The Fox Spirit Staircase (01-02)

Word Count: 6071
Chapter 1 "You pass by here every day, have you ever noticed how many steps there are?" As Han Xuanxuan stepped onto the familiar steps, a boy's voice sounded beside her. "Hmm?" Xuanxuan looked up at the tall boy who had appeared out of nowhere. He was very handsome, making Han Xuanxuan momentarily infatuated. Then, instinctively, she turned her head to the other side to confirm whether this handsome guy she had never met before was talking to someone else. If it were any other girl, she might instinctively think that this was just a boy trying to flirt with a girl in a strange way, but Han Xuanxuan knew that even street thugs wouldn't bother to whistle at a girl with her looks, let alone this guy who looked so outstanding. "Don't look away, I'm talking to you." The handsome guy's voice was also very pleasant, as if it had a magnetic quality. "Do we...know each other?" Xuanxuan asked hesitantly, a little dazed. "That...it's not important." The boy smiled, a smile as warm as sunshine, as fragrant as flowers, easily drawing one in. Han Xuanxuan had never seen such a smile before, and without even a second of struggle, she was deeply captivated, so much so that she didn't even notice when the boy's hand touched her hair... "Xuanxuan, Xuanxuan, Xuanxuan!" "Huh?" When she opened her eyes again, the handsome boy was nowhere to be seen. Xuanxuan saw her roommate Yu Xiaomi waving her hand and yelling in front of her. "What's wrong with you? Are you possessed? How come you fell asleep standing up in broad daylight?" "Huh? I...fell asleep?" Xuanxuan's mind was still a little dazed. She looked around again before remembering what had just happened. "Yeah! I was blowing bubbles with my nose!" "Really?" She hurriedly wiped her nose, only to realize that Xiaomi was just joking with her. Xuanxuan angrily punched her hard. "Waaah, you hit me so hard, you damn tomboy! You have to treat me to lunch!" "You...you're extorting me again!" Shaking her head helplessly, Xuanxuan didn't refuse. The two girls walked hand in hand towards the cafeteria. However, Xuanxuan didn't hear much of Xiaomi's chatter along the way. Her mind was filled with the words the boy had said before she fell asleep: "Do you know the Fox Stairs?" There were no classes in the afternoon. After lunch, she returned to her dorm, still thinking about that sentence. The Fox Stairs—those four words sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard them before. Fortunately, the internet was convenient. After racking her brains without success, Xuanxuan jumped out of bed and turned on her computer. She typed "Fox Stairs" into the search engine, and soon a bunch of results popped up. "Oh, it's a movie..." "What movie?" Xuanxuan muttered, which was heard by Yu Xiaomi, who was idly clipping her nails. She immediately came over with great interest. "Whispering Corridors? Xuanxuan, when did you become interested in horror movies?" Xiao Mi knew Han Xuanxuan was timid; she usually trembled at the mere mention of a ghost, so it was truly baffling that she would actively search for a movie with such a creepy title. "Nothing... just... just searching randomly..." Xuanxuan replied absentmindedly, focusing intently on the lines of description. An ordinary girls' high school had an unusual saying: on the way from the school to the dormitory, there was a fox staircase. This staircase originally had only 28 steps, but if you counted carefully, it would become 29. This was the fox staircase; if you made a wish on the staircase, the fox spirit would make your wish come true. "Fox spirit? To make a wish in such a creepy way, I think it's more like a fox demon." Influenced by Xuanxuan, Xiao Mi also seriously looked at the description, then couldn't help but complain. "Hehe, who cares if it's a fox spirit or a fox demon, as long as the wish comes true, that's good enough." Xuanxuan murmured softly, smiling at the bewildered Xiao Mi. Unlike Han Xuanxuan, who was so ordinary she'd blend into a crowd and disappear, Yu Xiaomi, while not exceptionally beautiful, was undeniably stunning with a little effort in dressing up. She possessed a baby face, bright eyes, a small, upturned nose, and a petite yet shapely figure—the kind of cute girl that boys found appealing. Even more remarkable was Yu Xiaomi's wonderful personality; she lacked the airs often associated with beautiful women, always smiling and getting along with everyone, both boys and girls. She was Han Xuanxuan's closest best friend and one of the girls she most envied. "Xiaomi, do you remember how many steps there are on that staircase we walk up every day?" "Huh? Really? It's just a movie, you're taking it seriously?" Xiaomi exclaimed dramatically. No matter how close their friendship, due to her own circumstances, Xiaomi couldn't truly empathize with Xuanxuan's life. From childhood, Xuanxuan's only label was "ordinary." Ordinary family, ordinary looks, ordinary grades, ordinary talent, attending an ordinary university, doing ordinary odd jobs, living an ordinary life. She's rarely thought of, rarely mentioned, rarely remembered. Some describe ordinary people as like air, transparent and unnoticed. But Xuanxuan feels those who say such things don't understand her feelings at all. Air may be invisible, but it's still important, while she… even if she disappeared, few would care. She… is completely unnecessary. How can an ordinary person live an extraordinary life? "Xiao Mi, I'm going for a walk." "Hey! You're not really going to count the steps, are you? Are you crazy?!" Ignoring Xiao Mi's shouts behind her, Xuanxuan rushed out of the dormitory, almost running to the bottom of the steps. "One, two, three, four…" Standing before the steps, silently counting, Xuanxuan's heart pounded. Did that boy really appear?
Or was it just a daydream? "Five, six, seven, eight…" If the rumors about the fox stairs are true, will she be able to see the extra step?
"Nine, ten, eleven, twelve..." If she could see, what kind of wish would she make? "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen..." In any case, it would be about that person... "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five,
twenty-six, twenty-seven... twenty-eight! "It really is twenty-eight steps! These steps are the same as in the movies!" Xuanxuan unconsciously covered her chest with her hands. Was it a coincidence? Or... had she really received God's favor? Was this life, like being invisible... about to end? Just... try and you'll know... Her right foot, wearing sneakers, slowly stepped onto the first step... "One, two, three, four..." At noon, before that boy's voice rang out as she passed these steps, Xuanxuan was thinking about other things. "Five, six, seven, eight..." That was what had just happened that morning. On her way to class, Xuanxuan met a fellow villager at the classroom door. "Nine, ten, eleven, twelve..." The brief conversation was actually about trivial matters. But for Xuanxuan, who usually had no one to chat with except Yu Xiaomi, she didn't want any conversation to end easily. "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen..." The conversation was interrupted by a voice. Perhaps engrossed in the conversation, Xuanxuan didn't remember when she leaned against the classroom door frame, blocking the way. So when Li Haoran suddenly said, "Excuse me, classmate, please move aside," she was startled. Then, an overwhelming sadness welled up inside her. "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty..." Li Haoran was the boy Xuanxuan had always secretly liked. He didn't know how much effort she, with her average grades, had put in during her senior year of high school to finally get into the same university as him, even though that university was just ordinary in other people's eyes; he didn't know how many years she had silently watched him,
how familiar she was with his every move and every expression; he didn't even know that he was being helped home drunk at the alumni reunion that day.
On his way there, a girl secretly followed him all the way to his dormitory, even though the girl from his department hadn't exchanged a single word with him. "Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four..." But after liking him for so long... in the end, he addressed her with just those two words—"classmate." Was it really that hard to remember her own name? "Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight..." Xuanxuan looked at her feet and smiled. There was one step left before her toes. Never... never again would she hear him call her that... "Twenty-nine!" A firm step landed heavily on the extra step, and a boy's figure appeared before her... Chapter Two "Hey! Hello!" It wasn't the handsome man she'd seen before, but Han Xuanxuan had no time for disappointment. At this moment, her mouth was wide open, enough to easily fit an egg. "You...you are..." "Congratulations on stepping onto the twenty-ninth step and entering this world that does not belong to humans. I am the fox spirit who has come to help you, my name is..." "Wait! I know your name, but are you sure you're not playing a joke on me?" Although it was a bit impolite to speak like that, when the fox spirit in front of her was neither a handsome man nor a seductive female demon, but a 3D version of Naruto Uzumaki straight out of an anime, anyone would think it was a joke. "Hey! I am the man who became Hokage through my own efforts, and you dare to look down on me like this! Do you question my status as a Jinchuriki? Kurama, come out here!" "No...no need, I believe you!" Seeing Naruto slowly emitting golden light, Xuanxuan was afraid that she would faint from fright if she really saw the Nine-Tailed Fox, so she quickly waved her hand to stop her. "Hmph! That's more like it." Naruto saw that Xuanxuan no longer questioned him, and he did not actually release the Nine-Tailed Fox from his body. "So... Lord Fox Spirit, can I make a wish now?" Unable to adjust to the sudden shift from *Whispering Corridors* to *Naruto*, Xuanxuan found the current situation utterly absurd. However, while legends differed from reality, it was still true, and for a girl, action-packed anime was generally more palatable than horror stories. In any case, making a wish was still the most important thing. "Make a wish? Sorry, we don't offer wish-making services here," Naruto said matter-of-factly, shrugging. "Huh? No wish? Then why did I come here...?" It seemed the difference between legend and reality was more than just a little. Hope, like a balloon inflated to its limit, was suddenly punctured. The girl's heart, which had been filled with the illusion of a windfall, instantly slumped under this casual remark. "Hmph! Let me tell you, there are no shortcuts to becoming Hokage. Those who try to achieve their dreams through wishing have no right to talk about dreams!" "I...I didn't want to be Hokage...If there's nothing else, I'll head back."
Han Xuanxuan was utterly disheartened. She hadn't stepped onto the stairs to witness Naruto's talk-no-jutsu. "Wait!" Naruto, seeing Xuanxuan about to leave, quickly stopped her. "While there are no shortcuts to achieving dreams, you can't do without the help of companions on the road. And I, like Iruka-sensei, will be the first person to help you achieve your dream!" "Then...how will you help me?" "As a ninja, the help I can offer you is, of course, ninjutsu!" "Ninjutsu?" "Yes! Ninjutsu!" "I'll head back if there's nothing else..." Screw ninjutsu! Han Xuanxuan almost blurted out those words. What was a little girl like her doing learning ninjutsu? "Hey! Do you think this is a place you can just come and go as you please? Now that you've stepped onto the twenty-ninth step, it means you've triggered both of our missions simultaneously. My mission is to teach you ninjutsu, and your mission is to learn ninjutsu from me!" These words weren't spoken by one person, but suddenly a large group of shadow clones surrounding Xuanxuan spoke in unison. Xuanxuan hadn't seen the end of *Naruto*, but she had finished the first half. The situation before her clearly made her feel that if she didn't agree, she might face a two-thousand-shot barrage, so… "Alright, Lord Demon Fox, then I'll learn ninjutsu from you. But can I choose the type I learn?" She had watched *Naruto* purely for fun, and didn't really remember much about the various ninjutsu. But she suddenly remembered a very basic ninjutsu in the anime called the Transformation Technique. If she learned it, could she transform herself into a beautiful woman? "Well… no way!" Unfortunately, her dream was rejected before it even began. However, Naruto quickly added, "Because learning ninjutsu one move at a time is too troublesome for you, I've prepared some scrolls. You can learn the ninjutsu recorded inside simply by crushing the scrolls. However, you can only randomly select from these scrolls. You might learn an extremely powerful ninjutsu like Planetary Devastation, or you might learn an even more powerful ninjutsu like Sexy Jutsu. How about that? Aren't you excited?" "Excited... my foot! I don't want to learn those kinds of ninjutsu at all!" Although she didn't understand why they had to come up with this weird random selection setting, Naruto insisted that she couldn't take shortcuts, so Xuanxuan had no choice but to randomly pick one from the pile of scrolls in front of her, silently praying that she would get the Transformation Jutsu, and then crush the scroll under Naruto's guidance. "Wow! Congratulations! You've learned a clan secret technique that even I can't master! And this kind of ninjutsu hardly requires any chakra, it's perfect for you!" Naruto's words didn't sound like insincere politeness, and his eyes genuinely shone with envy, but Han Xuanxuan still keenly caught the flaw in his words: "You mean, these ninjutsu really do require chakra to perform, which means... if I drew other ninjutsu that require chakra, I wouldn't be able to use them at all, right?!" "Hehehe... that's about it, well then, this mission is complete, goodbye, my friend!" After being exposed, Naruto saw that Xuanxuan was about to explode, so he immediately formed a hand seal and disappeared in front of her, leaving the girl with nowhere to vent her anger. "What the hell!" Muttering in frustration, Xuanxuan turned around, only to have a face suddenly appear in front of her, startling her. "What are you doing? I saw you running out like a madman, and when you didn't come back for ages, I came out to look for you, only to find you asleep standing here again! Am I supposed to be waking up at night? Or is this place particularly comfortable to sleep in? Who likes to sleep standing up in a place like this? Are you possessed?!" "Hehe, no, I was just thinking with my eyes closed." While brushing off Yu Xiaomi's barrage of questions, Xuanxuan thought to herself that Naruto was right about entering a world that wasn't human; at least no one could see what she had just experienced. But, that ninjutsu taught by a notoriously unreliable anime character… could it really be real? If only I could try it! Xuanxuan looked around. It wasn't a good time, so she took Yu Xiaomi's hand and said, "Okay, Xiaomi, I just came here out of curiosity about the fox staircase. Just consider it a moment of madness. It's fine now, let's go back to the dorm." "No way!" Xiaomi, though her hand was grabbed by Xuanxuan, wasn't dragged away. "You were acting so strange today. What if you do something terrible to me when we get back? I'd be helpless in the same room with you. Anyway, the sun's so nice today, let's take a stroll since we're out." She knew her best friend was joking until the last sentence, but Xuanxuan's inner thoughts were suddenly exposed, and she felt a pang of anxiety. She knew she'd already acted strangely enough, and if she persisted, Xiaomi might really become suspicious. So she reluctantly agreed to walk around the campus again—a place she'd already walked countless times. It wasn't that Xuanxuan disliked walks, but any girl with a beautiful best friend could understand the pain—the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy. There are two people walking together, but others can only see one. Those gazes seemed to be blatantly declaring to you: You're not as pretty as her! You don't have her figure!
You're just her foil! Even the most oblivious girl wouldn't be happy facing this kind of differential treatment, which is why Xuanxuan doesn't really like going out with Yu Xiaomi. But what choice does she have? It's her third year of university. In the first two years, there were more single people among her classmates, but this year, it seems like everyone's suddenly selling themselves off like in a group purchase. The relationships that weren't particularly close to begin with have instantly become defunct under their prioritization of romantic relationships over friendships, leaving only Yu Xiaomi and herself as the two lone survivors. Moreover, she's single because no one pursues her, while Yu Xiaomi has so many suitors that she can't even choose. Now that this hot commodity is willing to be displayed next to her, a discounted item that nobody wants, what's there to complain about? "Look! It's your Li Haoran!" Xiaomi's sudden exclamation interrupted Xuanxuan's reverie. Li Haoran's name, already etched in her heart, entered her ears, and Xuanxuan instinctively looked up. Without Xiaomi's guidance, Li Haoran was like a radiant presence to Xuanxuan. Even in the busiest crowds, she could always spot him at a glance, just like now. No one knew Xuanxuan liked Li Haoran except Xiaomi. Privately, Xiaomi would always tease Xuanxuan by calling him "your Li Haoran." Xuanxuan never stopped her from this nickname, and only when Xiaomi called him that could she feel a tiny bit of the illusion that they were a couple. Unfortunately, illusions are just illusions—Li Haoran, standing there, was still as radiant and charming as ever. Such a guy would be the focus of girls' attention wherever he went. But today, all the girls who had been interested in him could only sigh inwardly, because the handsome man held a fiery red rose in his hand, indicating that his heart already belonged to someone else. Perhaps others didn't know who this rose was for, but Han Xuanxuan and Yu Xiaomi both knew
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The Fox Spirit Staircase (01-02)

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