After Zhang Chen prepared everything in the mountain, he delivered the deer meat to his stepmother. Then, looking disheveled, he returned home, only to see a shaggy white head poking out of the window next door. At that moment, it was looking at Zhang Chen with a face full of smugness, and its anthropomorphic expression appeared very strange. As Zhang Chen walked into the courtyard, the Fox Spirit sniffed the air, and its eyes gleamed, almost drooling.
Zhang Chen glanced expressionlessly at the neighboring courtyard, especially at the expectantly waiting Fox Spirit, feeling so angry that his liver hurt. This Fox Spirit was simply too infuriating!
So blatant, bullying Zhang Chen just because he was an honest man!
How could Zhang Chen endure such a humiliating insult?
"This is too much!" Zhang Chen gritted his teeth in anger, but he still calmly put the basket back in the house. Then he carried eight logs of firewood to the fire wall, carefully poked through the soil with a steel needle to reveal a hole for observation. Seeing that Zhang Chen wasn’t home, he placed the eight logs in the woodshed, carefully putting them in the corner.
"It’s still a bit too much firewood," thought Zhang Chen as he looked at the pile of firewood. "But that’s fine, since the Fox Spirit cleaned out my stepmother’s house, I have a chance to take some firewood there."
Zhang Chen cautiously calculated how much firewood to use in his mind, then tied some of it together and carried it out on his back.
"It’s a pity about these two rooms, both left to me by my father!" Zhang Chen stood in front of the house, turned his head for a look, and left the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone untouched inside, so as not to alert the Fox Spirit.
"Zhang Chen, my brother, don’t blame me! Your family’s assets are likely not safe, but that’s what you get for having a Fox Spirit in your home." With thoughts swirling in his mind, Zhang Chen stepped out of the courtyard, muttering curses to himself: "That damn dog, thieving bastard born without an anus, tripping while walking, choking to death while drinking water, actually stealing food from my stepmother’s house. You deserve to be struck by lightning. Damn all your ancestors..."
Zhang Chen’s cursing wasn’t loud, but it was definitely not quiet. He was deliberately letting the Fox Spirit hear it to provoke it.
Sure enough, as Zhang Chen began his stream of insults, the Fox Spirit’s fur stood on end, its eyes full of fury as it glared at Zhang Chen through the fence.
Then, without a word, Zhang Chen turned around and ran out of the courtyard, heading toward the back mountain without stopping.
Zhang Chen’s footsteps were steady and unhurried as he quietly gave himself a pat on the back, whispering to himself, ’My performance just now was out of this world.’
"Let’s see you die this time!" Zhang Chen muttered to himself, only to find his pupils constricting the next moment, because the impoverished scholar Zhang Chen had actually returned!
Zhang Chen paused his steps, a flicker of panic in his eyes, and a thought popped into his head: "What to do now! What should I do! Although Zhang Chen and I have our differences, it has never reached the point of murder. If that powerful explosive goes off, everything within a fifty-meter radius will be razed to the ground, and Zhang Chen would be blown to pieces, reduced to ashes!"
"What should I do? What should I do?" Numerous thoughts crossed Zhang Chen’s mind. "It’s still possible to go back and take the firewood away at this moment!"
Looking at the approaching Zhang Chen, Zhang Chen was about to turn around and go back to the courtyard to retrieve the eight explosive logs, if only to prevent the Fox Spirit from taking them. But just at this moment, Zhang Chen had to cause trouble, standing right in front of Zhang Chen, eyes full of mockery: "Where are you off to, little bumpkin?"
Upon hearing the impoverished scholar Zhang Chen speak, Zhang Chen paused, suppressing a sigh that was stuck in his chest, ultimately deciding to ignore him and wanting to turn back to retrieve the firewood. But who would have thought that the impoverished scholar Zhang Chen persistently walked forward, grabbing Zhang Chen’s collar: "Kid, I’m talking to you!"
"I have something to do today, don’t cause trouble!" Zhang Chen tried to keep his emotions under control, his expression dark as he looked at the impoverished scholar Zhang Chen. He struggled to break free of his grip, but Zhang Chen held on tightly, causing him to stagger.
"You little brat, you looking for death?" Zhang Chen was enraged after Zhang Chen made him stumble.
Ever since the Fox Spirit had been helping him, for the past five years, he had been able to beat Zhang Chen up at will; when did Zhang Chen ever get the chance to fight back against him?
The animosity between them had existed since childhood, and they had always fought fiercely, but especially in recent years with the Fox Spirit’s assistance, Zhang Chen was no match and always the one being bullied. Now, being made to stumble by Zhang Chen, how could Zhang Chen endure it? He stepped forward and swung a fist.
Zhang Chen, caught off guard, nearly got punched. Just as he was about to argue with Zhang Chen, he saw the smoke rising from the stove next door, and his soul almost left his body in fright. He quickly retreated, ignoring Zhang Chen, and sprinted away.
Obviously, the Fox Spirit had already started a fire for cooking!
"Hmph, you’re lucky; I’ll let you go today! Be more respectful when you see me in the future." Zhang Chen watched Zhang Chen’s fleeing figure, smiled smugly, and walked into the house.
Zhang Chen halted his steps, turned to look at Zhang Chen entering the courtyard, seeing the smoke rising from the stove, and without a word, he grabbed the kettle and left, showing no intention of lingering.
Zhang Chen exited the village, then turned back toward his home, directly hiding behind a large tree two hundred meters away and waiting.