Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 13

When Fu Anyu returned at noon, Ming Ying was still watching TV.

She glanced at the travel program that had just ended and asked Ming Ying, “Do you want to read a book?”

“Yes, I do!” Ming Ying nodded eagerly, turned off the TV, hopped out of her little nest, and trotted over to the bookshelf. She looked up, waiting for Fu Anyu to pick out a book.

But Fu Anyu said, “It’s not easy for you to turn pages with your paws. How about this, I’ll give you a tablet. It has e-books on it, and you can just tap the screen lightly with your paw to flip the pages.”

“What’s a tablet?” Ming Ying looked at the computer bag Fu Anyu had placed on the chair. “And what’s an e-book?”

Fu Anyu didn’t answer. Instead, Ming Ying watched as she took a black device from the shelf. It looked like a phone but was slightly larger. Then she pulled out a neatly coiled black cord, plugged one end into the device and the other into two small holes in the wall.

The device emitted a soft hum, and the side facing upward lit up.

“This is the screen,” Fu Anyu said, crouching down to pick up the fox and placing her on the desk. She opened an app and pulled up an e-book she had purchased earlier. “E-books are set to horizontal layout by default, but you can switch it too vertically.”

“Then I want it vertical,” Ming Ying said quickly.

After adjusting the orientation, Fu Anyu fine-tuned the brightness, font size, line spacing, and other settings before placing the tablet in front of Ming Ying. “Tap the bottom of the screen to turn the page.”

Ming Ying had never seen such a book before, and her curiosity was piqued. Instead of diving into the content right away, she tapped her paw on the four corners and the middle of the screen.

She had learned quite a few characters by now, but some of the pop-up content still confused her. After playing around for a bit, she couldn’t resist asking Fu Anyu, “What does ‘Listen to Book’ mean?”

“If you tap it, someone will automatically read the current page aloud,” Fu Anyu explained, pressing the confirmation button and selecting an expressive female voice. Soon, the entire room was filled with the sound of the woman passionately reading the text.

Ming Ying found it awkward and quickly asked Fu Anyu to stop the narration. Back in the fox clan’s royal city, there was an elderly teacher who loved reciting poetry in this manner, but Ming Ying had never liked it. During lessons, she had no choice but to listen, and over time, she grew even more annoyed by it.

Once the female voice stopped, Ming Ying asked Fu Anyu about all the functions she didn’t understand. To her surprise, Fu Anyu countered, “Haven’t you been looking at the reference sheet these past couple of days?”

Ming Ying was taken aback, unable to see the connection between the reference sheet and her questions. She stubbornly insisted, “Of course I have!”

“Then you’ve been slacking off,” Fu Anyu said, picking up the folder tucked beside the dog bed. She flipped to the back and spread it out in front of Ming Ying. “The latter part of the reference sheet has detailed explanations of basic electronic product vocabulary.”

Ming Ying took a look and realized it was true. Her lie was exposed, and she fell silent.

After a few seconds, she muttered softly, “I don’t want to study anymore.”

“Do you think it’s unimportant?” Fu Anyu asked.

“I just ended up in the human world by accident. Once my detention period is over, I’ll go home,” Ming Ying said, deciding to be frank. “Since I won’t be staying in the human world long-term, why should I learn all this?”

Even as she said this, she met Fu Anyu’s gaze and reluctantly pawed at the reference sheet, grumbling, “Fine, I’ll study.”

After she familiarized herself with the various functions of the tablet using the reference sheet, lunch was delivered.

Watching the elderly woman leave the room, Ming Ying asked curiously, “Why is it sometimes the elderly woman who comes, and other times Du Yunxin?”

“That elderly woman is the ‘housekeeping auntie’ I hired,” Fu Anyu explained. “She’s responsible for preparing three meals a day and cleaning the room. Although Du Yunxin is a life assistant, her work doesn’t involve these chores. Taking care of you is just something she does out of interest.”

“She said she’s an ordinary human,” Ming Ying recalled Du Yunxin’s words and couldn’t help mentioning it.

“She is indeed an ordinary human,” Fu Anyu nodded. “But she doesn’t reject demons.”

“What about you?” Ming Ying asked her. “I heard you often go after demons who cause trouble?”

“I don’t hate demons,” Fu Anyu replied.

Ming Ying felt that she hadn’t directly answered the question, but she didn’t bother to press further, it was just a casual inquiry anyway.

She began eating her lunch. After a while, she suddenly realized that there didn’t seem to be a portion for Fu Anyu today and turned her head in surprise.

Fu Anyu was replying to messages and, sensing her gaze, turned to look at her. “Why did you stop eating?”

“Aren’t you eating today?” Ming Ying asked.

“I have things to do,” Fu Anyu said, then took the tablet off the charger and placed it, along with the reference sheet, into the fox nest.

Ming Ying made an “oh” sound, finished her steamed egg custard, scurried back to her little nest, and opened the tablet to read an e-book.

Fu Anyu answered a phone call and walked out while talking.

The content of the e-book happened to be about the human world’s customs and culture, which Ming Ying was most eager to learn about. She curled up beside the tablet, tapping the screen to turn each page. After flipping through about thirty or forty pages, she went to drink water when she suddenly noticed that Fu Anyu’s laptop bag was still on the chair!

For some reason, Ming Ying felt a bit panicked. She quickly pressed the call button, intending to summon Du Yunxin.

She only knew that the laptop was very important to Fu Anyu, after all, Fu Anyu carried the laptop bag in and out every day and worked on it until late at night.

Du Yunxin soon pushed the door open, holding a plate of cranberry cookies and a glass of milk. Before she had taken more than a few steps, she saw Ming Ying anxiously darting and jumping around the chair.

“Fu Anyu forgot her laptop!” Ming Ying tried to reach for the laptop bag.

“Ah, don’t worry, don’t worry,” Du Yunxin quickly stopped her. “It’s fine. If President Fu really forgot her laptop, she would message me to bring it over.”

“But she said she had things to do at noon!” Ming Ying was half-convinced, half-doubting.

“Ah, you’re just not familiar with President Fu Fu yet!” Du Yunxin said with a laugh. “President Fu Fu has a lot going on. It could be a business dinner or an interview, things like that don’t require a laptop. Just her presence is enough.”

She filled the water bowl with milk and placed the plate full of cookies in front of Ming Ying. “Eat up, don’t overthink it. I didn’t realize you were so concerned about President Fu Fu.”

“I’m not worried about her!” Ming Ying snorted angrily. After taking a couple of bites of the cookies, her mood improved. “What kind of snack is this? It has a rich taste of eggs and milk, and there seems to be… dried fruit inside?”

“They’re freshly baked cranberry cookies,” Du Yunxin smiled. “Are they really that good?”

“Mmm, delicious!” Ming Ying commented while chewing, but after eating six or seven cookies in a row, she hesitated and changed her tone. “They’re just a bit too rich and overly sweet. One or two are fine, but if I eat more, my throat starts to feel a little uncomfortable.”

She took a sip of plain milk with nothing added, smacked her lips, and continued her critique: “It’s a bit better with light milk, but it’s still too sweet and oily.”

Du Yunxin blinked. “I see. I’ll make fewer cookies later and adjust the portions slightly. You can try them and see which flavors work better.”

“You want me to taste-test?” Ming Ying asked.

“You could say that,” Du Yunxin nodded.

“But you didn’t make these specifically for me,” Ming Ying said, sounding disappointed.

Du Yunxin was taken aback but admitted directly: “That’s true, but how did you guess?”

“I’m not telling you,” Ming Ying replied, downing the rest of her milk in one gulp before retreating unhappily into her nest.

Having grown up surrounded by the affection of her elders, she was particularly sensitive to detecting others’ goodwill. Just by looking at Du Yunxin’s expression, she could tell these cookies weren’t baked for her.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Du Yunxin quickly apologized, pouring the remaining milk into a water bowl. “How about I tell you who I made them for?”

Ming Ying ignored her, flicking her two fox tails irritably in a gesture of dismissal.

The little fox was in a sulky mood and didn’t want to pay Du Yunxin any attention for the rest of the afternoon. She even considered tattling to Fu Anyu when she returned, claiming that the maid, Xiao Du, had deliberately teased her.

However, when dinnertime arrived, Fu Anyu still hadn’t come back.

Ming Ying rested her head on the black screen of a tablet, guarding the empty bedroom, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Fu Anyu had been quietly observing her, but in truth, Ming Ying had also been quietly observing Fu Anyu. There was a clock hanging in the bedroom, and when its hands aligned straight, Fu Anyu would usually have her dinner in the room.

When Fu Anyu wasn’t home, all three meals were delivered by Du Yunxin to avoid startling the housekeeping aunt with a talking fox. Tonight was no exception.

As Du Yunxin set down the meal, Ming Ying asked anxiously, “Has Fu Anyu not returned yet?”

“She’ll be back soon,” Du Yunxin reassured her.

Noticing the worry in Du Yunxin’s expression as well, Ming Ying suddenly asked, “Where did Xiao Chen take Fu Anyu?”

Xiao Chen was Fu Anyu’s driver, as Du Yunxin had explained to her, what humans called a “driver” meant a “charioteer.” Whenever Fu Anyu went somewhere, Xiao Chen was always by her side.

“How would I know?” Du Yunxin smiled wryly. “I’m just an ordinary person.”

No sooner had she spoken than the door creaked open, and Fu Anyu walked in. Her sharp gaze softened slightly as soon as she spotted Ming Ying.

But the moment she sat down, Ming Ying rushed to her side, circled her a few times, sniffing continuously, her fox fur slightly bristling.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Fu Anyu asked.

“Did you hug another demon?” Ming Ying asked in return.