Original Text
In Wan Village, there was a daughter-in-law of the Shi family who was plagued and tormented by a fox spirit; though she loathed it deeply, she could not rid herself of it. Behind her door stood a jar, and whenever she heard her father-in-law approaching, the fox spirit would dart into the jar to hide. Having secretly observed this behavior many times, the woman conceived a plan in her heart but spoke of it to no one. One day, when the fox spirit again slipped into the jar, she hastily stuffed the mouth with cotton wadding, placed the jar in a cauldron, and heated the water to boil it. As the jar grew hot, the fox spirit cried out, "It is too hot! Do not play such a cruel trick on me!" The woman paid it no heed. The fox spirit shrieked more urgently, but after a long while, its voice fell silent. When the woman pulled out the stopper to look, there was nothing within but a pile of fox fur and a few drops of blood.
Commentary
This is a story about a woman who saves herself from being harmed by a fox spirit. The text is no more than a hundred words, yet the woman's composure, cleverness, decisiveness, and courage leave a deep impression on the reader.
The tale depicts the woman who never spoke throughout her revenge against the fox. In her planning, "the woman observed it thoroughly, secretly devising a scheme but remaining silent," out of fear that her plot might be revealed; during the execution, "as the bottle grew hot, the fox cried out, 'It is too hot! Do not play such a cruel trick.' The woman said nothing," driven by a bone-deep hatred. The story concludes with the fox's fate described as "merely a pile of fur and a few drops of blood," concise and vivid, with admiration clearly evident between the lines.