The director asked in a muffled voice, "Do you... just hate foxes that much?"
Little Taotie thought of the White Fox in his dream, who spoke so gently, yet every word made one uncomfortable.
Then he thought of the Empress of Qingqiu, the ruthless one who directly threw her daughter into the Mortal Realm.
And then the smelly grey-haired fox in the play.
Little Taotie counted on his fingers, "Two-faced, ruthless, stinky."
The director was stunned, suddenly slammed the table, and glared angrily at the scriptwriter beside him, "I told you there’s something wrong with your script! Insisting on adding Qingqiu, insisting on adding foxes, and claiming it’s following the trend! Damn it, where in the world is Qingqiu, and even if there was a Qingqiu, why should foxes be in charge? Everyone knows, foxes are sly creatures, two-faced, ruthless, and stinky! Look, even a six-year-old kid understands!"
Called by name, Little Taotie proudly puffed out his chest, "Teacher said the story of the fox borrowing the tiger’s power tells us that foxes are all bad. If a fox became king, it would have stolen the tiger’s position."
The director slammed the table again, "Right! Exactly, how can foxes be the rulers of Qingqiu? Are the tigers dead? Are all the lions and leopards extinct?"
The scriptwriter wiped the sweat off his forehead and stammered, "This... this is written in the Classic of Mountain and Sea!"
Little Taotie had recently read the Classic of Mountain and Sea, specifically for Suan Ni, and immediately raised his small hand, eager to show off, "I know, I know, the Classic of Mountain and Sea mentions the Kingdom of Qingqiu!"
Director: "..." You used to be the quiet kid, how come you have so much to say now?
The scriptwriter, now emboldened by Zaizai’s evidence, spoke confidently and without stuttering, "The Classic of Mountain and Sea mentions the Kingdom of Qingqiu, I’m not making things up! Qingqiu is indeed ruled by foxes!"
Little Taotie recited beside him, "The Kingdom of Qingqiu, three hundred li further east, called Mount Qingqiu, its sunny side is full of jade, and its shady side has much green ochre."
"There dwells a beast, shaped like a fox with nine tails, its sound like a baby’s cry, it can eat people, those who eat it are not bewitched..."
The director perked up and suddenly interrupted, "A Nine-tailed Fox eats people?"
Little Taotie nodded his small head, "Bad!"
The director looked sharply at the scriptwriter, "Is the Little Fox in the script, good?"
The scriptwriter wiped away sweat and stuttered again, "Well... people have both good and bad, so do foxes..."
The director snorted, "Foxes aren’t good creatures, they eat people, how could they be good? Would they risk their lives to save someone just for a mouthful of food? Would you die for a biscuit? Or for a bag of rice?"
The scriptwriter was speechless and sighed, "As you wish, no foxes, no Qingqiu, I’ll revise the script."
Initially, Little Taotie was to play Suan Ni, the idea was to add a role specifically tailored for Little Taotie, and she still insisted on not removing the Little Fox and Qingqiu, even though the director always wanted them gone, she always disagreed.
She looked at Little Taotie, who was passionately proclaiming foxes as bad along with the director, and sighed in her heart: for Zaizai’s sake, there can’t be any foxes.
Little Taotie tilted his head, looked into the scriptwriter’s eyes, puzzled, "Why write a bad fox as a good fox? A bad fox is inherently bad."
Suddenly, an idea struck her.
The scriptwriter continued to insist on keeping Qingqiu and the Little Fox, smiling, "Director, since everyone is following the trend, we should too, but we’ll take a different path. While other shows depict Qingqiu as a wonderful place and Nine-tailed Foxes as good, we’ll do the opposite!"
"We’ll depict it as the Classic of Mountain and Sea describes, the Kingdom of Qingqiu as a terribly evil place, where those entering alive don’t come out alive, all eaten by the Nine-tailed Fox clan, what do you think?"
The director frowned, "Unnecessary." From the beginning, he thought Qingqiu was redundant.
The scriptwriter persisted, "I think we should keep Qingqiu, the benefits outweigh the downsides. We can follow the trend while sparking some viewers’ interest, and if fans of the Nine-tailed Fox and Qingqiu argue with us, the more they bicker online, the more people will know about our series and watch it, it’s a form of publicity!"