Two special agents from the Bureau of Special Affairs and a self-proclaimed "Little Red Riding Hood" spirit world detective left.
Yusheng took a gentle breath at the entrance and turned back to the living room.
"Here I thought you would be chatting for a long time. Didn't you have a lot of things you wanted to ask them?" Erin, who was watching TV, quickly turned her head.
"I mostly wanted to establish a connection with them—anyway, Hu Li has already been brought out. Other matters are not that urgent," Yusheng casually replied, his gaze landing on the coffee table.
On the floor, a food-laden fox girl sensed his gaze and looked up at Yusheng with a happy smile, "Benefactor!"
"You need to take a bath, and mainly change your clothes," Yusheng said with concern, glancing at the pitiful Hu Li.
This unfortunate fox had been trapped in a strange land for many years.
When she was first captured, she was still a child, and now her clothes looked like they were ripped from some long-dead soul.
It was clear they didn’t fit her, and they were almost in tatters.
She was also dirty, covered in mud.
Although there was water in that strange land, and she likely had opportunities to wash herself, she had been living in desolation far from civilized society.
Even her tail was in disarray.
Hu Li lowered her head to look at herself.
Perhaps she had grown used to her appearance, never considering what it would be like to leave that valley one day.
Hearing Yusheng's words brought back some distant memories and common sense to her mind.
She stood in a daze for a long while, as if she was just starting to remember how to speak again, finally beginning to think beyond a "beast's" mindset.
Right, she needed to clean herself and change clothes—she couldn't mess up the benefactor's clean abode.
She nodded vigorously.
Yusheng looked back at Erin.
The little doll's arms were still broken, and she looked quite miserable, but she seemed completely unaffected and was watching TV, laughing at a ridiculous variety show.
Yusheng couldn't help but speak up, "Should I fix your arms first?"
"Just take the fox to wash up; she definitely won't use anything from the bathroom," Erin waved her arms carelessly, "I'm not in a hurry; you can fix me later."
"Alright then, I'll be back to help you soon," Yusheng nodded and reached out his hand to Hu Li, "Come with me."
Hu Li stood up but hesitated, gazing longingly at the pile of food on the floor, as if she was afraid to leave it.
Seeing this, Yusheng laughed, "Don’t worry, the food won’t sprout legs and run away. You can eat again after your bath—Erin will keep an eye on it."
However, Hu Li still hesitated.
She glanced worriedly at the doll on the sofa watching TV.
Suddenly, she bent down and grabbed two cans of eight-treasure congee and two packs of biscuits from a plastic bag, stuffing them into her tail.
Only then did she turn around to face Yusheng.
Yusheng's smile lingered, but he stood there in a bit of a daze, processing what just happened.
It took him a few seconds to turn his head stiffly to look at Hu Li's big tail behind her.
"... Where did you hide those?"
Hu Li dug out the biscuits and eight-treasure congee from her tail, showed them to Yusheng, and then stuffed them back into her tail, blinking her big eyes at him.
Yusheng was startled, "You can use your tail like that?!"
"Uh-huh."
The fox girl nodded, looking as if she didn't understand what was so surprising about her actions.
Then Yusheng remembered something, "Didn't you shoot out a tail before...?"
"It's grown back now."
Yusheng was left puzzled, "…?"
His mind was filled with questions—so this is how fox spirits are?
Yet no one could answer his questions; Erin also didn’t know of any other fox like Hu Li.
Yusheng shook his head, putting those questions aside for now.
He pulled the fox girl and made their way to the bathroom located on the first floor.
"This is a water heater; you don’t need to worry about it for now. Hot water comes out from here. This valve controls the temperature; turn it left for hot water and right for cold. Pull it up to release water… The bathtub over here works the same way. The valve is here. This bottle contains body wash; you can use this sponge here to make bubbles—don’t squeeze too much. This bottle is for washing your hair… It should be able to wash your tail too."
Yusheng patiently explained the items in the bathroom to Hu Li, speaking slowly to ensure the fox girl understood before he moved on to the next item.
Even so, he doubted that Hu Li wouldn't end up flustered during her bath.
"Just make sure you know how to use the water. You can soak in the tub for a while. The towels and bath towels are hanging by the mirror cabinet, so remember to dry off before you come out."
Hu Li nodded enthusiastically.
"Before you wash, remember to take out whatever you just hid in your tail… Never mind, you can handle that since everything is packaged."
"Okay."
"I don’t have any girls' clothes here. I’ll lend you a set of my loose pajamas for now, and tomorrow I’ll buy you new ones at the mall."
"Okay."
Hu Li seemed to have run out of responses, nodding at everything Yusheng said.
At this point, Yusheng suddenly envied Erin for her calmness.
After explaining a few more things and letting Hu Li try the shower head for herself, he finally felt a bit more at ease.
He then grabbed a pair of his oversized pajamas and left them at the door before turning to walk out of the bathroom and heading back to the living room.
Erin was making an effort to crawl back onto the sofa with her broken arm.
"... What are you doing?" Yusheng asked.
"I fell off the sofa because I was laughing too hard just now," Erin awkwardly explained while struggling to crawl.
"Hey, stop just standing there! Come help me up!"
Yusheng stepped forward, lifting Erin and her frame effortlessly, "Alright, stop watching TV. I'm going to repair you."
Erin paused in surprise, "What about the fox?"
"She's taking a bath in the bathroom," Yusheng casually replied.
"I taught her how to use everything."
"Is she okay? She’s just shaken off hunger; her brain probably hasn’t recovered yet," Erin hung onto Yusheng's arm, glancing skeptically toward the bathroom.
"She won’t blow up the bathroom, will she…?"
As soon as Yusheng heard that, he hesitated, also feeling uncertain as he glanced toward the bathroom—now they could hear the sound of water flowing: "She should… be alright unless she suddenly shoots her tail out while washing."
"Forget about it, don’t overthink," Erin waved her arm dismissively, soon calming down.
"She’s not stupid. She’s survived in the wilderness for so long; she’ll adapt quickly—let's go upstairs. I need my arm fixed; it's inconvenient like this, even switching the channel is a hassle."
Yusheng nodded and led Erin up the stairs.
Once they reached the attic and turned on the lights, Yusheng carefully took down the frame from Erin's back and gently placed the little doll on the big table.
"You don’t need to be so careful; I’m not made of porcelain," Erin laughed, finding Yusheng's cautiousness amusing.
"You won’t accidentally break me."
Yusheng glanced at the jagged break on Erin's arm, which looked unusually frightening, "I can’t help but be careful; that break looks terrifying—does it really not hurt?"
"It doesn’t hurt! Just a little bit when it broke," Erin raised her arm to look at it.
"But now it does look a bit scary… hurry up and fix it."
She paused and began explaining: "The process is similar to when I was made, but we don’t need to make a torso—just the arm. The spirit infusion process is the same as before; I’ll guide you. After fixing the arms, we’ll do the legs. I have a few cracks in my legs, but they aren't completely broken yet. You need to activate the alchemical clay we treated to repair it, which requires more precision. It's best to use a scraper to smooth things out; that way I can save some effort..."
Yusheng listened to the little doll's explanation, waiting for her to finish before hesitantly speaking up, "Oh, by the way, there’s something I wanted to tell you earlier…"
"Huh?"
"The clay we bought last time is actually all used up," Yusheng opened his hand.
"We won’t find any at this hour."
Erin was taken aback, "…Why didn't you say that earlier! Why did you bring me up here to mess around?"
Yusheng then pulled out the lotus root he had bought last time from a nearby drawer…
The little doll’s eyes widened instantly, almost wanting to jump up (but she couldn’t because her legs were broken): "Hey, are you at odds with the lotus root? Didn’t we say… wait, why did you put the lotus root in the alchemical table drawer? You’ve been plotting this, haven’t you?"
"I was just curious if it could be used," Yusheng admitted he had a bit of a plan involved, but he considered it a spirit of scientific exploration—just like his initial research on how to cook the ‘Hunger Entity’ effectively.
"I thought I’d give it a try; this lotus root is quite expensive."
“Try your luck!” Erin glared at him with fierce red eyes, “Forget everything else, you need to add your blood to the materials before the spirit infusion. You could knead it into dough, but how are you going to…?”
Before she could finish her sentence, she saw Yusheng pull a syringe out of the drawer.
Erin: "... Hey, are you out of your mind?!"
(End of Chapter)