Qi Wufei sat on the top of the west mountain and asked the fox beside him: "Do you still remember where Xuanyuan Tomb is?"

The fox looked at the clouds in the distance and shook his head and said, "I don't remember."

"That's where you were born, and you really have no impression of it?"

"I was taken away by my adoptive mother when I was born. That memory was very vague. Many of them were imagined by my adoptive mother after I told me, and I was not sure whether it was true or not."

"Where is your adoptive mother?"

"She has been wandering all her life and has no place to live, and is a miserable person." The fox sighed quietly.

"Then where did she raise you first?"

"It's been too long and too long, I can't remember it. At that time, I couldn't transform. My adoptive mother went to be a cook for a wealthy family. She said I was a little puppy, and the owner agreed to her take me in, thinking that there were only a few watchdogs. He also thought that I was cute and the children in the manor liked to play with me. Later, when I grew up, they found that I was not a dog but a fox, so they wanted to kill me. Even my adoptive mother was implicated and said that she brought vixen to harm them.

My adoptive mother tried her best to protect me and beg me hard, and finally saved my life. I remember that it was snowing heavily on the day we were driven out. Because we were in a hurry, my adoptive mother took nothing, was cold and hungry, and almost froze to death. Fortunately, a kind-hearted person led us to a dilapidated temple and gave us half a cake, so that we were able to escape the disaster.

Because of the cold wind, my adoptive mother could only live in the dilapidated temple. Every day, I went to the mountains and forests to catch some hares and pheasants, but my adoptive mother insisted on not eating live food and was willing to fill her hunger with snow and water.

Fortunately, God blessed her and she survived. Three days later, the snow stopped and her high fever subsided. We left the dilapidated temple and begged all the way. Later, we found a family as a servant. But she never dared to bring me in again. I hid in the woods outside the manor. Every night, she brought me some food.

In order to avoid dogs in the manor, I often hide from places. Once I met a hunter, I hid far away and got lost. My adoptive mother looked for me for several days, but lost her job again for this.

We changed places again, but for various reasons, most of the time it was because of me, and no job could last. In this way, we walked all the way south. When someone needed a maid or a cook, she would go to work, and when she was driven out, she would beg along the way. Gradually, her eyes became blind."

The fox stopped here, stood up straight, and looked at the south from afar.

Qi Wufei asked, "Why are your eyes blind?"

"I'm crying." said the fox.

"I'm crying blind?" Qi Wufei was a little puzzled. "I heard that your adoptive mother is not a person who cannot endure hardships. She is kind-hearted. Why do she cry and even cried blindly?"

The fox said: "She missed his son."

"What's wrong with her son?"

"I heard from her that her son was the top scholar appointed by the emperor and married the prime minister's daughter as his wife. When she came back, she picked her up and prepared to go to Jiangzhou to take office. But halfway through, she suddenly felt uncomfortable and found a place to live. In order not to delay his son's appointment, they asked them to leave first. But after this trip, there was no news, so she kept looking for her son and daughter-in-law."

Qi Wufei thought this story was so familiar, and he remembered some clues, but he was not sure.

"How come a good person disappears?"

The fox said: "At that time, I had just started to enlighten my mind and couldn't speak. I just listened to her chattering. I was not very clear about the specific situation."

"Since her son is the top scholar and the son-in-law of the prime minister's family, why didn't she sue the official position but helped others all the way?"

"She went to the government office, but the people in the government didn't believe her. They just thought she was a crazy woman and were biting the powerful relatives. So we went all the way south and first arrived in Jiangzhou where her son was going to take office. But when we got there, there was no such person at all. When we went to the government office, we were bombarded again.

Then she stubbornly went to the capital and shouted for justice at the gate of the Prime Minister's Mansion. But no one believed her words, saying that the Prime Minister's lady and her husband were living well, and there was a letter sent back to her New Year's Eve. She couldn't see the Prime Minister, and in despair, she could only go back to her hometown Haizhou, hoping that if her son was still alive, one day he would go back to her hometown to find her. That's why we walked all the way south, because Haizhou was in the south."

Qi Wufei's mind was spinning rapidly.

Jiangzhou, Haizhou, the top scholar, the prime minister's son-in-law, the old woman who cried and blinded her eyes...

Isn’t this the first difficulty of Tang Monk’s journey to obtain the scriptures in the West recorded in the Journey to the West that he read in his previous life?

He still remembers the catalog of that episode: Chen Guangrui was in trouble when he took office, and Jiang Liuseng took revenge.

Qi Wufei couldn't help but glance at the little fox beside him.

Foxes have nine difficulties, Buddhas have ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties, and their first difficulties are actually highly overlapping in space and time. Is this just a coincidence?

"What about it later?" Qi Wufei asked.

"Later, I followed her to her home in Haizhou. Because she couldn't see it, she relied on me to lead the way, so I became her guide dog. Every day when the sun sets, she asked me to take her to the entrance of the village and ask me if I had seen her son come back.

We two depended on each other, but fortunately, the people in that small village were very kind and often helped us.

Later, I was able to turn into a human form and became her goddaughter. I kept taking care of her, and she often said, "It would be great if her son was at home!"

She said she wanted me to be her daughter-in-law, and she didn't want the prime minister's daughter, nor did she want her son to be an official. She just hoped that her son and daughter-in-law could be with her side and live a peaceful life. But he didn't wait until his son came back after all."

"Didn't wait?" Qi Wufei felt that the direction of the story was different from his memory. "How many years have you been with him in total?"

The fox said: "It will be about eighteen years since she adopted me."

"Eighteen years..."

Qi Wufei remembers that Chen's mother Zhang, recorded in Journey to the West, did suffer for eighteen years, but eighteen years later, the young Xuanzang found her and licked her eyelids with the tip of her tongue, allowing her to see the light again.

Then came Prime Minister Yin Kaishan led his army to destroy the bandits, Chen Guangrui was resurrected, and the family was reunited.

But it seems completely different to the little fox said this.

"Are you sure she never saw her son, or grandson or something until she died?"

"No." The fox shook his head and said, "I gave it to him. Because I didn't have the money to buy a coffin, the villagers helped cut down a big tree and started it temporarily.

After my adoptive mother died, I went to the mountains. At that time, my foundation was very shallow and my cultivation was very low, so it was easy to be seen. If it weren’t for the simple and kind people in the village, my identity might have been exposed long ago.

In the following years, I often went back to her grave to worship. Until decades later, the entire village turned into ruins due to war and plague.

It happened that I met a god who guided me to practice. She told me that I was born in Xuanyuan Tomb and was a nine-tailed golden-haired fox. She also told me that the fox had nine difficulties. I had only experienced one difficulty. The future disaster will be a long time later.

At that time, Master Xuanzhuang had already retrieved the true scriptures. She asked me to follow the mage's route westward and walked westward until I passed through a seven-color bridge. Those who resolved my disaster would appear there.

I headed west and arrived at Pansiling. It happened to rain heavily. After the rain, I saw a rainbow spanning the entire canyon and it never dispersed for a long time.

I've never seen such a bright and gorgeous rainbow.

I think it’s the seven-color bridge!

So I lived in the West Mountain.
Chapter completed!