Volume 3, Chapter 326 – Fox Palace Steward, Hu Xin’er

Inside the Chi family’s abandoned courtyard.

Bu Lianshuang lay face-down on a mattress riddled with holes.

The entire room reeked of damp rot and mildew.

This was the derelict outbuilding the Chi residence used to discipline servants who had committed offenses.

Had she not seen it with her own eyes, no one would have guessed that within the splendid grandeur of the Chi Family Grand Mansion, a place this decrepit could exist.

That said, Bu Lianshuang did not particularly mind such conditions.

The Far Northern Ice Plains were far harsher than anything here.

Hunger, cold, suffering. Those were the constants of the Far Northern Ice Plains.

This place was merely a little dilapidated, a little grimy.

Compared to those unforgiving frozen wastes, it was already quite comfortable.

Besides, right now, Bu Lianshuang had no energy to spare for complaints about her surroundings.

She lay flat on the bed, the searing pain radiating from her back making even rolling over an ordeal.

Physical pain, she could endure.

The grievance in her heart, however, was another matter entirely.

The poor girl buried her face in her arms and wept, her sobs soft and uneven.

Tears soaked through wide patches of her clothing.

Those twenty strikes of the thunder rod, she had borne without making a single sound.

And yet, now, she found she could bear no more.

She was strong. And she was also fragile.

Her faint, mournful weeping drifted slowly through the cold, shadowed courtyard.

‘Little Fox… little Fox, she…’

‘What am I supposed to do?’

As Bu Lianshuang sobbed quietly, a creak suddenly broke the silence of the empty room, as though someone had stepped inside and snapped a dry twig underfoot.

“Who’s there?!”

Bu Lianshuang went on guard at once. She swallowed her tears and turned her swollen, reddened eyes toward the doorway.

She had meant to sit up.

Wolf clan members never let anyone see their weakness.

But the moment she moved, the wounds on her back screamed in protest.

She stayed flat, teeth gritted, gaze sharp and cold, watching the entrance warily.

This desolate courtyard might be called a ruin, but the formations and restrictive seals surrounding it were anything but weak.

A prison for those who had transgressed could not afford to be full of holes.

Without an enforcement elder’s token, no one could leave, and no one could enter.

Then who, at a time like this, would come to a place like this?

Bu Lianshuang slowly tightened her claws.

Then, the wooden door was gently pushed open.

With a soft creak, a comforting fragrance unfurled through the cold, damp courtyard, filling the small wooden room to the brim. Even the stale mildew was completely smothered beneath it.

Bu Lianshuang froze.

Looking at the wholly unexpected silhouette before her, her eyes first went wide with surprise, then slowly filled with something wounded.

A sourness rose slowly from somewhere behind her nose.

Though Bu Lianshuang had reminded herself again and again that wolf clan members were born proud, that she could not be like those useless human girls who spent their days weeping, the moment she saw the familiar figure before her, the tears came anyway, unstoppable as a burst dam.

She tried to push herself up, but the slightest movement sent pain shooting through her, and she hissed through clenched teeth.

“Crying again.”

The girl’s soft, gentle voice tickled Bu Lianshuang’s ears like a feather.

The person seemed a little helpless, and perhaps a little guilty as well.

But in the end, all those emotions were smoothed away, leaving only a lightly teasing remark.

“A proper wolf clan princess, and here you are blubbering like a little crybaby.”

Lu Zhuxin pushed the door open and stepped inside, a formation plate in her hand.

The Chi family’s formation arrays were formidable, but compared to the Fox Palace’s grand ward, they came up short. Lu Zhuxin could not break through the array outright with her own abilities, but quietly boring a small gap along the formation’s edge was well within reach.

Bu Lianshuang lifted her head to look at Lu Zhuxin, eyes blurred with tears.

Though her vision was clouded, one thing remained perfectly clear: that girl’s smiling face, glowing as though it held its own light, impossible to obscure by anything.

She had thought that the little fox who could not even bring herself to look at her during the punishment would never concern herself with her again.

She had thought that the little fox who refused to spare her even a sliver of warmth would no longer keep her in mind.

She had thought that now, locked away in this cold, damp ruin, the little fox would be free to cling to that human man without anyone to disturb them.

Bu Lianshuang had imagined many things: every choice she had made, how she would face the little fox once she got out. But the one thing she had never imagined was that the little fox would appear before her now.

Bu Lianshuang felt that she was very strange.

She had thought she had come to terms with reality.

She had thought she had abandoned all expectations.

She had thought she would simply fulfill the terms of their prior agreement and act as an emotionless machine repaying a debt, pouring nothing more of herself into that little fox’s direction.

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And then she discovered that her heart was not at all what she had thought it was.

Bu Lianshuang felt very pitiful.

All that pain, all that grievance she had carried. And now, the moment she saw that sweet, smiling face, it melted away like snow in spring.

“Why is it you…” Bu Lianshuang turned her head away stiffly. “Little Fox, what are you doing here? This is no place for you.”

“I came to see you.” Lu Zhuxin walked to the side of Bu Lianshuang’s bed.

She looked at her blood-soaked back.

During the punishment, Lu Zhuxin had not watched. Seeing her back now, she realized the injuries were far worse than she had imagined.

Poor thing.

Lu Zhuxin’s gaze dropped slightly.

She sat on the edge of the bed, her voice soft with tenderness.

“Does it hurt?”

She raised her hand, wanting to touch her, but lost her nerve at the last moment and left it hovering uncertainly in midair.

“It doesn’t…” Bu Lianshuang kept her face buried, her voice muffled. “Just a small wound. Little Fox need not trouble herself over it.”

Lu Zhuxin lowered her hand. She let out a sigh. “You’re angry with me.”

“I’m not.” Bu Lianshuang said. “I am only Little Fox’s servant. A servant has no right to be angry with her mistress.”

Tch.

This impossible child, still putting on airs.

“Your Highness.” Lu Zhuxin’s voice softened, carrying just a hint of a plea. “I know you’re angry with me.”

Bu Lianshuang turned her face away.

Her heart gave a faint tremor.

She did not understand what the little fox was trying to do.

Just moments ago, she could not have been more dismissive. She had not even glanced at her during the punishment.

So why was she now willing to risk discovery to come and see her?

Why was she now releasing that infuriating tenderness in her direction?

And yet, despite everything, that worthless heart of hers was already warming from just these few words.

‘Bu Lianshuang, have you no backbone?!’

‘Wolf bones are not made of silk!’

Thinking all of this, Bu Lianshuang squeezed her fist tight.

“Little Fox, if you have something to say, just say it.”

“Wolf clan members keep their word. I said I would repay your kindness, and I will not go back on that.”

“You… do not need to put on this kind of act.”

Bu Lianshuang said quietly, “The last time you spoke to me like this, it was when you needed to borrow my people.”

Lu Zhuxin’s expression stiffened for just a moment.

That did seem to be the case.

But her skin was thick, and she smoothed over the brief awkwardness quickly.

“I came to apologize, Your Highness.”

“I’m sorry. Today’s matter was my failure to think things through.”

Lu Zhuxin looked at the wounds on Bu Lianshuang’s back, her eyes darkening.

Since Bu Lianshuang had entered the Chi residence, she had already been hurt several times. None of it had been within Lu Zhuxin’s calculations.

Especially today.

She had not anticipated that Chi Jingwen would order such a heavy hand.

Was it because of what she had done the night before? Had she gone too far?

But if not for that, she would have had no way to prevent Chi Xiyan and Song Shixuan’s engagement.

The method looked extreme, perhaps, but it had been effective.

If she had to do it again, she would make the same choice.

Still, the fact that Bu Lianshuang had ended up like this was partly on her.

“Little Fox?” Hearing Lu Zhuxin’s words, Bu Lianshuang went briefly still, wondering if she had misheard.

Little Fox was actually apologizing to her.

Was this really her little fox?

Could it be some human using an illusion technique to impersonate her?

But the voice, the scent… those could not be faked.

Bu Lianshuang felt something catch in her throat.

“Little Fox, I don’t understand what you mean. Did you do something wrong?”

Lu Zhuxin dipped her head slightly. “Yes. Consider it a belated apology.”

“For making you attend the bedchamber last time. And for causing you to be punished.”

“I should have been honest with you from the start.”

“When I was making plans, I never once considered how you felt.”

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“That, too, is my failing.”

Bu Lianshuang was stunned.

She clenched her fists tight.

A heat she could not name surged up from within her, impossible to contain.

Uncontrollable emotion crashed through her in waves.

The tears threatened to start again.

‘Cry, cry, cry! Bu Lianshuang, all you ever do is cry!’

‘This is exactly why people walk all over you!’

Furious at her own lack of composure, Bu Lianshuang buried her face even deeper.

Her voice came out muffled and indistinct.

“So then… Little Fox, what are you trying to say?”

“What use is there telling any of this to someone like me, someone on the outskirts of everything?”

Tch, tch.

This impossible girl, still putting on airs.

Lu Zhuxin remained patient. “I came to apologize, and I came to be honest with you.”

“Honest about everything.”

“Honest about everything?” Bu Lianshuang blinked. “What do you mean?”

Lu Zhuxin said, “Your Highness, do you remember when you once asked me which tribe of the fox clan I come from?”

Bu Lianshuang of course remembered.

At the time, this carelessly flirtatious little fox had suddenly and without warning removed her veil.

By wolf clan tradition, Bu Lianshuang’s options were to either kill her or marry her.

Wolf clan members repaid debts of gratitude; raising a blade against one’s benefactor was out of the question.

So Bu Lianshuang had chosen to marry her.

Asking after the little fox’s origins and lineage had been part of that, amatter of compatible standing, so as to satisfy custom.

But the little fox had not only refused to give her an answer, she had not even been willing to tell Bu Lianshuang her name.

Bu Lianshuang had been crestfallen, though she understood.

They had only just met then, unfamiliar with each other. Of course there would be no sharing of confidences. Mutual wariness was only natural.

And now, here in the present, the little fox was saying she wanted to be honest.

The heat in Bu Lianshuang’s chest burned a few degrees hotter.

After all they had been through, was the little fox finally willing to trust her? To let her in?

Bu Lianshuang kept her face buried, arms wrapped tightly around her head, doing her best not to let her helpless, undignified state show in front of the little fox.

But her shoulders were trembling, betraying everything her posture tried to conceal.

Lu Zhuxin saw it. The corners of her eyes curved with a hint of amusement.

Her voice, though, remained measured. “Your Highness, after all we have been through, are you still willing to hear what I have to say?”

Bu Lianshuang’s body stilled for a moment.

A muffled reply rose from somewhere beneath her arms. “You go ahead first. I’ll decide whether I want to listen after I hear it.”

Lu Zhuxin’s smile went rigid, a shadow passing across her brow.

“Your Highness,” she continued. “Could you turn and face me?”

“Rather than empty words, I would like to show you in a more direct way.”

“All of me.”

Bu Lianshuang’s trembling shoulders went still.

She hesitated for a moment, then began to move, slow and stiff as a rusted mechanism, and turned her head, degree by degree.

Those red-rimmed, tear-swollen eyes looked up at Lu Zhuxin.

And Lu Zhuxin’s own eyes widened slightly.

“This is… your true form?”

The little fox before her had shed every last layer of disguise.

Those jet-black strands of hair had transformed entirely into a luminous silver-white.

Her dark, deep eyes now refracted a crystalline wine-red light.

White hair. Red eyes.

These were the markings of a snow fox.

But…

Bu Lianshuang’s gaze traveled upward, and what she found was a pair of cherry-blossom pink fox ears, soft and delicate.

The tips of those ears blazed red, like the heart of a flame.

That carried the look of the red fox tribe.

“Mixed coloring…” The astonishment in Bu Lianshuang’s eyes had not faded. “You’re mixed coloring.”

“Yes.” Lu Zhuxin lowered her head, and those fluffy ears swayed gently with the motion in the cold air.

They looked like cotton candy, impossibly soft.

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Bu Lianshuang’s fingers itched at the sight. She had a strange urge to pop one in her mouth and taste it.

But her attention was quickly stolen by the full, lush fox tails fanning out behind Lu Zhuxin.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Eight great fluffy tails swayed behind her, filling the small wooden room until there was almost no space left.

“An eight-tailed fox demon…” Awe flickered through Bu Lianshuang’s eyes. “I recall that a fox demon of the seventh realm… is already fit to lead a tribe.”

Among the four great demon clans of the Demon Territory, the fox clan was different from the others.

The fox clan’s combat strength was the weakest of the four.

The fox clan’s path of growth was also the most painstaking and the most treacherous.

The divine had granted the fox clan their beautiful faces, and their extraordinary ability to reproduce regardless of sex or species.

But the divine had also placed the heaviest obstacles along the fox clan’s path of cultivation.

A fox demon who reached the seventh realm commanded a standing and authority that could rival even Bu Lianshuang’s own, a wolf clan princess.

‘No need to worry about a mismatch in standing anymore!’

The thought surfaced in Bu Lianshuang’s mind before she could stop it.

Lu Zhuxin continued. “Your Highness, as you can see, I am not a tribal leader.”

She smiled faintly. “There is no such thing as a tribe for the mixed-colored fox.”

Bu Lianshuang understood.

The fox clan had no shortage of tribes, more than any of the other four great clans. But Bu Lianshuang had never heard of any tribe bearing cherry-blossom pink.

Even so, a seventh realm fox demon was already an existence as rare as a phoenix feather or a qilin horn.

Something suddenly occurred to Bu Lianshuang, and she asked, “If you’re not a tribal leader, why do those yellow fox clan girls obey you so readily?”

“They were clearly in awe of you, too.”

Lu Zhuxin’s gaze dropped. “I come from the Fox Palace.”

“Whether in the human empire or here in the Demon Territory itself, every fox clan member across the world answers to my command.”

Bu Lianshuang’s eyes went round.

From the Fox Palace. Seventh realm fox demon. Commander of the fox clan across the world.

“Then you are…” Bu Lianshuang’s tongue moved over her dry lips.

“Fox Palace Steward. The Fox Monarch’s right hand.”

[…]

[Ah…]

Bu Lianshuang furrowed her brow. “I have heard from our elders that the Fox Monarch’s palace has two stewards.”

She tilted her head at Lu Zhuxin. “Are you Hu Xian’er, or Hu Mei’er?”

Lu Zhuxin smiled and shook her head. “That is what the outside world knows of the Fox Palace.”

“In truth, the ones who manage the Fox Palace’s affairs are not limited to Hu Mei’er and Hu Xian’er.”

Bu Lianshuang’s eyes widened. “The Fox Monarch has more than two stewards?”

Lu Zhuxin nodded, her smile light. “You may call me…”

“Xin’er.”

“Hu Xin’er…” Bu Lianshuang repeated the name quietly on her lips.

Xin’er.

Hu Xin’er.

Bu Lianshuang felt it was a good name, and one that suited the little fox well.

“Miss Xin’er.” Bu Lianshuang murmured, looking at Lu Zhuxin. “May I really call you that?”

“If you like,” Lu Zhuxin said, “you need not be so formal.”

“Then I…” Bu Lianshuang looked at her, asking tentatively, “May I just call you Xin’er?”

Lu Zhuxin dipped her chin, smiling sweetly.

“Xin’er… Xin’er…” Bu Lianshuang repeated the name to herself, over and over.

Joy she could not suppress swelled in her chest.

She knew the little fox’s name now. She finally knew the little fox’s name.

Her beloved was the Fox Palace’s steward, the Fox Monarch’s right hand.

The most honored person among the fox clan beneath the Fox Monarch herself.

She was so happy.

“But…” Bu Lianshuang raised her chin. “If you are the Fox Monarch’s right hand, why would you take such a risk and infiltrate the Chi family yourself?”

The moment the words were out, Bu Lianshuang’s expression shifted.

Just knowing the little fox’s real name was already a great fortune.

And here she was, already reaching further, prying into fox clan secrets.

But Lu Zhuxin was not offended.

She retracted her fox ears and tail, then said, calm and even, “That is precisely what I want to tell you next.”

As she spoke, the expression on her face gradually turned serious.

“I infiltrated the Chi family, yes, for Chi Xiyan’s sake.”

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Bu Lianshuang asked, “For Chi Xiyan? Is there something special about that girl?”

Lu Zhuxin shook her head. “To be more precise, it is to destroy Chi Xiyan and Song Shixuan’s engagement.”

Surprise crossed Bu Lianshuang’s eyes.

She had guessed at many possibilities for the little fox’s reasons for infiltrating the Chi residence.

But hearing the answer from Lu Zhuxin’s own mouth still came as a shock.

“So that’s it…” Bu Lianshuang gave a bitter smile. “That’s why you made a point of getting close to Chi Xiyan.”

“Even going so far as to…”

Bu Lianshuang could not finish.

She thought of what the little fox and Chi Xiyan had done together the night before.

“Yes. Just as you said.” Lu Zhuxin lowered her eyes. “Getting close to Chi Xiyan, seducing Chi Xiyan, all of it was to destroy the engagement between the Chi family and Lingxiao Sword Sect.”

“Lingxiao Sword Sect is the fox clan’s great enemy.”

“Destroying Chi Xiyan’s marriage is part of the fox clan’s larger plan against Lingxiao Sword Sect.”

At this, a trace of bitter irony curved Lu Zhuxin’s lips.

“Your Highness, do you find the fox clan’s methods too… dirty?”

“Like me.”

Bu Lianshuang stared at her. “Xin’er?”

Bu Lianshuang was no stranger to Lingxiao Sword Sect.

The Seven Sword Sects were not only the great enemy of the fox clan but of the entire Demon Territory.

And Lingxiao Sword Sect stood at the head of the Seven Sword Sects.

“I…” Bu Lianshuang’s lips parted.

She found she had no way to pass judgment on the little fox’s conduct.

She had long since heard of the fox clan’s ways.

Difficult to stomach, perhaps, when one first learned of them.

But for countless centuries, this was how the fox clan had operated, sacrificing themselves to provide the hundred demon clans of the Demon Territory with invaluable intelligence.

Bu Lianshuang had no standing to pass judgment on the little fox’s methods.

Seeing that Bu Lianshuang was silent, the dejection on Lu Zhuxin’s face deepened. “I know.”

“Not just you. The entire Demon Territory holds the same view of the fox clan.”

“That is also why I could not accept your feelings before.”

“Your Highness, we are different.”

Bu Lianshuang bit her lip. “Xin’er, I don’t think that way.”

“You are good.”

“You truly are good.”

“You are willing to sacrifice everything for the fox clan.”

“But I could not do what you do.”

Bu Lianshuang ducked her head. “I followed you into the Chi residence because I wanted to help.”

“And yet it seems I have only held you back at every turn.”

“I am not worthy.”

Lu Zhuxin shook her head again. “Your Highness, please don’t say that.”

She tilted her head slightly, and a sweet smile returned to her face.

“In my eyes, Your Highness is like the sun.”

“Clean, and warm.”

“I am already tainted.”

“Muddied through and through.”

“Standing beside Your Highness only makes me more ashamed of what I am.”

She exhaled, a soft and weary sound.

“The way I treated Your Highness before was because I did not want Your Highness drawing closer to someone as filthy as me.”

“That could only soil Your Highness in turn.”

“I treated Your Highness badly hoping to show you the truth of what the girl you were chasing after really is, deep inside, what ugly and unworthy things she is made of.”

“I wanted Your Highness to give up and step away.”

“That would have been better for both of us.”

Bu Lianshuang was silent.

She had already sensed all of this herself.

“It must be difficult for Your Highness to accept, even so.” Lu Zhuxin said. “Like last night.”

Last night…

The thought of the previous night tightened something in Bu Lianshuang’s chest.

Even knowing it was a sacrifice the little fox made for a greater cause, Bu Lianshuang found it no easier to accept the sight of the person she loved held close in another’s arms.