Chapter 60 – Hu Li’s New Home

Eileen looked down at her fully restored right leg. She cautiously rotated the joint left and right, then put on her sock and, holding Yu Sheng’s hand for support, slowly stood up.

“Are— are both legs the same length?” The little doll looked up at Yu Sheng with an unblinking stare. “I didn’t guide the reshaping this time. I only performed Spirit Infusion and fusion. Can you check for me…”

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. “They’re obviously the same length. I just touched up the surface — it’s not like I cut it off and re-sculpted it.”

Eileen let out a relieved breath and took a few steps back and forth across the table on her short little legs, a smile finally spreading across her face. “I can run around again! Yu Sheng, your craftsmanship wasn’t bad this time. Maybe you have a talent for doll-making?”

“Thanks for the compliment…” Yu Sheng replied offhandedly, then watched as the newly mobile Eileen strapped her picture frame back on, hopped from the table to a nearby empty chair in two or three bounds, climbed backward down from the chair to the floor, and began darting around the attic clearing in circles.

Every previous time Eileen had gone on one of these frenzied dashes, Yu Sheng had found it excessively chaotic — especially since she always crashed into things and left the place a mess. But somehow, this time, watching Eileen scamper about everywhere, that irritation was gone, replaced by an inexplicable sense of accomplishment slowly rising within him.

“A talent for doll-making, huh…” Yu Sheng muttered, looking down at the scraping knife in his hand and the nearly empty jar of putty. For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether Eileen’s earlier remark had been flattery or genuine praise.

He wasn’t sure if he had any talent for doll-making, but his mind suddenly drifted to those two sections of lotus root he’d clumsily operated on earlier — and somehow successfully infused with spirit.

It seemed Eileen had completely forgotten about that.

Just then, the sound of footsteps from the direction of the stairs interrupted Yu Sheng’s wandering thoughts, as well as Eileen’s laps around the attic.

Yu Sheng turned to look and saw a pair of fluffy white ears poking up from the stairwell, followed by Hu Li, her face tense with curiosity as she glanced around nervously.

The foxgirl was wearing a set of pajamas that looked a bit too oversized for her, and her silver-white hair was still slightly damp. She had probably followed their scent to find this place. When she spotted Yu Sheng and Eileen, a happy smile immediately bloomed across her face. “Ah! Benefactor, and Eileen too — you’re both here!”

Then she noticed that Eileen’s hands and feet had been “healed,” and her eyes widened with delight. “Eileen, your hand — it grew back?”

“Yu Sheng fixed me!” Eileen happily raised both hands to show Hu Li, then jumped in place a few times. “My legs are fixed too!”

“Benefactor, your immortal arts are incredible,” Hu Li said, staring in amazement at the fully restored doll. When she turned to Yu Sheng, there was genuine reverence on her face. “You can open the Path of the Netherworld, restore bodies to life, and even craft puppets.”

Yu Sheng thought about it — the “Path of the Netherworld” the fox mentioned was probably his Door Opening ability. And she seemed to think Eileen was a puppet he had crafted.

The very next second, Eileen — having processed what was said — sprang up and began raising a furious ruckus. “What do you mean, ‘puppet’?! I’m a living doll from Alice’s Cottage! Blessed by divine grace, you hear me?! You wild fox, don’t go spouting nonsense about things you don’t understand!”

Hu Li listened blankly to the little doll’s tirade, then lowered her head. “Oh. I don’t understand. I won’t say nonsense anymore.”

Eileen’s outburst cut off abruptly mid-rant. She was completely thrown off. She was used to bickering with Yu Sheng, but this was the first time she’d encountered someone so honest and agreeable who didn’t argue back at all. Her brain suddenly had no contingency plan for this, and she just stood there, frozen.

And then, Yu Sheng suddenly noticed something else.

He stared at the space behind Hu Li with mild shock. “…Where are your tails?”

Eileen also snapped to attention, belatedly realizing that the tails behind Hu Li had all vanished.

“I put them away,” Hu Li said with a smile, turning slightly to one side. What followed was a sound like a treasured blade being drawn from its sheath — a resonant “whooom” — and a brilliant burst of light erupted behind the foxgirl as an enormous mass of fluffy, voluminous tails exploded outward with a poof. “The doors are narrow, and I kept bumping into things, so I put them away.”

Eileen, who had been standing right beside her, let out a startled yelp and was instantly launched by the sudden eruption of tails, tumbling and rolling several meters across the floor.

Hu Li gasped and rushed over, scrambling to pull up the cursing Eileen from the ground.

Yu Sheng watched from the side in stunned amazement, though his first reaction was actually relief. “You scared me — I thought you’d launched all your tails like projectiles again…”

Then another odd question popped into his head. “…Why did the tails make a ‘whooom’ sound when they came out?”

Hu Li thought about it. “It can also be a ‘boom.'”

Eileen, who had just been pulled to her feet and was preparing to resume her tirade, froze at this. She stared blankly at Hu Li. “…You’re making the sound effects yourself?!”

“Before a fox reveals her tails, she must make a sound to warn those nearby to take cover,” the foxgirl said matter-of-factly. Her speech was already much more fluid than when they’d first met, though she still had some odd pauses. “But you… didn’t dodge.”

Eileen instantly exploded. “How was I supposed to know about these bizarre ‘rules’?! What kind of fox are you, and where did you even come from?!”

Hu Li thought carefully, then shook her head with a dejected look, her ears drooping. “I… don’t remember.”

This time it was Eileen whose expression froze. The little doll awkwardly looked away. “Don’t take it so seriously — I was just saying it offhand…”

Yu Sheng walked over to Hu Li’s side. After a moment of genuine deliberation, he spoke earnestly. “Don’t be too discouraged. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can never go back. Maybe someday you’ll find your home.”

Hu Li’s ears perked straight up. “Benefactor’s Path of the Netherworld — can it send me back?”

“His doors can go anywhere. Sometimes when he yanks one open, you end up inside someone’s alchemy furnace,” Eileen chimed in from the side, hands on her hips, looking proud as if it were her own ability she was boasting about. “Who knows — maybe one day he’ll open a door that leads to your homeland.”

As she said this, something seemed to occur to her, and she turned to Yu Sheng. “Hey, should we go check out that alchemy furnace from last time again? There were immortals and stuff over there too — what if it’s Hu Li’s homeland? Or even if they’ve just heard of it — I mean, it feels like they’re all part of the same system…”

Yu Sheng grimaced. “Given what happened last time… they’d probably attack us on sight.”

“Oh, fair point. If I were on the other side of that door, I’d want to kill you too.”

Hu Li watched Yu Sheng and Eileen’s exchange, her gaze bouncing back and forth between them, utterly lost.

Yu Sheng noticed her confusion and cleared his throat, saying somewhat stiffly, “We’re discussing who we could ask about your origins. Don’t worry — I’ll help you look, slowly.”

“Benefactor, please don’t trouble yourself too much,” Hu Li said. She understood this time, but only shook her head gently. “If we find something, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s fine too. After all… I don’t remember what my homeland looks like. Even if I went back, there would be… no one I know.”

As she spoke, she reached into the fur of her tails and rummaged around, producing those two sharp canine teeth. A soft, quietly comforted smile appeared on her face.

“I’ve already found… Mom and Dad. I don’t need to go back.”

“…It’s good that you can think of it that way,” Yu Sheng exhaled softly and nodded to the foxgirl. “So what are your plans going forward? Have you thought about the future at all?”

A look of bewilderment crossed Hu Li’s face. After hearing Yu Sheng’s question, she was lost in thought for a long time before slowly shaking her head.

“I… don’t know,” she said in a small voice, her tone as anxious as a young animal venturing from its den for the first time. “This is my first time leaving that valley. Everything here is nice, but everything is so strange. I… don’t understand any of it, and I don’t know where to… find food. Mom said foxes must never forget a kindness, but I don’t know what I can do to help benefactor.”

Her words were still a bit jumbled, but Yu Sheng understood every one of them.

He smiled, reassuring the anxious, uneasy fox.

“Then just live here from now on. I have a spare room — and plenty of food. You won’t have to worry about going hungry. As for what you can do… for now, just help me fight. We’ll start with that.”

Yu Sheng thought it over carefully. He realized he didn’t actually know what this fox was capable of. Sure, everyone said fox spirits repaid kindness and changed destinies, but having her help write C code, draw illustrations, or make PowerPoint presentations was probably out of the question. On the other hand, this girl’s subsonic headbutt and that move where she launched her tails as projectiles were genuinely terrifying. When dealing with Otherworlds in the future, she’d be an invaluable high-tier combatant. Eileen could handle crowd control, Hu Li could charge in for the takedowns, and he could relax on the sidelines cheering them on. A beautiful arrangement indeed.

But Hu Li looked somewhat confused. “Fight?”

“In the future, we’ll be dealing with more Otherworlds — just like that valley. There are many, many similar ‘anomalous spaces’ in this world, hiding all sorts of dangerous entities,” Yu Sheng explained slowly. “There may be others trapped inside, just like you were. Or other people might come to us for help for various reasons. And I myself… have my own reasons to keep dealing with other Otherworlds and entities. In short, I need help.”

Hu Li listened, but suddenly looked nervous. “Then… will I get trapped again?”

Yu Sheng was taken aback, but soon the foxgirl’s disarmingly genuine reaction brought a smile to his face. “Did you forget about my Path of the Netherworld?”

Hu Li blinked, and a smile slowly spread across her face.

She nodded happily. “Okay! I’ll help benefactor… fight!”

(End of Chapter)