Chapter 14: Hu Li

A chaotic night, the ruins of a broken temple. On one side, a silver-haired, fox-tailed girl crouched among broken bricks and rubble, her mouth stuffed with rotten vegetable leaves scavenged from a trash bag; on the other, Yu Sheng, who had died three times, stood behind a broken wall, staring at her in stunned silence.

They stood in a quiet standoff across the darkness. As a first meeting (if one didn't count that previous headbutt), Yu Sheng would likely never forget this scene for as long as he lived.

Then, he saw the fox-tailed girl's eyes slowly widen. A massive sense of bewilderment and surprise—perhaps laced with disbelief—gradually filled those gold-red eyes. She finally stood up, still clutching a handful of vegetable leaves, before appearing to snap out of a trance. She raised a finger at Yu Sheng, her voice sounding as if she were choking: "Human!? Ah, a human! You're a human?! Who... who are you? Where did you come from..."

Yu Sheng had already prepared his opening lines, including how to introduce himself, how to ask her about the situation, and how to express that he was broad-minded enough not to care about her previous "favor" of headbutting him. But the moment she spoke, he froze. Most of the words he had prepared vanished from his mind; he simply felt that her reaction was quite different from what he had anticipated.

What did she mean, "You're a human"? Was being a human such a shock to her? Had she never seen a person before, or had it just been too long? And more importantly...

Whether it was an illusion or a misunderstanding, Yu Sheng felt as though her reaction was that of someone seeing him for the very first time. Yet, she had clearly seen him when he was fighting that monster—though their meeting back then might have been a bit unconventional. After that headbutt, Yu Sheng's overall silhouette was likely quite different from how he looked now, but at the very least, his face shouldn't have changed much...

Even if the girl hadn't inspected the crime scene carefully after the collision, she should at least have some impression of the soul that had perished under her head, rather than acting as if she were looking at a "stranger" for the first time.

"We... met once before," Yu Sheng stammered after a few seconds of hesitation. "Just now, in the clearing outside. You said you came to save me... did you forget?"

The fox girl tilted her head, appearing to truly have no idea what he was talking about. However, her attention quickly shifted elsewhere. She pointed at the bag of kitchen scraps on the ground, her eyes seemingly glowing in the night: "This... is... yours?"

Her speech had a strange, halting quality, as if she had gone so long without communicating with anyone that she had to rethink and recall every single word before speaking it.

Yu Sheng replied in a strange tone, "Uh, yeah..."

"Can I... eat it?" the fox girl said rapidly, her speech still slightly stuttered. She then gripped the vegetable leaves in her hand tightly, as if using immense willpower to resist the urge to shove them directly into her mouth. Her mouth moved, chewing on what she had just eaten, then she glanced at Yu Sheng again and asked quickly, "I... hungry... want to eat... sorry..."

Her hands were trembling slightly, and her tone was urgent, yet she was constantly using her willpower to restrain herself—as if she weren't just fighting her appetite, but something far more dangerous... something on the verge of losing control.

Yu Sheng felt a momentary trance, feeling as though he had just seen a faint, dim shadow floating behind her. The shadow was slowly spreading from a distance, like a predator lurking in the dark, waiting for the moment its prey's mental defenses faltered.

But the shadow vanished just as quickly.

Yu Sheng stepped out from behind the broken wall. He had already sensed that something was wrong with the girl (though her messy pile of tails was inherently wrong enough), but he steeled his courage and walked forward: "You can't eat those, they're all..."

He found himself unable to finish the sentence—because he had never been this hungry in his life.

By then, the girl had slowly crouched down, seemingly unable to wait for Yu Sheng's response, intending to pick up the scattered food scraps from the ground.

"Wait! I think I have something to eat!" Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly called out to her again. Seeming to remember something, he began rummaging through his pockets.

Finally, he pulled out two small wrapped breads and a palm-sized bar of chocolate. These were what he had originally intended to save for a late-night snack.

Due to his job, he had a habit of staying up late.

The fox girl watched Yu Sheng's movements with a hint of vigilance and confusion. Yu Sheng approached her and demonstrated how to tear open the bread packaging. As the sound of tearing plastic filled the air and the aroma of the bread wafted out, the girl's eyes instantly brightened. Then, with a speed that left an afterimage, she snatched Yu Sheng's hand and shoved the bread into her mouth.

Yu Sheng barely had time to react. Not only was the girl incredibly fast, but her strength was also terrifying. He had to pull his arm back with almost all his might to yank it out of her mouth before she could bite his fingers off. Even so, his index finger was grazed by her sharp canine, and blood quickly seeped out.

"Damn, just how long have you been starving..." he couldn't help but mutter.

The girl, however, seemed completely deaf to her surroundings. She stuffed food into her mouth rapidly, as if trying to shove it directly into her stomach. Her mouth was bulging, and her eyes widened with every chew. Yu Sheng even worried she might choke to death in the next second, but she forced the food down and her gaze immediately fell upon the second piece of bread.

"Slow down, catch your breath first. You'll choke if you eat like that," Yu Sheng said seriously, blocking her path and looking into her eyes. "Are you okay? Do you understand?"

"I... understand..." The fox girl nodded vigorously, struggling to swallow her saliva.

Only then did Yu Sheng hand over the second piece of bread. He watched as she clumsily tore at the plastic packaging—her technique was wrong, but her strength was immense, tearing the bag to shreds almost instantly. She then ripped the bread in half to stuff it in, but halfway through, she seemed to remember Yu Sheng's words, or perhaps realized the value of the food. She hurriedly slowed down, tearing the bread into small pieces and placing them in her mouth with extreme restraint.

At the same time, her eyes kept darting toward Yu Sheng's hand, landing on the last small piece of chocolate.

"This is choc..." Yu Sheng said casually, preparing to hand over the chocolate, but he hesitated halfway through, his expression turning a bit strange.

He thought rapidly for several seconds before finally calling out in his mind: "Aileen."

The boisterous voice of the doll in the painting instantly exploded in his head: "Yu Sheng! What happened just now? Why did you suddenly go silent? I've been calling you and—"

"The situation here is complicated. I'll explain it to you slowly later. For now, I need to ask you something..."

"You... fine, ask away." Aileen's voice sounded unfriendly, but she ultimately showed a resigned patience.

"Dogs can't eat chocolate, right?" Yu Sheng suppressed the strange feeling in his heart. He stole a glance at the expectant fox girl opposite him and tried to make his tone sound as serious as possible.

"...Yeah," Aileen replied, finding the question bizarre. "That stuff is toxic to dogs. But why are you suddenly asking that? You're trapped in an Otherworld and you still have the leisure to—"

Yu Sheng ignored her subsequent rambling: "Can foxes eat it?"

"Foxes probably shouldn't... either, right?" Aileen hesitated. "After all, they're part of the Canidae family. Hey, let me tell you, many human foods are toxic to non-human species. Put it this way: your diet, forget about animals, even to an 'Other-race' like me, is just insane. It's like eating poison paired with strong alkali, pouring acid down your throat every meal, washing your intestines with biochemical agents, and gorging on decaying matter..."

Yu Sheng interrupted her non-stop chatter once again: "What about a fox that has cultivated into a spirit?"

Aileen was finally stumped: "...What?"

It turned out that even the most talkative chatterbox couldn't handle such an absurdly insane topic shift.

"I mean, a fox that has taken human form. Like a fox immortal, or a fox demon, you know?" Yu Sheng said rapidly in his mind, because he noticed the fox girl was almost finished with the small bread and was looking poised to snatch the chocolate from his hand. "Is a fox immortal still a fox? Is there more human component or more fox component? If the latter is higher, does a fox immortal count as a canine?"

Aileen: "...What exactly is going on over there?!"

"I have a fox here who's about to starve to death. White hair, red eyes, nine tails... or maybe six or seven, they're all tangled up so I can't count. But I only have one piece of chocolate left."

Aileen listened, stunned, before tossing out a response with incredible adaptability: "If she has nine tails, she can definitely handle it! If she didn't even have that much cultivation, what was the point of growing all those tails? Were they meant to be propellers for swimming? Wait, what's actually happening there? Didn't you say it was an uninhabited Otherworld? How did a..."

Yu Sheng found the first part of Aileen's logic quite sound. Ignoring her subsequent rambling, he handed the chocolate to the girl, though he didn't forget to add a warning: "Here, eat it. But it's best to try a little bit first. I'm afraid it might not be good for your body."

"Thank... thank you!" The fox girl hurriedly took the chocolate, clumsily unwrapped it, and took a cautious bite.

An expression of wonder appeared on her face, followed by a slight squint of her eyes, as if she were immersed in immense happiness.

"Alright, there's no more," Yu Sheng said, shaking his head and spreading his hands. "I don't know if it's enough to fill you up... uh, and I don't know how to address you."

"Thank you," the fox girl said again, this time with more solemnity than before. Once she was no longer quite so hungry, she looked into Yu Sheng's eyes, pointed to herself, and said with a serious face, "Hu Li."

"Huh?" Yu Sheng didn't react immediately.

"Hu Li," the fox girl pointed to herself and slowly began to smile. "I... have a name!"