"Does he seem... to know he's really cute?"
After lunch, during some idle chatter, Li Qiuxia keenly noticed a problem.
The little fox raised by Ah Qing seemingly knew just how adorable he was. Using his looks, he tricked treats from Ah Qing and then charmed Chen Peipei in the kitchen, carrying a bottle of iced cola upstairs...
Every move the little fox made could be captured as a photo with a top-level effect.
"It should be... right?" Ah Qing pondered, thinking about Xiaolan's usual behavior, and indeed felt that Xiaolan acted like he was deliberately being cute.
"What are you standing around for? Let's start the game."
Chen Peipei placed the dishes in the sterilizer, walked out of the kitchen, and with a smile, extended an exciting and daring invitation to play mahjong to the ladies sitting on the sofa.
During holidays.
The men gathered at one table to chat, while the women formed one or more tables to play cards and mahjong, making the room lively and buzzing. But Li Qiuxia, feeling awkward, sat down... she wasn't really into these activities.
"What? Did someone call me?"
The little fox poked his head out from the second floor, looking at the people playing mahjong on the first floor, his face full of joy.
Master Fortune Fox used all fours to quickly run down from the stairs into the dining room, jumped onto Chen Peipei's lap, and sat confidently at the position, his two paws on the table showing a confident smile:
"Ah Qing! Bring my iced cola up here!"
"Today, I, Mister An, need to prove my family status in front of the relatives, and show off to the aunties. Especially your aunt who always comments on my shedding fur; I'll pluck all the fur from her leather wallet later!"
"?"
Ah Qing saw the little fox at the table and slowly formed a question mark, looking at the little fox with black lines on her face.
Aren't you upstairs hiding cola? What are you doing here joining the commotion?
Though Ah Qing didn't want to speak of superstitions, Xiaolan indeed had a knack for luck.
It started from playing mahjong in the hotel, making Momo suffer period cramps.
Then helped Youyou with in-app purchases, which resulted in Youyou developing a reliance on the Lucky Fox Emperor. Numerous events proved one thing: Xiaolan is the chosen Lucky Emperor.
"He wouldn't make my aunt suffer period cramps, right?" Ah Qing thought with an odd expression, and at that moment, Chen Peipei, who had straightened her cards, was stunned, her eyes widening:
"Holy crap? This hand... is it even possible to hold this without shortening one's life?"
Ah Qing, who was watching the table, moved away from Aunt Yu Jingwen and came behind Chen Peipei to glance at the cards, her own eyes widening.
All the greens, reds, and whites are in the hand, two pairs, and hitting any one from the two pairs can give a big win.
This hand...
Is it really something a person can draw?
Ah Qing's mouth twitched, as if seeing her little fox jump onto the table like a martial arts master, striking a pose to challenge everyone, with a serious face.
He might as well speak out loud: "I'll be playing twelve full rounds!"
"Is it really that crazy..." Seeing the mother-daughter pair's exceptionally odd expressions and ridiculous comments, Yu Jingwen, her face lined with disbelief, sarcastically said while discarding a tile.
After one round of play.
"Won!"
"Won? Chicken win?"
"Big win..."
"Unbelievable! Not even two tiles in and a big win!"
Yu Jingwen widened her eyes, dumbfounded at Chen Peipei's incredible stroke of luck.
But Lord Fortune Fox, nestled in Chen Peipei's arms, gleefully patted the table, signaling to start the next round quickly.
Hurry, hurry, Lord Fortune Fox has plans tonight and still craves some Australian lobster for dinner!
The afternoon passed by.
Chen Peipei appeared utterly bored; as soon as she started, she could tell what she would win without even aligning the tiles: "Sigh... my luck today is unbeatable, should have flown to Treasure Island for a round."
Ansheng glanced at the time, hesitating, and mumbled to Ah Qing: "Ah Qing..."
"I've planned to go out shopping with friends tonight, might not be home for dinner, just leave the door open for me."
Chen Peipei, clearly lost in the allure of mahjong, was unlikely to cook tonight.
"Going out to have fun? Go ahead!" Seeing Xiaolan planning to go out with friends, Ah Qing readily agreed, letting the little fox go enjoy with his friends.
At the table, among the four players, three faces turned grim.
Li Qiuxia, not particularly adept at playing, bit down on her frustration, glaring at Chen Peipei for teaching her all the winning strategies.
Though only small stakes of ten to twenty cents, it had summed up to a loss of over two hundred.
"See you tonight～"
Ansheng jumped down from Chen Peipei's lap, humming quietly as he headed toward the front door.
As the little fox left, Chen Peipei, full of joy, casually discarded a tile.
"Kong!" Li Qiuxia immediately grabbed the ten thousand character tile, smoothly completing the action, and touched the last tile.
"Hmm..." Chen Peipei paused.
"Won." As Li Qiuxia touched the last tile, she brushed her fingers over it, delighted at her small win.
"Uh..."
Seeing this, Ah Qing asked her dad, "Dad, are we ordering takeout tonight? Mom here might still be playing for another four or five hours..."
Having won all afternoon, Chen Peipei obviously lost her momentum.
She wanted to cook, but the others wouldn't let her go.
"Huh? Is it that addictive?" Out in the yard, drinking tea and chatting with his younger brothers, Yu Zhenghong wondered with a perplexed face.
"It's probably... not about addiction anymore, right?" Ah Qing replied with a slightly nuanced tone.
......
"Heehee~"
Ansheng cheerfully climbed over the wall, making his way to the perimeter of Lin Ying's villa across the street, scaling the wall in a few steps and leaping into the garden, heading toward the house.
"Old Lin!"
Lord Fortune Fox raised a paw to greet Lin Qi, who was lounging in the garden, playing a game, smoking, drinking beer, and exchanging insults with others in voice chat.
Then.
Ansheng noticed someone inside; Feng Wenyu was sitting in front of the villa's entrance steps, leaning back against the wall, seriously looking at something on a bulky phone.
"Sneaking around in the corner, are you here looking at porn at Lin Ying's place?"
Mimicking a Border Collie's crouching stance, Ansheng crept stealthily along the grass before pouncing out, startling Old Feng.
"!?"
Feng Wenyu jumped back, instinctively reaching for his waist, but quickly recognized the intruder's voice, replying irritably:
"I'd rather it was porn..."
"But... unfortunately, it's not. These are lists of corporate spies that need investigating, details can't be disclosed." Feng Wenyu settled back to his original spot and said:
"Spies aren't just about stealing secrets. Some stay dormant, or work within companies, exploiting vertical supply chains to steal key business secrets or monitor activities."
These reports came daily, sifted by logistics, then distributed internally to assess whether further field investigation or law enforcement handover is needed.
"Tsk, boring..." Ansheng shook his head, disinterested in espionage.
"Oh, someone inside is looking for you, seemed like a makeup artist or something," Feng Wenyu recalled, telling Ansheng.
Just earlier, a group had come in with boxes upstairs saying they were looking for Lord Fortune Fox.
"Makeup artist?"