"What are you thinking, I've got leggings on—pah! And that's not even what I was trying to talk about..."
Momo froze and replied on reflex, but quickly came back to her senses, spat a "pah," and rolled her eyes:
"What I'm about to say is related to a new world, sure, but it's not a world that needs you to stick your head into. Besides, Lingren is still watching from the side—if I really wanted to do something, I wouldn't do it right in front of her, would I!"
"Right..." Lingren's expression turned subtle; she raised her hand and looked at Ah Qing as she solemnly promised.
"Then... what's happening now?" Ah Qing looked a bit confused and turned to Momo, who had already taken off her outerwear, to ask.
"I'll transform for you and directly point out your thesis topic, so I don't have to explain for half a day later."
In just sports bra and leggings, Momo looked at Ah Qing, pulled out two shots of "adrenaline," and stabbed them straight into her own fair thighs.
Under Ah Qing's confused gaze, after taking two units of the potion, Momo did not enter her Aphro form, but directly skipped stage one and went into stage two.
On top of Momo's head, something gradually bulged up; a pair of black fox ears stood tall, twitching nimbly.
And because the dosage was enough, a fox tail also grew out of her previously tail-less butt.
Two fluffy black fox tails extended out, stretching the leggings a bit and revealing a hint of spring scenery.
"Ta-da—"
Full of smugness, Momo raised both arms high, spun in a circle in front of Ah Qing, stuck her butt out, and the two long fox tails waved at her playfully.
"Huh???"
Ah Qing felt her legs go weak and plopped onto the suite's sofa. She let out an "ah," staring dumbfounded at the transformed Momo, temporarily at a loss for words.
It wasn't that Ah Qing was too scared to speak; it was that she had way too many things she wanted to say deep down, but didn't know where to even start for the moment, so her brain just hard-crashed.
"Don't just sit there going 'huh,' come over and touch it." Momo plopped down onto the sofa, shoved her head in front of Ah Qing, her two tall ears poking at Ah Qing's stunned cheeks.
Ah Qing only felt her cheeks itching, her head hot, and her whole body flushing red from head to toe—her CPU was severely overloaded.
"Me too!"
Already dying of envy, Lingren pounced onto the sofa as well and started stroking the Fox Lady's big fluffy tails.
Momo wasn't stingy either; she stretched her body out, pillowed her head on Ah Qing's lap, laid her legs across Lingren's thighs, arched her back for a long lazy stretch, and said with a big grin:
"So, Ah Qing, are you shocked or what? The fox at your house hasn't started changing yet, but I already have."
"This is so amazing, so absurd..."
With a bit of buffer time, and after personally feeling how soft and smooth Momo's fox ears and fur were, Ah Qing spoke in utter disbelief: "Don't tell me... what they taught us in bio about reproductive isolation was wrong? And your ancestors actually ran into the legendary 'fox repays a kindness'..."
What she was seeing and hearing in front of her eyes was just too bizarre, completely overturning Ah Qing's worldview.
She tried to use what she'd learned to parse it, and based on Momo's natural beauty, her knowledge of biology, plus the Strange Tales of Liao Zhai compilation, came to a conclusion.
Reproductive isolation is a lie.
Momo's ancestors had a "fox repays a kindness" encounter, so Momo was born this gorgeous; otherwise, what was happening right now was really too hard to explain with "common sense"...
Of course.
Ah Qing also knew that her own ability to understand animal speech wasn't normal, but that thing was something she was born with—probably her mom did some especially mystical stuff while pregnant with her.
But Momo's whole Fox Lady transformation had zero signs beforehand; her bloodline just suddenly awakened out of nowhere.
"What nonsense are you spouting, our ancestors did not have such a wild past..."
Momo complained with a face full of black lines, totally baffled as to what Ah Qing's brain was doing, that she'd immediately jump to her ancestors having some unspeakable secrets with foxes.
There aren't even any foxes in the Lingnan Region; where exactly were her ancestors supposed to go find a fox to repay a kindness?
"What I just showed you is only to better support what I'm going to tell you next."
Momo rolled over in Ah Qing's arms, sat up, and spoke with a strange expression:
"To be honest, even I didn't know I could turn into a Fox Lady before two days ago. You should remember the night three days ago, when I rushed back in a hurry and carried Lingren off right when she was about to go out on a date, right?"
"Back then I said I was asking Lingren to help me kill cockroaches in my rental..."
"But that night, what I actually discovered was that there's a spirit-beast organization on campus, and there are teachers and students mixed in it, forming an illegal society."
Momo began telling the story: she and Yuyu had originally just been curious about what Huhu did every day when he went out.
Then they discovered the "Scratch-Off Octopus," and that little house hidden in the woods behind the cafeteria, and then the doggies talking about a mountaintop gathering where the Fox Immortal cast spells and preached.
At first, Momo dragged Lingren along, called the police in advance, planning to report the illegal society, earn some extra credits, and, being bold and skilled, go eat some melon while they were at it.
But what happened next was completely beyond their expectations; the whole thing spiraled out of control.
They discovered a hidden world.
And in that new world, they actually had a very high-status fox teacher to guide them.
Although Momo felt that was a bit of an out-there way to put it, without the little fox, even if they came into contact with the "Spiritual Particles Revival," they would've just been sent back with a non-disclosure agreement and a gag order from the Security Bureau.
Not to mention the Spirit Particle Potions they got later, and the hands-on guidance from a biological pest-control expert.
"Our school... actually has an illegal society?" Ah Qing looked at Momo, all confused:
"Are you saying that group of illegal-society people are actually researching how to turn humans into furries?"
"Not exactly. What I'm saying is, your little fox at home is actually the boss of that illegal society. He gave me dozens of bottles of Spiritualization Potion; just jab one in and I can turn into a Fox Lady. Right now, if I grab the anti-collision beam on my e-bike, I can literally lift my whole scooter..."
Momo shrugged with a wicked grin, then twisted the knife a little for Ah Qing.
Yup.
That super badass society I just mentioned? It's actually the result of your little fox's side hustle and grinding outside.
So, are you shocked speechless yet?
"Eh?"
Ah Qing froze, popped out a question mark and slapped it onto Momo's cheek. Just when her brain had cooled down, it crashed again:
"What's this got to do with Xiaolan again? How could the little fox possibly be organizing an illegal society?"
Momo just smiled without answering, pulled out her phone, and put it in front of Ah Qing, playing a video.
Master Fuli stood on the podium, clenching his fist, facing the mic as he shouted about the "Era of Spiritual Particles Revival."
Down below the stage, one cultivator after another sat cross-legged on meditation cushions, listening to Master Fuli's speech. Soon after, the cultivators erupted into a mountain-and-sea roar of cheers, yearning for the new era Master Fuli had declared.
"Oh..."
"So the little fox has been outside this whole time, doing these illegal, rule-breaking things! You scared me, I always thought he'd secretly have a few litters and one day bring them to me to babysit..." Ah Qing let out a sigh of relief after watching less than thirty seconds of the video.
Hearing Ah Qing's sighing commentary, this time it was Momo and Lingren's turn to put a big question mark on her.
"Wait... did you not notice your little fox speaking standard Mandarin on the stage? Like, textbook-standard Mandarin."
"Your fox can talk, okay!" Momo looked at Ah Qing and吐槽'd.
"Huhu can talk—sure, that's kind of weird—but is having cultivators in our world not weird? Since cultivators exist, how could a talking fox possibly be considered unreasonable?"
Ah Qing wore a thoughtful expression as she laid out her thoughts to Momo.
"Still, that little fox is really something. Since he can speak human language, why didn't he say so earlier? That's so distant of him."
Momo and Lingren stared at Ah Qing, dumbfounded, as if they were watching an immortal descend to the mortal world.