In the chaotic night, in the ruins of a temple, a silver-haired, fox-tailed girl squatted among the broken bricks and tiles, a rotten vegetable leaf stuffed in her mouth from a garbage bag, while on the other side, Yu Sheng, who had died three times, stood behind a broken wall, staring dumbfounded at her.
They just stood there in the night, facing each other silently. As a first meeting (not counting the headbutt before), Yu Sheng would probably never forget this scene for the rest of his life.
Then, he saw the fox-tailed girl's eyes slowly widen, a huge sense of astonishment and surprise—perhaps mixed with some disbelief—gradually filling her golden-red pupils. She finally stood up, still clutching a handful of vegetable leaves, and then, as if suddenly waking up, she pointed at Yu Sheng, her throat making a choking sound, "A person?! Ah, a person! You're a person?! You… who are you? Where did you come from…"
Yu Sheng had already prepared his opening remarks, including how to introduce himself and how to ask the girl about the situation, and also to express his open-mindedness and not mind the "favor" of the previous headbutt. But as soon as the other party spoke, he was stunned, and most of the words he had thought of were forgotten. He just felt that the other party's reaction was not what he had expected.
What did she mean, "You're a person"? Was the fact that he was a person such a big shock to her? Had she never seen a person before, or had she not seen one for too long? And more importantly…
Whether it was an illusion or a misunderstanding, Yu Sheng always felt that the other party's reaction was as if she was seeing him for the first time. But clearly, this girl had already seen him when he was fighting with that monster before—of course, the way they met at that time might have been a bit unconventional. After this headbutt lady rammed into him, Yu Sheng's overall silhouette should have been very different from now, but if nothing else, at least his face should not have changed much…
Even if this girl didn't carefully examine the crime scene after the collision, she should at least have some impression of the soul under her head, instead of acting like this, as if she was seeing a "stranger" for the first time.
"We've… met once," Yu Sheng held it in for two or three seconds before finally speaking. "Just now, in the open space outside, you said you came to save me… have you forgotten?"
The fox girl opposite him tilted her head, seemingly not knowing what Yu Sheng was talking about. But soon her attention shifted elsewhere. She pointed at the bag of kitchen waste on the ground, her eyes seeming to glow in the night. "This, is your, thing?"
She spoke with a strange pause, as if she hadn't communicated with anyone for too long, so that she had to rethink and recall every word before she could say it.
Yu Sheng's tone was strange. "Uh, yes…"
"Can I, eat it?" the fox girl said quickly, still with a slight stutter. Then she clenched the vegetable leaves in her hand tightly, as if using great willpower to resist the urge to stuff them directly into her mouth. Her mouth moved, she was chewing what she had just eaten. Then she looked at Yu Sheng again and asked quickly, "I'm, hungry, I want to eat, I'm sorry…"
Her hands were trembling slightly, her tone urgent, but she was always restraining herself with willpower, as if what she was trying to restrain was not just her appetite, but something more dangerous than her appetite… something that was about to go out of control.
Yu Sheng was in a daze for a moment. He felt as if he had seen a faint shadow floating behind her just now. The shadow slowly spread from a distance, like a hunter lying in wait in the darkness, waiting for the moment when the prey's spirit relaxed.
But the shadow quickly dissipated.
Yu Sheng walked out from behind the broken wall. He had already noticed that there was something wrong with the girl in front of him (although her messy tails were already quite wrong), but he still walked forward bravely. "Those things can't be eaten, they are all…"
He felt a little unable to continue—because he had never been this hungry before.
And the girl had slowly squatted down, seemingly unable to wait for Yu Sheng's response. She was about to pick up the food scattered on the ground.
"Wait! I think I have food here!" Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly shouted to the girl opposite him. He seemed to have remembered something. As he spoke, he quickly fumbled in his clothes pockets.
In the end, he finally pulled out two small packaged breads and a palm-sized piece of chocolate. He had originally planned to have them as a late-night snack.
Due to his work, he had the habit of staying up late at night.
The fox girl looked at Yu Sheng's movements with a trace of vigilance and confusion. Yu Sheng came to her and demonstrated how to tear open the bread's packaging bag—with the sound of plastic tearing, the aroma of bread wafted out. The girl's eyes instantly lit up, and then she grabbed Yu Sheng's hand with a speed that almost left an afterimage, stuffing his hand and the bread into her mouth.
Yu Sheng almost didn't react. The girl was not only surprisingly fast, but also surprisingly strong. He almost used all his strength to pull his arm back, and managed to pull his hand out of her mouth just before this fox bit off his fingers. Despite this, his index finger was still scratched by her sharp canine teeth, and blood quickly seeped out.
"Damn, how long have you been hungry…" he couldn't help but mutter.
But the girl seemed to have completely stopped hearing the sounds around her. She quickly stuffed food into her mouth, as if she wanted to stuff it directly into her stomach. Her mouth was bulging, and her eyes widened with every chew. Yu Sheng was even worried that she would choke to death in the next second, but she still managed to swallow the food in her mouth, and then her gaze fell on the other piece of bread.
"Slow down first, catch your breath. You'll choke to death if you keep eating like this," Yu Sheng had to block her, looking into the girl's eyes seriously. "Okay? Did you understand?"
"I, understand…" the fox girl nodded vigorously, trying hard to swallow her saliva.
Only then did Yu Sheng hand over the second piece of bread, watching as the girl clumsily tore at the plastic packaging—her technique was wrong, but her strength was amazing. She almost instantly tore the plastic bag to shreds, then tore the bread in half and stuffed it into her mouth. But after stuffing half of it, she seemed to remember Yu Sheng's words, or realized the preciousness of this food, and hastily slowed down, tearing the bread into small pieces and putting them into her mouth with extreme restraint.
At the same time, her gaze kept darting to Yu Sheng's hand, falling on the last small piece of chocolate.
"This is chocolate…" Yu Sheng said casually, about to hand the chocolate over, but he hesitated and stopped halfway, his expression becoming a little strange.
He thought for a few seconds, and finally called out to Irene in his mind, "Irene."
The doll in the painting's boisterous voice instantly filled his mind, "Yu Sheng! What happened just now, why did you suddenly go silent again, and I called you but you didn't…"
"My situation here is complicated. I'll explain it to you slowly later. For now, I have something to ask you…"
"You… alright, ask away." Irene's voice sounded unfriendly, but in the end, she still showed patience helplessly.
"Dogs can't eat chocolate, right?" Yu Sheng endured the strange feeling in his heart. He secretly glanced at the expectant fox girl opposite him, trying to make his tone sound serious.
"…That's right," Irene felt this question was inexplicable. "That thing is poisonous to dogs. But why are you suddenly asking this? You're trapped in an Otherworld and you still have the time for this…"
Yu Sheng ignored the other party's subsequent rambling. "What about foxes?"
"Foxes probably can't either… right?" Irene was a little hesitant. "After all, they are both canids. Hey, let me tell you, many human foods are poisonous to species other than humans. Let me put it this way, your diet, let alone in the eyes of animals, in the eyes of 'other races' like me, is simply insane. It's like eating poison with strong alkali, drinking acid every meal, passing biochemical agents through your intestines, and feasting on rotten substances…"
Yu Sheng once again interrupted this blabbermouth's loud rambling. "What about a fox that has cultivated into a spirit?"
Irene was finally at a loss for words. "…What?"
It turned out that even a blabbermouth with a lot of trash talk couldn't handle such an insane topic shift.
"I mean, a fox that has transformed into a human form, you know, a fox spirit, a fox demon, you get it?" Yu Sheng said quickly in his mind, because he found that the fox girl in front of him was about to finish the small piece of bread and was about to come and snatch the chocolate in his hand. "Is a fox spirit still a fox? Is it more human or more fox? If the latter is higher, is a fox spirit a canid?"
Irene: "…What the hell is going on with you?!"
"I have a fox that's about to starve to death here, the kind with white fur, red eyes, and nine tails… or maybe six or seven, they're all matted and I can't count them. But I only have one piece of chocolate left."
Irene listened in a daze, then replied with an amazing ability to accept things, "If it has nine tails, it can definitely handle it. If it doesn't even have that much cultivation, did it grow so many tails to use as a propeller when swimming? Hey wait, what's going on with you? Didn't you say it was an uninhabited Otherworld? How did one just pop up…"
Yu Sheng felt that the first half of Irene's words made a lot of sense. He didn't have time to respond to the other party's subsequent rambling and handed the chocolate in his hand to her. But he still didn't forget to remind her, "Here, you can have it, but it's best to eat a little less to try. I'm afraid this is not good for your body."
"Thank… thank you!" the fox girl quickly took the chocolate, clumsily unwrapped it, and took a small bite.
A look of surprise appeared on her face, and then she squinted her eyes slightly, as if immersed in great happiness.
"Alright, there's no more," Yu Sheng shook his head upon seeing this, spreading his hands. "I don't know if it's enough for you to be full… uh, I don't know how to address you."
"Thank you," the fox girl said again. This time, her thanks were more solemn than before. After she was finally not so hungry, she looked into Yu Sheng's eyes, then raised her finger and pointed at herself, saying with a serious face, "Hu Li."
"Huh?" Yu Sheng didn't react for a moment.
"Hu Li," the fox girl pointed at herself and slowly smiled. "I have a name!"