Chapter 20
MuMu hid the uniform in the cave of the artificial rock, covering it with various trinkets.
Everything was ready, it just needed the right opportunity!
It needed a perfectly safe time to go out and find a way to earn star coins.
“MuMu, the company is going to a neighboring planet today to select toy materials. I won’t be back until tomorrow.”
That day, before leaving for work, Wen Ming prepared enough food for MuMu for a day and a night.
“Awoo!” This is wonderful news!
MuMu clung to Wen Ming’s arm, its eyes glistening with excitement:
“Awoo, awoo!” This opportunity is perfect!
Wen Ming was pleased by its display of “reluctance”: “Good boy, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
MuMu listened to his instructions, its mind already wandering to the outside world…
The key to this outing was caution.
After Wen Ming left, MuMu waited for several hours, making sure he wasn’t coming back.
“Splash…”
The little mermaid sat on the edge of the pool, its gradient tail dangling.
The next second, a human sat there instead.
Long legs, a slender frame, youthful and full of energy.
The home butler, detecting the sound, entered the mermaid room, its camera turning towards MuMu.
MuMu awkwardly put on the clothes: “Little Butler, you promised, you can’t tell Master.”
“Beep beep, instruction received.”
MuMu gave it a bright smile, fastening the last button.
It peeked through the curtains, made sure no one was outside, and suddenly felt nervous: “Little Butler, I’ll call you when I come back, remember to open the door.”
“Beep beep, information recorded, please scan your face to enter or exit.”
MuMu positioned its face in front of the door scanner. With a click, the vast world opened up to it…
It stepped out of the house and took a deep breath:
“Business opportunities are coming~ Business opportunities are coming from all directions~”
Afraid of getting lost, MuMu walked around the perimeter of the house.
The surroundings were very quiet. Identical detached houses lined the street, but there were no business opportunities, not even any humans in sight.
“Is this… the poor people’s district?” MuMu muttered. “Looks like the suburbs, not very prosperous.”
It walked further and finally saw a human.
And it was someone it knew!
A little girl was sitting on a step, struggling to open a snack bag.
She tried using her small canine teeth, but still couldn’t open it, sighing in frustration.
Xiao Jun’s daughter, Xiao Yue!
“Need some help?”
MuMu crouched down in front of Xiao Yue, trying to appear friendly.
Xiao Yue looked up, her expression freezing as she saw his face.
It was a very familiar face, she was sure she had seen this person somewhere, but couldn’t place him…
“Let me help you!”
MuMu took the snack bag from the stunned Xiao Yue, a blue light flashing in his eyes as his nails grew long.
He swiftly sliced through the packaging, creating a neat opening, better than scissors.
It all happened in a split second.
Xiao Yue only felt the snack bag being taken from her hand, and when it was returned, it had an easy-to-open tear.
In the child’s eyes, it was magic.
“Wow—” She stared at the snack bag for a long time, then placed something from beside her into MuMu’s hand. “Thank you!”
“For me?”
“Yes!”
“Thank you!” MuMu’s smile was infectious, and Xiao Yue smiled back, revealing her little canines.
“Xiao Yue!”
Xiao Jun’s loud voice echoed from afar, and he shouted warily: “Who’s there!?”
MuMu, knowing it was a “suspicious person,” rushed to a dark corner and hid.
“Honey, are you okay? Daddy shouldn’t have left you alone.”
Xiao Jun was filled with fear, checking his daughter all over.
She was unharmed, but there was a strange tear in her snack bag.
“Oh my god, how did you tear it like this!?” Xiao Jun gasped. “That person had a knife, didn’t he?”
Xiao Yue hugged her snack: “I didn’t see clearly…”
MuMu scratched at the air with its now-retracted claws and muttered: “It seems I can’t just extend my claws casually…”
“Hello? Security?”
Xiao Jun had already made an emergency call: “There’s a suspicious person lurking around, right here in the residential area!”
MuMu shrugged and turned back:
“Better go home, I’ll come back out after the security sweep…”
On the way home, it examined the gift Xiao Yue had given it, a masquerade mask with a simple drawing of the twin blue moons.
MuMu loved the color blue and played with the mask fondly.
“Guys, I finally found an opportunity!”
MuMu heard someone whispering from behind a wall.
“The security guards have left their patrol for some reason. I’ll climb over this wall and livestream from the most mysterious residential area in the interstellar world!”
The person struggled to climb to the top of the wall, panting as he spoke into his optical brain:
“The residential area with the supposedly tightest security, is nothing more than this. I heard that everyone living here is the interstellar’s most… Ouch!”
The streamer, caught off guard, made eye contact with MuMu on the other side of the wall, his foot slipping, and he fell into the bushes.
MuMu parted the bushes: “Are you okay?”
“Shh—”
The streamer got up, holding his waist, his index finger pressed against his lips, the virtual screen of his optical brain displaying the livestream.
“Are you a maintenance worker?”
The streamer looked at MuMu’s clothes and his delicate face, imagining him as the young master of a declining family forced to work.
He clicked his tongue: “Your family isn’t very well-off, is it?”
MuMu was taken aback: “How did you know?”
The streamer smiled confidently, pulled out a few star coins, and placed them in MuMu’s hand: “A little hush money, understand? Keep quiet.”
Star coins!
MuMu hadn’t expected money to be so easy to earn. It grabbed the streamer’s arm:
“You’re so generous, what do you do to be so rich?”
“Keep a low profile.” The streamer waved his hand. “I’m just a small-time streamer, just passed a thousand followers. Those big streamers can earn tens of thousands of star coins a day!”
“Strea…mer…”
MuMu memorized the word: “How do you become a big streamer?”
“Stream unique content, gain followers, increase traffic. Viewers like to see things they’ve never seen before.”
The streamer pointed at the luxury houses, his eyebrows raised conspiratorially: “For example, I’m planning to sneak in here and show my followers the disparity between the rich and poor in the interstellar world.”
MuMu’s mouth immediately turned downwards: “Being poor doesn’t mean you should be disrespected like this!”
“…Huh?”
“We’re already working hard, living here is not our fault.” MuMu said righteously.
The streamer was even more confused than when he had fallen: “Are you bragging?”
MuMu retorted loudly: “I’m not bragging!”
“You!”
The commotion attracted security, and a group of guards surrounded them.
The guards looked back and forth between the two, seemingly unsure which one was the “suspicious person” reported by a resident.
The streamer turned off his optical brain and stood shoulder to shoulder with MuMu:
“Officers, we’re here for maintenance work.”
The guards were skeptical: “Really? He’s wearing a uniform, why aren’t you?”
“I… just started, my uniform isn’t ready yet.”
“Enough.” The guard frowned and turned to MuMu. “You tell us!”
“He climbed over the wall.” MuMu pointed at the disturbed bushes, recounting truthfully, “He made that hole when he fell.”
“You little!” The streamer grabbed MuMu by the collar. “I bribed you, and this is how you repay me?”
“What’s a bribe?”
MuMu’s eyes were wide and innocent, like a bewildered fawn.
The streamer’s curses inexplicably lost their venom:
“I, you… Officer, he just took my star coins, we’re together, arrest us both!”
MuMu opened its hand, revealing a few star coins.
It had been gripping them so tightly that red marks were imprinted on its pale palm, looking rather pitiful.
“I don’t know, he gave me the star coins after he fell.” MuMu dejectedly held them out to the streamer. “Here you go.”
Its pronunciation was peculiar, like a child learning to speak, some syllables slurred together, innocent and endearing.
A pang of guilt struck the streamer, and he stammered: “No, keep it…”
The situation became clear.
The guards took the streamer away. Before leaving, they said kindly to MuMu, dressed in a maintenance uniform:
“Work hard.”
MuMu pursed its lips: “Thank you.” Although I haven’t found a job yet.
The way home was clear.
As soon as MuMu entered the house, it called out eagerly: “Little Butler!”
“Beep beep!” The home butler approached.
“Little Butler, I found a business opportunity! I’m going to be a streamer!”
MuMu excitedly hugged it, its arms wrapping around the cylindrical body, its cheek rubbing against it:
“I’m going to become a big streamer, earn tons of star coins, and let you and Master live a good life.”
The home butler’s loading circle spun, as if thinking, then it extended a mechanical arm and hugged MuMu back.
“You’re excited too, right?”
MuMu’s eyes sparkled in the camera’s reflection:
“I’ll bankrupt Master’s company, then he won’t have to work overtime or go on business trips!”
On a neighboring planet, Wen Ming, owner of Wen Corporation, sneezed.
He didn’t pay it any mind, focusing on the meeting…
“Honey, where’s your mask?”
The little girl thought for a moment: “I gave it away.”
“Really?” Xiao Jun was surprised. “The mask with your favorite twin blue moons on it.”
The little girl looked at Xiao Jun, who was choosing a storybook: “Daddy, tell me the story of the twin blue moons again? As my bedtime story.”
Xiao Jun stroked her head and began:
“A long, long time ago, two planets deviated from their orbits and started to approach each other.
You see, when two completely different planets get so close, they’re likely to collide, destroying the entire star system.
The entire interstellar world was in a panic.
But unexpectedly, they didn’t harm each other.
Miraculously, the two planets began to orbit each other, as if willingly becoming each other’s moons, forever protecting each other.
They formed a unique entity, reflecting the light of the star, which is what we see as the twin blue moons at night.
No matter how much humans investigated and measured, they couldn’t explain this phenomenon. It’s an interstellar marvel…”
“Daddy, do things like that really happen in the world?”
The little girl asked in confusion: “An attraction so strong that it defies the laws of the universe, is that really possible?”
Xiao Jun shrugged and looked up at the twin blue moons outside the window:
“Miracles can’t be explained with words.”
At the same time, the faint blue light of the twin moons shone through another window, falling on a masquerade mask.
MuMu adjusted the mask’s position in front of the camera and licked its dry lips:
“I’m ready!”
“Beep beep! Livestream started…”
