"......Aqing, what are you doing? Why did you bring back a wild fox?"
Seeing the fox Aqing brought in, Ansheng, with a small fox face, showed exasperation and immediately started complaining.
"Don't you like them, Xiao An?"
Seeing the little fox's strange expression, Aqing asked with a puzzled look.
"Don't be mad! It's just that they looked so pitiful, huddled up on a rock, that I thought of taking them to the Forestry Bureau. Besides, look, they even have a very cute team trick."
As Aqing spoke, she moved around to the front of the sofa and placed one of the little kit foxes on it, which whimpered, and the other two little kit foxes on the ground immediately started forming a fox ladder.
One kit fox lay on the ground, while another kit fox climbed on its back.
The kit fox on the sofa opened its mouth, bit the cheek of the little kit fox, and pulled it onto the sofa.
Then.
The two kit foxes on the sofa crouched on the edge, looking at the lone kit fox still on the ground.
The kit fox below, grasping the sofa, stood on tiptoes while the two on top worked together to pull it onto the sofa, merging the three little ones together.
"Whimper whimper—"
Once the three little kit foxes gathered together, they quickly ran toward the big fox in the house, whimpering joyfully.
"See! Aren't they super cute?"
Sitting next to Ansheng, Aqing patted the little fox's bottom, asking for his opinion.
"Just wait until they bite your bottom, then I hope you still think they're cute."
With Aqing on the left and caught between three little foxes on the right, Ansheng tried to keep his face straight, showing no expression and kept a stern face.
Although Ansheng's fox parents escaped quickly, there were still foxes in the forest from the same litter.
In the few months living in the forest, apart from having a deep hatred for plump and robust bamboo rats.
The most memorable thing was having a bunch of energetic little kit foxes clinging to him.
When foxes are normal, they seem aloof, but scratching their chin makes them happy.
And scratching a bit deeper will make them so pleased they expose their little bellies, kicking at your arm.
Foxes express their happiness and fondness by biting lightly.
Besides being chased and bitten in the butt by bamboo rats, Ansheng's butt was mostly nibbled by his own kind.
Domesticated pet foxes were still manageable.
But Aqing brought back some wild foxes, and Ansheng couldn't imagine how wild they would get tearing the house apart.
"Whimper, whimper, whimper!"
A kit fox squeezed into Ansheng's armpit, tilting its head and asking the big fox a strange question.
"Shoo, shoo, don't disturb my thinking, go bring me some provocative pictures from the internet."
"Whimper?"
Not understanding what the big fox said, the kit fox ran to the other side of the sofa armrest to join its two companions in examining the soft fabric sofa.
"Hey? No! You can't dig holes in the sofa!" Aqing exclaimed in shock, rushing forward.
"Whimper, whimper, whimper—"
Seeing the kit fox running ahead, Aqing hurriedly chased after in panic, while Ansheng whimpered with laughter.
Despite Aqing's various efforts to stop it, the kit fox managed to burrow through the non-woven fabric at the bottom of the sofa and squeeze inside, whimpering delightedly.
'Joyful yay! Woohoo~'
'Whimper, whimper, whimper~ My king, don't stop, hurry and continue, I'll run, and you chase—'
Aqing was flabbergasted, swallowing hard as she glanced toward Xiao An, who sat nonchalantly on the sofa, head held high with a super confident look.
"Trust me, Aqing!"
"Before they poop, you'd better prepare a big box with twenty pounds of cat litter in it."
Foxes themselves do not have a stench; instead, they have a strange fragrance, unless someone stuffs their nose into a fox's scent gland and takes a big breath, otherwise it doesn't smell bad.
But fox poop is notorious in nature. The so-called latrine explosion is not an exaggeration.
"......."
With a face of resignation, Aqing sat on the sofa holding the little fox, feeling the kit fox still bouncing inside the sofa, she instinctively looked at Xiao An.
"Boo hoo hoo....."
"Xiao An, you surely came here to repay a debt of gratitude, right?"
...
Although Aqing notified the Forestry Bureau, they still hadn't arrived by the evening.
The staff on the other end said all the Forestry Bureau staff and Forest Rangers were out on an emergency rescue mission. Currently, only a couple of cats were answering phones at the bureau.
They understood Aqing's urgency but had great faith in the professional knowledge of students from Xinxing Agricultural Science College.
They asked Aqing to take care of the foxes for a few more days, promising to return with a flag and a reward for retrieval in a few days.
Rescuing a category II protected animal is worth several hundred yuan each, and the value of the three kit foxes would barely cover the loss from the damage to the couch at the guest house.
"Aqing, I'm going out for a late-night snack, remember to put them on the treadmill for about five kilometers before you go to sleep, otherwise you'll have to deal with a rodent-sized creature while you sleep..."
At night, before going out, Ansheng glanced back at Aqing and Mo Yiqing inside the room, giving a couple of whimpering sounds.
"The little fox is going out again?"
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Mo Yiqing noticed the little fox swaggering out after messing with the spherical door lock, and it reminded her of last night's events. With a slightly peculiar expression and some curiosity, she looked at Aqing and asked:
"Aren't you curious what he's going out to do?"
"What's there to be curious about?" Aqing replied, puzzled. "Xiao An said he was going out for a snack; maybe he's planning to catch some rats in the guest house or grab a couple of spicy sticks to fill his belly?"
The little fox would report every time he went out and promised not to eat rat poison or dead mice from the road, and from the looks of things after meeting the kit foxes, Aqing had some confidence in Xiao An's self-sufficiency.
Especially after encountering the kit foxes.
Aqing even felt that with Xiao An's sensibility, cooking an eight-dish meal wouldn't be unusual in the kitchen.
"Is the little fox going out for a late-night snack?"
Mo Yiqing nodded lightly but remained puzzled and still curious whether the little fox was really going out for a late-night snack.
What kind of late-night snack could be good enough for the little fox to jump from the thirteenth floor balcony?
"By the way, Momo, what are you watching? Are you planning to buy an off-road motorcycle? You mentioned it when we climbed the mountain today..."
"A motorcycle? Why would I buy a motorcycle...." Mo Yiqing rolled her eyes, "You should know, the world's best KTM high-performance off-road motorcycle can always be found as an electric wheelchair downstairs at the hospital supermarket."
"I don't want to break a leg, I've been watching beauty videos and studying fashion."
"Huh?" Aqing showed an expression of misunderstanding. Momo's looks were so good that just a swipe of lipstick would make her look like she was wearing makeup, and she still felt the pressure?
"When we get back, I'm going to go wild with the styling." Mo Yiqing said matter-of-factly.
"Wow—"
Aqing looked on in amazement, exclaiming, "Can you even say something like that?"
"Creak, creak, creak—"
As the two chatted on the bed, they suddenly heard a creaking sound from under the bed.
Startled, Aqing and Momo leaned over the bed to look underneath, only to find the three kit foxes stacked together, chewing a piece of rail.
The one on top seemed to have bitten too hard, teeth deep into the spar, and was stuck.
Seeing Aqing poke her head out, the trapped kit fox waved its little paw at her, signaling for help.
Aqing: "........"
Oops, she was too caught up in the conversation and forgot to take the three little guys to the gym like Xiao An suggested before heading out.