Fox Demon Short Story | Flowing Water Floating Lamp 1

After nightfall, Cloud City is instead more lively. Today is the seventh day of the eve. The city's central market along the river is still open, and there are many more vendors selling snacks, stalls to solicit customers. Young men and women are guarding the river bank in twos and threes, putting water lily-shaped lanterns into the river, orange lanterns floating on the water surface, converging into a band of light, like the Milky Way sinking in the water. The downstream of the river leads to the forest outside the city, and tourists hardly ever go there. The water carries the lanterns gradually into the reeds in the distance, but the reeds suddenly shake slightly, and then a small fiery red animal leaps out of it, staring at the lanterns, with a pair of slithery eyes reflecting the light dots. It turned out to be a small, furry fox. Two big tails behind it swinging restlessly around. A lantern was pushed offshore by the water very close to the location, the little fox hurried to reach out paws to shave, but paws are too short to reach. He watched in exasperation as the lantern drifted away again. After a while, the little fox retracted its gaze on the river and turned to look at the night market in the distance, its little nose twitching, as if it had made a great determination. In the reeds, there was another flurry of activity, and the original fox was gone, replaced by a small child in red with no hair in a bun. The child rubbed his nose and took two steps forward, sensing that something was not quite right, turned his head and found two large tails still following him. The little guy tilted his head and thought for a while, picked up the tails and tucked them into the hem of his shirt, and then happily walked towards the city. The more you go to the city, the more lively it is, the crowd is bustling, everywhere laughter, the lanterns under the eaves of the stores along the street will reflect the paving slabs of green stone are orange. Children mixed in the crowd, see everything curious, each stall to stop on tiptoe to look at. Those shiny strings, soft dolls, and ringing wind chimes, all look so rare. But they don't add up to the appeal of the aroma of roast chicken in the air. The child followed the smell all the way and stopped at the end of the street in front of a restaurant selling cooked food. The store is doing good business this evening, customers in the case full of various types of meat surrounded by several layers of dense. And the boy stood a few steps away from the position, observed for a while, found that want to eat meat, have to take something to exchange with the boss. Some of the things in exchange for meat are small round pieces with small holes in the middle, and some are broken stones, silver shiny. Do not understand, do not understand, the child did not see, but the grunt coming from the stomach is real. The little guy swallowed hard, and finally his eyes fell on the row of temporarily supported grills on the side of the store case, smiling a little thief. The shopkeeper was busy cutting meat and collecting money, the customers were busy grabbing seats and ordering food, no one noticed a small hand sticking out from the crowd, and was about to reach the chicken leg hanging on the bottom of the grill. But in just a little bit when suddenly grabbed by another hand wrist. The child was startled, before he could react, he had been dragged out of the crowd, and was led by the other side to stagger to the edge of the corner with fewer people. It was only then that the child came back to his senses and looked up. The one standing in front of him is a young Taoist priest with a sharp smile. The body is long, white clothes and white robes, the waist is also pinned with a duster to remove demons.