Raising a Nine-Tailed Fox

Raising a Nine-Tailed Fox

My new novel, I'm Not Happy with This Red Thread, has finished serialization. It's a prequel to Raising a Nine-Tailed Fox, and I hope you'll enjoy it too.

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As a "mongrel cub" rejected and hunted by the Tushan Clan,

Manman owes her safe and happy childhood to the protection and indulgence of Lu Wu, the Kunlun Mountain God. He gave her a place to stay, let her throw her weight around, and he's very handsome.

How could she not fall for someone like that? The good news: her crush is single now.

The bad news: eight hundred years ago, before he was even born, he'd already been promised to someone of equal status in the Celestial Court.

Manman: No big deal. That's a melon forced off the vine. It won't taste sweet.

*

In her previous life, she fell in love for the first time and laid her burning heart before him.

But because of that betrothal, he could only pretend not to see her, eventually breaking her heart.

In this life, he followed her down to the mortal realm. Just as they were about to get their happy ending, he returned to the Celestial Court again.

Lu Wu: I'm going to build a crystal palace on the Ninth Heaven for my beloved fox to live in.

The immortals: ...?

By beloved fox, do you mean that impure-blooded nine-tailed fox who was cast out by the Tushan Clan?

Lu Wu smiled. No, I mean my wife.

Manman: You never said I'd have to endure three strikes of heavenly lightning just to live in a crystal palace...

*

After narrowly escaping death and returning to the mortal world, Manman runs a shop, solves cases, and has a money-making pig at her side that grants every wish.

Life without Lu Wu seems pretty carefree, too.

When Lu Wu finally sorts out the mess in the Celestial Court and the North Sea, then rushes down to the mortal realm to propose, he finds a little fox who has almost forgotten him.

Manman looks innocent. Don't you have a betrothal in the Celestial Court?

Lu Wu smiles bitterly. Manman, I had no choice before. Now I've practically worn through the floor of the Divine Lord's Chongxiao Hall on my knees. When will you come back with me?

Bonus Scene:

Lu Wu can't understand how the little fox who once treated herself like a melon on the vine and tried to force him into loving her, even though they didn't have a red thread between them in the Celestial Court, could turn around and become a career-focused female constable who doesn't even glance at him when he practically throws himself at her.

"Didn't you say you loved me back then? That a melon forced off the vine tastes sweetest?"

The little fox gives him a casual glance. "But I was in Kunlun Mountain then. I'd never eaten any other melons!"

Reader's Guide:

1. The hero never falls out of love. In heaven and on earth, he loves only the heroine.

2. The heroine is no good-for-nothing. She's genuinely laid-back, and later she gets powerful and gives the villains a thorough beating.

3. Past and present lives, not a reborn story. Happy ending.

Manman will pluck the hardest-to-pick melon from the vine.

Theme: Using one's own hard work and perseverance to exercise special abilities and save the ocean and the environment