Neustrašni Song Daxian in lisičji duh

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Neustrašni Song Daxian in lisičji duh

In the western outskirts of Nanyang stood a pavilion where no one dared spend the night, for anyone who stayed there met with misfortune. Song Daxian, a local man who lived by righteous principles, once lodged in its upper room. He sat up that night playing his qin, with no weapons at hand. At midnight, a ghost suddenly climbed the ladder and began speaking to him, glaring and gnashing its teeth, its appearance hideous. Daxian went on playing as before, and the ghost left. It fetched a dead man’s head from the marketplace, returned, and said to Daxian, “Would you care to sleep a little?” With that, it tossed the head down before him. Daxian said, “Excellent! I have no pillow to sleep on tonight. This is just what I wanted.” The ghost left again. After a long while it returned and said, “Would you care to wrestle with me?” “Gladly!” Daxian replied. Before he had finished speaking, the ghost was in front of him, and Daxian seized it about the waist. The ghost could only cry out desperately that it was dying. Daxian killed it. When he examined it the next morning, he found that it was an old fox. From then on, the pavilion was haunted no more.