Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Yu Sheng’s Spirit of Exploration

The two agents and the spirit-realm detective who called herself Little Red Riding Hood (holiday temp) left.

Yu Sheng let out a quiet breath at the door and turned back to the living room.

Irene, lounging on the sofa with the TV on, turned her head. “I thought you’d talk to them for hours. Didn’t you have a lot you wanted to ask?”

“I mainly wanted a connection,” Yu Sheng said, casual. “Now that Foxy is out, the rest isn’t urgent.”

His gaze drifted to the coffee table.

On the floor beside it, the demon fox girl sat guarding her food like a tiny, anxious sentinel. The moment she sensed him looking, she lifted her head and smiled. “Benefactor!”

“You need to take a shower,” Yu Sheng said, his concern mostly aimed at the state of her clothes.

Foxy had been trapped in an otherworld for years. When she’d first been trapped, she’d been a child. The clothes she wore now looked like something stripped off a dead person long ago—ill-fitting, ragged, filthy. Dirt streaked her skin. Even if she’d found water to wash with, she’d lived in the wilderness, far from anything civilized. Even her tails were clumped and matted.

Foxy lowered her head and looked at herself.

She’d probably gotten used to it. She hadn’t considered what leaving the valley would mean. Now, hearing Yu Sheng, distant memories and basic common sense slowly floated back up. She stared blankly for a long time, as if she were relearning how to be a person.

Finally, she nodded hard.

Right. She needed to clean herself. She needed clean clothes. The Benefactor’s den was too clean to dirty.

Yu Sheng looked at Irene.

The Little Doll’s arms were still broken and jagged, but she acted like it didn’t matter, laughing at the TV. Even a mindless variety show had her entertained.

Yu Sheng couldn’t stand it. “Should I fix your arms first?”

“Take that fox to wash first,” Irene said, waving her broken arms like it was nothing. “She definitely won’t know how to use half the stuff in the bathroom. I’m not in a hurry. Fix me later.”

“Alright,” Yu Sheng said. He reached out to Foxy. “Come with me.”

Foxy stood, then hesitated, casting a worried look at the food like she didn’t dare leave it for even a second.

Yu Sheng laughed. “Relax. The food won’t grow legs and run away. Shower first, then come back and eat. Irene will watch it.”

Foxy still hesitated. She glanced uneasily at the doll on the sofa.

Then she bent down, grabbed two cans of porridge and two packs of biscuits, and stuffed them into her tail. Only then did she walk to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng’s smile stayed on his face, but his whole body stiffened. It took him a beat—two beats—before he slowly turned his head and stared at the thick tail behind her.

“…Where did you hide that?”

Foxy pulled the biscuits and porridge out, showed him, then stuffed them right back in. Then she blinked up at him, wide-eyed and earnest.

Yu Sheng stared. “You can use it like that?”

“Mm.” Foxy nodded, as if it were obvious.

Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something else. “…Didn’t you shoot a tail earlier?”

“It grew back.”

Yu Sheng’s mind filled with question marks.

Was that how demon foxes worked?

No one could answer him. Irene didn’t know any other fox like Foxy, either.

Yu Sheng forced his face into neutrality and shoved the questions aside. He guided Foxy into the first-floor bathroom.

“This is the water heater. You don’t need to worry about it—hot water comes out automatically. This valve controls hot and cold. Left is hotter, right is colder. Lift this to start the shower.” He demonstrated, then pointed again. “The bathtub works the same way. The valve is here.

“This bottle is body wash. Use the sponge to foam it up. Don’t squeeze too much.

“This is shampoo.” He hesitated, then added, “It should work for tails too.”

Yu Sheng explained everything carefully, slow enough that she could follow. He made sure she nodded before moving on each time. Even so, he suspected she’d still be clumsy when she actually tried it alone.

“Anyway,” he said at last, “as long as you know how to use water, you’ll be fine. You can soak in the bathtub if you want. Towels are hanging by the mirror cabinet. Dry yourself before you come out so you don’t catch cold.”

Foxy nodded hard. “Mm-mm.”

“Before you shower, take out what you hid in your tail.” Yu Sheng sighed. “Actually… never mind. It’s all packaged. You can handle it.”

“Mm-mm.”

“I don’t have clothes for a girl your size. I’ll bring you a set of mine for now. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the mall and buy new ones.”

“Mm-mm.”

Foxy looked like she’d forgotten how to do anything except nod.

Yu Sheng found himself suddenly envying how carefree Irene could be.

After making Foxy turn on the shower herself once, Yu Sheng finally relaxed a little. He left a loose set of pajamas by the door, then returned to the living room.

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

Yu Sheng stared. “…What are you doing?”

“I laughed too hard and fell off,” Irene said awkwardly, kicking a little as she tried to hoist herself up. “Hey. Don’t just stand there. Help me.”

Yu Sheng lifted Irene—frame and all—with one hand and set her back on the sofa. “Alright. Stop watching TV. I’m going to fix your body.”

Irene blinked. “What about that fox?”

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

“Can she handle it?” Irene clung to his arm and shot the bathroom door a doubtful look. “She just got rid of hunger. Her brain might not be fully back yet. She won’t blow up the bathroom, will she…?”

Yu Sheng hesitated at that, listening to the sound of water splashing. “It should… be fine. Unless she fires a tail halfway through.”

“Forget it,” Irene said, instantly carefree again. “She’s not dumb. She survived the wilderness for years. She’ll adapt.” She flicked a broken arm. “Upstairs. Fix my arms first. This is miserable. I can’t even change channels properly.”

“Okay,” Yu Sheng said, and carried her up the stairs.

In the attic, he turned on the light, removed the frame from Irene’s back, and set the Little Doll on the large table.

“You don’t have to be that careful,” Irene laughed at his slow movements. “I’m not made of porcelain. You won’t crush me.”

Yu Sheng stared at the white, porcelain-like break in her arm with a grimace. “It’s not that. It’s just… your broken parts look horrifying. It really doesn’t hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Irene said, lifting her arm to inspect it. “When it first broke, it stung a little. But yeah… looking at it now, it’s scary. Hurry up and fix it.”

Then she started explaining the process, guiding him step by step. “It’s basically like making a body, but you don’t need to make the torso. Just the arms. The spirit-infusion process is the same as last time. I’ll talk you through it. After the arms, we do the legs. I have cracks in my legs too, but they aren’t fully broken. You need to activate the clay after alchemy processing to patch them. That part takes care—use the scraper to shape it properly, so I don’t have to waste extra effort…”

Yu Sheng listened, then hesitated. “By the way… there’s something I meant to tell you.”

“Huh?”

“The clay we bought last time is already used up,” Yu Sheng admitted. “At this hour, we probably can’t buy more.”

Irene’s eyes went wide. “…Why didn’t you say that earlier? Then why did you drag me up here?”

Yu Sheng opened a drawer and pulled out two lotus roots he’d bought earlier.

Irene’s eyes widened so far they looked like they might pop out. “Hey! You’re obsessed with lotus root, aren’t you? Didn’t we already say—wait. Why is the 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 said, completely shameless. “Scientific exploration. Like when I studied how to stew hunger entity meat so it tasted better. Research.”

“Research my ass,” Irene snapped. “Besides, before spirit infusion, you have to add your blood into the material. You can knead flour into dough, sure, but with lotus root, how are you going to—”

She cut herself off when she saw Yu Sheng pull a syringe from the drawer.

Irene stared at him in horror. “…What is wrong with you?”