Meeting Again and Not Meeting Again

Meeting Again and Not Meeting Again

Late at night, Xia Fan leaned against the headboard, examining a metal object he had found beside the tracks.

It looked like a bronze artifact, about a finger long and two fingers wide. After wiping away the green patina, he could vaguely make out engraved writing on it—though the characters were hard to identify and seemed quite different from those currently used in the Da Qi Kingdom.

And those tracks...

Wooden rails were nothing unusual. People had long ago come up with the idea of using straight timber in place of uneven roads; with rollers underneath, things could be moved along them. The problem was that wooden beams could only withstand so much pressure, and they were easily ruined by insects. Such specialized roads had therefore never become commonplace. No one wanted to spend vast sums of money and resources building a road that needed repairing and replacing every few months, unless they had no other choice or an urgent need.

That was why wooden tracks were more often found in the mountains. After all, without a nearby quarry, building a smooth, durable bluestone road along a mountainside was hardly realistic.

Was Qingshan Town merely a remote little settlement built halfway up a mountain?

No. These two things alone proved that Green Mountain was not some desolate place. Many people had once passed through here.

The examiners had clearly concealed crucial information.

What had turned Green Mountain into what it was today?

"Creak."

A faint sound came from the window above his head.

Xia Fan put away the bronze fragment and looked toward the shadow by the window. "I thought you weren't coming today."

The one standing there was the Fox Demon. Pale moonlight spilled in from behind her, illuminating her pointed ears.

"I ate the beef."

"I know."

"Then you should understand that I accepted your request." She shifted from a crouch to a seated position and crossed one leg over the other. "You may be used to having no integrity, but I am not."

Uh... so it had been a request? And if only the moonlight were a little brighter.

"But it's nearly midnight. Don't tell me you planned to wait until I fell asleep so you could mooch a free midnight snack?"

"Mooch?" The Fox Demon frowned in confusion. Though she seemed unable to understand the word, she apparently knew it was not a nice one. "When I come is my freedom. You never agreed on a time in advance. Besides, I'm very busy too. If it weren't for the beef..." She suddenly stopped. "In short, if you fall asleep, that's not my fault. I upheld the agreement anyway."

"You have a point." Xia Fan did not want to haggle over such trifles either; time was precious. As for her claim that she was busy, it might not have been a lie—she had clearly not forgotten why she had come to Qingshan Town. "You gave quite a few people nightmares again today, didn't you? Of course, if you think that counts as helping me with the examination, pretend I didn't ask."

"Fewer than yesterday," the Fox Demon said bluntly. "If people have other emotions, dreams become less contagious. And tonight, their emotions are all growing stronger."

"What kind of emotions?"

"Anxiety and hatred."

Xia Fan's heart gave a small jolt. Had the examination environment affected them? The money that had to be carefully budgeted, the Spirit Fire nowhere near sufficient for all the candidates, and the order of precedence set by the great families... it seemed only natural that resentment would spread.

"Oh, right." After thinking for a moment, he took out the bronze fragment he had found on the Back Mountain. "Do you know what this is?"

She gave it an uninterested glance. "No. Why would you think a Fox Demon knows more about human things than you do?"

"Probably because you can live for hundreds or thousands of years?" Xia Fan chose his words carefully. "The saying that age brings broad knowledge can't be wrong..."

"Heh..." She first bared her teeth, then burst into laughter. "Hahahaha..." There was nothing friendly in that laughter; it brimmed with mockery. "If Yao could live that long, do you think your kind would still rule the world?"

"Uh, isn't that right?"

"Qi can extend one's life, but it only brings Yao up to the same level as ordinary humans. We cannot even compare to Fangshi. Only ignorant country folk spread tales that Yao live long lives."

That answer greatly exceeded Xia Fan's expectations. It meant Yao only lived an average of fifty or sixty years. Cultivating for a hundred years to gain intelligence, cultivating for a thousand years to finally take human form—those were probably all rumors?

"Then... how exactly are Yao born?" he asked the question he most wanted answered.

"What do you mean?"

"When did you realize that you had become a Yao?"

"From the very beginning, of course." She flicked her ears in displeasure. "You don't think I was born an ordinary fox, do you? Qi comes before spirit, and humans are the same. Didn't your master teach you that?"

"He did, but... what does that have to do with it?"

"Hopelessly dense!" The Fox Demon wore the expression of someone looking at an incurable dullard. "Qi comes before spirit means that whatever kind of Qi gathers will give birth to that kind of spirit, understand? The reason you can sense Qi was decided while you were still in the womb. All other things are the same. At the place of their conception, Qi will attach itself. Some are ordinary, while some are extraordinary. The ordinary become the teeming masses, while the extraordinary become people like you and me. This process cannot be predicted or changed. That is Innate Nature!"

Xia Fan's mouth fell open.

He suddenly realized that the braised beef he had bought for half a tael of broken silver was an incredible bargain.

That cheap master of his had also mentioned the Qi-Spirit Theory, but nowhere near this thoroughly or concretely.

Now he knew: Yao did not need to cultivate, nor did they need a fortuitous opportunity. She was a Yao because she had been born that way.

"Then... can Yao have children with humans?" Xia Fan asked the second question he most wanted answered.

The look in her eyes visibly changed.

"Ahem, I only want to study this more deeply. I don't mean anything else by it," he hurriedly added.

The Fox Demon stared at him for quite a while before saying irritably, "On that point, your folk tales aren't wrong. Though it's rare, exceptions do occasionally occur..."

So... they could? Xia Fan pressed on. "Why is it so rare?"

"Isn't that obvious? Unless they're perverts or mentally ill, who would want to marry a Yao?" She flew into a rage. "Yao cannot completely hide their own traits. Either they have scales or tails. In your eyes, aren't they as ugly as beasts? And don't you think humans are so wonderful either. You're all bald and bare, and no matter how I look at you, you're awkward!"

Uh... was this the generation gap of the times?

Xia Fan unconsciously touched his chin. Would he look better if he grew a beard someday?

"Enough. You call this chatting, but I think you're deliberately picking a fight. In any case, I came here, so I haven't broken my word. That's it. Farewell!"

With that, she leaped up and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Xia Fan used the same trick again.

The Fox Demon's body stiffened once more, and anger seemed to surge in the gaze she cast at him.

"I haven't given you today's payment yet."

Xia Fan took out the cloth pouch containing the beef and held it out to her. "I don't know what you imagined chatting would be like, but I only wanted to understand more about your kind. If I offended you in any way, I hope you can forgive me."

She did not take it. Instead, she stared at him, speaking only after a moment. "...Why do you want to understand Yao?"

"Don't you always say there are many prejudices between humans and Yao? The root of prejudice is ignorance. I think that if we keep interacting, perhaps we can erase that prejudice."

"There are many kinds of Yao, including Yao that eat people. Do you think you can make humans stop fearing Yao? Can you make Fangshi stop killing Yao?"

"No, but at least I can make them stop fearing Yao that do not eat people. As for Fangshi... am I not one myself?"

"Hmph." She gave a cold laugh, though the anger in her eyes lessened somewhat. "You haven't even passed the Scholar Examination yet."

"So, will you help me out?"

"Dream on." She refused without hesitation. "This is the first time I've met someone like you."

"Even Yao come in many kinds. Humans only come in more varieties. What's so strange about that?"

For some reason, upon hearing those words, the Fox Demon suddenly slowed. Her golden pupils seemed to lose focus, as if she had fallen into some memory.

After a while, she bent down and snatched away the cloth pouch. "So you can say one or two sensible things after all."

"More than that." Xia Fan spread his hands. "You want to weaken your enemies by reducing the number of Fangshi. It may work, but it's inefficient. If I eliminate prejudice through understanding and then spread that understanding among Fangshi, wouldn't that solve the problem at its root? In other words, in some respects, we walk the same path."

"Who walks the same path as you? I would never consort with Fangshi. Besides, what do you think the Bureau of Military Affairs is? You want to change it all by yourself?" The Fox Demon revealed the pointed fangs at the corners of her mouth, as though mocking him and warning him at once. "If that is what you intend, I advise you to withdraw from the examination now. The Bureau of Military Affairs is far more terrifying than you imagine. Once you cling to unrealistic fantasies, that place will only leave you dead without a burial ground!"

Why did she sound... as though she knew the Bureau of Military Affairs quite well? Xia Fan keenly sensed something amiss. As a Yao, this made no sense at all. Even among the people of Da Qi, few knew the Bureau's inner workings.

"By the way, who is your master? I don't think an ordinary person could teach a Yao like you—one who speaks reason, understands righteousness, and knows courtesy."

She suddenly fell silent. "I have no master."

"No master? Then who taught you all this?"

"That has nothing to do with you." The Fox Demon abruptly became impatient. Flicking her tail, she jumped down from the windowsill. "I'll take the payment, but there won't be a next time. You should put your energy into the Scholar Examination."

"Hey, wait—" Xia Fan jumped onto the table and leaned out to look, but her shadow had already vanished into the night.

She had left that quickly? He could only lower his voice and call out, "I'll prepare braised beef again tomorrow. If you're done with your work, remember to come get some!"

Yet Xia Fan vaguely felt that this time, she was probably serious.

She would not come chat with him again.