Chapter 94

It was almost midnight, and the servant seemed to have nothing much to do, so he boldly sat on the steps in the backyard and recounted the story of the Lou family, mixing truth with fiction:

The Lou family had been in the fur business in Xianyang for three generations, with seven or eight shops of various sizes. This was just one of them. The front was a shop, and the back was a tannery for processing hides. In addition, there were dedicated warehouses for storing raw hides and storerooms for finished products. The Lou family was well-known in the neighboring provinces.

The current head of the Lou family was Lou Dashan, who had one son, Lou Kang, and one daughter, Lou Lan. Both were in their early twenties and had been traveling with their father for years, capable of inheriting the family business and helping manage it. Lou Kang was very intelligent, well-versed in the family's business accounts, and had been helping his father manage the shops and tanneries for a long time. Lou Lan, though a girl, had a personality much like a boy, enjoying martial arts and swordsmanship. She began accompanying her father to buy hides at the age of sixteen.

With the help of his son and daughter, Lou Dashan's business had flourished in recent years, and he had earned more and more money.

However, as the saying goes, "Heaven has unpredictable weather." Just as the Lou family's business was booming, an unexpected event occurred, and it was related to Lou Lan.

Fur is naturally most abundant in winter. Every year, hunters would capture and skin animals in winter, storing the hides for sale the following year. The Lou family would send people to the north in the spring to buy hides and then bring them back to Xianyang. Before leaving this year, a military guest, the adjutant of the warlord Xia Batian, suddenly visited the Lou family.

The adjutant told Lou Dashan that Xia Batian's mother had been having dreams about white foxes. She would sigh deeply after waking up, unable to forget the images in her dreams. Xia Batian, known for his filial piety, promised his mother that he would give her a white fox fur hat for her sixtieth birthday.

Having made this promise, the task fell to the Lou family. The adjutant, acting on the general's orders, instructed the Lou family to find pure white fox fur at all costs. If they succeeded, they would be richly rewarded. If they failed, the entire family would be executed without mercy.

The Lou family had no choice but to set out for the northern grasslands with this vague order. Along the way, Lou Dashan and his daughter Lou Lan split up, searching for white fox fur in every place they visited. However, after more than a month, they had not even found a few ordinary fox hides, let alone white ones.

As the deadline approached, Lou Dashan became increasingly anxious. Lou Lan, seeing this, redoubled her efforts. Eventually, she heard news of a white fox.

The locals, thinking they were just curious, told Lou Lan that there was a place called Tomb Hill nearby, where Mongol soldiers had once buried their dead. Even in broad daylight, the place was shrouded in a chilling wind, and few locals dared to go there. However, someone had seen a white fox on the mountain.

If they wanted the white fox fur, they would have to go up the mountain and hunt it themselves.

Lou Lan, skilled in archery and martial arts, set out alone with food and water. She searched the mountain for seven days and finally found the white fox in a collapsed shrine. The fox was holding something in its mouth, standing on a broken altar, nodding and raising its head repeatedly.

The clay and stone head of the mountain god was placed on the table, with a smile on its lips and hollow eyes that seemed to be staring at the world. Lou Lan felt a chill run through her.

The white fox seemed to be bowing to the mountain god!

Lou Lan, finding the situation eerie, felt a cold sweat on her back and wanted to run away. However, remembering the adjutant's words, she hesitated. After much thought, she gritted her teeth, drew her bow, and shot an arrow.

As the arrow left the bow, she closed her eyes and prayed, "Great Mountain God, I, Lou Lan, am forced to kill this white fox to save my family. Please have mercy and do not blame me."

She heard a thud and opened her eyes to see the arrow piercing the white fox's head, pinning it to the clay statue of the mountain god. Blood trickled from the fox's mouth and head, dripping onto the altar. The fox did not struggle but stared at her with its eyes, piercing through the forest and directly into her own. She felt a deep, vast emptiness, like the night sky, and shuddered.

The jade ring in the fox's mouth fell onto the altar.

Later, Lou Lan could not explain how she managed to skin the white fox and bring the fur and the jade ring back down the mountain. When the locals saw the jade ring and the white fox, their attitude changed completely. They refused to do business with the Lou family and even stopped providing them with food and water. The Lou family's caravan was confused and sought advice from a village elder. After much pleading, the elder sighed and remained silent. That night, he sent his son to secretly deliver food to the caravan and led them out of the village, leaving a message:

"Return home quickly and find a shaman who can help you. Only then can you avoid disaster."

The Lou family, feeling anxious, hurried home without delay. Initially, they followed the elder's advice and looked for a shaman, but they never found one. As they traveled, nothing unusual happened. They encountered cheap, high-quality hides and received several large orders, so they resumed their business activities, gradually forgetting about the elder's warning.

Half a month ago, Lou Dashan returned to Xianyang with the caravan. When they inspected the hides, they remembered the white fox fur for Xia Batian and took it out of the box. As they shook it, something rolled out and fell to the ground with a clink.

It was the jade ring.

Everyone saw that the jade ring was pure white, smooth, and engraved with incomprehensible characters, like a treasure. Lou Dashan gave the ring to Lou Lan as a dowry. The next day, strange things began to happen.

At noon, a servant who was usually good-tempered broke a bowl, and several servants started arguing, eventually leading to a fight. They beat each other until they were bloody, and Lou Dashan could not stop them. When they were tied to the pillars and questioned, the servants were confused and did not know why they had fought.

On the third day, during lunch, someone broke a cup, and the fighting started again. This time, it was among the Lou family members: Lou Dashan, his wife, Lou Lan, and his cousins. They fought fiercely, leaving everyone bloodied and injured.

At that moment, Lou Kang returned from the shop and found the family fighting. They were all staring blankly, drooling, and cursing, unaware of what they were doing. He was worried and ordered the servants to separate them, but they struggled fiercely and could not be restrained.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of tiles cracking on the roof and ran upstairs. Through the window, he saw a fox, about half a person's height, with a mottled white coat, jumping on the tiles. The people below moved in rhythm, struggling and writhing.

In a panic, Lou Kang grabbed something and threw it at the fox, which dodged and fled from the roof.

The family members then calmed down.

The situation was bizarre, and the Lou family could not help but think of the white fox fur. They quickly searched for the fur to send it to Xia Batian, but Lou Lan suddenly appeared, wearing the fox fur on her head.

Lou Kang tried to remove the fur but found it firmly stuck to her scalp. No matter how he tried, he could not take it off. When he asked Lou Lan how she had attached the fur, she could not explain.

Desperate, the Lou family secretly sought help from their old friend, the famous doctor Tang, in Xianyang. Tang and Lou Kang had grown up together and were close friends. Although surprised, Tang and his son Tang Yuan came to diagnose Lou Lan.

When they saw Lou Lan, the situation had changed. The white fox fur, which had originally covered her head like a white felt hat, now had her hair growing through it, mixed with the fox fur. The fur was tightly attached to her scalp, with no gaps.

Lou Lan alternated between confusion and clarity. When confused, she mumbled, "There is a head for every grievance, there is a head for every debt, there is a head for every grievance, there is a head for every debt..." Doctor Tang could only shake his head, unable to help.

From then on, the Lou family fought and argued daily. Fortunately, Lou Kang remained clear-headed and could always separate the family and servants. Later, he noticed that the fighting always started at noon, and at that time, a mottled white fox could often be seen in the house. (To be continued)