Volume 3, Chapter 291 – Like This, You’re Even More Adorable.

“I am not Chi Xiyan. I cannot calculate every gain and loss as clearly as she does.”

“She believes that tears and crying cannot win you anything. They are useless. Crying, moreover, is nothing but the cowardice of the incompetent.”

“But I do not think so.”

“Crying, shedding tears… it does not signify weakness. It is simply the release of emotion.”

“All it represents is the softest part of who you are.”

“So… why would I ever laugh at you? Your Highness.”

“No one ever decreed that a princess of the Wolf Clan must cast aside her vulnerabilities and forge herself into a weapon that feels neither sorrow nor joy.”

“Compared to a cold and dull weapon, I think you, like this, right now, are far more real and natural.”

“And far more…”

A faint smile rested on Lu Zhuxin’s face as she said slowly,

“Far more… adorable.”

Surprise flickered in Bu Lianshuang’s eyes. “Miss, are you trying to comfort me?”

Lu Zhuxin spread her hands. “Hey! I’m just saying. Don’t overthink it; I didn’t mean it the way you’re thinking.”

Bu Lianshuang was quiet for a moment, pressing her lips together. “Miss Fox… is really quite cunning.”

She never took the initiative to accept, nor did she ever clearly refuse.

All this time, it had always been Bu Lianshuang who chased after her.

Yet every time Bu Lianshuang felt disappointed, felt hurt and miserable, she would release just a little warmth like this and give Bu Lianshuang just a sliver of hope.

But the moment Bu Lianshuang grasped that warmth, believing she had caught hold of hope and wanting to draw closer, she would use those cold hands to mercilessly shove Bu Lianshuang far away again.

And then, with those soft lips, she would speak the coldest, most heartless, most cutting words imaginable.

Then the two of them would settle back into this state, neither close nor distant, neither warm nor cold.

As Bu Lianshuang thought it through carefully, she realized she had been chasing Miss Fox for so long, yet it felt as though she had never moved from the same spot.

Miss Fox had not lied, after all.

She truly was, just as she had said, someone who enjoyed toying with people’s hearts.

In Bu Lianshuang’s silence, Lu Zhuxin wound a finger around the tip of her own hair, tilting her head slightly as her gaze drifted into the distance. “Your Highness, have you cried enough?”

“If not, I can lend you my tail so you can hold it and cry a little longer.”

Bu Lianshuang watched the side of Lu Zhuxin’s face.

Something indescribable stirred in her chest.

She felt as though her heart was a toy in Miss Fox’s hands, to be squeezed flat or rolled round, kneaded and played with however she liked, and there was nothing she could do about it.

This fox was absolutely terrible.

Bu Lianshuang wiped the dampness from the corners of her eyes.

“I’m fine now, Miss.”

“Was there something you came to find me for?”

Lu Zhuxin turned her face, a faint smile of satisfaction on it. “There is, in fact, something I’d like to discuss with you.”

Bu Lianshuang looked at that scheming smile on Lu Zhuxin’s face and let out a bitter sigh in her heart.

As expected.

This was Miss Fox’s craft, using others’ feelings as leverage and acting with complete impunity.

Really. Absolutely terrible.

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“Miss, please just say it directly…” Bu Lianshuang said. “Whatever I’m able to do, I’ll try my best.”

“I don’t need you to do anything.” Lu Zhuxin wound her finger around her hair again. “I just want to borrow a few people from you.”

“Borrow people?”

“Yes. Lend me those Wolf Clan warriors under your command for a while.”

Bu Lianshuang froze.

“Miss, does it have to be them? I have Fifth Realm cultivation too. Whatever it is, just let me handle it.”

“No.” Lu Zhuxin shook her head. “You’re a maidservant of the Chi residence. You can’t slip away. If you were the one to do it, suspicion would easily turn toward me.”

“I…” Bu Lianshuang hesitated.

Following Miss Fox was her own decision and had nothing to do with anyone else.

Even if she encountered something unpleasant as a result, it was her own doing and she had no one else to blame.

But if other people were to be dragged in because of her, that was an entirely different matter.

She had no right to make decisions for others, and she certainly could not pull others into danger because of her own personal affairs.

“Relax.” Lu Zhuxin saw the hesitation and said, “I won’t have them do anything particularly dangerous.”

“In this human territory fraught with danger on all sides, the tribes of the Demon Territory ought to stand united.”

“Every source of combat power is an invaluably precious resource.”

“Mm…” Bu Lianshuang thought for a moment. “Is this for the matter the Fox Clan has been planning all along?”

“It’s for the Fox Clan.” Lu Zhuxin paused. “And for the Fox Monarch.”

“The World-Ending Fox Monarch?” Bu Lianshuang was startled. “Miss, did you come to the Chi residence and draw close to Chi Xiyan under the Nine-Tailed Fox Monarch’s orders as well?”

Lu Zhuxin smiled at her without offering any explanation.

Bu Lianshuang understood. This touched on Fox Clan secrets again.

The World-Ending Fox Monarch, Lu Zhuxin. Even as a princess of the Wolf Clan, Bu Lianshuang was no stranger to that name.

She was the only nine-tailed fox the Fox Clan had produced in thousands of years, and the only great demon to shatter the shackles on the Fox Clan’s combat power and break through to the Eighth Realm.

If it was by the Nine-Tailed Fox Monarch’s order, then it was no small matter.

Though the Wolf Clan held no fondness for the Fox Clan, they were still well aware of the contributions the Fox Clan had made to the countless tribes of the Demon Territory.

For hundreds and thousands of years, whenever the Demon Territory clashed with the human race, more than half of the intelligence gathered had come from the Fox Clan.

It stood to reason that the Fox Monarch’s order for Miss Fox to infiltrate the Chi residence carried deep purpose.

With that thought, Bu Lianshuang gave Lu Zhuxin a nod.

“I understand, Miss Fox.”

“I’ll write a letter explaining the situation. As for whether the elders are willing to help… I can only hope the Fox Clan will respect their wishes.”

Lu Zhuxin smiled. “Your Highness, that is more than enough.”

With a letter from Bu Lianshuang in hand, did she really need to worry that those little wolf cubs wouldn’t cooperate?

***

That evening, on the streets of Beihe Commandery.

Qin Qingfen clutched a jade slip, wearing a cold and sour expression as she walked through the bustling street.

She had just finished delivering this month’s procurement list to the Chi family shops, all in preparation for the eldest miss’s engagement banquet.

Ever since Chi Xiyan had banished her to the back residence’s dining hall, she had been running errands like this every single day.

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“That wretched girl…” she muttered. “She throws away even her nursemaid’s dignity, all for the sake of that picked-up little vixen.”

Qin Qingfen stared at the endless stream of carriages and pedestrians ahead, her heart seething.

As nursemaid to the Chi family’s eldest miss, after Chi Xiyan took power, she should have been living comfortably in the Chi family’s back residence, not running about like some lowly servant doing petty errands.

But the moment Yu Lizhi was brought into the Chi residence, everything changed.

Whenever she thought of Yu Lizhi, that vixen, living in the Chi residence enjoying the treatment of a pampered young lady while she herself could only eat dust on this street, Qin Qingfen trembled with rage.

But what infuriated her even more was Chi Xiyan’s poor judgment and utter disregard for old sentiments.

“That wretched Xiyan, does she really think that becoming the young sect master’s wife of Lingxiao Sword Sect means she can rest easy…”

Qin Qingfen ground her teeth.

Just then, a low murmur of conversation drifted into her ears.

“The eldest miss who seemed to have everything in the bag actually fell at the hands of a vixen?”

“Right? Who could have imagined it would turn out like that… That eldest miss was just too naive, too kind. How could she have known that vixen wasn’t human at all!”

“Such a perfectly fine young lady from a great family, who could have become the family matriarch, and yet she ended up like that. It’s truly a pity…”

Qin Qingfen’s brow shot up.

An eldest miss from a great family? A vixen?

The vixen had won against the eldest miss?

Who were they talking about?

Qin Qingfen turned around and looked toward the direction of the voices.

She found that the ones talking were two young maidservants at a roadside tea stall.

Both were dressed as maidservants, though the fabric of their clothing was far inferior to that of the Chi family’s servants.

They were likely maids of some minor noble family.

There were plenty of such minor families in Beihe Commandery.

But what truly caught Qin Qingfen’s attention was the content of their conversation.

These girls from minor families had no proper training and no filter on their mouths. They would gossip about anything.

What they had been saying was probably gossip from some minor family’s back residence.

Normally, this sort of thing was tired old talk in noble households, but those key words had made Qin Qingfen drift closer without thinking.

The gossip in these maids’ mouths was far too similar to Chi Xiyan’s situation.

Qin Qingfen stepped up to the two young maids, wearing an amiable smile. “Little ones, what you were just talking about sounds very interesting. Would you mind telling me more about it?”

The two girls were startled by Qin Qingfen’s sudden appearance and stuttered, not daring to speak.

Qin Qingfen was not irritated.

Her smile unchanged, she reached into her sleeve and produced two pieces of silver, setting them on the table.

“I don’t mean to take advantage of you two. It’s just that my mistress loves hearing gossip from noble back residences. I happened to overhear your conversation and found it quite interesting, so I thought I’d ask for details to share with her when I return.”

The two young maids’ eyes lit up the moment they saw the silver.

“Nanny, you’ve asked exactly the right people!”

“We were just talking about the Chen family in the south of the city.”

The Chen family in the south of the city? Qin Qingfen turned the name over in her mind.

She drew a blank. It was likely just an ordinary minor family.

“The Chen family head has only one legitimate daughter, sharp as a whip and deeply cherished.”

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“Not yet seventeen, and she already had peak Third Realm cultivation. In alchemy, she had made no small achievement either. Truly a girl with boundless prospects.”

That talent’s a notch below Chi Xiyan’s. Qin Qingfen noted privately.

“On top of that, she had a marriage contract with an inner disciple of Lingxu Sword Sect. Once her cultivation reached the Fourth Realm, they were set to choose a wedding date.”

“But it didn’t last long. Not long ago, the Chen family head brought home an illegitimate daughter from outside.”

“And that was the beginning of everything.”

“That illegitimate daughter, you see, had been raised since childhood by a disreputable woman in a brothel, where she had learned all manner of bewitching tricks.”

“From the moment she was brought into the Chen family, she stirred up trouble in the back residence.”

“Miss Chen had a kind nature but poor judgment. She took it all as her younger sister being mischievous, and was played around and around by the vixen’s tricks. Her loyal confidants were driven out one by one, and every advantage she had was thrown away!”

“By the time she finally saw the vixen for what she was, it was already too late.”

Qin Qingfen felt a jolt run through her.

This Chen family the maid spoke of, how terrifyingly similar it was to Qin Qingfen’s own situation!

She had raised Chi Xiyan with her own hands and poured her heart out for that girl, only for that girl to banish her to the back residence to do rough labor alongside low-ranking servants, all for the sake of that vixen Yu Lizhi!

At that thought, Qin Qingfen couldn’t help herself. “So what happened in the end? What was the outcome?!”

“Ah, in the end…” The young maid shook her head. “That vixen pulled some trick during Miss Chen’s engagement banquet.”

“She made Miss Chen lose her virtue, ruined her body, and turned the entire Chen family into a laughingstock.”

“Miss Chen’s fiance left in fury. A perfectly good match, shattered just like that.”

“And Miss Chen herself, unable to accept what had happened, coughed up blood and fainted.”

“When she woke, she had become deranged, her mind unclear.”

“What a pity. Such a large family as the Chens, and in the end, all of it fell into a vixen’s hands. Truly heartbreaking.”

As Qin Qingfen listened, her breathing grew heavier and heavier.

Chi Xiyan had been sharp since childhood and had always been well aware of the underhanded tactics used in back residences. It was unlikely she would fall for something so crude.

But when she thought of Chi Xiyan’s attitude toward that vixen, Qin Qingfen found herself uncertain.

Had Chi Xiyan, like Miss Chen, had her mind bewitched by that vixen?

“Wait!” Qin Qingfen asked. “You said the vixen used some trick to ruin Miss Chen. What trick was it?”

“What else could it be? She drugged her, of course!”

“Miss Chen’s trusted people had already been driven away long before. The ones left around her were basically all the vixen’s people. Drugging Miss Chen was child’s play.”

“After drugging Miss Chen, she summoned a few guards who had long had their eyes on her.”

“Then she timed it precisely. At the height of the banquet, she goaded Miss Chen’s fiance into taking people to search for her.”

“And naturally, the result was that a hall full of guests witnessed a live scandal.”

“What a vicious scheme!” Qin Qingfen exclaimed.

The vixen’s method was link after link. First isolating and sidelining, then controlling the entire situation, and finally sending the target down a path of no return with a poisonous scheme, leaving no possibility of turning things around.

Qin Qingfen had to admit she could not have thought up such a vile scheme herself.

But then Qin Qingfen furrowed her brow, suddenly noticing a flaw.

“Miss Chen was a Third Realm cultivator and an alchemist. How could she have fallen for such a scheme?”

Chi Xiyan was an alchemist, and as her nursemaid, Qin Qingfen knew well how formidable an alchemist could be.

An ordinary poison, Chi Xiyan needed only one light sniff to identify it.

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She could even analyze a poison’s composition and formula within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, then brew an antidote.

Cultivators themselves had resistance to toxins. Getting an alchemist to fall prey to poison was no easy feat.

Qin Qingfen did not believe that a mere brothel woman could truly have the means to poison an alchemist.

The two young maids exchanged a glance.

One of them scrunched her brow. “That, I don’t know. I only heard that the vixen used poison. As for how exactly she did it, I really can’t say…”

Qin Qingfen’s brow furrowed slightly.

So these two were going on secondhand gossip after all. It couldn’t be taken as fact.

Rumors always had distortions. That was nothing unusual.

“Oh! I just remembered!” The other maid suddenly recalled something. “I heard from my great-uncle’s aunt’s cousin that the brothel where the vixen grew up apparently has some connections.”

“It’s supposedly linked to some mysterious organization in the cultivation world!”

The other maid nodded with dawning recognition. “Now that you say it, I do vaguely remember something like that.”

“Something like Burial Moon Tower, some name with ‘moon’ in it!”

“…Burial?” Qin Qingfen’s brow tightened. She thought for a moment. “You don’t mean… Sin Moon Tower, do you?”

Both young maids tilted their heads simultaneously.

“Huh? Is that what it’s called?”

“Not entirely sure, we just know the name had ‘moon’ in it.”

“They say it’s a mysterious organization that gets things done for the right price.”

“When it comes to dealing with cultivators, only other cultivators are truly up to the task.”

Qin Qingfen felt her heartbeat slip beyond her control, her blood running faster.

If it really was Sin Moon Tower, she knew them well. She had done business with Sin Moon Tower twice already.

Sin Moon Tower was the foremost assassin organization in the cultivation world. If it really was them, then bringing ruin to a Third Realm alchemist would indeed be effortless.

Qin Qingfen asked again, “Is everything you’ve told me true?”

“Nanny, what a strange thing to ask. Weren’t we just chatting about noble family gossip?”

“If you really want to know the truth, why not just go see for yourself?”

“Exactly!”

“After Miss Chen lost her mind, she was shut away in an abandoned courtyard not far from here. If you want to know where, I can show you the way.”

Qin Qingfen let out a dry laugh. “Little ones, I didn’t mean to cast doubt on you. It’s just that my mistress likes to get to the bottom of everything when she hears a story. I was asking a few extra questions so I’d be able to tell it to her in detail when she asks.”

“Oh, I see!” The two young maids nodded with understanding, not suspecting a thing. “Aiya! Nanny, you’re serving quite a troublesome eldest miss yourself!”

“She truly is,” Qin Qingfen sighed. “Grown as she is, she still makes people worry like she’s a child.”

The two young maids nodded in heartfelt agreement.

“Nanny, let me give you the address.” The maid provided an address. “It’s not far from here, but it is somewhat out of the way. Do you need us to guide you?”

“No need.” Qin Qingfen waved her hand. “I’ll just take a look from a distance and head back.”

With that, Qin Qingfen bid the two young maids farewell and strode briskly toward the address the maid had given.

What Qin Qingfen did not know was that after she left, the two young maids sitting at the tea stall watched her departing figure in silence.

Hidden in their clear eyes was a chill.

A moment later, the entire tea stall vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed at all.