Hu Li obediently followed Yu Sheng's orders without asking anything, picked up Erin's oil painting, stuffed it into her tail, then turned around and dashed out of the room heading towards the attic.

Erin, still lying on the bed, clung to her fantasy, "Hey, Yu Sheng, do you think it will cause a mira..."

Before she could finish her statement, the two small dolls blacked out simultaneously like unplugged, then flopped straight onto the bed.

Yu Sheng watched this scene expressionless, then looked up at the ceiling at a 45-degree angle: "Seems not."

A few seconds later, he shouted out: "Hu Li! You can come back now!"

Hasty footsteps came from outside, and Hu Li hurried down from the attic, entered the room, and took out the painting frame from her tail, handing it to Yu Sheng: "Savior! For you!"

The two small dolls on the bed sat up abruptly, both seeming a bit dazed.

Yu Sheng casually hung the painting on the back of one of them, transforming her into P1 Erin.

As soon as Erin "woke up", instead of immediately lamenting the absence of a miracle, she stared blankly at Hu Li: "Can't you clean up inside your tail?"

Yu Sheng, a bit curious, asked: "Ah? You saw inside her tail? What's it like?"

As soon as he spoke these words, he felt something weird, as if in any other context the sentence would sound nonsensical, but on reflection, he couldn't find fault—it was only this peculiar rocket-boosted Doraemon-like tail that made describing its function seem somewhat crazy...

"It's all dark inside, no idea how big it is, can't see the edges, in the middle there's a pile of stuff like a garbage mountain, with food piled on top, leftovers included," Erin gestured while explaining to Yu Sheng what she had seen, "The moment I opened my eyes inside the painting, right in front of me was a half box of instant noodles with a half-eaten roasted chicken inside…"

"I, I didn't steal it," Hu Li quickly clarified, looking very nervous, "I told the Savior about it, the leftovers too, it's a pity to throw them away, so I took them, they won't go bad inside my tail anyway."

"At least tidy it up! Who stacks stuff like a garbage mountain! Next time we go out shopping, buy some shelves to stuff in your tail, those supermarket stocking shelves, they're cheap."

Yu Sheng, finding this topic increasingly bizarre, finally couldn't help interrupting: "...Let's talk about Erin's business instead."

The discussion between the doll and the fox girl regarding "whether mixed storage in the tail adheres to food safety" and "whether to stuff shelves into Fox Demon's tail" ended as they focused on Erin's two bodies.

"Ahem, we have now confirmed that at least one doll shell must stay within five meters of the painting, otherwise they will all disconnect, and Erin's soul will return to the painting," Yu Sheng cleared his throat, arranging the next experiment, "Next, let's see how far the 'secondary body' can go while the 'main body' carries the painting."

"How can we test this? The space at home might not be enough," Erin pondered, "Go out? Into the city? But doing this test we still need to avoid ordinary people, seems quite troublesome…"

"Therefore, there is a place more suitable than in the city." A smile appeared on Yu Sheng's face.

Before he could continue, Erin quickly reacted, both dolls speaking in unison: "Valley!"

"The range is huge, from one end of the valley to the other is far enough, and definitely no worries about disturbances," Yu Sheng nodded, "But before heading there, we still need to go out, I also need to buy some things."

As soon as shopping was mentioned, Erin seemed inexplicably excited, both dolls scooted to the edge of the bed: "Ah? Going shopping? What are we buying? Clothes? Food? Or are you finally ready to buy something for me? Actually, I'd like to get some new clothes too, these ones I conjured up are good but sometimes I want a change... Hey, didn't you know? My clothes can change! It's just that I don't have any other options... You should also buy a new coat, yours got all bloody and ripped yesterday, definitely can't keep it..."

The two dolls rattled on, initially Yu Sheng didn't think much of it, but as Erin gradually progressed from "speaking in unison" to "each saying their own piece," he started feeling something was off. This little doll was obviously quickly adapting to the state of two bodies; she started alternating talking using two mouths, and moments later, transitioned to both mouths speaking simultaneously but different contents...

Yu Sheng finally belatedly realized his "research spirit" maybe, possibly, perhaps... caused a problem.

Now there were two noisy Beeper dolls!

"Use one body to talk! Don't babble together!" Yu Sheng quickly stopped the dolls' noise, "My head is spinning—this goes for the future too! Don't be so noisy!"

"Ah, I was just about to say I found this way of speaking quite efficient," Erin, carrying the painting, pouted, then looked up batting her eyes, "But you haven't said what you are going to buy yet."

"First, buy more food, order a couple of boxes of instant noodles and vacuum-sealed chicken legs as 'reserves' for Hu Li, then some vegetable seeds, yeah, speaking of that I also need to buy some farm tools," Yu Sheng listеd his shopping items one by one, quickly calculating in his mind, "Ah, right, also need to go to the building materials market... Maybe wait, this could be a bit expensive."

Saying this, his face showed a hint of concern, a big shopping spree would really deplete his funds now, his latest manuscript was still pending, and "travel agency" was not running any serious business recently, he had just performed a task with Little Red Riding Hood yesterday and didn't know when the payment would come through, although it was said it could be credited as early as today, it was highlighted as "earliest."

These days, it's been all outflow with no inflow—not even any 'in', just out.

Moreover, most of the expenses were on Hu Li, clothing and daily necessities, for instance, are just one-time expenses in the short term, but feeding her every day is a whole different expense.

But Yu Sheng had to admit, every penny spent on Hu Li's food was well worth it. After all, twenty chicken legs and one tail might sound like a lot, but put another way, where would you find something as costly as twenty chicken legs for a cruise missile?

If given a chicken farm now, he even felt like he could let this girl provide fire coverage for the entire old town…

On the other hand, Erin's expenses at home were almost zero.

Aside from the materials used for reshaping her body (all of which were cheap), he hadn't bought her clothes, hadn't fed her, just bought her a little red hair clip when Little Red Riding Hood took her shopping, a child's toy-like little trinket, which made the doll happy all day long…

Thinking about this, Yu Sheng even felt a little sorry for the doll.

She's a mess, temperamental, constantly chattering, opportunistic, a novice and jumpy—but she gets things done when needed.

"If it really comes down to it, I'll have to dip into that 'Disaster Recovery Fund'. If things can't be patched up, I can reach out to the Special Service Bureau, maybe directly sell them that 'iron lump' we found last time…"

Yu Sheng muttered, attracting Erin's curiosity: "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, let's get ready to go out," Yu Sheng waved his hand, getting up as he spoke, "We're not going far this time, just to the farmers' market at the edge of the old town should have everything. Also, better let Hu Li hold you for 'camouflage'—and bring the oil painting, don't break on the way."

"Oh," Erin nodded, positioned her other body to sit properly by the bedside, and then rather awkwardly controlled her 'main' body carrying the oil painting to climb down from the bedside. She walked a few shaky steps on the floor before sighing in relief, "It's much easier to control this side if the other body stays still. By the way, how are we going? Taking a taxi?"

"…The coordinates weren't saved, otherwise I'd even think about opening a portal, it'd save some taxi fare," Yu Sheng sighed, "We'll have to take a taxi."

A few minutes later, Yu Sheng accompanied by Hu Li, transformed into a black-haired young girl, reached the nearest intersection from their home, waiting for the ride-share car.

"When we have money, we should still buy a car," Erin's voice echoed in Yu Sheng's mind, sounding hopeful for the future, "Can't always cram into ride-shares…"

Yu Sheng turned his head to glance at Erin, held by Hu Li, and raised an eyebrow: "What if it's another Special Service Bureau car?"

"…Then I'd rather take a ride-share."

Yu Sheng smiled wryly, his mind wandering a bit: "Actually, I think we could just get an electric moped, a big one, able to carry someone. We could have Hu Li sit at the back, ride like normal in the city, but once we're out where there are no people, let her extend her tail and use it like a rocket booster for the moped. A hundred kilometers on twenty cents of electricity and three buns, and if the moped could regenerate power even better, we could even get paid for the electricity…"

"You have a rich imagination," Erin muttered, then realizing, "Wait, where would I sit?!"

"We'll put you in the front basket."

"…Yu Sheng, damn you!"

In the midst of their conversation, a sleek silver car suddenly came into Yu Sheng's view, just as Erin, initially ready to freak out at the crowds, quickly calmed down, continuing to drape her limbs and maintain "disguise" in Hu Li's embrace.

Screech, the car stopped in front of Yu Sheng.

Hu Li leaned closer to Yu Sheng, curiously whispering, "Savior, is this the car you called? It arrived so quickly?"

Yu Sheng was also startled for a moment, checked the ride-share app on his phone, and compared the license plate number of the car in front of them: "…No, the car I called is still two intersections away at a red light."

As he pondered, the car window of the silver-grey car had already rolled down.

Good news, it wasn't Xu Jiali's shaky old Xiali.

Bad news, the person who rolled down the driver's side window was still someone familiar, and a bit of a headache for Yu Sheng.

Ren Wenwen smiled brightly, "It's you guys! Heading out?"

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