Following Snowball's directions, Li Meirong knelt beside him on the dimly-lit forest floor. Together, they bowed to the skies in reverence. Both had closed their eyes, to better focus on the matter.
"Copy my words, and beseech the heavens as I do," Snowball instructed, clasping his front paws together. "If you allow us to ma-ahem, make a contract together, please encompass us with a shroud of mist."
As Snowball finished speaking, Li Meirong peeked at him inquisitively through squinted eyes. It was almost comical to see a little fox cub with his eyes shut tight in avid concentration, as if his whole life depended upon making their contract succeed. Her eyes turned into crescent-moon shapes, and her lips trembled while she witnessed the scene.
Li Meirong quickly covered her lips with her hand, afraid of destroying the moment for Snowball with careless laughter.
As amused as she was by the entire situation, her heart still filled with warmth. Snowball clearly cared for her enormously, to be so engrossed in the ceremony. It made her feel all sweet and fuzzy inside.
'Little Snowball already cares so much for me!'
"Well…?" Bai Qingyue carefully prompted her to continue. The faster they got through the ceremony, the less chance she would bail out of it.
"Right away!" Li Meirong didn't want Snowball to know she found the whole thing entertaining, so she quickly clasped her hands back together and closed her eyes. "If you allow us to make a contract together, please encompass us with a shroud of mist."
Unbeknownst to her, the heavens indeed heard her, and enveloped the forest with a heavy veil of fog.
The ceremony proceeded as Bai Qingyue continued barking out instructions.
"Since we cannot properly finish the union, we shall make do with what we can. Copy my words: 'I thank the cretin Jade Emperor for allowing this contract to be formed. What is once done cannot be undone; the red threads of fate shall entangle eternally'."
Bai Qingyue spoke through gritted teeth. He might be obligated to pray to the jerkface Emperor, but that did not mean he had to be polite about it. That vicious serpent had messed with his entire family line.
At the same time, Li Meirong stayed silent; her brows furrowed in thought. Why did it sound as though little Snowball had issues with the Emperor of Heaven? How did that even make any sense?
An even sillier thought popped mind. The whole speech sound strangely like they were about to married! She felt foolish even considering such a ridiculous notion…
There were so many ceremonies containing speeches about threads of fate, and requiring bows of respect. Surely, she was being overly suspicious.
Li Meirong sheepishly repeated Snowball's words, though she excluded the insult. Directly after, she and Snowball bowed in respect to each other.
"Perfect! Hurry up, we must exchange blood!" urged Snowball.
Li Meirong opened her eyes and saw a thick coat of grey enveloping her, as if, funnily enough, the heavens truly had heard their prayers.
Snowball perched right in front of her, and nipped his downturned paw hard enough for blood to well up.
In response, Li Meirong bit on the soft flesh of her thumb without hesitation. She already regularly fed Chou, so her pearly white teeth sliced into her skin with little effort or discomfort.
Bai Qingyue firmly pressed his bleeding paw to her thumb. His usually-large pupils contracted into sharp slits. As soon as their blood mingled, an invisible breeze stirred the thick fog, engulfing the pair. Li Meirong found the entire experience had shifted from amusing to downright creepy, and a little too otherworldly.
The fox spirit was only a cub, barely the size of a housecat, and yet… at that moment, he seemed frightening. The fog encircled his furry form like a demonic cloak, and his eyes took on a bewitching lavender sheen. His tiny snout stretched into a sinister smirk.
Wide-eyed, Li Meirong stared at Snowball with a hint of trepidation, her skin itching all over, feeling as though an event far beyond her comprehension had just occurred.
Making blood contracts with Chou and Feng Huang had been so simple in comparison to this ceremony. She felt as though she had stepped into a trap, without the means to escape unscathed.
A chill ran through her. Was this truly the helpless baby fox she had picked up in the woods?
Why did she feel as if she had just made a forbidden contract with the devil?
"Are we finished? Um, the weather looks like it's taken a turn for the worse, so let's move along." Li Meirong suggested, unable to hide the trace of panic in her voice.
From one moment to the next, the fog dissipated.
The breeze faded, and the terrifying vision vanished as if it had never been there. Snowball's demeanour changed again, and he went back to his sweet, adorable self. He lifted his forelimbs towards Li Meirong, ready to be picked up, as he gazed up at her with the same puppy-face she had grown used to.
Li Meirong was confounded, unsure what to make of what she'd seen – or thought she'd seen. In times of stress, it was best to disregard unreliable emotion and depend on stable logic instead. She must have received too many hits to the head recently, to think that Snowball was some kind of malevolent beast!
She lifted her fox spirit companion and placed his chin on her shoulder so that she could hold him comfortably. She followed the path, now cleared of mist, failing to notice that the little fox in her arms was grinning from ear to ear again, the expression as sinister as before.
Bai Qingyue was so elated, he found it difficult to contain his joy. Oh, to think that humans could be so foolish; she didn't suspect him for even a second!
From now on, he thought, his little wife would never be able to escape him.
Perhaps in the future, after he took them both back to the Celestial Realm, it would be necessary to provide an explanation for his avoidance of the truth, but for now, this would do.
There was no way Bai Qingyue would end up in the same condition as his poor, heartbroken cousin, who had lived in solitude for over a millennia despite finding her fated person.
His cousin's destined partner had been human, just as Li Meirong was, but by the time Bai Qingyue's cousin had found the mortal man, he had already fallen in love with another.
The one-sided curse was a terrible burden to bear. Unfortunately for his cousin, the mortal man had been smitten with a cultivator, who had guided him onto the path of immortality.
Bai Qingyue's ill-fated cousin was not even able to trace his soul into the afterlife, to attempt to win him over a second time, for the man's mortal lifespan had defied its natural course due to his cultivation. Even to this very day, she continued to look out for him, remaining in anguish as her beloved was in the arms of another woman.
Bai Qingyue swore to himself under his breath, recalling his family member's plight.
No, he would not let that same fate happen to him. He had to tie this woman to his side using every means possible.
Furthermore, should anyone attempt to take her away from him…
His gaze darkened at the thought. A murderous aura beginning to emanate from his small form.
Should anyone attempt to take her away from him…? 'Kill on sight.'