Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 16

That night, Ming Ying slept restlessly, waking up several times and having chaotic dreams.

She even dreamed of Fu Anyu sitting by the bed, her toes lightly tapping the edge of the small nest, looking down at her with a gentle voice asking, “Can’t sleep?”

For some reason, Fu Anyu’s voice in the dream was incredibly tender. After hearing her words, Ming Ying felt an urge to throw herself into her arms, whining and pouring out her grievances.

If it were anyone else, Ming Ying would have actually done so. But facing Fu Anyu’s perpetually cold, unsmiling expression and her shameless attire, she quickly suppressed the thought and snorted lightly, “None of your business.”

“You’re thinking of home,” Fu Anyu said unhurriedly, “and how to return.”

“If it were you, you’d think so too,” Ming Ying retorted without restraint in her dream, her tone irritable. “After staying under someone else’s roof for a while, you’d naturally realize how good home is.”

“If home is so good, why did you run away?” Fu Anyu asked.

“I…” Ming Ying bit her lip, recalling the night she argued with her mother and thinking how worried her mother must be after she left. Her nose tingled, and tears fell as she spoke, “I don’t want to tell you! Don’t ask!”

She heard Fu Anyu chuckle softly.

“Then don’t say it,” Fu Anyu said, casually patting her head.

Only then did Ming Ying realize she was in her fox form, just like in reality.

She immediately felt displeased and hurriedly chanted a spell to transform into human form. Unexpectedly, her meridians felt blocked, causing such pain that she curled up and whimpered pitifully.

Ming Ying hadn’t expected that even in her dream, she couldn’t transform. Stubbornness took over, and she endured the pain to chant the transformation spell again.

As soon as she started, Fu Anyu got out of bed, picked her up, and covered her fox snout with her hand.

“Stop chanting,” Fu Anyu said. “You can’t transform for now.”

“I can!” Ming Ying’s voice was muffled against her hand. “I’m much more capable than you think I am!”

Though anxious, she still had her wits about her. Even in the dream, she cut herself off mid-sentence and replaced it with a heavy snort.

Fu Anyu plucked a tuft of fox fur and played with it in her palm. Hearing this, she glanced at Ming Ying’s two tails.

“Records say that in ancient times, there were foxes born with nine tails. When their spiritual power was abundant, all nine tails would appear; when it was lacking, the tails would recede,” Fu Anyu suddenly remarked. “But as spiritual power recovered, the nine tails would gradually reappear and could not be retracted into the body.”

Ming Ying was startled, not expecting Fu Anyu to guess so accurately. But after the shock, she felt relieved.

Fortunately, this was just a dream. Even in reality, as long as she stubbornly denied it, Fu Anyu wouldn’t connect her to the nine-tailed fox clan anytime soon.

“What a remarkable fox!” Ming Ying praised her own clan, following the conversation.

“Remarkable, but also naive,” Fu Anyu nodded. “Such fox clans live together in seclusion, claiming territories as their kingdoms. For centuries, they rarely step beyond their royal cities, almost entirely detached from the world.”

“Is a simple and stable life so bad?” Ming Ying retorted.

“There are pros and cons,” Fu Anyu glanced at her but didn’t elaborate further, changing the subject instead. “You should sleep now. You still need to gather spiritual energy tomorrow.”

“You’re even managing my spiritual gathering in my dream?!” Ming Ying widened her eyes.

Fu Anyu raised an eyebrow slightly and replied, “I said, I’m looking forward to seeing which comes first, your transformation or the third tail.”

…

After this dream ended, Ming Ying slept until the sky was bright and the sun was shining on her face before slowly waking up. She pressed the bell to have Du Yunxin bring breakfast.

Since deciding to escape, Ming Ying had actually started slacking off on gathering spiritual energy. However, the main reason was that she wanted to prioritize familiarizing herself with the rules of the human world to avoid being caught when she ventured out.

While preparing, Ming Ying felt that the tablet Fu Anyu had given her was truly a treasure, it contained everything she needed. All the books she required were inside, and with just a light tap, the content she wanted to read would appear before her eyes. This was much faster than flipping through paper books.

As she read the e-books, Ming Ying pondered whether to take the tablet back home. With this treasure, her father wouldn’t have to bury himself in piles of documents every day to review them.

The problem was, she still couldn’t use her storage space, so how could she carry such a large tablet around?

Ming Ying was quick to make decisions. After considering a few methods and finding none of them feasible, she decisively gave up on bringing the tablet, planning to travel light.

So, she spent the entire day reading again, believing she had mostly memorized the rules of the human world and the gathering places of humans. Then, just before Fu Anyu was about to return, she gathered some spiritual energy to put on a show.

Ming Ying already had experience with escaping once and understood that the closer she got to her escape, the more she had to avoid any unusual behavior. So, whenever Fu Anyu and Du Yunxin came by these past two days, she would always put on an act.

Fu Anyu had also been very busy these past two days, leaving early and returning late. However, Ming Ying no longer detected the scent of other demons on her, which led her to believe that, as Du Yunxin had said, Fu Anyu was indeed busy with “company” matters.

As for Du Yunxin, ever since she suddenly baked cookies for Ming Ying, she had seemed absent-minded and even asked if Ming Ying had a favorite fox.

But none of that mattered anymore. Tomorrow, she would leave, following the East-West Avenue back to the demon realm.

What she needed to focus on was how to leave Fu Anyu’s residence without alerting anyone.

While reading, Ming Ying continuously released spiritual energy to manipulate the surrounding natural spiritual energy. This spiritual energy acted like scouts she had sent out, wherever there was spiritual energy, as long as there were no barriers or restrictions, she could detect it.

She spent two days probing and barely managed to map out the layout of Fu Anyu’s home. To her surprise, although there were barriers in Fu Anyu’s residence, they weren’t numerous and weren’t placed on the doors. She wasn’t entirely sure of their exact locations, only that they were near areas with dense spiritual energy, though they didn’t seem to be used for gathering spiritual energy.

Fortunately, these barriers weren’t on the doors, or else just leaving would have been extremely difficult.

Before she knew it, it was past six o’clock. After dinner, Ming Ying felt the time was about right and began gathering spiritual energy, waiting to put on a show for Fu Anyu.

Unexpectedly, by 8:30 p.m., Fu Anyu still hadn’t returned home.

Ming Ying thought back and felt that Fu Anyu had never been this late before, not even when she rescued the cat last time. So, she called Du Yunxin over to ask.

“President Fu is working overtime!” Du Yunxin said. “The project is almost finished, so she’ll be working overtime these next few days. She probably won’t be back until at least 11 p.m. Do you want to improve your meals or something?”

Ming Ying had mostly grasped the meanings of “overtime” and “project.” After hearing Du Yunxin’s words, she felt that Fu Anyu would likely be staying up late tonight.

“Let’s improve the meals,” Ming Ying said. “I’ve been staying up late recently. Can I have a midnight snack?”

“That depends on what you want to eat,” Du Yunxin said. “The cook goes to bed early and wakes up early. If you want to eat too late, I can probably only order takeout for you.”

Ming Ying listened obediently, her eyes full of indifference.

Ever since she heard that Fu Anyu would be working overtime, only one thought had occupied her mind: escape tonight.