Married the Second Generation Fox Demon with a Baby in a Flash Marriage - Chapter 2

“Uh…” Hu Mengmeng didn’t expect her mother to use this kind of method to comfort her. It was a painstaking effort, but it was really a bit childish!

Her mother always said she was silly—did she really think she was an idiot who would be fooled by such a story?!

Everyone else had a mom and a dad, but she supposedly had two moms? How do two women even have a child?

“As a fox spirit, do you know what your greatest natural enemy is?” Su Mingli stared wide-eyed and whispered to Hu Mengmeng.

“Wolves? Lions? Tigers?” Hu Mengmeng saw how serious Su Mingli was, so she actually gave it some thought before asking.

Su Mingli exasperatedly smacked Hu Mengmeng on the head.

“It’s demon hunters! Your other mother was taken away by a demon hunter and never came back. Fearing you’d be caught too, she suppressed your fox spirit bloodline before she left, and only had time to tell me a little bit about it. She said she could only help you suppress it until you were eighteen. You’re a human-demon hybrid, different from pure-blooded demons. With the right method, it can be held back. She left the instructions for that method on this piece of cloth, saying that when you turned eighteen and the bloodline could no longer be suppressed, you would know how to read it. See if you can see anything.” Su Mingli spoke with a solemn expression, then went into the bedroom and brought out a piece of white silk for Hu Mengmeng.

Seeing Su Mingli so earnestly hand her a blank piece of white silk, Hu Mengmeng felt a surge of panic. She reached out and felt Su Mingli’s forehead—was her mom actually going crazy?!

“Mom, did you catch a fever from the rain? Hurry up and change out of those wet clothes,” Hu Mengmeng said, her round eyes narrowing with worry.

“Hu Mengmeng, I’m telling you the truth, don’t take this as a joke! This matter cannot be told to anyone, do you hear me?” Su Mingli tapped Hu Mengmeng on the head again.

“Okay, Mom, I get it. Give me the cloth and go change and take a shower!” Hu Mengmeng said, casually tossing the silk onto the table.

“Keep it safe! You must be careful now. Don’t get too emotional—if you do, your qi will become chaotic and you’ll definitely be exposed. You’ll grow ears and a tail, and you’ll emit the scent of a fox spirit. Demon hunters have very sharp noses; if they catch a whiff, they’ll snatch you away too! I won’t be able to save you then. I’ve finally raised you to the point where you can actually help with the chores—who’s going to help me if you’re caught?” Su Mingli said.

“Mm-hmm, Mom, I know!” Hu Mengmeng nodded repeatedly. During the first half of the speech, she thought her mom’s imagination was incredibly vivid, but by the last sentence, she had to admit: Yep, this is definitely my real mother.

Looking at Hu Mengmeng, Su Mingli couldn’t tell how much she actually believed. Once her fox spirit bloodline manifested a bit more, she figured the girl would understand on her own.

“Oh, I almost forgot something important. Where’s your savings? Why is it all gone? What did you do with it?” Su Mingli remembered just as she was about to shower.

“Uh… Mom, I used it to buy a gift for Xiaoya. Ah! My gift!” Hu Mengmeng scratched her short hair, suddenly panicking as she remembered her gift had been thrown into the hotel trash can.

“You brat! That was over ten thousand yuan! How could you bring yourself to spend that much?! Go back right now, get it back, and return it for a refund!” Su Mingli fumed, instantly transforming into a “Tiger Mom.”

The Su family was just an average household. Hu Mengmeng’s actions made Su Mingli both angry and heartbroken. Angry because her daughter spent every penny of her savings on that girl, and heartbroken because the child’s devoted love was being treated like trash.

“I know, I’m going to look for it now!” Hu Mengmeng said as she hurried out. Su Mingli paused for a moment and followed her.

The gift hadn’t been delivered and had been thrown away; after her bout of sadness, Hu Mengmeng was also starting to feel the sting of the lost money. Those were savings she had accumulated over a long time.

“Sit tight!” At the electric scooter, Su Mingli put on the poncho while Hu Mengmeng huddled on the back seat, and the two set off again.

The rain was still falling with no sign of letting up. There were few pedestrians on the road, and the sky was pitch black, though the streetlights kept them from being completely blind.

On their way, they passed the black business van that Ye Xinyu had been in earlier. It was driving slowly near the Zijin Mansion, as if searching for something.

“Xinyu, you’re already exhausted. That thing escaped, and it’s hard to find in the rain. This is taking too much out of you,” the middle-aged woman in the car said worriedly, looking at Ye Xinyu, who sat with closed eyes, furrowed brows, and fine beads of sweat on her forehead.

“It has already killed several people. Heavy rain makes it easy to hide its tracks; it won’t miss this chance. Keep going straight to the end of the road and then turn,” Ye Xinyu said, shaking her head.

The middle-aged woman’s eyes showed concern and pity, but seeing Ye Xinyu’s persistence, she could only follow orders and keep the car moving.

Hu Mengmeng and her mother naturally didn’t notice the van. It took over half an hour on the electric scooter to reach the Zijin Mansion again. Hu Mengmeng hopped off and ran inside, only to be stopped by the lobby staff.

“I accidentally threw something into the trash can, I need to find it! It’s that trash can over there in the hall. Please!” Hu Mengmeng said urgently.

The party upstairs hadn’t ended yet, and the staff member remembered the “little fat girl,” so they led her to the bin.

The opening was small, so Hu Mengmeng removed the lid, pulled out the black plastic liner, and rummaged through it. She found her gift box, tidied it up, thanked the staff, and ran back out, squinting her eyes in a happy smile for Su Mingli.

When she smiled, Hu Mengmeng’s round eyes curved into slits, making her look even more like a New Year painting child—bursting with happiness. Just looking at her could improve one’s mood.

“Mom, I found it! It’s still there!” Hu Mengmeng said happily.

“Come with me to return it!” Su Mingli said with a stern face, leading her away.

Seeing Hu Mengmeng so happy just from retrieving the gift box, Su Mingli sighed inwardly. She wondered who the girl took after—she certainly wasn’t like her, nor was she like that fox spirit. Perhaps because the bloodline was suppressed, the girl wasn’t “fox-like” or clever at all. She was just a simple-minded, scatterbrained foodie.

She ate a lot and loved meat. Though not even past her eighteenth birthday, she was already over 160cm tall—not particularly tall, but all her growth was horizontal. Weighing over 180 pounds, she had a “fleshy” and comical look.

The family snack shop made it too easy for her; she couldn’t control herself and ate whenever she had a craving. She didn’t like exercise, had poor physical coordination, and wasn’t very sharp academically. Despite being diligent, she only managed to get into a third-tier university—barely enough to scrape through a college education.

Perhaps the only thing she inherited was her “attraction to beauty.” The way she gave her heart and soul to someone she liked—that was probably hereditary.

She had a list of flaws, but she was healthy, hardworking, and a kind-hearted child. She cried easily but was also easily cheered up; her mind was incredibly simple.

Su Mingli only hoped that the fox spirit bloodline wouldn’t ruin her life, and that those damn demon hunters would stay far away from them.

It was nearly eight o’clock, and the jewelry store hadn’t closed yet. The two rushed in to return the item.

“This necklace was custom-made, and as you can see, it has been engraved. According to our policy, it cannot be returned. If you insist on returning it, we can only process it at the buy-back price,” the salesperson said, pointing at the engraving on the pendant.

“What does that mean? What’s the buy-back price?” Su Mingli glared at Hu Mengmeng as she asked.

“The buy-back price deducts the labor costs and depreciation; it’s calculated at 90% of the market price per gram. Let me calculate that for you…” The salesperson gave them a figure.

The necklace bought for 12,000 yuan ended up being worth only a little over 7,000 yuan after the conversion. Su Mingli’s liver practically ached from the anger. After all that effort, they didn’t even get 8,000 back.

All the way home, Su Mingli gave Hu Mengmeng the cold shoulder.

“These few thousand yuan will go toward your tuition. No allowance for you this month! You’re working for free at the shop until school starts!” At home, Su Mingli stood with her hands on her hips, laying down the law.

“Mom, that’s not fair! You said that money was mine!” Hu Mengmeng panicked. Losing 5,000 was painful enough, but now it was all gone.

“I’m the boss now!” Su Mingli declared.

Hu Mengmeng looked at her mother pitifully, hoping for a little pocket money, but Su Mingli just shooed her off to take a shower.

While Hu Mengmeng showered, Su Mingli didn’t change her clothes. Instead, she walked to the balcony with a weary expression, staring blankly at the rain outside. She thought of a rainy night nineteen years ago, and the subsequent memories—some sweet, some painful, all confusing.

From the moment she met that breathtakingly beautiful fox spirit at age eighteen, Su Mingli’s life had changed completely. Because she was with a woman, she quarreled with her family and was kicked out. Then came the pregnancy and the birth of Hu Mengmeng, followed by her lover being discovered and taken by demon hunters—all in less than a year.

Starting from age nineteen, Su Mingli raised Hu Mengmeng alone. She stopped going to school and worked as an apprentice while caring for her daughter. Over the years, she learned to mix bun fillings, make eight-treasure porridge, braise meat, and cook various snacks. She transformed from a bookworm who “never dipped her fingers into spring water” into a jack-of-all-trades. Five years ago, she used her savings to open a snack shop in the county, and she bought this two-bedroom apartment two years ago—she was still paying off the mortgage.

Now thirty-seven, Su Mingli dressed very simply: a large short-sleeved top, loose wide-leg pants, and slippers. Her short hair was permed into curls, and there were wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She looked ordinary and unremarkable, no different from any other middle-aged woman. If there was one difference, it was her hands. Dealing with stoves, flour, and oil year-round had made her fingers thicker than average; the skin on the backs of her hands looked almost like burn scars, with uneven coloring—pale in some spots and dark in others. They were washed clean but always looked a bit “dirty.”

“Are you dead, or just locked up? Not a single word of news… and your daughter is already eighteen,” Su Mingli murmured, a trace of sorrow and resentment flickering in her eyes before vanishing.

Su Mingli wiped her face with her rough hand, shaking off the sentimentality. The messy house still needed tidying.

Hu Mengmeng finished her shower and came out in clean pajamas. Seeing Su Mingli mopping the floor, she took the mop from her.

“Mom, do you think I’m ugly?” Hu Mengmeng leaned her face in front of Su Mingli and asked.

“Ugly, hideous! Mop the floor, wash the mop, put the trash outside, and change the liners,” Su Mingli pushed Hu Mengmeng away with mock disgust.

Hu Mengmeng pouted, and a tear splashed down.

“Look at you… I don’t know who you take after! Didn’t I say you’d get beautiful?! Eat less and lose some weight. At this rate, even if you ‘get beautiful,’ you’ll just be a pretty fat person,” Su Mingli added, feeling frustrated as she watched her daughter cry.

Inwardly, Su Mingli sighed. That fox spirit had been so beautiful—if even a shred of her bloodline was in Hu Mengmeng, the girl’s appearance shouldn’t be like this.