Chapter 869: The Old Foxes Meet Their Match

Chapter 869: Chapter 869: The Old Foxes Meet Their Match

Both men immediately froze in place.

Ruru was standing near the doorway, her tiny head tilted curiously to one side. She looked at her two fathers, then at their angry, contorted faces, then at their flared-out tails and aura.

Her little white ears drooped softly. "Are you going to fight again?"

The two men instantly snapped their heads away from each other, retracting their powers in a split second.

"No."

"Of course not."

They answered at the exact same time, their voices completely synchronized.

Ruru narrowed her big eyes, looking at them with deep suspicion. Clearly, she did not believe a single word coming out of either of their mouths.

Rong Ye turned his head and muttered under his breath, "I only stopped because Ruru is watching."

Xuan Long immediately fired back in a low voice, "I stopped because I didn’t want to dirty my hands."

Rong Ye’s eyes bugged out. "YOU...!"

***

In the courtyard next door, the three elders were secretly peeking through the gaps in the wooden fence.

Their eyes were fixed on Rong Ye, who was still standing in the middle of the yard with his nine tails drooping like wet noodles after suffering yet another humiliating defeat at Xuan Long’s hands.

The three elders exchanged deeply complicated looks.

Their young master... was truly pathetic.

He could not even defend himself in front of his own female. Worse, he had just been thoroughly bullied by another one of her husbands right in front of everyone!

Elder Lu let out a heavy, sorrowful sigh. "How pitiful."

The second elder nodded solemnly, his whiskers twitching. "He truly has no standing in this household whatsoever."

The third elder rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "No wonder he only has one cub."

The other two immediately snapped their heads toward him, eyes wide. "Don’t say it so loudly!"

The third elder quickly lowered his voice to a whisper. "But it is the truth!"

They all looked back through the fence at Rong Ye. The young fox was still complaining loudly to the empty air, while Xuan Long had already coolly disappeared into the house.

The three elders’ expressions slowly became serious.

"This will not do," Elder Lu declared sternly. "Our young master has been away from the clan for far too long. He probably never learned the secret tricks of our Fox Clan."

"Exactly," the second elder agreed, nodding fiercely. "A young fox must know how to win the favor of his female!"

"And how to suppress the other males in the household!"

The three elders nodded heavily in unison. They looked at each other with eyes burning with sudden determination.

"We must teach him."

"Our young master needs proper training."

"Otherwise, he will be bullied by his own co-husbands forever!"

They were so intensely focused on their grand plan that none of them noticed the hunched old man standing directly behind them.

"Cough."

JUMP!

"AH!"

All three elders leaped a foot into the air, nearly tumbling right over the fence!

They spun around in panic and found an old man leaning heavily on a wooden crutch, staring at them with deep suspicion.

The old man was Little Hua’s grandfather in his human form.

He looked at the three trembling elders. Then he looked at the fence. Then he looked back at them.

"What are you three doing?"

The elders immediately straightened their backs, trying to look dignified.

"Nothing."

"We were just looking at the sky."

The old man slowly looked upward. The sky was completely empty, without a single cloud in sight.

He looked back down at them. "All three of you were looking at the sky... through a fence?"

The elders fell into awkward silence.

Elder Lu coughed awkwardly into his hand. "It is... a very interesting sky today."

The old man narrowed his eyes into sharp slits. "You old foxes are terrible liars."

The three elders looked immensely embarrassed, their ears twitching nervously.

Before they could attempt another terrible excuse, the old man’s grumpy expression suddenly vanished, replaced by a sneaky smile. "Come with me."

The elders blinked in confusion. "Where?"

"I found a very exciting game."

"A game?"

The old man nodded enthusiastically, his eyes twinkling. "Come. I am bored."

The three elders looked at one another, then at the old man, then back at the empty courtyard next door. Finally, pure curiosity won out over their mission.

They followed him.

A few moments later, all four old men were sitting cross-legged on the dirt ground around a small, square grid drawn on a flat ground.

The old man picked up a smooth white stone. "This is called toe-toe."

The elders stared blankly at the board. "What kind of game is this?"

"A very intelligent game," the old man declared proudly, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

The elders immediately became interested. If it required intelligence, as foxes, they were naturally duty-bound to excel at it!

"How do we play?"

The old man patiently explained the simple rules.

The first elder placed his stone. Then the old man calmly placed his own.

A few quick moves later...

"I win."

The three elders froze in place. "What?"

The old man smiled radiantly. "Three in a row."

The elders stared at the board in utter disbelief. "Again!"

The old man’s smile became even wider. "Of course."

They played again. And again. And again. Every single time, the old man won effortlessly. The three elders grew increasingly serious, their foreheads dripping with sweat.

"This game requires deep strategy."

"Indeed. We were careless."

The old man nodded solemnly, playing along. "Yes. Very careless."

Inside, however, he was practically dancing a victory jig!

Finally! Three absolute fools!

He had learned this game from Su Qinglan. At first, she had only played it with him to help him pass the boring afternoons, never imagining that the old man would become completely and utterly obsessed with it.

He had spent days practicing all by himself, drawing boards on the ground and calculating every combination.

Now, finally, he had snared three fresh, unsuspecting opponents. And they were proud old foxes! Perfect!

"Again?" the old man asked innocently.

The three elders gritted their teeth, their pride thoroughly wounded. "AGAIN!"