Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 30

At noon, after Fu Anyu returned from work, she immediately called Du Yunxin over for a talk, not even bothering to eat first.

Ming Ying hid in the guest room, only daring to poke her head out to peek into the living room, her heart pounding with fear that Fu Anyu might bring up the manuscript.

She saw Du Yunxin nodding repeatedly before finally standing up, taking off her apron, quickly changing her shoes, and rushing out the door with her bag.

“Ming Ying, come down and eat,” Fu Anyu called out, looking up toward the staircase after seeing Du Yunxin off.

Ming Ying cautiously made her way down the stairs and hopped onto the chair beside Fu Anyu, crouching down. She glanced toward the door and asked, “Where’s Xiao Du? Why did she leave without eating?”

“She said she wasn’t hungry and had some errands to run first,” Fu Anyu replied, serving herself some rice before dishing some out for Ming Ying. “As a demon, if you want to move from one city to another, you need to complete some procedures. I don’t trust others to handle it, and I can’t get away myself, so I sent Xiao Du.”

Ming Ying was in the middle of picking up some food with her chopsticks when she heard this, and the morsel she was holding fell onto the table.

“Don’t worry, this isn’t something you need to concern yourself with,” Fu Anyu reassured her. “Just think of it as sleeping in a different place for a couple of days.”

Ming Ying was only half-convinced. After feeding herself a few bites, she couldn’t help but call out, “Fu Anyu.”

“What is it?”

“Why exactly are you keeping me by your side?” Ming Ying asked softly.

Initially, she had been captured by Fu Anyu for disturbing public order and had been “imprisoned” in the bedroom for nearly seven days, essentially acting as a captive.

But now that the detention period was over, not only was Fu Anyu allowing her to stay, but she was also taking even better care of her. Ming Ying couldn’t make sense of it.

“Earlier, you said that once the detention period was over, you could send me away. You really don’t have to keep looking after me anymore,” Ming Ying continued when Fu Anyu didn’t respond. “I’ve read the rules, even demons like me who come from the mountains can live in the human world as long as we have identification documents, so…”

“That rule applies to demons who can take human form,” Fu Anyu cut in. “First, you can’t transform yet. Second, you don’t have the ability to live independently.”

Ming Ying didn’t quite understand what “the ability to live independently” meant, but she knew she couldn’t take human form yet and therefore couldn’t live on her own. She asked casually, “Then what about after I can transform? Will you still keep me?”

“We’ll talk about that when you can transform,” Fu Anyu said.

Feeling a bit deflated, Ming Ying let out a dejected “Oh” and stuffed a piece of braised beef into her mouth.

As she ate, Fu Anyu observed her, noticing that the hand-shaped spiritual form Ming Ying had conjured was becoming more adept, and she no longer spilled soup on her fox fur. A look of approval flickered in Fu Anyu’s eyes.

“My project is finished, so I’ll be resting at home these next couple of days,” she said. “If you’re not afraid of the pain and still want to try transforming, I have nothing better to do anyway.”

“Really?!” Ming Ying perked up instantly, looking up in pleasant surprise.

But her sudden excitement caused her emotions to fluctuate wildly, destabilizing the spiritual energy forming her hand. With a clumsy motion, she knocked over half a bowl of egg drop soup, splashing it all over herself. She yelped in pain from the scalding heat.

Fu Anyu: “…”

So, on her way back from running errands, Du Yunxin received a call from President Fu: “When you pass by He’s Hospital, pick up some burn ointment and bandages.”

After hanging up the phone, Du Yunxin was a bit dazed, unable to figure out how the little fox had managed to scald herself while Fu Anyu was at home.

At the residence, Ming Ying was being held under cold running water by Fu Anyu, rinsing the area splashed by the hot soup. The cold water had numbed her slightly; she could no longer feel the cold or the pain. With her eyes half-closed as she leaned over the sink, she was even starting to feel drowsy.

She heard Fu Anyu’s voice beside her ear: “It hasn’t been long since you lost your spiritual power. When you start using a large amount of spiritual energy again, avoid extreme emotions, whether joy or sorrow, or you’ll end up like this today.”

Even without looking, Ming Ying could guess that Fu Anyu was frowning right now.

She listlessly acknowledged with a sound, then poked at the scalded skin with her paw and murmured, “Will the fur here fall out?”

“No.”

“But it hurts so much…”

“Stop poking it.” Fu Anyu directly grabbed both of her fox paws to keep her from moving around. “Focus your wood spiritual energy on the wound. It will help with healing.”

Ming Ying did as she was told. She saw spiritual energy slowly drift out from the spirit-control device on her paw, covering the wound and soon forming a light green film.

“I never learned healing spells,” Ming Ying said, noticing Fu Anyu’s gaze on her. “My wood spiritual energy is just that, wood spiritual energy. Nothing special.”

“I can tell.” After saying this, Fu Anyu released her own water spiritual energy to clean the oil stains around Ming Ying’s wound.

Fortunately, the scalding hot soup had splashed directly onto Ming Ying’s right front paw. If it had been just a bit off, it would have hit her stomach. A paw injury was easier to bandage; a stomach wound would have been much more troublesome.

“Fu Anyu,” Ming Ying suddenly called out to her, “Am I a bit useless? Always causing trouble?”

“It’s good that you have self-awareness,” Fu Anyu replied tactfully.

She heard the fox whimper: “I’m trying my best to learn how to live in the human world, but I keep messing up, Last night too, I thought I shouldn’t bother you and decided to do it myself. It was just a little shower gel, how hard could it be? Who knew… sob…”

Who knew she’d end up buried under a mountain of bubbles.

Fu Anyu silently finished the sentence in her mind, then rubbed the fox’s drooping ears and wiped the tears from her face. Calmly, she comforted, “It’s enough that you’re trying to learn. Take your time.”

In Fu Anyu’s eyes, although the little fox didn’t understand many things, she was obedient and clever. As long as she was spoken to properly, she was willing to learn.

Touched, Ming Ying buried her face in her tail and shed a few more tears. Then, from a distance, Du Yunxin’s voice called out: “President Fu! Little fox! The medicine is here!”

Du Yunxin jogged all the way to the bathroom, opened the newly bought medicine bag, and took out the bandages and medicated gauze. “Dr. He said medicated oil gauze works better than ointment, so he prescribed this. It’s guaranteed not to leave a scar!”

Fu Anyu glanced at the medicated oil gauze, sniffed the pungent smell, and asked Ming Ying, “Can you handle it?”

The moment Ming Ying caught a whiff of the strong medicinal odor, she couldn’t help but gag. The thought of having this gauze wrapped around her paw, for who knows how many days, made her shake her head repeatedly.

“Dr. He said to place the medicated oil gauze on first, then wrap it with the bandage,” Du Yunxin explained as she opened a bandage package. “Once it’s wrapped, the smell won’t be as strong.”

“Let’s give it a try.” As she spoke, Fu Anyu handed over Ming Ying’s scalded right front paw.

Ming Ying whimpered anxiously, yet despite her reluctance, she gave up struggling and only protested softly with her whimpers.

By now, she knew that Du Yunxin and Fu Anyu, at least for the time being, meant her no harm.

Du Yunxin deftly finished wrapping the medicated gauze, securing it tightly and even tying a neat bow at the end.

Ming Ying looked down at her right front paw, now swollen into a large white bundle, faintly seeing the yellow medicated oil seeping through. However, the smell was indeed not as strong as before.

“For the first twenty-four hours, the dressing needs to be changed daily. Once the new flesh has grown in sufficiently, you’ll only need to wrap it for two to four hours a day,” Du Yunxin explained. “But Dr. He said that after three days, it’s best to bring her in for a check-up, mainly to see if any blisters have formed.”

“We’ll see when the time comes,” Fu Anyu said, turning back to Ming Ying. “Have you gotten used to the smell yet?”

“It’s better, not as overpowering as before,” Ming Ying replied, though she still pulled her paw close to her side with a hint of distaste.

“Don’t press on the wound,” Fu Anyu immediately cautioned, gently pulling her paw back out.

With one paw injured, Ming Ying’s gait returned to a hobble, and she struggled to maintain her balance. Fu Anyu watched as she stumbled twice just trying to leave the bathroom, shook her head, and went over to pick her up.

“Try to move as little as possible while you’re healing,” Fu Anyu reminded her.

Ming Ying nodded, tears welling in her eyes. Her leg injury had only just healed, and she had just begun to run and jump freely again, only to find herself confined once more.

“Can I still try to transform?” she asked Fu Anyu once they were out of the bathroom. Seeing the other shake her head, she buried her face in Fu Anyu’s chest with a whimper, sobbing softly. “Why am I so unlucky?”

Fu Anyu felt slightly uncomfortable with the sudden closeness and instinctively moved to grab Ming Ying by the scruff of her neck to push her away. But as her hand hovered over the fox’s neck, she quickly withdrew it and instead gently patted Ming Ying’s back in a comforting gesture.

Learning that her injury prevented her from attempting to transform, Ming Ying fell into a state of dejection.

However, her gloom only lasted the afternoon. By evening, her spirits had lifted again.

The reason was simple: Fu Anyu, concerned that Ming Ying’s restless sleeping might aggravate her wound during the night, brought her into her own bedroom to keep an eye on her and even allowed her to sleep on the bed.

Being able to rest beside Fu Anyu made Ming Ying happy, though she still remembered the last time Fu Anyu had scolded her for trying to sleep there. Once Fu Anyu had finished washing up and settled under the covers, ready to turn off the light, Ming Ying asked, “Why didn’t you let me sleep with you last time?”

“I don’t like it,” Fu Anyu replied with the same three words she had used when explaining why she moved out of her old room.

“But the first time I asked if I could sleep on the bed, you didn’t stop me,” Ming Ying pressed, unsatisfied with the answer.

“There’s an old saying among humans: ‘Even a fierce fist won’t strike a smiling face,’” Fu Anyu said, ruffling the fur on Ming Ying’s back. “You were so overjoyed at the time and wanted to sleep on the bed, so I let you experience it once in advance.”

“Then this time…”

“This time is just for convenience in keeping an eye on you,” Fu Anyu stated expressionlessly as she lay down and turned off the light. “I’ll be leaving soon for an out-of-town conference. I hope your injury heals quickly.”

Ming Ying curled up beside her pillow, let out a soft “oh,” and wagged her three tails with a hint of excitement.

They were very close, and with a flick of her tails, they all brushed against Fu Anyu’s neck.

“Put away the other two tails,” Fu Anyu couldn’t help but remind her after a few minutes.

The little fox had too many tails, and she was genuinely worried about getting tangled up in them while sleeping.