Rabbits Are So Cute, and So Good at Fighting

The real her is a goddess of war, a little white rabbit who dares to love and hate in both her past and present lives × 1) A fake childhood sweetheart, a devoted dragon prince who plays the motherly role + 2) An aloof, celibate Daoist priest, also a motherly type + 3) A true archenemy who still loves her, a lovesick Demon Lord + 4) A restrained, long-suffering Demon King who regrets everything

Three hundred years ago, the heavens, the demon realm, and the human world joined forces in a great battle against demons. They sealed the Demon King in the Black River Abyss, destroyed the demon realm, and brought peace to the three realms.

But recently, the master of the Qingcheng Sect noticed strange movements in the Qiankun Mirror and sent his eldest disciple, Qing Xuan, to the demon realm to investigate. Qing Xuan lived in a hut near the entrance to the demon realm for six months, but detected nothing unusual.

Instead, a little rabbit demon often came to "bother" him:

She would smile and lean close to him. "Daoist, you're so handsome. Why don't you ever smile? I want to see if you look even better when you smile."

She would yank off his hair ribbon and let his long black hair fall loose. "Daoist, your hairpiece is crooked. Let me tie it for you."

She would sniff and lean toward him. "Daoist, you smell so nice. What incense do you use?"

Shi Baiyu was the only daughter of the rabbit clan's leader. When she was little, she found a little snake and made him her sidekick. But the spirit snake would sometimes disappear without a trace, and her mother told her he had probably gone to shed his skin.

While the spirit snake was away, bored Shi Baiyu went to tease the Daoist. He never spoke or got angry when she teased him. Only the slight furrow of his brow gave away how hard he was trying to put up with her.

But he would make tea for her, cook delicious food, and go down the mountain to bring back pastries she couldn't find in the mountains.

The spirit snake asked if she liked the Daoist. Shi Baiyu shook her head. She didn't like him. She liked Mo Xu, the eldest son of the Demon King, to whom she'd been betrothed since birth. It was just so much fun teasing that serious, stiff Daoist. She imagined that Tang Sanzang, the monk mentioned in the books, must have been just like him.

One day, Qing Xuan received word that Mo Xu had arrived in the rabbit clan's territory.

From the window of his hut, Qing Xuan watched Shi Baiyu stand before Mo Xu, her cheeks flushed and her fingers fidgeting. Even her usually pearl-white earlobes were red as blood.

Only then did Qing Xuan understand what she looked like when she truly liked someone.

*

Mo Xu left coldly. Shi Baiyu wanted to see him again, so she secretly followed the group and heard Mo Xu say, "Even if our marriage was arranged when we were children, what does it matter if I don't agree and the rabbit clan doesn't want it? But for now, we still need the rabbit clan's support, so we can't act rashly..."

Shi Baiyu stopped in her tracks, her nose stinging. Luckily, the spirit snake arrived, and she threw herself into his arms.

What use was a handsome man if he didn't respect her or honor her parents? Besides, if she wanted someone handsome, both the Daoist and the spirit snake had good looks, and they were kind and never made her angry. After crying in the spirit snake's arms for a while, Shi Baiyu looked up. "Spirit Snake, I want to break off the engagement."

The spirit snake said nothing. He wiped her tear-streaked face and carried her home on his back. Lying across his back, she murmured, "Spirit Snake, you're my very best friend."

Yuan Yuan carried Shi Baiyu, listening to her steady breathing as she fell asleep. He stopped suppressing his feelings. He was the Dragon Prince, and he had spent a thousand years of cultivation to find her soul and recreate her golden core. He had concealed his power and stayed by her side disguised as a little snake demon. He hadn't done all that just to be her best friend.

He had long wanted to tear that fox apart, limb from limb. But he was afraid Shi Baiyu would be heartbroken, and afraid she wouldn't be able to accept the truth, so all he could do was stay by her every day, listening to her talk about teasing the foolish Daoist and confide her girlish feelings for Mo Xu.

He had waited three hundred years for her and had thought he could wait a little longer. But now that she had decided to break off the engagement, he would hold back no longer.

*

Mo Xu knew that Shi Baiyu often sneaked to Fox Mountain to see him. At first, he only thought she was cute. But later, when he realized how much he cared about the snake by her side, he understood that he had already fallen in love with her.

But in recent years, Mo Xu had often dreamed of terrible things. After marrying Shi Baiyu, one disaster after another befell them, until the fox clan was destroyed and the demon realm lay in ruins.

As the next Demon King, he could only sever his feelings to keep the nightmare from coming true. But after losing Shi Baiyu, he realized someone seemed to have deliberately planted those dreams in his mind...

*

And then there was the Demon King in the abyss. Back then, defying the objections of the demon realm's elders, he had married the daughter of his sworn enemy. He loved her deeply. To win her hand, he had told her himself, "A Ling, I've cultivated demonic power for thousands of years. No matter how powerful a god or demon is, they can't hurt me." He took her hand and placed it over the right side of his chest. "My heart is here. This is my weakness. Now I'm entrusting it to you."

Then, on their wedding day, the last thing he saw before closing his eyes was her in the wedding dress he had chosen for her, driving a sword into the right side of his chest. After that, he was imprisoned in the Black River Abyss, his body pierced day and night by the fierce baleful energy. His hatred for her was what kept him alive.

He had hated her for three hundred years. So why did he always want to see her again?

Reader's Guide: 1. This is a story written for an adorable little bunny, purely a self-indulgent idea. The heroine only awakens her past-life memories later on, when her true self finally makes her entrance.

2. The four men are the Dragon Prince, a Daoist priest, the Demon King, and the Demon Lord. They are all devoted to the heroine, in body and soul. No matter who she chooses in the end, none of them will be with anyone else. They will love only her, forever.

Theme: Loving openly and being loved are both abilities.