Chapter 107: Economic Pressure

Hu Li was very obedient; hearing Yu Sheng's instructions, he asked nothing, picked up Erin's oil painting, stuffed it into his tail, turned, and rushed out the door toward the attic.

Erin, still lying on the bed, clung to a fantasy: "Hey, Yu Sheng, do you think a mira..."

Before she finished speaking, the two small dolls simultaneously went dark-eyed as if cut off from power, then fell straight onto the bed.

Yu Sheng watched this scene expressionlessly, then looked at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle: "Seems it won't."

A few seconds later, he shouted outside: "Hu Li! You can come back!"

Urgent footsteps sounded outside the door; Hu Li quickly ran down from the attic again, entered, pulled the oil painting frame from his tail, and handed it to Yu Sheng: "Benefactor! For you!"

The two small dolls on the bed "whooshed" up into a sitting position, both looking somewhat dazed.

Yu Sheng casually hung the oil painting on one of their backs, turning her into P1 Erin.

But as soon as Erin "woke," instead of immediately lamenting that no miracle had occurred, she stared blankly at Hu Li: "Can't you tidy up inside your tail?"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng grew curious: "Huh? You saw inside her tail? What's it like in there?"

The moment these words left his mouth, he felt something odd, a sense that in any other context this would be a grammatical error, yet upon careful thought he could find no flaw—only the rocket-boosted Doraemon-Hu Li's tail had such a bizarre style that even describing its function felt like going mad...

"It's pitch black inside, who knows how big it really is; anyway, you can't see the end. In the middle is a huge pile of stuff like a garbage mountain, and the very top is all food, including leftover rice and dishes," Erin gestured as she described the scene she had seen to Yu Sheng. "The moment I opened my eyes inside the painting, I saw half a box of instant noodles sticking right in front of me, with a half-eaten roasted chicken inside..."

"I, I didn't steal them," Hu Li quickly explained, looking very nervous. "I told you, Benefactor, that those leftovers too, it's a waste to throw them away, so I took them. Anyway, they won't spoil inside my tail."

"Well, at least tidy it up! Who piles things up like a garbage mountain! No good. Next time you go out shopping, buy two shelves and stuff them in your tail. Those supermarket stocking racks, they're cheap."

Yu Sheng found this topic growing increasingly bizarre and finally couldn't help interrupting: "... Let's talk about Erin's matter instead."

Only then did the doll and the fox Miss conclude their discussion on "whether mixing cargo and passengers inside a tail, and storing raw and cooked items together, complies with food safety" and "whether to stuff two shelves into a fox demon's tail," shifting their attention to Erin's two bodies.

"Ahem, it has now been confirmed that at least one doll shell must remain within five meters of the oil painting; otherwise, the connection will be severed, and Erin's soul will return to the painting," Yu Sheng cleared his throat and began arranging the upcoming tests. "Next, let's try to see how far the 'secondary body' can go while the 'main body' carries the painting on its back."

"How do we test that? There might not be enough space inside the house," Erin thought for a moment. "Go out? To the city? But doing this kind of test requires hiding from ordinary people; feels quite troublesome..."

"So there is a place more suitable than the city." A faint smile appeared on Yu Sheng's face.

Then, before he could continue speaking, Erin instantly reacted, and the two dolls spoke in unison: "The valley!"

"Huge range; from one end of the valley to the other is far enough, and there's absolutely no worry about anyone disturbing us," Yu Sheng nodded. "However, before heading there, we still need to go out once; I'll buy some things along the way."

Upon hearing "buy things," Erin, for some reason, became exceptionally excited. The two dolls shuffled over to the bedside together: "Hey? Going shopping? Buying what? Clothes? Food? Or finally preparing to buy me something? Actually, I quite want to change into new clothes too. The set I manifested myself is fine, but sometimes I want to change... Hey, don't you know? My clothes can be changed! It's just that I have nothing else to wear... You should buy a new coat too; your outfit yesterday was all bloodstained and had such a huge tear; it definitely can't be worn..."

The two dolls chattered away a whole bunch. At first, Yu Sheng didn't feel anything, but as Erin gradually shifted from "speaking in unison" to "each speaking separately," he began to feel something was wrong. This small doll was clearly rapidly adapting to the state of two bodies; she started using two mouths to speak in turns, and a moment later, both mouths opened simultaneously but said different things...

Yu Sheng finally realized belatedly that his "research spirit" had apparently, possibly, maybe, perhaps... caused trouble.

Now there were two noisy Biji-jis!

"Use one body to speak! Don't chatter together!" Yu Sheng quickly stopped the doll's noise. "My head is spinning—and in the future too! Don't be so loud!"

"Hey, I was just about to say I found speaking this way is very efficient," the painting-carrying Erin immediately pouted, then looked up blinking her eyes. "You still haven't said what we're going to buy."

"First, buy a lot more food; get two cases of instant noodles and plastic-wrapped chicken legs for Hu Li as 'reserves,' then buy some vegetable seeds. Hmm, speaking of which, we'll need to buy some farming tools too," Yu Sheng began listing his shopping items one by one, calculating rapidly in his mind as he spoke. "Ah, right, we also need to go to the building materials market... Or maybe put that off; that expense might be a bit high."

Speaking of this, his expression grew worried. Another big shopping spree like this would truly drain his savings to the bottom. Now his new manuscript was still unresolved, the "Guesthouse" hadn't started any proper business, and yesterday's commission with Little Red Riding Hood—no one knew when the reward would be distributed. Although the other party said the earliest it could arrive was today, they had specifically emphasized "earliest."

These days had been completely spending without income—even there was no "income," only "spending."

Moreover, the bulk of the expenses were on Hu Li. Clothes and daily necessities were at least one-time short-term consumptions, but feeding her every day was no small cost.

But Yu Sheng had to admit that every penny spent on Hu Li's food was truly not wasted. After all, twenty chicken legs for one tail sounded like a lot, but put it another way: where else could you find twenty chicken legs for the price of a single cruise missile?

If someone gave him a chicken farm now, he even felt he could make this girl conduct a firepower coverage over the entire old town district...

On the other hand, Erin's expenses at home were nearly zero.

Except for the material consumption needed to reshape her body (all cheap materials used), he had never bought her clothes, never fed her anything. Over all these days, he had only bought her a small red hairpin, which Little Red Riding Hood had purchased for her while shopping. That kind of "trinket" like a children's toy had made the doll happy for an entire day...

Thinking this way, Yu Sheng even felt he owed this doll quite a bit.

She was rowdy, had a bad temper, chattered nonstop, climbed up the pole when given a foothold, weak yet reckless—but when trouble came, she truly stepped up.

"If all else fails, we can only use that bit of 'disaster reserve funds.' If we really can't make ends meet, we'll go to the Special Operations Bureau and see if we can sell them that 'iron lump' we found last time..."

Yu Sheng muttered to himself, which made the nearby Erin curious: "What are you saying?"

"Nothing. Pack up and get ready to go out," Yu Sheng waved his hand while standing up. "We won't go far this time; the farmers' market on the edge of the old town should have everything we need. Also, have Hu Li carry you out as a 'disguise'—bring the painting so the connection doesn't get severed on the way."

"Oh," Erin nodded, controlling her other body to sit propped against the headboard, then very clumsily controlled her painting-carrying "main body" to climb down from the bedside, took a few wobbly steps on the floor, and finally sighed in relief. "Not bad; if the other body stays still, controlling this one separately is much easier. By the way, how do we get there? Take a taxi?"

"... They didn't leave coordinates over there; otherwise, I'd even consider opening a door directly; that could save some taxi fare," Yu Sheng sighed. "We can only take a taxi."

Ten-plus minutes later, Yu Sheng, accompanied by the fox who had transformed into a black long-haired straight-haired girl, arrived at the intersection closest to home, waiting for the ride-hailing car.

"When we have money, we still need to buy a car, right?" Erin's voice sounded in Yu Sheng's mind, carrying expectation for the future. "We can't keep squeezing into ride-hailing cars forever..."

Yu Sheng turned to look at Erin being held in Hu Li's arms, raised an eyebrow: "What if it's another Special Operations Bureau car?"

"... Then it's better than a ride-hailing car."

Yu Sheng grinned and couldn't help letting his thoughts wander: "Actually, I think we just need to buy an electric scooter, a bigger one that can carry a person. Later, let Hu Li sit in the back. Ride normally in the city; when we reach a place with no people, let her activate her tail. Nine-Tail Rocket-Boosted Little Electric Donkey, consuming only two-tenths of a yuan in electricity and three steamed buns per hundred kilometers. If the electric scooter could support energy recovery, that would be even better; the electricity cost could even be negative..."

"Your imagination is quite rich," Erin muttered, then immediately reacted. "Hey, wait, where do I sit?!"

"Put you in the front basket."

"... Yu Sheng, you damn it!"

As they spoke, a silver-gray car with sleek lines suddenly entered Yu Sheng's vision. Erin, who had been preparing to pounce and bite while no one was around, instantly became quiet again, continuing to lie limply in Hu Li's arms with her limbs dangling, maintaining the "disguise."

With a screech, the small car stopped in front of Yu Sheng.

Hu Li leaned close to Yu Sheng and asked curiously in a low voice: "Benefactor, is this the car you called? It arrived so fast?"

Yu Sheng also paused for a moment, checked the ride-hailing app on his phone, and compared the license plate of the car stopped before him: "... No, the car I called is still waiting at a red light two intersections away."

While he was puzzled, the window of that silver-gray small car rolled down.

Good news: this was not Xu Jiali's old Xia Li that rattled and shivered when driven.

Bad news: the person who appeared when the driver's window rolled down was still an acquaintance, and an acquaintance that gave Yu Sheng a bit of a headache.

Ren Wenwen smiled brightly: "It's you two! Going out?"

(End of this chapter)