Chapter 5: Worlds Alike Yet Different
“Do you need to use the restroom? If not, wait for me in the car for a moment.”
Holding the fox beside the car, after circling around a few times and sharing her joy, Yu Xueqing opened the door of her car, affectionately nicknamed the "Spicy Fish Head," and placed the fox on the front passenger seat.
Having the right to use a car was an occasion worth celebrating for her, a junior in college.
What made Yu Xueqing even happier was gaining her father's trust.
You see, after passing her driving test, she had once driven her father's pickup truck used for hauling goods.
But while reversing into a parking spot, she bumped into the left side, then the right side. Since then, her father's eyes had been clouded with skepticism.
Though his daughter was indeed dear to him, as soon as she said she wanted to drive his vehicle... well, sorry, Dad was a wild card!
Today, she had regained the privilege to drive on the road!
Even though she was helping the family with summer work, Yu Xueqing was overjoyed.
A car—after all, it was her very own car!
“Whoa! Ah Qing, are you planning to run an online scam?”
After opening the car door, An Sheng noticed three neatly placed fruit-brand smartphones and one Xiaomi phone on the passenger seat.
An Sheng recognized the Xiaomi phone since Yu Xueqing usually used that one, but the other three latest fruit-brand smartphones were unfamiliar to her.
Nowadays, most phones support dual SIM cards, and if one’s not involved in illicit activities, there’s really no need to carry so many phones.
An Sheng looked at Yu Xueqing with a face full of alarm, worried that the girl might be heading down the wrong path, falling into the trap of online fraud.
But Yu Xueqing seemed oblivious to the fox’s concerned gaze.
She cheerfully closed the door to her home, realizing she had forgotten to close it earlier while excitedly sharing her joy with the fox.
As Yu Xueqing shut the main door, a message suddenly appeared in An Sheng’s mind:
[Home guard wish fulfilled. Yu Xueqing is overjoyed and wants to treat the little fox to a feast.]
[Wish Power +1]
An Sheng ignored the message, instinctively focusing her willpower on her body.
A golden glow flickered over her plush fur, and she couldn’t help but display a look of comfort. Her little legs weakened, and her body collapsed onto the passenger seat.
“Ah... feels better than lemon tea.”
Though sprawled awkwardly, An Sheng’s face showed pure bliss, her eyes squinting. The fox’s once delicate features morphed into a goofy smile reminiscent of a Shiba Inu, blending humor with a hint of mischievous cuteness.
Willpower focused on the mind only triggered faint memories of past lives and dark histories, with no remarkable effects.
But willpower applied to the body felt like a top-notch massage, an overwhelming comfort that was hard to resist.
“What’s with that sly expression on your face?”
---
Yu Xueqing sat in the driver’s seat, watching the little fox sprawled out awkwardly on the floor, looking dazed. She couldn’t help but pick up her phone and snap a photo.
With a big grin, she uploaded the picture of little An Sheng to her social media circle.
Of course, she made sure to block her family from seeing it.
When she first adopted An Sheng, she had secretly tested her father’s attitude, hoping to persuade him to increase her living allowance by three hundred yuan.
But after the attempt, she gave up on the idea.
Her father’s response was simple: “Isn’t the silver fox a protected species in our country? How can you keep one? You say it’s a foreign Arctic or North American red fox? No, no, no. We don’t believe in superstitions here. Those foreign deities are useless…”
“Domestic silver fox lord? If you keep a silver fox as a pet, you’re asking for lightning to strike you. I’m the one afraid, not you!”
...
Yu Xueqing put away her phone, picked up the cheeky little fox from the floor, placed it back on the passenger seat, and drove the Spicy Fish Head into the city.
Changxi Town was in the suburbs but only about a ten-minute drive from the city center of Jiu Le.
“Ah Qing… if things really get too tough, just say so.”
“I’m at least a Class 2 driver. Stealing two or three hundred a day isn’t illegal. There’s no need to do anything shady for daily expenses.”
“If it comes to it, I’ll break into the neighbor’s safe to support you…”
An Sheng looked at Yu Xueqing seriously, letting out two plaintive sounds.
‘Master~ don’t you want me anymore?’
‘Master, don’t be like this. When I grow up, I’ll hunt for you!’
The fox’s clear, plaintive voice reached Yu Xueqing’s ears. Though not elegant or precise, it roughly conveyed the meaning in its own quirky way.
“Don’t worry! We won’t get out of the car later; we’ll pack the food and eat it at home!”
Yu Xueqing patted the fox’s head seriously. “No matter what, I’d never abandon you. After all, you really are the one I picked up from the trash bin!”
An Sheng: “........”
Sis, don’t selectively ignore me now!
An Sheng was speechless, unsure how to respond.
But it didn’t matter. If Ah Qing really went astray, he would intervene personally, using her influence to report the scammers to the authorities and have them face justice!
By the way, pork costs twelve yuan per jin now.
He only eats about eight yuan worth a day.
He handles his own late-night snacks and afternoon tea.
So Ah Qing shouldn’t have to resort to shady means for less than three hundred yuan a month. Her family runs a tea house and hasn’t heard of them dabbling in financial scams…
---
An Sheng gazed out the car window, lost in thought.
Outside, dozens of yellow school buses were parked in front of a building resembling a park.
Seeing the clustered school buses, An Sheng covered his face with his paw.
In his previous life, he worked in sales—specifically tea sales.
However, his clients were beverage companies and large-scale distributors, not individual customers, so he had deep knowledge of the tea industry.
Naturally, he applied his past experience to the present and concluded that running a tea house was a sound business.
Though there were similarities between the two planets, differences existed.
For example, those school buses waiting outside the youth center for students.
An Sheng had spent a lot of time on the music app and knew that five years ago, the country’s education system responded to a 93% myopia rate among high school graduates by implementing a green health education campaign across all schools.
The campaign aimed to reduce myopia and decrease the number of fragile university students.
No matter how busy the studies, students had to spend at least one and a half hours daily exercising.
Elementary students were supervised by the youth center, while middle and high school students were overseen by their teachers, with mandatory requirements. Even physical education grades counted toward college entrance scores.
At university level, physical education was voluntary.
It was unavoidable—the previous generation of university students was so fragile, a gust of wind could knock them down.
“Boss! Two salted and freshwater crabs in Typhoon Shelter style, then steam a fish, and some fresh squid? Poach a little, then pack two bowls of plain congee for me.”
The Spicy Fish Head stopped in front of a large food stall. Yu Xueqing stood on tiptoe, peering at the ingredients in the fish tank, and greeted the stall owner.
Almost all restaurants refused pets.
To avoid trouble, Yu Xueqing chose a food stall near her new home in Jiu Le City to pack meals for herself and the little fox to eat in the park in front of the youth center.
An extra three thousand yuan salary seemed like a lot, but Jiu Le City, being near the sea, had many seafood dishes.
Yu Xueqing was careful with her orders but still spent nearly four hundred yuan, feeling a tightness in her chest when paying.
Why eat in the park near the youth center instead of at home?
Because Yu Xueqing worried that if she brought the “foreign deity” home, her father might instantly transform into a materialist war god, wielding a peach wood sword in one hand and a statue of the God of War in the other, ready to exterminate her little fox.
Offering foreign deities? What a joke! This country doesn’t believe in such nonsense!