Chapter 1: An Unusual Coming-of-Age Ceremony

Chapter 1: An Unusual Coming-of-Age Ceremony

My name is Bai Ci. When I was about to be born, my father killed a fox.

It was an albino fox, significantly larger than the average, with shimmering white fur that glinted in the sunlight. My father, in the fur trade, could tell at a glance that it was premium quality. After confirming it wasn't an endangered species, he struck it down with a hoe, planning to skin it for my mother to make a fur coat.

Upon returning from his walk, my grandfather stumbled upon my father, brandishing the cleaver, having just severed the fox's head.

Grandfather immediately dropped his pipe and slapped my father across the face.

"You beast! You're bringing calamity upon us!"

Enraged, my grandfather's beard quivered uncontrollably. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted. That very night, he passed away.

Before he left, my grandfather went into a frenzy. Still unconscious, he crawled on all fours like a spider, killing the chickens in the coop. He then toppled the refrigerator, devouring the raw meat inside until he literally ate himself to death.

When my grandmother witnessed this scene, she too lost her mind, giggling as she pointed at my father.

"Retribution has come... Retribution is here! You'll all die, hehehe, you'll ALL die!!"

My mother, heavily pregnant, couldn't withstand such a shock, and that very night, she gave birth.

There was no time to make it to the hospital; I was born in a small clinic in our town.

As I entered the world, there was a fierce thunderstorm with howling winds, and a pack of foxes, seemingly out of nowhere, gathered outside, their glowing green eyes peering at me through the windows.

My father, wielding a pig-killing knife, rushed out to confront the foxes. To his surprise, they weren't intimidated, baring their teeth at him with fierce gazes.

I had an abysmal constitution as a child, frequently falling ill with high fevers. The hospital could never determine the cause, and several times, they issued critical condition notices.

In the village, there was an elderly fortune-teller named Lao Liu who said our family had offended a fox spirit, and as a result, I wouldn't survive.

My father finally understood fear and knelt before Lao Liu, pleading for him to save me.

Lao Liu, who had received a favor from our family years ago, reluctantly agreed. He vowed to seek mercy from the fox spirit that night. If he returned, it would mean there was still hope for me; if not...

With that, Lao Liu left, leaving my parents and me in a state of anxious anticipation for his return.

Fortunately, Lao Liu returned in the small hours of the night. He handed my father an ivory bracelet, insisting that he put it on me and that I must never remove it for as long as I live; the day I take it off would be the day of my demise.

My father, not usually superstitious, had no choice but to believe this warning.

The moment the bracelet was on my wrist, I stopped crying, and my fever subsided. My complexion gradually regained its normal color.

My parents were deeply grateful to Lao Liu, and the next day they brought gifts to thank him personally. But when they arrived at his house, they found that he had passed away.

Lao Liu's body was discovered on the mountain. The forensic examiner estimated his time of death to be around midnight the previous night, and the cause was determined to be fright.

Thus, Lao Liu couldn't have survived the descent from the mountain last night to deliver the bracelet to my parents. So who was it that gave them the bracelet?

My father became more and more fearful as he thought about it. As I grew older, he moved our entire family back to the city and seldom returned to the village.

According to my mother, I exhibited strange behavior as a child. I would often giggle for no reason and stretch out my hand towards the window, as if someone was really there.

Additionally, white hairs would occasionally appear in our home. My father examined them closely and said they were fox fur. But by then, he had already stopped his business, and there were no foxes to be found in the city...

Ever since I could remember, I would often see my mother staring blankly at the bracelet on my wrist, followed by a long sigh.

I asked her, but she refused to divulge anything, merely shaking her head persistently and urging me not to inquire further...

As I grew older, I often sensed an unseen presence watching me. Whenever I instinctively searched for its source, the feeling would vanish.

The bracelet remained perpetually on my wrist, not because I particularly enjoyed wearing it, but because it seemed fused to my skin, inseparable.

With each passing year, the sensation of being watched intensified. There were moments when I'd jolt awake in the middle of the night, my cheeks tingling with a soft, furry touch. Yet, upon switching on the light, there was nothing to be found around me...

In the blink of an eye, I had turned twenty.

Exiting class that day, I received multiple WeChat messages from my mother.

She messaged me, insisting that I must return to our hometown tomorrow to participate in the coming-of-age ceremony, and that I must go alone!

Doubts swirled within me.

From as far back as I could remember, I had never heard of such a ceremony in our hometown. Besides, I hadn't visited our ancestral home frequently, so why the sudden urgency for this solo trip now?

I tried calling my father again, but to no avail; the calls wouldn't go through.

Despite the peculiarity of the situation, with not many classes scheduled for the next few days, I hastily packed my things in the dormitory and left campus.

The journey from school to my hometown was quite distant; after a three-hour bus ride, I arrived, disoriented and exhausted, just before nightfall.

My hometown is a small town where most young adults have migrated for work. In recent years, many families have moved away, leaving the place sparsely populated.

As soon as I entered the town, a chill ran down my spine.

The evening breeze carried a few withered leaves rolling down the deserted street. Despite the low population, it felt unusually desolate.

Without dwelling on it, I located my family home using a photo provided by my mother. Upon entering, a layer of dust greeted me full in the face.

Our old house had been lent to my uncle's family, but their daughter had recently moved to the city for junior high, rendering the house unoccupied.

Having grown up in comfort and never really done any cleaning, I found the state of the house repulsive. Nevertheless, I had no choice but to tidy up, as I would be spending the night there.

The house wasn't small, and it was sprinkled with white hairs akin to those I remembered from my childhood, making the cleaning process particularly arduous.

I continued tidying up until dusk, when I heard a knocking at the door.

Opening it, I found the town's eccentric, Wang Fangzi, standing there. Upon seeing me, he burst into laughter and began clapping his hands.

"Hehehe, you've come back to meet your doom? Hehehe..."

"What nonsense are you spouting?!"

An inexplicable anger welled up within me. I fished out a few candies to hurry him along and then closed the door once more.

Even after shutting the door, I could still hear Wang Fangzi's voice. He persisted, squatting outside my door and muttering to himself for a while before finally leaving.

Wang Fangzi was in his fifties. My parents told me he used to be a normal person, but after killing several foxes in the mountains, he gradually lost his mind and became erratic.

People in the village whispered that he had offended the Fox Spirit and was now serving as a village guardian to attend to her, able to see the impure entities. Since then, I always made a detour to avoid him. Whenever he saw me, he would kneel and kowtow, or grab at my clothes, until my family's relocation finally freed me from his antics.

The sky had turned pitch black, and the wind began to howl outside my window, carrying in a few ghostly white joss papers through the unclosed window.

Startled, I hastily tossed the papers out and slammed the window shut with vehemence.

Absolute silence reigned outside; it wasn't just tranquil, it was eerily still.

I vowed inwardly to leave first thing in the morning and confront my mother about this strange turn of events.

Just as my mind wandered, a knocking sound echoed from the front door.

"Older cousin, older cousin, are you home?"

I froze.

That was my cousin Bai Rou's voice, but she should be studying in the city. Why would she suddenly return?

"Older cousin, can you please open the door for me? I had an argument with Dad and ran back in the middle of the night. I saw that you were here... It's so dark outside, could you let me in?"

The knocking grew more insistent, and Bai Rou's voice trembled with tears.

Before I could speak, a sudden gale howled outside the door, intermingled with Bai Rou's shrill screams.

"Aaaah! What are these things?! Get away... Go away! Cousin! Open the door, quick... Help... Help!"

I frowned, instinctively reaching to open the door.

But my hand froze mid-air as if someone was holding my wrist.

The white jade bracelet on my wrist suddenly turned icy cold, sending chills down my spine and snapping me back to reality.

The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped significantly. I vaguely sensed someone behind me, their grip firmly on my wrist.

Then, a faint ethereal voice whispered in my ear, "Little girl, don't move."