This story picks up 10 years to the day after Zheng Xue Jing first acquired the Magic Screen in Episode 1 of the television series "Fox in the Screen" "Ping Li Hu" 屏裡狐 from Mainland China.
Chapter 1
"Xue Jing Sister! Look at all the Spider Lilies!" Xiao Hei exclaimed. He bounced excitedly next to her on the wide porch in his characteristically puppyish demeanor.
Zheng Xue Jing looked up at the sky in wonder. Hundreds of the bright red blossoms rained down from the sky, converging on the area of her house and business. The shops in that neighborhood emptied as patrons ran outside to stand in the street, fascinated by the phenomenon.
"Where did they all come from?" asked her brother Mu Jing, the King of their country. He had left her store a moment before, and now also stood in the street, looking up, extreme bafflement on his face.
"Yu Yan?" Zheng thought to herself. It had to be him, but what did it mean? Why would he send so many flowers from the garden of the Spider Lily Goddess? Wouldn't he get into trouble?
"Maybe he's thinking of me?" she asked herself hesitantly.
Somehow that didn't seem quite right. He had at least two months left on his contract with the Spider Lily Goddess. Soon he would be able to see her in person, if he so chose. All this time, over the past ten years, he had never done anything like this. There were times she had doubted that he would remember her at all, thinking that he might block his memory again, like he had done with Yuan Tao.
This event cast those doubts aside. Somehow, in some way, Yu Yan must have decided to be a part of her life again. Zheng Xue Jing smiled with delight, raising her arms to catch a falling Spider Lily blossom out of the air, and bringing it to her nose to inhale its sweet fragrance.
In two months she would find out if he still loved her. She knew that she needed to examine her own feelings. After all, ten years is a long time for a human, but based on the thrill of seeing these flowers floating through the air, she knew she desperately wanted to see Yu Yan again.
"Will I look old to him now?" she wondered, tucking the Spider Lily behind her ear, and turning back inside to find a mirror. She raced upstairs to her bedroom to examine her reflection. She wasn't a very vain person, she didn't spend much time staring at herself in the mirror, so she found herself unsure of whether there was a noticeable difference in her appearance from ten years ago. Maybe a laugh line at the corners of her eyes?
She had lived a life of relative ease for these last ten years. No hardships to speak of with her brother becoming the King, and her own personal Black Fox Demon guarding her night and day. She had refused to marry, and thus had avoided the rigors of motherhood.
The whole country had been very peaceful once Yuan Tao had left and Prince Mu Su Yu had been killed during his attempted coup. King Mu Jing had instructed his guards to be on the alert for anyone matching Yuan Tao's or Qing Yu's description, but there had been no sightings. Even the borderlands were calm, thanks to the peace treaty that the late King had struck with the Mu Lao Clan to the north.
She turned to look at the Magic Screen whose presence dominated her bedroom. "It's all thanks to this!" she thought to herself. Her adoptive father, Zheng Yuan Shan, or Wu Jiao as he was known to supernatural beings, had left this screen in her care. The image of three painted foxes still graced the screen, even though those demons had been freed from their contracts long ago.
Zheng hadn't had much occasion to use the screen since, though she had been unable to resist the temptation to finish the painting of the black fox on the screen. Every time she had looked at the screen, the missing hind legs had bothered her.
She lightly caressed the foxes painted on the screen with her fingertips. The White Fox Demon, Bai Sheng, was no longer a demon. He had given up his magic pearl of 1,000 years of meditation in order to save the life of her brother Mu Jing. Bai Sheng had said that Mu Jing was the only one who could peacefully rule this country, so he had sacrificed his consciousness to better the lives of countless humans. Zheng missed him very much. She hoped he was living a happy life as a simple fox under the care of her old frenemy Qiong Hua. They had both departed shortly after Yu Yan, to live in the countryside.
"Yu Yan" Zheng whispered longingly to the screen, her fingers lingering over the image of the red fox. Was it her imagination, or was the screen now radiating a faint glow? It was broad daylight outside, so it was hard to really tell for sure. She frowned at it, studying the screen from different angles. Maybe it was just the light at this time of day. She walked away from it, feeling uneasy.
That night, as she prepared for bed, she realized that she couldn't sleep. She had decorated her room with multiple vases full of the bright red Spider Lily blossoms that had fallen into the garden at the rear of her house. There had been so many that the garden lawn was carpeted by them. The sight of them filling up her bedroom filled her with excitement. She wondered if she would be able to sleep at all for the next two months.
Giving up on sleep, she made her way to the covered pavilion in the rear garden, taking a seat at the square table.
"Xiao Hei, have a drink with me!" Zheng said to her faithful friend. She poured two small cups of clear rice wine, handing one to him. He grinned at her, shaking his shaggy black and purple-streaked hair out of his face, and then tipped his cup back, drinking the contents quickly in one gulp.
"Don't drink too fast, Xiao Hei" Zheng warned. She lightly sipped at her cup. She had gotten better at controlling the amount she drank, but Xiao Hei still had a tendency to gobble up any food in front of him, and gulp down any drink. He had never corrected this trait.
"Sorry, Xue Jing Sister" said Xiao Hei sheepishly. "I'm just so excited about my brother Yu Yan coming back soon! Surely that is what all of these flowers mean" he gestured to the many Spider Lily blooms that still lay on the grass out in the garden. Zheng had collected many, but those were only a fraction of the total.
She smiled at him, taking another sip of her drink. Her heart beat a little faster, daring to hope. She had drunken the entire bottle before she felt at all sleepy. Xiao Hei had turned into a small black puppy an hour before, and now lay curled up next to her, fast asleep. She pillowed her head on her arms, laying down on the table top, and drifted into a drunken slumber.
Very shortly afterward, she was awoken from her sleep by a burst of bright light and noise. She blinked her eyes stupidly, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. It must be the deepest, darkest, part of the night, yet a glow like the setting sun was radiating out of her bedroom windows.
"Xiao Hei!" she said sharply, nudging the black puppy that lay sleeping next to her. The puppy sprang up, and then ran up the wooden stairs towards her bedroom. She heard barking, and the sound of men yelling.
Zheng lifted herself up, stumbling over her chair, and then careened her way up the staircase. Shadowy figures burst out of her windows and flew off into the night. By the time she made it up the stairs, Xiao Hei had turned back into his demon form, and held two struggling demons, one in each hand.
"The other thieves all escaped!" Xiao Hei said worriedly, "but I managed to catch these two!"
Zheng regarded the demons attempting to wrest themselves out of Xiao Hei's grasp. She couldn't help but think they looked vaguely familiar. She pointed at the man wearing long green robes, with a silver diadem resting on his forehead.
"You look like a Dream God" she accused him shakily, the alcohol in her system making her speech slur.
The man harrumphed.
"Still drinking too much I see!" said the other man in an insulting tone of voice.
Zheng turned her bleary gaze on him. His scarlet hair stood out vividly against the black snakeskin of his poncho.
"You better be careful" Zheng warned him, "or I will lock you up in my screen!" She shook her finger at him threateningly.
"Oh no, not again!" he exclaimed. He twisted in Xiao Hei's grasp. The poncho ripped, freeing him, and he jumped out of the window, shirtless, flying off into the night.
Xiao Hei looked stupidly at the black fabric in his hand, taken by surprise. The Dream God took advantage of this distraction, hitting Xiao Hei's arm, knocking it loose. He turned and ran for the door.
"I'll get you!" Xiao Hei yelled, running after him. A few minutes later he came back, holding a dark green cloak.
"He got away by untying his cloak" Xiao Hei reported with disappointment.
Zheng sat down on her bed, trying to make sense of the situation through wits dulled by alcohol.
"I don't get it" said Xiao Hei in confusion. "There must have been a dozen thieves here, but all they wanted to do was run away. They could have overpowered me and taken the screen if they had acted together."
Zheng frowned, holding her aching head in her hands. She then laid down on the bed, curling up into a fetal position.
"Can you watch it for a few hours?" she asked Xiao Hei. She desperately needed sleep if she wanted her mind to work properly.