I was born dead.
My grandmother carried me to a mountain hollow to beg an immortal for help, and only then was my life saved. From that day on, I wore a blood-jade pendant around my neck to keep me alive.
But whether the immortal who saved me was a snake or a fox remains a mystery.
For eighteen years, I bowed and made offerings to the empty mountain every year.
Then, on the night I came of age, a mysterious creditor arrived with a marriage contract.
He said my life belonged to him, and now it was time to repay the debt.
If I refused, a curse would cling to me, and I would keep coughing up blood.
If I ran, calamities involving foxes would erupt, and my parents would be on the brink of death.
On the night I was forced to put on my wedding dress, the groom who came to marry me had a pair of foxlike eyes.
As snake and fox clashed in the wedding hall,
just as I could no longer tell who was my benefactor and who was my creditor,
my belly began to swell in a most bizarre way...
