Chapter 45: Fox's Concern Drives You to Utter Madness

The little fox rested its two paws on the edge of the bed, looking at Lin Ying with a face full of suspicion, as if appraising her current state.

"There is no need to worry about my state."

Lin Ying's expression remained completely unfluctuated, her tone calm and even as she explained: "A person only has one life. After going through everything that happened recently, I have already started taking high doses of combination antidepressant medications."

"Depression is not merely a psychological illness; it also triggers hormonal secretions within the body, thereby causing irreversible physical lesions in the brain..."

"I have already bypassed the mild and moderate stages, entering directly into the severe stage. Being in the severe stage is, in a sense, relatively safe. Those individuals lose all interest and capacity for action; even if they have thoughts of giving up, they fail because they are physically unable to move."

She should have been riding in the same car with her family, accompanying her husband and daughter to a mountain resort.

However, right before departure, Lin Ying received a notification from the main family requiring her to handle some matters, so she did not get into the car.

She survived the car crash.

Afterward, due to a mental breakdown, Lin Ying engaged in deeply irrational behavior at home.

Yet, a fox shattered the car window with a single punch, pulling her directly out of the fishpond, and she survived.

Until eventually, with her illness thoroughly aggravated, feeling completely disillusioned and devoid of all desires, Lin Ying turned her vacation villa into a mortuary... and still, she did not die.

At that moment, Lin Ying, who had never believed in any ghosts, gods, or superstitions, had no choice but to admit that her life was truly unimaginably resilient.

Moreover.

It is easy to invite a deity, but difficult to send them away. The Lord Fox Deity, who had happened to cross paths with her and save her life twice, would likely continue to secretly prevent her from doing anything irrational.

Lin Ying looked at the fox, her expression utterly serene, forcing out a stiff smile as she said:

"The medication I am currently taking is a new type specifically sourced by the main family. They regulate hormones in the body to calm my mind, and through hormonal modulation, they heal the physical lesions..."

"The only side effect is probably insomnia, I suppose?"

Ansheng climbed onto the bed with a suspicious look, raised its small fox paw, and gently touched Lin Ying's forehead.

Lin Ying's expression was exceptionally calm, her pupils showing neither dilation nor contraction. Were it not for the fact that her gaze shifted left and right following the fox's movements, she would have looked more like an exquisitely crafted porcelain doll at this very moment.

Ansheng fetched a mobile phone in its mouth and typed out a message with even deeper worry:

[Are you really alright with your current condition? Why do I feel like you are even worse off than before? Could the main family you mentioned have actually gotten you some fake drugs?]

The fox knew how to use a mobile phone and even how to enter the lock screen password.

While typing, it even remembered to use punctuation marks.

Lin Ying, whose eyes had been as calm as an ancient well, let out a faint ripple in her pupils as she said:

"The medication I am taking is a composite therapy. Some target the physical lesions, others target the listless mental state, and there are even more targeted nutritional supplements..."

"I don't really understand the doctor's professional terminology, but my previous irrationality was simply because I no longer had any attachment to this world."

"I have enjoyed whatever there was to enjoy, and possessed whatever there was to possess. Establishing a family, building a career, weddings and funerals—I have experienced them all. If life were to start over, it would merely mean walking the old path once again."

When she reached this point, Lin Ying's calm and detached tone paused briefly, and a trace of bright light seemed to well up within her pupils:

"I feel that life is nothing more than this. Even if I were given another chance to start over, I do not believe I could do any better than I am doing now..."

"But the appearance of you, Lord Fox Deity, has made me figure certain things out."

"The first time you pulled me out of the fishpond, I didn't actually treat you as a living creature. Your existence to me was probably just a hallucination; I simply attributed it to my own mental collapse."

"But when you appeared the second time, dragging me into the elevator, taking me to the kitchen, turning on the microwave, and forcefully shoving food into my mouth..."

"I knew that the one suffering from a mental breakdown was not me!"

"Yet, I couldn't be sure whether I had lost my mind or not, because I knew my condition was extremely severe. Therefore, ever since that day, I have faithfully kept taking my medicine."

"Because I wanted to find out which of the three—myself, Lord Fox Deity, or the entire world—had truly gone mad!"

At this point, Lin Ying smiled. Her smile was no longer as stiff as before; it was radiant and full of spirit.

"I have consecutively changed four types of medication, and all of them in increased dosages. I can confirm for certain that I am not suffering from any mental breakdown or experiencing hallucinations!"

"You haven't gone mad either, Lord Fox Deity. You even come to take care of me every night, and you even searched Baidu for hours when I had dysmenorrhea to the point of near fainting. I even saw you leaving messages on WeChat for the housekeepers to remind them to pay attention to nourishing my blood when they come tomorrow..."

"I, Lin Ying, have not gone mad. And you, Lord Fox Deity, have not gone mad either..."

In Lin Ying's pupils, a look of intense excitement surged:

"Then... the one that has gone mad is this world!"

"Only if the world has gone mad would it allow me to encounter a miraculous creature like Lord Fox Deity!"

"I am sick, but I take my medicine!"

"And the world is mad! It has no medicine to take! Its condition will only continue to worsen and deepen!"

"In this mad world, I, Lin Ying, believe that nothing is impossible!"

"We have not gone mad; the world has gone mad! I know my life is exceptionally resilient and exceptionally hard to snuff out, so from now on, I will no longer harbor any thoughts of ending my own life!"

"I am going to figure out the rules behind the world's madness!"

"As long as... I find the rules!"

"I will be able to prove that it is the world that has gone mad!"

Lin Ying poured out the utterly chaotic thoughts and reflections that had filled her mind over the past half-month.

"Ying!?"

The little fox was struck with horror. It hurriedly broke free from the arms holding its armpits, ran over to the bedside table to fish out the pillboxes, and began typing the names of the raw ingredients into Baidu to search for the drugs' functions.

Lin Ying... claimed she hadn't gone mad.

Ansheng refused to believe it no matter what. Of course, Ansheng didn't think Lin Ying's condition had worsened; she was already at the ultimate terminal stage, so there was simply no room left for further deterioration.

If there really was any room left, that illness would probably need to be named after Lin Ying herself.

Naturally, Ansheng suspected that the catalyst driving Lin Ying to complete madness was the medication she was taking.

Foreign medications were notorious—three percent therapeutic ingredients and ninety-seven percent stimulants in a single pill was completely normal.

Otherwise, why would so many people abroad pass away from drug overdoses?

"Ying-ying-ying—"

While searching Baidu, Ansheng let out soft whimpers to soothe the emotionally agitated Lin Ying, wearing a face full of worry, terrified that the unhinged Lin Ying might suddenly embrace her and take a bite out of her.

Everyone is afraid of a mad dog.

And Ansheng was currently terrified of Lin Ying. She was merely a little fox; usually, letting you absorb her spiritual essence was already pushing it.

Now... surely you wouldn't want to eat meat in large chunks, would you?

If you keep this up, I'm going to call the police!

Looking at this unhinged, philosophical-student demeanor, Ansheng refused to believe a urine test wouldn't come back positive, no matter what anyone said.

[I am not mad! The world is mad! Only when the world goes mad can a being like Lord Fox Deity be born. As long as one can find the rules of the world's madness, one can determine whether the birth of Lord Fox Deity was a coincidence or an inevitability—firmly convinced that the world has gone mad, Lin Ying feels that her life has ushered in a brand-new rebirth.]

[Wish Accomplished: Thoroughly Unhinged! How can a person overcome all obstacles and march forward without being a bit mad? (The world itself has been reborn, so how could past conventions dare to block the progress of science? Science combined with metaphysics will inevitably allow my entire family to stay safe and sound!)]

"What the heck!"

I am just a fox, and a white fox at that.

A Firefox can visit a window to fix bugs.

But an albino red fox can't do that!

Seeing the newly refreshed wish on the list, Ansheng was completely numbed to her core.

What's wrong with me? How could I possibly not know what I am?