The fox spirit is in a hurry like a law enforcement officer.

  I found myself able to see things clearly in the dark, but instead of feeling delighted, I felt extreme terror and unease. A normal person would absolutely not be able to see things in such a dark place, only animals that like nighttime activities can, so does this mean I have acquired animal characteristics or turned into a monster?

  What happened to me?

  I was anxious and uneasy, but finally everyone had enough to eat and drink and dispersed. I insisted on sending Zhou Tan back home, my mother saw that my body was "very normal", so she let me go. Before leaving, my mother gave Zhou Tan a super large red envelope, probably around 8,000 yuan, Zhou Tan said some polite words, but ultimately accepted it.

  "When we were left alone after going out the door, I couldn't help but ask: 'Mr. Zhou, will I have any aftereffects?'"

  Zhou Tan was taken aback and stopped in his tracks: "This... this needs to be observed for a while, cough...".

  He was clearly using a fake cough to cover up his panic. I became even more uneasy: "What about the fox spirit on me? How did you deal with it?"

  "Ah...... I've sealed it within you, cough, cough, let's talk about it when we get to my place."

  Although I was uneasy and somewhat indignant, it was indeed he who turned me from a vegetable into a living being, and he had said beforehand that he would only treat the illness and not worry about the consequences. He also risked his life and spat up blood twice, so I still respected and appreciated him, and didn't press him for answers anymore, supporting him as we continued walking.

  Zhou Tan's home was in the center of the village, an extremely old house with a worn-out threshold and a bluestone slab at the entrance that had been trodden smooth, probably over a hundred years old. This large house used to be shared by several families, but now only he lived there alone. As you walked inside, a musty smell and damp air hit your face, and green moss was visible everywhere on the stairs and mud floor. Except for electric lights, there were no other electrical appliances, nor any decent new furniture.

  The moss is green on the steps, and the grass color enters the curtain blue. How poetic and picturesque these two sentences are! But at this moment, I only saw extreme loneliness and desolation. I couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Zhou, where are your family members?"

  Zhou Tan's face changed, and he didn't say a word. I immediately regretted asking such a foolish question. Since junior high school, I have been studying abroad, and my time at home is limited. Even when I am at home, I am busy doing things for my mother, so I have never paid attention to people like Zhou Tan before. I don't know about his family situation, but he must be in pain since he has fallen on hard times. It was too reckless of me to ask him directly.

  Zhou Tan sat down in the chair beside the Eight Immortals' table, pulled out a Lucky Strike cigarette, lit it and started puffing away. Then he asked me to give him my hand, closed his eyes slightly and began feeling my pulse. After a while, he asked: "Is there anywhere you feel unusual?"

  "I can see things in the dark, even in the darkest places I can see clearly, and also walking feels a bit floaty..." I replied nervously.

  A strange light flashed in Zhou Tan's eyes, seemingly surprise, but quickly became calm, slightly furrowed his brow, and slowly said: "There are some things that must be made clear to you, I didn't completely cure you, I don't know what the reason is, when re-gathering your soul, one of your souls... should be the spirit of bravery did not gather, but the spirit of bravery of the demon fox had a tendency to gather. At the time, there was no other way, so I took advantage of the fact that the demon fox's soul had not yet fully gathered, and sealed it away. As a result, its spirit of bravery remained on your body, becoming your spirit of bravery..."

  I'm shocked! He actually switched me with a monster's soul by deceit!!

  "I certainly know that humans and demons are different and can't be mixed up, but at this critical moment, if I hesitate for another moment, the three souls and seven spirits of the demon fox will gather completely, and it will either occupy your body or escape. In both cases, you won't survive. I had to take a risk. Normally, it's impossible to swap spirits, but since the demon fox's spirit has been in your body for over a month, the re-gathered heroic spirit also contains your vital energy, fortunately, it was successful!"

  I don't know whether I should cry or laugh or curse, isn't this making me a "human freak"? I asked nervously: "Will there be any adverse consequences?"

  Zhou Tan shook his head somewhat helplessly: "No one has ever done this before, so I don't know what changes there will be. For now, it seems okay."

  I broke out in a cold sweat, others develop a cure for the common cold and they have to go through thousands of clinical trials, from lab mice to pigs, cows, sheep and then humans, but he actually performed an unprecedented soul transplant on me directly. You old charlatan, you're too reckless! But then again, he had no choice at that time, doing this was risky, but it's still much better than me lying in bed forever or being dead.

  I started feeling itchy all over my body, as if I was growing fox fur, and at the same time, I was worried that a tail would grow out of my butt...

  Zhou Tan saw my tense appearance and suddenly smiled: "You don't have to be too nervous, the spirit of English may have some influence on your physical condition, but it shouldn't cause beastization. In modern scientific terms, your genes haven't changed, your muscle tissue hasn't changed, it's just that your physical health may..."

  His words stopped abruptly, his smile froze, and a hint of unease or guilt flashed in his eyes, not daring to look me straight in the eye. I quickly asked: "What do you mean by physical health? Immunity?"

  "No, no, not yet." Zhou Tan waved his hand repeatedly, "You go back first, I'm a bit tired. Cough, the changes in your body also need to be observed for a while, anyway, no matter what happens to you, I will do my best to help you."

  I knew he must have been hiding something very serious from me, probably with a severe impact on my physical condition, but he refused to say anything and I had no choice but to leave with an anxious heart.

  As I walk on the road, I've been worried. In the past, because I had a "spirit root", it was easy to encounter supernatural things. Now it's even better, and I've got a thousand-year-old fox spirit's soul in my body. I'm afraid that from now on, every time I go to the toilet at midnight, there will be ghostly brothers patting me on the shoulder asking: "Brother, is your shit smooth?"

  When I got home, I didn't dare tell my mother about the changes in me. My mother has heart disease and can't afford to be frightened or worried. This time she was already worried enough, fortunately, I finally stood up, so no matter how big the problem is, I have to bear it alone and resolve it by myself.

  My grandmother is still at my home, after chatting with her for a while, I just knew that the Zhou family used to be a local prestigious family. The ancestors of Zhou Tan were all famous masters of yin and yang, until during the Cultural Revolution his father was persecuted to death, he also suffered a lot, lost all property. Zhou Tan had no other skills to make a living except for "feudal superstition", after being unable to do this line almost impossible to survive, his wife despised him for poverty, abandoned a son and a daughter and ran away with others.

  Zhou Tan struggled to make a living, where did he have the time and energy to discipline his children? So his son was rebellious from a young age, went to jail for robbery before adulthood, and is still serving his sentence. His daughter grew up and married elsewhere, possibly having some opinions about him, rarely giving him any money, and hardly ever coming back. Therefore, Zhou Tan lived alone, taking things one day at a time, eating one meal at a time.

  Once bitten by a snake, he is afraid of the rope for ten years. Even now, Zhou Tan is still timid and submissive, not daring to do anything out of line, fearing that one day the policy will change and disaster will befall him again.

  I sighed a few times and finally knew why he ended up like this, becoming the second Kong Yiji.

  I spent the whole night having nightmares, dreaming that the fox spirit had awakened and swallowed me up in anger. Suddenly I turned into a woman with several tails behind my back, and Lu Chengshan chased after me non-stop, striking me with lightning... After having several strange dreams, I dreamed of my hometown. I looked down at the village from the sky, and suddenly a thick red fog surged in from all sides, engulfing the village. The smell of blood was so strong that I couldn't breathe, and finally I let out a loud scream.

  "Ah..."

  I let out a loud cry and sat up abruptly in bed, my head covered in cold sweat. The dreams I had before were all quite vague, but the last one about the blood mist enveloping the village was extremely vivid, just like I had witnessed it with my own eyes or experienced it myself.

  My "thumping" heart gradually calmed down, I took a glance at the electronic watch, it was just 3 o'clock in the morning, which is usually the quietest time of the day. But tonight felt even quieter than usual, there wasn't even the sound of crickets chirping, everything was silent and still, with no wind blowing.

  At this time, I heard a voice coming from a very far place, vaguely and unclearly. So I concentrated my spirit, pricked up my ears and listened quietly. As soon as the spirit was concentrated, the sound became much clearer, it was a trembling, low and hoarse voice: "The king is angry... The king wants to eat people..."

  I was startled, but quickly came to my senses. It was the village idiot rambling on. This idiot used to be the principal of a certain prestigious school and was a math genius. Because no one could understand the mathematical formulas he wrote, the Red Guards thought they were enemy codes and struggled him until he went mad. I've lived here for ten years, and he's always looked the same: disheveled hair, dirty face, wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket, holding a cigarette butt in his left hand and a stone in his right hand to scribble everywhere. The Arabic numerals, letters, and mathematical symbols he wrote were clear and neat, but extremely complex. At my level, I could only tell that it was some kind of equation, and most of the symbols had never been seen before.

  It's just the ravings of a madman, but I was also somewhat surprised because for ten years he had shown no signs of aging and never spoke clearly before. This is the first time I heard him express complete sentences clearly.

  The madman was still muttering: "The king is going to eat people... Hurry up and escape with your life... Hurry up and escape with your life..."

  I feel a sense of inexplicable unease and oppression, I certainly wouldn't believe the ravings of a madman, but having just woken up from a dream about strange blood fog, my mood hasn't calmed down yet, and then hearing the "warning" words of a genius madman, it's hard not to have some associations, and at this time it's really too quiet, quiet to the point of making people feel frightened.

  I unconsciously waved my hand, as if to sweep away the unease and annoyance. I knew that my unease and fear came from the fox spirit inside me, as well as the adverse effects of the soul exchange. The supernatural was originally beyond my knowledge, even Zhou Tan couldn't predict the consequences, how could I not worry? People often fear the unknown because it has too much uncertainty, unpredictability, and powerlessness to change.

  What else is Zhou Tan hiding from me? What will the demon fox Ying Bo turn me into?

  It suddenly occurred to me that my hearing might be better than before, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to hear the words of that mad genius from so far away.