Volume 1, Chapter 29 – A Disobedient Doll

“She saw through my identity?”

“That shouldn’t be possible.”

“There’s no way that could happen.”

Lu Zhuxin pondered, feeling very strange about this.

Song Shiyuan’s transformation had been too sudden.

Although Song Shiyuan had often looked at the little fox demon with suspicion before, she had never shown this kind of fearful expression.

“That reaction felt like someone had suddenly spoiled the plot for her.”

“Such an abrupt change.”

“What was it that made her suddenly start suspecting my identity?”

Lu Zhuxin’s brow furrowed.

【Hehe, Host, did you just lose control?】

The System suddenly popped up at this moment.

Its tone clearly carried a trace of epicaricacy.

“Lose control?” Lu Zhuxin raised her hand to rub her small face.

A sweet, adorable smile bloomed again on her innocent little face.

“I was just a tiny bit angry, that’s all.”

【You can get angry?】

“Of course.”

“Do you know what most easily makes me angry?”

【What?】

“When I’m happily and honestly playing a game, and I suddenly discover the opponent is a motherless cheater.”

“System, when playing games, the most annoying thing is when the other side has someone cheating.”

【Host. The System doesn’t understand your meaning.】

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“System, you know what? I always felt that little Shiyuan was probably the easiest female protagonist for me to capture.”

“I devoted quite a bit of ink to her in the original text, and I understand her the most. Her thoughts, her behavioral patterns. I can generally figure them out.”

“Just now, although she didn’t say anything, I could sense it.”

“She was afraid of me. She was genuinely terrified from the bottom of her heart.”

“As if I would swallow her alive and flay her.”

“She had never looked at me with that kind of gaze before.”

“Not even when facing Hu Xian’er, who made no effort to hide her hostility toward her.”

“System, why do you think that is?”

【Why… why?】

The System’s voice wasn’t as calm as before.

“Yes, why is that?” Lu Zhuxin held her own tail, smoothing its fur unhurriedly.

“I’ve thought and thought, and I can only come up with one answer.”

“System, do you think someone might have secretly told her my identity when I wasn’t aware?”

【…】

【Who does the Host think it might be?】

Lu Zhuxin was silent for a while.

“System, if the power of the Heavenly Dao interfered with her, would you be able to detect it?”

【The System can only detect external Heavenly Dao forces imposed on the Host. Currently, it doesn’t have permission to detect other people’s states.】

“Heh, so you can’t prove it either, can you?” Lu Zhuxin chuckled lightly.

【Does the Host suspect the Heavenly Dao gave Song Shiyuan a hint?】

“Well, who knows?” Lu Zhuxin said. “If it wasn’t the Heavenly Dao, what other person would have this ability? And why would they do such a thing?”

【…】

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Lu Zhuxin let out a light snort. “I just feel that cheating in a game is really unsportsmanlike.”

【…What does the Host plan to do now?】

“What can an ordinary player without power or influence do?” Lu Zhuxin said. “Even if someone cheated, the game must go on.”

“Cute little Shiyuan won’t obediently follow the script I prepared.”

“What a disobedient doll.”

“She deserted at the critical moment. This script can’t continue, so I’ll have to give her a new one.”

Lu Zhuxin raised her head, looking at the two fox demons still waiting by the bed for her command.

“Hu Mei’er, are you skilled at transformation arts?”

“I have a new idea.”

A pure smile bloomed on Lu Zhuxin’s sweet little face.

Somehow, it made Hu Mei’er feel a bit nervous.

…

“She didn’t chase after me…”

Song Shiyuan, who had escaped from her own room, now stood outside an unfamiliar courtyard.

She raised her hand to cover her chest.

Her heart was still pounding.

The moment that voice told her the little fox demon was the Fox Monarch, the anxiety Song Shiyuan had been feeling all along completely erupted.

She had fled, running until the collar around her neck began to tighten, and only then did she stop.

She admitted it. She was afraid.

Fear of the unknown, trembling from her very soul, made her ultimately choose to flee.

No one had chased after her.

If that little fox demon really was the Fox Monarch, Song Shiyuan wouldn’t have been able to leave that room if she didn’t allow it.

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“…Is the little fox demon really that nine-tailed Fox Monarch?”

Song Shiyuan wasn’t certain.

If that nine-tailed Fox Monarch truly intended to conceal her identity, Song Shiyuan couldn’t possibly find any flaws.

But if the little fox demon really was the Fox Monarch, Song Shiyuan couldn’t understand what meaning there was in doing this.

“Playing house with an insignificant little sword cultivator like me? What meaning would that have for her?”

Song Shiyuan couldn’t comprehend it. Even if she directly assumed the little fox demon was that nine-tailed Fox Monarch, she still couldn’t deduce the Fox Monarch’s behavioral logic from it.

Song Shiyuan had often read in storybooks before: some high-status women, in pursuit of true love, would hide their identities and pretend to be ordinary women, marrying the ordinary male protagonist as wives.

Despite possessing illustrious status and powerful strength, they willingly hid beside the male protagonist, loving him, protecting him, secretly paving the way for him.

“But those are just fantasy stories imagined by frustrated scholars.”

The protagonists in the stories were mostly frustrated scholars who couldn’t achieve their ambitions.

Song Shiyuan didn’t believe such fantasy stories would happen around her.

And besides, she was a woman.

“I have absolutely no evidence to prove she really is the Fox Monarch, nor can I prove she isn’t.”

“What I can confirm is that the heat period’s influence was fake. She’s been maintaining clarity all along.”

Song Shiyuan smiled bitterly.

If not for that mysterious voice that suddenly rang out in her mind, she wouldn’t have connected that little fox demon with that mysterious Fox Monarch at all.

What was the origin of that voice?

Why tell her this?

Could she really trust that mysterious voice?

Thinking about it, Song Shiyuan suddenly felt her earlier behavior had been somewhat impulsive.

“If she really is the Fox Monarch, my pushing her away just now would undoubtedly anger her…”

“If she isn’t the Fox Monarch and is truly just an ordinary little fox demon… my behavior just now could also be considered breaking my word.”

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“So what should I do now?”

“Go back?”

Song Shiyuan’s heart was bitter.

Regardless of what the little fox demon’s identity actually was, as the Fox Monarch’s female consort, she seemed to have no other choice.

“I was impulsive.”

The metal collar around her neck suddenly trembled.

Song Shiyuan’s heart jumped slightly. She suddenly understood. This metal collar was transmitting some kind of information to her.

“My courtyard has been intruded upon by an outsider. Who could it be?” After reading the information, Song Shiyuan was surprised.

The little fox demon was still in her room. Who would intrude into her courtyard at this time?

Fox demons in the Fox Palace wouldn’t be restricted by the barriers, so whoever intruded into her courtyard definitely wasn’t a fox demon!

If not a fox demon, who else could it be?

Song Shiyuan hadn’t yet figured out this question when suddenly another warning sensation transmitted through her spiritual sense.

“The defensive restrictions I set up in the room have been activated!”

“No! They’ve been destroyed by someone!”

“Someone is destroying the restrictions I left behind. This sharp and domineering aura feels so familiar… It’s a sword cultivator!!”

Song Shiyuan’s heart jumped in alarm.

The little fox demon was still in her room.

The room was full of the little fox demon’s pheromones.

And now, an unknown sword cultivator had suddenly intruded into that room completely filled with pheromones.

Song Shiyuan didn’t dare continue thinking.

Having experienced it personally, she was very clear about how powerful that little fox demon’s pheromones were.

“I need to return immediately!”