After E Shulan sat down, some of her admirers who were constantly following her around also sat down alongside her. They followed E Shulan’s gaze and saw that she was looking at a group consisting of the fifth princess, Ling Chuxi and Ling Yichen.
“Lord Deity’s Servant, that girl is Ling Chuxi. She is a student from White Stone City’s White Stone Academy,” explained one of E Shulan’s lavishly dressed admirers. His name was Qi Yulei and he was the grandson of a second-grade official in the capital. The man who had left to buy lunch for E Shulan earlier was the descendant of another official. His name was Duan Yufei. These two were E Shulan’s loyal lackeys and admirers.
“From White Stone Academy?” E Shulan frowned slight. Ling Chuxi? She had never heard of her. However, she also had never thought that the arrogant and willful fifth princess would actually be so obedient in front of another person. Could it be that there was something special about this Ling Chuxi?
“Lord Deity’s Servant, you don’t have to mind such matters, you don’t need to lower yourself by speaking to those kinds of people,” said Qi Yulei indifferently with a glance at Ling Chuxi and the rest of her group. That maiden was just some country bumpkin from a small town, he really could not understand why Lord Deity’s Servant seemed to be so concerned about her.
“All right,” said E Shulan with a gentle nod. She no longer spoke after that curt acknowledgement. Just as she was about to retract her gaze, she was stunned by something that caught her eye. She saw the scarf on Ling Chuxi’s neck move. That snow-white scarf was actually a living creature! It was a little white fox! No matter how noble and aloof E Shulan acted, she was still a young maiden after all. Now that she had seen the petite and furry snow-white fox, she was very delighted at the sight of it and she was not able to cover up her expression.
Qi Yulei saw how E Shulan’s gaze suddenly changed and looked over in the direction of her gaze. Immediately, he noticed the little fox on Ling Chuxi’s table. His expression did not change, but he secretly planned to get another little fox that looked exactly the same for E Shulan. If someone else could have such a little fox, he too could spend money to buy one. If that was really not possible, he could just snatch it away from the original owner. However, seeing as the owner was someone from the fifth princess’ posse, he could not afford to offend her.
E Shulan did not retract her gaze for a long time. She looked over at the little fox eating elegantly, and then saw that Ling Chuxi even used a brocade handkerchief to wipe its mouth and paws. The little fox very cooperatively stretched out its paws for Ling Chuxi to wipe. She had never seen such a humanistic little fox before. The more she watched it, the more she came to like it.
Ling Chuxi seemed to have felt E Shulan’s gaze so she raised her head to look over in her direction and immediately noticed E Shulan staring at Little White. Ling Chuxi’s expression darkened. She swept Little White off the table and onto her thighs so that the table would block E Shulan’s view of Little White. Only then did E Shulan reluctantly retract her gaze.
…
After school, when Ling Chuxi’s group of three were about to go and have a meal, they saw many students rushing over in a particular direction.
“Hey, you. Come over here for a bit. Could you tell me what is going on?” The fifth princess casually stopped someone passing by them to question them.
“Ah, there is a martial competition taking place at the training venue behind the academy. Would Your Highness, Fifth Princess, like to go and take a look? Somebody came out to challenge our academy’s number one expert, Shao Nansong. There are even people placing bets on who will win. Does Your Highness, Fifth Princess wish to place a bet as well—Oh, no, no. It’s nothing. I’ll make a move first. If I arrive too late, there won’t be any good spots left.” The person who was stopped by the fifth princess spoke excitedly at first, but when he reached the most exciting part and found himself almost inviting the fifth princess to join in and place a bet as well, he remembered that the person standing before him was indeed the fifth princess. And if the fifth princess was encouraged to gamble and the imperial palace blamed him for it, he would be dead meat. Therefore, after he finished speaking, he broke into a run and rushed away.
“Someone is challenging Shao Nansong?” exclaimed the fifth princess as she leapt up in excitement. “Let’s go. Master, let’s go and take a look to see who it is that has such guts to actually challenge Shao Nansong. Doesn’t that person know that Shao Nansong is already at Battle Qi Level 8? Does that person even know how to write the word ‘die’? Let’s go, let’s go. Master, let’s go watch this lively show!”