Chapter Seven: The Search for the Fox

The price of all this was that there was no real food to be had, only grass.

The Valley of Sorrows was filled with flowers and berries. Some roots were edible, and some leaves could be consumed. For the past few days, Shi Fei had been surviving on these. As the saying goes, food is the fuel of life; without it, one’s heart is filled with restless anxiety. He had wanted to starve to death and end this dream, but the pangs of hunger were truly unbearable. It was a feeling akin to the water being too cold to plunge into. Thus, he was forced to eat grass. He ate until his complexion turned a sickly green, and he began to feel as though he were becoming a blade of grass himself. In just a few days, he felt as if he had withered away.

Furthermore, he suddenly found himself missing Qingqing. There was no particular reason; he simply wanted to see her again. If he were to wake from this dream, he felt he shouldn't end things without saying a word. With that, he began to trace the valley, groping about in hopes of finding another path.

In the valley, with stars dancing before his eyes and stumbling in his weakened state, he miraculously discovered a cave. However, the cave was tightly sealed. At its entrance stood a stone table, and upon the table sat a bowl of wine. Beside the wine lay a dead dog and a slip of paper. The dog’s body was stiff, blood oozing from its seven orifices, and it reeked of rot—it had clearly died of poisoning. On the paper, there were only three words: "Drink it down."

Drink it, and he might end up like the dog, or perhaps he might see Qingqing again. Shi Fei did not hesitate; he picked up the bowl and drained it in one gulp. Moments later, the world spun, and his vision went black.

When he awoke again, he was in a room filled with fragrance. There was the scent of a woman, the aroma of food, and the faint smell of sandalwood. The mixture of scents left Shi Fei in a daze. He was no longer in the flower valley. Before his eyes was an intricately carved bed frame, where dragons and phoenixes intertwined. Beyond that stood an exquisite screen painted with landscapes, birds, and flowers, evoking a distant, ethereal mood.

"You're awake!" A stunningly beautiful woman appeared, accompanied by a fragrant breeze. Only upon hearing her voice did he realize that comparing a voice to the song of an oriole was no exaggeration. Only upon seeing her face did he understand the true meaning of a beauty. She was as graceful as a painting, refined and otherworldly; the flowers vied to bloom for her, and the wild geese would drop from the sky in her presence. Her skin was as white as snow, and she wore robes of fine feathers, walking with a lightness that made her seem like a fairy stepped out of a scroll.

"Who are you..." Shi Fei did not know the person before him.

"I am Lanlan," she said, approaching his side. Where there was a Qingqing, there was naturally a Lanlan.

Shi Fei asked, "Are you also a fox?"

Lanlan smiled gently and replied, "In this place, aside from foxes, there is only one human."

She led Shi Fei to a large table. It was laden with rare delicacies: abalone, shark fin, bear paw, and deer tail. Beyond these, there was a pot of wine. As she poured it into a cup, a delicate fragrance wafted out. Her hands were incredibly soft, but not as soft as her words. "Will you eat the wine first, or will you eat me? Or perhaps, shall we have both?"

Shi Fei shook his head and said, "I do not eat foxes." He then began to feast on the food; he was truly hungry.

"Hehehe," Lanlan let out a light laugh, a sound that truly resembled a fox that had stolen a chicken. She said, "Do you know? This is the world of foxes."

"I know."

"Do you know? Qingqing is merely a low-ranking fox; she has no right to bring a human here," she added.

"I did not know."

Lanlan continued, "But I am different. I am the eldest princess among the foxes. I can bring people here."

"Oh?" Shi Fei simply kept eating.

"Not only can I bring people in, but I can also take them out! Do you want to leave?" Lanlan asked suddenly.

Shi Fei was stunned. Leave? What was out there? What did the outside world hold? He had never really thought about it.

Lanlan pressed against him, the two of them as intimate as lovers, whispering into his ear. "I can take you out to the vast world beyond. As long as you... forget Qingqing and follow me!" Her words were a soft breeze in his ear, making him feel a ticklish sensation.

Shi Fei looked at the carved rosewood in the room and remarked, "So, you are a wealthy fox?"

Lanlan giggled and said, "Indeed!" With a wave of her hand, a chest in the corner of the room sprang open, revealing gold, antiques, precious jade, and pearls—wealth that a human could not accumulate in a lifetime. It was wealth that only a fox could possess.

Shi Fei glanced at the beauty before him and asked, "Are there no male foxes? How could you take a liking to me? I am just an ordinary man with a bit of confidence; can I really catch your eye?"

Lanlan laughed; she found Shi Fei quite interesting.

Shi Fei added, "Legend has it that foxes scheme to steal a man's essence and vital energy, draining him dry! Will you drain me dry?" He felt more and more that this dream was absurd. It was truly, fittingly, a dream.

Lanlan replied, "You are not ordinary."

"In what way?" Shi Fei asked.

Lanlan said, "Rare is the man who would bet his own life for a woman!"

For a woman, finding a man to rely on for a lifetime is not easy. Men who die for the woman they love are few and far between.

Shi Fei said, "Such men exist, it is just that you have never seen them. But... it is useless. Because love is grounded in reality; it is not enough just to sacrifice for one another."

"You are very knowledgeable?" Lanlan asked.

Shi Fei replied, "I am over thirty. I have passed the stage of being blinded by romance and know a little bit."

"Have you experienced it?" Lanlan asked.

"I have only observed it," Shi Fei said.

"Can you tell me about it?"

Shi Fei shook his head. "That is the business of humans. You foxes should not listen, lest you turn wicked yourselves."

Lanlan laughed again, a soft, melodic sound. "Can humans be worse than foxes?"

Legend says that foxes are capricious. When she likes you, she will be obedient to your every whim; she would even pluck the stars from the sky for you. But when she dislikes you, she will torment you, leaving you covered in wounds, yet she will never let you die.

Shi Fei said, "There are bad foxes, and there are bad humans. It is not that foxes are bad and humans are good, nor that humans are bad and foxes are good."

Lanlan fell silent, then suddenly said, "Take me away! I want to see the world of humans."

Shi Fei had finished his meal. He stood up, looked at the ethereal beauty of Lanlan, and said, "I am sorry, I cannot. I must find Qingqing."

Lanlan asked, "Am I not as beautiful as Qingqing?"

Shi Fei replied, "You are equals." In the eyes of a lover, even a plain woman looks like a beauty; for Shi Fei to say they were equals showed just how stunning Lanlan truly was.

"Am I not as good as Qingqing?" she pressed.

Shi Fei answered truthfully, "That is not necessarily true. I have spent too little time with you to be certain."

"Then why? Why must you find Qingqing?"

Shi Fei said, "Because I met her first."

"Is that all?"

"That is all!"

Because he met Qingqing first, he could not accept anyone else. In this dream, Shi Fei made a decision starkly different from his reality.

Lanlan laughed, a laugh that felt somewhat inexplicable. "What I cannot have, she shall not have either!"

The hand that had just been holding Shi Fei—the hand he felt was so soft—gently tapped him on the head.

Shi Fei’s vision went black.