“Friends.” Su Nanya repeated one last time. She mouthed the word, rolled it around, then hugged him as if satisfied.

In their tender embrace, time outside flew without care.

The sky was adorned with soft hues of pink and orange. Tranquil clouds floated lazily in the distance, their procession instilling serenity. Peeking through the rifts in their parade, the golden sunlight cast a comforting radiance upon the land, igniting a breathtaking spectacle of gold and orange.

Amidst this visual symphony, a gentle breeze stirred, threading through the air with a promise of spring. Harmonious notes of fragrant blossoms and the elusive hint of the distant ocean danced on the breeze, a tantalising combination that mirrored nature's beauty. With the arrival of dawn, this floral sea breeze carried the melodies of chirping birds, muttering ren, and howling fiends, serenading the nascent day.

Thus dawn unfolded.

The window sash silently observed the transition, bathed in the radiant shards of sunlight piercing the drifting clouds, with curtains lightly dancing to the rhythm of the serene winds. It played an impartial role, filtering only the most luminous light and gentlest gust into the room.

The dawn's heralds cast their glow on the vixen cradled in Yung's arms, transforming her into a radiant beacon of passion, glistening in the newfound day.

She smiled.

In the room faintly bathed in the golden dawn glow, she beamed a smile that was, in Yung's two lifetimes, the most breathtaking he had ever seen.

“Then it shall be so.” Su Nanya’s tail swayed elegantly, yet with a noble sense of enthusiasm. She gently caressed Yung’s curly hair, “We shall be friends.”

She held the back of his head and pulled him in. As if drawn by a magic spell, his lips met hers ever so gently.

The qi flowed. The sun shone. The clouds roiled with the playful breeze.

***

Yung stared at his face in the large silver mirror. His lips were swollen like he was doing a social media challenge for clout. Plump, like water balloons, as though they were sucked on with a vacuum cleaner.

He sighed, then applied the healing paste Su Yafeng had given him, with the hand wearing the new artefact ring Su Nanya had forced upon his left thumb. The balloon lips soon returned to normal.

The culprit, Nyanya the kissing monster, ordered her maid around with a sulky voice.

“Ugly! Change such horrid floral designs. Do you not even have a leather alternative, incompetent maid? We wish for the winds to caress our thighs.”

“Ungh.”

“We are paying you for services. You shall not groan.”

“Unnnnngggghhhh!”

They rustled and tussled with Su Nanya's harem dress, and after a long hour of waiting, the vixen appeared in all her clothed glory, twirling around the left, then twisting to the right.

She went from a two-piece micro-thong bikini…. To a two-piece red leather skirtini.

“How are we?” Asked the newly emerged foxy gal, her hair blonde and her eyes sparkly.

Yung showed a thumbs up with a screaming heart, “Cute.” But not what I wanted! Sigh, okay, calm down, little Yung. Compromise now, design modern clothes later.

“We are, are we not?” She fluttered three-sixty once more, the skirtini stuck to her butt, hiding it from naked gazes and annoyed eyerolls, “After you had forced upon us your will, you envious boy, how could we not be?” Her voice had a triumphant yet dissatisfied undertone, and Yung could only reply with a broken grin.

An hour ago,

“Let’s get rid of that,” Yung said, removing his hand from Su Nanya’s and pointing at her harem dress.

Slap!

“We knew it. Undressing and ravaging us is truly what you desire the most!”

Yung held his cheek in disbelief. The slap was light, but the misunderstanding stung, mostly because it was not really a misunderstanding.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” He defended his honour, “if you go around wearing your fiancé’s,” Yung paused, finding the term uncomfortable, “former fiancé’s inner palace garments,” he stared at Nanya to gauge her reaction. She was mostly playful. He continued, “then doesn’t that mean you still think of the jerk all the time?”

“We do not. This is our sublime statement to smear his traitorous honour. To make him regret ever slighting us.” She replied with righteousness.

“Let’s do a small test,” Yung said.

Nanya nodded, grasping his hand again and shooing her maid away.

“For the next minute, think about anything you want. Like your family, your favourite food, or even a song. But whatever you do, don’t think about giant pink foxes. Okay, I’ll wait.”

Two seconds later, Nanya pouted, “Not fair.”

“We can try as many times as you want. As long as you don’t think about giant pink foxes, you win.”

“We refuse to play. What a nonsensical game.” She scrunched her nose and bit her nail, “You mean to insult us by saying we reminisce about our fiancé all day and night.”

Former fiancé…. Well, one thing at a—wait, did I just steal Nanya from him? NetorareeeewwwooooooOOOhhhh my goddess and all things ugh—Jesus Christ no. No… Just no! One thing at a time.

“You don’t love him anymore, do you?” Yung asked, terrified of the answer.

“May he burn in the infinite hells! May his heart get torn to pieces as he did ours! May he suffer from lost children and stolen lovers!” The vitriol in her voice was palpable. But after which, she stopped. A sad look clouded her face, “We… do not know. We do not want to love him.”

Phew! Yung sighed in relief. Not cheating. The jerk cheated first. Su Nanya’s primary relationship is definitely with me…. Am I deluding myself?

He cleared his thoughts with a hum and said, “Deliberate attempts to suppress certain thoughts actually make them more likely to surface. In this case, wearing his inner palace clothes means you can’t forget him even if you want to.”

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It was called the ironic process theory, and unironically, Yung didn’t want Su Nanya to think of other men while kissing him. Actually, in this case, she might be the one cheating on her cheating fiancé with her ‘Essence qi exchanging definitely-not-dual-cultivation’ with Yung.

God damn Gaia, I am not a third party in an affair! She deserves way better than being the brainless white moonlight of some narcissistic jerk with ten other wives…. This is gonna bug me forever, isn’t it?

“Then what of our revenge? We want to make him regret it and suffer the pain we had.” Su Nanya asked, feigning tonelessness.

Yung didn’t answer immediately. He leaned in and kissed her, letting his hand take ample advantage of her ample plumpness. A minute later, apart again, Nanya glared at him defiantly.

“Do you want me to think about other women while we exchange Essence qi?”

The vixen bristled, “We utterly forbid it.”

“I don’t want you to think of other men either. But your harem dress makes that impossible.”

Su Nanya fell into a quiet introspection.

Her past actions aligned with her anxious attachment style, reacting with contrived jealousy when she felt her needs went unaddressed. It was a form of self-destructive protest behaviour. Anxiously attached people would obsess over their relationships like Su Nanya had so clearly done, responding dramatically to even the slightest perceived threat.

Yung, however, had no desire to engage in such elusive mind games to express his needs for intimacy. He recognised the importance of clear communication with the vixen. To alleviate her insecurities and provide a secure foundation for her to find mental stability. His intent was to eliminate room for undue speculation, knowing well the havoc it could wreak on her anxious mind.

It was a work in progress, so he needed to be totally honest.

After all, people couldn’t read minds.

Moira could! I kinda can. And Nanya says she can too…Still, I need to articulate my concerns clearly.

“When you wear the Radiant sun empire’s harem dress, people will connect you to that jerk. I don’t want that. I also don’t want other men to leer at your breasts and buttocks. They’re mine!”

“My oh my.” Su Nanya beamed, “Are you perchance envious? Do you wish to covet our body alone? Marvellous! But we shall only give you our Essence qi, not our heart, okay?”

She leapt off Yung’s lap and summoned her maid.

Yung rolled his eyes. Dad, Mum, sorry. The girl I like might be mildly psychopathic.

Soon the vixen was dressed just enough to cover her bust and butt area. She still had no clothes on anywhere directly touching her skin but her hip and chest, except for the golden chains that contoured her body alongside other piercings and ornaments. So she was just as exposed as she would be if she wore a negligee, but the see-through tulles and laces she fashioned today gave her a sanguine yet romantic aura, rather than the shameless lusty one.

The Radiant Sun insignia was nowhere to be seen. Su Nanya showed Yung a resolved smile, and he grinned back victoriously.

***

After changing out of his ripped robes, Yung came down carrying an elegant golden fox on his shoulder. Two other foxes scurried before him, discussing something with grave importance. Silky and Floofy glanced at Yung from time to time, then chirped at each other.

“If you’re gonna stay in your fox form, why’d you take two hours just to do your makeup?”

“Because we are beautiful.”

The golden fox replied with a royal yawn.

The restaurant floor was empty except for Ziyou Maque and Youjin Chun's group, and also the mercenaries.

The heiress looked visibly annoyed, while Ziyou Ling was to one side, kicking a dummy head football against a wall in a competition with two of the mercenary members.

Yung sat down beside Ziyou Maque. On his other side was Youjin Gangkai, and directly across, sat two mercenaries.

The first, a woman, was tall and fair-skinned, but her face bore the story of a battle-hardened warrior. A menacing scar carved a path down her cheek, interrupted only by a second scar that cut across her white left eye and pronounced Roman nose. Her hair, a midnight black laced with streaks of grey, lacked lustre. A sword was fastened to her back, and vambraces encased her arms. Her remaining raven-black eye locked onto Su Nanya with an unsettling intensity.

Beside her was a man, his visage concealed behind a bone mask inscribed with the words 'Dark Star.' His eyes, a piercing brown, stood out against the mask. He was built muscularly, his arms strangely elongated despite the loose-fitting clothes that hung on him, giving off an unusual metallic silver glimmer. Despite his strong presence, he seemed diminished, seated next to the taller woman. He carried no visible weapons.

Both exuded subtle yet potent auras, ones that rivalled the formidable presence of Elder Han Xinglou from the Malignant Moon Sword Sect.

“Other matters must be so much more important than us,” Youjin Chun started with a scoff, “to leave our guests waiting. They are here to get the foxmoths back on your behalf; have you forgotten?”

After reading all their Empathic links, Yung realised that most of the people here were more or less annoyed. He understood waiting might be boring, but it was out of his hands.

Su Nanya answered in his stead, “Of course, we are far more important, headsman’s daughter. Why would our new servant care more for mere commoners than us?”

Youjin Chun paled. Ziyou Ling missed a kick causing the ball to fly out of the window, a ruckus echoing outside. Ziyou Maque and Elder Gangkai stood up, bowing. The two scary-looking fellas from the Dark Star mercenaries did the same.

“We are honoured to be in your presence, Fairy Su!” The woman said, making herself as small as possible. “This unworthy one is An Ping, the current leader of our small mercenary group.”

"An Xing." The man replied. He sounded reluctant but followed the woman's lead nonetheless.

Are they siblings? He said An Xing, which means ‘Dark Star.’ But is that his name or title?

“Please do excuse my husband. His upbringing lacks decorum but he means no disrespect.”

A couple?

“We do graciously accept your deference. You may raise your head.” Su Nanya said.

They did.

“Oho,” Nanya wagged her tail and jumped down from Yung’s shoulder. She trotted atop the table and neared An Ping and sniffed. “We do remember you. We have seen you with martial nephew Xiyue Wuzhong many a decade ago.”

The woman clenched her teeth, pale, and An Xing’s brown eyes twitched behind his mask.

“You are Xiyue Wuzhong’s illegitimate daughter, are you not?”

“You’re what?!” A mercenary member shouted, gaping. Everyone except Yung, who didn’t know anything, and An Xing, who seemed to know about it, were shocked.

“That is correct. I have taken my husband’s name.”

“No, no no no. You need to answer this. You’re the Westmoon king’s sister?” Another mercenary woman interrupted but flinched away at An Ping’s glare.

“We’ll talk later. Nothing changes. I’m still me.” An Ping said with a gentle smile, “Leave now, please.”

The mercenaries nodded, but the mood had shifted. They went down the stairs one by one.

“We suppose it was a secret? Do forgive us.” Su Nanya apologised.

An Ping answered with a strained smile, “I would’ve shared it with them soon, when my husband and I officially establish our sect. So you did us a favour.”

Yung figured out the case from the context. King’s sister, meaning An Ping was a grand princess of the Westmoon royal Xiyue clan.

“You may ask us for assistance in that regard. Consider it a gracious gesture from us, a token to redress the improprieties we may have caused. We do miss that audacious youngster from time to time. He was a superb chef.”

“My father would’ve been flattered the hear that.” Su Nanya’s promise completely flipped An Ping’s mood from sombre to elated. Even An Xing flinched, but in a good way. It was a promise from the Su fox clan’s princess, worth any offence taken.

“Of course he would.” Su Nanya said, “He had chased after our hand for so long, despite being a mere headsman of a backwater village.”

“Where is he now?” Yung suddenly asked.

“Are you envious again? What a troublesome servant.” Su Nanya scuttled over to him and cushioned herself on his lap. Yung ran his fingers through her silky fur, “He passed away after being killed by his own son and primary wife, the current headsman and headsman dowager of the Westmoon settlement. At the end of the day, he was a disloyal husband and got his just rewards.” Yung stopped his caress, “Why must you stop? We command you to comb us. But do be gentle.”

Yung snickered and continued, then looked up, hearing a clatter. “What?”

“Nothing. Not my business.” Ziyou Maque closed his mouth and lowered his finger. The shattered clay cup splashed wine all over his bandaged hands.

Youjin Chun apologised for her out-of-place words from before. Her face was pale, but her eyes darted between Yung's finger and Fox Nyanya's fur like the mystery of the universe hid there.

Ziyou Ling pointed at Yung with a shaky index, then at Su Nanya, then at Yung again before kneading her temples and running out.

An Ping didn’t show any reaction. Neither did her husband. But their Empathic link read disbelief, curiosity, and pity?

“Well, you’ve waited so long. Care to tell me what you want exactly?” Yung knew why they pitied him. Perhaps they thought he was another young dreamer like this Xiyue Wuzhong, doomed to fail. But he’d already stolen Nyanya’s first kiss, cuddle, floof, boop, and snuggle. And he had no plans to stop—

I really should quit using words like ‘stolen’….