Cool Alpha Pregnant with a Dryad’s Cub - Chapter 6

In her twenty-nine years of life, Zhuo Ti had seen her fair share of strange things, starting with herself. She could hear the inner thoughts of humans and understand the language of animals. Her hands were the medium, as long as she touched someone, she could hear their heart. The same applied to animals.

First, she discovered that Wang Chun knew magic and wanted to suck her blood, and then she inexplicably encountered a fox that opened its mouth and called her “Mother.”

Strange things happen every year, but this year seemed particularly crowded with them.

Zhuo Ti opened the refrigerator. There were plenty of ingredients, but they were all raw. After rummaging through for a bit, she managed to find a piece of cured salted meat. She held it out to the white fox, who had been following her closely. “I only have this meat. I don’t know how to cook, otherwise, I’d make something for you.”

The white fox looked at her, circling around her feet. “Not eating it. Mommy says to eat cooked food.”

Dizzy from its circling, Zhuo Ti tossed the salted meat back into the fridge and scooped the fox up. “Fine, if you won’t eat, let’s get you a bath first. By the way, who is your ‘Mommy’? Is she a vixen?”

“No, she’s like you,” the white fox replied, looking quite content as it snuggled into her armpit. “She’s a human.”

“You should call her your ‘Master.’ You can’t just go around calling people ‘Mommy’ whenever you feel like it,” Zhuo Ti said, carrying the fox upstairs. Everyone else was asleep, and the entire house was silent. “And you certainly can’t just call any stranger ‘Mother.'”

“Mother!” the white fox cried out even louder. “Mother!”

Zhuo Ti sighed. “Where is your owner? She must be worried sick after losing you. I’ll take you back tomorrow morning at daybreak.”

“Don’t have a master!” the white fox’s tail swished back and forth in the air. “It’s Mommy and Uncle!”

“Alright then,” Zhuo Ti said, pushing open her bedroom door. “So, do you know where you live?”

Zhuo Ti carried it into the bathroom, set it on the counter, and turned on the hairdryer to dry its fur. The fox closed its eyes comfortably, completely tossing Zhuo Ti’s question to the back of its mind.

Once dry, the fox’s fur was fluffy and light. It truly was a beautiful white fox.

“Answer me,” Zhuo Ti said, tapping its nose as she carried it out of the bathroom. “Where do your Mommy and Uncle live?”

Zhuo Ti set the fox down and grabbed her pajamas to head back into the bathroom. The white fox followed close behind, but Zhuo Ti shut it out. “Wait for me here.”

The white fox sat obediently by the bathroom door. “Mommy and Uncle went to catch bad guys. I was bored at home and went out and got lost. Mommy only brought me to this city a few days ago, I’m not familiar with it yet.”

“Oh, are your Mommy and Uncle police officers?” Zhuo Ti asked as she undressed. “Do you know their names? I’ll look into it for you tomorrow.”

The white fox thought for a long time, got up to pace around the room, and then returned to the bathroom door. “Don’t know. Uncle calls Mommy ‘Boss,’ and Mommy calls Uncle ‘Osmanthus.’”

Zhuo Ti filled the bathtub and sank into it comfortably, laughing at the response. The white fox’s intelligence seemed to be somewhere between a five and seven-year-old human.

The soak was so pleasant that Zhuo Ti drifted off to sleep. She didn’t wake up until the water turned cold, leaving her shivering. She got out, took a quick rinse, and opened the door to find the white fox standing there with its fur bristling. Only when it saw her did its fur smooth back down. “Mother, why didn’t you answer me? I thought you were dead.”

Zhuo Ti nearly slipped on the floor. “Who taught you that?”

“Mommy!” the fox said. “She says that to Uncle all the time. ‘Osmanthus, are you dead?’ ‘Osmanthus, have you had too much sun?’ ‘Osmanthus, do you even have a brain?’”

Zhuo Ti: “…”

Zhuo Ti picked up the fox, placed it on the sofa, and covered it with a blanket. “I’m going to sleep now. Don’t assume I’m dead just because I’m not talking to you, and don’t bristle your fur. I’ll take you home when I wake up tomorrow.”

She turned off the overhead light, leaving only a small wall lamp for the fox. As she lay down in bed, the white fox made a single leap onto the mattress, curling up politely on the other pillow. Its tail draped over the edge of the bed. “Sleep well, Mother.”

Zhuo Ti reached out to stroke its thick fur, feeling a bit concerned. “I’ve heard foxes eat meat. You won’t eat me in the middle of the night, will you?”

The tail hanging off the bed snapped upright. “I would never eat Mother! Besides, Mommy says to eat cooked food!”

“Oh,” Zhuo Ti relaxed, smoothing its fur. “Right, right. Good boy.”

The fox’s tail dropped back down instantly.

***

The rain poured down. Gongsun Wu stood under the eaves of the doorway, hands behind her back, gazing at the sky. The rainy night was pitch black and oppressive.

Beside her, Xu the Scholar closed his eyes to sense for a moment. He sighed, changed his position to form a hand seal, and opened his eyes. “Nothing.”

Gongsun Wu’s phoenix-like eyes narrowed slightly. “Did you place a Soul-Tracking spell on it?”

Xu the Scholar shook his head. “No, I thought you did.”

“If there’s no Soul-Tracking spell, what on earth are you looking for?” Gongsun Wu asked, her voice dripping with disdain.

“What do we do?” Xu the Scholar sighed. “What if it falls into the hands of some minor demon?”

“Impossible,” Gongsun Wu said, turning back into the house. She stepped across the floor made of glazed flower-grass and drifted lightly onto a hammock entwined with Purple Immortal trees. “It is very happy right now.”

Xu the Scholar followed her inside, waving his hand to draw all the curtains in the room. “Could it be a final celebration before death? It is quite stupid, after all. It can’t tell the difference between good and bad people.”

The living room television flickered on. Gongsun Wu swiped her finger, and the channels changed according to her movements. She glanced at Xu the Scholar. “To eat a Spirit Fox is to destroy three hundred years of one’s own cultivation.”

“But Ban Ning is the stupidest of the Spirit Foxes!” Xu the Scholar was deeply worried, pacing barefoot across the grass-covered floor. “Its mother entrusted it to us, and we lost it so quickly. How are we supposed to explain this to her?”

Xu the Scholar sat down beside her, listing his grievances. “Boss, you spent hundreds of years in seclusion before coming out. You have no idea how chaotic the demon realm is these days. You saw that Toon Tree demon trying to harm mortals. Those minor demons with less than five hundred years of cultivation will do anything to survive, hunting down people with extreme ‘yin’ energy to suck their blood just to stay alive. The balance you once set has long been broken. Ban Ning is a Spirit Fox, and its blood is enough to guarantee fifty years of life. Boss, you can’t just…”

Gongsun Wu, prepared for his nagging, gave a casual wave of her sleeve. She reached out, and two golden ginkgo nuts appeared in her palm out of thin air. She tossed them to the man in the suit. “Shut up.”

Xu the Scholar happily caught and ate the ginkgo nuts. The effect was instantaneous, his body immediately felt clear and his energy surged a hundredfold. He let out a comfortable hum. “These celestial fruits really are something else. Just one is worth…”

He cut himself off and stole a glance at Gongsun Wu. These fruits belonged to her, and he had no right to demand she use them to save those low-level demons on the brink of extinction.

Gongsun Wu raised her finger, and the TV volume rose. She lowered it, and the volume followed. She did this several times, a smile playing on her lips, clearly finding it amusing.

“But what about Ban Ning?” Xu the Scholar circled back to the main point. “No Soul-Tracking spell, no barrier on its body, and even humans can find it. That silly thing, we only picked it up yesterday afternoon and it vanished within moments. It couldn’t stay put at home, it just had to run!”

“Spirit Foxes are among the most intelligent of their kind,” Gongsun Wu said leisurely. “I don’t know how you and that Pine Tree have been raising Little White for the last three hundred years, but you’ve turned it into a complete little idiot.”

Xu the Scholar was still using magic to search for Ban Ning, but he secretly rolled his eyes at her words. “It’s not my fault. It’s its mother. She raised it like a precious little heart. Now its mother is gone and we’ve lost it. My poor Ban Ning, your Uncle hasn’t even seen you grow up yet…”

Gongsun Wu raised a hand and placed a Silence spell on him. “Little White ate one of my ginkgo nuts. No demon would dare touch it, and humans can’t harm it. At daybreak, go find it. For now, do not disturb my television time.”

Xu the Scholar glanced at the TV. It was playing the first episode of Journey to the West.

Zhuo Ti was dreaming again. She dreamed she was at a car accident scene, a heavy truck pressing down on her, making it impossible to breathe. The smell of blood was pungent. She reached out to push the heavy object off her, only to be licked awake by a series of wet sensations.

She opened her eyes to see a white shape perched on her chest. The white fox was licking her cheek. Seeing her wake up, it lifted its head and stared at her with round eyes.

“Mother! I’m hungry.”

“Mhm.” Zhuo Ti lifted it off her, rubbing its fur. “What do you want to eat?”

The white fox nuzzled her palm, happily saying, “Meat!”

Zhuo Ti got out of bed, washed up, and hung her headphones around her neck before leading the white fox downstairs to forage for food.

The house was quite quiet today. Aunt Qin was mopping the floor, and there was no sign of Zhuo Yuhe.

Huoyan, lying by the front door, had the sharpest nose. The dog immediately caught a scent that wasn’t right. It stood up, turned around, and saw Zhuo Ti coming downstairs holding a white stranger. Huoyan ran over and barked loudly from the bottom of the stairs.

“Monster! Who are you? Who are you? Who are you!”

Hearing the barking, the white fox in her arms tilted its head, looked for the source, and then snuggled back into Zhuo Ti’s embrace.

“Huoyan, what’s wrong?” Aunt Qin was startled. “Why are you being so aggressive?”

Zhuo Ti walked downstairs and reached out to calm Huoyan, but the dog backed away a few steps, its eyes fixed on the white fox. “Monster! Monster!”

Aunt Qin finally noticed the fox. “Xiao Ti, what are you holding? Is it a dog too?”

“It’s a monster, a monster!” Huoyan continued to bark frantically.

“It’s a fox. I picked it up last night,” Zhuo Ti said, walking toward Huoyan. “Huoyan, don’t bark. It’s not a monster, don’t be afraid.”

Huoyan was still scared, but it wasn’t afraid of Zhuo Ti. It circled to her side. Zhuo Ti stroked its head, smoothing its fur. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. It won’t hurt you.”

Under her comfort, Huoyan calmed down, though its gaze remained wary of the fox.

The white fox didn’t react to the barking at all, resting comfortably against Zhuo Ti.

“What do you want to eat?” Zhuo Ti asked, shifting her arms.

“Meat. Tasty meat,” the fox said.

“Aunt Qin, could you please get some meat for it?” Zhuo Ti asked.

“Cooked!” the fox reminded her.

“Cooked,” Zhuo Ti added.

Aunt Qin heated up some leftover braised pork from the night before. The white fox sniffed it and pushed the plate away.

“Doesn’t taste as good as Mommy’s cooking.”

Zhuo Ti took a sip of milk, unfazed. “Eat it or don’t. If you don’t, you go hungry.”

“No,” the fox said, jumping from the table onto her lap. “Mother, you’re mean.”

“I don’t like picky children,” Zhuo Ti smiled, stroking its fur. “And I especially don’t like children who waste food.”

The white fox stood up to face her. “Mother, you can’t not like me.”

“Then eat.” Zhuo Ti slid the plate back over.

The white fox hopped onto the table and buried its head in the braised pork. In the blink of an eye, the large plate was licked clean.

Aunt Qin frowned from the side. “Xiao Ti, are you planning to keep it?”

It ate way too much. They already had a big eater like Huoyan, if they added a fox that ate meat like that, the expenses would be huge.

Zhuo Ti shook her head. “It has an owner. I’m taking it back in a bit.”

“Oh, good.” Aunt Qin touched her chest, exhaling in relief.

Huoyan, lying at Zhuo Ti’s feet, stood up and wagged its tail at the news.

After breakfast, Zhuo Ti carried the fox outside. “Do you remember which way your house is?”

The white fox wrapped its front paws tightly around Zhuo Ti’s neck. “Mother, Mother, I don’t want to leave Mother.”

Zhuo Ti walked through the courtyard, chuckling. “Look, no matter how capable I am, I couldn’t possibly give birth to you. I am not your mother.”

“You are my mother! You smell exactly like my mother!”

“What smell?” Zhuo Ti sniffed herself. She didn’t wear perfume. Aside from her natural pheromones, there was nothing else.

“The scent of Mother,” the fox said.

Utter nonsense.

It must be the pheromones then.

The white fox rested its head on her shoulder. “Mother, I want to live with you.”

“You can’t. Your owner must be worried. Besides, my family can’t afford to keep you.”

“Why not?”

“No money. You eat way too much.”

The fox looked up. “Mother, you’re lying. You live in such a big house, even bigger than Mommy’s!”

“A big house is all that’s left.” Zhuo Ti patted its back and walked out of the courtyard. “Take a good look. Where is your home?”

The fox thought about it. It had only just moved into the new home with Mommy and Uncle yesterday, and it didn’t really know where it was. It hadn’t had the chance to see what the neighborhood looked like.

But… this road looked very familiar. It looked a lot like the one it had run onto yesterday.

“Baby.”

A voice suddenly rang out from behind them. The white fox and Zhuo Ti turned at the same time.

On the narrow road in front of the gate, Gongsun Wu and Xu the Scholar were walking over from next door.

Xu the Scholar was still in his black suit. Gongsun Wu was also in a robe, but she had swapped the white for a pale yellow one. Her waist-length hair was uncombed and draped over her back, her bright and striking features gaining an extra touch of charm.

Zhuo Ti’s eyebrows rose slightly.

The white fox in her arms leaped down and ran toward the pair.

“Mommy! Uncle!”

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