The moment he leaned in, the comments went wild again, filling with words like beautiful, lick, wife, and so on.
Ming Ruan was afraid he was seeing things. Although winter had long since arrived, he hadn’t expected that a holiday like the Spring Festival was still preserved in the interstellar age!
He had previously thought about whether, on Spring Festival day, he should bring the Fluffballs for a good meal just to mark the occasion. But he didn’t know how to convert dates between the Stellar Calendar and the Earth calendar, so it never went anywhere.
Learning today that the interstellar era also celebrated Spring Festival truly gave Ming Ruan a feeling of ‘meeting an old friend in a foreign land’—even if the Spring Festival customs of this era had probably long since changed beyond recognition.
Even though he had just learned of it now, Ming Ruan still very excitedly returned the greeting: “Happy Spring Festival! Is it today? I almost forgot.” He actually only just found out.
Then he grew a little flustered: “I haven’t prepared the New Year goods or the New Year’s Eve dinner yet!”
The chat moved to console him:
“It’s not too late to prepare now.”
“The teleporter is super quick. I just bought my stuff too.”
Thinking about the logistics speed of the interstellar age, Ming Ruan was genuinely comforted.
“Mm, mm! Then I’ll buy them after the stream!” Although Ming Ruan treasured this Spring Festival that had popped up so suddenly, the live stream still had to be done properly.
But the viewers in the room started urging him to place his orders right now, saying they wanted to follow along and buy some Spring Festival must-haves for Fluffballs.
Ming Ruan was totally fooled, obediently opening his light brain shopping interface.
Meanwhile, the comments Ming Ruan couldn’t see, those piling up so thick they nearly blacked out the screen:
“I al↗most↘ forgot—seeing my wife cover up his own identity puts me at ease, hehe.”
“My silly little wife seems so excited, sob, sob!!”
“Hurry, hurry! Where’s the documents team! What else do we do for Spring Festival!”
“The third wave of educational posts has been published! With original documents cited for reference, safe to consume!”
The interstellar era was billions of years removed from Earth. Even if powerful technology had recovered those ancient records, the holiday culture had long since undergone countless iterations.
The interstellar era naturally did not celebrate Spring Festival.
This ‘Spring Festival’… was held specifically for Ming Ruan.
During the days Ming Ruan had been missing, it hadn’t just been the Fluffballs running around for him. Countless people across the galaxy who liked Ming Ruan had also been deeply worried for him.
Everyone thought: now that he’s returned safely, yet because he crossed over and because of the Information Shackle, he has no family to comfort him, no friends to celebrate with him—those powerful, glaringly watchful big shots don’t count—the netizens were agonizing over how to make Ming Ruan feel their affection. That’s when someone proposed the concept of ‘Spring Festival.’
Although they didn’t understand why their ancestors would celebrate their planet completing one orbit around a star, since it was one of the most important holidays of his homeland, and the season roughly matched, they all agreed on the plan. Those researching materials did their research, those organizing the masses did their organizing. Finally, this day’s ‘Spring Festival’ came to be.
Seeing a netizen ask what people did for Spring Festival, Ming Ruan, while frantically swiping through ingredients, replied: “There’s way too much to do. You usually need to start preparing many days in advance. Besides cooking a huge table of New Year’s Eve dinner, you also have to clean the house, put up spring couplets, hang lanterns, change into new clothes, buy fireworks and firecrackers…”
The netizens, who were getting their information straight from the source, immediately relayed the message:
“Hurry, spring couplets, lanterns, firecrackers!”
“Checking the formulas again, checking again! Notifying production to start immediately!”
“Scout again, report again!”
“Tch. Suddenly got contacted by the Clarence family, saying they want to participate in formula research and production. Did the lion step out to make a call!”
“Uh, I saw the snow leopard’s not here either. But no movement from the Jin family. Instead, some unknown giant corporation is buying up materials in bulk.”
While the comments were buzzing among themselves, Ming Ruan had pretty much finished picking out his items. It was too late to celebrate this, his first Spring Festival in the interstellar era, with full ceremony. Ming Ruan only bought the important things. For stuff like spring couplets that he couldn’t find ready substitutes for right now, he could only give up.
But there were plenty more days to come! He still had a second, a third, and many, many more Spring Festivals to celebrate.
Ming Ruan retrieved his items at the teleporter. It was mainly just some ingredients.
He carried a huge sack of stuff and set it down in the living room with a thud! A puff of dust rose into the air.
“Let’s make dumplings, baby!”
“Aooo, dumplings!”
“Yay, it’s dumplings!”
“I know this, it’s wrapping all kinds of things in dough skins!”
After his excitement faded a little, Ming Ruan remembered again that he was live streaming. After repeatedly confirming with the netizens that broadcasting this was okay, the netizens finally told the truth:
“Actually, we came here today just to celebrate the holiday with you.”
“Ruanruan is great at cooking. Wanted to learn a thing or two to make for the Fluffballs at home!”
“Why not just teach us all how to make dumplings?”
“Sounds good!” Ming Ruan and the netizens hit it off instantly.
He immediately fetched a large basin from home and poured the flour in, explaining as he went: “You actually have to pay attention to the proportions from the very first step. Next, we’re going to add water, so you need to leave enough room in the basin. Don’t fill it up. Like this.” Ming Ruan gestured with his hand. “You all give it a try too.”
Try it they did.
No sooner had Ming Ruan’s voice faded than he felt a weight on his shoulder. In his peripheral vision, a bright red little paw reached into his flour basin and poked a huge hole through the flour.
Ming Ruan: ?
Ming Ruan turned his head and locked eyes with the little fox perched on his shoulder.
Shi Huai looked innocent: Didn’t you say to try?
None of the people present knew about all of today’s behind-the-scenes planning. They were already lagging far behind the netizens. They needed to put on a good showing even more so now.
When Ming Ruan brought up kneading dough, Shi Huai saw the snow leopard secretly turn his big paws over to look at them. Clearly, in this matter, his own small size had more room to shine.
Shi Huai immediately seized the chance, sticking himself to Ming Ruan’s shoulder, and attempted to use this dough-kneading session to begin some sweet interaction.
Watching the little fox’s innocent yet full-of-yearning expression, Ming Ruan choked. Yes, he was exactly that kind of father who spoiled his fur-kids without limits.
Ming Ruan puckered his lips and kissed the little fox’s cheek. “Let me do it, Baby—”
Half the words died in Ming Ruan’s throat.
Shi Huai, caught off guard by the kiss, felt his little fox heart thump wildly. He was so dazed staring at Ming Ruan that his stiff limbs lost their balance, and he plopped headfirst into the flour basin, sending up a huge cloud of dust.
The startled little fox instinctively leaped up and shot away. His paws kicked, toppling the entire flour basin over. All the flour inside surged forward in a great white wave.
The gray wolf and snow leopard successfully sidestepped and dodged. White Tiger, who habitually stood behind Ming Ruan, was also spared. The sole victim of this heavy blow was Fuxi, who similarly hadn’t wanted to stray too far from Ming Ruan and happened to be standing right opposite.
A whole basin of flour, flour basin included, slammed down onto the lion’s face. The golden-brown lion instantly turned into a white lion.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded, at the scene before them. Even the live stream chat ground to a halt.
There were many meticulous, image-conscious individuals present. But it had to be Fuxi—the one most obsessed with image, protocol, elegance, and all such things.
Shi Huai ran a distance away, realized he had caused trouble, and whimpered, scooting back over, belly pressed to the ground.
Fuxi: …
Endure, endure. Restrain yourself. Don’t be impolite…
Seeing Ming Ruan wasn’t angry, Shi Huai pushed his luck, rolling over in front of him to expose his belly and wriggling ingratiatingly.
Ruanruan won’t be mad at me, right?
The lion let out an extremely human-sounding noise that resembled a cold laugh: Restraint was bad for reversing therianthropy.
Everyone thought Fuxi would explode in fury, that this holiday would be ruined. But the lion did not roar, nor did he fight. He swept up the metal basin with one paw and neatly trapped Shi Huai underneath it. Then, with an extreme lack of elegance, he planted all four paws on top of it, as immovable as a mountain, completely indifferent to the clanging and banging from Shi Huai underneath.
Everyone: ?
“Help, but hahahahahaha!”
“Has Fuxi finally let himself go too?”
The lion’s action shocked everyone present—in a way that felt bizarre and inconceivable.
The crowd rushed over to break up the ‘fight.’ After a round of chaos, they finally rescued Shi Huai.
The chaos today was far from over.
While making the dumplings, Ming Ruan chatted with the live stream and inadvertently let slip: We can only make a few for symbolic purposes. With just me, dumplings definitely won’t be enough to feed so many Fluffballs.
Xie Gewen, nearby, overheard this. The gray wolf pondered for a moment, then used his paw to slide a lump of dough over. Setting it in front of himself, he imitated Ming Ruan’s movements, pressing his paw down on it back and forth.
Yet just when he finally managed to flatten it out, he realized he couldn’t scoop up the filling with his paws.
Xie Gewen had to admit it: … Impossible. A single wolf simply couldn’t do it.
Finally, when eating the dumplings, White Tiger was lucky enough to get the sole sugar-filled dumpling that Ming Ruan had made. Su Yuyun, who already disliked sweets even in human form and disliked them even more in beast form, tried to swallow it whole without changing his expression. But his tail, thrashing back and forth like a fish out of water, betrayed his true feelings. In the end, Ming Ruan pinched White Tiger’s cheeks and forcibly fished the dumpling out of his mouth.
“If you don’t like eating something, you have to speak up, okay?” Ming Ruan patted White Tiger’s big head.
On the other side, the snow leopard had sneaked some of the alcohol Ming Ruan bought. Jin Qianyu, who could drink a thousand cups without falling, turned into a one-cup lightweight after therianthropy. He was now chewing on his own tail and walking a tipsy catwalk back and forth in front of Ming Ruan.
It was a holiday, so Ming Ruan allowed himself a rare indulgence. He also held a small cup of wine and was slightly tipsy.
In this boisterous, chaotic Spring Festival, the perfectionist let go of his obsession with perfection. The stickler for protocol broke his own restraint. The irreverent joker started taking things seriously… Around Ming Ruan, they were all changing.
Some say affection is the surrender of power and the shift of attention. The gazes of every Fluffball present constantly followed the young man threading through the heart of the excitement. Because it was Ming Ruan, stepping out of their comfort zones to change—they were all willing.
“Wandering among all the big shots with a face of pure innocence, kissing this one and flirting with that one right in front of them… My wife really knows how to play it, I’m impressed.”
“Is this really okay for me to be watching?”
“None of their gazes ever left him, sob, sob, sob. Can you not love him so obviously!”
After eating and drinking their fill, they rested for a bit.
No matter what, Ming Ruan felt this Spring Festival absolutely could not end like this. Spurred on by the alcohol, the little thought he’d been nursing a couple days ago resurfaced.
He slapped the head of whatever Fluffball was nearest to him, stood up, and loudly proposed: “Let’s go to the hot spring!” He counted off the Fluffballs one by one, emphasizing, “Together!”
