Wagging My Tail in the Ice Queen CEO’s Embrace - Chapter 8

“You… are going to wash me?” Ming Ying froze, and after snapping back to reality, she blurted out, “You’re going to serve me in the bath?!”

She felt as if she were dreaming or hallucinating.

“Serve you?” Fu Anyu was also taken aback, then gently patted her head. “You wish.”

“Then what did you mean…”

Before Ming Ying could finish, Fu Anyu placed her on the bathroom counter. Then, she watched as Fu Anyu flipped a switch at the bottom of the sink and turned on the water.

Once the sink had filled with enough water, Fu Anyu took a freshly washed towel, soaked it completely, wrung it out until it was half-dry, and then smoothed and folded it before gently wiping Ming Ying’s fur from head to tail.

“Your injured leg shouldn’t get wet. Until it heals, I’ll help you wipe down and wash your paws,” she explained.

Ming Ying had no objections and even breathed a sigh of relief.

While Fu Anyu was wiping her down, Ming Ying voluntarily soaked her front paws in the water.

The water temperature was just right, the warmth slowly spreading from her paws throughout her body, it felt incredibly soothing.

Ming Ying closed her eyes contentedly, but before she could enjoy it for long, Fu Anyu drained the water from the sink. The towel was quickly wrapped around her front paws, drying them swiftly.

After cleaning the fox’s fur and paws, Fu Anyu carried her directly to the dog bed, bringing over anti-inflammatory medication and a water bowl to administer it.

Before Ming Ying could say, “I can do it myself,” Fu Anyu had already pried her mouth open and fed her the pill. By the time she came to her senses, she had already swallowed the medicine, shivering from the bitterness as she lapped up water.

Once the bitter taste subsided, she asked hoarsely, “Can I not take ‘Amolin’?”

Fu Anyu shook her head and corrected her, “This anti-inflammatory medicine is called ‘Amoxicillin.'”

Ming Ying responded weakly, pulling the comparison chart beside her nest closer and flipping through it to continue learning the common human script.

Accompanied by the sound of Fu Anyu’s keyboard, she lost track of how many pages she had turned. Only when drowsiness set in did she yawn, look up at Fu Anyu, and instinctively say, “I want to sleep. Could you…”

She was about to ask when the lights would be turned off, she was already quite tired but couldn’t sleep with the lights on. Mid-sentence, she remembered her current situation and stopped herself.

What right did a prisoner have to be picky about her sleeping conditions?

But Fu Anyu turned and asked, “What is it?”

“I… I can’t sleep with the lights on…” Ming Ying said cautiously. “Could you turn them off?”

She didn’t really expect a positive response, but the next moment, she saw Fu Anyu walk to the bedside and press a white switch on the wall with a click.

Instantly, the entire bedroom plunged into darkness, with only the light from the open laptop on the desk remaining.

After turning off the light, Fu Anyu returned to her desk, and the sound of her typing became softer than before.

Ming Ying didn’t know what time it was, only that she usually felt sleepy late at night. Seeing that Fu Anyu still had no intention of resting, she couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you tired?”

“Not tired,” Fu Anyu replied.

“It’s getting late,” Ming Ying hinted, for some reason suddenly reminded of her father staying up late to review official documents.

Fu Anyu paused her typing and instead urged her, “Go to sleep. You need to change your bandages tomorrow morning.”

Ming Ying obediently agreed, picked up the thin blanket with her mouth, draped it over herself, and curled up in her little nest with a yawn.

She had thought she would fall asleep quickly, but after the lights went out, her drowsiness vanished completely. Unable to resist, she opened her eyes and stared idly at Fu Anyu.

The sound of keyboard tapping, though soft, seemed clearer to her ears than before. The faint blue light cast on Fu Anyu’s face made her appear even more serious.

A subtle scent of pinewood lingered in the air. Ming Ying had long been accustomed to sleeping alone, and now, with another living person beside her and the entire room filled with that person’s presence, she felt deeply unsettled.

Before long, Fu Anyu closed her laptop, glanced at the fox on the dog bed, whose eyelids were heavy with sleep yet still fixed on her, and walked over. She crouched down, rubbed the fox’s head, and asked softly, “Still not asleep?”

The moment Fu Anyu stood up, Ming Ying had actually closed her eyes, but she knew she had been staring for too long. Pretending ignorance felt unnecessary, so she narrowed her eyes and mumbled, “Can’t sleep…”

Fu Anyu gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips and casually drew a sleep-inducing talisman on the fox’s head. Before long, hearing Ming Ying’s breathing grow deep and steady, she withdrew her hand and stood up to take a shower.

Under the influence of the talisman, Ming Ying soon sank into a dream.

She dreamed she had returned to the dense forest outside the royal city. The moment the forest guards recognized her, they summoned a talisman bird to fly back to the city.

Ming Ying walked for a long, long time under the escort of numerous attendants, from dawn until dusk, finally entering the city. After just a few steps, she saw her father and mother standing side by side in the middle of the road, as if waiting for her.

“Father! Mother!” Ming Ying cried out, rushing forward and throwing herself into her mother’s embrace.

Her father, clad in royal robes, looked at her with a warm smile, while her mother, tears streaming down her face, held her close, her soft nine tails brushing and curling around Ming Ying affectionately.

“My dear Ying, you’ve suffered,” her mother sobbed. “Do you still dare to run away from home?”

“No, never again! I promise I won’t…” Ming Ying buried herself in her mother’s embrace, crying and making promises, her eyes shut tight as tears fell like rain.

But before she could finish her sentence, she felt something suddenly block her mouth. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting on Fu Anyu’s bedroom bed.

Looking up, she saw Fu Anyu, expressionless, holding a chicken leg to her mouth while balancing a plate of roast chicken in her other hand.

“Eat,” Fu Anyu said. “All of this is yours, on one condition: you must behave.”

As she spoke, the faint scent of pinewood wafted over, feeling incredibly real.

Ming Ying jolted awake in fright. As she turned over, she suddenly felt a tightening grip on the scruff of her neck and instinctively shivered. Opening her eyes, she saw Fu Anyu sitting before her with a cold expression, which scared away all traces of sleepiness. She let out a sharp “yip” and tried to bolt.

Of course, she didn’t succeed. As Fu Anyu lifted her by the scruff and placed her back into her little bed, Ming Ying’s mind was still filled with the beautiful yet absurd dream.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Fu Anyu released her grip and asked.

Ming Ying nodded silently, her eyes downcast.

Fu Anyu gathered spiritual energy and drew a calming talisman on her forehead. Only when she saw clarity gradually return to the fox’s gaze did she fetch the medical kit.

“Don’t move while I change your dressing,” Fu Anyu instructed as she prepared the medicine and bandages.

Ming Ying responded listlessly, then simply lay on her side in the little bed, exposing only her injured hind leg as she waited for Fu Anyu to tend to her wound.

But before long, she suddenly felt a sharp, intense pain from the injury.

Ming Ying let out a pained cry and turned to look, only to find that the wound and the surrounding fur had taken on a dark, ominous hue.

Generally speaking, only curses and poisons would cause a wound to turn this color.

Ming Ying was immediately terrified, whimpering and whining at Fu Anyu, her eyes quickly welling up with tears.

Fu Anyu, however, calmly conjured a ball of water and enveloped the wound with it. Before long, Ming Ying felt the pain gradually fade, and the dark discoloration on her fur was stripped away, sinking to the bottom of the water ball.

After disposing of the water ball containing the scab, Fu Anyu cut a fresh piece of bandage, took out a small jar of medicated gauze, retrieved a small piece, and applied it to Ming Ying’s wound. Then, holding the splint in place, she carefully wrapped the bandage around it.

Ming Ying was so frightened she didn’t dare move. Only after the bandage was fully wrapped did she nervously ask, “How long does it need to stay on?”

“At least three days,” Fu Anyu replied while tidying up. “We’ll check again in three days. If there’s no improvement, it’ll need to stay on longer.”

“That serious…” Ming Ying muttered, turning her head to look at her bandaged leg, which now appeared a bit thicker. After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Then, would taking more of that ‘Amoxicillin’ help?”

“No, taking too much can harm your body,” Fu Anyu shook her head. “Rest more and think less.”

If she were at home, Ming Ying wouldn’t be overthinking things. But she was anxious to return home, and hearing this only made her more uneasy.

She had already been away from home for two full days and nights. She had no idea how worried her parents must be, or whether the attendants who had gone out with her had escaped danger and returned safely…

“Something on your mind?” Fu Anyu asked, noticing her distant gaze.

“When… when can you let me go home?” Ming Ying snapped back to reality and mustered the courage to ask.

“Missing home?” Fu Anyu inquired further.

Ming Ying gave a soft “Mm,” looking at her with hopeful eyes.

“As I’ve emphasized before, if demons wish to operate in the human realm, they must abide by human rules,” Fu Anyu said slowly. “Demons who disrupt social order, according to human law, will be detained for at least seven days and up to fifteen days.”

Ming Ying’s eyes widened. Seeing Fu Anyu about to stand up, she quickly grabbed her clothes. “But I’m new here and had no idea such rules existed in the human realm! If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have,”

“There are no ‘ifs,'” Fu Anyu interrupted, placing a simplified and traditional character comparison chart in front of her. “If you don’t understand or aren’t familiar with it, then study. Once you’ve learned these characters, I’ll show you the residence guidelines for demons in the human realm.”

“But my parents are waiting for me to come home!” Ming Ying was on the verge of tears, her voice choked with emotion. “Can’t… can’t you let me go see them first, and then come back to face the punishment?”

“You don’t even know your specific home address. How do you plan to go back?” Fu Anyu countered sternly.

These words made Ming Ying’s mind go blank with a buzz.

She only knew that the Nine-Tails clan had lived for generations in the royal city in the far west of the demon realm. But she had always lived a carefree life, never needing to leave the city, so she had never asked anyone for the exact location of the royal city.

“I… I have a way to get back!” Despite her low spirits, Ming Ying stubbornly insisted to Fu Anyu, “So, will you let me go?”

“Not for now,” Fu Anyu refused without hesitation, gently brushing aside the paw clutching her sleeve.

As soon as she finished speaking, she looked down to see large tears rolling from the fox’s eyes. She couldn’t help but gently pat her head to comfort her. “Be good and stay put, and I won’t make things difficult for you.”

A timely knock sounded at the door. Fu Anyu stood up, put away the medical kit, and opened the door to take the breakfast tray from the housekeeper. She then walked over to the low table near the dog bed, sat down, and placed Ming Ying’s portion of the meal on the floor.

Knowing Ming Ying’s preference for meat, she had specifically instructed the kitchen to prepare bacon, fried eggs, and a few pieces of black pepper steak for her breakfast. A few cooked broccoli florets were arranged around the edges of the plate, adding both visual appeal and an enticing aroma.

Fu Anyu still had to go to work at the company. Seeing that Ming Ying was still shedding tears, she reached out with a tissue to wipe her face and reminded her, “Eat first.”

Ming Ying had always struggled to eat when she was upset, but after a moment’s reflection on her current situation, she pretended to be obedient and picked up a piece of steak as soon as Fu Anyu withdrew her hand.

She couldn’t afford to be impatient. At the very least, she needed to wait until her leg injury healed and she had accumulated enough spiritual power to take human form before she could even think about finding a way back home.