Volume One, Chapter 8: Entering the Palace to Pay Homage to the Emperor

The venerable Minister Shen, tears streaming down his face, stepped forward and tremulously grasped the young woman’s hands.
“Xingdu! You’ve finally awakened!
These past few days, your father has been sick with worry over you, his hair turning white!
Good child, good child!
My dear Xingdu, it’s enough that you’re awake!”

His sincerity and deep affection were palpable. Had Shen Xingdu not overheard her parents’ conversation that very morning—learning that her husband and wife, in order to gather a dowry for Shen Yue’e, were willing to marry her off carelessly to some unknown merchant while she lay unconscious—she would have been moved to tears by her father’s display of emotion.

Yan Nanfei lowered his head, exchanging a glance with Shen Xingdu nestled in his arms.
“What shall we do?
Your Fufu seems to have woken up—
Quick, think of something, General Yan~ we’re about to be exposed!”

Indeed, the false Shen Xingdu’s Fufu abruptly shook off Minister Shen’s hand and lunged straight into Yan Nanfei’s embrace, as if wishing to grow a tail and wag it.
The clear eyes, the vacant yet ingratiating smile—upon seeing Yan Nanfei, Fufu looked as if he had found his own father!

Shen Xingdu anxiously pawed at Yan Nanfei like a fox, “General Yan, please, get him under control! Can he not behave like a proper being? This is utterly shameful!”

Yan Nanfei gently patted Shen Xingdu, urging her to calm down, then sternly commanded Fufu, “Stand still!”
This was the usual command Yan Nanfei used when training Fufu.

Fufu immediately ceased his excited lunges, focusing intently on Yan Nanfei, suppressing his impulse to jump again, obediently standing still to await the next order.

To Minister Shen and Madam Shen, this scene took on a different meaning.
Shen Xingdu had always been extremely close to Lu Shao, their families having long regarded each other as in-laws.
They had doubted Yan Nanfei’s words earlier, but now seeing Shen Xingdu’s behavior toward Yan Nanfei, they finally believed the two had long harbored feelings in secret.
That she had survived such great peril and, upon waking, had barely been greeted by her parents before throwing herself into Yan Nanfei’s arms—this must be the genuine expression of youthful love born of near-death experience.

No one knew the intricacies of their private entanglement. Now that Xingdu was awake and Yan Nanfei had come to propose, this union only lacked the consent of Lord Yan.

Minister Shen began to fantasize about becoming in-laws with both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Rites.
In future officialdom, who would dare to boss him around?
Not to mention, he had raised the emperor’s illegitimate daughter for many years!

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, a breathless servant burst into the courtyard.
Hurrying forward, he cupped his hands and announced,
“Sir, messengers have arrived from the palace.
They say General Yan and the young lady are summoned to an audience.”

This news struck Minister Shen harder than Yan Nanfei’s marriage request.
The emperor himself was suddenly summoning Yan Nanfei and Shen Xingdu!
And he had sent word directly to the Minister’s residence.

It was worth noting Yan Nanfei had arrived so unexpectedly that even he was unaware beforehand.
This meant the emperor was fully aware of every move made by both the Minister’s household and Yan Nanfei.

A cold sweat soaked Minister Shen’s back, chills creeping over him.
A dreadful premonition clawed at his heart.
Perhaps he had misjudged—the emperor had not abandoned Shen Xingdu after all!
The heart of a sovereign is inscrutable!
He was too anxious, too shallow!

He recalled all the neglect Shen Xingdu had endured over the past fortnight:
Dismissal of her attendants and medicinal care when she needed it most, leaving her to fend for herself in their own courtyard;
Allowing her fiancé to turn and propose to Shen Yue’e instead;
Permitting rumors about Shen Xingdu to spread unchecked in the streets;
After her injury and coma in the forest, only a cursory consultation from a doctor without even a prescription;
Even Madam Jiang’s private plan to marry Shen Xingdu off to a distant relative for fifty taels of gold—perhaps the emperor knew all this.

Minister Shen staggered, stepping back two paces until his wife steadied him.
“Sir, what’s wrong?”
He looked up at Madam Jiang, trembling as he pointed a finger accusingly at her nose.
“It’s all your fault! It’s because of you! I blame you entirely!”

Madam Jiang, as a woman, could not immediately comprehend her husband’s agitation.
Minister Shen spat a mouthful of old blood directly onto her face.

Yan Nanfei left the Minister’s residence with Shen Xingdu and Fufu, boarding the carriage to the palace.
Moments later, the Minister’s household sent for a doctor to attend to Minister Shen’s sudden illness.

Inside the carriage, Fufu and Shen Xingdu stared at each other wide-eyed.
Shen Xingdu pawed anxiously at Yan Nanfei; Fufu immediately wrinkled his nose and bared his teeth in a fierce snarl.
“General Yan, does Fufu dislike me?
Why is he glaring at me like that? Why is he so fierce?”

Yan Nanfei raised Shen Xingdu before Fufu’s eyes.
“Look carefully!
This isn’t some other fox—it’s you.
Do you understand the situation now?”

Only then did Fufu drop his fierce expression, staring blankly at Yan Nanfei, then at Shen Xingdu, then down at himself.

Finally realizing, he panicked belatedly, pacing restlessly inside the carriage on all fours.
“Don’t crawl on the ground with my body!
That’s filthy!
Get up right now!
General Yan, please discipline him!”

Shen Xingdu, even more anxious than Fufu, nestled in Yan Nanfei’s arms.
Yan Nanfei’s voice was stern:
“Fufu! Stop pacing! Sit down!”

Fufu instantly obeyed, but his “sitting” was still the same as when he was a fox—hands on the ground, legs splayed, crouching.

Shen Xingdu gasped and hurried to tug at Yan Nanfei.
“Make him get up! What kind of appearance is this?
If anyone sees, they’ll think I’m insane!”

In her panic, Shen Xingdu did not realize she was speaking more and more casually to the only person who could help her—Yan Nanfei.
At first, she had called him “General Yan” repeatedly, pleading.
Now, she no longer even uttered his title.

Yan Nanfei was unperturbed, gently stroking Shen Xingdu’s head as if soothing a small animal.
Looking up, he caught Fufu’s admiring, expectant gaze and reached out to stroke Fufu as well, sharing his affection evenly.

Fufu immediately purred contentedly.

Shen Xingdu saw the sly expression mirrored on her own face and clicked her tongue in disbelief...

The carriage wheels clattered over the palace’s cobblestone path, masking Yan Nanfei’s lowered voice as he instructed,
“I will find a way to get you two exchanged back!
Fufu, when it’s time to meet the emperor, you must remain silent.
Do exactly as I say, understand?”

Fufu nodded dumbly, seemingly unable to utter a single word.

The two humans and one fox were led into the inner palace, expecting to be received together.
Instead, the young eunuch delivering the edict announced that the emperor wished to see General Yan first, and that Miss Shen was to take a stroll in the garden meanwhile.

Yan Nanfei lifted Shen Xingdu to walk forward, but she pressed a paw to his chest, and he understood immediately, halting.
He turned to Fufu and instructed,
“Wait here for me. Don’t go anywhere. Ignore anyone who tries to speak to you. Understood?”

The palace maids and eunuchs cast side glances, marveling at the gentle, tender side of the battle-hardened General Yan.

Fufu nodded heavily, with the force of a simpleton.

Shen Xingdu’s fox-like brows instantly knitted into a knot.
Her lifelong reputation was surely doomed.
Once dismissed as a frivolous, useless heiress,
Then infamous for her nights out and sullied virtue,
Now, it seemed, her mind was losing reason as well.

Yan Nanfei carried Shen Xingdu through winding corridors and through one moon gate after another.
At last, they arrived at a relatively plain courtyard where the emperor sat alone, absorbed in a game of chess.

Upon seeing Yan Nanfei, the emperor did not even lift his eyelids, his gaze fixed on the chessboard and the scoresheet as he said without looking up,
“You’re here? Sit down~”

Yan Nanfei seated himself opposite the emperor on a vacant stone drum stool, silently watching the game.

Only when Shen Xingdu nearly lost patience and prepared to rest in Yan Nanfei’s arms did the emperor speak again,
“I hear you have requested to marry the Shen family’s legitimate daughter?”