The Fox Wife

Bao buys a train ticket to Dalian. He hears how a man who’d been planning to sell a woman to the pleasure district found himself unconscious next to railway tracks. Bao believes that the woman is the same fox lady that Mr. Wang is desperately trying to find. He feels energized by his hunt, a feeling he hasn’t known in a long time. He recalls how his wife had been a timid and nervous companion who needed his approval for everything and how, despite his mediocre career, he’s not had any real hardships despite what he believes to be his impending doom.

Snow borrows a light-blue kimono. This troubles the housekeeper, as the kimono belongs to Miss Yukiko, the granddaughter of the house’s owner.

Snow sets off and finds the inn where Bektu lodges. She sneaks in and finds him in his room, asleep. She recalls the only time she saw Bektu prior to this encounter when she was still in Mr. Wang’s villa and had agreed to have her photograph taken. She thought she’d have time to observe him, but he left soon after. She prepares rope to tie him up when the inn maid knocks on the door. Bektu wakes up and immediately recognizes Snow as the woman from Mr. Wang’s villa. He sends the maid away. Snow tries to dispel his suspicion by asking for “private photographs” of her and Shiro. He knows that she is lying because Shiro has always staunchly refused to have his photograph taken.

Bao visits his brother before leaving for Dalian. He asks him about their nanny and if he knows what their nanny prayed to the fox god to have removed from him. His brother confirms that it was his shadow. According to his brother, Bao had been terribly sick as a child. Doctors had deemed him to have too much yin, or negative, cold energy. To fix this, their nanny had prayed to the fox god to remove his shadow and take out some of his yin. They debate whether it was effective, considering that Bao believes he still has a shadow and he was very ill with jaundice after she’d prayed for him. Jaundice is considered an illness of too much yang, or positive energy. Bao takes the train to Dalian. He has a dream where Tagtaa is waiting for him by the fox shrine and tells him that she’s met the black fox again. When Bao wakes, he wonders if the fox lady has found Bektu yet.

Snow discovers that Bektu is resistant to foxes’ influence. She cries to distract him. When she sees an opening to stab him, she hesitates. The maid interrupts them again, as Bektu has another visitor. Snow uses the opportunity to run away. She returns to the house, distraught at her inability to act. A manservant hands her a letter from Takeda. He also informs her that Yukiko is visiting, as she does every week, which rankles Snow.

Snow goes to the garden, feeling depressed. She overhears Kuro and Yukiko speaking. She remarks on their intimacy and how much Kuro has confided in this woman. Snow tries to sneak off, but Lu comes out. She and Lu are discovered by Kuro and Yukiko. After awkwardly promising to wash the kimono she’d borrowed, Snow escapes. Alone, she begins to read Takeda’s letter.

As the train arrives in Dalian, Bao ponders what it is about foxes that drives people to “madness.” He remarks how, objectively, foxes are the ones who are weaker and survive only by their wits. That night, he feels sick and goes to a nearby medicine shop for medicine. The shop happens to be the Huang family’s shop. The next day, he looks for photographers in town and hears about the scandalous reputation of Oda’s friend, who is haunted by odd disappearances and married women. Bao wonders if Oda’s handsome friend is the same man who caused disappearances in Mukden. In Dalian, there’s a rumor of a fox eating people’s livers.

Snow reads Takeda’s account. He describes how he witnessed a blackmailing incident at Mr. Wang’s villa involving Bektu and a young man. Bektu seemingly had compromising photos of him. The young man begged him for mercy, and Bektu gave him no quarter. The next day, the young man threw himself off a bridge and drowned. Snow regrets charging into Bektu’s room without knowing that he had a blackmailing business.

Shiro finds her and berates her for seeing Bektu when he’d told her to wait. He offers to get rid of him for her in exchange for a night of passion. She adamantly refuses, but he forces her into an embrace. As she struggles to get free, he asks if she will ask Kuro to do the deed instead and whether she wants him to give her another child. She throws a vase at him. The housekeeper, Tagtaa, and Chen come to see what the commotion is about. Snow is discovered, disheveled, and Shiro carelessly explains their situation as a lover’s quarrel. Snow quickly leaves, and Tagtaa follows her, commenting on how she, Shiro, and Kuro are very alike, as if their fates are bound together. She wonders whether it wouldn’t be better for Snow to marry again.

Bao recalls how his family had chosen his wife for her meekness and bound feet—the opposite of Tagtaa. Though his family was eventually unimpressed with her, Bao takes solace in the fact that he didn’t give his heart to anyone else. Tagtaa, after all, had been his first love and already had a claim on part of his heart.

When Bao arrives at Oda’s studio, a woman accosts Oda and asks for news of Shiro. Oda, however, sidesteps her by pretending to serve Bao. Alone, Bao asks Oda how he met Shiro, but Oda cannot recall. He shows him the fox lady’s photograph, and Oda confirms that she is Shiro’s friend.

When Bao leaves the shop, the woman is still there. They sit down for tea and discuss Shiro. Bao asks how she met him. She tells him of their acquaintanceship through a flower-arranging club, and Bao understands that Shiro is financially supported by the women he seduces. She confirms that Shiro traveled often to Mukden, and though he admired Mr. Wang’s fox lady, she didn’t reciprocate. Bao notices that the woman is quite despondent about finding Shiro and having him back, yet she is aware of how unnatural her attachment is. She gives Bao her card, identifying herself as Zhou Yuling. She asks that he contact her if he hears news of Shiro.

Snow goes to take a bath, and Kuro puts in more firewood to heat her water. They talk through a wall, and he asks about the deal between her and Shiro and who Bektu Nikan is. Snow forbids him from getting involved. Kuro believes that she can still walk the enlightened path since she has yet to kill someone. That night, she hears someone at the water pump but doesn’t investigate.

The next morning, Bohai entreats his grandmother to leave Japan and return home. He reveals his revolutionary ambitions, and she agrees that they need to leave. When Chen and Lu appear, they announce that Bektu is in town, and tension grows thick between them. That afternoon, Bektu is discovered dead, stabbed in his room. The police are investigating foreigners, and Snow worries that Kuro might have killed him.

After his discussion with Yuling, Bao makes a note of “Shirakawa” as a likely suspect in the suspicious disappearance in Mukden and Dalian, though he still believes that it is likelier that Shirakawa and the fox lady are actors rather than fox spirits.

The police arrive, and Shiro and Kuro meet with them. The police question them about their connections to Bektu, and Shiro deflects suspicion by claiming that he’d wanted to hire him. Shiro questions the police, and they admit that there is a lack of evidence to prove a physical struggle. Shiro exerts his influence on the police to make them believe that it was a simple robbery. They leave.

Later, Tagtaa is nervous, as she believes that Bohai left the house the night before. Snow goes to fetch him to alleviate Tagtaa’s worries but is brought into a meeting with Bohai, Chen, and Lu. All three men have doubts about Shiro, given the police’s odd behavior. They promptly decide to leave as quickly as possible, and when Snow and Bohai are alone, she asks him why they are all so skittish. Bohai reveals that Bektu wasn’t just a photographer; he was a courier for their revolutionary movement. He informs her that Shiro had a plan to get rid of Bektu should he prove troublesome. She deduces that Shiro was purposefully keeping her in the dark about his relationship with Bektu so that, should the need to kill him arise, she would be his perfect scapegoat. The next day, they depart for the steamer, but Kuro is nowhere to be seen.

Bao remains sick and dreams of three foxes—two white and one black. Two of them pair off and leave in one direction, while the other goes the opposite way. When Bao wakes, he is in his hotel in Dalian, and it is nighttime. He goes outside, but there is no one on the street, which he feels is ominous. In the moonlight, he discovers that he has no shadow.

Snow, Tagtaa, Shiro, Bohai, Chen, and Lu depart for the steamer that will bring them back to Dalian. Kuro appears later and states that he will be joining them. Yukiko appears and is distraught at Kuro’s departure. He promises to write to her. On the boat, Snow believes that Bohai might be slipping under Shiro’s influence after their encounter with the police. She later finds him arguing with Chen and Lu, as the three men believe that one of the others has sold them out. Both Chen and Lu had gone to see Bektu, and Chen bought the negatives of an incriminating photograph of all three of them. Their loud voices draw Tagtaa’s attention. Tagtaa tells Snow that Bohai is seeing more people without shadows. Later, on the deck, Snow finds an inebriated Chen, who proposes that they die by lovers’ suicide. Snow refuses him and his advances, and she slaps him when he insults her. He tries to choke her, but others intervene. Chen flees, and that night, he disappears.

Bao panics and believes that he must be dreaming. He goes back to sleep, and the next day, he finds that he does have a faint shadow. He believes that his experience the night prior might indicate his oncoming death. He goes to the medicine shop and inquires after its old mistress, who is meant to return from Japan the very same day. When he says that he’s an old acquaintance of hers, he doesn’t detect that he is lying. When he states that he is something of a friend of her husband’s, however, he registers the lie. He shows the clerk a photo of the fox lady, whom the clerk identifies as Ah San. Bao goes to the harbor to wait for the boat.

A ship-wide search is performed, but no one can find Chen. Snow goes to Chen’s cabin to search his belongings, and both Shiro and Kuro do the same. They all search for the negative he allegedly bought from Bektu. They find nothing and return to Shiro and Kuro’s cabin. Tagtaa calls Kuro, and Snow is left alone to confront Shiro about his intention to use her. He does not deny it, but Shiro admits that he didn’t kill Bektu. He asks her to stay with him, pointing out that she and Kuro are no longer an item. Kuro enters the room then and notes the hoarseness in Snow’s voice. Snow uncovers her bruised neck and mentions how Chen had wanted them to die by suicide with her before his disappearance. Exhausted, she leaves to rest.

Bao arrives at the harbor and discovers that a passenger has gone missing on one of the boats. As he waits at the administrative office to gather more information, he encounters a former student, Hong, who works for the Chen family. Hong confirms that all the female passengers have already left and asks for his help resolving the mystery of Chen’s disappearance. He meets with Chen’s father, Mr. Chen, who claims that his son would never die by suicide. Hong invites Bao to attend the interviews planned for Chen’s traveling companions the next day.

While the others are distressed, Snow ponders over Chen’s disappearance and the likelihood of a murder. They return to the medicine shop. The next day, Tagtaa and her family go to the Chen household as they are summoned for interviews. Snow, however, remains in the house and decides that it is time for her to leave. She hesitates because she hasn’t said a proper farewell to Tagtaa. Half an hour later, the Chen family’s private security shows up at the shop to bring Snow to the Chen household.

Bao travels to the Chen household with Hong the next morning, and Bao gives Hong an overview of Chen’s recent trip to Japan. At the house, Bao listens and notifies Mr. Chen when he notices anything odd in the interviews. Lu enters and recounts his last encounters with Chen. Bao notes that he lies when he claims that Chen was in good spirits. When Mr. Chen asks about the altercation on the deck, Lu reveals that Ah San was involved and mentions that Chen might have been in love with her. Mr. Chen dispatches security to collect her. Shiro arrives, which leaves Bao shaken by his influence. As Shiro speaks, Bao has difficulty understanding him, as nearly everything he says about Chen is a lie. Mr. Chen is resistant to his influence and asks about his relationship with “Ah San.” Bao attentively listens to his answer.