Early morning.
The front hall kitchen.
Breakfast was the same old three dishes: steamed corn buns, thin rice porridge, and mustard greens.
They had no flavor, like chewing wax.
Lin Guanhuo took a few sips of porridge, his expression downcast.
His mind was full of yesterday's scene: his fellow constable Zhou Kai, dead and reduced to a skeleton.
After all, Zhou Kai had been a living, breathing person—and someone he knew.
Just then, a flask of wine was quietly slipped into his hand.
Lin Guanhuo looked up. It was Liu the Cook from the kitchen.
The man wore a gray shirt and was in his fifties or sixties. They said he'd spent most of his life working in the kitchen of the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard.
He was usually stern and liked to keep a straight face.
But among the White Servants at the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard, Liu the Cook was one of the few who still had some humanity.
"Here, have a drink to warm yourself up." Liu the Cook pushed the flask toward Lin Guanhuo. Knowing Lin Guanhuo was down over Zhou Kai's death, he said, "Don't dwell on it. In this world, human life is worth nothing. Take each day as it comes, and try to look on the bright side."
He patted Lin Guanhuo on the shoulder. "That boy Zhou Kai may be gone, but at least he had a friend like you who remembers him and gave him a proper burial. His life wasn't for nothing."
Lin Guanhuo held the flask, still warm from the man's hand, and silently nodded. "Thanks, Uncle Liu."
After breakfast, Lin Guanhuo got ready to work.
Today's job was a tough one: go to Luojia Town and escort a felon back to Blackwater County for trial.
Lin Guanhuo set out with two other White Servants, driving a horse-drawn carriage through the biting wind.
Luojia Town lay to the east of Blackwater County, dozens of miles away.
The weather was freezing, and the journey was long.
When they reached the entrance to the Luojia Town office, several constables were already waiting.
Seeing the prison cart arrive, they roughly shoved a disheveled old man into it.
"What did the old man do?" Lin Guanhuo asked casually as he locked the cage.
"Went mad!"
A constable from Luojia Town sneered. "That crazy old man killed his own daughter-in-law! Chopped her into mincemeat with a kitchen knife, they say. What a sight that must've been... Tsk, tsk."
Lin Guanhuo nodded at that, saying nothing more.
After all, things like this were common in this era.
On the way back.
The old man huddled in the corner of the cage, muttering to himself in a deranged manner.
The other two White Servants thought he was bad luck and kept their distance. Only Lin Guanhuo, driving the carriage, stayed close.
"Heh-heh... Heh-heh..."
The old man suddenly pressed his face against the bars and laughed maniacally at Lin Guanhuo. "Young'un, you think I'm crazy too?"
Lin Guanhuo ignored him and focused on driving.
"I'm not crazy... I didn't kill anyone..." The old man's voice suddenly turned sinister. "My daughter-in-law... was dead long ago! She died half a month ago!"
Only then did Lin Guanhuo show some interest, turning his gaze toward the old man.
When the old man saw someone was listening, his eyes grew even more feverish. "She was a fox spirit! That night, I got up to relieve myself and saw her with my own eyes, gnawing on my son's head! Just like she was eating a watermelon! I was killing a demon! A demon!"
"But no one believed me... Heh-heh... No one believed me."
The old man suddenly lowered his voice, his eyes full of fear. "Do you know why?"
"Because... because my son had turned into a fox too! There are hardly any living people left in all of Luojia Town!"
"Those people are all Fox Demons!... They're all eating people... After they finish, they put on that person's skin and go on living as usual... They're all Fox Demons wearing human skin! I'm old, my flesh is rank, and that's the only reason I survived."
As he spoke, the old man's voice abruptly dropped. Then he said slowly, "Young'un, do you think those few you just saw... were all human?"
"If you don't believe me... turn around and look?"
At that, Lin Guanhuo hesitated.
Then he looked back.
In the biting wind, the constables he had just seen stood in a neat row at the entrance to Luojia Town.
They didn't move at all, like paper figures, staring toward Lin Guanhuo.
Their faces were covered in fur, their features cramped and twisted, like the faces of foxes. It was a deeply unsettling sight.
When they noticed Lin Guanhuo's gaze, the constables seemed to suddenly snap out of it and immediately ran off.
"What..."
Lin Guanhuo had seen his share of things.
Even so, the bizarre scene still gave him a fright.
"Well, young'un? I didn't lie to you, did I?"
"Don't stare at them too openly, or they might set their sights on you! They can hollow you out in no time. They like sucking out people's brains and eating their hearts!"
Seeing Lin Guanhuo's reaction, the old man in the prison cart grinned.
Lin Guanhuo continued driving.
If the old madman was telling the truth...
Wouldn't that mean all of Luojia Town had become one giant fox den?
Those monsters wearing human skin were brazenly dressed in official uniforms, walking around in broad daylight?
"Has the Fox Calamity in Blackwater County really gotten this bad?"
The north wind howled, and evening drew near.
Lin Guanhuo hunched his shoulders, feeling his hands and feet nearly frozen stiff.
He pulled the flask Liu the Cook had given him from inside his clothes, uncorked it, and took a big swig.
The harsh, cheap liquor rolled down his throat and into his stomach like a ball of fire, driving away some of the cold.
"Good wine... Good wine..."
In the cage, the deranged old man suddenly fell silent. His nose twitched as his muddy eyes fixed on the flask in Lin Guanhuo's hand. "Young'un... Would you spare an old man a sip?"
Hearing this, Lin Guanhuo thought that although the liquor was cheap, it was a rare treat in weather like this.
He looked at the old man, then at his thin prison clothes, and sighed inwardly.
"Here."
Lin Guanhuo passed the flask through the bars.
The old man took it with trembling hands, tilted his head back, and gulped it down.
"Gulp... Gulp..."
He downed the remaining half flask in one go.
"Ah—wonderful! Wonderful!"
The old man tossed the empty flask back to Lin Guanhuo and wiped his mouth with gusto. "After a drink like that, even if I'm headed for the executioner's block, at least my bones will be warm!"
Lin Guanhuo put away the flask and couldn't help asking, "You killed someone. When you get to the Blackwater County jail, no one's going to believe you that she was a Fox Demon. It's a capital crime. Aren't you afraid at all?"
The old man heard him out.
"Afraid? Afraid of what?"
The old man laughed, his tone carefree yet desolate. "My son's dead, my daughter-in-law's gone, and I'm an old man with no children, a lonely ghost with no one in the world. Better to die under the executioner's blade than have those beasts wearing human skin chew my bones to pieces, one bite at a time!"
As he spoke, he fumbled around inside his clothes, then pulled out a small cloth bundle.
"Young'un, you seem like a kind soul. I can't take this thing into my coffin anyway, so take it as thanks for that last drink."
With that, he tossed the bundle to Lin Guanhuo.
Lin Guanhuo caught it instinctively. It felt rather heavy in his hand.
"What's this..."
"Don't look. Put it away."
The old man waved a hand and closed his eyes again.
He returned to his old, deranged manner, humming an unfamiliar little tune.
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