"Hiss... It's a bit chilly!"
Walking out of the house, Ansheng immediately felt the ambient temperature was probably in the teens, plus the howling cold wind from the grassland, making the perceived temperature approach single digits.
However, he didn't really feel cold. The fluffy, snow-white long fur on his fox body was perfect for keeping warm.
The stark temperature difference between day and night on the grasslands made Ansheng feel a bit sentimental inside.
Before he knew it, it was just a month away from his birthday!
"Doot doot doot—"
Ansheng reached for the flower bed at the villa, rummaged around, and pulled out a phone watch to call Lin Bingyun.
As soon as the phone's "doot doot" sounded, Lin Bingyun quickly answered the call.
"Master Fuli, are you planning to go out?"
"Yeah, I heard that recently in Potou City, there's been some trouble with the Outer mice, so I'm planning to check it out."
Just as Ansheng started speaking, a white light lit up at the street corner, and a Black Knight Raptor headed straight for Tang You's villa. Ansheng was stunned, with a look of surprise, as he watched Housekeeper Lin drive up:
"So... fast?"
"The hotel we're temporarily staying at is only two kilometers from the village entrance." Lin Bingyun glanced behind from the driver's seat, and in the back seat, Ba Mountain Mosquito looked at Lin Bingyun with a puzzled expression.
After a brief moment of eye contact between the two.
Ba Mountain Mosquito seemed to recall something, with a sudden look of realization, pushed open the car door, first opened the front passenger seat, then crouched down to lift Master Fuli, and took the black-skinned rabbit to place in the front passenger seat.
After arranging Master Fuli, Ba Mountain Mosquito sat back in the rear seat.
"My Lord... I'm learning human language, almost there, just learning how to curse other's moms."
"Locating enemy moms is hard, but I'm trying." Ba Mountain Mosquito reported his learning progress to Master Fuli.
Ba Mountain Mosquito could speak human language, it's just that his speech logic and fluency were quite problematic.
And speaking requires dialogue to be smooth.
"... I like the way you address me, but your human language isn't quite right."
Master Fuli remarked sarcastically.
Ba Mountain Mosquito calling him "My Lord," although still odd, was better than starting with "dad" or "father."
"Housekeeper Lin, etiquette... I'm not fit for etiquette class, it undermines His Excellency Father's authority."
Ba Mountain Mosquito stuttered, "You are the Fuli Daddy of Ba Mountain, and when no one's around at night, I call you dad very loudly, I understand etiquette, witty."
Ansheng glanced at Lin Bingyun.
Driving, Lin Bingyun remained silent, as there were things she found hard to explain.
For some reason, the common language of Xia Country, when spoken by Ba Mountain Mosquito, often rearranged into strange ambiguities.
"At least... it's speaking more fluently." Lin Bingyun thought, trying to defend herself with a serious expression.
"..." Master Fuli took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, and waved his hand helplessly.
"I trust you."
"An honor." Lin Bingyun replied.
The Black Knight Raptor drove into the sheepfold, where another pickup truck was parked on the dirt road in front, both of the same brand but with different customizations.
"Here?"
Tang Lian, who hadn't returned home for dinner, was lying in the driver's seat playing on his phone. Seeing the light in the rearview mirror, he squinted and looked towards the driver's seat of the pickup truck behind.
"Master Fuli, are we starting now?" Tang Lian poked his head out of the car window, asking back.
"Yes!"
"Also, didn't you say you had a tank ready? As a fox this big, I've never experienced the thrill of bombarding treasonous rebels, where'd you hide the tank?"
Master Fuli spoke calmly, but his tail behind him was already wagging.
In the driver's seat, Lin Bingyun knew from Master Fuli's demeanor and actions that he wasn't genuinely interested in bombardment.
He... just wanted to play.
Having experienced transforming into Fox Lady, Lin Bingyun gradually understood Master Fuli's thoughts and also why Miss Lin enjoyed transforming into Fox Lady.
Aside from the 'Lady' aspect, transforming into Fox Lady genuinely filled one's mind with a wealth of whimsical and free-floating ideas, bringing immense joy.
"Uh..."
Tang Lian was taken aback, mouth slightly open, wanting to tell Master Fuli himself.
Bombardment... nothing doing.
Not to mention that the tank barrel has a lifespan, and every shot wears it down. For dealing with infantry, the tank is most efficient with machine gun sweeps, or by simply running them over...
"Master Fuli, your suggestion is not bad..."
"But the borrowed tank's main cannon is sealed, I suggest machine-gun sweeps, grenade blasts, and running over with tracks." Tang Lian offered a compromise to Master Fuli.
"Isn't running over infantry with a tank illegal?" Master Fuli asked, his face full of curiosity.
"From the day tanks were developed, they've existed to efficiently kill infantry." Tang Lian said, with a slightly odd expression.
Hearing the word "illegal" from a spirit beast, it felt rather novel.
"I see..."
Master Fuli nodded gently, indicating for Tang Lian to walk ahead and lead the way.
Tang Lian started the vehicle, heading toward the city.
At the border between Northern and Outer regions, although there were some lapses as the Security Bureau shifted focus to the Da Xing'an Ridge Region, the current times were special, with large drones constantly surveilling the border, and original sentries standing guard.
Even if enemies sneak in through special methods, avoiding overt and covert guards, they can't escape the drones.
As soon as a drone captures footage, and it doesn't match the database's facial recognition, an alarm goes off, calling in woodcutters and forest rangers to come and scan-check personally.
"Master Fuli, according to the list, there's someone hiding in the house to our left, but it's uncertain whether they're enemies like honey badgers or disaster victims displaced by the earthquake."
From the phone came Tang Lian's voice, and to the left of the road lay a row of single-story houses.
Red brick and blue tiles, facing a courtyard with a flat, elongated glass window in the living room area, surrounded by pitch darkness. The exterior walls of the cottages are worn and the yard is dilapidated, overgrown with weeds, showing that over twenty houses are clearly uninhabited.
"Can't tell?"
"If you can't differentiate, beat them up first. Do they have the right for trespassing Xia Country's territory?"
Though disaster victims surely warrant sympathy, it's no excuse for trespassing another country's land. In Master Fuli's simple moral view, sparing them would harm the security of the Northern Region and its people.
Master Fuli turned over onto the car roof, reaching out towards the pickup's back seat, and beckoned: "Bring up my Gravity Tenderizing Hammer Pro!"
In the back seat, Ba Mountain Mosquito thought for a moment, then first handed over the black-skinned rabbit to Master Fuli.
Gripping the rabbit's rump, Master Fuli glanced at the rabbit in his hand, somewhat stunned.
The black-skinned rabbit looked at Brother Fuli with a bewildered face.
"Well, it's not that bad..."
"Go on! Northern black-skinned rabbit!" Master Fuli, with a peculiar expression, elegantly tossed the black-skinned rabbit into the residential house as if playing bowling.
"My Lord~"
Ba Mountain Mosquito looked up at Master Fuli on the car roof, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Giving the rabbit to the My Lord was meant as a wish for the My Lord to comfortably sit on a fluffy chair, magnificently watching him clear away all obstacles blocking the My Lord's path.
But...
Why did dad throw the chair away?
"Crash—"
The sound of shattering glass rang out, followed by a strange wailing from within the residence. A humanoid grassland wolf blasted straight up a hundred meters into the sky, as if propelled by a rocket engine.
The grassland wolf looked terrified, pants soaking, drawing a circular waterline across the sky as it spun around.
"Wow..."
Master Fuli looked up, amazed, at the wildly spraying grassland wolf.
"Tell me if you're afraid of heights! Why resort to performance art? Wetting yourself in public deserves a hammering."
In the vehicle, Tang Lian and Blade Wolf Sheep shared a mysterious smile as they watched the spectacle of items flying out of the house through the window.
Ah, this scene felt all too familiar.
Why does it seem like I've seen it before, tsk tsk tsk...