Passing through the front door, back home, No. 66 Wutong Road still looks familiar—the stuff is cheap, but all quite useful; the decor a bit dated, but the space is still ample enough; the house is warm, lights bright, windows clear, and that old TV hasn't crashed yet. Erin is sitting on the table, engrossed in some mindless variety show, while another Erin immediately runs into the living room upon entering the house, climbs onto the coffee table to grab the remote and turn on another TV to catch up on her urban drama series.

Honestly, it's quite admirable with the puppet—those moronic things that Yu Sheng can't even glance at without feeling his brain trembling, yet she can watch two at once and still keep her sanity... No wonder her brain's not quite right.

Hu Li then goes to the kitchen to properly wash her hands, before coming back with a half-eaten sausage, trotting leisurely into the living room, and continuing to ponder over how to use the old phone that Yu Sheng gave her.

Yu Sheng changes his clothes, with the sounds from the TV entertainment programs in his ears, along with Erin's ridicule of the idiotic plot on TV and her giggles and laughs, occasionally accompanied by Hu Li's complaints about the puppet's voice being too loud. He looks at the scene in the living room and feels an unbelievable sense of incredibility.

He's lived in this big house for two or three months, and for most of that time, he has been thinking about when he can leave this place and return to the real home that he remembers. But now, at this moment, for these few minutes, he feels... like he's already standing at home.

This place is familiar and comforting to him.

Erin jumps from the coffee table to the sofa, searching for a comfortable position amidst the cushions. Then suddenly, she lifts her arm and turns her head to complain to Hu Li, "When will your shedding end? The sofa is covered in fur from your tail. It's even in my joints."

"There's nothing I can do about it, that's just how we demon foxes are," Hu Li responds while fiddling with her phone, munching on the sausage, and simultaneously addressing the puppet's complaints, "It'll be better in a couple of months..."

Erin picks fox fur out of her spherical joints, looking up quizzically, "You won't shed anymore in two months?"

"You should be used to it by then."

Erin immediately jumps up and turns to shout, "Yu Sheng, aren't you going to do something about this silly fox?!"

Hearing the puppet's frustrated complaint, Yu Sheng can't help but wear a smile on his face. He suddenly feels that life like this is quite nice and walks over to sit between the puppet and the fox, enjoying a moment of tranquility while keeping the two temporarily apart.

Hu Li happily scoots over on the sofa and drapes a tail across Yu Sheng's legs, "Savior, here's a tail for you!"

Then Yu Sheng hears a crackling series of snaps, as if being pricked by needles all around his arm and leg—it hurts.

The snap and crackle of static electricity are like flowers blooming in winter, signifying it's time to turn on the humidifier.

Yu Sheng is startled; he had just gotten used to the home setting where the demon fox sheds fur, only to discover on this dry day that not only does the demon fox shed, but she can also generate static electricity in winter—none of the ancient or modern tales involving foxes ever mentioned this!?

Yet, Hu Li seems unfazed, with several of her other tails still rubbing against the sofa, occasionally emitting a crackling sound, with blue sparks like a Thunder Cultivator.

Yu Sheng shivers from the shock and reaches out to touch the demon fox girl's tails, both surprised and resigned, "Your tail... it generates static electricity?"

"Yeah," nods Hu Li, "It's so pretty at night when the lights are off. Rub it hard and it can crackle for several minutes!"

Yu Sheng's face shows his astonishment, then hesitantly asks, "I don't mind you shedding in winter, but don't you monsters have some spell to get rid of static electricity in winter?"

"We do."

"So why..."

"I haven't learned it."

Yu Sheng suddenly doesn't know how to continue. He starts to cautiously stroke Hu Li's tail (still getting shocked occasionally, but it really feels good) and begins to entertain various plausible and implausible ideas, like buying a few large humidifiers, giving Hu Li grounding slippers, or using a wet comb on Hu Li's tail. Slowly, drowsiness begins to creep up on him.

He woke up too early today, and it's been a busy time lately; his sleep hasn't been great. As relaxation floods in, he feels the sleepiness becoming irresistible.

His eyelids drooping, he sighs softly in relaxation. In a haze, the conversation he had with Baili Qing about Hu Li's origins and the unknown beyond the world echoes in his mind.

"Hu Li," Yu Sheng suddenly speaks up, his voice still a bit muddled, "Are you happy living here?"

Hu Li pauses, then looks up at Yu Sheng, who seems a bit drowsy, and after thinking for a moment, a pure smile finally appears on the demon fox girl's face, "Happy."

"Oh, that's good. As long as you're happy..." Yu Sheng yawns, adjusts his position on the sofa, and lies down, "I'm a bit sleepy, going to take a nap. I'll cook for you after I wake up."

Hu Li responds with an "Okay." When she lowers her head again, Yu Sheng has already fallen asleep, using one of her tails as a pillow.

The TV's volume was instantly turned down to the minimum.

Erin leaned in from the side, craned her head to glance at Yu Sheng who had fallen asleep, and mumbled discontentedly: "How come he didn't bother to ask me too..."

Hu Li thought for a moment, then said with a serious face, "Probably because you always look so cheerful, Savior probably thinks there's no need to ask."

Erin immediately bared her teeth at Hu Li, then lowered her head to glance at Yu Sheng: "Fine then, he has been quite harassed these past few days. Humans are a troublesome species—too stressed to sleep, and the more sleepless they are, the more stressed they get—him being able to eat and sleep is still better than insomnia."

Hu Li nodded her head, then looked up at the clock on the wall across them, and a trace of eagerness suddenly appeared on her face: "Hey, it's about time to start cooking."

Erin was taken aback, then glared at her: "All you know is eating! He just fell asleep! Weren't you saying we'd wait until he wakes up..."

"I know, I know," Hu Li waved her hand to interrupt the Puppet, "That's why I'm saying... why don't we go and cook? Savior has a hard time cooking every day, let's not have him cook today..."

"I think the main reason he finds cooking hard is because of you," Erin rolled her eyes immediately, "And it sounds nice when you put it that way, but can you even cook?"

Hu Li confidently puffed out her chest: "I've learned by watching every day!"

"When have you learned by watching? Weren't you just snitching food on the side?" Erin eyed her dubiously, but deep in her eyes, she had already been swayed. After pretending to be serious for a few seconds, she snuggled forward again, "Well, it's not impossible... Although you are not reliable, I am at least blessed by the Puppet Progenitor. Our Alice's Cottage puppets naturally have a boost in cooking skills... I will cover for you."

"Great!" Hu Li immediately beamed with joy, happy to get up, but quickly remembered that one of her tails was still being used as a pillow by Yu Sheng, so she pulled that tail out. Then she thought about it and pulled two more tails from her body to cover Yu Sheng like a blanket.

From under the fluffy tails came a series of crackling noises, and Yu Sheng shivered twice on the spot—but he didn't wake up.

Erin, watching this unfold, couldn't help being shocked and remarked with admiration: "He must be really tired..."

Then she saw Hu Li continuing to pull out her tails and hurriedly gestured: "Hey, that's enough, that's enough! Jesus, are you looking after him or trying to electrocute him?!"

"I'm laying them on the floor next to the couch, in case he rolls off the couch while asleep," Hu Li casually said while spreading her tails on the floor without looking up.

Erin watched those fox tails that had been rubbed on the couch for a long time now charged with electricity and placed neatly on the floor. She wasn't sure if Yu Sheng would be more hurt falling on the floor or landing on this pile of tails powered by the Five Thunders Technique—if she thought about it, falling on the floor would probably hurt more.

After all, she was a puppet and didn't conduct electricity.

And so, these two girls, one a dropout from elementary school and the other a prenatal education graduate from a correspondence kindergarten, confidently went to the kitchen to cook.

Yu Sheng, fast asleep on the couch, was completely unaware of this.

His consciousness had already sunk deep into the Dream Realm, currently fluctuating amidst a series of bizarre visions and murky memories.

It was as if his utterly relaxed thoughts were rolling over the waves of a lake stirred by the wind, and Yu Sheng felt rather comfortable with the experience. He had a vague idea that he was dreaming and was enjoying the process of not needing to control his own thoughts and simply allowing his consciousness to relax.

Then, after who knows how long, he suddenly felt his consciousness, like a small boat tumbling on the surface of the spiritual lake, coming ashore.

The chaotic visions receded from his mind, and a stable landscape materialized before Yu Sheng's eyes.

He saw an endless, grey wasteland covered with an overcast sky—unknown wild grass spreading across the wasteland, clouds hanging low, all silent with the occasional breeze. The sounds of the wind, however, also seemed empty. There stood a small hill quietly at the end of this wild land, which did not seem very far but inexplicably gave him the feeling... that it was forever unreachable.

Yu Sheng stood quietly in the middle of the grass. After a moment of stupor, he suddenly realized that he had seen this place before.

This was his dream world, and not just one he had experienced once—in fact, there had been a time when he had seen the "dream projection" of Hu Li here.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brows.

He didn't know why he had walked into this strange dream again, but the fact that the same scene had appeared multiple times in his dreams surely indicated something was wrong—after all, he had been dealing with things that were off lately.

Another gentle breeze came along, and amidst the empty sound of the wind, he suddenly heard a distant, indistinct, but absolutely out-of-place howling.

It was a faint howl of a wolf.

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