"So they fell asleep."
Looking at the little puppet holding the On Wandering Star, quietly asleep on the couch cushion, Hu Li couldn’t help but mutter.
Luna passed by the couch, glancing over, and spoke slowly: "Because, it’s that ti."
"Quite a regular schedule," Hu Li glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, casually stuffed the yarn back into her tail, stretched lazily, "I’ll take her back to her room."
"Don’t wake her up," Luna warned, "She’ll be noisy."
"Can’t wake her up, I’m very steady~"
Hu Li said proudly, and then with a flick of her tail, rolled up the little puppet on the couch and headed to the second floor with the little one.
Luna glanced at the TV, saw that there was an advertisent for a robotic vacuum being broadcast in between shows—she tilted her head to watch for a while, then turned off the TV, muttering: "Really, associative..."
Hu Li reached the master bedroom upstairs, found a row of neatly stacked boxes in the corner, and placed the little puppet, which was wrapped in her tail, into one of the boxes. She carefully took out the stone sphere that the puppet was hugging and placed it on the nightstand, tiptoeing so as not to make a sound.
After finishing that, she straightened up and looked around, sniffed hard, and found another sleeping Erin under the bed—it seed she fell asleep researching the flashlight function of a telephone watch.
Then, the demon fox girl searched around the house, found one in the umbrella bucket, another on the loft shelf, and finally collected all the fragnts like she was gathering pieces, putting all the peacefully sleeping little puppets into boxes.
She carefully worked until she finished, covered all the boxes, then exhaled deeply, stood up to take a look at her work, and displayed a happy and proud expression: "I’m just very steady."
As soon as Hu Li finished speaking, her two big ears twitched reflexively, as if she heard so faint sound, and then her eyes lit up, and she dashed out of the room like the wind into the living room—just in ti for Yu Sheng entering the house and turning to close the door.
Yu Sheng felt like he saw a flash before his eyes, heard a whoosh of wind beside his ears, and the next second, a fluff of silver-white fur began to rapidly circle around him, so fast that it left an afterimage, with a 360-degree surround sound echoing around his ears:
"Savior, you’re back~~~"
"Savior, are you hungry? I cooked stew~!"
"Erin fell asleep, just dozed off right before!"
"Savior, why were you gone so long? Erin kept muttering..."
"Savior, you sll like a cat, sniff sniff... it’s the King!"
Yu Sheng was dizzy from the tail swirling around him, reached out several tis and finally successfully pressed down the fox girl’s head, looking at the obviously overly excited Great Demon Fox helplessly: "That alley had so unexpected changes that delayed ... Stop circling, I’m dizzy. Erin didn’t cause any trouble?"
"No, she was actually pretty quiet, compared to her most rambunctious tis," Hu Li said happily, then pulled Yu Sheng’s arm towards the dining room, "Let’s eat first, let’s eat first~ I made a big pot today, it’s really tasty!"
Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng’s stomach indeed grumbled—Little Red Riding Hood and the King went straight to the night market after coming out of the "Dark Alley," probably busy devouring skewers right now, he ca back alone first, worried about the treasures at ho, so he hadn’t had dinner yet.
On the dining table was steaming "Fox Stew"—a bundle of Fox Fire circling beside the stew pot, maintaining the temperature of the stew, the pot still emitting a faint bubbling sound, and beside the big pot was an electric rice cooker with a quarter of rice left inside, a jug of iced tea also on the table, no telling what thod and materials were used to brew it, but the tea emitted a subtle multicolor glow with a refreshing aroma.
Yu Sheng, used to such things, walked over, lifted the lid of the stew pot, glanced inside, greeted the stew, then sat down to start his al.
Hu Li also served herself a bowl of stew, happily eating beside him.
Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and the stew—these three had a delightful al.
"It’s rare to have such peace during a al," Yu Sheng couldn’t help but sigh as he ate, "Without all the noisy chaos, it’s almost a bit disorienting."
"Erin usually doesn’t eat als, but always runs to the table to make trouble when others are eating," Hu Li slurped so soup, muttering, "Last ti she even fell into the stew pot, got thrashed by the stew—I already told her the stew I made that day was pretty aggressive..."
Yu Sheng dryly coughed twice, lowering his head and shoveling rice into his mouth vigorously.
Hu Li suddenly raised her head again, curiously looking at him: "Savior, did you find anything in the ’Dark Alley’?"
"Indeed, found so clues," Yu Sheng paused his eating motion, nodding lightly, "That place... has indeed established a connection with the ’On Goddess’."
Then, he recounted his experiences in the "Dark Alley" to Hu Li in detail, without hiding the situation of the spider silk in the depths of the big hole on the old bookstore’s wall, beyond the Exotic Realm of the Dark Alley.
Hu Li quietly listened on the side, then suddenly raised her head and glanced towards the stairway to the second floor.
"Next ti, take Erin with you," she said while holding a bowl, "otherwise she’ll just keep grumbling at ho and scratching up everything."
"Alright, I’ll bring her next ti," Yu Sheng finished the last bit of food in his bowl, put it down, and wiped his mouth, letting out a satisfied burp, "It was tasty—I’m full."
Hu Li was happy and began tidying up the table swiftly: "I’ll clean up, Savior, you should go to bed early today—exploring the Exotic Realm is tiring."
...
Yu Sheng tiptoed upstairs to the second floor, returned to his room, and in the faint glow of the night lamp, saw four boxes neatly lined up against the wall.
A small piece of a skirt was caught in the gap of one of the box lids.
He shook his head with a smile and walked over to gently knock on the wooden box lid.
The lid was slightly pushed open from the inside, and a pair of scarlet eyes peeked out, glittering under the lid.
"That silly fox put all of in the box—she doesn’t even know that I need a body to sleep on the bed," Erin grumbled from inside, sounding like she wanted to complain, "I can’t sleep like this."
Yu Sheng opened the box, and the next second Erin sprang out of it and instantly leapt onto the bed, starting to roll around like usual, burrowing under the blanket, pushing against the pillow with her head, scrambling across the bed...
The whole process seed completely nonsensical, and Yu Sheng could only interpret it as the little puppet’s boot-up sequence after exiting the box...
He just stood there silently watching, waiting until Erin’s boot-up process was complete, ensuring the little puppet wouldn’t suddenly deliver a flying kick to his back before daring to sit on the edge of the bed. Then he took a deep breath, turned to look at Erin, who had wrapped herself into a ball with the blanket: "In a couple of days, I’ll probably have to go to that ’Dark Alley’ again. You’ll co with then."
The little puppet only had her head exposed from the blanket: "Okay."
"That ’Exotic Realm’ clearly faced an external invasion, the matter is related to that ’On Goddess.’
"Mhm."
"From the current clues, your connection with the ’On Goddess’ might be deeper than we thought—the mutual destruction from three thousand seven hundred years ago turned you into that form in the oil painting. Perhaps, you are no longer just ’Erin’ of Alice’s Cottage, but in a state that’s... more ’complex,’" Yu Sheng decided to just say everything in one go, "If that’s really the case, what do you plan to do in the future?"
In the ball of blankets, Erin blinked her eyes, staring intently at Yu Sheng.
After quite a while, she suddenly spoke: "You get out."
Yu Sheng was taken aback, seed to understand sothing, and nodded gently: "Of course, no matter how the residual influence of the ’On Goddess’ develops, I will definitely find a way to deal with it. I am an expert in the Angel’s counteracting domain, I’ll definitely save you..."
"I ant, you untangle from the blanket—it’s wrapped in too many layers."
Yu Sheng’s sentintal expression ca to an abrupt halt. He stared blankly at the little puppet wrapped so tightly in the blanket.
The little puppet just stared back at him, her small eyes filled with wide-eyed innocence.
Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched a little, and he grabbed the blanket and gave it a shake. The little puppet rolled out and then climbed back onto the bed with hands and feet.
"I haven’t thought about any plans for the future!" Erin stood in the middle of the bed, hands on her hips, looking very self-assured, and she hadn’t forgotten the previous question, "You think about such complicated problems for ."
Even Yu Sheng, whose nerves had grown exceptionally thick recently, didn’t know how to react for a mont. He could only look at the little mite next to him, unable to keep a straight face: "Are you serious?"
"Of course," Erin continued, self-righteously, "How would I know what to do in the future—and after all, we don’t even know the background, intentions, or abilities of the ’On Goddess’ now. I don’t rember anything, there are no clues, how do you expect to plan... might as well go to sleep early."
Yu Sheng was taken aback by the little puppet’s words but found that each sentence seed to make sense. After standing there blankly for a few seconds, he started to laugh at himself.
"Well... right, I guess I’m overthinking things," he exhaled a long breath, feeling a bit relieved, "Let’s just take it one step at a ti, deep planning isn’t exactly the travel agency’s style... scoot over, there’s no room for ."
"I want to sleep in the middle—you can sleep on the edge, that’s fair~~"
Yu Sheng didn’t pay any heed to the little puppet’s haughty deanor, lifted her by the collar, and placed her at the edge of the bed (thankfully not tossing her), then took over the largest part of the bed in the middle.
A mont later, he fell into a deep sleep amidst the little puppet’s squealing, scratching, and incessant grumbling protests.
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