Chapter 4
“Of course you’re not human! You’re all a bunch of blind fools!”
Ning Zhixia flinched at the sudden outburst, a flame-like shadow slowly enveloping him. In an instant, exclamations and screams filled the room.
“Waaah!”
“The fox has gone mad and is going to eat me!”
“Help! Help!”
“What Management Bureau, what Heavenly Dao, you’re all a bunch of heartless gods, just as hateful as those mud people! You invited me here and still don’t believe me!”
Su Qiushui’s patience with the administrators had run out. Her nine thick tails burst out from under her skirt, grabbing the crying and screaming administrators one by one like catching chickens, shaking them up and down like shaking a soda bottle, yelling as she shook, “I said it wasn’t me who killed them, so it wasn’t me! Do you hear me! Do you hear me!”
“Miss Su, calm down first… hey, hey, hey!”
Lu Huai dodged the white foam bubbles spewing from his colleagues. Just as he was about to persuade her to calm down, his words were cut short as his neck tightened, and a tail wrapped around him, pulling him in front of her.
“Come here, you!”
The charming and beautiful face instantly became ferocious, dense white fur emerging from her skin. Lu Huai was terrified, his nerves stretched to the limit, when suddenly she raised her glittering hands—
“See this! This is called… oh right! This is called a manicure! Last night, to get this done, my butt almost lost two tails from sitting so long!”
Her ten fingers shimmered, dazzling like shooting stars. Su Qiushui wanted to show off every single Swarovski crystal she had exchanged her golden hairpin for, but the administrators were almost choking, just shaking their heads and crying for help.
“Look! Why aren’t you looking! Look! Open your eyes and look!”
She became even more enraged, baring her teeth all the way to her ears, revealing two rows of densely packed triangular fangs.
“Hiss—”
The scene of a fox transforming was too terrifying. Ning Zhixia’s hair stood on end, feeling a huge mental shock.
He abruptly stood up, like Jerry driven to a corner, weakly pressing his acupuncture points, his voice trembling: “Qiushui, Qiushui… your, your head…”
The monstrous beast in elegant clothing paused, turning its ferocious fox head towards him, the joints in its neck cracking sickeningly as it grew longer and longer, its beastly pupils narrowing as it hovered over the young man’s head.
And the human body was still several meters away, clutching its chest in anguish, as if saying—
And you, my friend, a fake furry lover!
Ning Zhixia took a deep breath, clutching his chest, fearing that he might faint and solidify his reputation as a “Ning-loves-foxes,” hurting his big client’s feelings.
Su Qiushui didn’t understand how strange she looked. As the white mist spread, a large white fox appeared in the room, dominating almost a third of the space.
“Just because I ate a dozen or so heartless men in the past, you have to hold onto it forever? Didn’t you already strike me with lightning! Why do you want to strike me again when something happens!”
The large fox swung the administrators around with her tails, then let out a muffled whimper and rolled onto her back, flailing her paws dramatically.
She kicked out with a paw, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the wall. “I’m just a beautiful fox, how can you treat me like this!”
The ground shook, and Ning Zhixia fell on his butt: “…”
What a violent Hakimi!
He had a premonition that something bad was about to happen, and rubbed his butt as he got up. However, in the next second, winding cracks appeared on the floor, and with a cracking sound, debris flew everywhere. Everyone fell downwards as if weightless, accompanied by the fox’s whimpers.
Ning Zhixia shrieked: “Oh my, oh my, oh my! I’m going to fall to my death!”
“Snap.”
A crisp snap of fingers seemed to press the pause button.
The cracked wooden planks, the falling files, the tilting table… Ning Zhixia was surprised to find that everything was frozen in mid-air, then quickly rewound to the moment before the chaos, as if controlled by a clock turning in reverse.
He stared, dumbfounded, then suddenly felt his collar being grabbed and pulled back.
In the shaking room, Audrow caught Ning Zhixia, who was almost crushed by the sofa. Before he could react, Audrow casually tapped the fox’s black nose.
“Yelp!”
The fox shuddered, probably from the pain, and immediately sat up, covering its nose with its paws and crying, “Not only do you not believe me, but you even hit me…”
Its voice was sharp and thin, whimpering rapidly with its ears drooping, like a needle piercing his eardrums, making his head hurt.
Audrow frowned, looked around the messy room, placed Ning Zhixia, who was covering his ears, in front of it, and reminded, “Your witness, he believes you.”
“Yelp?”
The fox stopped its childish wailing, abruptly lowered its body, nudged its black nose against Ning Zhixia’s stomach, and said tearfully, “Really?”
“Really, really, I believe you.” Ning Zhixia recovered, reaching out to touch the fox’s muzzle, “This isn’t my first time here, I’m still listening to Lu Huai explain the cause and effect, don’t worry, you have to give me some time to process, right?”
Su Qiushui: “So have you processed it now?”
Ning Zhixia, with a bright red crescent-shaped mark on his philtrum, nodded: “Yes.”
If he hesitated for even a moment, this room would probably immediately turn back into a giant disco ball, with everyone inside being tossed around until their brains were scrambled.
Compared to her strange form earlier, Su Qiushui now was just a white fox who would purr with her ears flattened if you scratched her chin, just with a few more tails and a slightly larger size…
After a little thought, Ning Zhixia felt he could completely accept it, especially since this was a fox who loved manicures.
“Yelp… Boss Ning, you’re so nice!” The fox nudged Audrow aside with her large head, rubbing affectionately against Ning Zhixia’s shoulder.
Ning Zhixia: “You’re welcome.”
Su Qiushui was even more moved: “No wonder you smell better than the mud people in my world!”
“…” Ning Zhixia’s expression suddenly changed, and he silently pushed the drool-covered furry head away.
Taking advantage of the fox’s relaxed state, the half-dead administrators were finally released from the tails, lying weakly on the floor, blowing bubbles.
Lu Huai propped himself up against the wall: “Cough… cough…”
Ning Zhixia: “Back online?”
Lu Huai froze, inexplicably feeling that this sounded like “So you’re still alive.”
The pupils in the dark red beastly eyes followed his movement. Lu Huai cautiously stood behind his silent superior.
Audrow extended his hand. The fox looked down, obediently raising its front paw to place it in his hand.
“You did this?”
Su Qiushui looked expectantly at Ning Zhixia.
Ning Zhixia realized she was talking about her nails and admitted, “Yes, yes, she came last night around 7:30. Because it was a complex design, it took quite a while.”
Not long after Su Qiushui left, things returned to normal outside his shop. Judging by the plane connection time, she had spent the entire time sitting in his shop, working on her glutes.
“It seems the fox wasn’t present when the Yokai disaster occurred.” Audrow stood up, clearly intending to wrap things up.
Lu Huai quickly asked, “Is there any proof?”
“Uh… Qiushui left a golden hairpin, which then turned into money through the QR code.” Ning Zhixia scratched his head, explaining the anomaly with the payment record.
Lu Huai thought for a moment and explained, “Because the plane system was damaged last night, otherwise the payment would have been transferred to you through the Bureau’s account in this plane.”
It works like that?
Ning Zhixia suddenly understood. He realized that even though the system was damaged, the payment he received was merged with his previous income. So this was the power of the plane’s rules.
Su Qiushui was a little disappointed: “So there’s no evidence…”
“Not necessarily…” Ning Zhixia touched the dejected fox’s head, took out his phone, and said, “Do you think this counts?”
It was the comment he received today, which seemed to match Su Qiushui’s tone.
“Eh, isn’t this what I was thinking?” The fox tilted its head, touching the small square with its claw. “What a magical device, it actually knows the fox’s heart!”
Audrow: “That’s a voice of the heart.”
Ning Zhixia was bewildered: “Huh?”
“The connection point has visitors from different planes. After a certain level of satisfaction is reached, a review is automatically generated.” Audrow released the doorknob. “This is how the connection point absorbs energy.”
“Hahahaha! Heaven helps me!”
A burst of unrestrained laughter rang out. White mist spread, and the large white fox transformed back into a glamorous beauty.
With a turn of events, Su Qiushui puffed on her pipe and straightened up, squinting as she hooked Lu Huai’s chin with the long, thin stem. “Little god, do you have any more questions?”
Lu Huai’s face flushed slightly from the smoke blown into his face: “N-no more… We’ll have the new Heavenly Dao team repair the system connection to the 103rd plane as soon as possible. Once the causality is sorted out, heavenly punishment will be dealt to the true culprit…”
It sounded like a slow process. Audrow looked at the administrators as if they were dried salted fish.
At this moment, Ning Zhixia raised his hand like an obedient student: “Being out of control means you lose your god’s perspective, right?”
Audrow nodded: “Hmm.”
A lightbulb went off above Ning Zhixia’s head: “Then why not let Qiushui investigate the truth while the Heavenly Dao team continues to repair the system, doing both simultaneously?”
Su Qiushui’s eyes instantly lit up, her ears perking up.
Good, good, good, she had to catch the scoundrel who dared to frame her!
Some of the administrators looked panicked. Letting the nine-tailed fox investigate would make it difficult to ensure she wouldn’t lose control. Just as they were about to object—
“Fox.”
Audrow called out to Su Qiushui, as if throwing a Poké Ball. “Go.”
“Really! Thank you!”
Su Qiushui cracked her knuckles and left through the passage Lu Huai opened for her. The newly appointed Heavenly Dao team, remembering the plight of their predecessors, abandoned their perfunctory attitude and quickly got to work.
Order was restored, as if the chaos had never happened.
As Ning Zhixia looked at the expressionless administrators, silently lamenting in his heart that there were always worker bees everywhere, he turned around as if sensing something, and Audrow was standing at the door.
He said, “I’ll take you back.”
Ning Zhixia said politely, “No need, I can go back by myse…”
Audrow: “You can’t leave. After I drop you off, I’m off work.”
The sensitive word triggered a brief pause in the clattering keyboards behind them.
Ning Zhixia said decisively, “Let’s go.”
He was afraid that if Audrow continued, his subordinates would start a strike.
The black car sped down the road again. Unlike the journey here, Ning Zhixia didn’t wear the blindfold on the way back. Apart from a few flashes of white light, the street scene gradually became familiar.
He turned to look. The drizzling rain slanted across the window, covering it with beads of water. It was already evening.
At the intersection, Audrow got out of the car with an umbrella. He took a few steps, then seemed to not hear the sound of footsteps behind him, and turned back to stop, his lips pursed slightly.
“Why aren’t you coming?”
Ning Zhixia froze for a moment, then quickly hurried closer to shelter under his umbrella. The dense raindrops pelted the umbrella’s surface.
He suddenly realized that when Audrow said “take you back,” he seemed to strictly mean returning him to the exact spot where he picked him up.
The intersection was only a short distance from number 19. The sign of the Monster Manicure Shop shimmered faintly in the rain and lights. Recalling today’s experience, Ning Zhixia thought the shop’s name was quite fitting.
“Meow! Meow!”
Lost in thought, as he was about to reach the wooden shop door, a few furry creatures that had been squatting by the roadside for a while wiggled their butts, as if smelling a familiar scent, and nimbly turned and pounced—
“Holy moly!”
Ning Zhixia was startled. He looked down. He was fine, but the person next to him had several muddy paw prints on his light gray shirt.
Audrow grabbed one of the orange culprits, which continued to meow shamelessly in a sweet, cloying voice.
Ning Zhixia pouted. How annoying, almost fully grown, and still meowing like a kitten.
Audrow glanced at him sideways: “Yours?”
Ning Zhixia quickly waved his hand: “They’re stray cats from the neighborhood. I’ve fed them a few times and they’ve latched onto me. They usually roam around the nearby shops, eating wherever they can.”
Audrow lifted the cat to eye level, his expression saying “no wonder”: “Round face, quite fat.”
“Don’t say that, it’s because of…”
Ning Zhixia frowned, covering the kitten’s ears, “Its complicated background.”
Audrow was a little interested: “How so?”
Ning Zhixia looked at the dreary rain and sighed: “One is a British shorthair, the other an Oriental tabby. If there’s no fate, this life they still met…”
Audrow was confused: “…Hmm?”
Ning Zhixia smiled: “Mixed breed.”
The air suddenly fell silent, only the soft patter of rain remaining.
Audrow was silent for a moment, then put the cat down, moved the umbrella from over Ning Zhixia’s head, and said to himself, “Let’s go.”
“…”
Wow, quite temperamental.
Ning Zhixia covered his head with his jacket, following behind him silently like a little mushroom.
It’s just a little rain, he really can’t…
Handle this hardship.
Ning Zhixia said to him, “Come to my place to clean up?”
“Okay.”
The cool voice fell, and the departing umbrella turned back, stopping above the young man’s head.
