Chu Beihe looked at her with slightly deepened eyes. Although he harbored some doubts about how she knew people from the Song family, he didn't press further.
Raising his hand to signal the driver, it wasn't long before the car arrived at an upscale villa community in the southern part of Haishi.
With Chu Beihe's car clearing the way, it reached the gate of the Song family's villa without any hindrance.
If it had been Guan Xuxu herself, she probably wouldn't have even been allowed through the gate of the villa community.
Chu Beihe dropped her off at the entrance but showed no intention of accompanying her inside; after letting her down, he departed on his own.
When the Song family heard that the car of Young Master Chu had visited, they curiously went downstairs to greet the visitor. However, instead of meeting someone familiar, they found an unknown young girl holding a little fox in her arms.
"Who is this young lady?"
Recalling the previous attitude of the Jiang family, Guan Xuxu chose not to mention them at all. Instead, she simply stated her surname was Guan, deliberately omitting that she had come to restore some "wisdom" to Miss Song, which no one would believe anyway.
She took out a Peace Talisman from Qingfeng Temple from her small bag and said,
"I met Granny Song a while ago and noticed she had dropped this, so I thought I'd return it to her."
It just so happened that Young Master Song had mentioned on his social media account that last month he had accompanied Granny Song to Qingfeng Temple to seek a talisman—an excuse that fit perfectly.
Mrs. Song was a plump and attractive woman with gentle features. Seeing Guan Xuxu—a meek and well-behaved little girl—holding a pet fox in her arms, she didn't think much of it.
"Oh, I see."
Old-fashioned in her thinking, the elderly lady had long believed that their home's feng shui was off ever since little Lirui injured her head and the injury never healed. She had previously rearranged the household items and, over the past year, had even started to believe in Taoism. Not long ago, she had even insisted on taking her grandson to a Taoist temple to seek a talisman, and the family had let her have her way.
But who would have thought that when a Peace Talisman went missing, someone would eagerly return it?
"Thank you for coming all this way. But may I ask, how do you know our Granny Song?"
Although Mrs. Song was kind, she still maintained a necessary level of caution.
Without changing her expression, Guan Xuxu opened her mouth to explain. At the same time, her hand subtly pinched Hu Piaoliang's belly.
This was prearranged with Hu Piaoliang. As soon as Guan Xuxu made the move, the little fox in her arms kicked off immediately and leapt out, then dashed up to the second floor in a flash.
Mrs. Song was instantly startled, and Guan Xuxu, equally caught off guard, quickly got up to give chase.
"Hu Piaoliang! Come back quickly!"
Well done, Hu Piaoliang—go on, go find Miss Song.
In less than two minutes, a high-pitched "yaa"—the innocent cry of a young girl—echoed from upstairs. Both Mrs. Song and the servants' expressions changed as they hurriedly followed.
Keeping a step behind Mrs. Song, Guan Xuxu headed up to the second floor. At the far end of the corridor, she saw a girl in a pretty princess dress squatting on the ground, laughing gleefully as she watched the chubby little fox obediently sitting in front of her, even reaching out a hand to touch it.
"Lirui!" Mrs. Song called out quickly and then briskly walked to her daughter's side, pulling her behind her.
Although the little fox looked well-behaved, who knew if it might bite anyone unexpectedly.
At that moment, Mrs. Song began to regret letting this little girl carry such a pet into the house.
"Mommy, doggy!"
Song Yuli, who looked about fifteen or sixteen with a bit of baby fat still on her face, was undeniably pretty and lively. Her dark, bright eyes shone with a pure clarity. But when she spoke, her tone—so naïve and silly like that of a toddler—revealed her immaturity.
Guan Xuxu's gaze briefly fell on a wisp of dark energy between the girl's eyebrows, causing her to furrow her brows slightly.
Noticing the subtle change in Guan Xuxu's expression, Mrs. Song assumed it was due to a problem with her daughter and immediately grew displeased. Her tone turned cold as she said,
"If there's nothing else, Miss Guan, you should take your pet and leave. I won't see you off."
"Wait a moment."
Guan Xuxu halted Mrs. Song with a raised hand, then signaled for Hu Piaoliang to come back. Looking again at Song Yuli with clear and earnest eyes, she took out another Peace Talisman from her bosom and said,
"My little fox just scared Miss Song. As an apology, please accept this talisman; it will protect her for one safe turn."
Guan Xuxu continued, "Miss Song has delicate, graceful eyebrows—a sign of a life filled with blessings. Such a fate is usually marked by a small red mole on the chest to gather fortune. However, in her childhood, she had her wisdom taken away by someone, which resulted in a deficiency in her fate, and the red mole has since faded. I foresee that in the next few days, she will face a calamity. You'd better have her stay at home and not go out."
Guan Xuxu had originally intended to tell them directly about the wisdom exchange, but the dark aura between Song Yuli's eyebrows was an even more pressing matter.
Already sensitive about her own daughter, Mrs. Song's face darkened as she listened to Guan Xuxu's nonsensical talk. Gone was the earlier gentle and amiable expression; she immediately scolded,
"You little charlatan, where did you come from? How dare you curse my daughter right off the bat! How do you even know our Granny Song? I suppose you had such intentions, didn't you? Since you're just a little girl, I won't hold it against you—but now, take your fox and leave my house immediately, or I'll call the police and have you arrested!"
Clearly, this attitude made any reasonable conversation impossible.
Guan Xuxu had encountered such situations before. With an expression of calm, she picked up the little fox, placed the talisman on a cabinet by the corridor, and then turned to leave.
Song Yuli, watching her "dog" being carried away, felt a pang of reluctance and tried to chase after it, exclaiming, "Doggy, Mommy, doggy's gone!"
Hearing her child's tender voice, Mrs. Song felt a surge of sadness and had no choice but to soothe her,
"That's not a dog—it's a fox, and it might bite. Since you like dogs so much, I'll have someone buy you one, alright?"
"Okay! Mommy is so nice! I want a doggy!" Song Xueli instantly forgot about the little fox, her joy making her almost spin in delight.
Seeing her beautiful daughter, Mrs. Song's eyes welled with tears. Then, when she noticed the talisman Guan Xuxu had left on the cabinet, her face darkened further. In a low voice she ordered a nearby servant, "Take that thing and throw it away."
An object of unknown origin was certainly not something she would allow her little Lirui to touch.
As for all that nonsense about a red mole and a flawed fate that Guan Xuxu mentioned earlier, she didn't believe it in the slightest.
Yet, when her gaze fell upon little Lirui, it couldn't help but drift to the chest of the girl, partly concealed by a lace lantern-sleeved top.
It seemed that her little Lirui indeed had a barely noticeable red mole on her chest.
Still, Mrs. Song refused to believe in such supernatural explanations. Instead, she suspected that one of the servants in charge of looking after her daughter had secretly let it slip.
What were they planning?
The more she thought about it, the more unsettling it became. Mrs. Song had the servant escort her daughter back to her room, then hurriedly turned and called her husband and son.
Someone was targeting her little Lirui, and until she got to the bottom of it, she couldn't feel at ease.
What Mrs. Song didn't know was that just after she left, little Lirui had stealthily peeked her head out of her room. Then, crouching like a little thief in her own house, she carefully slipped out of her room and ran straight downstairs.