The Fox Spirit Survived as an Alpha by Consuming Pheromones - Chapter 6

Jiang Li couldn’t quite grasp the playful teasing in Qin Nian’s words. Instead, she was plagued by a different kind of regret: in her moment of desperation, she had called out “Master” right in front of a stranger. She had promised her Master she wouldn’t do that. Is she angry? Is that why she left so quickly? She looked as miserable as a puppy abandoned on the side of the road.

“Stop staring, your ‘Master’ is gone,” Qin Nian said, stifling a laugh as she watched Jiang Li’s micro-expressions. Seeing the girl gazing longingly down the hallway, Qin Nian shook her head and tugged on her arm. “Come on. Just stay here for a few days, and she’ll come back to pick you up.”

Knowing Bai Muqin wouldn’t lie to her, Jiang Li followed Qin Nian into the VIP suite. She draped Bai Muqin’s trench coat over her shoulders, the faint scent of passion fruit still lingered on the fabric, and a dazed, almost obsessive smile spread across her face as she inhaled deeply.

Although Jiang Li had agreed to stay, things took a turn when the nurse arrived to set up a nutritional IV. Sensing a threat, Jiang Li turned fierce instantly. Like a cat with its fur standing on end, she let out a low, guttural growl that sent several nurses scurrying out of the room in fright.

Qin Nian didn’t miss a beat. She recorded a video of the chaos and sent it to Bai Muqin with a voice message: “Look at your little pet. She’s being so feral she’s scaring off the staff. I can’t stay here if she’s going to act like this.” Qin Nian wasn’t thrilled about being a “sitter” anyway; if Jiang Li didn’t cooperate, maybe she could get out of the job.

A moment later, a voice message came back from Bai Muqin. “A-Li, are you being naughty? Don’t be so aggressive. You’re scaring people.” The coldness in her voice was tempered by an underlying, inexplicable tenderness.

The sound of that voice acted like a master’s command. Jiang Li instantly became docile, her “predatory” edge vanishing as she looked around for the source of the sound. Her eyes finally locked onto Qin Nian’s phone.

Qin Nian hid the phone behind her back, striking a deal. “If you stop scaring the nurses and take the IV like a good girl, I’ll let you listen to my sister’s voice again.”

Jiang Li gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and thrust her arm out, her brow furrowed as if she were awaiting a death sentence. Her previous resistance came from the original owner’s memories—memories where needles and hospitals were synonymous with agonizing pain.

But the sharp sting lasted only a second. Once the nurse left, Jiang Li opened her eyes in surprise. It hadn’t been nearly as bad as she expected; it didn’t even hurt as much as a bee sting. She reached out for the phone, her impatience evident. “I want to hear Master’s voice.” After their brief time together, she had decided Qin Nian wasn’t an “outsider” anymore, so the title slipped out naturally.

Qin Nian played the message again. Seeing Jiang Li’s thirst for more, she played it over and over until she got bored of tapping the screen. She tossed the phone to Jiang Li. “Do you even know how to use this? Tap it yourself.”

Jiang Li fumbled with the device. To her surprise, it felt familiar; her hands seemed to have the muscle memory of how to operate a smartphone. She hit record and spoke into the phone: “Master, I’m being good now. Will you come visit me when you have time?”

Qin Nian raised an eyebrow. “You know how to use a phone? Fine, play with it then, but don’t go clicking on random stuff.” She found the TV remote and surfed through the channels, eventually settling on a classic rerun of The Legend of the White Snake.

Jiang Li gave a distracted “Okay,” her eyes glued to the screen as she waited for a reply. When minutes passed with no notification, she nudged Qin Nian’s arm. “Is your phone broken?”

“Broken? How could it be broken?” Qin Nian glanced at Jiang Li, who looked like she wanted to crawl inside the screen. “You only sent that message a few minutes ago. Have some patience. My sister is probably in a meeting; she doesn’t have time to cater to you every second.”

Jiang Li nodded half-heartedly, splitting her attention between the TV and the phone, tapping the screen every few seconds to see if a notification had appeared.

“What a clingy little fox,” Qin Nian thought. She wondered how her cold, aloof sister was going to handle such a needy “whining” monster.

On the TV, the scene shifted to the moment the White Snake mistakenly drinks realgar wine, revealing her true form and scaring her husband, Xu Xian, literally to death.

Qin Nian had seen this show at least three times, but she still watched with interest, marveling at the classics. Beside her, Jiang Li was gripping the phone so hard her knuckles were white. A wave of terror washed over her: If I accidentally show my true form and scare Master to death… what will I do?

She stole a nervous glance at Qin Nian. “Qin… Qin Nian? If you were Xu Xian, would you be scared of the White Snake?”

“Me? I’d love to have a beautiful, kind-hearted snake spirit as a wife,” Qin Nian answered without thinking. Seeing how serious Jiang Li looked, she added, “Well, if I were Xu Xian, I’d probably be startled, but I wouldn’t die from it. If she had given him some hints beforehand so he was mentally prepared, things might have gone better. Anyway, Xu Xian eventually accepted her. If it were me, I’d get used to it eventually.”

Jiang Li felt a weight lift from her chest. She wiped the sweat from her palms with a tissue. She had caught the key takeaway: Give hints. Prepare her. Then she won’t die. After some thought, she asked, “What about… Miss Bai?”

Qin Nian did a double-take. Wow, she calls me by my full name, but my sister is either ‘Master’ or ‘Miss Bai.’ The favoritism is real. She pouted. “How should I know? Ask your ‘Master’ yourself. Also, I’m the one sitting here taking care of you, and you call me by my full name? You little ungrateful wolf.”

Jiang Li seemed to only catch half of that. She looked at Qin Nian with a deadpan expression. “I am not calling you ‘Master’.”

Qin Nian felt like she was being accused of something scandalous. She rubbed her temples. “I don’t want you to! I’m not getting involved in whatever bedroom games you two play. I just meant call me something else. Is that so hard to understand?”

Jiang Li blinked. “Understood.” But what did one call a Master’s sister? She searched her brain and found no answer.

“Wait,” Qin Nian interjected, “the ‘Master’ thing. Did my sister tell you to call her that, or did you come up with it yourself?” She suspected it was her sister’s secret dark side coming out and wanted to confirm so she could tease her about it later.

Jiang Li paused for a second, then pointed to herself.

That was unexpected. Qin Nian stared at her, unable to imagine this simple-minded girl coming up with such a provocative title, or her sister actually accepting it. She waved her hand dismissively. “Forget it. Just keep calling me Qin Nian. Don’t invent anything weird, I’m not as thick-skinned as you two.”

Jiang Li didn’t understand why Qin Nian’s mood changed so fast, but she was glad she didn’t have to think of a name. However, the “White Snake” question was still bothering her. She wanted to send a voice message to ask Bai Muqin, but suddenly, her head felt heavy and foggy. She couldn’t find the words.

“What’s wrong? Afraid to send it?” Qin Nian teased. But seeing Jiang Li opening and closing her mouth without a sound, looking quite pathetic, her heart softened. Following her sister’s lead, she reached out and patted Jiang Li’s head. “Once we go home, I’ll play this episode for her, and you can ask her yourself. Though,” she added thoughtfully, “my sister is deathly afraid of snakes. If she saw a snake spirit, she’d definitely faint.”

“What about… a fox… spirit?” Jiang Li asked piteously, her eyes welling up.

Qin Nian gave her a ‘you’re an idiot’ look. “You really think you’re a fox spirit, don’t you?”

Despite the growing fog in her mind, Jiang Li remembered her own truth. “I… I am,” she whispered honestly. But as soon as the words left her mouth, the room began to blur. Within seconds, she slumped over, unconscious.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you?!” Qin Nian jumped up, startled, and immediately called for Dr. Zhou Yang.

*****

Dr. Zhou did a quick check-up. To her surprise, the nutritional IV didn’t seem to be helping; Jiang Li’s body was becoming weaker, as if she were literally starving to death.

She noticed a cup of cold milk on the nightstand. A theory began to form in her mind. “Why didn’t she drink the milk?” she asked Qin Nian.

“Does that have something to do with her fainting?”

Zhou Yang gave a wry smile. “She fainted from hunger.”

Qin Nian bit her lip, a wave of fear washing over her. If this girl starves to death on my watch, my sister will kill me. “She didn’t eat breakfast either,” she admitted. “She said she was full. When the nurse brought the milk, she just sniffed it and looked like she hated it, so I didn’t force her.”

“Her perception is definitely skewed. It might be a sensory processing disorder; otherwise, she’d know when she’s hungry,” Zhou Yang analyzed. Seeing that Qin Nian didn’t suspect anything deeper, she continued, “Maybe she just doesn’t like what we’re offering. Could you go to the supermarket and buy a variety of things? We need to find something her body will accept.”

Qin Nian took back her phone. “I’m going now.”

Once Qin Nian was gone, Zhou Yang allowed a small, uncharacteristic smile to cross her face. She took a sample of orange-scented pheromones and held it near Jiang Li’s nose.

The monitor showed almost no intake. Jiang Li’s body seemed to reject the scent; she actually held her breath, her face turning red.

Zhou Yang tried another scent. Then another. Every single one was rejected.

“Well, this is interesting,” Zhou Yang muttered. She pulled out a small vial—pheromones extracted from Bai Muqin. Passion fruit.

She held it near Jiang Li. Within seconds, the pheromones were completely absorbed.

Jiang Li’s eyes snapped open. “Master!” she cried out with joy.

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