Ron Became Famous
The first mountain in the Second Southern Circuit is called Gui Mountain.
When Su Yu turned southeast from Jiwei Mountain, his first feeling wasn't tiredness, but stuffiness. The trees on both sides of the mountain road became denser and denser, their canopies overlapping and completely blocking out the Sky Void, preventing even sunlight from getting in.
The fallen leaves underfoot were piled up very thickly, and felt soft and spongy underfoot, like walking on cotton.
There were several flat clearings by the stream below the ridge. Su Yu stopped and gestured for everyone to set up camp there for the night.
A night breeze blew up from the valley, carrying moisture and the fragrance of unknown flowers from afar. Inside the villa, Theodore added a few more pieces of firewood to the fireplace, Kakkō flickered twice, illuminating the entire room. Outside, the faint outlines of Deer Shu could be seen; they were peacefully grazing in the moonlight in the stables that Su Yu had enclosed for them.
"Mr. Malfoy. Draco Malfoy, can you explain why your eyes almost popped out of your head when you saw that Heavenly Nine-Tailed Fox today? And why were you drooling?"
While everyone had finished eating and was chatting, Pansy seized the opportunity to slip over to Malfoy, grabbed his waist, glared at him fiercely, and finally blurted out what she had been holding back all day.
"Oh! Pansy, be gentle! Ouch, ouch, ouch! You're making me sound so pathetic! Am I really that lewd?" Malfoy winced in pain, but dared not cry out, and whispered an explanation to Pansy through gritted teeth.
Harry had been watching Malfoy closely. Hearing what Pansy said, Harry shrank back. He wasn't much better off than Malfoy today. If George hadn't stuffed the Guanguan Bird feather into his hand in time, he probably would have rushed over and hugged the Heavenly Nine-Tailed Fox himself.
Harry felt that the Heavenly Nine-Tailed Fox was far more alluring than the Veela. How could a boy like him possibly fall for a female fox? The key point was that he actually did fall in love and genuinely wanted to spend his life with her. Just thinking about it made him feel ashamed. And this was only because she unintentionally exuded allure. If she were deliberately trying to seduce him, Harry estimated that even wearing a pendant made of Guanguan Bird feathers wouldn't have helped.
But then Harry thought of Ron, that scoundrel, who was probably watching the live stream too, and wondered what kind of embarrassing thing he would do.
Harry was right. Ron was really in the limelight today. The moment he saw the Heavenly Nine-Tailed Fox in the stands, he climbed onto the railing, took off his shirt, twirled it around, and shouted, "I want to marry you!" "I'll even let you take my child's surname!" "My dad can change his surname too!" "Please, just look at me..."
Then, crying his eyes out, Ginny dragged him back to the Gryffindor Common Room. Even now, the charm hasn't worn off, and he's still sighing and complaining in his dorm late into the night, lamenting that Ginny ruined his love and kept Seamus and Dean awake all night.
So the very next morning, Ron had two new nicknames. The Ravenclaw students called him "The Beauty Who Falls for Beauty," and the Hufflepuff students called him "The One Who Bends for Temptation." The Slytherin, however, were more direct. They made a banner overnight and hung it in the Quidditch stands, with the words "Gryffindor Lion in Heat" and "He even changed his father's surname for love." Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet took a picture of it and published it in the newspaper.
For a time, Ron didn't even dare to leave his house. He hadn't expected to become famous overnight in the Wizarding World, but this wasn't the kind of fame he wanted! Merlin's beard... who could save him...?
Soon, Molly's Howler arrived, in which she berated Ron, saying he had disgraced the Weasley family by making his father change his surname for a fox! His father was now called Arthur White at the Ministry of Magic because some clever person claimed to have checked ancient texts and found that the Qingqiu Fox Tribe bore the surname White, so no one called him Weasley anymore; they all just called him White...
Ron was scolded by Molly for a full half hour before the letter, which had Howler, finally made a face, stuck out its tongue, and shattered into tiny red scraps of paper, scattering red dust everywhere.
Ron clutched his hair, as if he were a Scabbers, crawling in dark corners. He no longer wanted to be anywhere with people or sunlight; his heart was dead, utterly dead...
That said, Pansy didn't believe Malfoy at all, and she tightened her grip even more. Malfoy could really be an Oscar contender; even though he was in so much pain, grimacing, he still stubbornly kept talking.
"I didn't... I didn't... Don't talk nonsense... Ouch, it doesn't hurt... Didn't you eat?... Ouch..."
Harry suddenly realized he no longer had any expectations for love. Being single was great, really great...
Kurama has become the new darling of the group. One minute she's running to Cho Chang's arms for a sip of Butterbeer, the next she's jumping to Daphne's side for a cookie, and then she's rubbing her face against Ka-jie's shoulder. She's overjoyed. As for Fa-jie, humph, she's not going anywhere. She just went for a bit and Fa-jie hugged and tormented her for ages! That pervert Fa-jie insisted on having a "suck" on her, almost suffocating her! I wonder how Su Yu manages to Tenten.
The Weasley twins were at another table, piled high with materials they'd acquired over the past few days. They were busy testing the uses and abilities of each item. Neville was sitting in a corner next to them, brewing some kind of potion. Cedric said Neville was brewing poison because he and Summers had sniffed it and said it smelled like it. Before he could finish his sentence, they both collapsed to the floor. Neville quickly explained that it was fine as long as you didn't lean in and smell it, but it was too late.
Early the next morning, everyone was awakened by the earth-shaking tremors. When they rushed out to check the situation, they saw a creature that looked like Pig. Its grayish-brown fur was rough and short, its limbs were thick, and its claws were not ordinary animal claws, but chicken claws, sharp and curved.
It was a Lili. Last night, Su Yu happened to build a house not far from its home. This kind of creature is naturally digging. When it woke up and found a building suddenly in front of its house, its first thought was definitely to tear it down.
The Lili was frantically digging around the villa, its two claws digging into the ground alternately, sending dirt flying everywhere, at an astonishing speed.
In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, it has already carved a ravine more than half a person deep into the hard Kitsuchi.
"Oh, Merlin's beard, I wish I had his energy so I could get to work first thing in the morning..." Malfoy had been beaten up by Pansy all night, and now his back was really sore. Just now when the earth shook, he was so frightened that his calves were still cramping.