Chapter 159 – At Home

Passing through the front door and returning home, No. 66 Wutong Road still looked the same as always — the furnishings were cheap but perfectly functional, the decor was a bit dated but reasonably spacious, the house was warm, the lights bright and windows clear. That old television still hadn’t crashed yet, and Eileen was sitting on the table, completely absorbed in watching some utterly mindless variety show. The other Eileen ran into the living room the moment they got home, climbed onto the coffee table, grabbed the remote to turn on the other TV, and started catching up on her urban drama.

Honestly, Little Doll was rather impressive in this regard — the idiotic garbage she watched made Yu Sheng feel his brain trembling from just one glance, yet she could actually split herself to watch two shows simultaneously and still maintain her sanity… No wonder her brain wasn’t quite right.

Hu Li ran off to the kitchen and obediently washed her hands, then came back with half a sausage dangling from her mouth, strolling leisurely into the living room. She pulled out the old phone Yu Sheng had given her and continued studying how to use the thing.

Yu Sheng changed his clothes. The sounds of entertainment programs drifted to his ears from the television, along with Eileen’s commentary roasting the idiotic plotlines and her giggling laughter, occasionally punctuated by Hu Li’s complaints about the doll being too loud. He looked at the scene in the living room, and for a dazed moment felt an incredible sensation wash over him.

He had been living in this big house for two or three months now, and for most of that time, all he could think about was when he could leave this place and return to the home he truly remembered. But now, just in this moment, in these few minutes, he actually felt… that he was already standing at home.

This place was familiar, and it put his heart at ease.

Eileen hopped from the coffee table to the sofa, settling into a comfortable position among the cushions. After a while, she suddenly raised her arm and turned to complain at Hu Li: “When is this shedding of yours ever going to stop? The sofa is covered in fur from your tail — it’s even gotten into my joints.”

“Can’t help it, that’s just how we fox-spirits are,” Hu Li replied to the doll’s complaints while simultaneously fiddling with her phone and gnawing on her sausage. “Give it another couple months and it’ll get better…”

Eileen looked up in puzzlement while picking fox fur out of her ball joints: “You’ll stop shedding in two months?”

“You’ll have gotten used to it by then.”

Eileen immediately sprang to her feet and whipped around, hollering: “…Yu Sheng, aren’t you going to do something about this stupid fox?!”

Listening to the doll’s exasperated tattling, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but smile. He suddenly felt that days like these were actually pretty nice. So he walked over and sat down between the doll and the fox, enjoying this brief moment of peace — and incidentally separating the two of them.

Hu Li happily scooted over on the sofa, draping one of her tails across Yu Sheng’s lap: “Here, benefactor — have a tail!”

Then Yu Sheng immediately heard a rapid string of crackling pops, and his arms and legs stung as if a ring of needles had been jabbed into them —

The crackling static electricity was winter’s blooming flower, and its flower language was: time to turn on the humidifier.

Yu Sheng was shocked. He had barely gotten used to the fact that the fox-spirit living in his house shed fur, and now, with today’s dry weather, he discovered that fox-spirits not only shed — they also generated static electricity in winter. In all the countless fox-related stories throughout the ages, nobody had ever written about this!

Hu Li seemed completely unfazed. Her other tails were still rubbing against the sofa, and every now and then a crackle and a flash of blue light would spark between them, making her look like a lightning cultivator.

Yu Sheng shuddered from the shocks and reached out to press down on the fox-spirit girl’s tail, his voice resigned despite his surprise: “Your tails… generate static electricity too?”

“Yep,” Hu Li nodded. “It’s really pretty when you turn off the lights at night — rub them hard enough and they crackle for several minutes!”

Yu Sheng stared in amazement, then spoke in a somewhat hesitant tone: “I really don’t mind your winter shedding, but don’t you monsters have some kind of spell for getting rid of static in winter?”

“Sure do.”

“Then why don’t you…”

“Never learned it.”

Yu Sheng had absolutely no idea how to respond to that. So he started cautiously stroking Hu Li’s tail (he still got zapped occasionally, but the texture really was wonderful), while his mind began cycling through various ideas both practical and impractical — buying several large humidifiers, getting Hu Li grounded slippers, using a damp comb to brush her tails — and gradually, drowsiness crept up on him.

He had gotten up too early today, and with so many things happening lately, his sleep had never been great. The moment this sense of relaxation washed over him, the drowsiness became impossible to resist.

His eyelids drooped and he let out a soft, relaxed sigh. In his haze, some of the things from his conversation with Baili Qing echoed in his mind — about Hu Li’s origins, and the unknowns beyond the world.

“Hu Li,” Yu Sheng suddenly spoke, his voice still a bit groggy. “Are you happy living here?”

Hu Li froze for a moment, then raised her head to look at Yu Sheng, who seemed to be dozing off. After staring blankly for a moment in thought, a purely genuine smile finally bloomed on the fox-spirit girl’s face: “I’m happy.”

“Oh, that’s really good. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters…” Yu Sheng yawned and adjusted his position on the sofa, lying down. “I’m a bit sleepy. Gonna nap for a bit. I’ll cook for you when I wake up.”

Hu Li gave a small “oh,” and by the time she looked down again, Yu Sheng had already fallen asleep with his head resting on one of her tails.

The TV volume was instantly turned down to the minimum.

Eileen scooted over from the side, craning her head to peek at the now-sleeping Yu Sheng, and mumbled: “How come he didn’t bother asking me too…”

Hu Li thought about it for a moment, then said with a completely serious expression: “Probably because you usually look so happy all the time that benefactor figured he didn’t need to ask.”

Eileen immediately bared her teeth at Hu Li, then looked down at Yu Sheng: “Fine, he’s had a rough couple of days anyway. Humans are such troublesome creatures — too much stress and they can’t sleep, can’t sleep and they get more stressed. Him being able to eat and sleep like this is way better than insomnia at least.”

Hu Li nodded, then looked up at the clock on the opposite wall. Whatever she was thinking about, a hint of eagerness suddenly appeared on her face: “Hey, it’s almost time to cook dinner.”

Eileen started, then immediately widened her eyes: “All you think about is eating! He just fell asleep! Didn’t he say he’d wait until he woke up to…”

“I know, I know,” Hu Li waved her hand, cutting the doll off. “That’s why I’m saying… how about we go make dinner? Benefactor works so hard cooking every day — let’s not make him do it today…”

“I think the main reason cooking is hard for him is you,” Eileen immediately rolled her eyes. “And that sounds nice and all, but can you actually cook?”

Hu Li immediately puffed out her chest with confidence: “I watch from the side every day — I’ve learned it all!”

“All you do from the side is sneak food. When did you ever learn anything?” Eileen eyed her suspiciously, but deep in her gaze she was already wavering. After forcing a serious expression for a few seconds, she scooted forward: “Well, it’s not completely out of the question… You may not be the most reliable, but I do have the blessing of the Ancestral Doll after all. We dolls from Alice’s Cottage come with a built-in cooking bonus in the kitchen… I’ll be your safety net.”

“Great!” Hu Li’s face lit up with delight and she was about to get up, but quickly remembered that one of her tails was still being used as Yu Sheng’s pillow. She reached over and pulled that tail free, then thought for a moment and pulled off two more tails, draping them over Yu Sheng like a blanket.

From beneath the fluffy tails came a rapid string of crackling sounds, and Yu Sheng shuddered twice on the spot — but stubbornly didn’t wake up.

Eileen watched from the side with her jaw dropped, unable to help but marvel: “He really is exhausted…”

Then she saw Hu Li still pulling off more tails, and quickly waved her hands: “Hey, that’s enough! What the hell — are you trying to care for him or electrocute him?!”

“I’m going to spread these on the floor beside him, in case he rolls off the sofa in his sleep,” Hu Li said without looking up as she laid tails on the ground.

Eileen watched those fox tails — fully charged from rubbing against the sofa for so long — being laid out neatly on the floor. For a moment she couldn’t decide whether, if Yu Sheng really did roll over, it would hurt more to land on the floor or to land on this pile of tails supercharged with five-thunder static electricity. After careful consideration… it would probably hurt more to land on the floor.

After all, she was a doll. She didn’t conduct electricity.

And so these two girls — one an elementary school dropout and the other a correspondence-course kindergarten graduate with prenatal education credits — charged into the kitchen with supreme confidence to make dinner.

Yu Sheng, lying on the sofa in deep slumber, knew nothing of this.

His consciousness had long since sunk into the realm of dreams, where it rose and fell among a chain of bizarre visions and hazy memories.

Like utterly emptied thoughts tumbling and rolling across a windswept lake surface, Yu Sheng found the experience wasn’t actually unpleasant. He vaguely knew he seemed to be dreaming, and was enjoying the process of not having to control his own thoughts, simply letting his consciousness relax.

Then, after some indeterminate stretch of time, he suddenly felt the little “boat” of his consciousness — tossing about on the lake of his mind like a lone skiff — had reached shore.

The chaotic visions receded from his mind, and a stable landscape emerged before Yu Sheng’s eyes.

He saw a boundless, gray wilderness shrouded in dim, heavy light — unknown wild grasses spread and covered the expanse, clouds hung low, all was silent. Occasionally a breeze blew past, but even the sound of the wind carried only hollowness. A small hill stood quietly at the far edge of this wilderness, looking not very far away, yet giving him an inexplicable feeling… that it could never be reached.

Yu Sheng stood silently in the middle of the grass. He stared blankly for a while before suddenly realizing — he had seen this place before.

This was his dream, and not for the first time either — there had even been one occasion when he had encountered Hu Li’s “dream projection” here.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow.

He didn’t know why he had once again entered this strange dream, but the very fact that the same scene could appear in his dreams multiple times meant something was definitely off — after all, he had been dealing with things that were “off” quite a lot lately.

Another breeze blew past, and in the hollow sound of the wind, he suddenly heard a distant, indistinct sound that absolutely should not have been there.

It was the faint howl of a wolf.

(End of Chapter)