Chapter 412: Incredibly Well-behaved
...
Yun Qi recalled events from six months prior.
The Nine-Tailed Fox Clan Chief, Yun Shu, approached him with a marriage certificate, requesting him to go to the Red Fox Clan for a political marriage in place of the young master.
If Yun Qi agreed to this marriage alliance, the Clan Chief would grant him freedom and return his Soul Lamp to him.
In the ancestral halls of various clans, Soul Lamps of every blood-related clan member were enshrined. The Soul Lamp was formed from the owner's essence blood and a wisp of their spirit.
The existence of the Soul Lamp served, on one hand, to ensure the safety of the clansmen. Once a clansman faced a life-threatening danger while away, the Clan Chief or the current family head could immediately check the changes in the Soul Lamp and bring the person back through it.
If a clansman died, the Soul Lamp would also extinguish.
On the other hand, the Soul Lamp was also an inescapable shackle. As long as one's Soul Lamp was in the hands of another, one had to obey their commands, or else suffer spiritual damage.
Once Yun Qi retrieved his Soul Lamp, he could completely sever ties with the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan, no longer be subject to their commands and shackles, and regain his freedom.
However, he was unwilling to gamble with marriage. Regardless of the Clan Chief's kind persuasion or coercion, he was extremely resistant, until he heard that the noble female to be married was the little princess of the Red Fox Clan, and he agreed to the substitute marriage.
From that day on, this young master, who had been brought back by the Clan Chief a few days prior, was no longer gloomy all day long. He seemed like a different person. A smile appeared on his face for the first time, and he took the initiative to learn the elaborate rules of etiquette. His manners were gentle and courteous, not at all inferior to the eldest young master. No one secretly mocked him as a crude wild fox from the countryside anymore.
On the eve of his happy departure to the Red Fox Clan, the young master even meticulously dressed up, unable to fall asleep the entire night.
Yun Qi looked at the young man in the mirror, dressed in a dark cyan wide-sleeved straight-skirt deep robe, soft ink-colored hair falling on the side of his face, a high nose bridge, and deep, picturesque eyebrows. His long eyelashes trembled slightly like butterfly wings, casting faint shadows in the flickering candlelight.
He raised his hand to caress his face, an exquisite appearance no different from his elder brother, as if talking to himself,
"Will she like me?"
The room was empty, and no one answered him.
However, the young man thought of something happy, and a faint warmth appeared on his refined and handsome face.
"I wonder if she still remembers what happened back then..."
Yun Qi was the illegitimate son of Clan Chief Yun Shu and a female beast of unknown origin. Only after the child was born did they discover that one of them was a black fox.
A black nine-tailed fox symbolized an ominous presence in the clan. There was even a legend that it was a cursed beast, which would bring disaster to the fox clan.
A cursed beast should have been burned to death at birth, but perhaps the Clan Chief still had a bit of paternal love for Yun Qi, so he abandoned him in a remote village, giving some beast crystals to a few farming families to raise him.
Since he became conscious, Yun Qi had never seen his biological mother.
It was said that after giving birth to the child, she exposed her cursed fox identity. The Clan Chief had no choice but to kill her to appease the public anger. Later, the Clan Chief married another noble female of the same clan, and finally covered up the matter.
The Clan Chief's wife was a ruthless character who could not tolerate a grain of sand in her eyes. She knew of Yun Qi's existence and had sent assassins several times, wanting to make this eyesore disappear completely.
Yun Qi was just a child back then. No matter how lucky he was, he only narrowly escaped death a few times. He had no power to contend with the Clan Chief's wife, and finally decided to flee Qingqiu, as far as possible.
On the way, he was still endlessly pursued.
Coincidentally, a beast tide erupted in the forest at that time. Those beastmen who were chasing him either died or fled. Yun Qi disguised himself as an ordinary fox cub. In the chaos, no one noticed him, and he escaped the disaster under the cover of night.
However, he also suffered very serious injuries. If he had not received timely medical treatment, death would have been the only thing waiting for him.
His breath grew weaker and weaker. In despair, he met a small female of about the same age.
She saved him.
Yun Qi had not been able to forget her starlike eyes and gentle gaze in the night for so many years. It was more comforting than the most effective medicine in the world...
Later, someone came looking for her. Yun Qi was afraid that they were people who had come to hunt him down, so he ran away.
Of course, he didn't run too far, secretly hiding behind a tree, and heard the group of beastmen calling the girl a princess.
So those people were looking for her. She was the little princess of the Red Fox Clan.
Over the years.
He had always looked forward to meeting her again.
The little princess had also grown up. He wondered what she had become. He really wanted to see her soon.
Later, Yun Qi got his wish and met the princess of the Red Fox Clan. Her face was injured and her body was dirty back then, but her delicate and beautiful features could still be seen. Now, she was wearing a bright red dress, and her open face looked even more rich and gorgeous, captivating.
Her eyebrows and eyes were unruly and flamboyant, but that touch of irritability and indifference made him feel a little strange.
So many years have passed, everyone will change.
But what Yun Qi didn't expect was that on the night of the engagement, the princess called him to a deserted corner. When that whip lashed fiercely on his body, Yun Qi didn't feel much pain, but the heart under his chest was unbearably painful.
"A lowly bastard! An ugly black fox! This princess feels unlucky just looking at you. How dare those guys send this ugly thing for marriage. This is simply insulting me!"
She was extremely angry, and the whip fell again and again. Yun Qi forgot to resist, letting her beat him all over.
It was like...
Something else was slowly breaking...
But tonight, Yun Qi heard what the princess said, and the first time they met appeared in his mind again.
Has Your Highness returned?
He hummed softly, "Thank you, Your Highness."
"Sleep."
The princess had not been dressing up much these days. There was no overly strong and greasy rouge on her body. The two slept on the same bed, each occupying one side, not very close. There were two quilts between them, but Yun Qi smelled a faint fragrance from her body, a bit like the fragrance of lily of the valley, which made people feel very safe... very comfortable...
Yun Qi's breathing slowly became light and even.
Sang Luo turned her head to look and called softly, "Yun Qi?"
The young man did not respond.
He was asleep.
This was the most peaceful night Yun Qi had slept in these years.
...
Inside the Princess's Mansion, this night was not peaceful.
Everyone knew that the princess had rested in the room of Yun Qi, her male attendant, last night, and some people had seen with their own eyes that the two had left the bedroom together in the morning, with a look of happiness on their faces, a deep affection between them.
The delicacies brought by the kitchen made people salivate just looking at them. A breakfast was arranged with dozens of dishes. This was a treatment that the two masters and servants had never enjoyed before.
Being favored by the princess, what a world of difference!
Sang Luo looked at the young man across the table.
He sat quietly with his body slightly bent. His side face was like jade, and his long eyelashes cast a faint shadow. His temperament was as clean and pure as ice and snow.
Incredibly well-behaved...
"Open your mouth."
