That afternoon, in front of Huanyu's front door, Mu ZhenYu, who hasn't showed up in a few days, got out leisurely from his car with a little fox in his arm.
The employees walking around all looked over – it had been a while since their Boss Mu was engaged to Miss Xu WanZhi but they had yet to pick a date for the wedding. Many things had happened to the Mu's since and, all of a sudden, some ended up in prison and in the hospital. Even though Mu ZhenYu was the last one standing, Xu WanZhi was dragged into this very cruel internal struggle.
Before all of these happened, it was more or less settled that Xu WanZhi would become the primary female lead in Plainness. But after the incident, everybody that was involved had either been mentioned by the police or media through other channels. Even Mu XiYuan, as the mastermind behind the kidnapped was hospitalized for severe injury. Xu WanZhi, the one who was kidnapped, on the other hand, seemed to have disappeared altogether and nobody had heard anything about her. Director Jiang ChenXi of Plainness seemed to have been waiting for her return and delayed the start of the movie indefinitely using the excuse of conflicts between the filming schedule and locations.
Many fans speculated that Xu WanZhi could very well had died during the kidnapping. After all, even Mu XiYuan and a few others had suffered serious injuries. Obviously there had been some sort of confrontation. Xu WanZhi was so fragile and weak; it was very likely that she could have died during the brawl.
Nevertheless, Sliver Star had never stepped out and announced anything about the whereabout of Xu WanZhi. All the fans could do was to worry.
And now, Mu ZhenYu was going to work with a fox and a very relaxed look. That, too, was difficult to figure out.
A few employees walked past him nonchalantly and, it was until they were a distance away before they started whispering to each other.
"That was the little fox on the internet, right? The one that belongs to Xu WanZhi."
"Oh, my gosh. I never thought I'd see the real thing!"
"No wonder Jiang YueXian had been drooling over it for so long. It really seems to possess the ability to steal one's soul in close distance!"
"He is even bringing her fox to the office to take care of it. He must really cherish Miss Xu."
"I know, right? Normally you'd just hire someone to take care of your pet at home. We didn't know about this in the past, but now we know that even he bankruptcy a while back was fake. It wasn't like he couldn't afford someone to take care of his pet."
"That's why I said he cherishs Miss Xu a lot. He even takes care of her fox in person."
"That being said, do you think something really happened to Xu WanZhi? Why else would she not be taking care of her fox herself?"
"Judging by the way Boss Mu looks, it doesn't look like something that tragic had happened. Perhaps Miss Xu was in a hospital somewhere and does not wish to be disturbed."
As they were gossiping, Mu ZhenYu's executive assistant walked out of the elevator and walked over to them. "Do you not have enough work or something? You have to gossip about Mr. Mu and Miss Xu's personal matters? If I hear another word on this subject, you are all fired."
The employees all shut up immediately and went about minding their own businesses.
The young executive assistant went down to the underground garage and retrieved what Mu ZhenYu needed out of the trunk of his car and brought it back up to the top floor for him.
He watched as Mu ZhenYu opened up the suitcase personally and it was a set of pet products. A fox bed, food, toys, even shampoo and conditioner.
Mu ZhenYu mixed some food for the little fox and brought it over to its mouth with a cherishing look. The fox merely turned its head away, licked the tip of its own nose, dashed over to its brand-new pink fox bed, curled up and went to sleep.
What the employees were talking about was at the tip of his tongue. The executive assistant wanted to say something but it felt inappropriate. He stood there and hesitated.
Finally, Mu ZhenYu was the one who started, "A lot of people were talking about this fox, right?"
The executive assistant paused for a second and lowered his head. "Yes, I have already told them to keep their mouths shut."
"It's fine." Mu ZhenYu merely put away each and every single fox product one by one and said, "If there's anyone who had experience with keeping a fox, have them come and see me."
The executive assistant acknowledged his request with a nod before he walked out.
The room quieted down all of a sudden with only one man and one fox remaining.
Sitting behind his own desk, Mu ZhenYu looked at it quietly. Seeing that it was breathing evenly but wasn't snoring like it normally did, he knew that it was pretending to be asleep.
He didn't get close to it to disturb it but only asked softly, "Is there anything else that you need?"
Sure enough, the little fox opened up a crack between its eyelids and peeked at him before it turned its head back and carried on pretending to be asleep.
Mu ZhenYu smiled in a resigned way and started focusing on his own work.
Sun was all over the room and relaxing time like this didn't happen very often.
Unfortunately, it was her that was napping there.
A week had past and Mu ZhenYu's work became busier and busier and he had less and less time to take care of the fox in his office.
The fried chicken still smelled very good and the coconut juice very sweet, but the fox's appetite seemed to have decreased from before.
It was so bored that it was jumping around all over Mu ZhenYu's office. When it saw the documents on his desk it wanted to tear them up with its mouth and claws. But it knew that as much as it couldn't understand the numbers on the documents, they were very important. Her instinct to destroy was so strong in her beast form that she must control herself.
Finally, she bounced onto the couch and turned the television on from the remote using her little paw. She switched a few channels and suddenly found a host who were talking about the day that she was kidnapped clearly and concisely.
"Per our exclusive report, after actress Xu WanZhi was kidnapped by Mu XiYuan and a couple of his underlings, she was able to break free from the abandoned storage in the countryside and headed toward Huanyu in a vehicle. We could only speculate that Xu WanZhi learned about Mu XiYuan's revenge plans and wanted to rush over to warn her fiancé. Coincidentally, the two ran into each other on her way to Huanyu. And yet, at the same time, more ruffias with knives also appeared on the scene. After some struggle, Mu ZhenYu was stabbed twice but, luckily, none of them were serious injuries. And Xu WanZhi had disappeared from that point forward. Per the cops, most of the scoundrels except for two had already been arrested. We could speculate that when the ruffians escaped from the scenes, they had taken Xu WanZhi with them as hostage. And now, we have no idea whether she was alive or dead and this made her fans very nervous. Now, let us visit the location where Xu WanZhi's fans had gathered and are wishing for her safe return."
The scene cut to a young girl. The young girl's eyes were reddened and she cried in front of the camera for a little bit before she was able to calm down enough to talk. "I really like her work a lot and also the way that she had interacted with her fox. My roommates and I had been very sad since we have heard the news and we hope that WanWan will return to us safely."
Sitting up the couch, the little fox's black and shiny eyes focused on the television screen. All of a sudden, her chest was filled with human emotions.
That day, she had run over to safe Mu ZhenYu without thinking. But he had pure yang temperament and she wasn't able to use any of her magic in front of him. However, all she could think about was to safe him and she used all of her cultivation trying to break that boundary.
She was able to safe him in the end but she was forced to turn back into her original form and had also lose consciousness.
She always thought that it was her who saved his life. She felt very justified as she ate his fried chicken, drank his coconut juice, stepped on his leather couch, slept in the bed that he had bought her… all because she was his "savior".
What she didn't know was that after she had turned back into the little fox, he took down a quite a few others, all of them with knife, while holding her in his hand.
Came to think about it, how'd Mu XiYuan be so stupid to only send one man to take care of Mu ZhenYu? The purpose of the white car that rammed into him was just to get rid of his car so that he'd have no way to escape was all.
She suddenly remembered the night when he called her a "silly girl" with a smile. He had said to her, "Have you forgotten? I am a man who can survive in a dumpster."
He had run away from a group of kidnappers with knife when he was just 10 years old.
He probably only sustained injuries that day because he had her in his hand and he didn't want her hurt.
On the television, her fans were still shouting out supportive words for her intermittently.
She suddenly felt a little soreness at the tip of her little nose.
If her fans were like this already, then what about Mu ZhenYu?
He must have many questions that he wanted to ask her but he never tried to get it out of her. He just ensured that she has good food and beverage and lived her life happily.
He must miss her a lot.
She, too, missed him a little bit.
Noise came from outside of the spacious office all of a sudden. The little fox quickly reached out its paw and turned the television off before it bounced right back to its new bed.
Mu ZhenYu walked inside of the office, hung his suit up on the clothing rack, and picked her up.
There was alcohol smell from him but it didn't smell awful. In fact, it smelled good when mixed with his odor.
She was no longer being naughty but sat inside of his arm docilely.
She worried that she would touch his wound.
He still placed her in the passenger seat and drove her home in person. There was traffic on their way back and, when waiting at a red light, he reached out his long arm and stroked her behind her ear.
"Looks like you have grown some." He muttered to himself as he stroked her.
When he arrived at the underground garage of their mansion, it was already dark outside. He turned the car off and the faint, yellow light reflected on his face.
He said motionlessly in the driver's seat and called out to her softly, "WanWan."
The little fox looked up at him.
"Can you… no longer change back?"
The little fox cocked its head and didn't make any other moves.
He looked at her for a while longer before he picked her up from the passenger seat, held her in his arm and went upstairs for dinner.
Her meals have always had more varieties than his. He fed her what he ate and she also had her chicken, nutritious milk, and coconut juice in addition to that.
On the first few days, it had always had a very rightfully so look and would eat everything in the plate placed in front of it.
But, today, it had leaped onto the dinner table and pushed its plate of yummy milk in his direction.
Mu ZhenYu was confused. "You don't like it anymore? Give you a different flavor tomorrow?"
The little fox ignored him and, picking out a piece of very nice-smelling fried chicken, ran over to his bowl, reached out its head and dropped it inside.
Mu ZhenYu finally understood what it was trying to tell him. "This is for me?"
The little fox ran back over to her own bowl and started licking at the milk.
Mu ZhenYu smiled and put the piece of fried chicken given to him by the fox into his own mouth.
Outside of the window, neither the stars nor the moon could be seen. The rain clouds hung low and the entire sky was a dim red color. There seemed to be a scent of humidity in the air.
Mu ZhenYu put down his chopsticks and gathered the little fox and its few plates all in front of himself and said softly, "It looks like this will be another stormy night."