My Supernatural Exes Are Desperate to Win Me Back - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Fox

When Xie Yi said he was pursuing her, he truly meant it, spending vast amounts of money as if it cost nothing. He was like a male bird in his mating season, hopping around a frigid female while frantically spreading his tail feathers, dressing up flamboyantly and wishing he could passionately bloom in front of her twenty-four hours a day.

Sometimes, when she opened her backpack to pay a bill, hundreds of colorful hydrogen balloons would whoosh out of the bag with a rustle, floating gently toward the azure sky and drawing a chorus of gasps from onlookers.

Sometimes, on her way home from her internship, she would look a few extra times at a certain item in a shop window. The next morning, that very item would land on her 28th-floor balcony via a hot air balloon, accompanied by a magician’s card with Xie Yi’s signature drawn in a wild, flying cursive.

Once, she forgot her keys and had no choice but to look for a small locksmith advertisement on the wall to call someone over. Before the call could even connect, a friendly pigeon fluttered into the stairwell and delivered the house keys right into her hand.

And then there was the most ridiculous time. She encountered a highly talented street painter on the road. The man wore a Han-dynasty style, black-and-red coiled dragon pattern round-collar robe with wide sleeves, paired with a bluish-white jade belt around his waist. His paintbrush dashed and splashed like a swimming dragon or a moving snake, and his painting style possessed a distinct ancient charm.

Xu Xining couldn’t help but walk up to chat with him, thinking she could write an interview report about him as a folk master. She friendlily revealed her trademark bright smile: “May I add your contact information?”

Who would have thought the painter would smile and say: “Beautiful lady, I am already in your address book.”

Xu Xining was puzzled.

She watched as the painter grabbed his own facial skin with his hand and, with a swift rip, peeled off the entire rubber scalp, revealing Xie Yi’s face that was handsome to the point of begging to be punched: “Haha-hi! It’s me.”

Xu Xining’s smile froze: “…”

Xie Yi: “Even though I changed my appearance, you still walked through the crowd toward me. Do you know what this is called?”

Xie Yi bent down and affectionately pinched her cheek: “Baby, this is called love.”

Xu Xining expressionlessly slapped his hand away: “Wrong, this is called retribution.”

Xu Xining’s internship hours at Pianyu Media were relatively flexible. Apart from fixed office hours, she could carry her laptop and write articles anywhere for the rest of the time.

Although the apartment she rented wasn’t large, the bedroom had a marble bay window. Covered with a soft cushion and set up with a small lap table, the golden sunlight passed through the window, falling diagonally on her glass cup and casting a lemon-colored shadow.

Yet, just as she opened her computer, her phone began to buzz incessantly.

The person sending WeChat messages was her best friend, Yu Yuanyuan.

Taro Ball: “Live video of the withered trees blooming on Cherry Blossom Street! Take a look at the miracle of the world’s number one magician!”

Taro Ball: “Gaining eighty million fans in a surge, a review of Xie Yi’s god-tier magic since his debut”

Taro Ball: “Magician group claimed to successfully crack Xie Yi’s technique, only to be brutally slapped in the face”

Taro Ball: “Xie Yi’s 30-second no-heartbeat challenge! No survivors!! This man is slaying relentlessly!!!”

Xu Xining: …

What was more terrifying than an ex-boyfriend frantically begging to get back together was when your best friend acted as the ex’s civilian ambassador.

Traitor! A traitor had appeared among the allies!

Just like the thousands of infatuated girls, Yu Yuanyuan had also fallen in love with Xie Yi at first sight. During their junior year, she had once dragged Xu Xining by force to watch Xie Yi’s magic performance. The atmosphere at the venue was fanatical to a terrifying degree, resembling some large-scale medieval missionary site, making so much noise that Xu Xining left halfway through.

Taro Ball: “Sistah, are you really not planning to rekindle the old flame?”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “It’s not like you don’t know, there is no old flame, it was all just acting.”

Taro Ball: “Do you hate him that much?”

That wasn’t quite true either.

It was hard for anyone to hate a man who was both handsome and interesting, and who racked his brains just to make you happy. Although Xie Yi using a pigeon to send her keys made her feel that this guy was suspected of the crime of breaking and entering, when she was thirsty and the company’s vending machine sang a song while spitting out her favorite chilled lemon tea, she still couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Heart Locked and Sealed: “I just don’t want to date a walking human libido cannon. The lady who owns the fruit stand downstairs chased him for three miles just to give him a bag of apples… Before that, the lady’s favorite person was me! He stole the lady’s love for me! How dare he!!”

Taro Ball: “He just has the shared troubles of all the handsome guys in the world.”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “You have no idea how much he attracts women. Just standing by the roadside, beautiful women throw themselves into his arms. He says he didn’t do anything, but who would believe that? Does anyone really fall in love with someone at first sight?”

Taro Ball: “Yes, me.”

Xu Xining guided her patiently: “Imagine this, if you were his girlfriend, he slept with you, and then countless women scrambled to climb into his bed next?”

Yu Yuanyuan was shocked: “What virtues do I possess to sleep with him?! There’s actually such a good thing!!!”

In reality, Yu Yuanyuan was a severely socially anxious 2D anime girl, but online, she was a fierce person whose remarks were extremely wild.

In real life, if a boy touched her hand, her face would turn completely red with shyness. Online, however, she opened her mouth every day with “deep-fry me,” “obliterate me,” or “my panties are flying.”

Taro Ball: “I don’t ask for eternity, I only ask to possess the present.”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “…”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “You’re beyond saving”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “Carry her away.”

After a long time, Yu Yuanyuan sent another message: “No joke, I think he really likes you. Novels are always written like this: a man starts out just wanting to get you out of a desire to win and because he’s unwilling to lose. By the time he realizes that his wholehearted pursuit of you isn’t to prove anything but because he truly loves you, Bang, he’s done for!”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “Have you finished writing your thesis, reading novels like this?”

Taro Ball: “You should know that your bodies have gathered the three major elements of contemporary popular ships: rekindling old flames, fake acting becoming real, and my absolute favorite one.”

Heart Locked and Sealed: “What?”

Taro Ball: “A prodigal son turning over a new leaf, worth more than a thousand pieces of gold”

Xu Xining believed neither in rekindling old flames nor in a prodigal son turning over a new leaf. What she believed in least of all was that she would ever be able to have a normal relationship in her lifetime.

She sat cross-legged on the bay window writing her article, writing in one breath until evening, and then stretched tiredly.

It wasn’t that her workload was too heavy, but rather that she liked to drag things out until the very last day.

She had been like this since her school days. During summer vacation, she wouldn’t write a single word of her homework until the very last day, when she would frantically make up for it, writing through the night without eating, drinking, or sleeping until seven o’clock the next morning, and then going to school as if nothing had happened. Moreover, her handwriting would be neat and not a single question would be skipped, making her a model representative.

The teacher praised her in front of everyone, saying you should all learn from student Xu Xining, whose essays are written with profound meaning and clear structure.

Xu Xining would give the teacher a sweet smile. In any case, no one knew that fifteen essays had been written by her in a single night.

Xu Xining sent the interview draft to the editor, then tidied up the house, preparing to discard the foam boards left over from moving.

Holding the foam boards that were taller than herself, she kicked the door shut with her foot, but her vision was blocked by the mountain-like foam boards, making her unable to feel for the elevator button to go downstairs.

Xu Xining tilted her neck, her slender white fingers groping with difficulty for a long time, until the neighbor opposite walked out and pressed the button for her.

“Thank you, brother,” Xu Xining couldn’t see his face, only a pair of men’s sneakers by her feet. She said sincerely, “I am a civilized, good tenant who just moved in, not noisy and loves cleanliness.”

The man gave an “Mm.”

His voice was low, deep, and clear, possessing a texture like ice.

Xu Xining found it familiar. Tilting her body to look at his face, she said in surprise: “Zhan Xingye?”

Zhan Xingye: “Mm.”

The man in front of her had a slender build, wearing a gray hooded fleece sweatshirt, a baseball cap, and carrying a shoulder bag. The face beneath the cap’s brim was clean and delicate, with sharp and clear contours, looking like an excessively quiet male college student.

Zhan Xingye was the adopted son of her old man’s late friend. He had grown up together with Xu Xining, and before the age of fifteen, they could be said to share everything and be inseparable.

However, from an unknown day onward, Zhan Xingye suddenly started avoiding her. After graduating from high school, he went to a bogus university that was hard to even search for online, resulting in the two of them barely contacting each other for many years in the blink of an eye.

“You live here too?” Xu Xining asked.

“Mm.”

“Are you interning too?”

“Mm.”

“Are you a time clock?! Making a ‘beep’ sound when swiped?! Can’t you say anything else besides ‘mm’?!” Xu Xining raged.

Zhan Xingye froze for a moment, then lowered his eyelashes, silently cracking his knuckles one by one.

Xu Xining remembered he had this habit since childhood. Whenever he was nervous or afraid, he would subconsciously crack his knuckles, producing a string of crisp sounds.

Xu Xining was both angry and amused: “What did I ever do to you?”

Back then, Zhan Xingye kept avoiding her, refusing to walk her home after school, refusing to come to her house for dinner on weekends, and refusing to touch her as if her whole body was covered in thorns.

No matter how Xu Xining asked him, he remained silent. For a time, Xu Xining thought he hated her.

Instead, her old man had looked at his daughter speechlessly and said, “From what I see, he doesn’t hate you, he’s afraid of you. You must have bullied him!”

But Xu Xining really couldn’t remember how she had bullied him. Granted, she was rebellious and arrogant back then, but so many years had passed; was his psychological shadow still so profound?

What did she do? It couldn’t have been forcing him to pole dance naked.

As Xu Xining was pondering, Zhan Xingye silently extended his foot next to hers.

Xu Xining froze: “Ah?”

Zhan Xingye silently looked at her, as if waiting for something.

His appearance was not the flamboyant type like Xie Yi’s, nor the sharp type like Huo Ting’s, but rather leaned toward the unique restraint and enduring appeal of the East.

Often, the moment he quietly raised his eyelashes to gaze at someone, it made them feel as if they had suddenly stepped into empty space, sinking into his pitch-black eyes.

Xu Xining remembered!

When she was angry back then, she always liked to stomp hard on Zhan Xingye’s foot. Later, Zhan Xingye got used to her stomping on him, so whenever she lost her temper, he would silently extend his foot to let her stomp on it.

He was waiting for Xu Xining to stomp on him!

What a proactive, cooperative good comrade who willingly took beatings and scoldings!

With a ding, the elevator arrived.

Xu Xining quickly walked into the elevator, only to find that Zhan Xingye hadn’t entered.

She strained her head to the side, revealing a pair of bright eyes from behind the massive plastic boards: “Not coming in?”

Zhan Xingye: “I’ll take the stairs.”

The 28th floor, big bro!

Are you that afraid of me?!

Xu Xining fell silent.

What a sin; she had actually been such a tyrant back then.

The elevator doors were about to close. Xu Xining seized the opportunity and spoke very fast: “You haven’t visited old Xu in a long time, right? How about we go back together this weekend for dinner?”

Zhan Xingye looked down at his shoes, his voice very low: “Mm.”

Xu Xining thought to herself, what a poor little thing.

After the elevator doors closed, Zhan-poor little thing-Xingye turned around, strode into the stairwell, and raised a pair of cold eyes.

The aura of his entire person suddenly shifted. His original slow, dull blockheadedness rapidly faded away like a quenched long sword, slowly rotating an experienced sharpness in the darkness and releasing an unbridled killing intent.

After graduating from high school, he entered a classified academy subordinated to the Special Bureau of Heterogeneous Organisms Management.

He was indeed interning, except his job content was to eradicate non-humans who violated the “Covenant” within human society.

This job had another more colloquial name:

—Heterogeneous Killer.

A week ago, he was transferred back to Huaijiang City from another region to track his mission target, Xie Yi. After Xie Yi made a high-profile appearance and repeatedly showed up on Cherry Blossom Street, he bought room 2802, the closest location to the address where Xie Yi appeared most frequently.

He hadn’t expected Xu Xining to be drawn into this. He didn’t know what Xie Yi had done to her, but the files showed that ever since the fox demon lineage of Mount Tu birthed a naturally seductive fox spirit eight hundred years ago, Xie Yi of the East had never let go of any beautiful woman he took a fancy to.

At this moment, a mechanical voice came from the wireless earpiece hidden beneath the stray hairs by Zhan Xingye’s ear:

“January 16, 2033. S-class execution captain Zhan Xingye of the Execution Department, on the dual charges of long-term illegal use of sorcery to publicly amass wealth and using sorcery on civilians, implement the arrest of Xie Yi of the East. Arrest approved.”

Zhan Xingye lowered his eyelashes, tied a rope the thickness of a thumb to a fire hydrant, and pushed open the stairwell window.

Amidst the howling night wind, he grabbed the rope with one hand, pressed down his cap brim with the other, and leaped down from the 28th floor, like a stern, unsheathed sharp blade!

“—Operation begins.”

With a “ding” sound, the elevator doors opened.

The cold wind was nipping, and the sky was full of stars.

Xu Xining walked out of the building entrance, threw the plastic boards into the trash can, and leisurely stuffed her hands in her pockets, strolling to the 711 convenience store outside the neighborhood to buy a tuna rice ball and lemon yogurt for tomorrow morning.

On her way home, she suddenly heard a soft “thud,” like the sound of a heavy object crashing onto a car hood.

Xu Xining turned her head to look.

Under the dim streetlamp, a fiery red shadow darted toward her at extreme speed.

Xu Xining thought it was a giant rat and subconsciously wanted to dodge, but the thing came straight for her, scurrying to her feet in a flash, and then, with a whimper, flipped over with its four paws in the air.

…How could it even pull a insurance fraud scheme like this!

It was a fox that was fiery red all over, a passionate red like a ball of soft flame.

It seemed to be in pain, panting and whimpering, while a certain warm liquid moistened the cuff of her pants.

It was blood.

Xu Xining squatted down and found that the fox was injured. There was a wound sliced open by a sharp weapon on its chest and abdomen, and the bright blood had glued the long fur on its chest into clumps.

Seeing that it looked pitiful, Xu Xining reached out to pick it up.

The fox’s face was illuminated by the streetlamp. The narrow, upturned corners of its eyes blinked moistly, its shifting gaze captivating and soul-snatching. The tip of its fluffy tail brushed past the back of her hand seemingly inadvertently, like a pitiful attempt to please, yet also like a casual flirtation.

Xu Xining looked at it, and it looked at Xu Xining.

Their eyes met, and Xu Xining’s heart missed a beat, almost dropping the fox.

Was she losing her mind?!

How come this fox…

—How come it looked so much like her ex?!

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