Chapter 304: Tonight, Fox Kingdom, Slightly Noisy

“Now that things have come to this, everything you said is right—so right, my dear Fuli Brother!”

Although the fennec fox felt slightly resentful about Fuli Lao Ye’s punishment—why should he be punished along with Wang Lei and his wife?—the knife was now in Fuli Lao Ye’s hand, and what could it say?

After friendly negotiations, the fennec fox was lowered from the ceiling fixture.

Wang Lei and his wife were bound up instead, while Lin Bingyun stayed on the second floor to keep watch over them.

Fuli Lao Ye and Wang Ya followed the fennec fox down to the underground facilities of the research institute.

“This way.”

The fennec fox walked ahead, not taking the elevator to the basement as it claimed, but using a separate staircase.

The fennec fox, trotting on its four short legs with a grim face, spoke to Fuli Lao Ye:

“This mansion is publicly claimed to be the Fox Behavioral Research Institute, but in truth, it was built by Lao Wang’s two other shareholders specifically to study the anomalies occurring in Wang Ya.”

“It’s equipped with full medical apparatus and a few useless foreign doctors.”

Wang Ya’s condition was too unusual—too unusual for anyone to dare expose her to public view.

Wang Lei had only one daughter; he trusted no institution or organization, and dared only to conduct secret research.

The other shareholders coerced by Wang Lei dared not speak up, fearing that security officers might dig up past misdeeds.

The shareholders of Lin District Fox Farm jointly built a secret research facility, publicly claiming it was for studying fox behavior and disease, installing complete medical equipment and several foreign doctors.

Except that.

Over these three years, due to the fennec fox’s constant sabotage, no one could perform a thorough physical examination on Wang Ya. The idle doctors, meanwhile, actually began studying foxes themselves and published several papers on hidden fox diseases.

Because of the fennec fox’s interference, medical resources meant for Wang Ya were diverted to the foxes of Fox Kingdom—each one now robust as an ox.

“Here we are.”

Arriving at the basement-level medical room, the decor was identical to a hospital’s—built entirely to hospital standards. The fennec fox raised a paw and pointed to the X-ray machine inside:

“Have Wang Ya enter, locate the strange stone on her left hand, and she’ll revert from her half-human, half-scorpion form back to human shape.”

Wang Ya gazed at the vast medical room, her eyes holding a strange expression; she carefully scanned the surroundings, then, while the two foxes were talking, walked to the only exit on the B2 level and squatted on the floor.

She laid her scorpion pincers across the doorway, her scorpion tail raised over her head, pointing toward the upper and lower staircases.

Seeing Wang Ya’s strange behavior, An Sheng turned to the fennec fox, who was calibrating the medical equipment, and said:

“Wang Ya’s current condition is—”

“I don’t know. Since her mutation, she’s seemed to gain the traits of a door god—whenever she enters a sealed space, she always guards the entrance, eyes alert and fixed on the exit.”

“Unless someone awakens her, she can sit motionless like this for three weeks straight, only leaving the door when hunger forces her to seek food,” said the fennec fox.

“Isn’t that just a tomb guardian beast?” An Sheng muttered, staring at Wang Ya’s back.

…………

The fennec fox seemed extremely familiar with the medical equipment’s functions and operation; it didn’t summon any doctors, but after calibrating the devices, ordered Wang Ya into the room with the X-ray machine for imaging.

The primary target of the X-ray was Wang Ya’s arm, transformed into a giant pincer.

As high-energy electromagnetic waves penetrated her body, the secrets of her scorpion pincer arm emerged on the image.

On the back of her left hand was embedded an object with a density different from bone; after fusing with her skin, it extended root-like tendrils that connected to certain blood vessels inside her body.

What the X-ray machine could currently show was only this.

If An Sheng could obtain equipment from Dongxiang Research Institute, under the influence of spirit-particle contrast agents, he could see the object in Wang Ya’s left hand actually breathing.

In other words.

Wang Ya now has two respiratory systems: one in her lungs for normal breathing, and another in her left hand for absorbing free-floating spirit particles from the air.

Thanks to these spirit particles, Wang Ya has been able to maintain her beast form continuously.

“The internal structure is roughly like this. The reason Wang Ya couldn’t remove it before was likely due to those root-like tendrils. Now, we simply need to surgically sever the tendrils, extract the object, and reconstruct the blood vessels.”

The fennec fox, studying the X-ray image, gave An Sheng a general explanation of the structure and the main lesion.

“But the only difficulty now is how to put Wang Ya under anesthesia.”

“Of course, those matters aren’t our concern—they should be left to the doctors. Now, can you send me to prison?”

The fennec fox looked at Fuli Lao Ye.

“I get the feeling you’re oddly eager to go to jail,” An Sheng said, staring at the fennec fox with a strange expression.

Hearing this, the fennec fox fell into deep silence, unwilling to speak of its affairs with Wang Ya.

It merely sighed, its expression heavy with age, and said: “Fox immortals exist. The retribution visited upon the Wang family is real.”

“Wang Ya appears lively and cheerful to outsiders, but in private, she’s a fursona fetishist. Before becoming that ghostly thing, every night she’d don a fox fursona suit and pretend to be a female fox.”

After speaking, the fennec fox extended both paws, signaling An Sheng to hurry and send it to prison.

Fursona Wang Ya and Giant Scorpion Wang Ya.

To be honest.

The fennec fox thought Giant Scorpion Wang Ya was quieter.

Now that the lesion has been identified, all that remains is surgical treatment—Wang Ya will return to normal.

Staying with Wang Ya, it would rather go to prison—even to the Anquan Bureau’s research facility—than endure this.

“Prison? Dream on! You’re not even thinking about it until you clean up this mess!”

“Now, call a shareholders’ meeting. Bring everyone who participated in smuggling—including the staff!”

An Sheng carried the fennec fox outside, picked up a fallen branch, pointed it at Wang Lei, and told him he had found a cure for Wang Ya—but he needed his cooperation.

Concerning Wang Ya, Wang Lei obeyed unconditionally.

Wang Lei called the other two shareholders and ordered hotel staff to gather at the villa.

An Sheng removed the broken villa door, stood upright on the shoe cabinet, and brandished the branch.

One by one, employees arrived upon receiving the notice.

“Bang—” An Sheng swung the branch, striking the entering employee so hard stars danced before his eyes.

“What are you staring at? Never seen a new boss’s stick discipline? Get out of the way, sit down, don’t block Fuli Lao Ye from beating the livestock!”

The employee, dazed and seeing black, collapsed to the floor and stared at the four-tailed fox—his worldview shattered once more.

“Bang—”

“Crawl!”

“Bang—”

“Crawl!”

On this late-summer night near September, Fox Kingdom Hotel and the Fox Research Institute were unusually noisy, “ding-dong-ding” echoing endlessly. The former gang had now welcomed a new boss who favored stick discipline.

Literal stick discipline.

Lin Bingyun held her phone aloft the entire time, recording Fuli Lao Ye’s sneaky, adorable figure wielding the branch.

The night gradually passed.

All employees and shareholders received the new boss’s “bang-bang-bang” notice of appointment.

They also learned that the “Chang’an Fox Ecology Foundation” was to be established.

With their secrets in Fuli Lao Ye’s hands, Wang Lei’s gang leadership had no choice but to pay up willingly, reluctantly ordering volunteer uniforms online.

Sitting in the boss’s chair, An Sheng announced the Qinling Ecological Restoration Plan.

He glanced at the fennec fox, its face twisted in distress, and wondered—what kind of person was Wang Ya, to make this foul-mouthed fox so miserable it would rather go to jail?

This matter.

Should yield results soon—the surgery, including preparation and materials, would take two or three days.

(End of Chapter)