Chapter 61

Chapter 61

“Xia Tian and I met two summers ago. That day, I stumbled into a hidden paradise and met a Fox Immortal.”

“At the time, I was filming on location with a production crew in the mountains. We spent half a month there.”

“When it was time to leave after those two weeks, I couldn’t bear to part with him. I asked if we would ever meet again. He gave me a handful of his fox fur and taught me how to sculpt an idol of him. If I worshiped it daily with incense offerings, I could invite him into my home.”

“I agreed. As soon as I returned, I had his idol made and began offering incense. From then on, he became the Household Guardian Immortal I worshiped,” Xia Ke’er said. “He treated me very well and always granted whatever I asked. At first, he gave me nothing more than an unusual flower from the mountains or a small insect he found beautiful. Later, it became a gorgeous, expensive performance costume.”

“Later still, there was a move I could never perform properly. The troupe director scolded me so harshly that I hid under my blankets and cried. I thought that if only I possessed magnificent dancing skills, the director would stop scolding me. So I made a request. I told him I wanted the skill that should have taken years of bitter training to acquire.”

“After that, once I had the skill, I felt something was still missing. Using the same method, I gained fame. Once I had fame, that still wasn’t enough, and I wanted wealth and status too… The more I gained, the richer my life became, but the more things I saw, the more fine things I discovered I wanted.”

“I found it harder and harder to control myself. Even so, at that point, everything was still fine.”

“Until… one morning about two months ago, I woke to find my entire body covered in white fur.”

Xia Ke’er said, “At the time, I had no idea matters would develop into this…”

On the first day they discovered her transformation, Xia Tian’s expression had been grim. He told her they needed to separate.

She had already achieved fame and success. She possessed both reputation and wealth and had reached society’s standard of human success. If they continued, he feared something terrible would happen.

Xia Ke’er refused his request.

She not only rejected Xia Tian’s proposal but demanded even more.

Each time she stood before the altar, she made a long succession of demands. They grew more detailed and more exacting, all in pursuit of absolute perfection.

Xia Tian did not understand, but he had never rejected any of Xia Ke’er’s requests. Thus, under his direction, the dance drama *The Butterfly Lovers* became an overnight sensation.

After that, Xia Ke’er’s symptoms grew steadily worse.

She had to drink the blood of live chickens to regain a brief measure of calm. She had changed. She craved blood from the depths of her bones. She needed it.

Her animal nature became ever more pronounced, leaving her less and less human.

“Xia Tian proposed ending the contract again, but I… I knew I couldn’t agree.” Xia Ke’er’s voice choked. “Because if I agreed, I would lose him.”

“I have everything now, yet I’m still not satisfied. The last thing I want is Xia Tian. I want him never to leave me.”

“I can’t convince myself to let go. I want him! I can’t live without him!” Xia Ke’er’s voice abruptly turned manic. Her fox face, calm only moments ago, twisted once more into a savage expression. “I don’t want to be separated from him!”

The Yin-Yang Inner-Outer Needles Ye Anran had applied were showing faint signs of losing their effect.

Ye Anran thought Xia Ke’er had become trapped in her obsession, nearly possessed by it.

The contract between her and the fox could not be an ordinary agreement to worship a Household Guardian Immortal.

Something about this contract was sinister. It magnified human desire without limit and granted every wish until the person could no longer endure the backlash, driving them down a road to ruin and death.

Ye Anran lifted her silver needles and stepped forward to treat Xia Ke’er again, but Xie Qingling beat her to it. Knife in hand, she strode up and slashed down across Xia Ke’er’s forepaw.

Bloodsworn drank blood. Red light flashed through the seal-script character *zun*, and the cursed red thread spread.

At the same time, a wound deep enough to expose stark white bone opened across Xia Ke’er’s forepaw.

The violent pain contorted Xia Ke’er’s face. She released an infantlike wail, but the pain also calmed her quickly, ending any sign that she might continue raging.

“Are you calm now?” Xie Qingling withdrew the knife, her expression cold.

The pain had indeed brought Xia Ke’er back to herself. Now, however, her fox eyes turned toward Xie Qingling and watched her with extreme caution, as if terrified Xie might suddenly stab her again.

Ye Anran, meanwhile, stared in shock.
“If you’re calm, then hurry and tell me how to break the contract,” Xie Qingling said.

“I can’t. I truly can’t. I can’t control myself…” Xia Ke’er murmured. “I want him. There’s no way I can give him up.”

She kept muttering incoherently like a madwoman. “I can’t lose him…”

Xie Qingling nodded. “I know what to do now.”

“You can’t break the contract because you refuse to let go. Then all we need to do is make you forget everything. If you never remember anyone called Xia Tian, you won’t remain obsessed like this, will you?” Xie directed the last question at Ye Anran. This was Ye Anran’s specialty.

Ye Anran nodded vigorously.

Of course. They could simply erase her memories. Forget Xia Tian – she would not remember summer, winter, autumn, spring, yesterday, or tomorrow. What could she possibly remain obsessed with then?

Xia Ke’er’s eyes turned bloodred with agitation. “No! I don’t want to forget him! You can’t take away my memories! Being a fox isn’t so bad! This way, I can be with him! No one will ever separate us again!”

As she spoke, she sprang from the bed and tried to flee.

She truly was beyond reason. Xie Qingling’s face darkened abruptly. A flash of blade light left cuts across all four of Xia Ke’er’s limbs.

Blood poured out. Xia Ke’er trembled in pain, unable even to remain standing.

“If you insist on this obsession and choose to become a monster, then I’ll deal with you here and now.” Xie Qingling looked like a god of slaughter. “I won’t let you take a single step out of this room, and I won’t let you return to that fox.”

Xia Ke’er shouted hatefully, “Why? Why are you stopping us from being together?”

She glared at Xie Qingling with resentment.

“If you were both human, or both monsters, and neither of you affected the people around you, then whatever you chose would be none of my business. But – ” Xie Qingling paused. “As you are now, you will only bring disaster to everyone nearby.”

“The human heart is greedy, and desire is endless. Gain one thing, and you’ll want a second. Gain two, and you’ll reach for a third. It never ends, and nothing can fill it. Today you eat chickens. One day, you’ll eat people.”

“You know perfectly well how you sank this far one step at a time. When it began, did you ever imagine you would become this? I don’t believe for a second that you can control your dopamine-driven reward loop. Before the two of you can harm more people, I’ll kill you first. You’ve become a monster anyway, so killing you won’t count as breaking the rules.”

Probably.

Xie Qingling smiled and continued, “Oh, you still don’t seem to know who I am. Allow me to introduce myself.”

“I am Xie Qingling, a preserver of order about to pass her probation and an exceptionally dedicated woman.”

Xia Ke’er stared at her in terror, buried her face deep in the blankets, and whimpered.

All four of her limbs were wounded, leaving her unable to move freely.

Ye Anran stood weakly to one side, too intimidated to utter a word.

She glanced cautiously at Xie Qingling and found her cold, perfectly composed expression utterly devoid of humor…

Xie Qingling suddenly said, “I will devote my entire life to the art of dance. I will give the brightest, finest years of my life to the stage I love. Have you forgotten your own words? I was wrong about you. You’re nothing but a hypocritical, cowardly, pathetic creature who can’t keep her word. A selfish, love-addled fool without the slightest morality. A thief who disregards other people’s lives, disappoints the audience who loves you, and shames everyone who saw you as an idol. The people harmed simply because they admired your dancing were completely innocent. Your so-called happiness and love are built upon trampling over other people’s lives.”

“Wh-What did you say?” Xia Ke’er became even more agitated than before. She tried to stand, struggling until blood covered the sheets. “Explain yourself! You can’t slander me!”

“I haven’t slandered you.” Xie Qingling shot her a cold glance. “Someone has already paid with his life so you could maintain human form and fulfill those ridiculous, insatiable wishes. He was one of your fans, and he wasn’t in good health to begin with. After untold trouble, he paid more than three thousand yuan to a scalper for a seat that was neither particularly good nor particularly bad. He watched one of your performances of *The Butterfly Lovers*. Afterward, he praised your dancing endlessly on social media and even said he would attend the next show. But he never updated his account again, and he never appeared in your audience again. Because he died.”
“That man had every trace of human vitality drained from him. He became a desiccated husk and died horribly.”

The atmosphere abruptly stiffened, as though even the surrounding air had gone still.

“I imagine more people will die if we don’t stop this in time.” After speaking, Xie Qingling glanced at Ye Anran.

Ye Anran listened in a daze. The Logistics Department was still counting how many people had fallen ill, so where had this dead victim suddenly come from? A ticket costing more than three thousand yuan for a back-row seat – that was Dai Xingyu, wasn’t it? He was still outside racking his brains over his self-criticism.

But she quickly understood. Xie Qingling had just lied. The audience member who supposedly died after watching *The Butterfly Lovers* was entirely her invention.

Xie Qingling was attacking Xia Ke’er’s psychological defenses. This was psychological warfare.

Ye Anran hurriedly nodded, her face full of sorrow. “Yes, he died horribly. Even my medical skills couldn’t save him. I attended his funeral too. He…”

Xia Ke’er shrieked, cutting off whatever description Ye Anran intended to give next. Her voice was shrill with unbearable pain as she repeated madly, “You’re lying, you’re lying, you’re lying! None of that is true! Waaah…”

But there was no conviction in her voice. It dwindled lower and lower until she could only bury her face in the blankets and sob aloud.

Xie Qingling ignored her crying. “I’ll give you one night to think. If you refuse, I’ll kill you. One life for another. That’s fair. Think it over.”

With that, Xie Qingling left the bedroom and leaned against the corridor wall. Her expression remained dark, and she said nothing.

Not long afterward, Ye Anran opened the door and came out as well.

Listening to the sobs inside the bedroom, she asked quietly, “Qingling, what you just said… You weren’t serious, were you?”

“About what?”

“Killing her.”

Xie Qingling did not answer. Instead, she asked, “Senior Anran, how did the former Director die?”

Ye Anran shuddered. Grief surfaced on her face. “A… a ghost killed him. He died in the line of duty.”

“What’s the attrition rate when an ordinary person tries to become an Acquired Spirit?”

“Fifty percent.”

Ye Anran understood.

Although Xie Qingling had only recently joined the department, she had long since pieced together the scattered details and gained a deeper understanding of this world.

She was both intelligent and perceptive.

“Our predecessors’ blood cannot have been shed for nothing. If Xia Ke’er chooses to become a fox monster, I won’t stop her. Of course she has the freedom to make that choice. But I won’t let her leave.”

“Every gale begins as a faint breeze; every wave as the smallest ripple. Senior Anran, I may enjoy taking risks and often act recklessly, but I’m not a gambler. Lives should never be used as stakes or forced to bear the risk.” Xie Qingling abruptly changed course. “Do you know why I adjusted so quickly after joining the department?”

Ye Anran paused, then asked blankly, “Why?”

“During the first semester of my sophomore year, our university offered an anatomy course. Halfway through the semester, a girl in our major who had excellent grades in our core courses transferred to another program.”

Ye Anran did not understand, so Xie Qingling continued. “Every experiment required us to use large numbers of animals. If they weren’t dead afterward, we still had to ‘dispose of’ them. It demanded a great deal of psychological endurance. That girl’s hands shook every time she cut into one. She couldn’t bear the feeling of being an executioner who harvested lives. She developed psychological problems and ultimately left.”

“But I was different. My cuts were always swift and decisive. Many of the boys couldn’t bring themselves to do it, so they asked me to help. I never refused, and it never placed any psychological burden on me.” She looked at Ye Anran. “Because I knew that whenever I picked up a blade, it was never for the sake of killing.”

Perhaps Ye Anran remembered something, for her eyes suddenly reddened. She wiped away the tears about to fall and said, “I understand. I won’t let her leave either.”

Xie Qingling nodded and said nothing more. She simply waited.

At least one thing she had told Xia Ke’er was true: she would give her only one night to decide.

Xie Qingling always meant what she said.

The crying continued until two in the morning. At last, Xia Ke’er exhausted herself – or perhaps finally reached a decision – and her sobbing ceased.

Xia Ke’er’s hoarse voice came from inside.

“Kill me,” she said. “One life for another. I have nothing to say. I failed the fans who loved and supported me. I… I don’t deserve to stand onstage.”

Xie Qingling and Ye Anran exchanged a glance, then went inside.