Chapter 3: He wanted to seduce the scholar
This was the year 8102, and the imperial exam no longer existed. Wu Tian, naturally, was not a 'scholar'; he was just a priest who looked like a college student, but most people preferred calling him a 'demon catcher.'
This day, Wu Tian had come to the mountain to sort out some business with his older brother. He never thought that he would run into a silly little fox spirit at the foot of the mountain.
"Do you know the way?" Little Fox Spirit followed his 'scholar' very closely. When he realised that the man was heading for the mountain, he became a little unhappy. Why was the scholar going up the mountain now, when he had just made his way out after spending so much effort?
"Do you need to pass by my home on your way to the imperial exam? I could have waited at home if I'd known! It took me more than a month to find my way down the mountain, you know!"
"You live on the mountain?" Wu Tian asked. Then, struck by a sudden thought, he added, "Do you live by yourself?"
At this, Little Fox Spirit began to panic. "You'd better not go up. I live with my master, and if he finds out that I've brought a man home, he'll get really really angry for sure!"
After all, Little Fox Spirit still had a vague memory of Master's parting words before he left the house: When you're gone, you little nuisance, I'll finally get to bang my man to my heart's content in broad daylight!
"Master's banging men at home. We must not disturb him." Little Fox Spirit tugged at Wu Tian's sleeve. "Let's go by another route. Don't go this way, okay?"
Seeing the look of embarrassment on Little Fox Spirit's face, Wu Tian was amused to the extreme. How could he be so cute, spouting such lewd nonsense when he looked so naïve and adorable?
"If we go up the mountain now," Little Fox Spirit continued, "and pass by my home when Master is in the midst of doing his man, Master will definitely give me a terrible scolding!"
"But I have to go this way. There's no other route that I can take," Wu Tian replied 'innocently' as he turned to face Little Fox Spirit with his arms crossed before his chest.
"Is that so…" This was quite a conundrum for Little Fox Spirit. After thinking very hard about it, he finally came up with a solution. "Why don't we spend the night here, and continue the journey tomorrow morning?"
As soon as he had spoken, however, an idea occurred to him. He blushed all of a sudden and he no longer dared to look at Wu Tian again.
On the other hand, his words reminded Wu Tian of how late it was getting, and the man realised belatedly just how much time he had spent dallying with the little thing. It was almost dark now.
After managing to persuade Wu Tian to stay the night at the foot of the mountain, Little Fox Spirit immediately ran into yet another problem.
According to the stories he had read, scholars were very knowledgeable, diligent and always eager to learn. Whenever they encountered things they didn't understand, they would always seek advice and guidance with humility. But Little Fox Spirit never knew that such gentlemanly scholars could ever be so blunt and direct when asking their questions…
"Why are fox spirits destined to be with scholars?" Wu Tian asked.
"Because…" Little Fox Spirit began, about to tell him that fox spirits cultivated by harvesting vital essence from these scholars, but he didn't dare to finish the sentence even though the words were already on the tip of his tongue.
He was sure that the moment he completed his answer, the 'scholar' would follow up with another query: "How do fox spirits harvest vital essence, then?" Right before he left home, he had asked his master the exact same question; he still remembered Master calling him a wooden-headed dummy while smacking him on the head.
"You're a real wooden-headed dummy! How can you call yourself a fox spirit if you don't even know how to harvest vital essence?!" In Master's words, the way to harvest a man's vital essence was to sleep with him - but just sleeping was not enough; he also had to do other things. Like the things that women and men do to make babies.
Oh no, how should I tell the him something so s-shameful?
Yet, the 'scholar' continued pressing on with more queries. "You said that the scholar would always fall for the fox spirit, but you haven't told me why he would do that."
"Because… because the fox spirit is really pretty." Little Fox Spirit's blush deepened, and he looked as charming as a delicate, pink flower in the pale moonlight.
"Mn, you are very pretty too," Wu Tian praised him from the bottom of his heart. Although this fox spirit was not very bright, he was charmingly innocent. His large animated black eyes were set in a small, snowy face; his dainty little nose was complemented by a sweet rosebud mouth. There was no doubt that he was truly a beautiful, endearing child.
Wu Tian reached out and touched Little Fox Spirit on the cheek, which had reddened with shyness. He intended to continue with his compliments, but was caught unawares by the following turn of events. Bowing his head and stealing peeks out of the corners of his gleaming black eyes, Little Fox Spirit uttered a single question that sent tingles shooting straight from Wu Tian's hand to his chest:
"Since I'm so pretty… wouldn’t you come to bed with me?"