"Mom, did you bring my health insurance card?"
Ah Qing, leading a little fox, arrived at the outpatient department lobby, waiting for Yu Zhenghong and Chen Peipei. The three of them went together to the payment counter to settle the hospitalization fees.
Ansheng lay on Ah Qing's shoulder, eagerly looking in the direction of the emergency room.
Although the emergency room door was closed, wishes were appearing on the wish list.
There was a wish from someone who got brutally hit by a Labrador's iron tail thirteen times in a row due to height issues, Tao Tao cried loudly.
There was another wish from someone who got chest injuries causing bleeding due to friction on their clothing while cycling, biting their teeth in pain.
Some idiot yelled "Waiter~" to the doctor, then ordered glucose with ice. The doctor secretly cursed.
Master Lucky Fox's mood gradually turned delightful, and his fluffy big tail started wagging.
"Although..."
"An Mou also wants to earn that Wish Power Value to happily increase the number of tails, but unfortunately, An Mou doesn't have that ability. Let modern medicine handle medical matters!"
Ansheng let out a joyful whimper.
"Xiaolan, your laughter is so sneaky!"
Ah Qing looked at the little fox perched on her shoulder, giggling, with a puzzled expression.
"Is it? An Mou..."
Ansheng showed a happy face, just about to fool Ah Qing when a sticky sensation stopped Ansheng's words in his throat.
A feeling of intuition instantly surged in his heart.
Ansheng, who was lying on Ah Qing's shoulder, turned into standing on Ah Qing's shoulder with two paws on Ah Qing's head, staring towards the west of Jiule City.
The little fox's sudden action surprised Ah Qing, Old Deng, and Chen Peipei, who were walking towards the parking lot.
Ansheng was also puzzled, not understanding how he ended up climbing on Ah Qing's head while talking.
A slight tremor came from the west side of Jiule City.
People standing on the ground suddenly felt a peculiar sense of dizziness in their heads.
Like car sickness on land.
The slight tremor came and went quickly.
"...Was that an earthquake?"
Yu Zhenghong was taken aback, scratching his head, but didn't care much about what just happened.
Earthquakes in the Xia Dong region are not common, but in the past decade or so, they happen once or twice a year, usually with a magnitude of only 2 to 3. The most direct feeling is that the tea in the cup shakes a bit.
However.
Master Lucky Fox's behavior of climbing high to give early warnings before the earthquake was quite novel to the family.
"An earthquake? Are there any seismic belts near Jiule City? Isn't the tremor usually from the direction of Treasure Island?" Ansheng questioned with a face full of confusion.
"It's fine, just an occasional event." Ah Qing stroked the little fox's head to comfort him.
A one-year-old fox has never experienced an earthquake, and feeling scared is normal.
The earthquake came and went quickly, without affecting Xia Dong people's daily life rhythm.
But some small animals were quite unlucky.
Snakes and mice nesting in their burrows rushed out upon sensing the earthquake, running onto the asphalt road.
The sun-baked asphalt road easily reached temperatures of sixty to seventy degrees.
Snakes, cold-blooded all their lives, had a rare chance to feel hot-blooded and started breakdancing on the asphalt.
The mice danced tap until they moved to the white speed bump and breathed a sigh of relief.
The white speed bump wasn't hot on their feet.
"Shoo, shoo, get back to the roadside!"
Master Lucky Fox stuck his head out of the car window, making all the little animals cosplaying as speed bumps on the road return home.
The scolded little animals could only brace themselves and walk home from the asphalt road.
"Eek—Don't come over here!"
Returning to the farmers' market next to Changxi Town, a girl wearing slippers ran ahead, her face full of terror, sprinting for her life without looking back, with a giant golden retriever, full of mud, following joyfully.
The golden retriever was joyful, frolicking with its owner.
The group of black deer strolled through the farmers' market, their faces full of silliness, and stuck their heads into a fruit stand, chewing on a fruit.
A begging team from the homeless shelter was wheeling and dealing in the farmers' market, selling pest control services.
"Changxi Town... is getting more and more lively." Master Lucky Fox remarked with emotion.
The pickup truck stopped in front of the old house, where Yu Zhengxi, Yu Zhengwen, Yu Jingwen, along with the three little ones and the corgi, were peering out.
"It's fine..."
Seeing Ah Qing bouncing back alive, Yu Zhengxi sighed in relief and gave Li Qiuxia a stern look.
Li Qiuxia showed a helpless expression.
There was a major law enforcement operation in Jiule City overnight, resulting in over a thousand arrests.
In the world, there are no absolute secrets; there should be emergency plans and safeguards.
Who knows if there will be collateral damage, but if something unexpected happens, a quick evacuation would be easier.
......
When Ah Qing returned home from the hospital, she immediately picked up the little fox and took him to the bathroom, cleaned him up, and then took a bath herself before getting ready to go out.
When Ah Qing was about to depart, planning to visit the float parade with Qiu Lingling, Yu Zhengxi called her.
"Hm? Uncle, what's this..." Ah Qing looked at Yu Zhengxi and Li Qiuxia with a puzzled face.
Both were neatly dressed, pulling a suitcase, looking like they were going on a long trip.
"We're heading back to the Imperial Capital. Could only drive back home earlier, couldn't get flights." Yu Zhengxi said, then took a red envelope from his pocket, handing it to Ah Qing with a smile: "Uncle is quite busy with work. Not sure if I'll have time off during the New Year, so I'm giving you the red envelope in advance."
"You must study hard, next year when you're interning at the Imperial Capital campus, Uncle will have a big surprise for you."
Receiving the heavy red envelope from Uncle, Ah Qing stared blankly at him.
"We're off. Don't tell your dad about the red envelope; the old man is so broke lately his underwear has holes." Yu Zhengxi waved his hand, not giving Ah Qing a chance to speak, and walked out the door.
The red envelope Yu Zhengxi took from his suit pocket wasn't an ordinary red envelope but rather a red paper-wrapped box.
It's thick enough to rival a brick, surprisingly heavy.
"What is this?"
Ansheng jumped up, clinging to Ah Qing's arm, curiously looking at the red envelope from Uncle.
"I don't know! This is the first time I've seen Uncle give such a red envelope; it used to be three thousand in cash."
Curious, Ah Qing sneaked to a corner of the yard to open the red envelope.
Inside was an exquisite wooden box, with some gold-painted words at the bottom right corner: [Safety Buckle]
"Huh?"
Ah Qing was puzzled as she opened the wooden box, spotting a wad of cash inside, around 10,000 yuan. At the bottom was a silken-wrapped rectangular object.
Ah Qing unwrapped the silk.
A black iron-colored, glossy surface, mother-of-pearl inlaid knuckle-duster appeared before Ah Qing's eyes.
The words [Use Well] were written on the knuckle-duster.
"This..."
With a face of comic disbelief, Ah Qing said, "This thing does seem quite 'safe' if worn on fingers..."
"Uncle... really likes giving strange toys, but it does seem like Xia Dong lacquerwork, with those shiny inlaid patterns..."
"?"
Seeing the knuckle-duster, Ansheng froze, opened his mouth to bite on it, applying some pressure.
But the knuckle-duster didn't budge, instead, it made Master Lucky Fox's teeth ache.
Ansheng stared wide-eyed at Ah Qing as she put the knuckle-duster back in her hand, an unrestrained "Whoa" slipped out.
Such solid metal products, Ansheng had only seen similar in his life—the Spiritual Particle Metal!
But Ah Qing's knuckle-duster was very exquisite.
It totally defied the knowledge that Spiritual Particle Metal could only be synthesized for rough processing.
"Bad fox!"
Ah Qing withdrew the knuckle-duster, pinching the little fox's nose as a punishment: "You can't eat this; if you did, we'd have to cut open your belly."
"Is eating the issue here? Your uncle is clearly the one with problems!" Ansheng retorted, looking towards the road outside the yard.
In the time it took to open the red envelope, Yu Zhengxi and Li Qiuxia had already driven away, nowhere in sight.