Chapter 1

“Idiot!”

I lay curled on the ground, licking the wounds where my tails had been severed, while Azure Bird paced around me.

“I told you humans were treacherous. And royalty is worse.”

“With all the schemes they have spinning in their heads, fooling a dim little fox like you is child’s play.”

I couldn’t be bothered to answer.

He crouched in front of me. “What did I say? He wanted your inner core from the start! Why else would he bring home a wild fox, of all things?”

I ground my teeth. “If you’ve finished laughing, get lost. Keep making that racket, and when I’m healed, I’ll beat you back into your bird form.”

He grinned. “I’d believe that if you still had nine tails. But look at you now. Three tails just to save your life. Who’s going to beat whom?”

For all his talk, he raised a hand.

The sun was warm, and the huge canopy of the parasol tree above us cast dappled shadows.

As his hand rose, a sudden breeze stirred the crown, and a leaf drifted down.

Straight into his palm.

“Here.”

He handed it to me. “The old phoenix left plenty of divine essence in this tree before going off to be reborn. More than enough to heal those tails.”

Half a month later, dazzling silver light flared beneath the tree.

Azure Bird leaned lazily against the trunk, a dry twig between his teeth, and looked me up and down.

“Not a bad face. Good enough to fool people.”

I straightened my collar and skirts and glanced sideways at him.

“Thanks, you wretched bird.”

He waved a hand. “If you died, who would I fight for fun?”

“So, who are you going to pretend to be when you go back?”

I turned my palms, and a guqin appeared out of thin air.

Cradling the zither in my arms, I said,

“The crown princess wants to learn the guqin. The Eastern Palace is searching everywhere for an accomplished teacher.”

The Eastern Palace was just as I remembered it.

In the garden pond where I used to splash and swim, the same silly carp still lived all alone.

As I passed with the guqin in my arms, it swam to the bank and blew bubbles at me.

I feigned delight. “What a beautiful fish.”

The eunuch leading the way looked back and smiled. “His Highness has kept it for years. It’s very precious. Someone is specially assigned to feed it.”

I took one last look back.

“Hear that?”

I whispered to the carp, “Once you’re fat enough, they can kill you and eat you.”

It darted straight to the bottom.

Tsk. Believing everything it heard. What a fool.

Just like I used to be.

Zhong Rui was six the year he found me.

I was barely three hundred—still a little thing among the foxes.

Our clan of divine nine-tailed foxes was nurtured by heaven and earth, and carefree by nature.

After I was born, my parents went off to enjoy themselves, leaving me to wander the world as I pleased.

As a youngster, I loved play and food. My favorite pastime was stealing treats from mortal markets.

“Stealing again! I’ll beat you to death, you greedy fox!”

That day, with a big chicken leg I’d just stolen from an inn’s kitchen in my mouth, I was chased down two streets by a cook waving an iron ladle.

My cultivation was already quite good by then. One simple spell would have sent him flying.

But there was no need.

I ran and ran, even finding time to look back and give him a mocking glance.

Then, in a moment of carelessness, I stepped into a trap someone had left beneath the eaves by a wall…

Oh. A rat trap.

But rat traps hurt too!

The chicken leg in my mouth lost all its appeal. Dazed, I started clawing at the iron jaws.

The cook caught up, huffing and puffing, and laughed with his ladle over his shoulder.

“Let’s see you run now!”

He raised the handle high, ready to bring it down.

At that crucial moment…

I later learned from mortal storybooks that if I’d been a human girl, this would have been called a hero rescuing a beauty.

Unfortunately, I was a little fox.

And Zhong Rui was only a little sprout of a boy himself.

But that little sprout stopped the cook and freed me from the rat trap with his own hands.

He gathered me into his arms, gave the cook an ingot of silver, and carried me away.

On the way, I wriggled half my head out of the thick cloak he’d wrapped around me to look at him.

Children raised in wealthy families really were different. What a handsome little thing he was.

He stroked the fur on my head and teased me with a smile. “I’ve got delicious things at home. I’ll make sure you never go hungry.”