Chapter 14: Foxy
The night was thick with shadows, swirling like whispers among the crumbling walls of an ancient, abandoned temple. In the middle of the wreckage, a silver-haired girl with fox tails crouched low, desperately stuffing wilted vegetable leaves from a garbage bag into her mouth. Not far off, Yu Sheng stood frozen behind the remains of a shattered wall, his eyes wide with disbelief as he took in the strange sight before him.
For a long moment, they just stared at each other through the gloom, neither speaking. Of all the encounters Yu Sheng had imagined (though he wasn’t counting that earlier headbutt), this was one he was sure he’d never forget.
The fox-tailed girl’s golden-red eyes widened, flickering with shock, delight, and maybe a hint of disbelief. She slowly stood, still clutching a fistful of wilted leaves, her body trembling slightly. Then, as if something had suddenly clicked in her mind, she pointed directly at Yu Sheng, her voice trembling.
“A human?!” she gasped, her words barely a whisper at first before growing louder, almost frantic. “A human! You… you’re a human! Who… who are you? Where did you come from?”
Yu Sheng blinked, completely thrown off. He had planned how he would introduce himself, prepared his questions, and even thought of how he’d politely wave off the earlier headbutt. But the moment she spoke, all his rehearsed lines vanished. This wasn’t what he’d expected.
What did she mean, “You’re a human?” Was it really that surprising? Had she never seen one before—or had it just been that long? And then, something else struck him as odd.
Was she looking at him as if she were seeing him for the very first time? But they’d already crossed paths earlier when he had been fighting that monster. Granted, that encounter was chaotic, and yes, she’d headbutted him—hard—but his face hadn’t changed, had it?