In the residence of Grand Academician Li of Ling County, there were numerous antique porcelain vases, often handled and inexplicably shifted to the edge of tables, left teetering precariously.

Grand Academician Li suspected the servants were playing tricks and scolded them harshly. The servants cried out their innocence, yet they too were baffled by the cause, so they bolted the doors and shuttered the windows, allowing no outsiders inside.

The next morning at dawn, the bizarre occurrences resumed as usual. The servants, keenly aware that something supernatural was afoot, secretly kept watch for any movement.

That night, the interior of the room shone with a brilliant light. Two servants, fearing intruders, crept toward the bedside to peek in, only to see a fox lying atop a wooden chest, its crystalline eyes glittering, emitting rays of light.

Fearing the fox might escape, the servants quickly entered the room and seized it.

The fox struggled violently, biting down hard on the servant’s wrist. The servant endured the pain, holding fast and refusing to let go. They fetched a rope and bound the fox tightly.

When they lifted it, the fox’s limbs hung limp, soft and boneless, swaying loosely like strips of cloth.

Grand Academician Li observed the fox, recognizing its sentience and considerable intelligence, could not bring himself to kill it. He covered the fox’s body with a wicker basket. Unable to escape, the fox thrashed about, the basket bobbing atop its head as it ran wildly.

Li sternly reprimanded it once more before setting it free.

The fox, overwhelmed with gratitude, never caused any further trouble thereafter.