Chapter 3: The Problem with Immortals

Living with an immortal fox spirit, Chen Qing discovered, was mostly logistical.

He did not eat — or rather, he claimed not to need to eat, which she quickly discovered was different from not eating. By day three she had caught him standing in her kitchen at two in the morning, staring at her leftover dumplings with an expression of profound dignity and intense longing.

"You can have them," she said.

He startled. She had not known immortal beings could startle. She filed the information away.

"I require no sustenance," he said.

"They're pork and chive. My grandmother's recipe."

He did not move.

"They're getting cold."

He ate six of them in complete silence, standing at the kitchen counter with his sleeves carefully rolled up, and refused to acknowledge the entire incident afterward. Chen Qing put it in her field notes under "Subject: dietary habits. Status: in denial."

The larger problem was his opinion of her apartment.

"This is where you live," he said on the first morning, looking around her cluttered living room with an expression that suggested he had seen better conditions in the spirit realm's least desirable neighborhoods.

"Yes."

"It is very small."

"It's a studio in Shanghai. Small is standard."

"There are artifacts on every surface."

"I'm an archaeologist."

"Some of these are cursed."

Chen Qing looked up from her laptop. "Which ones?"

He pointed to three items without hesitation. She looked at them. She looked at him.

"I bought that vase at IKEA," she said.

"The IKEA curse is particularly insidious," he replied, and she genuinely could not tell if he was joking.