Chapter 5: A World Similar Yet Different

“Are you going to the bathroom? If not, wait for me in the car.”

Holding the fox beside the car, she paced around a few times; after sharing her joy, she opened the door of her own “Spicy Fish Head” and placed the fox on the passenger seat.

For a third-year college student like her, gaining control of a car was a cause for great celebration and joy.

More than that, what delighted Yu Xueqing even more was her father’s trust.

After passing her driver’s license test, she had once driven her father’s pickup truck for hauling goods.

But while reversing into the parking spot, she kept bumping into both sides; since then, her father had viewed her through tinted glasses.

My daughter is indeed dear to me, but if you want to drive with me? Sorry, Dad’s a wild one!

Today, she had regained the right to drive on the road!

Although she was supposed to work a summer job for the family, Yu Xueqing was still very happy.

A car! That’s a car of her own!

“Holy shit! Aqing, are you planning to scam people online?!”

After opening the car door, An Sheng saw three brand-new Fruit phones and one Rice phone neatly arranged on the passenger seat.

He recognized the Rice phone—Yu Xueqing used it daily—but the three new Fruit phones were completely unfamiliar to him.

Because most phones now support dual SIM dual standby, unless you’re in black-market business, you’d never need this many phones.

An Sheng stared at Yu Xueqing in horror, worried the girl had gone astray and ended up in Tilanqiao Awakening.

But Yu Xueqing seemed not to notice the fox’s worried gaze.

Yu Xueqing happily went home and closed the door; she’d been so absorbed in sharing her joy with the family fox that she’d forgotten to shut the door when she left.

As Yu Xueqing closed the front door, a text suddenly appeared in An Sheng’s mind.

【Guarding the Home and Courtyard wish completed. Yu Xueqing is overjoyed and wants to treat the fox to a big meal.】

【Power of Wish +1】

An Sheng paid no attention to the message in his mind; instinctively, he directed the wish power to his body.

A golden glow flashed across Mao Rongrong’s furry form; An Sheng involuntarily wore a look of bliss, his little legs went weak, and he tumbled toward the passenger seat.

“Ssshh—better than lemon tea.”

Though sprawled on the floor in all directions, An Sheng’s face radiated uncontainable pleasure; his eyes narrowed, and his once refined fox face now resembled the grin of a Shiba Inu—comical, yet oddly endearing.

Adding wish power to the head only helped An Sheng recall his past-life embarrassments; it had no other effect.

But adding wish power to the body felt like a top-tier massage—so blissful he couldn’t help himself.

“What’s that sleazy expression on your face?”

Yu Xueqing got into the car and saw the little fox sprawled on the floor, eyes glazed in ecstasy; she instinctively pulled out her phone and took a photo of him.

Beaming, Yu Xueqing uploaded An Sheng’s photo to her Moments.

Of course, when uploading, she remembered to block her family.

When she adopted An Sheng, she had secretly tested her father’s attitude, hoping to get an extra three hundred yuan for her allowance.

But after testing, she gave up the idea.

Her father had only two replies: “Isn’t the Lucky Fox a nationally protected animal? How can you keep one? What, you mean Arctic foxes or red foxes from North America? No no no, we Chinese don’t believe in feudal superstitions—foreign gods aren’t reliable.”

"The Lucky Fox Lord here in China? Are you trying to die?! Keeping the Lucky Fox Lord as a pet—you’re not afraid of being struck by lightning, but I am!"

Yu Xueqing put away her phone, picked up the grinning fox lying on the floor, placed him on the passenger seat, and drove her “Spicy Fish Head” toward the city.

Zhangxizhen is in the suburbs, but it’s not far from Jiule City’s urban center—just a ten- or fifteen-minute drive.

“Aqing, if things really get unbearable, just say so.”

“We’re at least National Level Two; stealing two or three hundred a day isn’t illegal. There’s no need to do something like Longchang Awakening just to cover An’s daily expenses.”

“If all else fails, I’ll break into the neighbor’s safe to feed you.”

An Sheng stared seriously at Yu Xueqing and let out two soft whimpers.

“Master~ You’re abandoning me?”

“Don’t say that, Master! When I grow up, I’ll hunt hard and support you!”

The fox’s clear, whimpering voice reached Yu Xueqing’s ears; though not elegant or fluent, it was unmistakably the kind of awkward phrasing only machine translation could produce.

“Don’t worry! We won’t get out—we’ll take it home and eat it there!”

Yu Xueqing patted the fox’s head seriously: “I’d throw away anything before I’d throw you away. After all, you really are the one I picked up from a trash bin!”

An Sheng: “.”

Sister, don’t selectively go deaf right now!

An Sheng stared blankly, momentarily speechless.

But it didn’t matter—if Aqing really went down the wrong path, he’d act himself, using her WeChat to directly report the scammers to the police and send them to eat imperial rice.

By the way, pork is twelve yuan per jin now.

I only eat eight yuan worth a day.

I’ll cover my own snacks and afternoon tea.

Aqing probably won’t go astray over less than three hundred yuan a month, right? Her family runs a tea shop—no one’s heard they’re into financial tea.

An Sheng gazed out the window, lost in thought.

Outside the car, dozens of yellow school buses were parked in front of a building resembling a park.

Seeing the rows of school buses outside, An Sheng raised a paw to cover his face.

In his past life, he worked in sales—specifically, selling tea.

But not to individual customers; he dealt with beverage companies and large-scale distributors, so he had deep knowledge of the tea industry.

Thus, he naturally applied his past-life experience to his current situation and concluded that running a tea shop was profitable.

Although the two Blue Stars were similar, they had differences.

For example, those rows of school buses parked outside the Children’s Palace, waiting for students.

An Sheng had browsed plenty of social media; he knew that five years ago, on this Blue Star’s China, due to a 93% myopia rate among high school graduates, a Green Health Education initiative was launched across all schools.

The goal of Green Health Education was to reduce myopia rates and decrease the number of fragile college students.

No matter how busy their studies, students must exercise at least an hour and a half every day.

Elementary students were uniformly managed by the Children’s Palace; middle and high school students were supervised by teachers, with mandatory targets—even physical education scores counted toward their Gaokao scores.

In college, physical education was no longer mandatory; it was entirely up to the students.

There was no choice—college students had become so fragile that a breeze could knock them over.

“Boss! Two saltwater and freshwater crabs in oyster sauce, steam one fish, are the squid fresh? Blanch them, and pack two bowls of white rice porridge for me.”

The “Spicy Fish Head” pulled up to a roadside grill; Yu Xueqing stood on tiptoe, glanced at the ingredients in the fish tank, and called out to the owner.

Almost all restaurants refused to serve customers with pets.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Yu Xueqing chose a roadside grill near her new home in Jiule City to pack food for herself and the little fox, planning to eat it in the park outside the Children’s Palace.

An extra three thousand yuan in wages seemed like a lot, but Jiule City is near the sea, so seafood dishes are plentiful.

Yu Xueqing had been careful with her order, yet still spent nearly four hundred yuan; paying made her chest feel tight.

Why eat here instead of at home, even though it’s nearby?

Because Yu Xueqing feared that if she brought the “foreign god” home, her father would instantly transform into a Materialist War God—left hand holding a peach wood sword, right hand clutching a statue of Guan Gong to slay her little fox.

Worshiping a foreign god? What nonsense! China doesn’t do this kind of superstitious crap!

(End of Chapter)