After My Breakup, I Slept with the Fox Raised by the Mountain God - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In the end, I still ran away.

The reason was simple.

I had only gone to the mountains to nurse a broken heart, not to adopt a fox that had attained human form.

So I checked out, hailed a taxi, and headed back to the city. The entire sequence of actions was as smooth as flowing water; I didn’t even take the protective amulet the Proprietress tried to hand me. Before I left, she stood at the doorway, watching me with a meaningful gaze.

“Xiao Lu, some debts cannot be avoided.”

I climbed into the car, shut the door, and pretended not to hear her.

As it turned out, I saw Yu Xunian standing downstairs at my office building the very next day.

He was wearing a perfectly tailored gray overcoat, standing by the entrance of a coffee shop. With his long legs, narrow waist, and cold, aloof features, he looked like some rising star on the cover of a financial magazine. A few young girls nearby were secretly taking photos of him with their phones, but his eyes were fixed only on me, as if he had identified his prey long ago.

I was holding a cup of soy milk at the time and nearly spat it out.

“How did you find this place?”

“I followed the scent,” he answered naturally.

My scalp went numb.

“Are you a dog?”

He narrowed his eyes slightly. “A fox.”

I choked on my words and dragged him toward a less crowded area.

“Yu Xunian, don’t go crazy. This is the city center!”

“I’m not going crazy.” He looked down at me. “I’m just here to remind you that the Pact between us still exists.”

“What Pact?”

He raised his hand and lightly tapped my wrist.

A second later, a faint red mark actually emerged beneath my skin. It looked like the one I had seen on his waist last night, only thinner. It flashed once and then vanished.

I fell silent.

Wait, I just went through a breakup-how did I end up with supernatural side effects?

Yu Xunian looked at me, his tone as calm as if he were discussing a business partnership.

“If the Pact isn’t stabilized within thirty days, I will lose control. The most direct solution is to stay by your side.”

“What happens if you lose control?”

“On the mild side, I might grow a tail in the middle of the night. On the more severe side,” he thought for a moment, “I might bite your ex-boyfriend until he’s nothing but bones.”

I sucked in a breath of cold air.

“How do you know I have an ex-boyfriend?”

“You have his scent on you.”

He said it so calmly that it sent a chill down my spine.

“We’ve already broken up.”

“I know.” He glanced at me. “That’s why I only *want* to bite him.”

I was stunned by this fox’s sense of legality.

But before I could continue the argument, my project manager rushed out of the revolving doors, followed by the client representative, Manager Chen. Manager Chen was a man in his forties who loved making lewd jokes to young women at drinking parties. I hated the sight of him, but unfortunately, this project was worth a lot of money, so everyone in the company had to humor him.

He spotted me immediately, his smile greasy.

“Ah, Xiao Lu, who’s this? A new boyfriend?”

Before I could answer, Yu Xunian took a step forward and pulled me behind him.

The movement was gentle, but it was a very clear protective stance.

“Fiancé,” he said.

I whipped my head around to glare at him.

His expression didn’t change. He even gave Manager Chen a polite nod.

“Thank you for looking after Zhiyi at work. However, please send any private invitations for after nine p.m. directly to me in the future.”

The smile on Manager Chen’s face froze.

The project manager froze, too.

I was the most frozen of all.

The air was so quiet I could hear the sound of the milk frother in the coffee shop downstairs.

Manager Chen gave an awkward cough and slunk away.

The project manager pulled me aside, whispering excitedly, “Lu Zhiyi, not bad! When did you find such a catch? And you said he’s your fiancé?!”

I gave a numb smile. “It was an arranged marriage. He was just delivered.”

Once everyone was gone, I turned around, wanting to strangle Yu Xunian.

“What kind of nonsense was that?”

He looked down at me, the corners of his eyes tilting up lazily.

“Isn’t it what you humans are best at? Using an identity to ward off unwanted suitors?”

“That’s not how you do it!”

“Was it not effective?”

I couldn’t answer for a moment.

Because the effect was indeed surprisingly good.

After that day, Manager Chen never tried to ask me out alone under the guise of a meeting again.

I held in a chest full of anger, but in the end, all I could squeeze out was: “Just how long do you plan on staying?”

Yu Xunian thought about it. “Depends on your performance.”

Me: “…”

This fox wasn’t just a professional moocher; he had turned the tables to become the one in charge.

When I went home that evening, I was prepared to have a massive fight with him.

Instead, as soon as I opened the door, I smelled something burning.

My heart skipped a beat. I rushed into the kitchen and saw Yu Xunian standing in front of the stove. A black, charred mass was smoking in the pan.

He was holding a spatula with a deadpan expression, his long sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His wrists were dazzlingly white, but his face was written with the words: “The world has failed me.”

Seeing me return, he spoke very calmly. “Your human pots are not very obedient.”

I stared at the unidentified object in the pan, my patience snapping.

“If you don’t know how to cook, why did you start a fire?”

“You weren’t back yet,” he said. “I was hungry.”

His tone was actually somewhat self-righteous.

I laughed out of sheer frustration.

“You’re a fox! If you’re hungry, can’t you go catch a chicken yourself?”

Yu Xunian fell silent for two seconds before slowly looking at me.

“It’s not allowed in the city.”

I leaned against the doorframe, suddenly wanting to laugh.

And when I did, even I was stunned.

It turned out that the first time I had laughed sincerely since my breakup was because of a fox who had burned a hole through a pan.