| A young man from a wealthy family in the capital was clumsily built,
walked with a gawky gait, wore slovenly clothes and seldom washed his face.
Nevertheless, he frequented brothels and stopped to ogle every young woman
he passed on the road. Walking alone one day he saw a very lovely
young woman. As the road was muddy from recent rain, he walked up
to tease her by saying, “it’s so slippery on the road, shall I lend you
a hand?” “Don’t ask for trouble,” The young woman said harshly.
“I am a fox-woman dedicated to practicing for immortality under the moon.
I have never seduced a man to sap his energy. Look at yourself –
how dare you take liberties with me? Don’t bring harm to yourself!”
She scooped up a handful of sand and threw it in his face. Staggering
back in fear, the young man tripped and fell into a ditch. By the
time he climbed laboriously out, the woman had already disappeared.
In terror and uncertainty he waited for the fox-woman to make trouble for
him, but nothing of the sort happened.
A few days later a friend invited him to a feast. When a courtesan
was called in to pour wine at the table, he recognized her to be the young
woman he met on the road. Unable to contain his anxiety, he finally
asked her, “Did you go to the eastern village right after it rained a few
days ago?” “That day my elder sister went to visit a relative,” she
replied absent-mindedly. “As the two of us look very much alike,
maybe you saw her that day.” Her equivocal answer further confused
the young man, who could not decide whether she was a fox or not.
After he found an excuse to leave, the courtesan described their encounter
to the other guests. “I was really disgusted by his appearance.
For fear that he would assault me, I told a lie to get away. Luckily
he fell to the ground, so I hid myself behind a stack of firewood.
That made him take me for a real fox-woman.” Everyone burst out laughing.
One of the guests said, “Since you have chosen such an occupation, you
can’t be particular about your patrons. He’s one of those rich lads
who can spend a thousand taels of silver to buy the smile of a woman.
Why don’t you go and make his acquaintance?” So he took the courtesan
to the young man’s house, telling him the names of her husband and parents
in-law, and explained the episode that had taken place a few days before.
Then she began to coax him with sugary words, claiming to have known him
from childhood. When he accosted her that day, she said, she had
made a joke in a merry mood, and she deeply regretted having caused him
such alarm. Then she offered to atone for her mistake by sharing
his bed that night. Her style of conversation was quite refined,
and her manners charming and graceful.
At her words the young man was beside himself with joy. He kept
her with him for several nights, then sent for her husband, who agreed
to let him be her exclusive patron at a monthly payment. Thereafter
the young man indulged himself in unbridled sex with the courtesan, until
he was taken down by diabetes and died in a year or so.
My elder brother Qinghu commented, “The young man was afraid to meet
a fox in human form, who would make him worry for his life. Faced
with a woman with a foxy nature, he not only no longer felt fear but also
no longer cared for his own life, though she had warned him not to bring
harm upon himself. Though he died of involvement with a prostitute,
it was not different from falling victim to a fox-woman.” |
