I was a little annoyed and asked Cheng Yan not to interrupt me.
She obediently closed her mouth.
I continued to tell the story of the eight-tailed fox.
At that time, the scholar told the fox: I wish to achieve high honors.
The fox asked the scholar: What kind of high honors do you want to achieve?
The scholar thought for a moment and said, "If I can become the top scholar in this lifetime, then my life will not have been in vain."
In order to fulfill the scholar's wish, the fox took a great deal of effort.
In the end, the scholar really achieved the top honors, riding a tall horse, and seeing everything in Chang'an in a day.
But the fox grew a tail again, and then lost it, still remaining with eight tails.
Later, the fox changed many masters. Each time it helped the master fulfill a wish, it grew a tail and then lost it again.
Until the ninth master, the fox was completely enraged. After growing and then losing a tail, it killed the master directly.
Since then, the eight-tailed fox made a solemn vow that it would kill the master as long as it couldn't grow the ninth tail.
"No way? Is the fox spirit so cruel?" Cheng Yan couldn't help glancing out of the window.
I said that the fox was also provoked, because it had found that, as long as it satisfied the master's wish, it would grow a tail. But after the master's wish was fulfilled, the fox would lose a tail. So, trying to grow the ninth tail was just a no-win situation.
The fox felt that the immortal was playing a trick on it, which is why it became so irritable and wanted to kill the master.
"Otherwise, Huang Xin, you're so smart, think of a way to break free from this seemingly dead end."
Huang Xin also thought about it with her hand on her cheek.
Finally, she simply gave up.
Growing one tail and then losing one tail was basically a dead end.
Maybe the immortal didn't want the eight-tailed fox to grow the ninth tail at all.
The two women fell silent for a while. Huang Xin, who likes science and is good at finding loopholes, suddenly said, "Wait a minute, if the fox spirit is so cruel, why is Uncle Zhu unharmed? Could this legend be fake?"
I said that legends are definitely not entirely true, but there's a reason for such popular legends.
I explained to them that every generation of fox king in the Northeast could not have a good ending because they couldn't fulfill the eight-tailed fox's wish to become a nine-tailed fox, and were brutally killed by it.
However, Zhu Long is a very clever person.
"Is there anything special about Uncle Zhu?"
"Of course." I said that the reason Zhu Long wasn't killed by the fox is twofold.
First, Zhu Long did not consider himself the fox's master. In the afternoon when he invited the fox, you all saw that he called the fox "Lady Fox".
In the legend, it is said that the immortals told the spirit fox that when you are intimate enough with your master, you can ask for your master's wish.
But the bamboo dragon and the spirit fox are not intimate enough, so the spirit fox cannot ask for a wish.
The second reason is that the bamboo dragon dug out his own eyes.
He dug out his eyes and gave them to the spirit fox to eat.
"What? Is his one-eyed appearance caused by this?" Cheng Yan asked.
Huang Xin also looked horrified and asked why the bamboo dragon would dig out his own eyes to feed the spirit fox.
I said that the human eye is the most essential part of the body. When an animal eats it, the human eye will be refined, and the essence of the human eye will block the animal's throat bone.
When the animal's throat bone is blocked, even if it becomes a monster, it cannot speak.
The spirit fox cannot speak, so naturally it can only ask the bamboo dragon for its wish.
Oh my goodness!
Cheng Yan exclaimed. She never thought that the bamboo dragon, who looked honest and upright, was actually such a ferocious person. He dug out his eyes just to prevent the events mentioned in the legend from happening.
Actually, I also think that the bamboo dragon did not have to do it. After all, it's just something from legend, not necessarily true. As for the premature death of each generation of the Northeast Fox King, it may be due to other reasons, who knows?
While we were discussing whether the bamboo dragon should have dug out his eyes, our "door" was pushed open.
The person who came in was none other than the bamboo dragon.
He grinned at us.
His grin gave us goosebumps.
I pointed to a seat and told the bamboo dragon, "Sit, Uncle Zhu."
After sitting down, the bamboo dragon said, "You are discussing me even when nothing is wrong."
"You heard it all?" I felt awkward, after all, this is his inner wisdom, it's not good to bring it up, and it's even worse to have the bamboo dragon hear about it.
To my surprise, the bamboo dragon suddenly said, "Actually, legends are all true."
"True? Is the matter of the eight-tailed fox true?" Cheng Yan and Huang Xin enthusiastically asked, but I stepped back in fear.
I attract "yin", so I understood the underlying meaning in the bamboo dragon's words just now.
If the matter of the eight-tailed fox is true, this deadlock would never be resolved, and the bamboo dragon would definitely be killed by the spirit fox.
If the eight-tailed fox is not capable of killing its master, then why did the bamboo dragon say that the legend is true?
I even doubted that the bamboo dragon standing in front of me is not a person at all, but the "yin" spirit left after being killed by the fox!
The bamboo dragon probably guessed what I was thinking, so he slapped his thighs and laughed heartily, saying, "Little Li, don't panic. The deadlock of the eight-tailed fox has been broken."
Broken?
I did not understand the bamboo dragon's meaning.
The bamboo dragon picked up the cup I had drunk from, took a sip, and said, "In fact, the eight-tailed fox still asked for my wish."
"How did it ask?" I asked tentatively.
The bamboo dragon said that the eight-tailed fox asked the question in his dream.
A dream! I suddenly realized. So that's how it is. The eight-tailed fox has spirituality, as it is a spirit fox, so it can ask through dreams. Even if you prevent it from refining the throat bone, it will not help.
The bamboo dragon said that when the eight-tailed fox asked him about his wish in his dream, he simply remained silent, trying to delay the time.
As a result, the eight-tailed fox said that as long as you do not speak your wish, you do not want to wake up.
Since the eight-tailed spirit fox had spoken, the bamboo dragon had to speak.
But once spoken, it meant death!
At this critical moment, in the bamboo dragon's dream, his daughter, Zhuying, also appeared and said to the eight-tailed fox: "Linghusama, my wish is to... you grow a ninth tail."
"My wish is to... you grow a ninth tail."
How simple, how innocent, and how selfless this wish was for Zhuying.
But it was exactly because of Zhuying's wish that the spirit fox did grow a ninth tail.
I couldn't help but ponder. So this is the intention of the immortals - when the eight-tailed fox meets its kindest owner, it can grow a ninth tail.
Zhuying is truly a kind and selfless girl.
The bamboo dragon slapped his thigh and laughed again, "I never expected that after having the spirit fox, I would spend half my life sleepless and restless because of this matter, and it was solved just like that."
I taunted the bamboo dragon, "You have to thank your old granny for this."
Hahaha!
The four of us burst into laughter.
At this moment, we heard a clear howl, the howl of the spirit fox.
The four of us hurriedly leaned over to the window and saw the fox, which was emitting a white light from all over its body, running on a very distant snow-capped mountain in the dark night.
The fox has nine tails and looks radiant.
As the nine-tailed fox ran to the top of the snowy mountain, she couldn't help but look back at us, then continued to run until she disappeared from sight.
And what we saw inside the fox den was a woman secretly crying, silently wiping away her tears.
This woman is Zhu Ying.
It is conceivable that Zhu Ying has had a very close relationship with the nine-tailed fox since she was young, otherwise she would not be so emotional at the time of parting from the nine-tailed fox.
The nine-tailed fox! I never thought that one day I would actually witness such a miracle. I am genuinely happy for Zhu Long and also happy for the nine-tailed fox.
In the joyful atmosphere, we chatted for the entire evening.
It wasn't until the next morning when we left that I felt a bit weary.
Leaving Zhu Long's house, I took Zhu Ying with me. From the start, I had promised Zhu Long that this incredibly kind young lady would become a star.
On the train, Cheng Yan and Huang Xin were still excitedly discussing the luminous nine-tailed fox they had seen the previous night, while Zhu Ying quietly wiped away her tears.
I advised Zhu Ying: "The nine-tailed fox has not died; she has become a celestial being. You should not be sad."
After Zhu Ying nodded gently, she asked me why we were taking the train to Harbin instead of going to Guangzhou.
I replied that I had some business in Harbin.
This time in Harbin, I was going to find a shaman because although the fox spirit in Cheng Yan had resolved the crisis within the forty-nine days, there was still an attached 'yin' spirit in her.
I had to find a shaman to remove this 'yin' spirit.
Aside from this reason, I also had a thought in my heart - Cheng Yan's 'yin' spirit clearly had a deep connection with the fox spirit. Could I obtain some clues to unravel the mystery of the fox spirit's death from this 'yin' spirit?
Forty-nine days may sound long or short, but it had to be used well, leveraging all resources, or else the ones who would suffer in the end, apart from Cheng Yan, would be myself!