A Hundred Years of Solitude

Chapter 2

“…” Zhou Ying looked at her.

"I just moved to your apartment two days ago, and you even helped me carry my furniture." After selling her old house, Lin Qingping rented an apartment in the Taoyuan residential area where the rent was low. When she moved, the movers abandoned the last few pieces of furniture and left because of haggling over the price. It was Mr. Zhou, who lived upstairs, who helped her carry her things upstairs. There were many neighbors coming and going at the time, but only this man was willing to help, so Lin Qingping was deeply impressed by him.

“Oh…” Zhou Ying vaguely remembered that incident. Right, the reason he stopped and came down to help was not because of the woman’s helplessness, but because of the child beside her. Zhou Ying remembered and looked at Lin Rui in the rearview mirror.

Lin Rui's cheeks were flushed, and he was slightly frowning as he leaned against his mother, looking drowsy.

It really was that child. Zhou Ying sighed silently and asked, "Where are you going, please?"

"Taoyuan Residential Area, let's go home." Lin Qingping said, hugging her son, but then noticed he was burning hot. "Xiao Rui, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"He seems to have a fever, should we take him to the hospital?" Zhou Ying kindly suggested.

"I just have a cold, I don't need to go to the hospital, I'll just go home and sleep it off." Anyone could see that he was trying hard to suppress his discomfort, but the child still said this obediently.

"To the hospital! We're going to the hospital!" Lin Qingping shouted.

When the car arrived at the hospital entrance, Zhou Ying refused Lin Qingping's money, saying, "It's only right for neighbors to help each other." He watched Lin Qingping and her son walk away and then sighed.

"Shadow, that little guy is about to die!" Huo'er shouted.

“Yes,” Zhou Ying nodded, “His soul has already begun to dissipate, and his days are numbered.”

"Humans are so pitiful, they die so easily: they die from getting sick, they die from being hit by a car, they die from being burned... That's why they should be classified as the lowest category!" It was still brooding over the classification of organisms.

Looking at the hospital with its constant flow of people coming and going, Zhou Ying sighed again, started the car, and said, "Let's go back to find Liu Di."

Zhou Ying drove back to the original spot and parked the car. Liu Di was nowhere to be seen. Huo'er complained, "How about that? I told you he wouldn't stay here waiting for us. He's already gone."

"No... gone..." Liu Di drawled, putting on a sinister expression. His eyes glazed, tongue lolling out, he emerged from the ground with his hands hanging limply in front of his chest, howling in a chilling voice, "Give me back my... life!"

"Pretending to be a ghost to scare monsters? You're so boring!" Huo'er rolled her eyes at him.

"At least pretend to be scared to make me happy!" Liu Di stretched out his arms like a zombie in a movie, hopped over with straight legs, and asked, "Didn't you say you didn't need to come pick me up? Why are you back?"

“But I said I would come to pick you up.” Zhou Ying was completely inflexible when it came to this kind of thing.

"If I leave, you'll have made a wasted trip."

Zhou Ying said, "Anyway, I've come back. Whether you leave or not is your business."

"Sigh...you're still so dense." Liu Di said as he sat down in the car. "If I hadn't seen them, I would have really left. Guess what kind of monster I just saw?"

"What? Is it tasty?" This was Huo'er's biggest concern.

"I just saw..."

The red car slowly drove away. From the roadside bushes, the little nine-tailed fox poked its head out, its eyes widening in disbelief: "Bifang?! I just saw a Bifang! How could it possibly be here?" It looked in the direction Zhou Ying's car had gone, glanced around, and then quickly followed.

Huo'er slept in the trees in the park all day until it was almost dark before flying back to accompany Zhou Ying to work.

"Hey, Bifang!"

Fire looked around and saw a snow-white little nine-tailed fox perched on a ball that a human child had forgotten, beckoning to it, "Hi, come play with me!"

"A dinner delivered to my door." Fire squinted. "There's even a monster that didn't run away when it saw me. I'm lucky today. It's a pity it's a bit small; it might not fill my stomach." It flew over and landed on the ball, looking the little fox up and down. "How should I eat it? Grilled or raw?"

"Shall we play?" the little fox suggested, oblivious to the danger. "Want to play with me for a while?"

"I'm not playing with food!" Fire said disdainfully. "I'm going to eat you."

"Then who will you play with?" the little fox asked innocently. "We are all children, and children should play with other children."

"Who do you play with?" Huo'er tilted its head and thought for a moment. It seemed that it had always played by itself. Not to mention other monster children, even big monsters would mostly run away when they saw it. Zhou Ying seemed to have never "played" with it, and as for the games Liu Di played, "Pah, pah, I won't play with him!"

"Let's play! Let's throw the ball!" The little fox rolled the ball towards the field, and Huo'er thought for a moment and followed. "We can eat after we're done playing, right? It can't run away anyway."

It wasn't until noon that Zhou Ying saw Huo'er slowly return. Before Zhou Ying could ask where it had been for the past day and night, it cried out, "I'm starving! I'm starving! Hurry up and cook me some food! I want to go out and play later!" Zhou Ying cooked a pot of meat for it, which it devoured in one go, and then disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Huo'er sometimes goes out and runs off on its own, but it has never been like this before, staying away from home for several days in a row. And since that day, it has been staying outside all day, only occasionally coming back to look for food before flying away again. Even Zhou Ying couldn't help but start to worry.

“Kids go through this phase when they grow up. Maybe they fall in love, stay up all night online, join a gang or something, and suddenly they don’t come home anymore. Parents worrying won’t help.” Liu Di said, lying on the sofa with a wine glass in his hand, making Zhou Ying realize that she had indeed chosen the wrong person to talk to.

"Hey, why don't we follow it and see what it's up to?" Liu Di suggested excitedly.

"No, it will be unhappy if it finds out." Zhou Ying immediately rejected his wicked idea.

"Then ask it. Following it won't work, and guessing here is pointless."

“Okay, I’ll ask it next time,” Zhou Ying replied hesitantly. He picked up his coat and said, “Let’s go, it’s time.”

“…and you want me to go to work with you? I’ve already been with you for five whole days!” Liu Di exclaimed.

"But you're my only friend. If you don't keep me company, who will?"

"Please don't stop me! I'm going to find those robbers and eat them right now, or I'll go crazy!"

"Let's look for something tomorrow. Let's get to work today."

"...Help! I don't want to go...Zhou Ying, let's break up..."

Zhou Ying hid in the shadows of a tree, watching Huo'er fly off excitedly, and hurriedly followed. Although he knew this wasn't a good idea and had flatly rejected Liu Di's suggestion, when he asked Huo'er where she had been these past few days, and Huo'er only replied with "going to play," he finally resorted to this tactic. Huo'er had no doubt that anyone would follow her, and hurriedly flew to an empty park, muttering, "Sorry, I'm late."

"I'm sorry!" Zhou Ying's eyes widened. Huo'er could say those three words to others too. He looked closely and saw a small white nine-tailed fox standing on a swing set to greet Huo'er. "What shall we play today?"

Let's go boating!

"I want to go bowling again."

"Let's row first!"

"Let's play ball first!"

"...Let's decide with rock-paper-scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"I won!"

"You were too slow, you're cheating!"

"You're the one cheating!"

It was clearly you!

"Clang! Clang! Clang!" Fire and the Nine-Tailed Fox wrestled together, kicking up dust. But by the time Zhou Ying nervously tried to go outside, their fight had stopped, and they sat down on the ground laughing. "Why don't we go steal some chicken?" the Nine-Tailed Fox suggested. "The roast chicken we had last time was pretty good. How about we get some fried chicken this time?"

"I'm tired of eating chicken all the time. Why don't we catch a monster to eat?" Huo'er suggested. "Have you seen any delicious monsters lately?"

"...I still want to eat chicken."

"Okay, I'm not hungry anyway," Huo'er generously conceded. "But let's go boating after we eat."

"Then go play ball."

"Then let's swing on the swings?"

"Then go play video games..."

"Then……"

They ran off, making plans as they went. Zhou Ying watched them and smiled. It turned out that Huo'er had simply made a friend. Huo'er had always been Zhou Ying's only companion, living a solitary life from the mountains to the city. Other monsters were afraid of it, and none would befriend it. Although Zhou Ying herself was reclusive, at least she had Liu Di as a friend, but Huo'er had nothing. It always played alone, finding its own amusement. Although it usually seemed very proud and looked down on other monsters, deep down it probably longed for a friend, a playmate.

This must be the nine-tailed fox Liu said he saw. It's incredibly brave; it's not afraid of Huo'er at all. Perhaps it's because it's an innocent and naive child that it doesn't know fear? It seems Huo'er has made a good friend. Zhou Ying quietly walked away while Huo'er wasn't looking, leaving Huo'er to play happily with its friend.

Fire and the little fox sat side by side on a stone bench in the park, each holding a fried chicken and eating. Fire said she wasn't hungry, but she quickly finished hers and glanced sideways at the little fox's. She noticed that the little fox wasn't eating at all, but was staring blankly ahead.

"If you're not going to eat it, here, give it to me, don't waste it." Huo'er, who had a strong sense of thrift, immediately snatched the fried chicken away.

The little fox didn't fight it over; it just stared blankly ahead.

"What are you looking at?" Huo'er asked in a muffled voice while eating.

In the children's area of the park, a child was playing on the slide. As he slid down, a woman beside him stretched out her arms, anxiously protecting him. When he reached the bottom, the woman picked him up and put him back up so he could play again. "Mommy, hehe, Mommy..." the child laughed happily, waving to her from the slide.

"They're just two humans, what's so interesting about that!" Huo'er muttered.

"Fire, what is your mother like?" the little fox suddenly asked.

"I don't know, it abandoned me when I was still an egg," Huo'er continued eating, showing no interest in the topic. "I've never seen any other Bifang. I heard they all live in the Kunlun Realm."

"But that's your mother. Don't you want to know who she is? What she looks like?"

"No! It was Shadow who hatched me. I know Shadow, that's enough." -- This is the custom of their kind. When they hatch from the egg, they recognize the spirit of whoever they received as their parent.

"But how can anyone else replace Mommy! Mommy is, Mommy is..." the little fox cried out excitedly, but couldn't find the right words, "The only one who loves you more than anyone else, takes care of you, teaches you, and does everything for you is Mommy! How can you not care about her at all!"

"But it didn't treat me like that, it just threw me away!" Fire didn't understand why it was so agitated. "And it's already done all those things you mentioned, what use would I be to have a mother?"

“Is that so…” the little fox lowered its head, “Then now we are the same, both children without a mother’s love…”

Firefly devoured the fried chicken, thinking, "Mommy? I don't want that kind of thing. Shadow is better than a 'mommy.' Right, wasn't he following me just now? When did he disappear?" It dropped the chicken bones and looked around. "That's strange, he didn't say why he was looking for me before he disappeared." But it didn't see the little fox beside it, tears streaming down its face…

"Ying, do you know what a mother is?" Huo'er, who rarely comes home, asked suddenly as it ate the meal Zhou Ying had prepared for it.

“Mom?” Zhou Ying frowned, thinking, “It’s mother, mother, female…” He was a shadow demon who didn’t even have a gender, so roles like parents were just nouns to him.

“But that’s not what it said…” Huo’er recalled the little fox’s words, “But never mind, Ying is like me, she doesn’t have a mother, so she definitely wouldn’t understand.”

"...Huo'er, are you thinking of finding your mother?" Zhou Ying asked worriedly. She knew she couldn't replace her biological parents, and Huo'er was finally starting to consider this matter.

"I don't want it!" Huo'er stretched her neck and swallowed a large piece of meat with all her might. "It was because the little fox talked about Mommy yesterday and then cried that I wanted to know what Mommy is."

Zhou Ying deliberately asked, "Who is the little fox?"

"Weren't you following me all day yesterday? Didn't you see it? It's my friend," Fire proudly announced.

"..." Zhou Ying opened her mouth awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Liu Di, who had been lying on the side pretending to be asleep, burst into laughter without any attempt to hide it.

"I'm sorry, Huo'er, I didn't..."

"Mmm, I'm full." Fire wiped its mouth, not listening to Zhou Ying at all, and flew away with the words, "I'm going out to play!" Before leaving, it didn't forget to stomp on Liu Di's head as he laughed wildly.

"Hahahahaha..." Huo'er's kick couldn't stop Liu Di's laughter. He rolled around on the sofa, clutching his stomach, laughing even harder. Zhou Ying was embarrassed, unsure whether to stand or sit. "Your performance, your performance... haha... simply... hahahaha... just like human parents... haha... exactly the same... hahahaha..."

"I'm just afraid it'll cause some trouble," Zhou Ying said, making an excuse.

"It's always causing trouble, hahaha..."

"Stop laughing." Zhou Ying finally lost her temper and grabbed the pot, throwing it at his head.

Liu Di finally managed to stop laughing and asked, "So, what kind of friend did it make?"

"A fox, a nine-tailed fox."

"What a coincidence, could it be the one I saw before?" Liu Di muttered to himself. He had been searching for the nine-tailed fox for the past few days, but hadn't found where they were staying. He had initially thought they were just passing through and had already left the city, but unexpectedly, Huo'er had gotten involved with them first. "It's so strange that I couldn't find them living in this city. On the other hand, that dragon nephew has been living obediently in the city, and hasn't done anything big except for eating a person once."

"You seem quite concerned about the nine-tailed fox?" Zhou Ying looked at Liu Di, who hadn't shown this much concern for other demons before.