Chapter 58: Yu Sheng’s Spirit of Exploration
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
The two Special Affairs Bureau agents and the Spirit Realm detective—known as “Little Red Riding Hood,” who had been so unexpectedly working during her holiday—had finally departed. Yu Sheng stood by the front door, letting out a long, quiet sigh as if he were blowing away a troublesome wisp of fog. Then he turned and made his way back into the living room.
Inside, Irene, perched in front of the television, glanced over her shoulder at him the moment he entered. Her eyes were as bright as the screen’s flickering light. “I thought you were going to chat with them for hours,” she said, sounding slightly surprised. “Weren’t you full of questions to ask those people?”
Yu Sheng gave a small shrug, as if shrugging off a heavy coat he no longer needed. “I mostly wanted to get acquainted,” he explained calmly. “Now that Foxy is safe, all the rest can wait.” He let his gaze wander toward the coffee table.
There, sitting cross-legged on the floor, was Foxy, the young fox spirit, looking as if she had just discovered a whole new world. At the moment she sensed Yu Sheng’s eyes upon her, she lifted her face, her own eyes shining. “Benefactor!” she greeted him happily, her voice as light as a child’s laughter.
Yu Sheng smiled kindly, though he couldn’t help noticing that she looked rather ragged. “You really need a bath,” he said, straightforward but gentle. “And a change of clothes.”
It had been years—how many, exactly?—since Foxy had first been trapped in that Otherworld. She had been so young then. The clothes she had on now looked more like tattered scraps than garments. They might have once belonged to someone else altogether. Dirt smudged her cheeks and limbs, and though she must have done her best to rinse off in streams or puddles while living wild, the years had taken their toll. Even her tail looked a bit tangled and knotted.
At Yu Sheng’s words, Foxy glanced down at herself, as if noticing her worn state for the very first time. She seemed momentarily dazed, remembering how cleanliness used to feel before she was lost in that lonely valley. After staring blankly for a spell, she gave a determined little nod. Now that she was here, she understood that she shouldn’t dirty her benefactor’s home. She nodded again, more briskly this time, a spark of resolution in her eyes.
Yu Sheng then turned his attention to Irene. The tiny doll-like figure still had broken arms dangling awkwardly, giving her a rather pitiful appearance. Yet she didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. Instead, she was lost in a silly TV variety show, giggling without a shred of concern.
“Shouldn’t I fix your arms first?” Yu Sheng asked, sounding both amused and exasperated. He shook his head at the sight of her.
“Forget about me for a moment,” Irene said breezily, waving her stump-like arms as if it were nothing. “Go help the fox take a bath first. I doubt she knows how any of this fancy plumbing works. I can wait, really.”
Yu Sheng considered this, then nodded. “Alright, I’ll handle it soon enough. But I’ll come back for you afterward,” he promised. He stretched out a hand to Foxy. “Come with me.”
Foxy stood up but didn’t move right away. Her eyes darted nervously to the plastic bag of food on the floor, her expression torn. She looked as if leaving that precious treasure behind was the last thing she wanted to do.
Noticing her reluctance, Yu Sheng couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t worry,” he said kindly. “Your food isn’t going to sprout legs and run off. You can finish it later. Irene will keep an eye on it for you.”
Still, Foxy looked doubtful. She glanced from Yu Sheng to Irene. Then, with a sudden burst of resolve, she bent down and scooped up two cans of congee and a couple of packets of biscuits. Without so much as a blush, she tucked them right into her tail.
Yu Sheng froze, mid-smile, blinking in astonishment. He looked from Foxy’s face to her tail, as if he’d just seen someone pull a rabbit from a hat. “Where… how did you…?” he began helplessly.
In response, Foxy pulled the biscuits and congee out again as if to prove her point, then tucked them back in. Her large, innocent eyes blinked at him, as if this were all perfectly normal.
“You can use your tail like that?!” he asked, baffled.
“Yes,” Foxy answered simply, her tone suggesting that this was no stranger than breathing air.
Yu Sheng then remembered something else quite peculiar. “And didn’t you shoot out a tail once before?” he asked, still trying to make sense of what he’d seen.
“It grew back,” Foxy said plainly, as if tails were leaves that could sprout anew overnight.
Yu Sheng was stunned into silence. Perhaps being a fox spirit came with more peculiarities than he’d ever imagined. Irene, for her part, had no explanations to offer. She merely kept watching television, unconcerned.
With a weary sigh, Yu Sheng decided to put such mysteries aside for now. He led Foxy down a hallway and into a bathroom on the first floor.
“Alright,” he said, switching to a patient, instructive tone. “This is the water heater. You won’t need to fiddle with it, just know that it makes hot water. This valve changes the temperature—turn it left for hot, right for cold. Lift this handle to start the water. The bathtub works in much the same way, and its valve is right here. This bottle is body wash, and this sponge will help you lather, but be careful not to use too much. And this is shampoo—you can probably use it for your tail as well. Understand so far?”
Foxy nodded, her ears alert, as though she were memorizing every word.
Yu Sheng showed her the towels hanging by the mirror cabinet. “When you’re done, dry yourself thoroughly. You don’t want to catch a cold. And about the food you tucked in your tail—maybe take it out before you get soaked. But then again, it’s all sealed, so it might be fine. Do whatever feels right.”
“Got it,” Foxy said, nodding eagerly.
“I don’t have any girls’ clothing,” Yu Sheng went on, sounding apologetic. “I’ll lend you one of my sets for now, and tomorrow we’ll go buy you something that fits.”
“Got it,” Foxy repeated. She seemed to think that “Got it” was the best possible answer to everything he said. Yu Sheng couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy, wondering if she truly understood. He briefly envied Irene’s carefree attitude—at least the little doll didn’t pretend to be calm when she had no idea what was going on.
After going over the instructions one more time, Yu Sheng felt reasonably certain that Foxy wouldn’t cause a flood or blow up the pipes. He left to fetch her a set of his own pajamas, placed them outside the bathroom door, then returned to the living room.
There he found Irene struggling near the sofa, trying to hoist herself back up onto the cushions with her broken arms. She looked like a small child trying to climb a steep hill made of pillows.
“What are you doing?” Yu Sheng asked, giving a soft sigh at the sight.
“I laughed too hard and fell off,” Irene admitted with a laugh of her own. “Don’t just stand there—give me a hand!”
Yu Sheng chuckled and stepped forward. He lifted Irene—frame and all—back onto the sofa. “Alright, that’s enough TV for you right now. I’m going to fix you up,” he said.
Irene blinked, her crimson eyes wide. “What about Foxy?” she asked, craning her neck towards the sound of running water behind the closed bathroom door.
“She’s bathing,” Yu Sheng said. “I explained everything to her, so I think she’ll manage.”
Irene looked unconvinced. “She’s only just escaped the Hunger influence, isn’t she? Her mind might still be a bit muddled. What if she does something strange like shooting her tail off again? Wouldn’t that… cause trouble?”
Yu Sheng hesitated, biting his lip at the thought. He glanced at the bathroom door again, half expecting odd noises. Water splashed softly on the other side. “I mean… probably not,” he said at last, his voice uncertain. “Unless she gets the bright idea to launch her tail mid-shower.”
Irene shrugged it off quickly. “Well, no sense worrying about it. She’s not stupid. She survived in some wild place for who knows how long. She’ll be fine. Now take me upstairs and fix my arms. I can’t even change the channel like this!”
Yu Sheng had to grin at that. “Alright, alright.”
He carried Irene upstairs to the attic workshop, a space dimly lit until he switched on the overhead light. He carefully removed the picture frame that served as her backdrop and placed her onto a large table, handling her as gingerly as one might handle a delicate clock.
“You know,” Irene teased, “I’m not made of glass. You don’t have to be that gentle.”
Yu Sheng glanced at her broken, porcelain-like arms. “Hard not to be careful,” he pointed out dryly. “They look terrible. Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?”
“Only a tiny bit when they first broke,” Irene admitted, waving one broken arm stub. She cringed slightly at the sight. “They do look dreadful, though. Let’s just fix them, shall we?”
She took a serious tone then, explaining the process. “It’s just like making a new body, really. But this time, we only need arms. We’ll do the spirit infusion just as before. I’ll guide you. After we finish with the arms, we’ll tackle the legs. They’re cracked but not fully broken. We’ll need alchemical clay for that—just a bit, to patch things up. You have to activate the clay and make it pliable before shaping it. Take your time, use a spatula or something that can smooth it out properly. Got it?”
Yu Sheng listened closely and waited for her to finish. Then he cleared his throat. “Uh… about that,” he began, looking a bit sheepish. “We’re out of clay.”
Irene’s eyes went wide, and if she had intact arms, she would have thrown them up in frustration. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?! What’s the point of bringing me up here then?”
Without answering directly, Yu Sheng opened a drawer and produced a lotus root. Irene froze, her crimson eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“Are you serious?” she demanded, sounding as though Yu Sheng had just proposed building a house out of cheese. “I told you not to use that! And why in the world did you hide it in the alchemy table drawer? Have you been planning this nonsense all along?”
Yu Sheng’s face took on a slightly guilty expression, but also a curious gleam. “I’m just… interested in experimenting,” he confessed. “I want to see what happens. Think of it as research. And don’t forget, this lotus root was really expensive.”
Irene hissed in disbelief, her voice rising in pitch. “Research?! This isn’t just some cooking show, you know! Before we do any spirit infusion, we have to mix in your blood with the material. That’s easy with clay, but how exactly do you plan to manage that with a lotus root? You can’t just—”
She stopped short, staring as Yu Sheng calmly pulled a syringe from the drawer.
“Are you insane?!” Irene cried, utterly horrified.