The Zhu family had a maid who was at first
coarse and dumb in appearance. On coming of age she grew clever, and her
features also became attractive. Thereupon Zhu made her a concubine. A
resourceful woman, she knew the affairs in the house like the back of her
palm. The servants did not dare to play any tricks, because the few times
they tried to cheat her they were invariably found out. In addition, she
had such business acumen that whatever goods she decided to purchase always
underwent a price rise the following year. Zhu came to be quite well off
and treated her with increasing favor.
One day she abruptly asked Zhu, “Do you know who I am?”
“Are you crazy?” Zhu said with a smile and called her by her
pet name. “You are mistaken,” the girl replied. “I am not that maid. She
ran away a long time ago and is now married with a seven or eight-year-old
son. I am in fact a fox-woman. Nine lifetimes ago, you were a rich merchant,
and I kept the accounts for you. You treated me very kindly, but I embezzled
over three thousand taels of silver. In the underworld I was punished by
being reincarnated as a fox. After several hundred years of practice I
succeeded at last, but I could not become an immortal yet due to what I
owed you. So when the maid ran away, I roughly took her form to serve you.
In the past ten years or so I have helped you make enough money to pay
for my debt. Now I will discard my earthly body and leave for heaven. After
my departure my body will change back into a fox. I will tell you which
servant you should send to bury me. He will cut open my body and skin it,
but you must not blame him for that. Four lifetimes ago he starved to death
by the road. At that time I was unaccomplished in my practice, and I made
a meal of his corpse. It will give him a chance to get even to let him
dispose of my remains.” She dropped on the ground, turning into a fox,
and from its head floated out a beautiful woman a few inches tall. The
woman, who did not look like Zhu’s concubine, slowly flew away. Zhu could
not bring himself to carry out her will and buried the body of the fox
himself. But then the servant dug it out in secret, skinned it and sold
the fur. Zhu could only sigh deeply, knowing it was a past-life debt that
must be repaid in kind. |
