Chapter 9: 009 Fox

It snowed the night before.

Early morning, Ming Ruan was woken by the soft, plopping sound of falling snow.

Ming Ruan raised his wrist to glance at his Light Brain. The Boss, who usually replied very quickly, still hadn’t responded to yesterday’s message about the white tiger.

Maybe he happened to be busy.

Ming Ruan didn’t dwell on it. He got up, washed up, and then abruptly pulled open the bedroom door, loudly declaring: “Good morning, Mr. Gray Wolf!”

“…”

Silence filled the house.

Ming Ruan looked around and found the gray wolf was gone again.

But figuring it was probably like last time, just running out for some air, Ming Ruan wasn’t too anxious. He made breakfast and waited to see if the gray wolf would come back to eat.

Didn’t come back.

Made lunch.

Didn’t come back.

Made dinner.

Didn’t come back.

Ming Ruan: ?

Maybe it was having too much fun outside after just learning to frolic yesterday!

And this was the season’s first snow, piled thick and heavy. Originally, upon seeing the snow when he woke, Ming Ruan had planned to take the gray wolf out to play in it anyway.

If the gray wolf went out to play by itself now, that was fine too!

Ming Ruan wasn’t particularly moody. He quickly accepted the idea of ‘the kid’s grown up and doesn’t come home.’

However, the second day, Ming Ruan waited in the living room until midnight without the gray wolf returning.

If at this point, Ming Ruan felt a bit bothered, wondering how the gray wolf could disappear for so long without a word…

Then by the end of the third day, still without a trace of the gray wolf, Ming Ruan was somewhat worried.

He had wanted to ask the boss if he knew anything about the gray wolf’s situation.

But looking at his conversation with the boss, it was still stuck on the white tiger matter.

Ming Ruan had to give up. He searched the entire night through the standard workstation in the Executor’s Residence and the Flying Sedan, finally digging out something seemingly useful from the contract on his Light Brain.

“A12 District Executor Permissions” page.

Clicking on this page revealed a bunch of dropdown options.

One of them was 【Location】

Ming Ruan tentatively clicked it.

A notification box popped up: 【Apologies, your permissions are insufficient and cannot view this. Apply for viewing permission? Confirm / Cancel】

Ming Ruan looked up at the page’s title in confusion.

What? Wasn’t this page called “A12 District Executor Permissions”?

So, wasn’t he, Ming Ruan, the A12 District Executor?

Ming Ruan tried several other permissions. Without exception, each one popped up the 【Permissions Insufficient】 notification box.

In the middle of the night, Ming Ruan hugged his knees, nestled in the sofa, sinking into deep bewilderment.

He unknowingly fell asleep just like that.

The next morning, Ming Ruan was awakened by his Light Brain vibrating. Drowsily, he glanced at it, and his whole body snapped awake as if doused with cold water.

The Light Brain, which had been quiet since his transmigration, now displayed a chat group buzzing with constant vibrations.

The name was very direct and clear: “Main Star Sanatorium Zone Executor General Group”

Ming Ruan scrolled through. The first message displayed to him was:

District 7: “Who dragged him in here??”

Followed by a neat row of identical copies.

Scrolling further down, a person noted as District 11 retorted.

District 11: “Does a District 12 Executor not count as an Executor?”

District 7: “Haha, a one-month Probationary Executor counts as an Executor?”

District 7: “Where is the person? Say something?”

District 7: “Oh, they’re from District 12. Looks down on us small folks, huh.”

The District 7 Executor stirred up drama frantically in the group, but at that time, Ming Ruan was still blissfully asleep. He jumped around for a while without Ming Ruan replying. Finding it boring, the group switched to discussing a Cross-District Incident.

District 4: “So long, and still not found? @District7, your performance review’s gonna get docked, right?”

District 5: “What species is it?”

District 7: “Damn it, don’t mention that.”

District 7: “A fox.”

So the little animal that strayed across districts was a fox.

It actually wasn’t that white tiger!

The Light Brain vibrated again. It was a private message from “District 11” in the group.

District 11: “Hello, I’m the District 11 Executor. Saw you applied for executor permissions multiple times yesterday. Did you run into some trouble?”

The person on the other end, without waiting for Ming Ruan to ask, rattled off everything.

District 11: “Because you haven’t been officially appointed yet, the District 12 Executor permissions were assigned by the Adjudicator for me to manage on your behalf. If you need anything, I can operate it for you.”

District 11: “Ignore the people in the group. They’re bored and looking for trouble.”

District 11: “I think you’re different from what’s said online. Keep it up.”

This was the first time since arriving in this interstellar era that Ming Ruan had received goodwill from a stranger!

This kind of normal, peaceful exchange actually stirred a sense of novelty and long-lost familiarity within him.

Ming Ruan seized the opportunity and asked the District 11 Executor to help him check on the gray wolf’s situation.

District 11: “Ah, so it’s for this. You two did seem very close that day.”

District 11: “Got it. Location is deep within the Outdoor Forest Simulation Zone. Vital signs normal.”

District 11: “Did you need something from him?”

Deep within the Outdoor Forest Simulation Zone, vital signs normal.

Ming Ruan paused. The worry in his heart was shattered.

But immediately after, his mood dipped, a rare occurrence.

So, the gray wolf just left like that?

Went back to the forest.

Without a word, without saying goodbye.

Not even thinking about who would cook for it out in the wild.

Ming Ruan grumbled quietly in his heart: Wolf, bad.

Seeing Ming Ruan not reply for a long time, the District 11 Executor’s imagination ran wild. Typing for a while, they sent another message.

District 11: “Don’t take it too hard. Actually, being an Executor only looks glamorous on the surface. You don’t really have much status inside the Sanatorium Zone. In the end, being together depends on the big shots’ inclinations… Mhm, but if you’re just into that sort of thing, it’s fine too. There are so many to choose from anyway.”

District 11: “But you’re in District 12. I think you still need to be mindful of propriety!”

Ming Ruan’s little head filled with big question marks.

He truly couldn’t understand what this enthusiastic Executor was talking about, but his low mood left him with no extra energy for detailed analysis.

So, somewhat guiltily, he brushed it off: “Mm, mm, okay, thank you, I understand. I’ll be careful.”

The conversation ended.

Ming Ruan buried his face into the sofa.

So the gray wolf had simply left.

So he was just an intern.

…

Woo woo.

Ming Ruan allowed his mood to sink for a while. After basking in the warm noon sunlight, he felt slightly better.

Hey!

Wolves, well! They naturally need to be active in the wild.

Maybe it had suffered such severe injuries and sought human help before because of some unavoidable circumstances.

Now that those circumstances were resolved, naturally, it left.

That’s great.

As for him.

Intern or not.

He didn’t believe that he, Ming Xiao Ruan, who dominated the Earth pet world, couldn’t handle interstellar fluffballs!

He had moved on.

He hoped Mr. Gray Wolf would have a happier life!

He himself was also starting a new life!

Now, his goal was: Get officially appointed!

Ming Ruan recharged himself. Planning first to carry out today’s Forest Patrol task, then find the District 11 Executor to ask in detail about the internship-to-official-appointment process.

Ming Ruan hopped and skipped onto the Flying Sedan, calling out naturally: “Mr. Gray Wolf, fir—”

“Oh right, Mr. Gray Wolf started his new life.”

Ming Ruan gently patted his own mouth twice and activated the Flying Sedan.

On StarNet, it was utter pandemonium.

From the day Ming Ruan said those words, the live stream room instantly felt this was the classic “hero saves beauty, beauty confesses passionately” plot! Everyone was nervously and excitedly shipping this uncertain sweet-or-angsty story. For a time, CP fans sprung up like mushrooms after rain, directly pushing “Xie Gewen ❤ Ming Ruan” onto the StarNet trending charts.

The result was, of course, getting cursed out brutally.

Those watching the Executor’s live stream room were just a minority. No matter how relatively harmonious the live stream room’s atmosphere had become now, the netizens who truly hated Ming Ruan hadn’t even entered the fray yet.

After the CP fans were routed, “overstepping to claim association with the former Council Speaker, not even sparing his beast form” was once again listed as one of Ming Ruan’s crimes.

But just then, someone quietly transcribed Ming Ruan’s words into text and posted it on StarNet, adding a topic #eyesarepeeing.

Many initially didn’t pay attention, but upon clicking, one by one, they ended up teary-eyed. Those unable to hold back poured out their grievances, those emotionally wrecked begged for deletion, taking turns. Ultimately, everyone unanimously pushed this Star News post onto the trending charts with a single shared line:

“I’m just a human.”

“Have so many things I can’t do. Very imperfect.”

“Thank you for liking me.”

After the Star News post went viral, people finally started digging into the source of these words.

Seeing this, a live stream viewer directly threw out a screen recording.

In the video, the young man held the gray wolf’s cheeks below the ears, a pair of bright, pure black eyes gazing silently into ice-blue eyes.

The young man spoke very lightly, slowly, gently. Not in a tone of lecturing great principles.

Every word was filled with gentleness and love.

Being asked by such a voice: “You like me too, right?” “Just like I also like you.”

The masses directly inserted themselves into the gray wolf’s role, squealing madly.

Amidst the squealing, someone suddenly jumped out saying, wait, isn’t this Ming Ruan? Isn’t that wolf Xie Gewen?!

Silence.

Silence was the Kang Bridge tonight!!

StarNet finally faced a massive test of its carrying capacity.

Thus, the number of people coming to Ming Ruan’s live stream room today increased significantly.

[Squeeze in, squeeze in]

[Wuwu, how could Xie Gewen just leave? I’m wrecked. My ship sank!! Scumbag!! Wuwuwu, little cub is still calling for him wuwuwu]

[??? Ming Ruan’s fans are all as brain-dead as their idol, right? Daring to badmouth the Council Speaker, your accounts are done for.]

[So lively. Heard there’s drama here. Squatting down.]

[Old fans don’t even dare speak now.]

[First time seeing Ming Ruan do Forest Patrol alone, right? From day one of his appointment, he saved the gray wolf, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.]

[The Council Speaker is truly very dedicated and responsible. Forest Patrol was never his responsibility.]

[Speaking of saving the Council Speaker, that should count towards Ming Ruan’s performance points, right?]

[Performance points, my foot. Maybe he won’t even live to get officially appointed before dying?]

Just then, an anomaly alert popped up on Ming Ruan’s Flying Sedan.

“Biological signal anomaly?” Ming Ruan leaned closer to read it. This was a situation he had never encountered before.

What did biological signal anomaly mean? Could it be the white tiger again?

Ming Ruan grew a little wary. Yet he didn’t understand. Last time, the white tiger clearly hadn’t triggered the Flying Sedan’s alarm.

At this moment, the Flying Sedan displayed another message: 【Danger Level: Low. Recommend the Executor personally investigate the anomaly.】

It probably meant he needed to get out and document it.

Ming Ruan, like a vigilant little animal, peeked left, peeked right, and nimbly darted off the vehicle.

However, a figure launched high from the other side of Ming Ruan’s Flying Sedan, diving straight down at Ming Ruan!

Ming Ruan instinctively turned back. A black shadow, like a sharp sword, extended sharp claws, lunging straight for his face.