Chapter 15: Trapped Here
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When the girl introduced herself, Yu Sheng’s first thought was how blunt she seemed—she had simply named herself “Fox.” But after asking a few more times, he realized she was actually saying “Foxy.”
Her name was Foxy. It sounded unusual but somehow appropriate, especially with the mass of tails she had.
“I’m Yu Sheng,” he said, settling down beside her amidst the ruins of the old temple. “I come from… well, it’s complicated. I come from the ‘outside,’ but not just outside this valley.”
“You really come from the ‘outside’!” Foxy’s eyes grew wide. She immediately seemed to understand him as if the ‘outside’ idea was already familiar.
Foxy hesitantly nibbled at the chocolate he had given her, her gaze fixed on him. “How did you get in? Do you… know how to get out? Is it… through the sky?”
Her speech was becoming smoother, almost as if her ability to speak properly was returning.
Yu Sheng was confused by her question. “The sky? What do you mean?”
“The immortal told us, just before he died, that we came from the sky,” she said slowly, picking her words carefully. Her speech was clearer now, but she still struggled with longer sentences. “But then the sky went dark, and we couldn’t go back. The land became dangerous—poisonous. Many who came with us died, and… we couldn’t return.”