"But now that you're here, Master Fuli, everything in our Security Bureau can be smoothed over..."
Zhang Lin showed a radiant smile, but between her brows there was a trace of sorrow that wouldn't disperse.
The Red Fox group in Mentougou, at the very beginning, actually wasn't this brazen; they were even very shy of people.
But after they'd had two full meals, they seemed to realize something.
These two‑legged creatures are treating us this well? Even bringing us from icy caves back to their homes.
Could it be that we.... are actually their masters?
Since we're the masters, isn't it pretty reasonable for us to make a few requests of these two‑legged creatures?
We want to go out shopping, the food here is a bit boring, and we never get to run; our exercise volume is seriously insufficient, bring over a whole treadmill!
"Don't look at me, I'm allergic to foxes....." Ansheng glanced around the room and curled his lips as he spoke.
Foxes are super chatty, pure motor‑mouths; if you ignore them, they'll get all huffy and start pawing at their conversation partner with their snout and paws.
Back at the Fox Kingdom Hotel, Ansheng had also been talked half to death by those little chatterboxes.
Especially the small ones, the most mischievous troublemakers.
"Allergic or not, that's a minor issue. I'll have the staff gather all the Huhu first; you can just identify your family members one by one in a bit."
"All the foxes in Mentougou are here." Zhang Lin walked ahead to lead the way, bringing everyone into the reception room.
With the crow flock's full‑territory patrols, every Red Fox in Mentougou had been arrested and brought to the Security Bureau to work as prison guards.
The crow flock was quite proud of this, chattering every day: "I've rendered meritorious service for the Security Bureau; grabbing a couple of little snacks at the supermarket is totally not over the line, right?"
The fact that the crows dared to block the airport gates could pretty much be traced back to Master Fuli as the mastermind.
With Zhang Lin's order, the entire Security Bureau, who had been about to change shifts, mobilized—those who had clocked in and those who hadn't all rushed to the Spirit Beast breeding room to help arrest foxes.
In less than twenty minutes.
All the Huhu were arrested and brought back, lined up and sent into the reception room for Master Fuli to inspect.
"Yip?"
One Red Fox after another passed inspection, but among the fox group, they still didn't find Master Fuli's parents.
"Hm? You came too, huh?" While observing the foxes, Ansheng saw a Red Fox with a pierced earhole in its triangular ear and couldn't help but laugh.
"Yip?"
The Earring Fox froze, stretched its neck out to sniff in front of Ansheng, and let out a delighted little yip.
"Master Fuli, did you find them?" Zhang Lin, who was accompanying Master Fuli on his search for his family, saw the Red Fox on the table react unusually and asked with delight all over her face.
"No, he's my neighbor....." Ansheng shook his head and said, "This guy is also a Spirit Beast; he once stuck his butt out and sat right on a hedgehog, got chased by the hedgehog's mom across two mountains, and ended up running to my place."
"Later, he even provoked a leopard cat, got his face swollen from a set of supersonic kitty punches."
"Yip‑yip～"
The Earring Fox looked delighted, pedaling with all four legs, wanting to run over and nuzzle his good friend.
The logistics support team member looked at Zhang Lin; with her signal, he put the Earring Fox down.
"Yip～"
The Earring Fox ran to Master Fuli, rubbing his cheek against Master Fuli's cheek.
"Yeah, yeah, of course I'm still alive...."
Ansheng rolled his eyes, raised his paw, and thumped his childhood playmate lightly on the head.
This guy, just like before, came up all nonchalant and asked how he'd come back from the dead.
Back from the dead my ass.
I just came down from the mountain to make a living in the city.
"Come on, bring in the next batch of Red Foxes!"
Ansheng shouted to the people waiting in line outside, temporarily tossing the Earring Fox to Ah Qing.
Ah Qing took the Earring Fox and instinctively lifted the Red Fox up to glance at its belly.
"Oh, so you're childhood sweethearts——" Ah Qing said to the little fox.
Ansheng's mouth twitched; he turned his head back and glared at Ah Qing, who was spouting nonsense.
Ah Qing gave an awkward laugh and shrank his head back in.
"Th....that's all! Every fox has been brought up."
The Security Bureau staffer crouching by the door, after hearing Master Fuli's words, exchanged looks with his colleagues, glanced at the now completely empty corridor, then jolted in shock and stammered as he spoke to Master Fuli.
In the past half hour, all 436 foxes had already been brought into the room once.
The Earring Fox, already one of the more mischievous ones, had only been arrested by the Security Bureau at the very end.
"What? That's all! How is that possible!" Zhang Lin shot to her feet in shock, her face full of disbelief.
The Red Foxes in the Security Bureau weren't just the Fox Race from the Mentougou habitat; foxes from the entire Imperial Capital, including wild Red Foxes from the surrounding mountains and forests, had all been brought in.
If they weren't in the Security Bureau, then... where had Master Fuli's parents gone?
"Go, bring Tao Qing up here right now; I'm going to hang him from the front gate myself!"
Zhang Lin slammed the table in anger and ordered the Forest Rangers outside to escort Tao Qing to the conference room.
Tao Qing, that middleman, was the one who had assisted hostile foreign forces in posting missions to capture Red Foxes.
Since they hadn't found Master Fuli's relatives among all the Red Foxes in the Imperial Capital—
Zhang Lin had every reason to suspect that Tao Qing had been lying the entire time he was being interrogated by the Security Bureau, sacrificing himself to buy time for the Red Foxes to get out of the country.
Otherwise, it was hard to explain the current situation.
"Yip?!"
The thunderous slam of the table startled the Earring Fox so much that it shuddered all over, sprang onto Ah Qing's shoulder, flipped over, and hid behind Ah Qing, poking its snout under Ah Qing's armpit to peek out furtively.
"It's fine, Xiaolan's parents are missing; Sister Zhang Lin is helping Xiaolan look for them right now..."
Ah Qing's brows knitted with worry as he looked at the small fox squatting on the long table with its back to them.
The little fox said nothing; it just sat quietly on the tabletop with its arms crossed, expression especially calm.
"I'm fine....." Master Fuli, sensing something, turned and looked at Ah Qing as he spoke:
"If they can be found, all the better; if not, that doesn't necessarily mean something's happened to them."
"Yip? Yip‑yip‑yip..."
The Earring Fox cocked its head, seeming to understand what everyone was talking about. Its eyes lit up as it waved its paws and let out a series of yips.
You're looking for Bai Bai's parents?
I've seen them before!
They ran off in the direction where the sun comes up, seemed to climb into a big iron box, and then they disappeared.
"Hm?"
Ansheng turned around, full of surprise, looking at the Earring Fox with some confusion: "My dad and mom..... left by cab?"
Ansheng had never planned on looking for Fox Father and Fox Mother before. They lived in an ecological protection zone and received state subsidies.
Besides, because of his fur color, they reacted to him as if they'd seen a ghost.
But now it was different. They used to enjoy themselves in the protection zone, living their little life, but now someone wanted to use them.
Both emotionally and logically, Ansheng intended to find Fox Father and Fox Mother and wipe out all those involved, rather than saving it for New Year's.
Only.
That one sentence from the Earring Fox left Ansheng utterly baffled.
It said that a long, long time ago, it saw his parents take advantage of the night and ride off in a car.
From the Earring Fox's description—
It seemed that just as he'd become capable of living on his own, Fox Father and Fox Mother took a taxi and ran off...
"....."
Ansheng's mouth twitched slightly twice.