General, Draw Your Bow Slowly

After a long while, Jing Yu's voice carried an inexplicable hint of helplessness.

"I once found a silver fox. When I first saw it, it was struggling on the brink of death. I mistook it for a hidden soldier of the demon race, then kept it by my side. The little fox was cunning, loved gold and silver, greedy, quick to anger, and timid. When it followed me into battle, it was so frightened it thought it was going to die. It loved sleeping and eating."

Qi Siyun, who had been silent all this time, let out a derisive laugh, with a faint trace of self-mockery.

"In your eyes, did that silver fox who stayed by your side for a hundred years really have no redeeming qualities?"

Jing Yu shook her head. She remembered how, amid the bitter north wind, the silver fox had curled up against her chest after she was gravely wounded, keeping her warm and tending to her injuries.

She remembered the fox sneaking out of the cave to dig a hole with its paws and gather herbs, then quietly applying them to her wounds after she fell asleep.

She remembered how, for all its love of sleep, the little fox was always by her side, never leaving her for a single day or night.

And she remembered the fox's despair when it was sealed inside the sword.

She had thought she had escaped certain death, but Jing Yu never imagined they would be parted forever.

Her heart ached faintly. Faced with Qi Siyun's seemingly unprompted question, she did not get angry. She only shook her head slowly.

"All its anger, delusion, joy, sorrow, and pain came from me. It is me, and I am it. What redeeming qualities are there to speak of?"

Qi Siyun froze. By the time he came back to himself, Jing Yu had already left.

Core theme: Saving oneself