The Fox Maiden, Hongxiu Adds Fragrance, doing laundry and cooking to repay gratitude, indeed this is a charming tale, but what if the Fox Maiden takes her family’s belongings to someone else’s house to repay gratitude???
Hmm, that’s right! There’s a fox repaying gratitude next door, but how come you’re stealing my family’s rice and grains to ’repay gratitude’?
Inside the shabby thatched cottage, a young boy dressed in coarse cloth, sallow and thin, was crouching by the wall, peering secretly through a barely noticeable crevice at the house next door.
The young lady next door, dressed in white, as stunning as the reincarnation of Xi Shi, was muttering words over an empty bowl, and in the next moment, a bowl of coarse rice appeared out of thin air in the empty bowl.
The young lady looked at the coarse rice in the empty bowl, showing a hint of joy, hastily pouring the coarse rice into a nearby basin, and then continued her mutterings.
On the other side of the wall, the young boy spying through the wall crevice quickly got up and rushed to his own rice jar, his eyes fixed on the nearly empty rice jar. In the eyes of the hungry and emaciated boy, the last remaining grains of coarse rice vanished one by one.
Not a single grain left! Cleaner than a dog’s lick!
Then Zhang Chen swiftly returned to the crevice in the wall, and through the barely noticeable hole, he saw that the girl’s empty bowl indeed was filled to the brim with coarse rice again!
"Damn it! They really are going to starve me to death, leaving no way out at all!" Zhang Chen stood in front of the wall, teeth clenched in anger, but dared not curse out loud, fearing the girl next door might hear him.
Before Zhang Chen even finished cursing, a sudden tug came from his side. Before he could react, the cured meat hanging on the wall disappeared without a trace.
Soon the fragrance of rice from next door wafted over, and the girl had finished making the fragrant ’rice and cured meat casserole,’ then transformed into a snow-white fox, obediently jumping into a nearby cage.
Zhang Chen pressed his eyes against the wall, staring fixedly at the fox next door, his eyes filled with anger. He wasn’t even surprised by the woman turning into a fox, as he had been witnessing this scene for a full three months.
Three months! Can you imagine how I’ve survived these past three months?
"Damn Wang Wu, if only he had turned that fox into a fur coat back then, there wouldn’t be such trouble today!"
Zhang Chen cursed internally. The origin of all this, had to start from five years ago.
On a rainy night five years ago, the Hunter Wang Wu next door was hunting in the mountains and trapped a snow-white fox. Wang Wu had planned to make a fur collar from the fox, but next door, the scholar’s family was dirt poor, eating only coarse grains and wild vegetables. For some unknown reason, they even sold their two acres of thin fields that night just to buy that fox.
Ever since the fox began to repay gratitude next door, Zhang Chen’s miserable life began, becoming the chosen worker, enduring hunger and hardship to support the person and beast next door. Until three months ago, his predecessor nearly starved to death, stepping one foot into the Ghost Gate before breaking the Mystery of the Womb, recalling life on Earth.
After awakening past life wisdom and leading with his 21st-century consciousness, Zhang Chen initially didn’t think too much of it and continued to hunt in the mountains.
However, over the three months since breaking the Mystery of the Womb, Zhang Chen finally noticed that something was amiss. The coarse rice in his jar was depleting too quickly, and the cured meat often disappeared without a trace.
At first, he thought he was being robbed, but after staking out for several days, he saw no thieves coming, yet the rice and meat at home kept disappearing. He then connected this with the poor scholar next door, who despite not working, had coarse rice and meat at every meal, and even spare cash for reading. Zhang Chen became suspicious, suspecting the scholar was stealing, and furtively bore a hole in the wall from which there was no turning back, leading to today’s scene!
Sniffing the fragrance of rice wafting from next door, Zhang Chen quickly plugged the crevice with sand, fearing the Fox Spirit might discover his spying.
"This damned Fox Spirit, even if she doesn’t kill me, I’ll starve to death eventually. And if this continues, won’t I be working for the neighbor forever?"
After a long while, Zhang Chen touched his rumbling stomach, his eyes flashing with sorrow and anger. How hard was it to earn a bit of money these days?
He lived frugally, only to support the pauper scholar next door.
Including the time his predecessor was oppressed, it had been a full five years!
Do you know how he’s gotten through these five years?
But as for how to get rid of the Fox Spirit, his mind was a mess and he had no plan, given that it was a Fox Spirit with demon techniques. Just being unharmed by her was a blessing, so how could he have the ability to kill a demon?
Just as he was about to turn around in fury, his movements suddenly paused, turning his head to look where the cured meat disappeared. There lay a pigeon-egg-sized bead, red as fire, glowing with a gentle red light like a Luminous Pearl, standing out conspicuously.
The most crucial part was, a ’+40’ was floating over the bead, looking much like the experience points dropped by a large boss in games.
At this moment, Zhang Chen’s vision suddenly blurred, and an interface popped up:
[Name: Zhang Chen]
[Skill: None]
[Points: 0]
[Strange drop points detected, would you like to collect?]
"Collect!"
Zhang Chen didn’t think twice and said directly.
As Zhang Chen’s words fell, the crimson pearl on the ground vanished, and the Golden Finger Interface flickered:
[Name: Zhang Chen]
[Skill: None]
[Points: 40]
"Golden Finger? This is my Golden Finger!" Zhang Chen looked at his Golden Finger, his eyes filled with ecstatic delight. Now that I have awakened my Golden Finger, am I still afraid of dealing with just a Fox Spirit?
Zhang Chen suppressed his excitement and began to study the Golden Finger, and soon he had thoroughly understood it.
This Golden Finger is very simple. As long as a supernatural phenomenon occurs, ’points, skills’ will drop, and by collecting the points, you can directly add points to the skills, allowing the skills to upgrade infinitely.
However, at this moment, Zhang Chen’s gaze fell on the empty ’None’ skill slot, and he couldn’t help but feel a surge of frustration: "Having points but no skills, this Golden Finger is useless!"
As for how to acquire skills, he had some ideas in mind. Since the Fox Spirit can drop experience points, it might also drop skills. At present, the only supernatural being he can contact is the Fox Spirit, meaning his hope for unlocking skills largely depends on the Fox Spirit.
Zhang Chen’s mind flickered with countless thoughts as he struggled to figure out a way to combat the Fox Spirit. Finally, he could only open his Q-esque mentality to comfort himself: "Surviving five years already, a few more days won’t hurt. I’ll find a way to unlock the skills and then settle scores with the Fox Spirit. Besides, the Fox Spirit can provide me with experience points, so I’m not losing out too much."
Right now, he’s helpless against the Fox Spirit, and it’s fortunate if the fox doesn’t come to eat him, what else can he expect? He can only consider himself unlucky and bear it!
Might as well feed the opponent for a while, as long as he doesn’t starve, he’ll endure it for now. With the Golden Finger now in hand, there will eventually be a day when he rises.
As he stroked his growling stomach, his gaze instinctively turned to the rabbit he hunted yesterday. Sure enough, the rabbit he hunted was once again ’acquired for free.’ Looking at the empty rack, Zhang Chen could only feel anger but dared not express it. He then quickly took up his rope and shovel and headed into the mountains. While the neighbor is full, he’s still hungry!
Into the woodland ten miles deep, Zhang Chen carefully inspected the traps, and today he managed to catch a wild chicken and a roe deer, a decent haul.
Zhang Chen roasted the wild chicken to eat, pondered for a moment over the roe deer, and decided to bring it back.
He decided that before he developed his skills, he wouldn’t offend the Fox Spirit. He wanted to be someone useful to the Fox Spirit! Otherwise, when the time comes, the Fox Spirit wouldn’t eat the prey, but him!
When Zhang Chen finished his meal, the sky had already darkened. As he reached the village entrance, he paused and saw in the distance a man wearing coarse linen, skin delicate as jade, looking as handsome as Pan An and Song Yu, approaching with a snow-white fox in his arms under the setting sun.
The man’s stature was tall and supple as jade, appearing particularly attractive, like a leading man from a film.
But looking at the man’s delicate, snow-white skin, Zhang Chen’s eyes reddened in anger, thinking of how all his rice, flour, preserved meats, and poultry have nourished him. How could he not be infuriated?
That was indeed Zhang Chen’s archrival: the neighboring poor scholar, Zhang Chen.
Both came from poor families, while Zhang Chen was merely a bookish fool ignorant of farming, yet he seemed to be living better than Zhang Chen. How infuriating is that?
He’s just like a protagonist template from a novel!
However, thinking that the fox could transform into human form, highly likely a Great Demon from legends past, and recalling tales of Fox Demons draining Essence Qi, gutting and heart extraction from past lives, Zhang Chen couldn’t help but shudder, putting aside any envy of Zhang Chen’s fortune.
"Shouldn’t the Fox Spirit be fattening Zhang Chen up as food, to crunch on him later, bite by bite?" Zhang Chen thought slyly.
"Hey, isn’t this Zhang Chen? How come you’re so haggard? Haven’t starved to death yet?" Zhang Chen stood in front of Zhang Chen, eyes full of mockery as he looked at Zhang Chen.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chen snorted coldly, hesitated to retort fearing the Fox Demon’s power, and watched as Zhang Chen walked past, eyes showing disdain as he cursed: "Mud-leg!"
The little fox in the man’s arms also looked at Zhang Chen with teasing eyes, its gaze filled with human-like wisdom.
Watching their backs as they disappeared into the distance, Zhang Chen spat fiercely on the ground: "Just wait! Someday, I’ll make a fox fur coat..."
As Zhang Chen muttered in his mind, suddenly his vision blurred, and he saw a red glow fall off the Fox Spirit. The red glow was particularly eye-catching in the dim sunset.
Yet, neither Zhang Chen nor the Fox Spirit seemed to notice the red glow.
"What is that?" Zhang Chen was stunned, then couldn’t help but be overjoyed: "Dropped equipment again?"
Let me recommend the author’s old book: "In a Strange World, I Can Command Divinities," the link is below.