My Evil Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox

It was a Saturday morning when she came. Just as they agreed, Zhao Yichen allowed Shen Minyao to visit him at his office in Zhao Corporation to eliminate the possibility of having demons near his workplace. According to her brother, he and Li Fei'er had encountered a few blood-sucking demons during their hunt a few days ago. 

The fox woman scoffed at that. She knew his brother wouldn't be able to resist pursuing Li Fei'er once he knew of her existence. Who was Qin Zhi trying to fool, anyway? It was obvious that he was still head over heels in love with his wife, not that Li Fei'er was aware of who she was in her past life. 

Anyway, who was she to criticize Qin Zhi? He was old enough to make decisions for himself and face their consequences. He and Li Fei'er had been spending more time with each other under the pretense that they were hunting demons within the city. 

"Are you sure it's okay for me to accompany you?" Mu Qing's voice brought Shen Minyao's mind to reality. 

Having him accompanying her for the past week, the fox woman thought that his company wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, unlike the first time. 

She saw him from the corner of her eye and realized he was still seated on the same spot next to her window. If she didn't know better, she would assume that the grim reaper had decided that he owned the place, considering how he went in and out of her dorm while only giving her a quick warning of his presence. 

"You should stop doing that, you know." She brushed her hair and styled her long hair into a loose braid. "What if I was walking around naked? Are you sure you would be able to look at me without feeling awkward?" 

"What else have I not seen yet?" The grim reaper refused to look her way, choosing to watch outside her window as if whatever was out there was more interesting than the fox woman was. "You assume I haven't seen a naked woman before?" 

"Oh, so you had?" The corner of Shen Minyao's lips curled up in a slight smile. "So even grim reapers like you don't pay attention to proprietary, huh?" 

"It's not like that." Mu Qing replied, "It's just I have seen worse, something that normal humans wouldn't be able to take. You should know better as a demon." He added, giving Shen Minyao a knowing look.

Shen Minyao hummed at that. Demons like her and grim reapers like Mu Qing obviously had stronger willpower than humans. Many succumbed to traumatic disorders after witnessing or experiencing unspeakable events. She wouldn't be surprised by the amount of blood and gore he, a grim reaper, had seen over the centuries. 

"Fine. Let's stop stalling. He's waiting for us." Shen Minyao stood up, giving her reflection one last look before she picked up her purse and stepped out of the room. 

Mu Qing followed after her shortly and accompanied her inside the car waiting for the fox woman in front of the dormitory building. After all, the Shen and the Zhao families were now both aware of the budding relationship between her and Zhao Yichen. Both parties could only watch and see how serious their relationship would become. 

When they reached their destination, Shen Minyao was greeted by Zhao Yichen's assistant on the first floor of the office building. There were a few employees who stopped on their tracks to wonder about the beautiful young woman with Assistant Han. Of course, by now, most of them were aware that Assistant Han was working for Zhao Yichen. 

"Who's that?" One of them was brave enough to come to the reception desk and ask the clerk about the mysterious woman's identity. It was rare for them to spot such an alluring beauty that could earn everyone's attention. 

"Ah, she's listed as Director Zhao's guest," the woman behind the reception said. "Her name is listed here as Shen Minyao." 

"A Shen, huh? Don't you suppose that she's a lady from that Shen family?" 

The receptionist shrugged. It wasn't her place to probe their bosses' private affairs, and it was surely not the first time she had welcomed such a guest of the Zhao family. 

Once the elevator doors closed, Shen Minyao and Mu Qing conversed with each other using telepathy. 

"I'm surprised that you would let me see your human contractor,' the grim reaper commented while sensing different kinds of spirits within the building. 

On the eighth floor, he could sense a malevolent spirit messing with the customer service department. While on the eleventh floor, there was a low-level demon clinging to one of the staff of the finance department. 

When they reached the level where Zhao Yichen was located, he could sense a strong barrier that was keeping demons from entering the floor. Those weaker demons who would attempt to cross the barrier were bound to die instantaneously the moment their bodies touched it. 

It made Mu Qing wonder just what kind of mythical creatures Shen Minyao's guardians were. He had never encountered anything like them in the past, and obviously, like their evil mistress, the two hadn't unleashed their full power so far. 

"It's not like I could hide him from you forever." The fox woman scoffed. It was also clear that the grim reaper was curious about the contract she entered with Zhao Yichen. After all, she messed up Zhao Yichen's lifespan by allowing him to keep her original fox orb in his body. 

Mu Qing didn't deny her words. His superiors were aware of Zhao Yichen's lifespan being tampered with by the fox woman's emergence from her long confinement. However, none of them made any indication that they wanted to retrieve Zhao Yichen's soul. 

This gave Mu Qing a bad feeling, but he couldn't put a finger on it. If it was a normal case of disruption, his superiors would want the human soul collected under any circumstances. So what made Zhao Yichen special? 

The door of the office was then opened, revealing a young man in his mid-twenties. Unlike other humans he encountered in the past, Zhao Yichen's soul wasn't tainted by worldly negative energy one bit. To think that this young man was able to keep a fox orb in his body without perishing like other humans would, it surprised Mu Qing. 

Zhao Yichen lifted his head the moment the door opened, seeing Shen Minyao with an unknown man accompanying her. His assistant immediately excused himself to give them some privacy. 

"Milady, you are here," Yu Yan called after her mistress, "and Lord Hell, too." 

Zhao Yichen rose from his seat and regarded his guests. He didn't expect Shen Minyao would bring someone with her today. 

"Miss Shen…" He nodded at the fox woman. "And this gentleman is?" 

Mu Qing remained silent as his eyes flashed red, trying to see the status of the human in front of him. Oddly enough, the gauge of Zhao Yichen's lifespan was marked 'undetermined'. This did not surprise the grim reaper one bit, but seeing that Zhao Yichen's spiritual level was also undetermined, this made Mu Qing more curious about the fox woman's human contractor. 

"He's Mu Qing. You can call him Lord Hell, like how everyone does," Shen Minyao nonchalantly said as she flopped down the couch next to Yu Yan and picked the black cat up to her eye level. 

"I see that you are getting stronger now, Yu Yan." 

"It's because my mistress gave me and Xiao Bai a good quality of gold the other day." 

Zhao Yichen almost choked at that. Just where did Shen Minyao get the gold to feed these two cats? He didn't think that a young miss like Shen Minyao would have gold in her possession.

"Gold?" He blurted out in shock. 

"What else do you think Xiao Bai and Yu Yan eat? They feed on high-quality gold and not on humans. The more they consume gold, the better for you and me." Shen Minyao gave him a pointed look. 

"I-I don't understand…" Her human contractor admitted, while Mu Qing now had an idea what these guardians were. 

He thought that those creatures were just a part of a legend since no one had been able to spot one of their kind for over a millennium. How did the fox woman gain such powerful guardians that could defy the rules of both realms? 

"You don't need to understand." The fox woman allowed Yu Yan to curl on her bosom as she held the cat. "If you really want to show gratitude to my guardians, you need to feed them gold bars." 

"Gold bars!" Zhao Yichen exclaimed. Even if he turned out to be the wealthiest human on Earth, feeding gold bars to these guardians wouldn't be easypeasy. 

"You don't have gold? Then, silver would suffice, but of course, they wouldn't be as satisfied as having gold."