My Evil Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox

It couldn't be helped. The fox woman thought. As long as those readers weren't directly affected by the curse, they could wash their hands of their sins and blame the author for her untimely demise. Not that the author didn't do wrong, but she was still at fault for committing the crime of killing herself, forbidding her soul from entering the spiritual realm and soon facing tribulation to pay for it. 

After all, killing oneself was considered a great crime in the spiritual realm, and most humans that killed themselves ended up as grim reapers until they earned redemption along with their rights to be reborn in their next life. 

As for whether the novel was indeed cursed or not, it was really hard to tell if it was merely based on testimonies. Not that it was impossible for such a curse to exist, but the important thing for a curse to get activated was for someone to fulfill the rules it set. 

It was just hard to confirm even for the nine-tailed fox whether such a curse was true or not. As long as it wouldn't directly affect her or Li Fei'er in the future, Shen Minyao didn't care if humans started to drop dead around them from reading a mere novel. 

Li Fei'er's face fell. She knew that Shen Minyao was right, but she couldn't help but feel pity for the author who had chosen to end her life rather than to overcome the difficulties she was facing. This was one of the rare times Li Fei'er hated being reminded of human greed and malice, not caring if they ruined someone in the process of making themselves feel good. 

"Anyway, it's just a rumor. Unless the author herself left a curse on her own work, I don't think it would pose a problem to her readers. It might have been a coincidence, and her readers have chronic illnesses before the rumors about the curse started," Shen Minyao commented before returning to the book she was reading before Li Fei'er disturbed her earlier. 

"I guess you are right." Li Fei'er sighed and rested her head on her folded arms at the table. Her mood was almost the same as the bad weather outside. Although she was already a shaman, her father and her grandfather didn't allow her to join their investigation at the city hospital. 

They sensed an anomaly and spiritual disturbance the night the fire took place, and her family believed that it wasn't just a simple accident that caused several deaths of humans. There was no indication that the missing nine-tailed fox demon was involved, but there was a residue of demonic presence found at the burned neurology department. 

She wanted to join them, but her father deemed that it wasn't safe for her at the moment and forbade her to participate. Li Fei'er supposed that her family didn't want her to encounter the nine-tailed fox demon in fear that it would seek revenge on them. 

Anyway, her mind still went back to the cursed novel that was rumored to be killing its readers. Was it even possible? She wondered. In this modern age, were curses able to transcend into the digital space to affect others?

Shen Minyao glanced at the human in the corner of her eye and could tell that Li Fei'er was still bothered by the cursed novel. Even if it was true, neither of them had anything to do with it. The only way for the novel to stop killing humans was to end the curse… either by exorcising it or letting it accumulate enough lives to pacify the anger of the person who made it. 

However, what made it dangerous was how easily humans could stumble on the said novel and read it. It was so easy for the curse to prey on unsuspecting humans, but the real question was… did the author really curse her readers with death to get even with them? 

No. The fox woman didn't think so. It could be that the grudge the author held wasn't directed to her readers… but to a particular person. The deaths of the readers might have to do with the influence of the curse itself. 

Hah. Shen Minyao lost her mood to continue reading and set her phone aside. The rain had poured down so hard because of a storm, which led to the suspension of their classes. Other students were in the hallways, calling their drivers and family to pick them up; while the students staying in the dormitory only needed to wait for the rain to subside before they could return to their designated rooms. 

One by one, students left the school premises, leaving a couple of students waiting for the rides at the school entrance. Shen Minyao and Li Fei'er left their classroom, intending to take their leave, too. However, their attention was taken by a young woman—a schoolmate of theirs—in the hallway, asking another person weird questions. What made the fox woman curious was the man standing next to that young woman. 

He was certainly not a student of their school, given the way he was dressed in black attire. Everything he was wearing was black, and if Shen Minyao wasn't a demon with a keen sense of smell, she could have mistaken him for a grim reaper like Mu Qing. 

The said man turned his head, and their eyes met. His eyes narrowed at her image and looked at her menacingly as if she had just murdered his whole family. The young woman—who noticed the change in his mood—stopped asking questions and followed his gaze, only to find Shen Minyao and Li Fei'er staring at them suspiciously. 

She was taken aback as if they were caught red-handed by asking questions around. 

"Ah… I… We…" the young woman stuttered, wanting to clear the misunderstanding and awkwardness around them. 

"You don't have to be bothered, Lu Anqi." The man cut her off.. "We are just doing our job."