Fox Demon

The boy followed a trail of scattered starlight out of town and headed straight for the stream. Even under the cover of night, Chen Ping'an ran no slower than he did by day. He deliberately avoided the Covered Bridge, where the water rose far higher than elsewhere, and chose a stretch that barely reached his knees. He took the large woven bamboo basket off his back, bent down to retrieve a small Fish Basket tucked inside, and tied it securely at his waist. Only after removing his straw sandals and rolling up his trouser legs did he wade in to search for stones.

The cut on his left hand, made by a shard of porcelain, still stung sharply, so he could not put it in the water. He had to turn over and pick through the streambed with his right hand alone. Stones were easiest to collect from a dry riverbed, but as Liu Xianyang had said, their colors faded badly there. Now that the black-clothed girl had given Chen Ping'an a rough idea of the mystery behind them, it was not hard to understand. The stones reminded him of the years he had followed Old Man Yao over mountains and ridges, chewing and tasting soil from one hillside after another. Dirt might look much the same, yet even soil from opposite sides of a single mountain could taste utterly different.

Old Man Yao said a tree died when moved, while a person lived; move the soil from its home, and it became a Buddha. A handful of dirt changed flavor soon after it left the ground it came from.

The stream had no name. Its stones ranged from fist-sized to no bigger than a thumb and came in every color, but generations of townspeople had grown up seeing them lie quietly in the clear water. Naturally, no one thought them rare. Anyone who carried them home would be taken for a fool with too much time on his hands. If he had strength to spare, why not do more farmwork? What else could he be but a fool?

Bending over as he waded, Chen Ping'an kept shifting and turning the larger rocks on the streambed. He had already put seven or eight stones into his Fish Basket, some large, some small, each a different color. Some had skins like golden oranges hanging from autumn branches; others were as fair and tender as a baby's skin. Some were jet-black and gleaming, while others were as vivid as bright red peach blossoms. Most were a shrimp-back green, and the variety went on.

These stones, known in the countryside as snake gallstones, were mostly small, slick and heavy in the hand. Held high in sunlight, or lit by a candle late at night, their inner patterns showed down to the finest thread, faintly resembling tiny snakes or fish winding through them. Viewed from a little farther away, their skins shimmered like fish scales or snake scales.

Nearly an hour later, the Fish Basket at Chen Ping'an's waist was almost full. He retraced his steps to the bank where he had left his large basket and sandals, then pulled several big handfuls of reeds, wild celery, and foxtail grass to line its bottom. Only then did he transfer the stones into it one by one. Carrying his sandals, with the Fish Basket tied at his waist and the large basket on his back, he walked upstream to where he had turned back before. He set down the sandals and basket again, waded in, and continued shifting stones.

After collecting half another basketful, Chen Ping'an straightened and looked up at the stars, hoping to see a meteor cross the night sky. Tonight, though, his luck was not that good. He turned his attention back to what a man with an eye for treasure ought to be doing, relying on the faint starlight and his unusually sharp eyesight.

Every time Chen Ping'an found another stone, joy welled up in him. To the boy, each one was a piece of hope.

Before he knew it, Chen Ping'an had filled more than half the large basket, gathering roughly eighty stones. The biggest was larger than his fist, its color striking as a clot of chicken blood: vivid and pure, yet not the least bit unpleasant to look at. A stone that large with almost no blemishes or cracks was rare. Now, as Chen Ping'an walked along the bank toward the next stretch of stream, he played with a medium-sized snake gallstone in his hand. It was pale green, much lighter than the plum green of the town's porcelain, and so smooth and round that he had taken a liking to it at first sight.

Chen Ping'an approached a huge blue-green stone cliff by the bank. On sweltering summer days, the town's children often bathed in this stretch of stream. The water below the cliff was especially deep; its deepest hollow was twice Chen Ping'an's height, second only to the pool beneath the Covered Bridge. Boys who swam well loved competing to see who could stay at the bottom longest.

Chen Ping'an had chosen this deep hollow because, when he and Liu Xianyang used to bathe here, they had discovered that snake gallstones were especially plentiful at the bottom. Once, to show off his swimming, Liu Xianyang had even surfaced with one tucked beneath his arm. Chen Ping'an remembered it being at least as big as Gu Can's head. The stone was faintly white and translucent, with tiny bright-red specks inside it, like peach blossom petals frozen in ice.

Liu Xianyang had thought the find rather significant at the time, so he had Chen Ping'an help carry the huge stone home. But once they reached town, the tall, flighty boy lost interest and told Chen Ping'an to deal with it himself. Chen Ping'an had just entered Mud Bottle Alley when he noticed Zhi Gui, who lived next door, following him for no apparent reason. She said nothing, only stared fixedly at the stone in his arms. Her eyes looked much the way his did whenever he saw the meat buns sold in Apricot Blossom Alley. Unable to bear how badly she wanted it, Chen Ping'an gave her the stone. She could not lift it at first and nearly dropped it on her foot, so he ended up carrying it into Song Jixin's courtyard for her. What became of it afterward, he never learned.

The stone was clear and white as water, with peach blossoms floating within.

It was like the peach blossoms after rain in Taoye Lane, lush beneath a clearing sky.

Even before today, when Chen Ping'an had known nothing of the stone's mysteries, he had always felt from the bottom of his heart that it was beautiful.

Chen Ping'an sighed, then suddenly stopped.

Thirty paces away, a green-clothed girl sat atop the blue-green cliff. Her cheeks were stuffed full, yet she was still putting food into her mouth.

Chen Ping'an's first thought was that she must have been a starving ghost in a previous life. Why else would she be so pitifully hungry in the middle of the night?

After a moment's thought, Chen Ping'an decided not to go any closer, afraid of disturbing her late-night meal. He did not turn around and leave, either. He had made up his mind to try his luck in that deep hollow tonight. Even if he brought up only one or two stones on each dive, enough attempts would pay off. Besides, the snake gallstones there were bigger and seemed brighter than those elsewhere in the stream.

Chen Ping'an could not swim as well as Liu Xianyang, but he was no poor swimmer.

He had not expected the unfamiliar girl to finish one thing and immediately pick up another. She never paused, and her cheeks were never empty. With a heavy basket more than half full of stones on his back, Chen Ping'an thought of the effort it would take to dive for more. He turned sideways and set the basket on the ground.

Chen Ping'an had underestimated the green-clothed girl's hearing. At that soft sound, her ears suddenly pricked up and her gaze swept straight toward him.

He could hardly tell her to take her time eating, so he could only smile awkwardly.

The girl's expression went blank. She hiccuped twice in succession, then seemed to choke. She quickly thrust out her chest and thumped it hard with her hand.

Only then did Chen Ping'an notice how young she was—and how astonishingly full-figured below the neck. She rivaled many women who had already borne children.

The fabric across her chest was stretched tight.

Chen Ping'an hurriedly looked away, without a single improper thought in his head.

The green-clothed girl finally remembered she had brought a waterskin. She turned her back on Chen Ping'an before tipping her head up for a long drink. Only then could she breathe freely again.

The boy holding his straw sandals had just one simple thought: the cloth of her clothes could not have been cheap. Otherwise, it would never have withstood such strain.

The green-clothed girl went on eating, though with much more restraint. At least her cheeks no longer bulged so dramatically. She lowered her head and took small bites, occasionally glancing sideways at the peculiar town boy. Her narrow eyes were shaped like peach blossoms, with corners that tilted slightly upward, making her look like a young fox demon by nature.

Her gaze seemed to ask him, What's your problem? Keep going.

Chen Ping'an looked helpless. He pointed toward the stream beyond the cliff and called, "I'm not just passing through. I need to get into the stream over there, where you are."

She looked at the thin boy without saying a word.

Chen Ping'an quickly took a stone from his basket and explained, "I'm going into the stream to collect these."

The girl suddenly looked as if she had remembered something important. She raised a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet, then shifted aside. Clearly, he could come over; she would not stop him from entering the water to gather stones.

Chen Ping'an had no choice but to shoulder his basket and walk over, steeling himself. Fortunately, the blue-green cliff was broad enough for more than ten people to stand on. The girl had already moved to the edge. Instead of stretching out her legs as before, she sat properly cross-legged, an open bundle on her knees. It was piled with all manner of cakes and snacks like a little mountain, and so far she had eaten only one of its smaller peaks.

Chen Ping'an set down his sandals, the large basket, and the Fish Basket. Since it was the dead of night, he had intended to take off his shirt before getting in the water, but that was out of the question now. An unmarried young woman he did not know was sitting right there. Whether or not she screamed, if her elders saw or heard about it, Chen Ping'an reckoned they could break both his legs and he would have no grounds to complain.

He reached the edge of the cliff and dove headfirst into the deep hollow.

He soon came up with a palm-sized stone, but unfortunately it was not a snake gallstone. He wiped his face and dived again. On his third try, he finally brought up a blue-black snake gallstone. Dripping wet, Chen Ping'an climbed onto the cliff, put it in the basket, and plunged back into the water.

The whole time, the girl kept her back to him, busy eating.

In less than half an hour, Chen Ping'an had brought up seven or eight stones. Apart from the first, whose color was rather dark, they were all large and vivid.

On his final dive, he came ashore not with a stone but with a live fish about as long as his palm. The townspeople called it a Stone Flatfish. Whenever one encountered a person, it liked to hide beneath a rock, and its flesh was delicious. Most were only a little longer than a finger; few grew as large as the one in Chen Ping'an's hand. He had felt several in the gaps between the rocks at the bottom earlier, but had let them go to focus on stones. This time, inspiration had struck: if he could catch a dozen or so tonight, he could make Miss Ning a pot of fish soup tomorrow. That would be nice.

Once ashore, Chen Ping'an casually dropped the fish into the Fish Basket.

When he came ashore with his second fish, Chen Ping'an suddenly found the girl crouching beside the Fish Basket. Though it held only one lonely fish, she stared at it with her whole face alight, much as Zhi Gui had stared at that stone in the alley years ago.

Chen Ping'an dropped the second Stone Flatfish into the Fish Basket.

The girl slowly raised her head.

The barefoot boy had already turned and hurried back into the stream.

As soon as she heard him splash into the water, the girl swiftly snatched up a fish in each hand. She looked down at them as they flopped and, with a solemn expression, nodded. "Incredible. Incredible!"

The green-clothed girl knew there were many strange sights in this town. No one knew how long the iron chain hanging in the well in Apricot Blossom Alley was. The nearby Covered Bridge had once been a stone arch bridge spanning the stream for three thousand years. Beneath it was a rusted iron sword whose tip pointed toward a bottomless green pool. There was the archway with its twelve-legged crab, the broken clay statues lying haphazardly in the grass outside the ancestral hall, and the mountain of porcelain to the north, piled high with wares that Supervising Officials of dynasty after dynasty had personally judged defective, then smashed to pieces. And there was more.

She even knew the reasons behind most of them.

She had traveled far and wide with her father from a very young age, so she had undeniably seen much of the world.

Yet when Chen Ping'an came ashore with a third Stone Flatfish, the girl was still crouched beside the Fish Basket, her hands empty again. She was secretly wiping them on the corners of her clothes. As she looked up at the barefoot boy approaching, she wore the kind of expression ordinary people reserved for an immortal.

Her strange gaze made Chen Ping'an feel uncomfortable all over. He ventured, "Do you want these fish?"

The girl nodded hard without thinking.

Chen Ping'an smiled. "Then you can have all three. I'll catch more."

The girl blinked, then smiled happily. A fox demon, and foxishly charming.