Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 49

After checking her suitcase one more time, Fu Anyu picked up her clothes bag and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

Ming Ying, meanwhile, sat on the bed watching Inuyasha on her laptop.

The anime was quite long, with over a hundred episodes. Ming Ying had never heard Japanese before, so she watched at a slower pace than Fu Anyu. Fortunately, the subtitles were written in characters she recognized, making it easier for her to follow the plot without needing extra effort to process the language.

As she watched, she couldn’t help but think again about the forbidden lands of the evil spirits.

From Inuyasha, she had learned a term: “time travel.” Inuyasha and Kagome existed in different eras, yet they could travel to each other’s worlds through the Bone Eater’s Well.

But as time passed, the Warring States period where Inuyasha lived gradually evolved into the modern society Kagome inhabited, and the demons and monsters of ancient times disappeared along the way.

This thought sparked an idea in Ming Ying’s mind: the era she came from was not the same as the present time. In other words, it was very likely that she had traveled from the past. And even if the demon world still existed in this modern era, it might no longer be inhabited by her clan.

The idea frightened her. She quickly closed the video player and, somewhat clumsily, opened a search engine in the browser. Just as she was about to type “nine-tailed fox clan,” the bathroom door opened.

Ming Ying hurriedly closed the browser and reopened the video player, but hesitated to press play.

She knew her actions were far too obvious. The bathroom wasn’t far from the bed, and if Fu Anyu didn’t hear the anime’s audio when she stepped out, turning the sound on immediately would be as good as admitting guilt.

In a moment of panic, she decided to be honest. “Sister, I wanted to look up information about my clan.”

“Why the sudden interest?” Fu Anyu set down her clothes bag and sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at the laptop.

“I just wanted to confirm which era I actually came from,” Ming Ying explained.

“There’s no point in that,” Fu Anyu replied. “If you traveled here from ancient times, there’s no forbidden land in this era that can send you back. If the demon world you’re from exists in this time, then all you need to do is find the entrance, and you’ll have a chance to return home.”

She maximized the Inuyasha window and pressed play. “Just go with the flow. There’s no need to stress yourself out over this.”

Ming Ying had indeed been growing anxious ever since the thought occurred to her. Hearing Fu Anyu’s reasoning, she felt it made sense and softly hummed in agreement. Her heart, which had been racing from nervousness, gradually calmed down.

Fu Anyu checked the time, picked up her tablet, and connected to the Wi-Fi as she said, “I need to sleep after this episode. I’ve cached the next twenty episodes on the tablet for you.”

She needed to take the laptop with her, but since the little fox had recently become obsessed with Inuyasha, she had prepared twenty episodes on the tablet. All Ming Ying had to do was open the video player to continue watching.

By the time Ming Ying reluctantly closed the video player, the next twenty episodes had finished caching.

Fu Anyu shut down the laptop and placed it on the desk to cool off, planning to pack it into her computer bag the next day.

To avoid making Ming Ying feel awkward, Fu Anyu went to the guest room and brought back the thin blanket Ming Ying had been using, so they could sleep under separate covers.

Now that she could take human form, Ming Ying simply hugged the Shiba Inu plushie close, tucking her bandaged hand between its chubby paws.

She refused to believe she would ever cling to Fu Anyu again.

After bidding each other goodnight, Fu Anyu turned off the light.

She had spent a longer time gathering spiritual energy today and had been pushing her physical limits to get things done. Not long after the lights went out, she sank into a deep sleep.

Ming Ying hugged the Shiba Inu plushie, listening to Fu Anyu’s steady breathing beside her, but she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. The longer she kept her eyes closed, the more she thought about how Fu Anyu would take a car to the neighboring city tomorrow, which then reminded her of the car accident Fu Anyu had been in years ago. The more she dwelled on it, the more her sleepiness vanished.

She even felt physically exhausted, yet sleep remained elusive.

After struggling for another half hour, Ming Ying finally decided to abandon the Shiba Inu plushie and move closer to Fu Anyu.

She thought her movements were quiet enough, but the moment she shifted to within a palm’s distance of Fu Anyu, the latter opened her eyes, looking drowsy as she asked, “Still can’t sleep?”

Ming Ying responded sheepishly. Seeing Fu Anyu watching her, she tried to explain, “As soon as I close my eyes, my mind fills with the past you told me about, Is the road from here to the neighboring city safe? Does it pass through accident-prone areas?”

Fu Anyu wasn’t fully conscious, she was in a half-asleep, half-awake state. Frowning at the question, she suddenly reached out, pulling Ming Ying into her arms despite the two layers of blankets between them.

Having revisited painful memories during the day, Fu Anyu had nightmares in her sleep. Waking up startled and seeing the reassuring “Guardian Fox Deity” beside her, she instinctively wanted to bring Ming Ying closer, feeling inexplicably that this would grant her a peaceful rest.

“Stop overthinking and go to sleep,” she urged Ming Ying.

Caught off guard by the pull, Ming Ying’s bandaged right hand accidentally pressed against Fu Anyu’s clothes before she could control it.

“Don’t hold me so tightly!” Ming Ying panicked. “The medicated oil might stain your clothes!”

“Let it stain,” Fu Anyu suddenly declared in a domineering CEO-like tone. “Xiao Du will wash them.”

Ming Ying: “…” If Xiao Du found out, she would definitely wail in despair.

Fu Anyu’s breath washed over her, so close that Ming Ying felt her face slowly grow warm. Yet she didn’t dare pull away, Fu Anyu rarely took the initiative, and if she did, resisting would be pointless.

Ming Ying was willing to be held by her; she was just worried that the medicated oil would leave a stubborn smell or stain on Fu Anyu’s pajamas, making it hard to clean.

Hoping silently that Fu Anyu wouldn’t regret this later, Ming Ying relaxed her body and slightly turned her face away to avoid the warmth from Fu Anyu’s breath making her blush again.

The gentle fragrance of jasmine enveloped her, lulling her to sleep. Ming Ying closed her eyes and, accompanied by the soothing scent, soon drifted into dreams.

In her dream, she returned to the palace she knew best, but this time, her small courtyard was filled with jasmine trees. One after another, elegant white blossoms quietly bloomed on the branches, just like in Fu Anyu’s backyard.

She strolled along the path, wandering among the jasmine trees, when she suddenly saw Fu Anyu standing at the edge of the grove, wearing a black dress and holding a jasmine sprig, gently sniffing it.

Curious, Ming Ying approached. Fu Anyu looked up and smiled at her, then plucked the jasmine flower, walked over, and placed it on Ming Ying’s head. Afterward, she lifted the hem of her floor-length dress and hurried away along another path without looking back.

With the jasmine flower on her head, Ming Ying followed behind her.

“Where are you going?” she asked Fu Anyu, “Wait for me!”

But the other didn’t answer her. After following for quite a distance, she saw Fu Anyu picking jasmine flowers along the way, eventually arriving at an empty, uninhabited clearing.

Ming Ying immediately spotted two stone tablets standing in the clearing, with two square frames placed on top, seemingly containing portraits. As she approached, she noticed several lines of bright red characters inscribed on the tablets, though the specific content was blurry. However, she soon spotted the character for “tomb” at the bottom.

Suddenly realizing, she turned to look at Fu Anyu and was shocked to see that the handful of jasmine flowers she had been holding had transformed into a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. In the next moment, Fu Anyu knelt before the stone tablets and placed the entire bouquet of white chrysanthemums in front of them.

Belatedly, Ming Ying understood that these were likely the tombstones of Fu Anyu’s parents, and the portraits in the square frames were probably their memorial photos.

But why was she dreaming of Fu Anyu paying respects to her parents? Moreover, the scenes in this dream were so vivid, as if she had personally experienced them herself.

Wait, could it be that she had entered Fu Anyu’s dream?!

Startled, Ming Ying quickly pinched herself, trying to wake up from the dream.

Unexpectedly, she felt nothing when she pinched herself. Without any sensation, she couldn’t force herself to wake up from the dream.

Ming Ying grew somewhat panicked. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation. Seeing Fu Anyu finish paying her respects and stand up to leave on her own, she hurriedly chased after her and, without a second thought, grabbed Fu Anyu’s hand.

Meeting Fu Anyu’s icy cold gaze, Ming Ying’s fox ears flattened in fear, but she mustered her courage and softly pleaded, “Sister, don’t leave me behind.”

When Fu Anyu saw her face clearly, she froze for a moment but said nothing. Instead, she took the little fox’s hand and silently led her away from the tombstones.

Ming Ying didn’t know where they were going, but since Fu Anyu was willing to hold her hand, she simply followed.

Full and lush jasmine flowers fell from above her head, scattering their petals before they even touched the ground, one after another dancing in the air.

Across from the cemetery was a park. Fu Anyu led her into the park, turning into a secluded path and walking for a while until they reached a lake, where she sat down with Ming Ying by the shore.

“I always dream of scenes like this,” Fu Anyu suddenly spoke after sitting for a while. “I dream of going alone to pay respects to my parents, and I dream of being unable to leave the cemetery no matter what.”

“But you’ve already left now,” Ming Ying reminded her.

“That’s because I saw you,” Fu Anyu said. “Although I don’t know how you entered my dream, thank you for pulling me out of the nightmare.”

“You were the one who pulled me into your embrace first,” Ming Ying whispered.

“Is that so.” Fu Anyu gave a faint smile and looked at the shimmering surface of the lake. “Perhaps it’s because when I’m with you, I can completely forget about these things.”

After her parents passed away, she rarely felt secure. After taking over the company, she even felt anxious during her daily commute, afraid that she might encounter another car accident on the road, this was both a psychological shadow and a reality-based fear.

At that time, she was only twenty-two years old, forced to inherit her father’s business at a young age, which naturally attracted a lot of criticism and brought significant pressure. She had to outwit the senior members within the company while negotiating with representatives from partner companies.

Too many eyes were fixed on her every word and action, pressing her to learn to wear a mask of indifference, speaking as little as possible and revealing as few weaknesses as she could. Over time, she had forgotten what it felt like to be secure.

Yet all those years of accumulated negative emotions vanished the moment she held the little fox in her arms.