I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

Deng Ziwen has a typical baby face, big eyes, and dimples when she smiles, so she can be considered "quite good-looking".

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to stand out from a crowd of suitors back then.

"Don't scare me! Have you been poisoned?"

Zhao Weilai believed it to be true and immediately checked Deng Ziwen's condition, but found no fatal wound. He suspected that he had been poisoned and turned to look at Hu Sanniang, the red-clothed fox girl sitting at the table with a look of disgust on her face.

Foxes are so careless when naming their offspring; they just name the first one born "XX Niang" or "XX Lang".

Only a very few cultured foxes, or foxes that have attained enlightenment, have their own names.

Master Hu was quite good at concealing his identity, so he gave himself a surname that sounded similar to "Hu". Otherwise, this den of foxes would have been called "Fox First Sister", "Fox Second Sister", "Fox Third Sister" all the way up to "Fox Thirty-Seventh Sister".

Yes, the Hu family was very large and prosperous, and with the fox spirit having seven or eight litters, Hu San Niang had thirty-seven sisters from the same father alone.

The ones who just took Zhao Weilai and the others away were Hu San, Hu Si, and Hu Wu.

Seeing Deng Ziwen's pretentious act, Hu Sanniang, dressed in a red dress, became furious and said:

"Pah! He's just pretending to be a vixen."

"The praying mantises we raise are timid and don't hurt people at all. At most, they just scare people. They only have some cuts on their bodies, nothing serious."

Deng Ziwen froze.

Zhao Weilai was supporting him, but upon hearing this and seeing his expression, he rolled his eyes and pushed him onto the cushion.

"Ouch……"

Deng Ziwen let out a wail, still trying to pretend, but Su Ya burst out laughing, and all the foxes, big and small, in the room joined in, squeaking and clucking.

……

……

……

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Zhao Weilai sat down again, moved the gray fox on his lap to the side, and introduced it to everyone:

"This is my boyfriend Deng Ziwen, these are the Hu family's daughters, this is the third, fourth and fifth daughters, they are indeed foxes, and Lan Garden is indeed a fox den."

But they didn't harm anyone, and Master Hu wasn't lying; there really was an evil spirit causing trouble.

"No, you're just going to believe everything they say? What if they're lying?"

Deng Ziwen sat up, wiped the blood from his face, and looked on in disbelief:

"Zhang Wuji's mother said that the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to deceive people, let alone when she is—"

The word "monster" was swallowed back under the gaze of Hu San Niang and the other foxes.

"So what if we're foxes? We've never harmed anyone. It's you humans who are far more wicked than us monsters."

Hu Si Niang, dressed in pink, covered her mouth with a fan, and a sharp, fox-like kiss flashed by:

"Not to fill their stomachs, not to keep warm, but to hunt and kill livestock with fur on a large scale, just to make clothes to show off."

Yes, yes.

Another young lady from the Hu family, wearing a moon-white dress, actually had a fox's head, and her expression was exceptionally serious.

"Our den of foxes never does anything swindling or cheating. The garden was bought by my father when he picked a ginseng root in the mountains and exchanged it for money. Over the years, we have learned to run a medicine shop honestly, just like people do."

But you guys are so wicked! You either force us to buy spoiled medicinal herbs or falsely accuse us of selling fake medicine!

"We're foxes, where would we get the money to make you fake medicine!"

The whole den of foxes nodded in agreement, looking utterly bitter and resentful.

"Just like demons can be good or bad, so can humans."

Zhao Weilai couldn't refute this, so he had to explain it clearly:

"Our other teammates have passed out. Are they alright?"

"It was just a beautiful dream."

Hu Sanniang pulled out the gold hairpin from her hair, poked at the candle flame on the table, and sighed:

"Our cultivation as foxes is very difficult. If we want to transform into human form, we must pass the 'Red Dust Barrier,' which is why we moved to Songjiang County."

We don't have any powerful magic, so we just raise some mantises and mix some perfume powder, which is at least a way to defend ourselves.

Those rare and exotic flowers and plants that outsiders see are the ones we want them to see.

Deng Ziwen nodded as well:

Isn't that right?

Judging from the way Jiang Youzi's team was practically tearing the orchids bare—if the orchid garden were truly full of medicinal herbs, not only players, but even ghosts would come to snatch them up.

Wait a minute, if orchids are all mantises, then Jiang Youzi's team is probably in big trouble if they're not on guard.

Deng Ziwen couldn't help but feel a little schadenfreude.

……

……

"What about the evil spirit? What exactly happened?"

Zhao Weilai wiped the lipstick stains off his face and said.

"The evil spirits are real."

Miss Hu Si Niang sighed:

"We're not lying about that. That thing came from who-knows-where and it's been wandering around outside the garden every night."

Fortunately, the garden has the illusion we set up, which can block it to some extent. But it's not stupid; it actually knows to sneak into the weakest point of the illusion.

"We've already had two mantis servants dragged out and eaten by it. If this continues, we won't be able to stay in this orchid garden anytime sooner or later."

All the little foxes in the room fell silent, shaking their heads sadly.

Even though he was wary of foxes, Zhao Weilai couldn't help but feel sorry for this den of foxes.

He did nothing wrong, honestly buying gardens and shops, paying taxes, distributing porridge, and giving away medicine... He did better than some modern "philanthropists" who seek fame and fortune.

The sudden appearance of this evil spirit who came to ask to marry the fox woman is simply an undeserved disaster.

……

……

Deng Ziwen rolled over on the cushion, but the next second, the little black fox closest to him suddenly shrieked:

"Squeak! How did you bring a demon in here?!"

"My life is over!!"

All the foxes screamed in agony, as if something terrifying had grabbed them by the neck.

"Oh no! An evil spirit has entered!"

Before Zhao Weilai and the others could react, they saw the yellow talismans on Deng Ziwen's chest float out—

They hung in mid-air in unison, the cinnabar characters on the talisman paper shining brightly, the characters jumping around rapidly, and then, with a "boom"!

The three talismans burned at the same time.

The firelight was a ghastly green, and an extremely pungent stench rose from the ground, as if a corpse that had been buried for more than ten days had been dug out.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

The ground began to shake.

The mantis in the garden was becoming increasingly restless.

The small building began to collapse, and Hu San Niang and the other foxes fled in panic, leaving gold hairpins, jewelry, and clothes scattered all over the ground.

A crack appeared in the ground of the small building, from which a large ball of blackish-red light emerged. Immediately afterwards, a huge foot covered in festering sores stretched out from underneath.

The foot was several meters long, with black and hard toenails, and made a very deep and muffled sound when it stepped on the ground!

"Thump!"

Then there was a leg that was bluish-black and covered with everted pustules.

The thing slowly emerged from the ground, raising its entire body.

Ten meters, or perhaps higher, the top of the giant ghost's head almost pierced through the second-floor beam.

It was bare-chested, with sparse red hair plastered to its head, covered in fist-sized bumps, a blue face with fangs, and everted lips. Its lower body was wrapped in a greasy animal hide, which was still stained with half-dried blood.

When it looked up, the whole room trembled.

Then, as if confirming something, he looked down for two or three seconds, and decisively reached out his hand to Deng Ziwen—

"Why am I always the one who's unlucky..."

Deng Ziwen only had time to utter that one sentence before a clean white toilet appeared beside him with a "Duang".

Portable Toilet (Can summon a clean toilet at any time, isolating odors and negative energy; must not be disturbed during use; lasts for one minute; limited to once per day)

[The toilet is in use, please do not disturb.]

"Starting today, I'm going to use the toilet by myself! Mom and Dad, no need for..."

As a cheerful children's song began, Deng Ziwen, along with the toilet, became ethereal and couldn't be chosen. The giant ghost's outstretched hand grasped at nothing—

Deng Ziwen's eyes were lifeless; he had even become accustomed to such humiliation.

"Isn't there a more respectable way to hide?!"

Su Ya held up the vernier caliper, turned around and smashed it with the caliper against the supporting column of the small building. The small building collapsed with a crash, burying the big ghost underneath!

"Watch out! This thing isn't dead!"

Zhao Weilai pushed Hu Sanniang into the artificial hill, drew his butcher knife, and his eyes blazed with fury:

"Prepare for battle—"