Forty-Two: This shameless fox spirit!

Chapter Forty-Two: This shameless fox spirit!

Han QingShi was obviously a little nervous. Although he was trying to display a tender, watery smile on his face, the pitch of his voice wavered a little, “YuTang, I’m sorry, but I can’t help wanting to see you, so I came over uninvited. I hope, I hope you don’t mind.”

After all, they had been affectionate classmates for a number of years, so Cheng YuTang felt a bit conflicted in his heart. He sighed, “QingShi, why are you doing this again? I know the meaning of your heart, but if it were possible between us, wouldn’t it have happened more than a decade ago? How could it drag on until now?”

Han QingShi hadn’t expected him to be so direct, so he couldn’t help but feel both humiliated and a little angry. In spite of that, he said, “There was something over a decade ago! You took care of me so much, worrying that me not eating breakfast wasn’t good for my health, always bringing me snacks made by your auntie at home! When I had a conflict with the senior at school and the other side threatened to hit me, you personally warned him not to bother me! When I had hypoglycemia that one time and passed out on the field during P.E., you were the first one to pick me up and carry me to the infirmary! All these things were so vivid to me, and I remember all of them, one by one, even if you want to deny it!”

Cheng YuTang listened and stared blankly, then he shook his head and said, “You’re thinking too much. Since we were classmates, our relationship was relatively close at the time. Those were all things I just did, but there was no special meaning. If you were swapped with any of the other classmates around me, I would have done the same.”

“No, I’m not thinking too much, you did it all deliberately! At that time, you obviously liked me first! I was straight, until you pulled me and bent me, so you’re responsible for me!” Han QingShi argued excitedly, his eyes suddenly red, “YuTang, I-I’ve always liked you. I have been steadfast in my heart towards you all these years…… I have skills, I have my own business, and I know you well enough too, so I can boost your power. Since you like men, why can’t you be with me?”

“No, Han QingShi, you don’t know me well, you may not even know yourself well enough.” Cheng YuTang said lowly, “Feelings can’t be handled like business, they can’t be forced. You’re also thirty-something-year-old man, so can’t you even understand such a simple truth? Stop fooling yourself and don’t put a baseless label on my head. I do like men, but there is only one in my life who has truly touched my heart and it’s not you.”

“Who?! You’re not going to say it’s your little bodyguard, right? Hahaha, what a big joke!” Han QingShi laughed shrilly a few times and his facial features distorted from anger. “That kid, except for his youth, what else does he have? Only graduated from secondary school, uneducated, aggressively fights, vulgar and rude…… Cheng YuTang, how superficial are you to like such a little punk? If anyone else found out, I’m afraid that HongSheng’s stock would crash overnight!”

“Shut your mouth! You have no right to judge what kind of person he is. HongSheng’s performance has nothing to do with you!” Cheng YuTang said angrily. He paused to suppress a bit of his rage and said slowly, “Han QingShi, your current state is very problematic. It’s impossible for us to communicate today. Go back, calm down and think about it, don’t flush the friendship between classmates down the drain.”

As if he had suffered a heavy blow, Han QingShi staggered. With an expression on his face that was a mix of despair, embarrassment, and resentment, he laughed mockingly for a long time. “Cheng YuTang, don’t talk about feelings or about true love or whatever anymore. If you really like that kid, how could you spend a hot night with a MB on Christmas Eve last year? Say, if I told your little lover about that, how would he react?”

Cheng YuTang’s heart trembled in shock, but his expression didn’t shift, “Regarding what happened on Christmas Eve last year, you still owe me a confession.”

At this point, Han QingShi had no hope at all. He simply smashed the cracked pot and said, “I’ll tell you frankly, I had originally planned to sacrifice myself to you on Christmas Eve last year. I drank a whole bottle of wine and, with difficulty, I mustered up the courage to take that step, but when I arrived at your room, I found out that you were already making love to a young man. It was only afterwards that I learned from my uncle that the boy was a housekeeper at the hotel and that my uncle had arranged for him to be with real estate developer that night. I don’t know how he climbed into your bed, I guess he heard that Cheng Zong’s family is more powerful. Nowadays, who isn’t selling themselves for money? I also love money, but I have a sincere heart too. Unfortunately, it’s worthless in some people’s opinion. Heh heh, I offer my services as a cheap bedmate. If I may ask, with your style of ‘all comers welcome’, how can you act more noble than me?”

So it was like that……the details that I couldn’t figure out before are finally all settled. Cheng YuTang took a deep breath and said resolutely, “QingShi, thank you for telling me the truth about that night. I might as well also be frank with you. The man I was with on Christmas Eve was Ji XiaoYu. I’ve never felt very noble about myself, I’ve done bad things before, but fortunately XiaoYu is willing to give me a chance so that I can start over. Being able to meet him is the greatest fortune of my life. If you can give us your well-wishes, I’ll be grateful. If not, please look back on our relationship as classmates and, for the sake of that, don’t bother us again, okay?”

Han QingShi stared stunned at him, lips trembling as if he wanted to say more. But in the end, he didn’t say anything else and, after a moment, he turned around silently and left in a daze of despair.

Cheng YuTang heaved out a sigh, but didn’t make a sound, just silently watching with a dispirited expression as Han QingShi drove away.

What he just said might have been a little cruel, but it wasn’t good for either party to speak unclearly. He really didn’t want any more misunderstandings between himself and Ji XiaoYu because of outsiders.

The little thing had suffered so many grievances and he was so distressed, how could he continue to let him hurt for something unwarranted?

……

Two days later, in early evening as the street lights were coming on, Cheng YuTang arrived at a reception hall with his little bodyguard. When they were about to enter the door, there came an affectionate call from next to them that danced up and down in pitch, “YuTang, there you are~”

Ji XiaoYu instantly got goosebumps all over, there’s no mistake. After not being seen for two days, how could this surname Han have become more disgusting?

When he turned his head with a dark expression on his face, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

Yes, it was indeed Han QingShi, but there seemed to be something different from the man he had seen twice before. The shifting of his hands and feet seemed to give off a flirtatious bearing. When he glanced at people out of the corners of his eyes, his gaze was like a hook. Suddenly, the face, which could previously barely be called beautiful, had gained a little flamboyant glamour, showing off a kind of effeminate, enchanting charm, which caused several men and women who passing by to double take.

What happened? Did this surname Han have a nervous breakdown or has he lost his mind? How did he suddenly become not like a person but like a spiritual beast?

When Ji XiaoYu looked at Han QingShi, the other man also looked at him sidelong and, in the corner of his slender eyes, a glimmer of soul-stirring light flashed.

Ji XiaoYu was suddenly shocked and disturbed, no, no way! This really isn’t a person in front of me, he’s really a spiritual beast!

What’s more, he’s a fox spirit with high cultivation!

In the natural world, one of the natural enemies of the pheasant was the fox. Although this fox spirit wasn’t necessarily stronger than Ji XiaoYu, the natural deterrent from the food chain still struck fear in his heart and his feathers puffed out as sweat covered his body.

What’s going on? When I met Han QingShi the day before yesterday, he was clearly still an ordinary human being. How did he turn into a spiritual beast in the blink of an eye? Is it because the fox sucked up all his internal energy and replaced it with his spirit? Too evil!

Mankind was the best of all living things. Although spiritual beasts had the advantages of special abilities and longevity, they couldn’t do just whatever they wanted. Since ancient times, although spiritual beasts often caused chaos in the world, they couldn’t, after all, completely subvert the regime of humanity. With the development of modern human society and the advancement of science and technology, the natural environment had gradually deteriorated, the spiritual energy between the heavens and the earth had dispersed greatly, so that the cultivation power of spiritual beasts had been weakened and their habitats had been continuously eroded and shrunken.

In desperation, spiritual beasts could only adapt to the times in order to survive by finding a relatively safe and secluded mountain retreat or working hard to cultivate into a human form and then integrate into the human society, living their life out slowly as a human being, like the cat spirit, Su MiaoEr.

However, if one was too impatient to work hard and wanted to take shortcuts, they could kill someone directly and take their place by filling their leftover skin with their spirit. This method was extremely murderous and evil and most spiritual beasts were ashamed of it. Ji XiaoYu had been out in the world for so long and this was the first time he had encountered such a thing.

Although he had hated Han QingShi, it wasn’t to the point where he wanted him to die, or he would have just killed him himself. But now seeing that his body was occupied by a fox spirit, Ji XiaoYu couldn’t help but shudder.

Just as Ji XiaoYu was shocked, the impact on Cheng YuTang was also not small.

He originally had thought that Han QingShi wouldn’t come today and that, even if he came, he would probably avoid Cheng YuTang. He didn’t expect the other man to take the initiative to greet him. However, if Han QingShi hadn’t been wearing makeup the day before yesterday when he came to his door, perhaps he would have wondered whether this person being impersonated by someone else. But, the day before yesterday, he witnessed that other side of Han QingShi, which had made him somewhat mentally prepared, so his reaction wasn’t as strong as Ji XiaoYu’s. He just wondered a bit if he was had been too tough while speaking the day before yesterday, causing Han QingShi to be overly stressed and causing some mental trauma.

Mindful of this, Cheng YuTang couldn’t help the bit of guilt that sprung up in his head and he couldn’t bear it. So, with concern, he responded to Han QingShi, “QingShi, your face…… Something seems wrong, are you unwell? Should I take you to the hospital?”

“YuTang, how can you suddenly care about this person so much? This person is so touched,” the false Han QingShi/real fox fluttered his eyelashes and put on an act like a willow branch trembling in the wind, leaning towards Cheng YuTang. “As you said, I really feel a little dizzy. Can you lend me a shoulder to lean on?”

(t/n: the fox uses a feminine, affectionate way to refer to himself as ‘this person’)

Cheng YuTang: “……”

At the moment, he couldn’t tell whether this person was pretending or not, but he didn’t have time to step forward.

Fuck! This shameless fox spirit! Ji XiaoYu was furious and, with a flash, moved in front of Cheng YuTang and secretly clenched his fist.

Even if I don’t want to touch this man, I will never allow any other spiritual beast to lay a finger on him!

Even taking a step back from that thought, Cheng YuTang was also his boss. This fox spirit had the gall to target him. Did he think this bodyguard was dead?!

When Han QingShi suddenly came close to Ji XiaoYu’s shoulder, he twisted his hips and stood up straight. Smirking, he said, “Yo, isn’t this my friend XIAO JI. Could it be that you feel concern for this person?”

(t/n: XIAO JI was in English in the raws)

The words “XIAO JI” were bitten out particularly heavily. Some people might think it was Xiao Ji, but only Ji XiaoYu knows that the fox was saying “little chick”. He was brazenly provoking Ji XiaoYu.

“Fuck your concern!” Ji XiaoYu cursed sharply, “Surname Han, I’m warning you not to act rashly, otherwise, don’t blame this little master for being rude!”

“Aiya, how scary!” Han QingShi pasted on a frightened expression and then complained to Cheng YuTang, “YuTang, your bodyguard is too fierce towards this person, don’t you care?”

Although Cheng YuTang couldn’t stand the way Han QingShi was acting, he couldn’t ignore him due to his guilt. Besides, Han QingShi was just exaggerating his words and actions, making people uncomfortable, but his own little bodyguard actually cursed at him and threatened to fight him. Logically, this was a little wrong. So he had to face Ji XiaoYu and say, “XiaoYu, don’t be so rude.”

When Ji XiaoYu heard this, he almost became furious. He felt both angry and wronged. It was said that the fox spirit was the most charming and sure enough. Okay, surname Cheng, this little master was protecting you, saving you from being enchanted by this fox spirit. When he sucks up your spiritual energy, you give it well. Not only are you ungrateful, you turn it around to interfere with this little master? This really is ‘good intentions being seen as the heart of a wolf and lungs of a dog’, this is really against the laws of nature!

The most hateful thing was that he still couldn’t reveal this fox spirit’s true face, because once he did, his own identity would be exposed.

Suppose that he had a 100% aversion to Han QingShi before; at this time, he disliked this sinister, flirtatious fox spirit at least 10 times more.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, this little master is really angry!

—

Footnotes:

1. MB: money boy, rentboy, a young man who sells his body for sex; also referred to as a duck (male prostitute), while a female prostitute is called a chicken in slang

2. Smash the cracked pot (破罐子破摔): to give in to despair in the face of a setback

3. the best of all living things (靈長): a poetic term for humanity, literally intelligent and developed

4. heart of a wolf, lungs of a dog (狼心狗肺): idiom for something cruel and unscrupulous; good intentions being seen as cruel is a idiom as well for being misunderstood/misconstrued

—

rip HQS. though he was annoying, as JXY said, he didn’t deserve to die [lights candle ???]