Nine Tails - Chapter 4

It was a hotpot restaurant run by a man from Chongqing. The specialty was rabbit heads in numbing, spicy sauce.

The menu intimidated me a little.

Foxes loved rabbit. Nobody had said anything about loving chili.

Fu Junsheng seemed to read my mind. He lowered his head to my ear. “Can’t handle spicy food?”

Something cold touched my hand. He’d pulled out a can of Wangzai milk and passed it to me. “Milk helps with the heat. If it’s too spicy, we can leave it.”

His voice was already low, and now he’d deliberately softened it, speaking slowly, as though making a gentle suggestion.

Like coaxing a child.

My face warmed. Not wanting him to notice, I simply nodded.

I chose a few things at random. He added some more, and when the dishes arrived, they covered the entire table.

Good grief. Not a single vegetable. The closest we came was the glutinous rice cakes with brown sugar.

The server had enthusiastically recommended them, saying all the young women loved them. He’d glanced at me and circled the item on the menu.

“Don’t you want a picture for your Moments?”

I’d been about to slide some meat into the broth, but Fu Junsheng had a point.

Hotpot was an excellent test of friendship.

A happy hotpot meal required compatible tastes, fair distribution of ingredients, and swift agreement on additional orders so the eating didn’t have to stop. Nobody should start shifting blame over the leftovers at the end, either.

Fu Junsheng was clearly a qualified hotpot partner.

The spicy rabbit heads inspired both love and hate. I’d finished my milk when another can appeared beside my hand.

He wasn’t even looking at me as he passed it over. He was busy helping himself to a rice cake.

I’d never met a fox with such a sweet tooth.

We packed the leftovers to go with sauce poured over them, turning them into a spicy mixed dish.

When we stepped outside, we smelled of chili and Sichuan pepper.

“Walk for a bit?” I asked, turning toward him when we couldn’t immediately find a taxi.

Before he could answer, his phone rang. A few seconds later, mine vibrated too.

Xiaohui sounded close to tears. Her boyfriend was cheating. She was outside a hotel and wanted me to come help catch him.

Wow.

“Don’t panic,” I told her. “Send me the address. I’m coming. Don’t go in alone.”

Fu Junsheng looked at me gravely. “That was Tang Chao. We’re going to catch a cheater.”

“Let’s go straight there,” I said.

There was nowhere for cars to stop on our side of the road. We’d have to cross to catch a taxi.

The light turned green. Fu Junsheng took my hand. “Children aren’t allowed to cross the road by themselves.”

Xiaohui was still bombarding me with messages. I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, so I left my hand where it was.

Was that really why? Or did I simply not want to pull away?

I dodged the question, numbing myself with other excuses.

Xiaohui and Tang Chao were standing together. They waved when they saw us.

She seemed to know already that I’d been with Fu Junsheng. She wasn’t remotely surprised when we got out of the same taxi.

“Tang Chao comes in with me. Fu, you cover the rear. Ke, just film everything.” She spat viciously. “Cheating scum! I’m going to skin Liu Lü alive!”

She swung her bag onto her back and stormed through the hotel doors.

I couldn’t hear what she said to the receptionist, who frowned. Xiaohui slapped five red hundred-yuan notes on the counter.

Still no.

Her brows drew together. She stepped aside to make a call. Before long, the phone at the desk rang, and a key card was passed into her hand.

The whole operation was seamless.

I honestly wondered whether Fu Junsheng and I were contributing much. Xiaohui looked fierce enough to flay both people in that room all on her own.

Humans were terrifying.

Key card secured, conquest blazing in her eyes, she flung her bag at Tang Chao. “Let’s go. Seventh floor.”

I shrank into a corner of the elevator. Fu Junsheng gently pinched the back of my neck. Among foxes, that was a comforting gesture, most often used by parents with their cubs.

As that tiny touch sent my cheeks burning and my heart racing, the question of whether he liked me sprang into my head. Meanwhile, Xiaohui held a hair tie between her teeth and gathered up her hair.

We were in for a battle.

Outside room 713, she called softly, “Ke. Start recording.”

Then she burst inside before anyone could react.

Liu Lü and a girl were in bed, doing something I wasn’t about to describe.

A hand covered my eyes, and my phone was taken from me.

I heard Xiaohui unleash a torrent of curses, followed by the sounds of a scuffle with Liu Lü. Then a muffled grunt, and Tang Chao’s contemptuous voice.

“Have you got no shame? A grown man, trying to hit a woman?”

The girl’s sobbing continued in the background. They must have managed to put something on, because Fu Junsheng finally took his hand away.

Liu Lü looked ashen. He’d barely got his trousers on, and there were injuries around his eye and at the corner of his mouth.

The girl had been pulled off the bed. Wrapped in a quilt, she cried quietly, her hair hanging over her face so I couldn’t see her expression.

Xiaohui stood proudly beside the bed like the Statue of Liberty, not so much as a hair out of place. Tang Chao towered a head taller behind her.

Wow.

Humans were impressive.

Xiaohui went around me and crouched beside the girl. “Did you know he had a girlfriend before you slept with him?”

The girl shook her head. Xiaohui stroked her hair. “Be more careful with men next time. Don’t let another one fool you.”

Then she spun around and smacked Liu Lü in the face with a pillow. “Try being a decent human being! Is sex all you think about? Our families’ business partnership is over too. You can explain that to your father.”

The harsher her tone grew, the wider Tang Chao smiled.

As we were leaving, I glanced back. Perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn I saw a snake’s tail beneath the quilt.

Surely not.

This was the twenty-first century. A modern metropolis.

It couldn’t be full of wild animals.

Besides, weren’t animals supposedly banned from becoming spirits after the founding of the People’s Republic?