"Yingying, all the girls on the ship say you are a celestial fox, but why do you claim to be a demon? In this world, could there really be such a demon who heals and saves people?"
Guan River, Red Chamber, the ninth floor.
The mist above the river had not yet dispersed, and inside one of the inconspicuous rooms.
A girl about sixteen or fifteen years old, as delicate and pretty as a porcelain doll in red, had her long hair draped over her shoulders as she carefully penciled her eyebrows in front of a bronze mirror.
She spoke to herself while drawing on her eyebrows.
It was as if she was having a conversation with something inside the mirror.
"Yingying, if it weren't for you, I, and all the sisters here, would have already become skeletons in the river."
"You say you eat humans..."
"But if consuming people makes one a demon, then the biggest demons in this world should be the scions of noble families and the high officials of the court."