My Evil Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox

They waited until Li Fei\'er finished purifying the place before they decided to leave. None of them uttered a single word as Shen Minyao joined her brother and Li Fei\'er in his car, while Jiang Chen, Lu Anqi, and Mu Qing followed them shortly. 

Once Qin Zhi deemed it was safe for them to talk and have some privacy, he pulled the car to a stop and allowed the two young women to alight from it. 

They drove to the outskirts of the city, allowing them to see the scenery the city offered to them from a high altitude. 

Li Fei\'er pulled her classmate away from Qin Zhi, not knowing that her attempt was futile. Qin Zhi would still be able to hear their conversation clearly even from a safe distance to a human\'s perspective.

"Yaoyao, can you tell us what you are doing here with Mr. Qin?" Li Fei\'er couldn\'t stop herself from questioning Shen Minyao. It wasn\'t like she didn\'t trust Qin Zhi, but they had just recently met the man. 

It didn\'t matter if Cheng Lifan knew him as a business partner, but it was suspicious to see a prominent bachelor hanging out with Shen Minyao.

"Don\'t misunderstand, Li Fei\'er. Just like what Mr. Qin said earlier, our meeting tonight was just a coincidence. I was also surprised to find out that he\'s there for the same reason."

Li Fei\'er furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?" 

"I came here to investigate. I suppose the reason you also came with Mr. Jiang and Lu Anqi is that you heard the news?" 

"Right. We weren\'t aware that you\'d come on your own. Why didn\'t you bring Little Master with you?" Li Fei\'er asked when she noticed that Xiao Bai was missing, which was unusual to see.

"He\'s with Brother Yichen right now. I heard that there was a demon haunting his home, so I decided to leave Xiao Bai to live with him temporarily."

This time, Li Fei\'er\'s face broke into a smile. Shen Minyao rarely talked about her boyfriend, but it was obvious to her that Shen Minyao cared deeply about that man. 

"So Mr. Qin…?" 

Shen Minyao gave her an annoyed look. Did Li Fei\'er just assume that she was attracted to her own brother? 

"Mr. Qin? I assure you he\'s like a big brother to me. You should have seen how protective he was earlier. He must be worried I\'ll be killed by the demons earlier." 

"Then, you should have told us rather than going there on your own." 

"I know what I\'m doing, Li Fei\'er. I\'m aware of my limitations." 

"It\'s not that I doubt you, Shen Minyao. Although you are still keeping things from me, I know you can handle yourself very well. I just hope you\'ll try to rely on us and not bear all the trouble on your own." 

Shen Minyao stared at Li Fei\'er blankly. She knew it was too late to distance herself from Li Fei\'er, but she didn\'t want to lead this woman anymore. 

"I\'m perfectly fine, Li Fei\'er. If you want to play detective with Mr. Jiang and Lu Anqi, you don\'t have to tag me along." 

"But as humans who got special gifts, shouldn\'t we use it to save the ones who need help?" Li Fei\'er argued. 

Shen Minyao sneered as she faced the shaman. 

"You call that a \'gift\'? Do you know how many psychics would rather choose to be normal than bear these curses? And what human? How dare you compare me to lowly humans like you?"

Li Fei\'er was taken aback. She had never seen Shen Minyao angry like this, but she didn\'t mean to offend her friend with her words at all. She was merely concerned about Shen Minyao\'s welfare.

"Li Fei\'er, I already told you what I am. Don\'t blame me later if you are proven wrong," she said and turned around, ready to leave. 

She had only taken a couple of steps away from Li Fei\'er when she heard Li Fei\'er calling out to her. 

"Shen Minyao, you were really telling the truth that you are a demon?!" 

Lu Anqi gasped and covered her mouth in shock. Her eyes glanced at Li Fei\'er and Shen Minyao whose face hardened at Li Fei\'er\'s question. 

Qin Zhi stood silently next to his car and watched them from afar. So it turned out his sister already told Li Fei\'er the truth about her being a demon, but Li Fei\'er didn\'t take her words seriously.

The tension in the air was so thick the humans felt a chilling wind pass them. 

"En," Shen Minyao replied as she looked at Li Fei\'er over her shoulder. "The Shen Minyao that everyone knew has long been gone. This body is mine now." 

When Li Fei\'er only answered her with silence, the fox woman hardened her jaws.

"You don\'t believe me?" She asked, but it sounded more like a statement on everyone\'s ears. 

"H-how is that possible? A demon has no ability to exercise absolute control on a human during possession," Li Fei\'er said in disbelief. 

How could she believe Shen Minyao\'s claim if she couldn\'t even sense a hint of demonic possession on Shen Minyao\'s body? She would have sensed it a long time ago if Shen Minyao\'s body was being possessed by a demon.

Too bad her young mind hadn\'t considered the fact that the real Shen Minyao\'s soul had already crossed boundaries, allowing the fox demon to possess her body.

"You couldn\'t tell? So how come Lord Hell and Mr. Jiang were able to?" Shen Minyao bit back. She was starting to feel annoyance over this conversation with Li Fei\'er. 

She briefly remembered that Little Jiu wasn\'t this clingy towards them, and after her awakening, didn\'t the fox woman know better than building the same bond she had with Feng Jiu with Li Fei\'er? 

Li Fei\'er stared at Shen Minyao in shock. Her eyes then turned to Jiang Chen who avoided meeting her gaze. When her eyes met Mu Qing, he only nodded to confirm Shen Minyao\'s claim.

"I apologize, Lady Li. It\'s not my intention to lie to you, but Shen Minyao is correct." 

Li Fei\'er\'s whole body shivered, but not from the coldness of the night. It was from mistaking Shen Minyao for something else

If Shen Minyao was really a demon, then what was she supposed to do? As she met Shen Minyao\'s gaze, she could tell that Shen Minyao was also thinking the same thing. 

"So what if I am a demon? Would that mean we don\'t deserve to walk the earth and lead a peaceful life like you humans? In your mind, demons… regardless of their past and reasons, we are creatures you need to annihilate, isn\'t it?" 

Li Fei\'er had no words for that. To be honest, she had never met a demon who had the ability to discern human language, but she had to admit that like the rest of the humans, she also had a prejudice towards the demons.

"I don\'t know…" This time, Li Fei\'er\'s tears rolled down uncontrollably. She then told Shen Minyao, "I don\'t know much about demons, but I know I cannot kill you." 

"You are saying that now, but in the future, your family would pressure you to stand against me. You cannot avoid it," Shen Minyao said and resumed walking towards her brother. 

However, before she could take a seat on the passenger seat, Mu Qing arrived next to her side. He had such an imposing aura that she couldn\'t ignore even if she wanted to. For him to seek her at a time like this, did something happen?

"I need a word with you," he told her sternly. "I already found a lead about the exorcist."

Li Fei\'er wiped her tears dry and rushed to their side. Jiang Chen and Lu Anqi followed when they heard what Mu Qing said to Shen Minyao. 

"Lord Hell, do you really know who it is? What is his intention in helping the demons?" She asked Mu Qing.

If the sudden spike of demonic activity in the city was truly caused by the rogue exorcist, then they should do something to capture it.

Shen Minyao didn\'t respond. There was no telling if the person who toyed with her and Qin Zhi earlier was the same rogue exorcist who made contact with the demons she\'d killed so far. 

"Lord Hell, do I really need to hear this? What is to me?" She questioned Mu Qing. 

Instead of answering her verbally, Mu Qing used telepathy to answer her question. Li Fei\'er and the other two humans didn\'t need to know. 

\'The exorcist is like the real Shen Minyao. He has long left this plane. His body was possessed by another entity." 

\'And this concerns me because?\' 

\'Because the person who possessed his body is related to you.\' 

When Shen Minyao said nothing, Mu Qing continued.

\'That man was your Lord Husband, the Emperor, and he wants you back.\' 

[Aren\'t you doing Li Fei\'er dirty a bit? Lol 

Sorry, I just feel like her important points in the story were a little anticlimactic.. Not only did she meet Qin Zhi without any wow-ness, but Shen Minyao\'s reveal also felt like it could have been better? Especially after she just brushed it off like she didn\'t doubt her life when Mu Qing spoke again.]