The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Chapter 151- A Closed Book

A/N: Unlike an open book, a closed book refers to that which cannot be known or understood.

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The Fox Empress cleared her throat. Everyone turned towards her. She smiled nervously.

"Um, Dijun? I'm afraid that's not how red pandas apologize to one another."

Dong Hua's towering steel gaze fell over her as she turned bright pink and stared into her bowl of food.

"Oh?"

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He could see that all the attention was making his little fox nervous, especially his icy glare. He attempted to jellyfish his face, softening his features.

Dong Hua picked up his bowl and started eating as if he hadn't just been told that he had been taking advantage of by an animal whose intentions still remained unclear.

The only sound that could be heard in the fox den was of the almighty god masticating his food and the scraping of the end of his chopsticks against the bowl.

Feng Jiu peered over curiously and cautiously over to him.

No one dared to say a word.

The ancient god who had cultivated to the point of not even needing to eat, had no idea how to cope with the present moment, except to stuff his face.

"Okay, Dong Hua, I have to break the ice, so to speak. Break your ice ... face."

Zhe Yan waited. His usual irreverence didn't get a response.

"You know, you're not alone anymore. You have a family now. You can open up to us.

Dong Hua sighed and set his bowl down and neatly placed his chopsticks over it.

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(flashback to when they were still in the tree)

"Rump?" asked Dong Hua impassively. "I'm afraid he'll have to find another way to get his apology because I don't have a rump. I have a posterior."

She leaned her head back slightly and her eyebrows danced as she appreciated the muscular curved perfection that was his backside. He could call it whatever he wanted. She knew what mattered was that it was for her paws only. The apology was an anomalous situation.

Once Dong Hua was told how the red panda would take his apology, he decided he much rather have the chat first and put off the apology for as long as he could. At this point, the chat was the obvious lesser of two evils.

In all his years as emperor of Heaven and Earth, never had a being requested to casually converse with him in such a manner.

Dong Hua had a plan. He figured all he need to do was to remain stone-faced and indifferent. That was how he existed for so long; that was his default. Having people regret that they ever wanted to talk to him in the first place was his regular past-time as emperor.

Dong Hua knew he needed to get this rare occurrence of giving an apology over with so he and his little fox could snuggle and watch the sunset.

Snuggle.

He realized that such a concept had been foreign to him until he met her. His former-self never understood emotional and physical intimacy. He had enjoyed petting Mogu through the years but the coziness of The Art of Snuggling was uniquely introduced to him by her.

That abandoned house in the Fang Xu Realm — did she really want to have a life with him there, he wondered. Everything she had described when they were in the hot springs belonged to a life he never could have imagined for himself.