Chapter 8: Not Your Babysitter
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The boy's acting skills had caught Fei Zhao completely by surprise. So stunned was he by this spectacle that he completely failed to guard against Zhe Huo's savage attack. A moment later, he was howling once more, his arms held protectively over his head. "Why are you hitting me!"
Zhe Huo seized up the carrot on the table. "Have you mistaken Qinghan for a rabbit? He eats meat, don't you know?"
On the verge of tears, Fei Zhao spluttered, "I was thinking about what would be good nutrition for a child. How could I have expected that a mewling babe like him would already have developed a taste for meat?" With a huff, he added, "So he's a damned fox, after all."
Sensing his growing peril, he snatched the carrot back from Zhe Huo. "Alright, alright. I'll boil a fish for him right away. How's that?"
Qinghan whispered, "I want it steamed."
Fei Zhao glared at him, but he bit back his reply when Zhe Huo caught his eye. Pursing his lips, he muttered, "It's always something with you."
He couldn't see anything good about the child at all. He was far too cunning for his age. Zhe Huo was usually a sharp woman, but he had her completely wrapped around his finger. She was so utterly taken with the boy—it was as though he had slipped her a love potion.
Fei Zhao knew that anything he said to Zhe Huo would only fall on deaf ears right now. There was nothing for it but to wait until Wu Shan came back. He'd talk some sense into her.
Meanwhile, for Zhe Huo, it was a straightforward matter: Although barely more than a baby, Luo Qinghan was absolutely adorable. She couldn't wait to show him off to everyone! Furthermore, he was extraordinarily bright, too—even her master had praised him. Clearly, she'd found something special. Of course she had to take good care of him!
As the days went by, Zhe Huo became certain that this was the best decision she'd ever made in her life.
True to the promise he'd made her back in that cave, Qinghan worked hard to earn his keep. The courtyard which she'd left unattended all year long, somehow that little boy was able to scrub and clean every inch of it every single day. He paid particular attention to keeping her quarters nice and tidy, to the point that it looked like a different room entirely, and every time Zhe Huo returned there, she spent a moment wondering if she'd taken a wrong turn somewhere.
The most mysterious thing of all that happened was after Qinghan had tried Fei Zhao's cooking for the second time, when he'd simply commented to his face, "Yuck."
Fei Zhao was so mad he'd dropped his chopsticks. "You know what? I'm not this fox demon's babysitter! Providing him with food and drink, while putting up with this kind of abuse… I'm not doing it anymore!"
Zhe Huo rubbed her nose. Some tact was needed here, because she herself had noticed that Qinghan was indeed a picky eater. For example, when it came to eating fish, he only took the meat above the fins and at the tail, and ignored everything else. With crabs, he discarded the legs untouched, only picking out meat from the main shell—and quite cleanly too, as though he'd come from a refined upbringing.
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