"Hey! I'm not saying you have an extraordinary talent, just imagining if the little fox could speak human language, and also go out to work and earn money to support a family, how would you feel?"
Momo was full of black lines on her face, raised her hands, and pinched Ah Qing's cheeks into a round, cute look, asking.
"Xiaolan has always been working, hasn't he? You've seen his big piggy bank." Ah Qing looked helplessly at Momo, who started talking about foxes as soon as she returned.
Xiaolan wasn't mute, how could a fox not speak? The little fox was very talkative, always chirping while running, looking smug and pointing out directions.
As for working, in order to borrow money for her cousin's bride price, she still owes the little fox thirty-eight thousand.
In Ah Qing's worldview, animals talking was normal; the fact they couldn't speak was abnormal and needed a hospital visit.
"...Huhu speaks Mandarin, what do you think?" Momo asked with a face full of black lines.
"Hmm..."
Ah Qing looked puzzled, crossed her arms, frowned and pondered for a moment before saying: "Sounds pretty good. If the little fox could talk, then... he could livestream by himself!"
"However, Momo, I feel you're quite weird. Can't be sending Huhu to preschool because he's smart, right?"
"I taught him before, but Huhu scolded me for being a bad person." Ah Qing said with slight embarrassment.
"Goodness! You really taught him?" Momo stared at Ah Qing, with a dumbfounded expression.
The root cause of the little fox speaking human language.
Couldn't it... be here?
While Momo and Ah Qing were chatting privately, Lingren stealthily cuddled replacement clothing in the dormitory, sneaking to the balcony next to the little fox, opening her mouth to ask:
"Um... do you have time tomorrow night? I feel like there's a misunderstanding between us, like, me often running around naked after bathing in the dorm, and hugging...
"These are normal social interactions between girls. I'm actually a proper lady, I can explain it."
Lingren glanced quietly at the room, lowered her voice and leaned close to the little fox's ear.
At the base and on the car, because there were many people present, Lingren actually had some things she didn't get to say to the little fox.
But she felt necessary to give an explanation, otherwise if the little fox casually speaks out, wouldn't it be over?
"Have time, yes, there's time... but, what do you want to take me to do? Let me remind you, Huhu doesn't have a credit card to pay the bills, more expensive than a cola, you better step back now..." Ansheng said with a suspicious face, looking at Lingren who was feeling guilty.
"Just kidding, would I make Huhu pay? Relax, just come shopping with me!" Lingren said confidently, patting her chest, preparing to take Huhu out to sort some things.
"Eek～"
Ansheng nodded gently, squeaked softly, turned around to walk out and prepare to nestle in Ah Qing's arms.
Lingren also stood up, holding clothes in her arms, preparing to enter the bathroom for a bath, only to suddenly think of a small matter before entering.
Lingren paused her steps, looked with a puzzled face towards the small tea tree and the zoo on the tree crown, and asked in a low voice:
"Are you guys... Spirit Beasts? Am I guessing right?"
"....."
The small tea tree and the zoo, long before Master Fuli spoke to Lingren, had already stuck to the wall, looking terrified, fearing Master Fuli would silence them.
Now, hearing Lingren ask.
The small tea tree extended a branch, and the zoo simultaneously gestured frantically, indicating: I'm not, don't speak nonsense, we never betrayed the master.
"Got it, the cockroach theory!"
"When a Spirit Beast is discovered at home, it often suggests there are more unidentified ones around."
Seeing the tea tree trembling, and even the zoo sitting down with a terrified expression on the trunk. Lingren paused her breath, rubbed her forehead, preparing to bathe.
The little fox speaking, is quite cute, especially when it's gesturing.
But thinking of the zoo speaking, Lingren felt her head slightly ache.
"Oh, Xiaolan, in the evening, Mom sent us a WeChat video saying she saw a big rat dancing in the old house's kitchen, does it seem normal to you?"
"Hmm? It should be considered normal, right? After all, rats finding a huge chunk of meat in an empty house, much like a human lost in the desert finding an oasis. Put yourself in its shoes, you'd probably dance better than it."
Ansheng looked at the phone screen, hesitated, and confidently explained to Ah Qing.
This rat...
Wasn't it the one seen near the drain before? How could it have gotten so big and turned into an albino rat in a few days?
...…
The next day, noon.
Ansheng nestled in the dorm, lying sideways, with a blanket covering half his body, scrolling through musical videos.
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening rang outside, Ansheng paused the video playback, poking his head out to look.
Momo and Yuyu entered from outside, and then they immediately closed the door.
"Phew... you almost scared me to death." Seeing the arrivals' faces, Ansheng breathed a sigh of relief, took out the beef jerky hidden under the pillow and said:
"Welcome home, do you want some beef jerky from Tang You's drawer? It's made from family yak meat, I specially told Old Tang to moisten it so it wouldn't break my teeth."
"That stuff's too stuffing, I don't want it..." Momo shook her head to refuse the fox's kind offer, took out a phone from her pocket, placed it in front of Ansheng and asked:
"Just earlier, a person claiming to be a doctor from the Mine Hospital added me on WeChat, telling me to remember follow-up visits, or to regularly go to Master Fuli's house for shots."
Momo was a bit puzzled, saying to the little fox: "I know Master Fuli, it's a pun on Xia Dong's name."
"Ah Qing's dad even called you Master Fuli, but what place is the Mine Hospital? I don't recall ever visiting there or being examined..."
Momo, knowing about Spiritual Particles, had watched Master Fuli's speech video, even signed a confidentiality agreement on Wang Qiqi's instructions, naturally doesn't count as an outsider.
Some of Momo's personal matters definitely needed Momo to handle herself; the Security Bureau is very busy now, and nearly ninety percent of Chang'an City's bureau staff is deployed at the Dragon Man Ruins, there's no time to help Momo with injections.
As Momo had undergone gene modification, the latent genes were activated by chance, constantly accumulating Spiritual Particles, until they reach overload and burst out at once.
It's somewhat like a disease; but Momo does need to regularly inject Spirit Particle Potion.
Adding Momo to WeChat was the Security Bureau's way to remind her of upcoming injections, every middle of the month, she would need to visit the bureau, or find Master Fuli to inject a unit of Spirit Particle Potion.
"Oh..."
Seeing the WeChat chat interface, Ansheng's face showed a sudden realization, and said with a funny expression: "It's no big deal, just kids getting shots ready for you."
"The previous hospital you went to was unreliable, leaving some after-effects untreated, didn't you get knocked unconscious on the balcony earlier?'
"Just fooling around, it wasn't a balcony fall; you turned into a giant moth flying away, I chased you down for a while, then dragged you to the hospital for inhibitor injections...."
"Big..... Big what? Giant moth?"
Momo's face showed an astonished look, raising her hand to question Ansheng with a big question mark.
"You have a second phase! Super cool!"