The Little Fox Spirit Doesn't Want to Carry a Cub - Chapter 12

It wasn’t until the next morning that Jiang Shen was swatted awake by a fox paw.

“How can you sleep here?” The little fox crouched beside him, his fur standing on end with anger.

Jiang Shen was dazed for a moment, pressing his brow tiredly. “Is it dawn?”

His spirit looked very poor, even more withered than the little fox had been the previous two days when he was drowsy. Dark circles underlay his eyes.

The little fox scrambled up Jiang Shen’s trouser leg to his chest and extended a paw to pat his face. “Why is your complexion so bad? Are you sick?”

Jiang Shen let out a yawn. “It’s nothing; I just didn’t sleep well.”

“You have a bed but don’t use it; of course you won’t sleep well here.” Li Ruan had clearly rested well last night; he was currently full of energy and scolded him fiercely. “No, that’s not the point. It’s so cold outside; if you sleep here, what if you freeze to death?”

Jiang Shen: “…”

The little fox seemed very worried that he might accidentally die in all sorts of strange ways. But then, it was only natural—if Jiang Shen died, the fox would have to find another mortal for dual cultivation.

Other mortals…

In the past, when Jiang Shen refused dual cultivation, the little fox had made such comments before. Jiang Shen had always taken it as a joke and didn’t really care.

But today, for some reason, even just thinking about such a possibility made him feel as if something were blocked in his heart.

It was extremely uncomfortable.

Jiang Shen closed his eyes and didn’t think further.

“I didn’t sleep here.” Jiang Shen picked up the little fox and walked back into the cave. “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I sat outside for a while and only caught a nap just before dawn.”

As it turned out, he had only just closed his eyes when the little fox woke him up.

Over a month had passed, and Jiang Shen’s leg injury had mostly recovered. Although he still walked a bit unevenly and couldn’t walk for long stretches, he no longer needed the crutch for support.

Having spent most of the night outside, his entire body was icy. Upon returning to the cave, he first removed his cold-damp cloak and set it aside, then added some wood to the fire.

The fire quickly roared to life, warming the entire cave.

Li Ruan lay by the fire watching Jiang Shen finish these tasks before asking, “Why couldn’t you sleep? Was there something upsetting in the letters from the capital?”

Jiang Shen was tossing two sweet potatoes into the fire; his movements paused at those words.

Indeed—since he couldn’t sleep last night, why hadn’t he taken the opportunity to look through the letters to distract himself?

The Crown Prince, who used to lose track of food and sleep while handling official business, had for the first time in history completely forgotten about the letters sent by his subordinates.

If the little fox hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t even have remembered they existed.

“Yes, there were some matters.” Jiang Shen put on a calm expression and cleared his throat. “So I need to look at them again now.”

The little fox gave an “oh,” not suspecting a thing.

He was too busy staring at the roasting sweet potatoes in the fire.

Jiang Shen pulled the letters out again.

While there were many letters from the capital, most were just reports; there were few that required his decision or reply. But today, as he read, his brow furrowed slightly.

Perhaps because they had spent so much time together, or perhaps it was his demon nature, but Li Ruan was very sensitive to Jiang Shen’s mood shifts. He turned his head and patted Jiang Shen’s trouser leg with a small paw. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Jiang Shen tossed a letter he had finished reading into the fire. “Someone wants to meet with me.”

“Ah?” Li Ruan asked in confusion. “Didn’t you have someone pretend to be you and go south?”

Last summer, the current Emperor had ordered Jiang Shen to go south for disaster relief.

The relief work should have ended in late autumn, but the Emperor didn’t intend for Jiang Shen to return to the capital yet. Instead, he issued a decree for him to stay in Jiangnan longer to understand the people’s livelihoods and supervise the officials.

Jiang Shen knew why the Emperor did this.

To inherit the throne, one must never lose the people’s hearts, and a royal tour was the best way to boost public support.

Of course, if he used his status to collude with local officials and exploit the people during the tour, he would lose public support; secondly, the Emperor would likely reconsider the position of the heir.

Thus, it was also a trial.

When Jiang Shen was summoned back to the capital by the fake secret letter, it was exactly during his southern tour. Therefore, the decoy he arranged had already taken his place and continued the tour southward.

Jiang Shen said, “The person asking for a meeting will be going to Jiangnan in a few days.”

It was the newly appointed Governor of Huguang. Jiang Shen had met him a few times in the capital, but they weren’t well-acquainted.

This man was the third-place candidate in the imperial examinations a few years back. Previously affiliated with the Ministry of Revenue, there were officials in the Crown Prince’s faction who tried to recruit him when he first entered the court.

However, it didn’t succeed.

Now that he had been promoted to Governor of Huguang, for some reason he suddenly thought to show goodwill to Jiang Shen, sending a letter to ask for his current residence and wanting to pay a visit in person.

But the letter was intercepted before it even left the capital and sent to Jiang Shen.

“If you’re not well-acquainted, it shouldn’t matter if you meet once, right?” Li Ruan said.

“How could it be that simple?” Jiang Shen had finished burning the letters, and the sweet potatoes under the fire were about done. He took them out to cool and handed one to the little fox before saying, “This is an attempt to test me.”

The sweet potatoes were perfectly roasted—steaming when broken open, soft and sweet to the bite.

While gnawing on it, Li Ruan asked, “Why is it a test?”

Before meeting Jiang Shen, Li Ruan never knew the world of mortals was so interesting. All the scheming and power struggles sounded like stories to him. In his spare time recently, Li Ruan would pester Jiang Shen to tell him about the court.

Even though he didn’t quite understand everything, he still listened with great relish.

Li Ruan felt that by listening to more of these stories, he might become smarter.

Jiang Shen was noncommittal about that theory, but as long as the little fox wanted to listen, he never hid anything.

“If I only wanted to divert the mastermind’s attention and stop them from sending people to Mount Changming, why wouldn’t I just release news that I’m traveling incognito? Why find someone to pose as me and go south with great fanfare? Wouldn’t that invite trouble instead?”

Li Ruan blinked, unsure how much he understood, but he still asked cooperatively, “Why?”

Jiang Shen smiled. “If I simply vanished among the common people, how could I draw out the mastermind who tried to assassinate me?”

“Oh!” Li Ruan had a sudden realization. “So you leaked the news on purpose! The killer failed once, so they’ll surely try a second time. That way, you can catch them, right?”

Jiang Shen was silent for a moment and did not answer.

The little fox’s ears drooped. “Fine, I guessed wrong.”

“It’s not entirely wrong,” Jiang Shen said with a smile. “But I don’t think the killer would be so stupid as to try and kill me a second time.”

Li Ruan: “?”

Li Ruan: “Are you calling me stupid?”

Jiang Shen didn’t answer but cleared his throat and continued, “But you’re right; I am indeed doing it to draw him out.”

“If I were in his position and discovered that a target I had spent so long plotting against—someone I thought was already dead—had suddenly appeared elsewhere safe and sound, no matter how difficult, I would have to go and confirm it myself.”

“…This Governor of Huguang is likely the one sent to confirm exactly that.”

“But…” The little fox scratched his ear. “What if—I’m saying what if—what if it really is just a coincidence and he simply wanted to visit you at this time?”

Jiang Shen couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “He is the third-place scholar personally selected by the Emperor. He rose from a minor official to a Governor in just five years. Who do you think he is—a little fox demon from the wilderness?”

“A little fox demon wouldn’t take five years—that’s too slow.”

Li Ruan didn’t catch the teasing in Jiang Shen’s voice. He wagged his tail and said proudly, “If a little fox demon wanted to be an official, they could just cast a charm on the Emperor and get whatever position they wanted.”

Jiang Shen: “…”

No wonder mortals are so wary of demons and always call for their destruction. If a demon truly caused such chaos in the court, the world would likely descend into madness.

But Li Ruan continued, “But what’s the point of being an official? There are so many rules and so much work, and everyone is constantly fighting. It’s better to cultivate into an immortal; once you’re an immortal, you can have whatever you want. Hey, why don’t you cultivate too?”

“Even though you lack the foundation and are too old, we can dual cultivate. If we get lucky, maybe I can help you with your ‘Foundation Establishment’?”

Jiang Shen: “…”

As expected, every topic leads back to dual cultivation.

Jiang Shen pressed his brow. “Are you still listening to the story?”

Li Ruan: “Listening, listening, listening!”

Jiang Shen had already considered Li Ruan’s concern, so he planned to reply to the Governor of Huguang first, pleading illness to decline the meeting. The man was a shrewd one; if he only wanted to show goodwill, he would give up after that. But if he insisted on meeting Jiang Shen, his intentions wouldn’t be so simple.

Better to kill a thousand mistakenly than to let one slip through—that had always been Jiang Shen’s way of doing things.

“Since you’ve already thought it through, why are you still worrying?” Li Ruan asked.

“I’m not worrying.” Jiang Shen paused and said, “My secret contacts in the capital once reported that this Governor seems very close to my third brother. Perhaps… he has already joined the Third Prince’s faction.”

The Third Prince, Jiang Yan, was the closest to Jiang Shen among all his brothers.

If the Governor truly came to test him on orders, and if he had joined the Third Prince’s faction…

Li Ruan asked, “Does that prove the one who wants to kill you is that brother of yours?”

Jiang Shen: “Perhaps.”

Li Ruan: “Then what should we do?”

“What else can be done? If he wants to kill me, I will kill him.” A cold, mocking smile touched Jiang Shen’s lips as he watched the flickering fire. “Everyone wants the throne, but one must weigh whether they are worthy.”

After eating, Jiang Shen wrote a reply to the capital.

The little titmouse was likely truly exhausted from yesterday; Jiang Shen waited in the cave until afternoon, yet it hadn’t appeared. However, the Governor wouldn’t be going south for a few days, so there was no rush to send the letter. Jiang Shen let it be.

Today was a rare sunny day. With the afternoon sun shining brightly, Li Ruan pulled Jiang Shen out of the cave.

It had been snowing in the mountains recently, and Li Ruan had been out of spirits, so they hadn’t gone out to forage for days.

As a result, all the meat and fruit in the cave were gone, and they had been eating roasted sweet potatoes for several days straight.

He didn’t want to keep eating sweet potatoes.

Li Ruan was in high spirits today; he took Jiang Shen to catch a few wild rabbits and pheasants and found the last few fruit trees in the canyon that still bore fruit.

Jiang Shen hadn’t slept all night, only catching a nap after organizing the letters in the morning. He could manage to keep up when they first went out, but later, it became the little fox bouncing around catching birds and picking fruit while he sat leaning against a tree, yawning.

“Pull yourself together!”

The little fox jumped from one fruit tree branch to another, his bright red figure drawing a smooth arc in the air. “You need to walk more and soak up the sun so you won’t always be unable to sleep because of those troublesome matters.”

“…En, I know.”

Jiang Shen was helpless.

Who was the cause of his “troublesome matters”?

It was all because of this heartless little fox.

Jiang Shen let out another yawn and forced himself to stay alert.

That streak of bright red wove through the dense canopy; fruits fell one by one and were picked up by Jiang Shen to be tossed into the small basket they brought.

The little fox was like a puppy that hadn’t been let out for days; he was having a great time on the branches. Before long, he had filled two small baskets with fruit.

He was still eager to move to the next tree.

“Little fox, that’s enough. We can’t eat all—”

Jiang Shen had just looked up to call him when the little fox suddenly wobbled, nearly losing his balance.

He frantically grabbed onto a branch to keep from falling. Li Ruan looked down; Jiang Shen was standing under the tree, looking at him with great concern.

“I’m fine.” Li Ruan flicked his tail and performed a light mid-air flip, landing back on the branch. “I just felt a bit dizzy suddenly, but I’m fine now.”

Jiang Shen didn’t answer.

He stared at that bright red figure on the tree, his brow slightly lowered.

He had clearly seen a flash of red light from the little fox just now.

Within that red light… there seemed to be a blurry human figure.

Returning to the cave, Jiang Shen went back outside to deal with the wild rabbits.

He held the dagger, skinning and cleaning the rabbits, but his movements were a bit distracted.

What he saw in the woods just now was only a blurry back that vanished quickly—so fast it seemed like an illusion. But Jiang Shen knew it was likely the little fox’s human form.

Is he… about to recover his human form?

Jiang Shen felt conflicted. He couldn’t figure out if he was looking forward to the little fox’s transformation or if he wanted him to stay as he was.

If he could transform into a human, would Jiang Shen still be able to so resolutely refuse his request for dual cultivation?

But if he didn’t refuse…

“Are you not done yet?” The little fox’s voice suddenly came from behind him.

Jiang Shen’s hand shook, and the dagger cut a gash on his fingertip; blood immediately poured out.

He frowned in pain and instinctively went to shake his hand, but a fluffy paw reached out and pressed down on it.

“Don’t waste it.” The little fox looked up and took Jiang Shen’s finger into his mouth. “The essence in blood is very precious. It cannot be wasted.”

The little fox’s tongue was very soft and warm. As if afraid of hurting him, he licked the fingertip gently.

Jiang Shen felt his breathing become difficult.

It felt as though the one licking his finger was no longer the little fox, but that blurry yet slender and delicate figure he had seen in the forest.

“E-enough.” Jiang Shen withdrew his hand. Realizing his tone was a bit stiff, he softened his voice. “The bleeding has stopped. Thank you.”

The little fox blinked but didn’t suspect anything. “You’re welcome. It tastes very good.”

Jiang Shen: “…”

Overwhelming.

Jiang Shen looked away and asked again, “Didn’t you say you were tired from playing? Why did you come out? Hungry?”

“Not hungry.” Li Ruan shook his head. “I just suddenly felt very tired again and wanted to find you for some essence. I’m fine now.”

“…That’s good.” Jiang Shen’s mind was a mess. He could only look down and continue dealing with the rabbits as if nothing were wrong. “Go back and rest for a bit more. I’ll be done soon.”

Li Ruan: “En!”

The little fox went back into the cave.

Jiang Shen let out a sigh.

He couldn’t go on like this.

He still had to stay in Mount Changming for some time. If he continued to have such wild thoughts, how could he face the little fox in the future? The little fox was pure-hearted and didn’t understand these things, but as for his own heart—did he not understand it himself?

It cannot continue like this, Jiang Shen told himself.

Setting aside the fact that the little demon was currently just a talking fox, even if he truly became a human, so what? The high and mighty Crown Prince had remained unmoved by so many temptations in the capital; could a tiny fox demon truly make him lose his composure and become so disheveled?

How could that be possible.

Jiang Shen breathed deeply to calm himself.

He quickened his movements, soon finished cleaning the rabbits, and returned to the cave.

The cave was silent; the little fox had likely fallen back asleep. Jiang Shen carried the rabbits inside, but his footsteps came to a sudden halt upon seeing the scene.

The little fox had indeed fallen asleep; when sleeping, he habitually curled up into a round red ball of fluff. But now, above that ball of fluff, a human figure had clearly appeared.

The figure was semi-transparent, very thin, with a graceful and petite build. He lay on his side on Jiang Shen’s straw bed, wearing no clothes, his long hair cascading down and half-covering his face.

A slender wrist hung down from the edge of the bed, the fingertips long and transparent.

Jiang Shen’s heart skipped a beat, and then it began to thrum with a violent, deafening intensity.