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Chapter One [What? My biological mother is a White Fox?]
Chen Yan sat in the waiting hall of Jinling Prefecture's high-speed train station, holding a backpack, staring blankly at the advertising board in the waiting hall.
People were coming and going around, the travelers were in a hurry, and no one would notice this young man sitting on a chair in a daze.
Winter was already setting in, and the central air conditioning in the waiting hall was not sufficient, it felt rather chilly. But Chen Yan felt a bit hot, as if a fire would burst out from his heart with just a slight movement.
Actually, this morning, Chen Yan had just resigned from his job at the company – well, not exactly. To be accurate, he didn't make it through the internship period and walked out with his bag.
This autumn recruitment season for fresh graduates was particularly brutal, so although the job was exhausting like a beast of burden and paid less than chicken feed, a few months ago, the newly graduated Chen Yan still reluctantly accepted the offer.
The internship period lasted three months, with half the salary.
Unexpectedly, after enduring three months of a beast's life, fetching the department head's deliveries and meals daily, occasionally playing the little luggage boy, frequently unpaid overtime staying up all night, and sometimes being the scapegoat when the department made mistakes – it turned out this boss wasn't even human.
Alright, it seems like there aren't many human bosses in the workplace nowadays.
Here's how it went: this morning, Chen Yan, after going downstairs to buy coffee for the boss – the old woman regularly sent him to save a few bucks on delivery fees.
Before returning to the office, Chen Yan received a call from someone in his home village, saying his grandmother was ill, and if he could, it would be good if he could visit.
When Chen Yan asked for leave, the old woman took a sip of the iced Americano he bought and sarcastically said, "Oh! How come she's sick now and not earlier or later, but at the busiest end of the month?"
This remark made Chen Yan, who had been a beast and a flatterer for three months, decide not to endure anymore.
He grabbed the takeaway coffee he bought for the old woman and poured it right over her head.
Then Chen Yan turned around, left the office, and went back to his seat to pack his things.
The old woman chased out of the office, shouting curses at Chen Yan in front of a dozen colleagues.
Chen Yan was neither agitated nor angry, but his face showed a shy and gentle smile of a young man, with a hint of apology as he said:
"Amanda, I really don't like older women. So, even if you offer me a promotion, I can't accept you, really sorry." After finishing, he smiled and bowed.
As the words fell, the office area went silent! More than a dozen colleagues' eyes lit up, instantly transforming into spectators,
Everyone looked at this young, handsome intern, then at the 38-year-old middle-aged fairy Amanda... One by one, their mouths and eyes were wide open, internally shouting What the...!
The old woman jumped in anger, just saying: "You're lying..."
Chen Yan finished his bow with a smile, grabbed his bag, and sprinted out of the company, directly calling a ride to the high-speed train station.
It wasn't really some "2000s kids cleaning up the workplace," just a bullied young man who decided he couldn't take it anymore.
Sitting in the waiting hall of the high-speed train station now, Chen Yan's mind was completely absent from the company's nonsense, and as for that middle-aged fairy Amanda, he couldn't care less.
He regretted not listening to his grandmother's advice right after graduation, to return to his hometown and inherit her mantle.
His grandmother, whom Chen Yan referred to as "my old lady", had raised Chen Yan for twenty years since he was two.
To be accurate, Chen Yan was picked up by his grandmother.
Where and how he was picked up, the old lady hadn't clearly explained over the years.
Well, actually there were too many versions, and the old lady always stuck to her storytelling!
When Chen Yan was six, the old lady said she picked him up from a trash can outside the county hospital's maternity ward.
When he was eight, the old lady claimed she found Chen Yan under a big tree behind a broken temple on the mountain.
When he was eleven, the old lady's story changed to a young, beautiful, desperate woman bringing Chen Yan to her doorstep on a snowy night, left behind the child and two hundred bucks before leaving.
At fifteen, the old lady said she actually rescued Chen Yan from human traffickers.
Well, the eighteen-year-old version was the most magical:
The old lady said that on a snowy night, a beautiful, young, desperate woman brought Chen Yan to her door...
Wait! Isn't that the same as the eleven-year-old version?
Hold on; the old lady added one last line.
"Then that woman suddenly turned into a pure white fox, hopped into the snow and disappeared into the mountains."
When eighteen-year-old Chen Yan heard this, he was furious, with a stomachache!
Turned into a White Fox?
Why didn't you say my mother turned into Ultraman then?!
Such an old woman had a very impressive, very powerful, and very cool occupation locally.
She was the most powerful...
Divine Woman in the vicinity.
That's right, literally.
Reading feng shui, checking yin houses, or wielding peach wood swords, burning talismans, expelling evil and disasters.
Whenever there's a funeral, the old lady could also go and cry.
In kind, she'd pounce in front of the spirit hall and, facing all the filial sons and grandsons...
Howling, she'd cry loudly right in front of everyone!
The old lady didn't think this work was shameful.
Crying a session, eighty!
According to the old lady, it was called artistry... This was called, "money cannot be too much!"
Some months ago, when Chen Yan graduated from university, the old lady had called to ask him to return home.
The idea was for Chen Yan to carry on her mantle.
Since he couldn't find a satisfactory job in the big city, why not return to the countryside and become a promising... Divine Man!
Actually... Chen Yan did seriously consider it back then.
Finding a job now is so tough, they say there's a mad rush of graduates for even a few thousand yuan job during autumn recruitment.
Chen Yan was self-aware.
A non-key undergraduate degree nowadays hardly has much competition in the autumn recruitment market.
Chen Yan was rather laid back, not very ambitious, usually taking everything lightly.
At most, he had a little bit of a sadistic streak deep inside.
Like, while watching a drama, when a character dies...
Chen Yan would always rewind a bit to check if the actor playing the dead sneaks a blink or breath.
In daily life dealing with people, he was generally kind – unless you stepped on his lungs and pushed him to the edge.
The old lady was Chen Yan's lung, not to be stepped on.
Twenty-two-year-old Chen Yan had only had one fight in all these years: a group of half-grown kids at the village entrance were playing around, and someone bad-mouthed the old lady, saying she looked like an old witch with messy colorful clothes and hair.
Chen Yan lost his cool, usually always smiling, he gripped his fists and beat two boys half a head taller than him, one even got kicked into the river.
So, if the old lady wanted Chen Yan to return and be a conjurer, he wouldn't resist.
But returning to the countryside had one downside.
Going back meant village matchmakers would come for a match!
Country folks marry early, Chen Yan at twenty-two could already be a father, so being pushed into matchmaking was normal.
He had actually met two, just last summer.
The highest-rated girl in terms of looks came with her father.
The girl's father, dark-skinned, broad-shouldered, tall and burly, looked like a strong man who could run with a horse on his arm!
Then looking at the girl...
Whoa~~! (Boss Guo tone)
She was a spitting image of her father!
Of course, it didn't work out; the other party admired Chen Yan's handsome appearance, but he couldn't stomach the valiant girl.
Moreover, the demands were high, a bride price of eighteen thousand eight, plus adding the name on a county house deed.
This day and age, seeing the city girls is already exhausting enough; why go back to the countryside for a pastoral fairy?
So, he took a beast job in Jinling Prefecture to avoid worrying his grandmother.
Two and a half hours on the high-speed train, then transferred to an hour-long long-distance bus, and finally walked three miles.
Finally arriving at the familiar village entrance...
Walking into the familiar village path, looking at the rural houses on both sides, watching chickens and dogs running around obliviously.
Chen Yan suddenly felt emotional approaching home.
Sigh... that mystical and always pretentious old lady... how is she now? The old village head called and said she was ill, didn't mention how serious – but if the illness wasn't severe, he wouldn't ask him to return.
The old lady now... surely can't sit cross-legged anymore, telling Zhong Kui ghost-catching stories, right?
Also couldn't summon souls with her powerful voice, or dance rituals right?
What scene will Chen Yan see upon returning home?
An old lady lying on the bed, looking pale and sickly, frail and aged?
Walking into his yard, Chen Yan slowed his steps.
Suddenly, all of the old lady's goodness flooded his heart.
Her cooking stir-fried meat with edamame, fanning mosquitoes away in summer... and laughing as he ate the most sweet part of the watermelon...
His hand was already pressing against his home's door, ears buzzing – probably an illusion.
Taking a deep breath, eyes almost tearing, Chen Yan gently pushed the door.
Inside the hall of his home, on the welcoming wall, hung a new year painting from last year's Spring Festival that hadn't been taken down.
On the painting, dragon boy and girl with chubby tiger heads holding gold ingots on either side...
Yes, many rural new year paintings have this standard.
Beside the main door was a worn-out straw hat and half a bag of corn on the left.
A square table with a red tablecloth. Four elders were battling intensely!
At the main seat, a radiant, energetic old lady, with silver hair tied in a big bun, wearing cloth shoes, holding a smoking pipe in one hand and an object in the other, fingers rubbing it back and forth.
Her eyes were curved in a smile.
Then, she threw the object in her right hand onto the center of the table.
Then pushed her tiles forward.
"Self-won! Pay up! Don't run! Finally caught a big one!"
The old lady laughed showing her teeth.
Chen Yan's bag fell to the ground.
Chen Yan's first reaction was: I've been tricked?!
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