Chapter 4: The Enchanting Fox Snatches Life

  The old man's words, combined with his eerie face and hoarse voice, made me feel a chill run down my spine. It seemed that not only I, but everyone else was at a loss for what to say, exchanging awkward glances with each other.

  Li Zai asked in surprise, "I say, old man, how many children do you have at home? Which meal is this?" As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a creaking sound and the door was pushed open. A delicate and charming young girl walked out.

  "We were all stunned at once, and this family really has a big girl? Liangzi was speechless with his mouth wide open for half a day."

  I saw the girl was only 17 or 18 years old, with a slender figure and wearing a pink gauze dress. She was so beautiful that it was hard to look away, but her appearance here now was completely out of place. The desolate mountain, the eerie old man, the young girl, and the four bachelors - even in fiction, there wasn't such an absurd combination!

  At this time, a soft and gentle voice of the young girl was heard saying to the old man: "Dad, why don't you entertain our guests?" Turning around, she smiled warmly at us and said: "Gentlemen, where are you from? I didn't know it's so late, do you have any business here in our humble abode?"

  After she finished speaking, her big eyes stared at me straightly. Among the few of us, I was actually considered to be quite good-looking, but being stared at by such a beautiful girl made my face turn red.

  It seems that Liang Zi had reflected on it earlier, and he didn't want to ruin his heroic image in front of the beauty, so he just listened to him answer: "Ah, we are a few outsiders who came to tour here, got lost in the mountains, and then followed the light to your home. If there's any disturbance, please forgive us."

  The girl listened and then bowed to the side of the door: "This is not disturbing or not, since you have come to my humble abode, please invite a few gentlemen to enter the house and have a cup of tea!"

  Liangzi turned his head and looked at me, I thought you're not useful either, I'm about to be stared to death. Although this matter is a bit strange, who stipulated that small mountain villages can't have beautiful girls? I just feel that the girl's speech and behavior are somewhat different from ours, with a hint of ancient maidenly demeanor. Just as I was thinking whether to go in or not, Liangzi had already started walking towards the house.

  I wanted to stop him but it was too late, so I had no choice but to follow him inside, thinking that at least we all still have knives on us.

  As I passed by the girl's side, I couldn't help but take another glance at her. No man can resist looking at a beauty, and if she were in the city, her head-turning rate would be quite high.

  As soon as I entered the house, I felt a pungent smell hitting my nose, but couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Looking around, I saw that the room was tidy and well-organized, with an old set of furniture and some basic household items.

  Then I saw a landscape painting on the wall, in which an old man was squatting on the ground stroking a white fox, and it is unknown who the master painter was. The white fox was painted vividly, with two eyes weak and tearful, making people feel pity at once after seeing it.

  The girl said a sentence 'Gentlemen, please wait a moment' and turned around to enter the inner room.

  We sat down beside the tea table, and Liangzi teased Lao Lu: "Hey, hey, how does this beauty compare to that girlfriend of yours when you were young?"

  Lao Lu knew he was intentionally teasing people, but didn't bother to reason with him. His eyes stared straight at the painting and said to us: "You guys have discovered that this painting is a treasure, I saw it when I was in Lu Garden, it's called 'Xian Shan Fu Hu Tu' (Mountain of Immortals and Foxes), its value is worth a city! Let me ask that girl later if she wants to sell it."

  Liang Zi said disdainfully: "You're just talking nonsense, you can't even lie properly. If you've seen this painting in Lu Garden, then what's the deal with this one here?"

  Lao Lu was also stunned by this, and after a moment of hesitation, he said: "Then there must be one that's fake, but I think this one is real. Look at the fox's eyes, they're all teary-eyed."

  Listening to Lao Lu, I turned around and looked at the painting again. I found that when I looked at it earlier, the white fox's eyes were slightly teary-eyed. Now, looking at it again, it seemed as if tears were really flowing down its cheeks. I stood up and walked in front of the painting, stretched out my hand to touch it, 'Damn, it's actually wet!'

  As soon as I felt something was wrong, I thought to myself that we might have entered a fox's den. This old man and the girl were probably fox spirits in disguise. That's why this girl looked so beautiful! As soon as I thought of this, I turned around and shouted for everyone to leave quickly.

  Liangelo asked me: "What's wrong, why are you leaving? The tea hasn't been drunk yet?" Old Luo continued to say: "Yes, yes, we have to ask if this painting is for sale or not."

  I'm so fed up with them that I blurted out in exasperation: "What the hell are you guys doing? Can't you see something's off here?"

  "What's wrong with this gentleman?" As soon as I finished speaking, the girl came out carrying a tea tray. In just a moment, she had changed into another red gauze dress, making people even more infatuated.

  The more I thought about it, the more ominous I felt. Continuing her words, I asked: "Why is this painting in your house crying?"

  The young girl put down the tea tray and poured us tea while saying: "This painting was left behind by our ancestors, it's said that when it was painted, the ink mixed with the blood of a virgin and the tears of a blind person. Every night at half past twelve, this immortal fox will shed tears. I think there must be some unspoken grievances or words that can't be spoken!"

  At this time, I dare say that there is something strange about this place. 'Slave family, slave family' - now which woman still calls herself like this? Even if it's remote here, it's impossible.

  I couldn't care about that anymore, I walked back and shouted to everyone: "Let's hurry up and leave, this place doesn't feel right, don't drink."

  The three of them were drinking tea. Liangzi and Liu Bao had just picked up their cups, and before I could finish shouting "Don't drink!", Lao Lu had already downed his first cup.

  I thought it was all over and didn't care if they were willing or not, cursing as I pulled out the old road and shouted for everyone to hurry up.

  Liang Zihe and Liu Bao finally reacted, their faces immediately turning ugly. They got up and followed me to the door, where a soft male voice outside said: "Father, Mr. Xu from the Xu family has been invited over."

  After I pushed open the door, I saw a five or six-year-old child leading a donkey into the yard. An old man who looked like a farmer was sitting on the donkey, carrying a long bundle of cloth on his back.

  He got off the donkey and said to the old man pushing the mill: "It's so late, what did you call me for?"

  The old man stopped the donkey, walked up to him with his waist bent and said coldly: "I've heard that you can cure all diseases, and your specialty is this injury of tendons and bones. Recently, many children in my family have been injured by that scoundrel, so I asked the young one to invite Mr. to come and help treat them."

  The old man known as 'Mr. Xu' didn't respond, instead he threw his head back and let out a loud 'Hahahaha', the sound was especially loud and startling, I thought to myself this old guy must be crazy, what's wrong with you laughing so loudly for no reason.

  The laughter had just stopped when I felt a strange scream behind me, and as soon as I turned my head to look, I found that Lao Lu was also laughing 'heh heh heh' with his head raised, then he flipped his eyes white, pulled out the knife inserted in his back waist, and rushed towards 'Mr. Xu' with a fierce cry.

  The old man turned around and saw us, then saw the old road rushing over, his face changed immediately, he quickly took out a wooden sword from the cloth bag on his back, and in three or two strokes, he knocked the old road to the ground.

  This series of events came too suddenly, leaving the three of us stunned. Liangzi and Liu Bao also drew their knives, but didn't know what to do next. Obviously, taking the old road was not a good idea for now.

  At this moment of being at a loss, another sly laugh came from behind us. When we turned our heads to look, the "beautiful girl" had her mouth open, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and her fingernails grew several centimeters longer in an instant. This was simply a demonic appearance.

  Liang Zi shouted: "Damn it, a fox spirit!" He picked up his knife and was about to go up and chop.

  The 'beautiful girl' suddenly bypassed Liangzi and pounced on me. I was so scared that I forgot to dodge, and I was knocked to the ground in an instant. At this moment, all the lights inside and outside the house suddenly went out at once.

  At this time, I felt that my body was tightly buckled and couldn't move. Just as I wanted to shout for help, a stinky smell entered my mouth. I thought to myself, "This is bad! Am I being forcefully kissed by this 'fox spirit'?"

  Suddenly I felt a great commotion around me, the sound of flapping and shouting at the same time, then the thing that was pressing on my body disappeared, I felt like I was being dragged to the courtyard.

  After a while, an old man's urgent voice said: "Find something to light a fire, I need some light."

  I thought we all had flashlights with us, so I climbed up while shouting: "Liangzi, Liubao, hurry up and turn on the flashlight!"

  Two dazzling flashlight beams suddenly lit up, I took out my own and turned it on. At this moment, I saw Lao Lu lying unconscious on the ground, while 'Mr. Xu' stood in front of me with his back to me, holding a wooden sword.

  Liang Zi and Liu Bao stood on either side of him, one hand holding a flashlight and the other holding a knife. The scene looked too interesting, they had actually formed an alliance, with a posture as if they were facing a great enemy at any moment.

  I was just about to ask what's going on when a commotion broke out from the other side, it was like entering a large pigpen, all sorts of shouts and screams erupted at once.

  Following the flashlight, we saw that all the windows on the second floor of the house we just came out of were pushed open, and more than 20 "children" jumped down with a crash, either missing an arm or a leg, none of them were intact, all of them bared their teeth and arched their waists, shouting at us wildly.

  My god! What the hell is going on?! We were all scared stiff, none of us have ever seen anything like this before! Have we entered a kindergarten for foxes or something?!

  Liangzi was the first to lose patience, shouting "I'm going!" as he charged forward with his knife. The old man shouted at me and Liubao, "You two stay back and hold up the light, don't shine it on our faces or theirs." Then in an instant, he followed Liangzi into battle, and the two of them were immediately entangled with that group of strange 'children'.

  Liang Zi was originally a skilled fighter, but these three or four little monsters didn't seem to be able to withstand his strength. However, when facing these strange 'kids', it seemed that he didn't need to use much force at all. They were extremely fast and would scratch Liang Zi's body before immediately jumping somewhere else.

  Liángzi suddenly went berserk, swinging the knife in his hand and chopping anyone he caught to death. The old man was quite skilled, wielding a wooden sword with flair, and any of those strange 'children' who came into contact with him couldn't dodge.

  However, this wooden sword seemed to be unable to take their lives, but only made them fall to the ground without attacking ability. These strange 'children' seemed to be afraid of light, and Liu Bao and I were like naughty kids shining lights on their faces one by one.