Conversing with the Demon, Only the Horse's Hoof Can Bully

It's a simple story.

But the protagonists in the story seemed to have different, unusual reactions.

After hearing the Fox Demon's question, Chen Xu didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked back, "Fellow Daoist Hu, the fox fur you left behind back then, wasn't it taken away by the young lady of the Lin family when she got married?"

The Fox Demon said, "She didn't get a chance to get married. That year, because she let me go, her father punished her by confining her to the ancestral hall for ten days. However, she caught a cold and fell ill.

That cold came on fiercely, and within a few days, it turned into an epidemic.

Her family isolated her in a remote courtyard. I saw her from a distance and secretly went to see her at night.

My cultivation was shallow then, and I couldn't save her. So, she took out a fox fur from her hand and made a wish to me.

Her first wish was for me not to harm her family. Her second wish was that I would take care of whoever held the remaining fox fur in the future.

She transferred her own possible wishes to later generations, but she had already used two of her three wishes.

Even if she could pass on wishes, the Lin family would only have one fox fur left."

As the Fox Demon spoke, a smile appeared on its face, seeming a little melancholic, yet also a little joyful.

Chen Xu said, "So, this last fox fur was used by Lin Yuan to make a wish, asking you to hide in Lin Qi's coffin tomorrow and question me?"

The Fox Demon said, "Yes. Although I am a demon, I have always kept my promises since gaining sentience. I must do what I promise.

But... I only promised to hide in the coffin and question you tomorrow. I never promised to save him if he was in danger.

What does it matter to me if he lives or dies? Fellow Daoist, tell me, isn't that right?"

The Fox Demon asked Chen Xu, but without waiting for an answer, it showed a relaxed smile on its own face.

It emphasized, "He wanted to die himself."

Hearing this, Chen Xu completely understood the Fox Demon's logic.

Was there a problem with the Fox Demon's logic?

At first glance, it seemed like something was wrong, but upon closer thought, it was surprisingly reasonable.

It was so reasonable that Chen Xu couldn't help but feel dazed for a moment.

Since he began his cultivation journey, he had encountered ghosts and demons. As for ghosts, let alone, the two types of demons he had met were a Rat Demon and a Fox Demon. Yet, these demons were all knowledgeable and polite. On a certain level, they were more righteous and moral than many people who spoke of sages and scholars.

Although, the Fox Demon's morality was slightly skewed.

But the Fox Demon also had its own reasons. The Fox Demon said again, "Fellow Daoist, I actually don't like the Lin family. Do you find this easy to understand?"

Chen Xu said, "From your perspective, it's reasonable that you don't like the Lin family. It's not like they captured you and then let you go, so you should be grateful to a family that initially intended to harm you."

This statement caught the Fox Demon by surprise.

The hibiscus flower on its temple trembled. The Fox Demon quickly reached out to adjust it, and said with surprise and joy, "Oh my, as expected of someone the young master of the Lin family wanted to harm, what you said actually makes so much sense.

I thought about it for a long time before but couldn't understand my relationship with the Lin family. I only knew that I was very unhappy.

Although I promised the young lady of the Lin family to fulfill my promise, when I fulfilled it, I always felt a blockage in my heart.

I am not human, and some things are not as clear to me as they are to you intelligent people.

Fortunately, Fellow Daoist helped me analyze it clearly... Huh, is this what your human race calls 'a moment of sudden enlightenment'?"

The Fox Demon could even use idioms.

At this point, although Chen Xu was still wary of the Fox Demon, his attitude during the conversation had relaxed considerably.

Chen Xu said, "It's just that you were blinded by a single leaf and couldn't see the forest, making it difficult to understand for a moment."

"You speak so nicely," the Fox Demon said happily, and then asked, "But I still have one thing I don't understand."

"Please speak, Fellow Daoist Hu. I may not be able to answer, but I will do my best to help."

The Fox Demon said faintly, "Back then, the young lady of the Lin family caught a cold because she was punished by her father, and it later turned into an epidemic. Her death, in a way, was related to her family's abandonment.

But when I went to see her before she died, why was she still thinking about her family?

She lay alone in that cold house, and not a single person from her family came to see her off.

Even her brothers and sisters, who always claimed to dote on her, and even her mother, did not come to see her off on her final journey.

Do you know, when she died, she was buried in a simple coffin by the servants.

She couldn't be buried in the Lin family's ancestral grave. If I hadn't saved up money later and hired a Taoist priest to perform rites for her grave, she might have even become a zombie after death.

But even so, she was still thinking of her family before she died...

She even put the fox fur I gave her inside a book, wrote a dying wish, and informed future generations that this fox fur could be used to ask me for a favor.

Fellow Daoist, why do you think this is?"

The Fox Demon asked Chen Xu this question, and Chen Xu was momentarily stumped.

Seeing that he didn't answer, the Fox Demon was not annoyed and said, "I often wonder over the years, among those who harmed her, there were her father and brothers. So, was I also among them?

Was I... was I also one of the ones who harmed her?"

After asking this question, the Fox Demon stared intently at Chen Xu.

It was only at this moment that Chen Xu truly understood that perhaps the Fox Demon had come in the dead of night, insisting on meeting him, precisely to ask him this question.

The bustling noise of the mortal world on the long street still felt distant, as if swept away into another strange realm.

But in the world before them, there was only one person and one demon.

The demon had many confusions about the human world, and as for humans, they might not truly understand the human world themselves.

Chen Xu pondered for a moment and said, "The causes and effects of the world are, in essence, continuous and interconnected, like countless chains.

Fellow Daoist Hu, have you ever heard of a country that perished because of a horseshoe?"

The Fox Demon asked in surprise, "What country would perish because of a horseshoe?"

"An ordinary horseshoe, of course not. But what if the border was in urgent need, and a crucial secret message had to be delivered to the capital swiftly.

A postman carrying this secret message rode his horse at full speed, but halfway through, the horseshoe fell off. The postman sought out a post station to stop and repair the horseshoe.

The craftsman who repaired the horseshoe was not skilled and made a mistake.

At some point later on the journey, the horse, with its newly fitted horseshoe, suddenly stumbled and fell.

The postman, already exhausted, was thrown from the horse and died from the fall.

That secret message never had the chance to be delivered to the capital... Half a year later, the enemy army marched in unopposed, and this country was destroyed.

Now, Fellow Daoist Hu, if people were to conclude from this that the country perished because of a horseshoe, would you consider that to be the correct explanation?"

The Fox Demon listened, its slender eyebrows furrowed, and couldn't help but say, "How can you say it perished because of a horseshoe?

If a country collapses simply because it failed to receive one secret message, then it can only mean that the country itself was already rotten to the core, can't it?

What powerful dynasty would be so easily defeated?

If we are to speak of the reasons for a nation's downfall, wouldn't it be the powerless army, the foolish emperor, the incompetent officials?

To blame a horseshoe is truly to blame nothing at all, except the horseshoe itself!

I am a fox, not a human, and I understand this principle."

Suddenly, a burst of applause was heard.

The Fox Demon looked up and saw the scholar opposite clapping and saying with a smile, "Precisely, and therefore, how can one blame the fox for the wickedness of that family?"

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