Music Without Sorrow

[Cool, gentle, patient Taoist priestess] × [Radiant, scheming, clingy fox spirit]

[One]:

Shang Lanruo met Yan Ning on a spring day when the sky was clear and the clouds drifted lazily by. At the time, she thought it was a chance encounter between two people with no connection. Little did she know it was a long-planned reunion for the other woman.

She was a Taoist priestess who cultivated quietly in the mountains. When she went down to investigate a strange case and exterminate a demon, a fox spirit with a face like a peach blossom bewitched her mind and ensnared her soul.

Her temperament was calm and she strictly followed the rules, insisting that they were only sworn sisters.

But when that fluffy red tail wound around her waist and warm breath brushed her ear, Shang Lanruo's usual cool composure vanished without a trace.

“Yan Ning, this is against the rules!”

“Yan Ning... stop fooling around!”

“Little foxes aren't allowed in bed!”

Shang Lanruo was softhearted and innocent. After rejecting Yan Ning, she saw the fox ears drooping and the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. Silently, she patted the bedsheet and, blushing furiously, made room beside her pillow.

But the little fox had boundless energy at night. By dawn, Shang Lanruo had turned away and was sulkily trying to hide the marks on her body.

“I treated you as my dearest friend, and you took advantage of me!”

Yan Ning asked for her title: “Take a look at me. What do I look like now?”

[Two]

Yan Ning was a little red fox who had gained sentience. To avenge her clan sister's gruesome death, she worked hard to take human form and increase her cultivation.

Legend had it that Mount Qingsang held an immortal herb imbued with the power of heaven and earth. Eating it after it bloomed could greatly increase one's magical cultivation.

On her way to find it, Yan Ning accidentally fell off a cliff and was injured. By chance, she was rescued by the young Shang Lanruo, who was cultivating in the mountains. Shang Lanruo mistook her for an ordinary fox, kept her as a pet, and treated her gently.

To take human form as soon as possible, Yan Ning had no choice but to remember her kindness, deliberately wreck the place and cause trouble, then seize the chance to escape.

Unexpectedly, Shang Lanruo merely furrowed her brow, stroked her head, pinched her fox ears, and rubbed her tail.

Yan Ning engraved Shang Lanruo's appearance in her memory, then gently bit her as a mark.

When they met again, all she heard was:

“You insolent fox spirit! Today, I will take your life!”

Yan Ning, who had spent years wandering the world and cultivating strange arts, was stunned. Her benefactor, whom she'd remembered for years, didn't even recognize her!

She hated humans, but let down her guard around Shang Lanruo alone. She deliberately took the form of a sweet, well-behaved village girl and approached her under the guise of friendship.

She was best at shameless flirtation and loved watching Shang Lanruo blush. At night, when all was quiet, she would wrap an arm around Shang Lanruo's waist and share her pillow.

Yan Ning: “Dear sister, dear Taoist priestess, dear Lanruo... You marked me when I was little. Can't you let me repay you by giving myself to you?”

[Reader's guide]

1. The story combines folklore-inspired supernatural cases with a main plot. Please don't apply it to real-world research.

2. Mostly a slow burn, with a little melodrama.

3. Both protagonists are sexually chaste and have no involvement with men.

Theme: Live true to your heart