Chapter 283

Chapter 284: Irene is fired up!

Foxy came downstairs with a guardian chicken perched on each shoulder, sat at the table, and waited politely for the food. Irene stood on the tabletop, staring hard at the two sidekick chickens on Foxy’s shoulders.

Both chickens, eyes slightly crossed, stared right back at the small doll on the table. The air between them felt like a showdown of equal smarts.

Irene suddenly said, her eyes narrowed: “I think they’re hostile to me. I can see the bad thoughts in their eyes.”

Foxy answered at once, very serious: “No way. Bai Qie and Yan Ju are super well behaved. They usually sleep in my tails all day, and even when I let them out, they never fight.”

Irene glared and shot back: “Please, that’s obviously because they can’t handle the weird stuff you feed them and pass out. No one knows how your chicklings turned out like this, but the root cause has to be that pile of Immortal Arts and those ‘spirit-rich’ trinkets you mess with as a Nine Tailed Fox. Just thinking about it makes me lose it. It’s a miracle those two are still alive after your feedings knocked them out three days out of five.”

Foxy blinked, then started thinking. A moment later she clapped: “So that’s it. I always wondered why they slept so long after every meal.”

Irene stared: “You mean they really do black out three days out of five?!”

Foxy waved a hand, confident: “Even Spirit Beast Metamorphosis is hard, not to mention they started as farm chickens. Some hardship is normal. Either way, I’ll keep them safe. I’m actually great at raising Spirit Beast Celestial Birds. Back in class, I was the team lead for the small animals group. The two Mystic Plume Sparrows behind our school were fed by me.”

She lifted her shoulders and glanced at her guardians: “Right? I take good care of you, don’t I?”

Bai Qie and Yan Ju gave a prim little nod.

Irene was startled: “They really understand human speech? They look so dumb though.”

The words had barely left her mouth when Bai Qie and Yan Ju sprang into the air. Each dove like a hawk, pecked, and flipped the little doll flat on the table.

Irene didn’t even react at first. She rolled once, then exploded with anger and leaped up to brawl with the two chickens, shouting as she swung: “I told you they had it in for me!”

Foxy jumped up too, grabbing Irene to pull her free while still clarifying the facts: “But you did insult them first.”

Yu Sheng had just finished a stir-fry in the kitchen when he heard the commotion. At first he thought it was the usual Irene and Foxy banter, but halfway through it sounded wrong. He cut the flame and ran out, only to see the little doll pinned to the table by Bai Qie, getting pecked on the head, while Foxy wrestled Yan Ju and stuffed it back into her tail.

Yu Sheng froze, speechless: “…”

After he finally got the chaos under control and figured out what happened, he looked at the doll, who was puffing her cheeks and fixing her hair, and said with a helpless face: “So you insulted them, then you fought the chickens, and in the end you still lost?”

Irene hopped in place, mad: “You didn’t have to stress the last part!”

She added fast: “And what do you mean I lost to chickens? Since when do good chickens take off with lucky clouds when they launch and bring lightning when they dive? You try fighting that.”

Yu Sheng could not help being impressed.

Foxy lowered her head, thinking Yu Sheng was mad because he stayed quiet: “I’ll discipline them later, I promise. They just started their transformation and don’t know the rules yet.”

Yu Sheng waved it off, cheerful: “It’s fine, it’s fine. Let’s eat first. I’ll bring the dishes.”

Foxy shot up at once: “I’ll help!”

Yu Sheng pushed the Fox Maiden gently back into her seat and said: “You wait here. If I let you carry a dish, you won’t make it to the kitchen doorway before you have to come back and wash the dishes. If you carry food, I’m not eating tonight.”

Foxy’s ears drooped: “Oh.”

A moment later, a full table of dishes filled the room with steam and smell.

Irene didn’t need to eat, but she always claimed a seat at mealtime. Standing on the table, eyes wide, she asked: “Wow, what’s the occasion? Why are we eating so well?”

Yu Sheng grinned: “The Special Affairs Bureau sent the reward money, both for discovering Mistbound City and for rescuing the citizens. And I just got word that the placement subsidy for Fairy Tale was approved too. That one will take a bit to arrive, since it’s a big amount and some paperwork has to go through the council. Anyway, we won’t be short on money. We should celebrate.”

Irene clapped happily, then paused and asked: “Wait, when did you buy the groceries?”

Yu Sheng said casually: “While I was cooking. If I found something missing, I popped over to the market to get it. And this big pot of rice is from the Special Affairs Bureau cafeteria. I borrowed the pot from their window too, and I’ll return it later.”

Irene stared, stunned for a long beat before squeezing out: “Your Door Opening is really next level.”

Foxy had no time to comment. Her head was already buried in the pot.

Luckily Yu Sheng had snatched out one bowl of rice in advance, or that whole pot might not have been enough just for Foxy.

When the meal was nearly done, which was when Foxy started licking the bowls, Irene suddenly spoke after spacing out on the table for a while: “Right, Yu Sheng, make me another body.”

Yu Sheng had been quietly enjoying the cozy scene of his home’s fox immortal licking bowls. He looked up, surprised: “Huh?”

Irene said, serious: “We said before that if we had the chance, we’d make me a new body. We pulled a lot of good materials from the Special Affairs Bureau.”

Yu Sheng nodded: “True. Why bring it up now?”

Irene answered with a straight face: “Make it more battle ready. If possible, make it normal sized.”

Yu Sheng was taken aback: “Because you lost to the chickens?!”

Irene’s stern face cracked. She pointed at Yu Sheng’s nose, hopping mad: “Who said it was because of that? Do you really think I’m that petty?”

Yu Sheng didn’t have the heart to nod, so he kept a straight face and answered in the most tactful way he could: “Yes.”

The little doll glared and shouted, beyond frustrated: “It’s because I lost to that C Buckle. Humiliating, so freaking humiliating. I’m a ball-jointed doll and I couldn’t beat a C Buckle.”

Yu Sheng sighed: “Is that really the point? Also, that Artificial Saintess wasn’t just C Buckles. She had a lot of complex mechanisms too, like that self-detonating lid.”

Irene jabbed his arm with her tiny hand and argued: “See, we both have grudges. I lost, and you got tricked. The root cause is the C Buckle. That thing is dangerous. We only met one, but its combat power beat many Entities and it could even be produced in small batches. What if we run into it again next time, or two of them, or someone worse than a C Buckle?”

Her rare serious look made Yu Sheng match her tone.

She sat cross-legged on the table edge, looked at Yu Sheng, then glanced at the Nine Tailed Fox still focused on licking bowls, who clearly wasn’t listening.

She said, counting on her fingers: “Your body grows stronger every day, and you’re getting better with those uncanny abilities. Foxy is already strong and learns fast. Now she even raised two sidekick chickens, which is kind of a surprise, but still. She can fight and will only fight better.”

She pointed at herself: “My body is rebar. Tough, yes, but not tough enough. It barely covers battlefield survival. When I fought that C Buckle, my reaction speed and offense were clearly lacking. Strictly speaking, I had no offense at all.”

Yu Sheng nodded: “Right. Your head isn’t even as long as the Artificial Saintess’s fingernail.”

Irene sprang up and headbutted Yu Sheng’s chin: “Yu Sheng, you jerk!”

Yu Sheng yelped, which made Foxy across from him stop licking for a second. He rubbed his chin and gave in: “Okay, okay, keep going. Actually, no need. I get it. You want a precision shell to cover your combat gap.”

Irene planted her hands on her hips and stared him down like she wanted to drag every C Buckle doll in the world down with her: “Yes. This time I’ll guide you through a higher-level Soul Imbuement Rite. We’ll use the best materials, the best frame and fill, and patch every loophole that could mess up the rite. I want to show the power I should have. I’m telling you, I’m really strong. A real Alice’s Doll shouldn’t lose to some knockoff mass-produced weapon made by a cultist.”

As her grudge leaked out again, Yu Sheng didn’t tease her. He reached over and smoothed Irene’s hair.

He smiled: “The Special Affairs Bureau won’t figure things out anytime soon. We’re free anyway. Let’s make an Irene Pro Max.”

Irene squawked: “What kind of name is that!”