Transmigrating into the world of Jade Dynasty, I was targeted by the female lead in a reverse romanc

Little White threw away the grass stems, clapped its hands, and asked, "What happens after we finish eating? What do we do next?"

"To subdue demons and monsters," Jiang Xiaochuan replied curtly.

Xiao Bai paused for a moment, then softly asked, "I'm a demon too. Do you want to subdue me?"

Jiang Xiaochuan fell silent.

He stared at the ants busily carrying food on the ground for a long time before muttering in a low voice, "You're different."

"What's different?" Xiaobai pressed, her voice devoid of emotion.

"I don't know." Jiang Xiaochuan scratched his hair in frustration.

"Anyway... you're different from other demons, you've never killed one... right?"

The last "吧" was asked with some uncertainty.

Xiao Bai looked at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

"I have killed them," she said calmly. "Three hundred years ago, the people of Burning Incense Valley killed many of my clansmen. I fled with the Mysterious Fire Mirror, and they chased after me, killing quite a few along the way."

Jiang Xiaochuan's body stiffened slightly.

"However," Xiao Bai changed the subject, her tone still calm, "that was a long time ago. Later, she was imprisoned under the Xuanhuo Altar, and even if we wanted to kill her, we couldn't."

She spoke casually, but Jiang Xiaochuan felt a chill run down his spine and a strange feeling. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't know what to say. In the end, he just mumbled an "Oh."

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment.

Only the sound of the wind in the forest and the faint, unidentified cries of birds in the distance could be heard.

After a while, Jiang Xiaochuan stood up and patted the dirt off his clothes.

"You wait here, I'll go get something to eat," he said, turning and walking deeper into the woods. This time, Xiaobai didn't follow, but simply sat on a withered tree, watching his figure disappear behind the bushes.

Jiang Xiaochuan was lucky this time. He soon returned with a plump pheasant. The pheasant had been cleaned, its feathers plucked, and its internal organs removed. He washed the pheasant by the spring, then found some dry branches and started a fire.

Flames leaped up, dispelling the chill and dampness of the forest; the orange-red light danced, illuminating the two faces.

Jiang Xiaochuan took out some bottles and jars from his storage space: salt, some ground, unidentified spices, and a small brush.

He skillfully rubbed the seasonings onto the pheasant, then skewered it with a sharpened twig and roasted it over the fire. The oil dripped into the fire, making a sizzling sound and emitting blue smoke, and the aroma quickly spread.

He took out two more bamboo tubes filled with a clear liquid that smelled faintly of fruit. It was juice made from fruit he had bought in town earlier, and it would keep the juice fresh in his storage space.

Xiaobai sat opposite the fire, hugging her knees, quietly watching him work. The firelight danced on her face, flickering, making her charming eyes sometimes clear and sometimes hidden in the shadows.

The pheasant was roasted until golden brown, with a crispy skin and a wonderful aroma.

Jiang Xiaochuan tore off a chicken leg and handed it to Xiaobai. Xiaobai took it and ate it in small bites. She ate very slowly and carefully, chewing each bite for a long time, as if she were savoring it or reminiscing.

Jiang Xiaochuan tore off a chicken wing for himself and ate it in big bites. He ate quickly but not in a messy way. He was just focused. The firelight reflected the oily corner of his mouth and the tooth mark on his face that had not completely faded.

After eating for a while, Xiaobai suddenly spoke, her voice sounding somewhat soft amidst the crackling of the firewood: "Your cooking skills are just so-so."

Jiang Xiaochuan paused in his eating of the chicken wing, looked up at her, didn't say anything, just nodded in agreement, then lowered his head again and continued eating.

Xiaobai looked at him with a hint of surprise in her eyes. She thought he would refute or be unconvinced, but she didn't expect him to admit it so readily.

"However," she took another small bite of chicken, chewed slowly, swallowed, and then continued, "I think it's alright."

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't even look up this time, and mumbled, "You've been imprisoned for three hundred years, your sense of taste has long since deteriorated, so everything tastes delicious to you now."

Xiao Bai's hand, holding the chicken leg, froze in mid-air. She looked at Jiang Xiaochuan, and in the firelight, her expression seemed to darken.

But she quickly regained her composure, though her voice was a little colder: "Three hundred years, three hundred years, Jiang Xiaochuan, you keep mentioning three hundred years. Are you implying I'm old, or reminding me how long I've been imprisoned?"

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't notice the change in her tone, or rather, he did notice it but didn't care.

He finished gnawing on the chicken wing, threw the bone into the fire with a "pop," then picked up the bamboo tube, took a sip of juice, and said, "It's nothing, just the truth. If you ever get to eat my senior sister's cooking, oh, her name is Lu Xueqi, or my junior brother Zhang Xiaofan's cooking, you'll know what delicious food is. My cooking skills aren't even worthy of carrying their shoes."

"Lu Xueqi? Zhang Xiaofan?" Xiaobai repeated the two names. "Your fellow disciples?"

"Hmm." Jiang Xiaochuan nodded, tore off another piece of chicken breast, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled, "Senior sister cooks well, junior brother cooks well too, as for me, I'm just okay with what I can eat."

Xiao Bai didn't ask any more questions, but just ate her chicken leg in small bites, her gaze fixed on the leaping flames, lost in thought. After a while, she spoke again, her voice returning to its previous calmness, even carrying a hint of casualness: "Speaking of which, why did you save me?"

Jiang Xiaochuan slowed down his chewing.

"They risked their lives to storm Burning Incense Valley, shatter the Mysterious Fire Altar, knocked out the guards, and released me." Xiao Bai listed the crimes one by one, his tone calm, as if he were talking about someone else's business. "And they even made enemies with Burning Incense Valley. What were they after?"

She raised her eyes and looked at Jiang Xiaochuan. The firelight flickered in her eyes, making her gaze somewhat unpredictable.

"The Mysterious Fire Mirror? But you already had it, and then you gave it to me."

She leaned slightly forward, looking through the firelight into Jiang Xiaochuan's somewhat evasive eyes, her voice lowered, carrying a hint of seduction and self-mockery:

"Could it be... that they're after me? They're after my body, which has been imprisoned for three hundred years, is thousands of years old, and I'm a cunning old fox?"

Jiang Xiaochuan choked on the juice and coughed violently, his face turning bright red.

He put down the bamboo tube, patted his chest to catch his breath, and glared at Xiaobai, his eyes saying, "Are you sick?"

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

He finally caught his breath and spat several times.

"Who's after your body! I...I...I just...I want to! I can do whatever I want, it's none of your business!"

Xiao Bai looked at his exasperated expression and suddenly laughed.

It wasn't the faint smile from before, nor the angry laugh, but a genuine, joyful laugh.

She laughed for a while before stopping, wiping away the tears of laughter with her fingertips, and said, "Fine, it's none of my business."

Jiang Xiaochuan snorted, turned his face away from her, picked up the bamboo tube, and took another big gulp of juice, trying to suppress the inexplicable heat.

The fire crackled, and the aroma of pheasants mingled with the scent of fruit wafted through the air. In the distance, in the direction of Incense Valley, the reddish-yellow cloud seemed to have faded a little.

After Xiaobai finished eating the last bit of chicken, he threw the bones into the fire.

Looking at the leaping flames, she suddenly said, "Speaking of which, our fox clan and the Ghost King Sect have some connection."

Jiang Xiaochuan looked at her.

"The current sect leader of the Ghost King Sect," Xiao Bai said slowly, his voice carrying a hint of reminiscence, "is my sister's wife."

Jiang Xiaochuan showed no surprise, simply saying "Oh".

Xiao Bai looked at him and asked, "Aren't you surprised? Aren't you astonished?"

"What's so surprising?" Jiang Xiaochuan said casually.

"Biyao mentioned something to me. Her mother was a fox, and she took her back to the Six Fox Cave on Fox Hill..." He paused, not continuing, but picked up a branch and poked at the fire, sparks flying up and falling back down.

Xiaobai noticed his momentary silence and the fleeting, complex emotions that crossed her mind. She didn't press him for details, but simply waited quietly.

Jiang Xiaochuan stared at the flames for a long time before whispering, as if talking to himself, "Biyao is the Ghost King's daughter, so if we're going by seniority..."

He suddenly turned his head, looked at Xiaobai, blinked, and asked with a hint of probing and a joke, "Shouldn't you let her call you... Auntie?"