Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 57

After speaking, Ming Ying transformed into her true form and slipped out of her pajamas, obediently crouching on the bed.

“Don’t take pictures of my paws!” she hurriedly reminded Fu Anyu when she saw her pick up her phone.

Her paws were still wrapped in white bandages, with medicinal oil hidden beneath them. At a glance, it looked as though her right paw was swollen, far too unsightly.

Fu Anyu smiled faintly and only photographed the fox’s upper body, including her proudly raised tail.

To make it easier for Ming Ying to choose, Fu Anyu took over a dozen photos, quickly edited them herself using a photo-editing app, and then showed them to Ming Ying.

With just one glance, Ming Ying noticed how different she looked in the photos compared to her reflection in the mirror. She flipped through the images with her paw, found the original, and was even more astonished.

“How did you do this?” she asked Fu Anyu excitedly. “What kind of magic did you use to make me look better?”

Her four tails swayed along with her emotions, she was clearly overjoyed.

Fu Anyu had wanted to make her happy. She scooped the fox into her arms, guided her paw, and opened the photo-editing app she had just used.

“This is a beauty-enhancing tool developed by humans,” she began, speaking with mock seriousness. “It can adjust lighting, dimensions, color temperature, and even add special effects like falling snow or flower petals.”

Ming Ying listened with great interest. Afterward, she watched attentively as Fu Anyu selected one of her photos and demonstrated how to edit it.

Fu Anyu deliberately kept the little fox’s attention focused entirely on the app. Once the demonstration was over, she didn’t allow Ming Ying to change her profile picture right away but instead encouraged her to try editing a few times herself.

Try it, then!

Ming Ying eagerly transformed back into human form, slipped into her nightgown, and leaned over the headboard to make fine adjustments to various settings.

While Ming Ying was fully absorbed in editing, Fu Anyu opened her chat with Hu Xiuliu.

[Fu Anyu: Help me ask what your cat said to my little fox last night.]

Hu Xiuliu replied instantly: [What happened? (ΩДΩ)]

[Fu Anyu: She’s in low spirits now and even had a nightmare.]

[Hu Xiuliu: Then wait, I’ll ask my silly son.]

“Silly son” was Hu Xiuliu’s affectionate nickname for his black cat. Fu Anyu still remembered how, when she visited the hospital earlier that day, Hu Xiuliu had hugged the cat and exclaimed, “I missed you so much, Dad!”

Fu Anyu held her phone facing her and waited patiently for a full ten minutes, long enough for Ming Ying to try out all the features of the editing app, before her phone vibrated.

[Hu Xiuliu: Oh no! That silly son of mine and his big mouth! He straight-up told your little friend, “I wonder if there are any nine-tailed clans left in the world.” Isn’t that just rubbing salt in the wound?!]

[Hu Xiuliu: Also, the silly boy told the fox that you’re a demon hunter. I don’t know if you’ve mentioned it to her before, but a great demon like her might be quite sensitive about that sort of thing.]

Fu Anyu’s expression darkened as she read the messages. When she looked back at Ming Ying, she could roughly guess what kind of nightmare the little fox had had.

What the little fox feared most now was not being able to return home.

She still remembered the despair in Ming Ying’s tone and expression when she said, “Only my sister is left.”

Unable to go home, adrift in a world she had never set foot in or known about, unable to even see her family, even Fu Anyu herself might not have been able to keep her emotions in check under such circumstances.

Yet, even after learning the truth, she couldn’t rashly comfort the little fox.

The little fox hadn’t even told her the content of the dream, either unwilling to recall it or not wanting her to worry.

But she disliked even more the thought of the little fox bearing this pain alone.

Fu Anyu rarely found herself at a loss, yet aside from distracting Ming Ying, she couldn’t think of a better solution.

Truth be told, even she had long begun to waver.

The entrance to the demon realm had vanished a century ago. No one knew whether it had disappeared naturally due to some accident or if humans had deliberately sealed it to restrict the interference and entry of demons, then pinned the blame on uncertain unknowns.

Under such circumstances, even if she did find the entrance to the demon realm, there was no guarantee she could enter smoothly.

Moreover, she had already largely confirmed that Ming Ying had traveled from ancient times. Although technology in this era was advanced, no time-travel machine had been invented yet, meaning she couldn’t send Ming Ying back to her original time.

As for why she still insisted on helping the little fox search for the demon realm’s entrance, it was probably because she refused to give up even the slightest shred of hope.

By telling the little fox there was still a home to return to, the little fox would have something to look forward to, sleep more soundly, and not be startled awake by nightmares of being unable to go home.

That had been Fu Anyu’s initial thought, regardless of the outcome, she would keep it from the little fox and do her utmost to search on her own.

But what if the little fox herself realized she couldn’t go home? What should she do then?

“Sister, I’m going to change my profile picture now!” Ming Ying’s voice pulled her thoughts back. “The photos you edited are all so beautiful, I can’t decide. Why don’t you help me pick one?”

Fu Anyu immediately lowered her head to look at the screen, opening each photo one by one. She examined the full-size images, then the thumbnails, carefully selecting before finally choosing the one that looked most pleasing to her.

Ming Ying cheerfully set it as her WeChat profile picture, gazing at it left and right, growing fonder the more she looked. She then opened Fu Anyu’s profile and sent her a message.

[Yingluo: Hello, sister~]

She even used the punctuation marks she had just learned.

Feeling her phone vibrate, Fu Anyu glanced at the message and found it oddly amusing. She replied, “Hello, little fox.”

After sending the message, she looked at Ming Ying and saw the little fox smiling with her eyes narrowed, her cheeks flushed, clearly pleased with the address.

So, she casually changed Ming Ying’s contact name to “Little Fox.”

After adding her on WeChat, Ming Ying, still not satisfied, went downstairs to add Du Yunxin.

Du Yunxin, being savvy, couldn’t help but let out an “Hmm?” when she saw the model of Ming Ying’s phone. But when Ming Ying shot her a puzzled look, she quickly shifted the topic to adding friends. “Come on, show me your QR code, and I’ll scan you. You should also learn how to reject and accept friend requests.”

“Reject?” Ming Ying asked. She had seen this operation in novels before.

“Yep. If you don’t set some restrictions on adding friends, all sorts of strange people will send you friend requests.” Du Yunxin taught her how to set up friend-adding methods and how to open her name card QR code.

Ming Ying memorized everything, then asked for the driver Xiao Chen’s WeChat. After adding her, she labeled all three as “Family.”

Looking at the only three chat windows in her list, Ming Ying lifted the corners of her lips into a contented smile.

Du Yunxin leaned over to look and found that she had changed the tags for all three of them. Half-jokingly and half-seriously, she said, “Oh, how could I possibly deserve to be the family of the esteemed house-protecting fox spirit?”

In truth, she really did want to become family with the little fox. But what she wanted to know even more was what the little fox would do after getting the phone.

Unexpectedly, after Ming Ying added her as a friend, she hurriedly ran upstairs again, gently tugged on Fu Anyu’s sleeve, and handed her the phone when Fu Anyu looked at her.

“Since this communication device already has a SIM card inserted, please keep it safe for me while you’re at home!” Ming Ying said solemnly.

Back in her home in the demon realm, whenever she received any valuable magical artifact, she would always hand it over to her mother for safekeeping to prevent loss. After all, she was quite active, and if she carried such artifacts with her, there was no telling where she might drop them.

Fu Anyu was taken aback for a moment but didn’t take the phone. Instead, she patiently explained, “After I gave it to you, it became your own communication device. Think of it as having recognized you as its master, so you should keep it with you.”

Hearing this, Ming Ying felt a little disappointed. But then she thought again, this expensive and important device was a gift from Fu Anyu, and her low spirits lifted.

Soon, it was time for lunch. Today, Du Yunxin had prepared mixed fried rice, one bowl for each person.

Ming Ying’s bowl was extra-large and came with a side of tomato and seaweed soup. The little fox had never eaten seaweed before. Curious, she scooped up a spoonful of the soup and took a sip. Instantly, her eyes lit up, and she finished the fried rice along with the soup, exclaiming, “It’s delicious!”

Fu Anyu had a small meeting to attend during the lunch break. After finishing her meal, she left with her laptop bag. Before leaving, she said to Ming Ying, “There are three types of pastries from yesterday’s takeout in the fridge. If you want to eat them, let Xiao Du know first. She’ll heat them up for you.”

Ming Ying nodded, wiped her mouth, and followed her to the door. She even tried to walk further into the front yard, intending to see her off.

But Fu Anyu gently persuaded her to stay. “Rest more at home, it’ll help your burns heal. In a couple of days, I still need to take you to see Dr. He.”

At the mention of seeing Dr. He again, Ming Ying’s little fox face fell. But she was eager for her paws to recover as soon as possible. After seeing Fu Anyu off and returning to the bedroom, she turned on the air conditioner, burrowed under the covers, and began to rest with her eyes closed.

However, as soon as she closed her eyes, the scenes from her dream that morning flashed through her mind.

Ming Ying knew she was haunted by this dream, just as Fu Anyu couldn’t escape the cemetery in her own dreams. Still, if she were to have such a dream again, Fu Anyu would likely be able to rescue her.

Just like today, she had thought she would die in the sea of fire in her dream, but unexpectedly, Fu Anyu descended from the sky and resolved all her troubles.

Nevertheless, Ming Ying decided to actively seek a way to break free from the nightmare. She couldn’t always rely on Fu Anyu to rescue her, it was too much of a waste of time.

She remembered one of the fox officials who had taught her saying, “The content of dreams is based on everything the dreamer knows.”

Just as Fu Anyu dreamed of wandering in a cemetery, the premise of her having such a dream would be that “both parents had passed away” and were buried in the cemetery. Due to the dreamer’s subconscious suggestion, the dream presented an irreversible outcome and connected it with events that had already happened in reality. While experiencing it, because it felt so real, the dreamer struggled to distinguish between truth and illusion, making it easy to get trapped. Thus, this dream could ensnare Fu Anyu.

Ming Ying took a deep breath to calm herself, then picked up her tablet and opened a document, meticulously recording her dream. She also wrote down her analysis of “why such content appeared in the dream.”

When she reached the part where Fu Anyu saved her, Ming Ying paused abruptly.

She suddenly recalled that she had dreamed twice of being rescued by Fu Anyu, both times at critical, life-threatening moments.