She was tilting her little head, staring blankly at the pink curtain next to the window as it fluttered in the strong breeze. At some moment, a smile played upon her rosy cheeks, and her eyes, bright and kind, seemed to ponder some amusing thoughts or maybe the embarrassing moments in her recent dream?
"You... why haven’t you come to see me yet... I’ve been good and obedient, not disturbing your reading, but... don’t you know to come and find me? Take the initiative to see me... Or are you too busy? Hmm, Xiaoxiao shouldn’t disturb you..."
A charming young girl with incredibly mesmerizing fox-like eyes, her eyelids drooping, her cheeks puffing slightly.
"...but... I really miss you, I have saved up so much to tell you, all the fun things that have happened these days, I want to tell you about all of them."
A certain little fox demon, foolish and silly from reading too many romantic tales, was lost in her wild thoughts, slowly coming back to her senses.
The moonlight seemed dimmer tonight, and the wind seemed stronger as if... it was about to rain.
In the dark and quiet room, rhythmic breathing sounded, one after another.
It seemed many people were sleeping, and between the faint outlines, there were beds with various playful designs scattered throughout the room.
In the corner, on a lovely bed, Su Xiaoxiao, wearing a familiar, hand-known, and even more intimately known by nose, pink and white tiny camisole, lazily propped up her body with her slender right arm.
With one hand, she clutched a small blanket to her bosom, her large, agile fox eyes blinking as she looked around the spacious room.
This wasn’t Su Xiaoxiao’s room alone.
There were many other young sisters from her clan.
If Su Xiaoxiao was once considered a playful, odd-book-reading ’academic dud’ in the Fox Clan of Qiantang Mountain, these fox girls, brought to Du You City by their great grandmother for exposure and training, were indeed ’academic achievers’ who valued their studies immensely.
However, these charming little fox demons mostly focused not only on their cultivation studies—ah, winning their great grandmother’s favor was one aspect. However, another ’academic’ aspect they majorly focused on was about flaunting vanity, Versailles, pfft, and about romantic relationships.
This was also considered a natural talent and peculiar characteristic of the Fox Clan.
These girls from the Su family of Qiantang Mountain all sought to find an outstanding, powerful lover, the more handsome, remarkable, and demonically charming, the better. This was not only prestigious but also a great boost for cultivation, a dual cultivation with their spiritual partners.
Of course, this is not to say that there were no ambitious and powerful females among the foxes, even the silly little fox demon Su Xiaoxiao had aspirations. Variants among the Fox Clan certainly existed.
But clinging to the powerful had always been a compulsory course in the education within fox clans worldwide, steeped into them from youth through stories from their elders about some mighty ancestral figure, known by which surname and name, who was a beloved companion of some great Cultivator or a significant figure in human history, or the mother, ahem, or stepmother of some human prodigy.
Or perhaps a branch of the Fox Clan had clung to a glorious main lineage of a human family, forming long-term matrimonial alliances, sharing weal and woe, those years so gloriously bright, even the great human ancestor had to show them some respect...
In essence, every community has its own survival rules; the Fox Clan has indeed deeply cultivated in the ’marriage market’.
Therefore, the connections and familial affections within each branch of the Fox Clan are significant.
Another point to mention is, due to taking sides with the powerful, the Fox Clan are all bettors!
Yes, shrewd bettors, but bettors still.
Look at the current plight of the Su foxes of Qiantang Mountain, confined in Wangque Continent, guarded by Tianya Sword Pavilion.
However, Su Xiaoxiao was unaware of these, and she didn’t care either, for she wasn’t a bettor.
This unconventional little fox demon actually thought Qiantang Mountain was nice, Wangque Continent was nice, and Du You City where her lover and great grandmother resided was even better.
What Su Xiaoxiao looked forward to the most at the moment was for Zhao Rong to come fetch her, then proudly meet her great grandmother together to let her know that she hadn’t just heedlessly left the mountain for a wander, but had found the significant other of her life, ah, her beloved.
About the matter of Zhao Rong, Su Xiaoxiao had kept it a secret from her great grandmother and sisters as initially discussed with Zhao Rong.
These days, living with her sisters, she seldom went out, using Zhao Rong’s previous words, even being quite ’homebound’.
However, Su Xiaoxiao wasn’t here for a holiday; although her great grandmother liked her as a descendant of the Fire Fox, she treated her impartially like everyone else, assigning some tasks just like to her other sisters.
Every day after completing her assigned duties, she would return to her residence and not wander about too much—perhaps because the long journey that initially brought her here had worn out this little fox demon’s eagerness to roam.
Even the people and happenings around the environment, she did not really engage or care much about.
Just like at Qiantang Mountain, she lived her quaint, simple life.
At her residence, Su Xiaoxiao would either do embroidery or quietly read romances of scholars and beauties; mostly, she would be lost in thought while engaged in those activities, sometimes propping her chin on her hand and staring at the unfinished sachet in her hand for an entire afternoon, chuckling foolishly from time to time, or spiritedly putting aside her work to take out the little box of books Zhao Rong had hidden for her, getting out paper and ink to write and draw...
Su Xiaoxiao’s days passed in unadorned simplicity, only occasionally visiting Du You City to pick up some items; each time she went out, she would seek Miss Lu to inquire about any news of Zhao Rong, then seemingly compelled by fate, she would wander to the outside of Star-picking Tower, the very place where she and Zhao Rong had parted.