"Xiaolan! Don't sleep, Sister Qiqi found..."
Ah Qing, holding her phone, rolled off the electric tricycle and sprinted toward the dorm, her face full of surprise, completely different from yesterday's worry and gloom, as she pushed open the dorm door.
In the dorm, Ansheng was lying on Ah Qing's bed, flopped on his side on the pillow, snoring away. He vaguely heard someone outside calling his name, but under the huge inertia of sleep, he instinctively shrank deeper into the covers.
"Ying..."
The little fox let out a soft whimper, shoved his head under the pillow, and covered his sharp ears that could hear all directions.
"Eh?"
Seeing the white fluff squirming there, Ah Qing, both exasperated and amused, lifted the quilt, grabbed the fur on the fox's rump, and dragged the little fox out from under the pillow's protection.
"Xiaolan, don't sleep. Sister Qiqi said they might've found your biological parents."
"If you still don't get up, I'll jab your butt with the potion!"
Ah Qing climbed onto the bed and shook the unwilling-to-get-up Ansheng for quite a while, like a tiny boat in a raging storm.
"Where'd you even find them? Back then it took me a full day just to run out of the mountains."
Ansheng opened his eyes, a bunch of black lines on his face, and kicked Ah Qing's thigh with his hind legs, signaling her to stop shaking. No matter how she shook, she wasn't going to shake this Huhu to death.
"But that Huhu looks exactly like you, especially the personality… no, I should say, what you inherited is one hundred percent the same, the temperament is all in the same bloodline—both like to act cute."
Ah Qing pulled the little fox into her arms, set him on her lap, and opened a WeChat video for him.
The Red Fox in the video was very skilled at begging for food. When it saw people in the scenic area, it didn't rush over. Instead it hid in the grass to observe in secret, and only after confirming that none of the tourists in front were a threat or some heaven‑defying maniac—
It shot straight out of the bushes and bumped its nose against a girl's long boots, let out a soft "ying" and then "pa-ji"—flopped over on its side on the ground.
Then came a whole combo of whiny little "ng-ng" noises, a fierce assault on the clear-eyed girl's gaze.
The girl was startled and hurried to help it up. The Red Fox's nostrils flared as it used its snout to nudge at the girl's bag.
Its expression was basically saying: you're done, you knocked poor Huhu over, and there's no getting up again without at least two egg-yolk pies.
Having completed its scam, the Red Fox darted back into the forest, proudly carrying its spoils in its mouth.
"See? They look alike, right? Sister Qiqi said the Security Bureau over there took one look at this internet‑famous Huhu and felt it's like eighty percent likely it has something to do with you." Ah Qing said excitedly.
Judging by the Red Fox's flashy moves, even if the one over there wasn't Xiaolan's parent, it had to be a close relative.
"…Even though my dad and I aren't close, that Red Fox obviously has nothing to do with me."
After watching the WeChat video, Ansheng half‑squinted his eyes and let out a long yawn.
"We Huhu are naturally timid. Under normal circumstances, our style is: if you can beg, don't steal; if you must steal, better to whack someone over the head and rob them outright."
"That Huhu over there, though it's one of our Fox Race in Xia Country, has nothing to do with yours truly, An. It's more like… how to put it… a school‑edition Huhu."
Ansheng's ability to spot loyal vs. traitor at a glance wasn't great, but that North China subspecies Red Fox in the video clearly grew up around humans, totally unafraid of people, and had even mastered a full set of scam‑cuteness techniques.
Judging from its habitual bag‑nudging behavior, its original owner was most likely a girl—and one who liked stuffing snacks into her backpack.
"Eh? Really not alike?"
Ah Qing scratched her head in confusion, looking back and forth between the video and Xiaolan's face, utterly puzzled.
Alike… it was way too alike. Even the Security Bureau members all said it looked like him, yet Xiaolan insisted they'd found the wrong fox.
"I never act cute. I usually just offer myself up directly."
"Think about it! The fox is cute, people pet the fox, the fox gets comfy pets and tasty food, people get to pet something cute. It's obviously a win‑win cooperation, why bother with the extra theatrics?"
Ansheng spoke with absolute conviction.
"Mm… that kind of makes sense." Ah Qing thought about it and felt the little fox really didn't have any logical problems there.
Huhu just needs to stand there with its chin slightly raised, and it can naturally hook away a person's soul—why bother smashing its own nose into people like a professional scammer?
Plus, according to Xiaolan, if you ram your nose too much, the color might come off and never get fixed again.
"Then… Xiaolan, there's something I don't know if we can negotiate?" Ah Qing nodded lightly, then looked at the little fox with a face full of eager interest.
"Mm? What is it? Who do you want dead? Say a name and I, An, will tie my own hands and lie down on the opposite bed, then arrange eight hundred Security Bureau executioners at night."
Lounging on Ah Qing's lap, Ansheng chuckled and looked at Ah Qing's flushed face, as if she had something hard to say.
"It's just… can you act cute for me? Or, promise me you'll take the Spirit Particle Potion every day." Ah Qing asked.
"Oh…"
Ansheng thought for a moment, rolled over, rested his chin on Ah Qing's thigh, looked up with big eyes, and let out a weak little "ng-ng" as he whimpered:
"The human… fox world is raining, and fox can't handle it well."
"When you're not home, fox is very good, no wrecking the place, no mischief, fox hugs your shoes and watches the door."
"!!!"
Ah Qing froze, a whole forehead full of exclamation points, staring blankly at Huhu, as if her soft heart had just been sharply twisted by something.
"That's so cruel! That's not acting cute, that's straight‑up pitifully lodging a complaint at me."
"Bite! Bite big chunks! Today I officially authorize Huhu to turn into a stapler and chew all my shoes to pieces!"
"Wuwuwu… I'm skipping class tonight. I'll stay in the dorm and go 'shopping' with Huhu. I'll hold the umbrella for you and make sure the rain doesn't get your fur wet."
Ah Qing, looking all wronged, hugged Huhu. She knew Xiaolan was bullshitting—there was no way he stayed home all day hugging her slippers waiting for her to come back.
This damn thing, the minute he wakes up he strolls off to the cafeteria to get food, and after that he has to buy a Coke.
But…
Just imagining herself in class outside while Huhu lies on her slippers sighing, staring hopefully at the door and letting out "ng-ng" calls, she just couldn't take it.
"Waaa—Xiaolan, your life is so tragic! Don't move, I'm going to jab you twice right now so you can become a true fruit of cultivation as soon as possible."
"Wait! Ah Qing, what are you doing! Ying..."
Ansheng looked horrified and tried to scurry away, but with Ah Qing's guilt and pity flaring up, she had no intention of letting the little fox off the hook.
Ah Qing pounced and pinned him down, her tears rubbing into the fur on the back of the little fox's neck.
Ansheng was baffled. "Ah Qing, don't cry. Everything I just said was a lie. Actually, when you're not home, I use Tang You's computer to play games."
"Or I go rummage through Momo's snack box. That bag of spicy beef tendon that went missing last night, I admit I stole it."
"If I'm really that bored, I'll run to the school gate and prank your classmates. Remember how you were wondering why there was a roast suckling pig at the dorm entrance before?"
"I scammed that. He asked me whether his future would be in a public institution or as a civil servant."
"I told him he didn't show respect to the Immortal Master, so he was destined to be a labor dispatch worker, with a monthly salary of three thousand eight. Out of that, three thousand would be paid in fake silk quilts, the rest in grain and cooking oil…"
"When he heard me speak human language, he nearly pissed himself."
"Pfft…"
Ah Qing, who had just been feeling sorry for the little fox, couldn't hold it anymore when she heard Huhu spouting this completely self‑righteous nonsense.