“Not bad. This girl’s got talent.”

I changed back into my fox form and lay in the corner of the living room, quietly watching that green fox repair my broken roof.

I had no idea where she got all that energy. She stayed hyped the whole time. Very quickly, she pieced the shattered stones back together like a puzzle. Then she spat out Foxfire and melted the steel bars into adhesive. Bit by bit, she patched the roof back up. As for the quality... who knew if it would leak when it rained.

“Lady Nine Tails, look, I’ve finished fixing your roof. So... does that mean you can cultivate together with me now?”

The green fox dropped to her knees in front of me again, her face full of expectation. I seriously had no idea what was going on in this girl’s head. So young, and already... actually, maybe not that young. This girl seemed older than even my grandpa.

“Cultivate what together?! Keep this up and I’m seriously calling the cops!”

I bared my sharp fangs at her. My fluffed-up tail stood straight on instinct, making me look like some furious wild beast about to snap.

“So cute~ If milady doesn’t like human bodies, we can do it in fox form too~”

The moment she finished, bang, a cloud of smoke burst up at her feet. A moment later, an elegant blue-furred Three-Tail Form fox stepped out of the smoke. She was half a meter taller than me. She looked down at me for a while, then lowered her head and stuck out her tongue, about to lick me.

“Whoa! What are you doing?! Put your tongue back in! That’s disgusting!” I stuck my butt up and smacked her hard across the cheek with my tail.

“What’s wrong? In our fox clan, we lick each other to show friendship. It’s like humans shaking hands. But if Lady Nine Tails doesn’t like that, I’ll change back.”

With a poof and that same cloud of smoke, the green fox turned back into her human body in less than half a second. As expected of an old monster. Her switch between human and demon was instant. Unlike me, who still had to shed fur first before changing.

“Who’s in the fox clan with you? I may be a fox right now, but just one day ago I was a perfectly normal human. So don’t try to cozy up to me. I’m not buying it!”

“Ah... then, Lady Nine Tails, what would it take for you to agree to cultivate together with me? As long as you say yes, I can serve you for the rest of my life. I’ll work like a horse for you, pour your tea, wait on you hand and foot. I guarantee I’ll take very good care of you.”

The green fox rubbed her hands in front of me and kept rambling on about all the benefits. Thinking about it carefully, what she said did sound pretty good. A beautiful fox girl as your servant... that was the dream of countless shut-ins. I used to fantasize about that too.

But... that impulse was gone now.

Sigh... why... why didn’t you come a little earlier?

“What’s your name? How old are you?”

“Reporting to Lady Nine Tails, my name is Xiao Qing. My measurements are 82/55/80. I live in the third big tile-roof house at Erdaotai, Sandao Gully, Shuxia Village, below Azure Hill Mountain. At home I have an elderly mother above me, and a pureblood cousin—”

“Cough, cough... wait a second. I asked how old you are. Why are you being so detailed?” I coughed awkwardly, thinking this fox had to be missing a screw.

“I’m ninety-three this year. A healthy little fox still in her growth phase. Lady Nine Tails, don’t you think the two of us are especially fated?”

Xiao Qing’s eyes shifted. She suddenly thought of something and immediately spoke to me in excitement.

“Why do you say that?”

“Look, you’re a white fox and I’m a green fox. Think about it. Doesn’t that scene feel familiar?”

“What scene?”

One white, one green... I felt like I’d seen that before, but I just couldn’t remember it for the moment.

“Ahhh—ahhh—ahhhhhh—ahhh—West Lake’s beauty—in the third month of spring—the spring moon like wine—the willows like mist—”

Instead of explaining, Xiao Qing started singing. But that song... it sounded so familiar.

“Though a thousand miles apart, those with fate will meet...” I hummed the next line without thinking.

“Without fate, even face to face, they can’t join hands...”

The moment Xiao Qing saw I picked it up, she got so excited that she scooped me up and pressed me tightly against her chest. My little fox head sank right into it.

“A hundred years of cultivation—ah, ptooey! Why did this turn into an opera?! Put me down already! Who said you could hug me?!”

“Sorry, sorry. I got carried away.”

Xiao Qing hurriedly apologized and set me down on the table beside her so we could look each other in the eye. Otherwise, to show submission, she always had to crouch while talking to me.

“You mean Bai Suzhen and Xiao Qing the green snake?”

That was enough to jog my memory. I’d never watched all of The Legend of the White Snake, but it was still part of my childhood, so I remembered it.

“Exactly. We’re just like the white snake and the green snake. How about we become sisters at heart?”

“And then get taken by Fahai.”

I rolled my eyes, then let out a long yawn. I glanced at the clock. It was already past midnight. Time to sleep. I was a fox, not some cultivator who needed to stay up all night.

“That only happened because of Xu Xian! Look, the white snake and the green snake spent hundreds of years together. Wouldn’t it have been great if they’d just stayed in the deep mountains and grown lilies together? But no, they just had to go out and look for men. And look how that ended... So that’s why girls with girls are the true path. To hell with those stinking men!”

“You’re the one who stinks! Without men, where did you come from?! Is that how you talk about your own dad?! Get out already. I’m going to sleep!”

I knew Xiao Qing was saying all that on purpose to provoke me and get me involved with her. But she didn’t know I used to be a guy. Those words really pissed me off.

I was angry now.

And the consequences were serious.

“Please don’t be mad, Lady Nine Tails. I was just—”

“Out. If you don’t want me to start hating you, leave right now!”

My fur puffed up again. I bared my teeth, and clusters of flame bloomed around me into gorgeous lotus flowers, inching closer and closer to Xiao Qing.

“Yes, yes, yes! I’m leaving right now!”

Seeing that I was angry, the Fox Demon quickly bowed, then jumped out from the seventh floor.

“I’ll be back————” her voice faded into the distance.

“Back my ass, you idiot fox,” I muttered. Then I closed my eyes and rested on my paws, ready to experience what sleeping as a fox felt like.

—

“I see. Lady Nine Tails used to be a boy. No wonder she got angry. But if that’s the case... this might actually make things easier. Men, after all... hehe...”

Walking down the street, Xiao Qing looked at the student ID in her hand. She’d swiped it from my house, so now she knew my former male identity, as well as my school, grade, and class.

“When I found Lady Nine Tails, she seemed to be learning transformation magic. Oh... I get it. She wants to turn back into her original appearance so she can return to society. Humans are social creatures, after all. She definitely won’t be able to accept being a Fox Demon so easily. She’ll try every possible way to get back to her old life. If that’s true, then she’s definitely going to school. Good... I’ll win her over there!”

Looking at the school name on the student ID, Xiao Qing revealed a confident smile. She was sure that with her looks, winning someone over would be easy.

What she didn’t know was that an even greater threat was waiting for her at that school.