Dong Shusheng, styled Xiaosi from Qingzhou, attended a banquet at a friend's house that evening. Among the guests was a traveling herbalist renowned for pulse diagnosis and physiognomy. As he examined each guest in turn, his attention finally settled on Dong and another scholar named Wang Jiusi. "I've studied countless people," the herbalist declared, "yet never encountered such peculiar pulses as yours. They suggest both great wealth and nobility yet hint at poverty; they foretell longevity but also imply a short life. Particularly with Master Dong's pulse—it is especially alarming. My skills are limited and I cannot decipher this mystery immediately. I dare not make rash judgments. May you take caution." Both scholars initially felt alarmed by the herbalist's words, but his deliberately ambiguous phrasing soon faded from their minds.

That night, Dong returned home to find his bedroom door ajar. Lighting a candle, he discovered **a young woman fast asleep beneath the blanket** and suddenly felt an overwhelming urge. Sneaking his hand under the coverlet, he felt her naked form and became more excited as his exploration led him to touch her buttocks. Suddenly, something hairy brushed against his fingers—a tail! Shrieking in terror, he bolted out of the house.

The woman awoke at the noise. "Where are you going at this hour?" she asked sleepily.

Dong fell to his knees trembling. "Dear immortal maiden, spare my life!"

She giggled. "You call me 'immortal' when fairies are both beautiful and kind. Why then do you fear me?"

"Because..." he stammered,"I fear the tail."

"I don't have a tail!" she countered, grabbing his hand and gently massaging her back where smooth skin met his fingers.

She laughed again. "You've had too much wine to see clearly. Are you accusing an innocent woman of wrongdoing?"

Dong bowed repeatedly. "Forgive my foolishness! But who are you? How did you end up in **my** bed?"

"Have you forgotten the young girl from your neighbor's household?" she asked, "I was but a child when we last met—a dozen years have passed since!"

Suddenly it dawned on Dong. "Are you Zhou Aisuo?"

She nodded.

"I remember now! You've grown more beautiful over these many years. But why are you here?"

"After marrying four or five years," she explained, "my parents-in-law died followed by my husband. Left as a widow with no family to turn to, I found solace in your home. It was dark when I arrived and you were absent...I merely sought warmth under the blanket until you returned."

Dong's face lit up at this reunion. Stripping off his clothes, he eagerly joined her in bed.

After over a month of this secret tryst, Dong grew gaunt and pale. Recalling the herbalist's ominous warning about his "fate," he rushed back to seek help. The physician grimly informed him, "Your life is entangled with an evil spirit. I'll write you some medicine as formality but advise no further contact with women if you wish for more days."

Returning home in despair, Dong found the woman demanding intimacy again. This time he erupted in anger. "Stay away! My fate is sealed!"

She sneered, "Still trying to prolong life at this hour?"

That night he dreamed of making love to her while awake finding his undergarments soaked. The nightly pattern repeated until he bled from the mouth and died.

Meanwhile, Wang Jiusi studied alone when a stunning woman entered. She identified herself as Dong's neighbor. "He was my lover but perished after I enchanted him," she warned. "Beware this fox spirit!"

Wang responded with gratitude, soon sharing his bed with her. After several days he dreamed of Dong urging him to light incense each night for protection.

"Something told me to avoid intimacy," Wang later lied when confronted about the incense.

She scoffed, "Fate is predetermined by heaven! Don't listen to superstitions!" Her seductive behavior overwhelmed his willpower again that night.

In a subsequent dream, Dong appeared raging. "Brother Wang ignores my warning and will die as I did!"

Regretful, Wang secretly instructed family to burn incense daily in the garden.

On this seventh night, the woman arrived to find burning joss sticks outside. Snuffing them out, she retreated indoors only for the family to relight another stick immediately.

"Why is there more incense?" she snapped.

"I don't know," Wang replied nervously.

"Who taught you about this?"

"Perhaps my servant consulted a witch doctor..." he hesitated.

She sighed heavily, "You have great fortune. Killing Dong and now threatening you—my actions were indeed wrong. I must go to the underworld to settle my debt with young master Dong." Saying this, she collapsed dead on the floor. In candlelight they saw it was just a fox's pelt.

Terrified of her resurrection, Wang skinned the beast and gave the hide away.

Wang himself grew ill after falling for the spirit. One night she returned, "I've settled with young master Dong in hell. He died from lust so his death is fair. My own crime was stealing men—my talisman has been seized but I may return to life. Where is my pelt?"

"Family discarded it," Wang replied.

She wept bitterly, "My many killings deserve this fate—but you were cruel to take my pelt!" With that she dissolved into green smoke.

Half a year later, after medical treatment, Wang fully recovered from his illness.