Do foxes eat mushrooms?

Yin Lingzi vanished before their eyes just like that.

Xin Jiu: "..."

Bubu spat viciously.

The human and dragon turned the grotto upside down without finding Qingming's fan. In the end, they could only leave resentfully.

The moment they stepped out of the grotto, a system window popped up.

[Congratulations to player Xin Jiu for unlocking the hidden achievement: See through Yin Lingzi's illusions]

[Reward: 50,000 points]

Although she hadn't gotten Qingming's fan, she had obtained an SS-rank skill and fifty thousand points. Xin Jiu was still very satisfied.

The only downside was that Chen Rui wasn't there. Otherwise, she could have copied his [Heart Flutter] skill. That skill would be quite useful when facing NPCs from the opposing faction.

[Have you noticed something? Jiujiu's instance seems different from the instances players in other regions are running.]

[Now that you mention it, I watched Hash Brown's stream for two days and never saw the flood dragon or Qingming.]

[Does each instance spawn different NPCs?]

[Should we ask the official team?]

Xin Jiu and Bubu walked through the woods with identical expressions, both looking rather miserable.

"We didn't find the fan. Are we still going back?"

Without the fan, Qingming wouldn't give her the skill. Honestly, it was quite a long round trip, too.

Xin Jiu didn't want to go back, but when she thought of Qingming saying he could help Bubu transform, she felt it would be a shame to miss the chance.

Bubu flew a few circles in the air, his eyes lighting up. "I've got an idea!"

"Let's hear it!"

"First, we do this..."

Bubu's idea was to find a hallucinogenic mushroom, have it turn into the fan to fool Qingming, and get the skill first.

"Will that really work?" Xin Jiu looked doubtful.

This wasn't an ordinary fox. This was a fox from Qingqiu.

Could one little mushroom fool him?

Xin Jiu didn't believe it.

"Of course it will! Big Brother Qingming dotes on me the most. Even if he notices, I'll just act cute and it'll be fine. If he doesn't, we'll get the skill. Perfect!" Bubu snickered.

[What a little dragon who sides with outsiders.]

[Qingming: Someone speak up for me.]

Xin Jiu knew this was their only option, so she decided to give Bubu's suggestion a try. What if it worked?

Then they went looking for mushrooms.

The more she thought about Bubu's description, the more she felt that the hallucinogenic mushrooms he mentioned were the Mushroom People she had encountered after leaving the little maze.

An hour later, Bubu led Xin Jiu to a stop in front of a patch of grass.

Hearing the familiar chittering, Xin Jiu parted the grass to look. Sure enough, it was the Mushroom People.

Perhaps because Bubu carried the aura of an NPC from the tower, the Mushroom People didn't scatter this time. They studied him curiously.

Bubu landed on the ground, and two of the bolder Mushroom People even huffed and puffed their way up onto his dragon horns, tugging them back and forth.

They were having a wonderful time, and Bubu didn't get angry.

Xin Jiu explained why they had come.

The moment they heard they were supposed to trick a nine-tailed fox, the Mushroom People were frightened and started scurrying away again. Bubu let out a soft dragon cry, and they stopped and huddled together.

The largest Mushroom Person stepped forward. It appeared to be their chief.

"The nine-tailed fox will eat us," it said.

Xin Jiu was puzzled, then said, "Why would a fox eat mushrooms?"

"They do!" The chief leaned closer to Xin Jiu, showing her its bright red mushroom-cap hat. "We're fly agarics. Foxes eat us!"

"..."

Xin Jiu had only thought their bright red appearance was cute before, without considering what kind of mushrooms they were.

As for fly agarics... although these mushrooms were poisonous and hallucinogenic, they weren't lethal. Besides foxes, quite a few wild animals ate fly agarics for pleasure.

Uh... looking at it that way, their fear of Qingming seemed perfectly normal.

But he was a nine-tailed fox from Qingqiu. Would he get his pleasure from eating mushrooms like an ordinary fox?

She turned to ask Bubu, "Does your brother eat these?"

Bubu tilted his head in thought, then answered earnestly, "He does seem to like eating mushrooms."

The Mushroom People nearly cried when they heard that.

See? They'd said foxes would eat them!

Seeing the aggrieved expressions on these Mushroom People, who were only a few centimeters tall, Xin Jiu couldn't bring herself to simply grab them. In the end, she let them leave.

"You're not catching them?" Bubu asked in confusion.

Xin Jiu sighed. "I'm not that evil."

After they had walked a dozen or so meters away, Bubu lay on Xin Jiu's shoulder and wheedled, "Jiujiu, I'm hungry."

Xin Jiu took the Bear Honey from her system inventory. After she'd given Bubu a little taste last time, he had fallen in love with the flavor and kept pestering her to bring it out for him to eat.

"So sweet!" After a few licks, Bubu was completely energized. "More, more!"

Xin Jiu fed him a few more mouthfuls.

Just then, she suddenly felt something tugging at her trouser leg.

She looked down. It was the Mushroom People chief from earlier, with all the other Mushroom People following behind. They were gazing longingly at the honey jar in Xin Jiu's hand.

"...?"

Why had they all come back?

The Mushroom People chief rubbed its tiny hands together and stammered, "Could... could we have a little too?"

Xin Jiu raised an eyebrow, remembering the description of Bear Honey in the rest area shop.

[It doesn't have much of an effect, but certain NPCs seem particularly fond of its flavor.]

Bubu liked it. Did the Mushroom People like it too?

Whichever way she moved the jar, the Mushroom People looked that way. She could see the desperate longing in their eyes.

"You can," she paused, "but I have a condition."

The Mushroom People all looked at her nervously. The chief had already guessed that Xin Jiu's condition was for them to accompany her to trick Qingming.

It hesitated, then gathered all the Mushroom People together.

Xin Jiu watched them huddle head to head, chittering away in their own language. Their discussion was so heated that several Mushroom People even started fighting.

Finally, the chief stepped forward with a tragic, resolute expression. "We agree."

Xin Jiu grinned. "All right."

They really didn't need to worry so much. Even if they couldn't fool Qingming, she wouldn't let him actually eat them.

She found a clean leaf and spooned a large dollop of honey onto it. The Mushroom People cheered and swarmed over it, each taking mouthfuls until they quickly finished it all.

Then one Mushroom Person stepped forward of its own accord.

It patted its chest, meaning, "I'll do it."

Bubu described Qingming's fan to it. The Mushroom Person nodded, then its body began glowing, and finally it turned into a folding fan.

The ribs were made of jade, while the fan leaf was white silk embroidered with bamboo.

It really did look the part.

Xin Jiu picked up the fan and left another two large spoonfuls of honey for the Mushroom People before leaving.

The Mushroom People thought their companion probably wouldn't be coming back. They ate the honey as tears pattered down.

When they returned to the valley, Qingming was sitting in the bamboo pavilion, drinking tea.

He had changed into another new moon-white robe, with half his ink-black hair pinned up with a wooden hairpin. His slender fingers held a teapot, and two teacups sat before him.

One was for Xin Jiu, and one was his.

Hearing footsteps, he didn't even look up. "Did you get the fan back?"

Xin Jiu and Bubu exchanged a glance. The message in their eyes was clear: Keep up the act. Don't lose your nerve.

The human and dragon walked into the bamboo pavilion wearing fake smiles.

Xin Jiu handed over the fan the Mushroom Person had transformed into.