovely pig’s trotter…”

I kicked him.

He opened his eyes and found himself looking at the top of my foot.

He turned to stone.

“You rolled over here yourself,” I said innocently.

…