I Abandoned the Rabbit Spirit—and He Turned Dark - Chapter 3

Annoyed or not, I went looking for him again the next day.

This time, a hunter’s trap had clamped around his leg. Blood poured from the wound. I pried open the jaws and lifted him into my arms.

He stared at me, wide-eyed, his whole body rigid.

I carried him to an abandoned temple and set him down so I could dress the injury. Before I even touched his leg, he shrank away.

“Do I look that much like a villain?” I demanded, glaring at him.

After a long silence, he whispered two barely audible words. “I stink.”

I hadn’t expected him to worry about his appearance. A laugh escaped me.

“You don’t stink. You’re the sweetest-smelling little rabbit in the world.”

Bai Luo pressed his lips together. Beneath the grime, his cheeks seemed to flush.

I applied medicine to his leg, fed him, and gave him fresh clothes. A simple cleansing spell transformed him. His features had not yet fully matured, but they were already far too beautiful, and his rabbit ears made my fingers itch.

I cleared my throat. “I’ve helped you so many times. How are you going to thank me?”

He looked up blankly, the fingers clutching his clothes betraying his embarrassment.

“I don’t want much. Just let me touch your ears.” I rubbed my hands together with the smile of a wolfish old granny.

He immediately covered his ears and backed away, staring at me with open suspicion.

“Fine. Forget it.”

When I turned to leave, thinking him impossible to fool, he caught my sleeve at the temple door.

“D-don’t go. I’ll let you touch them.”

His eyes had reddened again. I felt inexplicably guilty, as though I truly were some shameless bully.

When I still didn’t move, Bai Luo grew anxious. Gathering his courage, he took my hand and placed it on his ear.

The instant that soft fur met my palm, every scrap of guilt vanished. I hadn’t forced him. He had delivered those ears into my hand himself.

After that, I slipped down the mountain more and more often. I finally understood the joy of raising a character off the page.

To help Bai Luo blend into human society, I found him a transformation art that could hide his spirit traits. I also taught him the cultivation methods of my sect so others could no longer bully him at will.

He mastered transformation easily, yet made no progress whatsoever in cultivation. If I left him alone for even a few days, I was guaranteed to find him beaten and crying, too weak to fight back.

After driving off another gang of bullies, I snapped, “All you know how to do is cry. What would you do without me?”

Bai Luo gripped my hand, panic in his face. “I won’t cry anymore, Jiejie. I’ll cultivate harder. Please don’t abandon me.”

He did train harder, but with little result. The sight of sword-calluses splitting open across his palms filled me with both worry and frustration.

Bai Luo buried his face against my shoulder and nuzzled me. “Luo isn’t hurt.”

I patted his head. “Forget it. I’ll protect you. It doesn’t matter if your cultivation is poor.”

Instead of forcing him to become stronger, I began finding artifacts and talismans to keep him safe.

Six years passed in the blink of an eye.

Nothing of the frightened, cowering child remained. Bai Luo had grown tall and graceful, dressed in white like an immortal untouched by mortal dust.

I thought my interference had changed the plot—until his birthday, when I took him into town and Yu Wuxia suddenly appeared.

The moment his searching gaze shifted toward Bai Luo, I stepped between them.

“Senior Brother, what are you doing here?”

“That man who was just with you…”

“There was no one with me. You must have been mistaken.” My heart leaped into my throat as I seized his arm and pulled him away.

Thank heavens Bai Luo had worn a veiled hat over his face.