Chapter 66: Morning at Yu Sheng's Home

Yu Sheng woke up to find Ailin sprawled out on one corner at the foot of the bed, her picture frame resting on the bedside table nearby, leaning against the wall.

Yu Sheng sighed; last night, he had ultimately failed to chase this doll out—the main reason being that every time he tried to pick her up and carry her to the door, this creature would throw a huge tantrum, truly making his brain ache.

Sighing deeply once more and noticing no sign of Ailin waking, Yu Sheng stretched out his foot and kicked her twice.

"Get up, or if you don't, I'll take your picture frame away and make you go sleep inside the painting."

Ailin, who had been sprawled at the foot of the bed, finally moved, slowly crawling up and looking at Yu Sheng with sleepy eyes and a head full of messy hair: "Good morning... hey..."

"Good morning my foot! It's almost noon!" Yu Sheng restrained the impulse to kick this unlucky doll off the bed, "Do you have any idea how many times you rolled around on the bed last night?! You're just a doll; it's already strange enough that you need to sleep, so how can your sleeping posture be so restless!"

"I don't know, *yawn*—" Ailin rubbed her eyes, stretching while muttering, "Don't be so opinionated; I'm so beautiful, you should be happy to share a room with me..."

Yu Sheng looked at this little one, who was only 66.6 centimeters tall, with cold sweat breaking out all over his forehead, feeling his temples twitch: "You're small, but your face is big; do you know what you're saying?"

Ailin didn't care in the slightest; with her hair disheveled, she crawled right in front of Yu Sheng, lowered her head, and said with complete justification: "Comb my hair."

A blue vein jumped on Yu Sheng's temple; he flipped off the bed, ran to the bathroom, grabbed a comb, and threw it onto the bed: "No way, comb it yourself."

Ailin gripped the comb, which was as big as her own head, with both hands, rolling her eyes vigorously: "Do you think I can comb it myself? I can't even hold this thing with one hand; why don't you get me a comb specifically designed for dolls..."

Then followed a non-stop barrage of complaints like "usually when my hair gets messy I can only scratch it with my hands," "on the first day I could only sleep on a chair," and "nobody cares about a doll's feelings at all," making the listener feel as if their ears were sparking with fire.

"... I must have owed you in my past life," Yu Sheng finally couldn't bear it any longer; he came over, snatched the comb from Ailin's hands, picked her up, and placed her on the bedside table nearby, "Sit here properly and don't move."

Ailin immediately broke into a triumphant smile, sitting on the bedside table while chattering: "This body was made by you, so handling some after-sales service is perfectly normal..."

While combing the Young Lady doll's hair with a bad temper, Yu Sheng asked: "Is 'after-sales service' used like that?"

"It's no big deal—hey, be gentler, don't pull any out; a doll's hair is precious."

Yu Sheng let out another long sigh; after barely managing to smooth out Ailin's messy hair, which had become tangled from her restless sleeping, he hung the picture frame that had been leaning against the wall onto the doll, then turned and walked to wash up.

"Hey, Yu Sheng! What are we eating for breakfast?" Ailin's voice came from outside the bathroom shortly after.

With his mouth already full of toothpaste foam, Yu Sheng mumbled a response: "Wait a bit, I'll cook some hanging noodles; we'll just make do with a bite—then we're going out."

An "Oh" came from outside the bathroom door, and afterward, the doll finally fell silent.

But Yu Sheng always felt that Ailin's temporary silence meant she was planning an even bigger commotion—he felt his spiritual intuition jumping *thump-thump*.

Although hearing one's spiritual intuition go *thump-thump* in this situation sounded a bit strange.

After finishing his washing and wiping his face, Yu Sheng looked up at his reflection in the mirror above the sink.

He looked very energetic, his complexion was good, and he even wore an unconscious smile.

It seemed like a very long time since he had seen such an energetic version of himself in the mirror, and for a moment, he felt slightly dazed.

He still remembered that not long ago, he had been living days filled with anxiety in this city, so vast it inspired fear in one's heart; during those two-plus months, he fell asleep every day in tension and suppression, spent nights filled with uneasy dreams, and woke up exhausted, washing his face only once every few days, forever seeing a listless version of himself in the mirror.

Yet now, he only saw a vigorous young man, his eyes carrying a slight expectation for the future—not at all like someone who had been kicked all night by a doll with a restless sleeping posture.

"... My mindset really has changed..." Yu Sheng couldn't help but laugh, murmuring softly to himself.

Then he heard a wailing and screaming noise from outside the door: "Yu—Sheng! Did-you-fall-in-somewhere! I'll-get-Huli-to-fish-you-out—"

The smile on Yu Sheng's face instantly stiffened; he turned and yanked the door open, only to see Ailin standing energetically on the floor outside with her picture frame on her back, grinning foolishly at him.

"You've been in there for over half an hour!" the doll said, looking up.

Yu Sheng walked straight past this creature, opened the bedroom door, and prepared to check if that fox had woken up.

But the moment he opened the door, he got a fright: Huli was standing right at the doorway, leaning forward like a thief, looking as if she were hesitating whether or not to enter.

Huli was also startled by the sudden sound of Yu Sheng opening the door—truly startled—the large bush of tails behind her suddenly "puffed" open, standing in the hallway like a folding screen, while the two large ears on her head instantly stood straight up.

After two or three seconds, the fluffed-up demon fox slowly relaxed, looking at Yu Sheng somewhat at a loss: "Benefactor..."

Yu Sheng was curious: "What are you doing?"

"I woke up, but didn't know what to do, so... I came to wait, but I didn't know if you were awake yet, so I didn't dare knock," Huli explained immediately with nervousness, then looked at Yu Sheng with great worry, "Benefactor, are you okay? Where did you fall into?"

"I didn't fall into anywhere! Don't listen to Ailin's nonsense usually," Yu Sheng immediately widened his eyes, then frowned as he looked Huli up and down, "Have you been waiting at the door like this the whole time?"

"Mm."

"... From now on, this is your home; you don't need to be so nervous usually; if you have nothing to do, you can watch TV or something... oh, when I have time, I'll teach you how to use the appliances at home," Yu Sheng said casually, turning to walk toward the stairs, "Let's go downstairs to eat first; I'll cook some noodles to make do for a meal, and today I'll take you shopping."

Upon hearing the two words "eat," Huli's eyes visibly lit up, and she almost skipped as she followed Yu Sheng's footsteps.

But Yu Sheng had only taken two steps before stopping again; he turned to look at the demon fox, his expression showing he wanted to speak but hesitated.

Huli tilted her head: "Benefactor?"

"I suddenly remembered something..." Yu Sheng's gaze landed on the top of Huli's head, "You can put away your tails, but what about your ears? If you walk outside looking like this... it might attract quite a bit of attention."

Hearing Yu Sheng say this, Huli's face seemed a bit blank; since arriving here, she had never stepped out of the house, so she had no idea what the outside world looked like, let alone imagine what was wrong with walking outside looking like this.

But since the Benefactor said it, she believed it.

The young demon fox rubbed her hands, reached up to pluck the ears off the top of her head and stuffed them into her tail, and then hid the tail away.

The scene fell completely silent.

Yu Sheng remained frozen in the posture of speaking from a second ago, standing in the hallway as if turned to stone.

Until Ailin's scream suddenly shattered this silence: "Ahhh—Fox-Fox-Fox, what thing did you just pluck off your head?!!"

Huli produced the tail she usually used to hide things, dug out a pair of furry ears, and showed them to Ailin: "Ears."

Yu Sheng's eyeballs nearly popped out: "Can this thing be detached?! Are these fake?!"

"They're real," Huli said matter-of-factly while putting the ears away properly, "Demon foxes are skilled at transformation."

Yu Sheng: "The demon foxes I know of don't seem to 'transform' in this way..."

Huli immediately looked amazed: "Benefactor, have you seen other demon foxes?"

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, then instantly calmed down: "... No, I haven't."

"For a demon fox to learn the method of refinement, the first step is to start by refining oneself; once mastered, it becomes transformation," Huli explained the "common sense" that seemed obvious to her to Yu Sheng and Ailin with a serious face, "But Mom and Dad didn't have time to teach me much, so I only learned... the basic changes. I heard an Immortal say that powerful demon foxes can even transform themselves into stories from books or winds and shadows from history, relying solely on oral transmission among people to instantly travel through ancient and modern times and cross the sea of stars, but I can't do that!"

Yu Sheng listened with his mouth agape; only by pushing his imagination to full power could he keep up with this fox girl's description, yet while his ears understood, his brain refused to believe it, feeling that this girl was pulling his leg.

But Huli's harmless face really didn't look like the type to make up lies.

"I just feel something is off here," Ailin beside him muttered while rubbing her chin, "My memory isn't working well right now, so don't try to fool me... where exactly did you get this 'common sense' from? Were you really tricked by that Immortal? Let me tell you, those working as tour guides will say anything..."

Hu Li shook her head vigorously: "I don't know, but my transformation method was truly taught by my father and mother; it is indeed just like this—"

As she spoke, she carefully observed Yu Sheng once more, and immediately afterward, the color of her hair and eyes instantly changed, mimicking Yu Sheng to become black-haired and black-eyed.

Now, she appeared completely like an ordinary, beautiful Miss, looking at first glance like a local of Border City.

"Like this, is it acceptable?" The fox demon girl looked at Yu Sheng with great anticipation.

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, finally nodding with a trace of dullness.

Setting aside other matters, at least this time her transformation process seemed much more normal...

(End of Chapter)