Chapter 058

Chapter 58: Yu Sheng’s Exploratory Spirit

The two agents from the Special Affairs Bureau and the self-styled “Little Red Riding Hood,” a Spirit Realm Detective working a holiday job, left. Yu Sheng let out a quiet breath at the doorway, then turned back to the living room.

Irene, who was watching TV, turned her head at once: “I thought you would talk for a long time. Didn’t you have a lot you wanted to ask them?”

Yu Sheng said casually: “I mainly wanted to get in touch with them. Since Foxy is already out, the rest isn’t urgent,” and his eyes fell to the side of the coffee table.

Sitting on the floor guarding a pile of food, the Fox Maiden sensed his gaze. She looked up at Yu Sheng with a bright smile: “Benefactor!”

“You need a bath, and mainly a change of clothes,” said Yu Sheng, glancing with concern at the pitiful Foxy.

This unlucky fox had been trapped in the Otherworld for years. When she first got stuck there she had even been a child. No one knew which dead person she had stripped her current clothes from; they were clearly the wrong size and now almost nothing but rags. She was filthy, caked with dirt. The Otherworld had water, so she probably had chances to wash, but she had lived in the wild mountains far from any civilized place. Even her tail was matted into clumps.

Foxy lowered her head and looked at herself.

She had grown used to this state and had never thought about leaving that Valley someday. Hearing Yu Sheng’s words now, old memories and common sense slowly returned to her. She stared blankly for a long time. Just like she had been relearning how to speak these days, her mind finally began to step away from a “beast” state.

Right, she needed to wash and change. The benefactor’s home was so clean; she must not make it dirty.

She nodded hard.

Yu Sheng looked over at Irene.

The little doll’s two arms were still broken. She looked pretty miserable too, but she acted like she felt nothing, laughing her head off at a dumb variety show.

Yu Sheng couldn’t bear it: “Should I fix your arms first?”

Irene waved her stumps without a care: “Take that fox to bathe first. She definitely won’t know how to use the bathroom. I’m not in a hurry. Fix me later.”

“Alright, I’ll come help you as soon as I can,” said Yu Sheng, holding a hand out to Foxy, “come with me.”

Foxy stood, then hesitated, staring at the food on the floor as if she didn’t dare leave it.

Yu Sheng laughed when he saw that: “Don’t worry, the food won’t grow legs and run away. Eat after your bath. Irene will watch it for you.”

Even so, Foxy hesitated. She glanced at the doll on the sofa, then bent down, grabbed two cans of eight-treasure porridge and two packs of biscuits from a plastic bag, stuffed them into her tail, and only then walked over to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng’s smile froze. He stood there dazed for a moment, not sure what had just happened. Two or three seconds later, he stiffly turned his head to look at Foxy’s big tail behind her.

“Where did you hide it?”

Foxy pulled out the biscuits and porridge to show him, then stuffed them right back into her tail. She blinked her big eyes at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng was stunned: “You can use it like that?!”

“Mm,” the Fox Maiden nodded, as if this were only natural.

Yu Sheng thought of something else: “Didn’t you fire off a tail earlier?”

“It has grown back.”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

[So Demon Foxes are like this?]

No one could answer his question. Irene didn’t know another fox like Foxy either.

Yu Sheng shook his head, pushed those question marks aside, took the Fox Maiden by the hand, and led her to the bathroom on the first floor.

“This is the water heater. You don’t need to touch it. Hot water comes from here. This valve controls hot and cold: left is hot, right is cold. Lift this to make the water come out. The bathtub works the same way, and the valve is here. This bottle is body wash. Use the sponge to make foam; you don’t have to squeeze too much. This one is shampoo. It should work on your tail too.”

Yu Sheng explained the bathroom items carefully and slowly. He didn’t move on until the Fox Maiden nodded that she understood, but even so, he suspected she would still be clumsy while bathing.

“As long as you know how to run the water, you’re fine. You can soak in the tub for a while. Towels and bath towels hang by the mirror cabinet. Before you come out, remember to dry off so you don’t catch a chill.”

Foxy nodded hard: “Mm-hmm.”

“Before you bathe, remember to take out the stuff you hid in your tail… actually, do whatever you think is best. They’re all sealed anyway.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I don’t have women’s clothes here. I’ll bring you a set of mine for now. Tomorrow I’ll go to the mall to buy you new ones.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Foxy seemed only able to keep nodding. Whatever Yu Sheng said, she nodded.

Yu Sheng was worried. He suddenly felt a bit envious of Irene’s carefree attitude.

After a few more reminders, and after letting Foxy try turning on the shower by herself, he finally relaxed a little. He set out a loose set of his pajamas by the door, then left the bathroom and returned to the living room.

Irene was struggling to climb back onto the sofa with her broken arms.

Yu Sheng: “What are you doing?”

“I laughed too hard and fell off the sofa,” Irene said, embarrassed as she crawled, “hey, don’t just stand there. Help me up.”

Yu Sheng took two steps forward and lifted Irene together with her frame: “Alright, stop watching TV. I’ll go fix your body.”

Irene blinked: “What about the fox?”

“She’s bathing by herself,” said Yu Sheng, “I taught her how to use everything.”

“Can she do it? She just got free of Hunger. Her head hasn’t fully recovered, right?” Irene hung from Yu Sheng’s arm, glanced toward the bathroom with doubt, and muttered, “She won’t blow up the bathroom, will she…”

Yu Sheng paused and also looked that way, uneasy. Water was already rushing inside: “It shouldn’t come to that. Not unless she suddenly fires a tail mid-bath.”

“Forget it, don’t overthink,” said Irene, waving her stump, her worries already melting, “she isn’t stupid. She survived in the wild for so long. She’ll adapt fast. Upstairs, upstairs. Fix my arms first. It’s really inconvenient. Even changing channels is a pain.”

Yu Sheng agreed and carried Irene upstairs.

In the attic, he turned on the light, unstrapped the frame from Irene’s back, and carefully set the little doll on the big table.

“No need to be that cautious. I’m not made of porcelain,” Irene laughed at his careful movements.

Yu Sheng glanced at the porcelain-white breaks on her arms with a strange look: “It isn’t me. Those fracture edges look terrifying. Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?”

“It doesn’t. When they first snapped there was a tiny bit of pain,” Irene raised her arm to check, “but yeah, it does look scary… hurry and fix it.”

She paused, then started giving instructions: “The steps are like when you made the body, but you don’t need a torso now. Just make the arms. The Spirit-Infusion is the same as last time. I’ll guide it. After the arms, fix the legs. I have several cracks, but they haven’t fully broken. You need to activate the alchemy-treated clay for patching. This part takes care. Use a scraper and shape it well so I can save some effort…”

Yu Sheng listened, then spoke with a bit of hesitation: “There’s something I wanted to tell you…”

“Huh?” said Irene.

“We’re out of clay,” Yu Sheng spread his hands, “and at this hour we probably can’t buy any.”

Irene froze: “Why didn’t you say so earlier! Then why bring me up here?”

Yu Sheng pulled a lotus root from the nearby drawer.

Irene’s eyes bulged, and she nearly jumped, though her legs kept her from it: “Hey, you just can’t leave lotus root alone, can you! Didn’t we already say… wait, why did you stash lotus root in the Alchemy Bench drawer! You’ve been plotting this, haven’t you?”

“I’m just curious whether it can work,” Yu Sheng admitted he had planned a little, but he called it scientific curiosity. It was like when he studied the best way to stew the meat of a Hunger Entity. “Let’s try it. This lotus root wasn’t cheap.”

“Try your grandpa!” Irene’s red eyes burned. “Also, before Spirit-Infusion you have to add your blood to the material. You can knead blood into dough, but how are you going to put it into a lotus-”

She stopped mid-sentence because Yu Sheng had pulled out a syringe.

Irene: “Are you serious!”

[This guy is hopeless.]