Huli

Chaotic night, the ruined temple—on one side, a silver-haired, fox-tailed girl crouched among broken bricks and tiles, stuffing rotten vegetable leaves pulled from a trash bag into her mouth; on the other, Yu Sheng, who had died three times, stood behind a crumbling wall, staring dumbfounded across at her. They faced each other in silence across the night—an initial meeting (that earlier headbutt didn't count), a scene Yu Sheng would probably never forget in this lifetime. Then he saw the fox-tailed girl slowly widen her eyes. A mixture of immense shock and joy—perhaps mixed with some disbelief—gradually filled her golden-red pupils. She finally stood up, still clutching a handful of vegetable leaves, then seemed to suddenly come to herself. She raised a hand and pointed at Yu Sheng, a voice nearly choked in her throat: "Human?! Ah, human! You're human?! Who... who are you? Where did you come from..." On Yu Sheng's side, he had already prepared an opening line—how to introduce himself, how to ask the girl about the situation, and to express that he was broad-minded and didn't mind that earlier "favor" of the headbutt—but the moment she spoke, he froze. Half the words he had prepared slipped from his mind, and he felt her reaction wasn't quite what he had expected. "You're human?" What did that mean? Was being human such a shock to her? Had she never seen a human before, or not seen one in a long time? And more importantly... Whether it was an illusion or a misunderstanding, Yu Sheng felt her reaction was as if this were the first time she was seeing him. But clearly, when he had been tangled with that monster earlier, this girl had already seen him—of course, their meeting back then had been rather unconventional. After she had headbutted him, his overall appearance must have looked very different from now. Still, at the very least, his face shouldn't have changed much... Even if she hadn't carefully inspected the crime scene after the collision, she should at least have some impression of the soul that departed under her head—not act as if she were seeing a "stranger" for the first time. "We... met once," Yu Sheng choked out after two or three seconds, finally unable to stay silent. "Just now, out in the open space. You said you came to save me... you forgot?" The fox girl across from him tilted her head, as if she truly didn't know what Yu Sheng was saying, but soon her attention shifted elsewhere. She pointed at the bag of kitchen garbage on the ground, her eyes seeming to gleam in the night: "This... is... yours?" She spoke with strange pauses, as if she hadn't communicated with anyone in too long, and every word had to be reconsidered and remembered before she could say it. Yu Sheng said in a strange tone: "Uh, yes..." "Can... eat?" the fox girl said quickly, still stammering slightly. Then she gripped the vegetable leaves in her hand tightly, as if using immense willpower to resist the urge to just shove them straight into her mouth. Her mouth moved—she was chewing what she had just eaten—and then she glanced at Yu Sheng, asking quickly: "I... hungry... I want to eat... sorry..." Her hands trembled slightly, her tone urgent, yet she kept restraining herself with willpower, as if what she was holding back wasn't just her appetite, but something even more dangerous than appetite... something nearly out of control. Yu Sheng was dazed for a moment, feeling that just now he had seen faint, dim shadows drifting behind her, spreading slowly from the distance like a predator lying in wait in the darkness, waiting for the moment the prey's spirit relaxed. But those shadows quickly dissipated. Yu Sheng walked out from behind the crumbling wall. He had already sensed something was off about the girl before him (although that pile of messy tails was already quite off), but he still worked up his courage and walked forward: "Those things can't be eaten, they're all..." He felt he couldn't go on—because he had never been hungry to that extent. Meanwhile, the girl was already slowly squatting down, as if she couldn't wait for his response, wanting to pick up the scattered food on the ground. "Wait! I seem to have something to eat!" At that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly called out to the girl across from him again. As if remembering something, he said while quickly rummaging through his pockets. Finally, he pulled out two small packaged buns and a palm-sized piece of chocolate—these were what he had originally planned to save for a late-night snack. Due to work reasons, he had a habit of staying up late at night. The fox girl watched Yu Sheng's movements with a hint of wariness and confusion. Yu Sheng came before her and demonstrated how to tear open the bun's packaging—along with the sound of tearing plastic, the aroma of bread wafted out, and the girl's eyes instantly brightened. Then, at a speed almost leaving an afterimage, she grabbed Yu Sheng's hand, stuffing that hand along with the bun into her own mouth. Yu Sheng almost couldn't react in time. The girl was not only incredibly fast but also astonishingly strong. He nearly used all his strength to pull his arm back, managing to extract his hand from her mouth just before the fox could bite off his fingers. Even so, her sharp canine teeth scraped a small cut on his index finger, and blood quickly seeped out. "Damn, how long have you been hungry..." he muttered involuntarily. But the girl seemed no longer able to hear anything around her. She stuffed food into her mouth at top speed, as if wanting to shove it straight into her stomach in one go, her cheeks bulging. Every time she chewed, she widened her eyes. Yu Sheng even worried she'd choke herself to death the next second, but she forcibly swallowed the food in her mouth, then her gaze fell on the other bun. "Slow down, catch your breath first. Eating like that will choke you," Yu Sheng had to block her, looking into the girl's eyes and speaking seriously. "Okay? Did you understand?" "I... understand..." the fox girl nodded hard, struggling to swallow her saliva. Yu Sheng then handed her the second bun, watching as she clumsily tore at the plastic packaging. Her technique was wrong, but her strength was astonishing. In almost an instant she tore the plastic bag to shreds, then split the bun in half and stuffed it into her mouth. But halfway through, she seemed to remember Yu Sheng's words, or realized how precious the food was. She hurriedly slowed down, tearing the bun into small pieces and placing them into her mouth with extreme restraint. At the same time, her eyes kept darting toward Yu Sheng's hand, landing on that last small piece of chocolate. "This is choc..." Yu Sheng said casually, about to hand over the chocolate, but when he raised his hand halfway, he hesitated and stopped, his expression turning a bit strange. He thought it over quickly for a few seconds, then called out in his mind: "Irene." The doll in the painting's flustered voice instantly exploded in his mind: "Yu Sheng! What happened to you just now? How did you suddenly go silent again, and why didn't you answer when I called..." "The situation here is complicated. I'll explain slowly later. Right now, let me ask you something..." "You... fine, ask." Irene's voice sounded unfriendly, but she finally showed patience helplessly. "Dogs can't eat chocolate, right?" Yu Sheng endured the strange feeling in his heart. He glanced secretly at the fox girl opposite him, full of expectation, and tried to make his tone sound serious. "...Right," Irene felt the question was out of nowhere. "That stuff is toxic to dogs. But why are you suddenly asking this? You're trapped in a foreign domain and you still have time to..." Yu Sheng ignored her subsequent chatter: "Then can foxes eat it?" "Foxes probably can't either... right?" Irene hesitated a bit. "After all, they're both canines. Hey, let me tell you, many human foods are toxic to species other than humans. To put it this way, your menus—putting aside animals, even to "foreign species" like me, they're simply sick. It's like swallowing poison with strong alkali, pouring acid down meal after meal, biochemical agents through the intestines, large mouthfuls of rotting matter..." Yu Sheng interrupted this chatterbox's loud rambling again: "Then what about a fox that has cultivated into a spirit?" Irene was finally left speechless: "...Huh?" It turned out that even the most talkative chatterbox couldn't withstand such an insane topic shift. "I mean, a fox turned into a human form—a huxian, a fox demon, you know?" Yu Sheng said quickly in his mind, because he noticed the fox girl opposite was almost finished with the small bun and was eyeing the chocolate in his hand. "Does a huxian still count as a fox? Is the human component greater, or the fox component? If the latter is higher, does a huxian count as canine?" Irene: "...What's going on over there?!" "I have a fox about to starve to death here. White hair, red eyes, nine tails... maybe six or seven, all tangled up so I can't count clearly. But I only have one piece of chocolate left." Irene listened blankly, then, with surprising acceptance, shot back: "Nine tails means it can definitely withstand it. If it doesn't even have that much cultivation, what's the point of growing so many tails—to serve as a propeller when swimming? Hey wait, what's going on over there? Wasn't it an uninhabited foreign domain? How did one just..." Yu Sheng felt the first half of Irene's words made sense. He didn't bother responding to her subsequent nagging and handed the chocolate to the girl opposite, but didn't forget to remind her: "Here, but try eating a little less first. I'm afraid this might be bad for you." "Th-thank you!" The fox girl hurriedly took the chocolate. After clumsily tearing open the wrapper, she took a careful bite. Her face showed an expression of surprise, then she narrowed her eyes slightly, as if immersed in great happiness. "That's it, there's no more," Yu Sheng shook his head and spread his hands. "I don't know if it's enough to fill you up... uh, I also don't know what to call you." "Thank you," the fox girl said again. This time her thanks was more solemn. Finally no longer so hungry, she looked into Yu Sheng's eyes, raised her hand and pointed at herself, with a serious expression: "Huli." "Ah?" Yu Sheng didn't react for a moment. "Huli," the fox girl pointed at herself and slowly smiled. "I... have a name!"}