| Cheng, a pedantic old man in the village, had a very pretty daughter.
One day, when she went out to by rogue and powder, a young man in the neighborhood
acted lewdly toward her. Back home, she gave her parents a tearful
account of the incident. Cheng was indignant, but he dared not go
and reason with the young man, who was a local bully wont to throwing his
weight around. The old man sank into a very gloomy mood. He
was friendly with a fox, whom he often invited home to drink wine.
One day the fox noticed the old man's dejected look and asked what was
troubling him. After Cheng told the story, the fox took his leave
without making any comment.
Some days later the young man came again to Cheng's house to find the
girl leaning on the door and smiling at him. They got into a conversation,
and then made love in an empty room in the vegetable garden. When
they parted, the girl was reluctant to let him go. Tearfully she
asked him to elope with her. That night the young man returned to
Cheng's house and took the girl back home. To prevent the old man
from finding out where his daughter had gone, he pulled a dagger at his
wife, saying "I'll kill you if you ever tell anyone!" When several
days went by without incident, the young man realized the Cheng, considering
his daughter's elopement a family disgrace, would not breathe a word about
it. Well pleased, he gave himself up to unbridled license with the
girl.
Gradually the girl began to behave in a weird and secretive way.
By the time the young man realized that she actually was a fox-woman, he
had become too infatuated with her to drive her away. After a year
or so his health broke down because of overindulgence in sex. With
his life hanging by a thread, the fox-woman took her leave. He survived
after spending all the wealth of his family on his treatment. He
and his wife became homeless and had to sleep out in the street.
As he was too weak to work, his wife had to earn their daily bread by prostitution.
The bully in him was nowhere to be found. One day Cheng, who did
not know the story behind all this, mentioned it to the fox. "I dispatched
a cunning maid to wreck him," the fox explained. "She disguised herself
as your daughter in order to lead him into the trap. Then she revealed
herself to be a fox in order to protect your daughter's reputation.
When he was on the point of dying she took her leave, for he had not committed
a capital offense. Now that he has received the punishment he deserves,
you no longer need to feel depressed." It is extraordinary and commendable
for the fox to exercise restraint in his gallant act to aid the old man. |
