Chapter 223: Dog-Fox Chain?

Strange, strange, strange!

Everyone is lusting after my body.

This Wentian is truly too dangerous.

If one is not careful, one will be dragged into a basement and toyed with.

Every step is heart-stopping!

However, it is not entirely without benefits.

Wiggling his now-supple tail, Ren Yidao smiled with satisfaction.

Not bad, not bad.

Setting aside other issues, at least the initial basic goal has been achieved.

Mmhmm.

This prosperous age, just as I wished!

And just as Ren Yidao was smugly immersed in the joy of his victory, a pair of slightly cool palms suddenly supported his body.

Hm?

Li Fengyao inserted both hands under Ren Yidao's two paws, striking the classic pose from The Lion King when Simba was born.

Her eyes full of pride and joy, Li Fengyao pressed her face against the soft fur and chuckled softly:

"I knew you would come back."

Ren Yidao, in his white fox state, yawned, smacked his lips lazily, and brushed his tail across her chest.

Tsk.

Click.

Hm?

Just as he was lamenting, Ren Yidao suddenly heard a soft sound.

A Jade Ring had been placed around his neck.

The white fox was stunned.

???

"Mmph!!?"

Feeling the foreign object on his neck, the white fox struggled and dropped from Li Fengyao's hands.

Landing lightly on the desk, Ren Yidao shook his head vigorously, trying to shake the thing off his body.

What the hell!

You, you, you... what is wrong with you!?

Why are you doing this for real!

I am not your pet!

But no matter how hard he tried, the Jade Ring showed no signs of coming off.

The Jade Ring clung tightly to his fur, feeling completely weightless, and it even expanded and contracted in real-time as his posture changed.

If this were just a necklace, Ren Yidao would not hesitate to praise the craftsmanship.

But this is a dog chain... er, a Fox Chain, so he could only curse loudly.

"——! ————!"

"———! ——!"

"You must! Be happy!" (*Fox Clan profanity*)

He used every bit of the Fox Clan dialect he had previously learned from Huji and the others, venting the intensity of his current emotions to the fullest.

However, the white fox's baring of fangs and fierce resistance looked like something else entirely in Li Fengyao's eyes.

Unable to understand the Fox Clan language, Li Fengyao completely mistook Ren Yidao's fierce words for the white fox's joy at receiving the Jade Ring.

She smiled, her face full of tenderness, and muttered to herself:

"Seeing you so happy, you must really like it, right? Hehe, it was worth all the effort I spent finding someone to custom-make it."

"This piece of Warm Jade was personally gifted to me by my Imperial Father to celebrate my birthday when I came of age."

"Aside from taking the Jade Heart to make a Jade Pendant, I used all the remaining material for this."

"As long as you wear this Jade Ring, you won't freeze outside again even if you get lost later."

Ren Yidao:?

"——?" ("... Are you sick in the head?")

With something so important, why couldn't you do something else instead of making a dog chain?

Having received such deep affection by mistake, why can't I feel happy about it at all?

The other party's sincere heart left Ren Yidao's storm of counterattacks with nowhere to vent.

It's over.

Communication is completely impossible.

This time, I'm screwed.

What a pity!

Even though I have a thousand ways to attack her, as long as she cannot understand, she will not be hurt.

Coupled with the fact that the other party is not acting out of malice, it makes the whole situation even more twisted.

A tragedy.

Huhu knows that this time, he has lost.

Lost too much.

Seeing that the other party was completely immune to its attacks, the white fox stopped wasting its energy, curled up into a ball in frustration, and tucked its head inside.

I'm not looking at you anymore; looking at you is upsetting.

Damn it!

"Huh? What's wrong with you? Are you tired?"

Watching the white fox suddenly curl up, Li Fengyao blinked in confusion and tentatively poked it with her finger.

(Wriggle, wriggle)

The white fox ball ignored her, instead wriggling a distance away on the desk, moving far from her finger.

Don't touch me!

Let me have some peace and quiet by myself!

Having been a trendsetter in the imperial court for so many years, Li Fengyao was extremely accurate at reading people; she only needed a few glances to generally understand what was in someone's heart.

But unfortunately, this ability of hers was not applied to her interactions with animals.

Having never raised any animals from childhood to adulthood, she truly did not realize the white fox's depression at all.

After sending off Ran Guifei, Li Fengyao, alone in the study, suddenly undid her transformation and let out a soft breath.

"Hoo..."

From that day on, she had felt an inexplicable resistance to her male disguise, and from time to time, she would let herself catch her breath like this.

It was as if she were trying to maintain something...

Such imprudent behavior would have been impossible in the past.

Letting down her bound long hair, Li Fengyao picked up a strand of hair to tickle the white fox ball, watching it wriggle.

"Hehe, so cute."

The look in Li Fengyao's eyes as she watched the white fox was exceptionally gentle.

Ever since this little fox that had suddenly appeared vanished, Li Fengyao's heart had felt empty, as if she had lost something.

Before it disappeared, Li Fengyao had even been contemplating whether to tell the others in the residence about its existence.

She cherished her reputation as the Second Prince dearly and did not want any bad rumors to affect how she was perceived by the outside world.

Because she knew that if it truly came to a critical moment, a label of "indulging in playthings and losing one's ambition" could cause her years of accumulation to go up in smoke.

But when this white fox disappeared without a sound, Li Fengyao suddenly felt regret.

It left as quietly as it had come.

Why didn't I lock it by my side back then?

Why did I pretend to be magnanimous and give it a chance?

Weren't the previous lessons enough? Did I have to let myself regret it once more?

But no matter what, it was too late for regrets.

Yet Li Fengyao was not someone willing to admit defeat easily.

She was gambling.

Gambling that this white fox would not leave her just like that, and would return to her side.

She had this feeling, and she had this confidence.

And during this time of waiting, besides having a Fox Chain custom-made, she had not been idle.

The fact that the trend of keeping foxes as pets was spreading so rapidly in Wentian City was also partly due to Li Fengyao fanning the flames from the shadows.

Everything was done so that after the white fox appeared again, she could keep it without any scruples.

And now, she had won the bet.

"It's good that you really came back... Where did you run off to during this time?"

Li Fengyao was actually truly happy that the white fox could return on its own.

She had not been abandoned.

Having locked away her heart and emotions for so many years, she was unexpectedly moved by a little fox.

She leaned back in her chair, gently placed the white fox ball on her lap, and looked up, murmuring to herself:

"No matter where you went before, don't run around anymore."

"Oh, but I have to go out in two days, so I won't be able to stay home and keep you company."