“…. You really were eavesdropping on my conversation with Chao.” Yung said, amazed.

“How dare you flirt with these Jiujiu and Ling harlots when you have not yet even had the utter fortune to be rejected by us! We forbid it. We forbid you from it.” Said the vixen with equal bewilderment, as though Yung’s actions were incomprehensible.

“Tell me the truth. Do you like me? Is that why you’ve been flashing your panties at me?”

“Going against the heavens,” Su Nanya gritted her fangs, her golden eyes looking down at Yung with sheer scorn, “is for those with more attractive visages. Yearning our alluring form, yet not daring to act upon such desire, is a sin far deplorable. You shall be wise to take our kind words to heart, oh foolish servant, if you do not prefer to suffer from more inexplicable misfortunes.”

Yung helplessly dropped his head onto the fluffy pillow. He looked at Su Yafeng, who had been standing beside the window like a statue for the last several hours, and begged for help.

The maid shifted her eyes to the wall, where the paint was drying with profound animation.

“Until we shall reject your pathetic bid for our heart,” Su Nanya declared with conclusiveness, “You shall come to woo us, yet we shan’t be pegged.”

“You… dirty little—” Yung stammered, eyes wide in shock.

“Come now. Let us see how soiled of a job you shall do. We await your first move.” Su Nanya said.

“You say that knowing what come, peg, and job means, right? Right? What do you mean by soiled? Tell me, what does soiled job mean?!” Yung stared Su Nanya straight in her vertical pupils.

Only an enthusiastic confusion stared back.

“You want me to pursue you,” Yung reflected on the crazy thot’s ramblings, trying to glean meaning from them, “so that you can reject me?”

“How astute!” Su Nanya clapped, “Now come. Woo us, we haven’t all day.”

“No.”

“Pardon?”

“I said no!” I have standards. And I sure as Moira ain’t no paedophile, you bratty bitch!

“Then you shall be punished,” Su Nanya said blankly.

“What, are you gonna deduct my pay?”

"Oh, nothing so serious," She said, rising from the chair as her dainty hands patted her hips with light tappers. With the wind, her muslin shawls fluttered around her tulle skirt, giving Yung a nice peek at her perfect patootie as she twirled, "We shall disqualify this village from the sect recruitments."

“What?! Why?”

“For improper conduct.”

With that, she was off. Su Yafeng also left with a final look dripping with sympathy.

“Crazy thot,” was all Yung could say before he gave up and hugged the bolster. He would sleep now and think of the consequences tomorrow.

But one thing was sure; he had enough!

He wasn't going to let the flow drag him along any longer. He would do his own thing, in his own way, without putting his dick in crazy as Dad had warned him.

And that’s that!

***

Half the city’s mood changed overnight. They received the news that their home town might be disqualified from the quinquennial Warring twilight alliance sect recruitments with fear and uncertainty, anger and disappointment.

After all, this would have been the sole chance many youths of Dim Gold City would ever have to better their lives. To set themselves on the path of immortality in a proper way and prove their worth to the world.

Yet for the other half: those who cared not of fame and glory, rejoiced with passions uncared. For the Youjin clan and Free sparrow gang had brought out charitable actions under the lovely vixen’s queenly mandate, at last promising to do the Dim gold citizens good. They cleaned the pits, gathered the beggars, and housed the homeless under wooden roofs. They offered safe meat and clean water, promising to deliver jobs, dreams, and freedom under the dictates of the Su Fox clan.

It was a complex landscape, being the best and worst day for many. Many lives would be changed today. For some, they would live anew.

And for the rest, they would lose but their final bid for supremacy. Since the first phase of the sect recruitments tested one's aptitude and bone age, all renyao above twenty-five years of age would be disqualified. Many would be too old to participate in such aptitude tests five years later.

“Why do you think Fairy Su is angry?” Wang Lihou asked. They were on the restaurant floor of the hotel again. Their table was stacked with all manners of delicacies. The smell of the meat and herbs did wonders for Yung’s appetite, but he was too ashamed to gorge on the trout with Youjin Chao sitting there, looking like a dead stale-water fish.

“It’s over….” The tall boy muttered, the shock palpable on his face.

“Who knows,” Yung replied to Wang Lihou’s inquisitive gaze.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“N-No, the fish.”

“Take it.”

He passed the seafood to the fat boy and played with the grilled noodles on the other plate, his mind elsewhere.

“It’s done….” Youjin Chao mumbled, “All my….”

“Do you suppose it was because that maid—”

“Miss Yafeng?”

“Because Fairy Su Yafeng had to rescue you from the Dusk valley lion?”

“Dusk valley lion king, apparently.” Yung said, “But I doubt it.” He wasn’t comfortable gossiping about Su Nanya’s bizarre actions, but he didn’t want to mislead the jovial boy either.

“That has to be it!” Youjin Chao roared, slapping the table. And just as suddenly, the light in his eyes regained their crimson glare, “Fairy Su is known to favour heroes. Yet our city had failed to live up to that expectation. Then our next actions are clear; we must prove to her our bravery. The mettle of a true Dim gold man not afraid to defy the cruel heavens!”

Yung stared at Youjin Chao suspiciously. Now even the main character is spouting bull about defying the heavens. Did you also eavesdrop on us? Or is it because she’s a potential love interest, and you two naturally jump to the same conclusion?

But he didn’t voice that thought. Even if this world was fiction, he refused to treat their inhabitants as mere templates.

Come hell or high water, Youjin Chao was his… good acquaintance?

“Brother Chao, are we friends?” Yung asked.

Youjin Chao jolted, before narrowing his eyes, “I do consider Brother Yung a good friend. You have saved my life after all.”

“As did you.” Yung raised his cup of juice, “To platonic friendship!”

Wang Lihou was more than happy to cheer. Soon, Youjin Chao joined in. The old men playing mahjong from the table north of theirs hooted, and the teenagers flushed.

The trio continued chatting for some time. Wang Lihou asked Yung about his plans with the ‘New-and-improved-tokens,’ and suggested coming up with a shorter name. Youjin Chao confidently claimed he would join the sect recruitments even if he had to travel to another city, and Yung….

Yung bid them farewell.

A certain vixen had been staring at him from behind the stairwell, and he decided they’d have to talk.

Heart to heart.

“Why do you want me to,” Yung paused, now seated on a cushion in his room, looking at Su Nanya making herself comfortable on his bed, sniffing the sheets and poking the pillows with disgust. He de-constructed the words in his mouth, “to woo you?”

“Because you must.” Said the vixen, “It is the natural way of our world. When a gentleman fancies a maiden, he must use all his might to make her his.”

Yung thought on it briefly. It didn’t answer his question but revealed a part of how Su Nanya viewed the world.

“And what’s gonna happen if I don’t?”

“That is not permissible. Unacceptable!” The vixen bristled, her tail puffing and ears spiking.

"As a hypothesis, say, a thought experiment," Yung held his hands up to show he didn't want any trouble. Those fangs were sharp. "Just suppose that I won't do it. Why does it matter to you?”

“Because it is right. And to not dare do it is wrong.” She said, her eyes radiating confidence.

But her Empathic link read uncertainty.

I see.

“You want me to validate you.” Yung said, “you want me to reassure you of your beauty and value as a woman.”

“What utter nonsense!” Su Nanya shot up, face morphing into a scowl.

Su Yafeng, on the other hand, clapped, “Marvellous. That is exactly it.”

“Maid, get out! And your pay is hereby deducted by half again.”

The expressionless maid shrugged and walked out after giving Yung a knowing look.

“What you spout is misconstrued. It is gossip, slander, and unfounded village talk.” Su Nanya had calmed herself, but her tail kept thumping Yung’s bed. “We shan’t have you repeat it.”

“Okay,” We’re making progress here. “Then how about this. Even if I did say, ‘I love you.’—”

“Eeek!”

Su Nanya dived under the blanket, her foxy ears plastering against her head and her silky blonde tail wrapping her lithe body in a burrito blanket.

Yung coughed and repeated himself, “If I did say—”

“My oh my~!”

“Christ! What do you want?!” Yung snapped, then calmed himself with inner humming. Om in, Om out. “How do you know it won’t be fake? That I’m just saying what you wanna hear instead of my true feelings.” He asked.

Su Nanya peeked out from the blanket burrito, “Why shall you say it if you shall not mean it?”

“Suppose I want to manipulate you to restart the sect recruitments. I could lie to you.”

“Aha, we have heard of this before. Is it not called pillow talk?”

“…I guess so?”

“Then we deny it! Pillow talk is done after intercourse, no? We shan’t subject our body to your dark horror.”

God, this rude woman. Yung mused, is she just blunt, or are these actual insults? Yung didn’t think so.

"I love you." He suddenly shouted. Though it was a test, and somewhat mean-spirited on his part to spook the vixen, his face still blushed red, and he hated himself for it.

Su Nanya jumped out of bed and held his arms, “Truly so? Then we must immediately reject you. Come, maid—”

“I’m kidding.”

The vixen snarled, then hid under the blanket again. Yung, for the first time in his life, felt killing intent.

“You dare not kid!” She said.

“I do too!”

“Nay, for we are all-knowing.”

“I love—”

“Eeeeek~!”

Yung was speechless, “If you can’t judge for yourself how true my words are, then what’s even the point of doing all this? Of me pursuing you just for you to reject me?”

Su Nanya didn’t answer.

“I actually agree with you here.” Yung said with a sagely smile.

“Truly?” She asked, her golden eyes glittering.

Yung nodded, “I don’t want to say things I don’t mean. So I’ll say it clearly. I find you extremely attractive. I’ve had dreams about bedding you. I want to hold your hand, kiss your lips, and pound you into pudding.”

“By the heavens! How crude. How unsightly. How utterly deviant.” Her fair skin pinkened like a seductive peach bottom. “Go on.”

“But I won’t.”

“Why??!!”

“Because those are mere feelings. Momentary urges.” Yung said, his voice the calmest yet. “If I can’t see a loving, intimate future with you, or anyone else for that matter; if I can’t envision commitment, availability, and friendship with that person, I can’t pursue her in good faith.”

“Then why must you prematurely evaluate that you shan’t have any of such fantasies with us?”

Does she know?!! Yung felt existential horror. Then he realized that the vixen had said evaluate, and not ejaculate. And that he had a working body now. He was no longer the mummified Jung.

Su Nanya looked at him with clear suspicion, licking her lips like a beast, waiting to refute his paltry excuses.

“Because you said so,” Yung confessed half the truth with a large stammer, hoping his voice would cover up his panic, “You said you’d reject me from the get-go. And I would rather trust your words.”

Su Nanya stilled, taken aback. She sat up and covered herself with the blanket again—a thoughtful look in her eyes.

“That is a conundrum we must solve.”

Yung concurred. “So that brings me back to the previous question. Let’s put aside if my actions are fake or honest. Lemme ask, why do you even care whether I act on my temptations?”

“Because we wish to know.”

“Know what?”

She didn’t reply. Su Nanya went silent, refusing to speak for the rest of the day. She sat on the bed, unmoving like a statue.

Yung sighed, then left the room. He saw Su Yafeng standing dutifully.

The maid greeted him with a smile, "Well spoken. I'm thankful."

Yung didn’t really get what she was thankful for, but he felt a refreshing breeze. He judged that the conversation had been productive, despite the vixen stone-walling at the end. Maybe she isn't crazy after all. Maybe she has issues, just like everyone else, and we can move past them with therapy.