The Fox King

Chapter 36: Startlingly Well-Informed

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Luo Qinghan clung tighter to her. “Zhe Huo,” he muttered, “We don’t need his help to bring down the wasp demon.”

Zhe Huo lowered her voice to share her reasoning with the child. “You don’t understand, Qinghan—having help greatly increases one’s chances of success. What’s more, the handsome Mr Tao has no interest in the reward. He could help us with this quest, and we’d still get to keep all the money for ourselves!”

Without waiting to hear Qinghan’s opinion, she began making profuse assurances to Tao Feiyan that Qinghan was very well-behaved, and would not hold her back in the slightest. Feiyan chuckled heartily, a sight that made her heart do somersaults, so that she quite nearly forgot herself. But then Qinghan’s tail, stroking erratically about her waist, suddenly wrapped itself around her, which shook her back to her senses once again. She’d just been about to blurt out something, but her train of thought had been derailed by that.

Zhe Huo knew she was blushing again. She patted her cheeks in an attempt to calm herself down, and it took a moment before she was ready to go discuss plans with Feiyan, while still holding Qinghan in her arms. There wasn’t much to discuss—they all had the same idea to extract nectar from spider flowers, and use it to lure the wasp demon over to them.

Feiyan seemed particularly experienced at this sort of thing, and he basically left Zhe Huo nothing to do. First, they dripped the nectar into a brazier in order to disperse its scent upon the wind. Next, they lay in wait for their quarry to appear.

But a new problem had occurred to her: With the sun rising higher in the sky, Feiyan was presently reclining behind a stone counter, beneath an oil-paper umbrella. He held a sparkling mirror in his hand, which continuously sprinkled water in his face, as though he couldn’t endure direct sunlight at all.

Well, upon closer examination, his skin really was marvellous—dewy and fair, without the slightest blemish to be found anywhere.

Zhe Huo then looked at the child in her arms, equally flawless and exquisite, like a porcelain doll of the finest craftsmanship. And then, as a woman, Zhe Huo suddenly felt overcome with shame and despair.

Meanwhile, Feiyan didn’t miss this opportunity to have some fun at her expense. As he brushed his long, glossy, silken hair, he inquired, “Zhe Huo, darling… that wouldn’t happen to be your child, surely?”

Zhe Huo instantly flushed red with distress. Shaking her head empathetically, she cried, “Of course not!”

How old was she? How old was the boy?

Feiyan smiled, and then laughed. Ah, what a sight to behold.

Qinghan, for his part, blinked his eyes at Feiyan, and drawled, “I’ve heard about some famous places in Tiancheng. If Mr Tao were to spend the evening at any one of these places, he’d undoubtedly be the prize offering.”

Zhe Huo was rendered speechless. She’d only dared to entertain such thoughts within the privacy of her own mind. How could Qinghan actually say that out loud? Didn’t he realize how hurtful and humiliating it would be?

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As she racked her brain trying to figure out how to salvage this situation, Feiyan’s fingers paused ever so subtly in the act of stroking his hair, and then he finally turned to give Qinghan an earnest appraisal. “What’s your age, boy? You appear to be a mere child, but you are startlingly well-informed.”

This gave Zhe Huo a way back into the conversation. “That’s right! Luo Qinghan may seem like just a kid, but he’s really clever! Sometimes he says things he doesn’t mean—Mr Tao, please don’t pay it any mind!”

Ignoring her, Feiyan continued to regard Qinghan with amusement. “To know of such things… don’t tell me you’ve been to such places before?”

Zhe Huo was thunderstruck.

Seeing her expression, Qinghan thought better of the frigid response he was about to make. Pouting his lips as he looked up at her, and appearing full of confusion, he said softly, “Zhe Huo, I’ve never gone there before.”