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Wu Banxian said that I was destined to suffer a calamity, and that my family would never be able to raise me. I had to become his disciple. Only then would there be a glimmer of hope for me.
He also said that even if I practiced the arts of the Xuanmen with him, it would still be difficult for me to survive the Three Calamities. That is, the calamity I would encounter at the age of nine would be the most severe. If I could not overcome it, I would die. But if I managed to survive it, a huge turning point would appear in my life.
My grandfather and father discussed it for a while and decided that being alive was better than dying. At least there would still be some hope. So, in the end, they agreed.
As a result, Wu Banxian immediately carried me away from my home. He left in such a hurry, as though he were afraid my family would change their minds.
However, they had barely left the village when someone discovered Wu Banxian's corpse. His death was horrifying. Blood was flowing from his seven orifices, his eyes were wide open, and his face was filled with terror, as though he had been frightened to death.
Yet I was completely fine, lying beside Wu Banxian without crying or making a fuss.
When my parents heard about it, they had no choice but to bring me back home. Wu Banxian's family even came looking for us and caused a huge commotion. Technically, this matter had nothing to do with my family. Wu Banxian had died on the road by himself. Even so, we still compensated his family with some money.
Our family was already poor, and now things had become even worse.
Later, I heard from my master that the reason Wu Banxian had died was that he had evil intentions. When he took me away, he had been coveting something on my body, and he had even intended to take my life.
But that is a story for another time.
After my father carried me back home, the family began worrying again.
No one knew whether what Wu Banxian had said before was true or not. His sudden and violent death made my family even more wary of me.
Even the people in the village said that I was a jinx, claiming that I had caused the death of an innocent person the moment I was born.
Even my food became a problem.
I would not drink milk at all, only blood.
From the moment I was born until then, I had not eaten a single bite of anything. I was constantly starving and crying at the top of my lungs.
My grandfather and father were so worried that they could neither think about tea nor food, while my mother quietly shed tears by herself.
Unexpectedly, one night, when my father went outside to use the outhouse, he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from the courtyard.
Following the sound, he suddenly saw several white-furred foxes appear in the courtyard, with yellow weasels following behind them.
In the darkness of the night, the eyes of those beasts gleamed brightly. Even the way they moved was furtive and sneaky.
One particularly large white-furred fox even climbed onto the windowsill and secretly peered inside the room.
When my father saw this, he was frightened at first. But then, he became somewhat angry, thinking that it was already bad enough that his family had given birth to a monster. Now these beasts had even come to cause trouble.
So he picked up a brick from the ground and hurled it toward the animals.
The brick struck the white-furred fox that was crouching on the windowsill.
The fox let out a shrill scream of pain. In the silent night, the cry sounded particularly eerie and mournful.
It turned its head and glared viciously at my father, baring its sharp fangs.
My father was so frightened that he immediately froze and did not dare move.
At that moment, the door to the house suddenly opened.
My grandfather came rushing out with a large cleaver in his hand.
Although he was already nearly seventy years old, the old man's body was still extremely strong and sturdy. When he was young, he had served in the military and fought against the Japanese. He had even once been the squad leader of a broadsword unit.
When he widened his eyes, he radiated an imposing murderous aura, and the large knife in his hand gleamed coldly.
The moment those beasts saw my grandfather, they immediately became frightened and fled the courtyard with their tails between their legs.
“What happened?” Grandfather looked at my father.
“I saw these beasts wandering around the courtyard. There was even a white-furred fox lying on the windowsill, peering inside the house,” my father said, still shaken.
“This really is one disaster after another. I, Old Wu, have spent my entire life accumulating virtue and doing good deeds. I defended my country and never committed any wrongdoing. How could I end up encountering something like this in my old age?” Grandfather sighed helplessly.
At that moment, he suddenly turned his head and noticed a dark, indistinct mass near the doorway of the house, which seemed to be moving.
He crouched down to take a closer look and immediately became puzzled.
“Where did all these things come from?”
My father also came over to take a look, and he was stunned for a moment. On one side of the doorway to our house, there were several plump wild rabbits lying there, already on the verge of death.
When he picked up one of the rabbits and examined it, he discovered several bloody holes in its neck, as though they had been bitten into it by some wild beast.
“Father, could these wild rabbits have been brought here by those foxes and yellow weasels?” my father asked, finding it hard to believe.
Grandfather's expression turned solemn. He nodded and said, “It is very likely them. During the day, hundreds of yellow weasels and foxes knelt and bowed toward our house. I don't know what connection our child has with these beasts. Since they've brought them to us, we'll keep them. Drain the blood to save it for the child, and we'll eat the meat.”
With the rabbit blood, I was finally able to eat my fill and fell into a deep sleep. The family also had a proper meat feast.
But what my family hadn't expected was that the foxes and yellow weasels weren't going to bring food just this once.
From that point onward, they came wandering around our house almost every night. Every time they came, they would leave something behind. Sometimes it was wild chickens or wild rabbits. Sometimes they even brought two fish. There were even days when they delivered food twice.
This was wonderful.
My family got to eat meat every single day. In those years, our standard of living was far better than that of the other families. Ordinary households could only afford to eat meat during festivals and holidays, whereas my family ate it every day.
Sometimes we couldn't finish everything, so my father would even take the excess to the market and sell it, making many people in the village drool with envy.
The next time my father saw those yellow weasels and foxes in the courtyard, he no longer had any intention of chasing them away.
Even when he saw them, he simply pretended not to notice.
Sometimes, when he happened to come face-to-face with them, those beasts weren't afraid of my father at all. They would carry some wild prey in their mouths, casually pass right by him, drop it on the ground, and leave without even looking back.
They were incredibly carefree.
And just like that, three years passed in the blink of an eye.
Every day, the foxes and yellow weasels brought wild prey to our home. My family ate the meat, while I drank the blood.
Because our life had become so good, both my father and mother had put on some weight.
Gradually, I grew up, and aside from my habit of drinking blood, I was no different from an ordinary child.
My family also tried giving me other kinds of food, but every time I ate something, I couldn’t swallow it and simply vomited it back up.
When I had just been born, white fur had grown all over my body, and my face had looked almost like a fox's.
But as I grew older day by day, the white fur gradually disappeared, and my face slowly became more normal. Moreover, the older I grew, the more delicate and handsome I became.
However, when I turned three, my grandfather and father began to worry again.
They still remembered what Wu Banxian had said.
I was someone born destined to face calamities, and every three years, I would encounter another one.
Now that I was exactly three years old, they had no idea what kind of calamity I would face.
On the day of my third birthday, the calamity truly came.
Someone in the village died.
And everyone in the village said that I was the one who had caused his death.