"Hey! Friend, could you give me some space, I often encounter people trying to take advantage on my walks. Right, can you press the button for the third floor elevator for me, thanks!"
Ansheng walked out of the chairman's office and headed to the office on the sixth floor.
The staff of the Hailinglong Club weren't working at their stations; instead, they all rushed to the windowsill and looked out toward the rear parking lot, discussing the safe that had just crashed there.
Such a big safe falling down even caused the luxury cars in the parking lot to trigger their alarm sirens.
Trying to avoid attention was impossible.
The observers weren't only the staff on the sixth floor; even those having deep massages on the fifth floor and playing cards on the fourth floor rushed to the window, stretching their necks to discuss whether the blackout and earthquake were related.
The culprit causing the blackout and the shake at the club was now squatting at the elevator entrance, raising its fox head to look at the elevator floor display, wagging its tail.
Beside it, a staff member also waiting for the elevator excitedly squatted down, lightly tickling the little fox's chin.
"Master Fox, whose family are you from? Want to come home with sister?"
"Ying ying..." Ansheng looked at the young lady who had clearly just entered society recently, whimpered twice and raised a hand in a polite refusal: "Sis, I'm not falling for that."
"Just now when I asked you to press the elevator for me, you were too busy playing with your phone to pay me any attention. Now, you don't even want to spare a pure meat sausage for me, and you want to coax the fox home? There's no such easy thing happening."
"Just stroke the fur, don't do it for too long; otherwise, later Ah Qing will smell it when I get home."
The little fox politely declined the conversation, walked along the wall avoiding the bustling crowd watching the scene, and returned to its own private room. Old Chen and Yu Zhenghong, wearing noise-canceling headphones, were completely unaffected by the external influence, sprawled out asleep in the massage chairs like dead pigs.
Old Chen and Yu Zhenghong, one went up the mountain to pick tea, and then came back to help with the tea green processing, while the other had no experience at all, running back and forth between various administrative departments, managing to hit over 50,000 steps on his pedometer.
"Ying ying ying!"
Ansheng jumped onto the table, wanting to wake Yu Zhenghong and Old Chen to go home together; it's already past one, and if they go back any later, there won't be anyone to help assist with bathing tonight.
It was only then that Ansheng, hearing the buzzing on the table, accidentally saw Yu Zhenghong's phone screen.
There were two missed calls noted as Chen Peipei's WeChat, and four or five WeChat messages were sent in succession.
But the last WeChat message didn't contain any substantial content, just a smiling emoji.
"Tsk tsk tsk... someone's probably not going to sleep well tonight, huh?"
The little fox, worried about driving safety, placed a paw on the phone screen and swiped left to clear the WeChat messages and missed call notifications off the lock screen.
Later, Old Deng still has to drive, and since he just woke up, it'd be better not to look at those messages to avoid affecting driving safety later.
"Ying ying ying!"
Removing the headphones from Yu Zhenghong, Ansheng patted the obliviously sleeping Old Deng.
"Huh?"
Waking up, Yu Zhenghong looked slightly confused, his gaze dazedly scanning his surroundings as if recalling something.
"Phew... Paying a premium is different, you sleep soundly without realizing." Yu Zhenghong glanced at the phone on the table showing the time, hesitated slightly, then looked at Master Fox sitting on the table, waking the deeply sleeping Old Chen: "Village Chief, time to go home."
In the past, seeing the current time Yu Zhenghong would usually add another hour and continue sleeping away.
But seeing Master Fox wanting to go home, Yu Zhenghong decided against extending the session.
"Hmm?"
Old Chen woke up groggily, yawned and said: "Alright, then let's head back! You might as well stay over at mine tonight; you can chat about the tea green with the Tea Master, they're about to start airing it."
"Alright."
Yu Zhenghong tidied up, taking the little fox to the Hailinglong front desk to settle up.
However, after stepping outside, both Old Chen and Yu Zhenghong vaguely sensed an odd atmosphere.
Everyone seemed to be talking about the blackout and quake.
"Is there a typhoon?"
Approaching the front desk, Yu Zhenghong took out the VIP card Old Chen had given him earlier, opened WeChat pay, ready to settle up before staying over at Old Chen's for the night.
"Hello sir, your expenses have been waived..." The front desk cashier stated with a full smile, respectfully returning the VIP card and receipt to Yu Zhenghong.
"Over four thousand in expenses... waived?"
Yu Zhenghong's face looked odd, subtly glancing at the VIP card and receipt in his hand, and at Old Chen who seemed to avoid suspicion by standing far away, he silently murmured in his heart: "Our village chief really is remarkable."
"The person giving this VIP card to the village chief must either be some business tycoon from Jiule City or... ahem."
Yu Zhenghong put away the receipt, leading Master Fox outside.
Old Chen asked how much he'd paid earlier, planning to transfer the amount via WeChat to cover Master Fox's share.
Yu Zhenghong waved his hand, quietly informing Old Chen about the VIP card waiving expenses.
Old Chen was stunned, covered in perplexed expressions.
Waived? A VIP discount card can waive charges? There's something odd about this, right?
Are you sure you're not using this as a means of social exchange?
Yu Zhenghong took out the receipt, and sure enough, there's a line drawn through, making all expenses zero.
...
Driving a pickup, Yu Zhenghong returned from the city to Changxi Town.
Seeing the second-floor lights still on at home, Yu Zhenghong didn't go inside. He placed the little fox in the courtyard, watched it squeeze through the window gap inside, then shut the door, driving Old Chen back home and staying over at Old Chen's house for the night.
"Ying ying?"
Returning to his room, Ansheng immediately saw Yu Xueqing lying on the bed, phone screen bright with lessons on traffic volume issues and how to avoid bans and prohibited words.
Sleeping while watching online courses, Ansheng quietly climbed onto the bed, paused the course and turned off the phone screen's brightness, then left the room.
"Too bad... Ah Qing's asleep, otherwise I'd like to chat with her complaining about the ridiculous costs and operations at Hailinglong Entertainment City."
"Where have you seen anyone rub a fox and still expect the fox to pay? Isn't this begging while kneeling?"
Seeing Ah Qing asleep, Ansheng quickly ran upstairs to ask Mo Yiqing for a favor; although he's now nimble, Ansheng really doesn't want to be huddling in the bathroom grooming fur strand by strand, hoping Mo Yiqing could help bathe him.
Regarding feeling embarrassed, Ansheng completely lacks that psychological burden.
Wanting to pet the fox whenever at home but not willing to clean the fox spotless, there's no such easy deal, come out and help me bathe!
"Ying ying ying!"
Ansheng called out directly outside Mo Yiqing's temporary gym.
"Hmm?"
The lock clicked, and Mo Yiqing opened the room door, dressed in a black lace home outfit, her skin flushed all over, translucent beads of sweat hanging even from her pale legs, crouching down with a strange look to see the little fox noticeably home earlier than usual.
Steaming hot Mo Yiqing extended a slightly damp arm, smiling as she spoke:
"What? The little fox wants to work out too?"