Chapter Two: General, You Can Now Host Horse Races Above Your Head

“Mother, where is the shore?”
Ji Ci circled in the water, splashing about, unable to see which side was the bank.
Her fox body was small, only about six months old—still a little fox!
“Please don’t let me drown!” Ji Ci paddled with all four legs, but her movements soon slowed. Her body began to wobble and sink.
Gurgle, gurgle.
After searching for a while, a man finally spotted the little red beast that had fallen into the pond.
He dove in swiftly and grabbed Ji Ci by the scruff of her neck.
“Saved, saved!” Ji Ci coughed up a few mouthfuls of water, shook the water from her head, and finally saw the man in front of her clearly.
“Wow, a man! Those chest muscles, those abs... why isn’t he wearing any pants?”
Ji Ci screamed inside her mind.
“But they’re impressive, quite well-built.”
The man’s expression darkened; he was certain the little fox before him was speaking, though its mouth did not move. How could a fox speak human language?
He must have soaked too long in the bath and lost his mind.
He hoisted Ji Ci onto his shoulder and stood, heading toward the shore.
Ji Ci’s eyes widened: “Big…big brother, are you really strolling around in broad daylight like this?”
The man’s face darkened further; he immediately cradled Ji Ci in his arms and covered her wildly darting eyes with his hand.
A guard by the shore approached and cupped his hands: “General, we are about to reach the capital soon. Why not enter the city overnight instead of resting here?”
“You don’t understand. So many eyes are watching the General’s mansion in the capital. If I return with the army in such a high-profile way, the court will suspect me again.”
Mention of the court soured the man’s mood. His brows furrowed deeply, and he gripped Ji Ci’s little paw so hard it hurt.
Ji Ci’s small ears perked up and trembled, emitting a burst of inner alarm.
“Dongfang Jibai, male lead! Fortunately, I arrived early. The male lead’s family hasn’t been wiped out yet! Otherwise, I wouldn’t know how to save the fallen male lead!”
Ji Ci’s words sent a shiver through Dongfang Jibai’s heart. Wiped out?
Was that about his family?
Coldness flickered in Dongfang Jibai’s eyes, a murderous intent flashing across them. He had just won and returned victorious, yet the emperor had already set his sights on exterminating the Dongfang clan.
“Bai Yi, do you hear something?”
Bai Yi stood and listened attentively. “I hear nothing, my lord.”
Dongfang Jibai looked down at the little fox in his arms; it seemed only he could hear her speak.
This fox was strange.
Suddenly, Ji Ci’s mind was filled with a piercing, shrill buzzing.

[Current mission: Detoxify Dongfang Jibai. Reward: Transform into human form on a full moon night. Mission countdown: 71 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds (3 days). Transformation duration: 24 hours. Progress: 5/1000]
“Detoxify? The book didn’t say Dongfang Jibai was poisoned,” Ji Ci sniffed with her small, black, cold nose, inhaling Dongfang Jibai’s scent.
As Ji Ci carefully smelled Dongfang Jibai, a green light flashed across her red forehead, revealing a four-leaf clover mark.
In an instant, Ji Ci’s healing ability activated.
Joy flickered in her fox eyes; her tail began wagging uncontrollably.
The healing ability had arrived—so long as she wasn’t completely dead, she could self-heal and survive.
When she fought the zombie king, she was blasted to nothing, truly dead, beyond saving.
That was why the system had the chance to sell off the family fortune to buy her “dog life.”
Her little nose sniffed Dongfang Jibai again, like a puppy.
Soon her tail stopped wagging.
Her nose twitched; she caught a scent—mixed within the cold aura seeping from Dongfang Jibai’s skin was a metallic, rusty bitterness.
[Ability alert: Neurotoxin detected—Cold Marrow Powder]
She suddenly lifted her head, ears erect: “This fool doesn’t even know he’s poisoned?!”
Dongfang Jibai’s fingertips trembled.
—This fox could tell he had been poisoned for three years?
He had long known he was fatally poisoned but had never found a cure.
This little fox just sniffed him and knew.
Could it be…
She was some kind of fox spirit?
A sly smile crossed Dongfang Jibai’s eyes. Since the fox could detect his poison, maybe she could cure it too?
“Bai Yi, summon the royal physician. Tell him I’m feeling unwell,” Dongfang Jibai ordered.
“My lord, are you unwell again?” Bai Yi asked with concern.
Dongfang Jibai nodded and gently set the little fox down. He sat cross-legged and began channeling his energy. Within moments, his body seemed frozen, ice crystals forming slowly.
Ji Ci’s round eyes grew even wider.
What kind of poison was this?
It even functioned like a refrigerator!
Couldn’t this toxin be used as air conditioning in summer when it flared up?
Hearing this, Dongfang Jibai spat out a mouthful of blood—half from the poison’s flare and half from anger at the fox.

“Wow, already spitting blood? Is this poison that fierce?” Ji Ci waddled closer on her short legs.
Before she reached him, a young man dressed in colorful clothes that resembled a peacock came running over.
This was Dongfang Jibai’s close friend and attending physician, Wang Feng.
“Jibai, you poisoned again? Why are you bathing and doing cultivation? Such a poser. Why not just take a normal bath?” Wang Feng expertly popped a pill into Dongfang Jibai’s mouth.
He inserted silver needles to seal acupoints and pricked several on the back of Dongfang Jibai’s hand.
Wang Feng stepped on Ji Ci’s tail, causing her to chirp angrily.
“Are you blind? Peacock, you stepped on my tail!” Ji Ci bit down on Wang Feng’s foot.
The taste made her immediately retch.
“Yuck~”
Dongfang Jibai twitched his mouth and patted Wang Feng’s leg: “You stepped on my fox.”
Wang Feng thought Dongfang Jibai had caught a fox to amuse the princess.
“You shouldn’t care too much about that princess. You two grew up together, yes, but people’s hearts change, Jibai. She’s a princess; if you’re with her, you’re just a prince consort. And what’s a prince consort? A freeloader!”
Wang Feng put away the needles and patted Dongfang Jibai’s shoulder.
Dongfang Jibai snorted lightly. Why did everyone think he liked the princess?
Their relationship was perfectly innocent.
Ji Ci twisted and bit her own tail a few times, growing more animal-like by the moment.
After a few circles biting her tail, Ji Ci looked at Dongfang Jibai.
“Dongfang Jibai, you actually like the princess? Then you’re wearing a green hat. Your princess is probably rolling in bed with the young master Zhao Shumo of the Yongjun Prince Mansion right now.”
Ji Ci scratched her ears with her hind legs and muttered: “Xiao Yunjian, the illegitimate son of the Minister of Revenue; Xie Guihong, the legitimate second son of the Minister of Personnel; and Lu Zhaoye, the new top scholar. Tsk tsk, with so many green hats, your head must be boiling.”
Ji Ci muttered on, unaware that Dongfang Jibai heard every word.
His eyes darkened.
He cared little about how many suitors the princess had.
But the princess—she absolutely should not have, during his absence from the capital these years, gone around proclaiming she liked him!
His reputation had been utterly ruined!