After Becoming a Concubine, I Took Down the Princess - Chapter 3

As soon as Yan Heng said this, everyone present was shocked.

After a long while, the official elder slowly spoke, “There are indeed many captive foxes in the Royal Hunting Grounds. I assume the Princess, in her younger days for fun, must have… must have caught one.”

Yan Heng waved her hand, “Not domesticated ones. I mean wild ones.”

A colleague pondered for a moment, “The Princess previously traveled outside the palace with the Emperor. Perhaps she encountered a wild fox then.”

Yan Heng became extremely agitated, leaping forward to grab the official elder’s colleague by the sleeve: “Approximately how many years ago? Do you remember, sir?”

The colleague shook his head regretfully: “I hadn’t yet entered Yandu to serve as an official at that time, and I only heard a little about it. I heard that the Princess got lost once during that trip, which gave His Majesty a great fright. From then on, he never allowed the Princess to travel outside with him again.”

The joy on Yan Heng’s face visibly vanished, replaced by a cloud of melancholy.

“Miss Manxiang, why are you asking about this?” Yu Yi leaned over curiously.

Yan Heng sat back down in disappointment, pouting as she lay on the table: “The Princess was kind to my family; she once helped my family find a fox we had raised since it was little. However, the Princess was still a young girl then, and we didn’t know her.”

Evidently, this excuse was extremely flimsy, and only a fool would believe it.

The official elder was mortified: So the Princess used to do good deeds…

Liang Xiao, as the infamous and reckless Princess of the Great Ning, was well-known for her bad reputation.

She lost her mother at the age of seven and was the only child of her mother, Consort Lian, making her the apple of the Emperor’s eye. Receiving most of the Emperor’s affection, Liang Xiao was spoiled and willful, having everything she desired granted by the Emperor. Once, an official impeached her for squandering the national treasury; he was immediately demoted to the desert region of Mobei, where he would have to spend the rest of his life eating sand.

Not only that, the Emperor even bypassed ceremonial regulations to construct a luxurious Princess Manor for Liang Xiao before she was even married. It’s said that even the bricks on the ground were made of pure gold. Even if the Princess did not reside there, people would clean and polish it daily, making it shine like a mirror.

Some also say that a little beggar once begged outside the Princess Manor’s gate. The Princess, finding him unsightly and believing he dirtied the floor, ordered people to beat the child to death and toss him into the mass grave for the crows to eat.

And there’s more. Others claim that when the Western Regions once presented a batch of exquisite jades, simply because the envoys first offered them to Noble Consort Yu and overlooked the Princess, she immediately smashed all the jades on the spot. She then sent assassins to murder the envoys that very night, leaving not even a corpse behind.

Despite the Princess doing so many outrageous and lawless things, the Emperor still turned a blind eye, and Liang Xiao remained the Great Ning’s most favored Yong’an Princess.

“So you think the little girl who helped your family was the Princess?” The colleague recalled the Princess’s notorious behavior and truly couldn’t imagine her having a kind side.

“Yes…” Yan Heng answered listlessly.

Xiao Xiao, Liang Xiao… Yan Heng compared the name from her memory with the Princess’s, then recalled the lotus scent emanating from that man, the button hanging on her head…

That man must be the little girl who caught her back then! A pervert who cross-dressed!

“If it really is the Princess, then it’ll be difficult for you to see her.” The colleague’s words struck a greater blow to Yan Heng.

“Do the two sirs know how I can meet the Princess?” Yan Heng’s eyes welled up with tears, making her look pitiful.

“The Princess returns to her manor for a maximum of three days a month; the rest of the time, she resides in the palace. If you want to see her, you can wait outside the manor, or you can enter the palace,” the official elder, unable to bear the sight of a beauty in tears, offered comfort.

The Princess’s schedule was not a secret, and many people knew when she returned to her manor. The official elder felt no guilt telling Yan Heng these things.

“Going to the manor to find her… the probability of meeting her is too low,” Yan Heng muttered quietly. Then, her eyes rolled, and she sat up and asked, “How can one enter the palace?”

Yu Yi nudged her with an elbow: “What pipe dream are you having? How can people like us enter the forbidden imperial court?”

“If a young lady wishes to enter the palace, the only way is to become a maid,” the official elder stroked his beard. “However, I advise you to abandon this idea. The rules for selecting maids in the palace are very strict. They look not only at family background but also at—”

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly noticed that Yan Heng, who had been sitting in the room, was gone.

“Hey, where did she go?” The few people looked around but couldn’t even find a strand of hair.

“How strange, a sudden live disappearance,” Yu Yi mumbled.

After slipping out of the room, Yan Heng quietly sneaked back to her own room, planning to find a way to infiltrate the palace as a maid, and then find that pervert.

As night fell, Yan Heng lay in bed, holding her left wrist up to her eyes, absently fiddling with the beads hanging on the bracelet. Her thoughts slowly drifted back nine years, recalling the first time she saw that little girl. If not for that incident, there wouldn’t be so much trouble later on.

It was a moonless night in a dark forest. The surroundings were silent, save for the “scratch, scratch” sound of some animal stepping on leaves, like a life-taking curse.

The little girl, dressed in silk and satin, was hiding fearfully behind a large rock. She looked only eight or nine years old, and the continuous trembling of her body showed her terror.

The little girl was now filled with immense regret.

Staying in the manor all day was too boring. That courtyard was no match for the Imperial Palace; in just three days, she had run all over it, yet her Imperial Father wouldn’t let her go out.

Children of this age are the most mischievous. Especially since her mother, the Consort, passed away, her Imperial Father had spoiled her without limits. Every day, she would run wild in the palace, bullying the other princes and princesses.

This morning, taking advantage of her small stature, she evaded the hidden guards and followed her Imperial Father’s carriage out. The diverse and colorful things in the outside market dazzled her eyes, and before she knew it, she was lost. Only when she came to her senses did she realize she had run to such a desolate place.

“Crack, crack.” The footsteps grew closer and, judging by the sound, had already reached the rock where she was hiding.

The little girl closed her eyes in fear, thinking she might “die” soon. A child her age didn’t truly understand what “death” meant. She only knew that her mother disappeared after death, and if the monster behind her ate her, her Imperial Father would never see her again.

Just then, with a “whoosh,” the wild beast behind the rock suddenly sprang out in front of her, baring its teeth, ready to bite down.

Subsequently, the beast clearly saw the child before it, slowly retracted its sharp fangs, sat down, and curiously observed the trembling little girl while licking its paw.

The imagined pain of a severed throat did not come, so the little girl bravely opened her eyes.

A ball of white fluff was squatting in front of her, intermittently licking its own fur.

The little girl had seen creatures that looked the same as this white fluffy thing in the Royal Hunting Grounds. Moreover, the creature in front of her looked utterly adorable, so she let go of her fear.

“Foxy!” She raised her hand, wanting to touch the white fluffy animal in front of her.

The fox was highly alert. Seeing her movement, it thought she was going to attack, nimbly stood up, stepped back, and let out a menacing whimper while baring its teeth.

This action scared the little girl, making her shrink back again. However, the white fox saw that she was just a child and completely harmless, so it reverted to its previously docile appearance.

The little girl tentatively stretched out her hand again. Before her hand could reach the white fox’s head, the white fox took a step forward, and the downy fur on its head brushed against the girl’s palm.

This fox was Yan Heng.

Their White Fox Clan lived on the nearby Liuyun Mountain. Recently, a black bear spirit had run to the mountain to occupy territory and had even bitten several fox cubs. Yan Heng was furious, so she ran down the mountain alone and fought a battle with the black bear.

As a demon, her cultivation was high, but fighting a black bear two or three times her size was still somewhat difficult. Both demons ended up wounded. She had several cuts inflicted by the black bear, and the bear was no better off.

After the fight, she was initially resting comfortably in a cave she found in the woods. Suddenly, she heard a sound outside. She thought it was another demon looking to take advantage of her injury, but after circling around, she found this human toddler.

The little girl’s hand smoothed over her head all the way to her back, making her close her eyes and lie down in comfort.

In this era, ordinary people were unaware of the existence of demons. However, some people could detect the demons’ presence. They collectively classified these magical, shapeshifting beings as calamities.

Originally, demons relied on their magic to intimidate humans, but as the saying goes, “The demon rises one foot, the human rises ten.”

Those humans actually created many mechanisms specifically targeting demons, and they learned to cultivate internal techniques, creating something called “Demon Slayers” specifically to deal with demons.

Several hundred years ago, Demon Slayers nearly wiped out the demons, so the demons had no choice but to retreat into the mountains and disguise themselves as humans to survive.

But not all demons are evil. Yan Heng’s clan was a kind demon family that never actively attacked humans.

Suddenly, the “crack, crack” sound of leaves being trampled was heard not far away. Yan Heng alertly perked up her ears and stood up.

But why did she feel suffocated—

Yan Heng lowered her head and saw the little girl squatting next to her, tightly hugging her neck.

She couldn’t breathe!

Yan Heng tried to struggle twice, but the little girl hugged even tighter.

How could a toddler have such strength?!

Now that she was being hugged, Yan Heng couldn’t just drag the girl along. She could only use her head to nudge the little girl, signaling her to hide behind the rock.

The little girl didn’t let go; instead, she pressed her whole body against Yan Heng.

A hundred years of fox life might end here… As the footsteps drew nearer, Yan Heng closed her eyes in despair.

“Miss! I finally found you!” A clear male voice sounded above her head, filled with anxiety.

The fox opened its eyes. The fox looked up. The fox smiled.

This man should be the little girl’s attendant.

“Miss, wild foxes bite. Please let go quickly!” The attendant was about to draw his sword.

The fox was speechless.

“No, I want to take Foxy back!” The little girl held the fox tightly in her arms, saying in a fiercely childish voice.

“This…” The attendant looked troubled, staring at the innocent fox with wide eyes.

Before long, a few more people followed. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief upon seeing the little girl. They thought, “Thank goodness, at least our heads are safe for now.”

“The Miss wants to take this fox back,” the first attendant to arrive said helplessly. So, the group looked at each other, none of them knowing what to do.

Yan Heng: …A bunch of grown men dawdling. Why don’t you just let me go quickly… I don’t want to be your Miss’s pet.

“This fox doesn’t look like it hurts people. If the Prince… ah, no, if the Miss wants to keep it, let’s just take it back with us,” a few attendants scratched their heads, unable to think of any other solution.

After all, they had failed their duty today and let the Miss run off. If they didn’t comply with her wishes, the heads they had just managed to save might be…

The group suddenly felt a pain in their necks.

Before Yan Heng could react, she was lifted by the scruff of her neck.

Yan Heng stared mournfully at the attendant in front of her, struggling futilely a few times. If her magic hadn’t been restricted due to her injuries, how could she be so easily handled!

“That’s odd. Why did I see a fierce expression on this fox’s face?” Yue Du, the attendant holding her, felt a shiver down his spine from the gaze.

“How can a fox have an expression? Don’t scare yourself,” the attendant next to him patted Yue Du’s shoulder. “Let’s hurry up; the Master must be worried.”

After being carried by the neck for about a li (approx. 0.5 km), Yue Du put Yan Heng down and held her in his arms, presumably because carrying her by the scruff was inconvenient.

Yan Heng was so moved that tears welled up, and she clawed his face as a thank you.

She was unmarried and had no romantic interest in any demon. If word got out that she was hugged by a strange man, what fox would dare want her?

Bad luck. Yan Heng thought miserably that she, Yan Heng, was one day being kidnapped by a little human girl.

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