Chapter 5
The little fox had worked hard performing all morning, yet still did not get the cuddles it had been waiting for from the little child.
Its little brother was still afraid of it and did not dare get too close, only daring to look at it from afar.
The little fox wilted again, but there was nothing it could do. It could only slowly build up favorability bit by bit.
In order to raise that favorability, at noon the little fox once again finished off an entire plate of diet food during its mukbang, and even sang Tang Rong a brand-new song with a string of ying-yings.
It was a song Mother used to hum often to lull it to sleep when it was little. It had not heard or sung it in many years, afraid it would stir up old feelings.
But now, it wanted to hum it for its little brother to hear, even if only through a simple melody.
Mother was gone, so it would take Mother’s place and stay by its little brother’s side properly.
…
And so, every day Tang Rong would come to the room where the little fox was staying and watch from a distance as it ate, exercised, and sang. He liked it very much in his heart, yet because of his allergic constitution, he had no way to cuddle with it.
But he was a child who was very easy to satisfy and never dared ask for too much. Being able to look at the little fox from afar already made him very happy.
Finally, on the third day, the system detected that all the little red spots left on Tang Rong’s body from the allergy had completely disappeared, and immediately urged, [Host, hurry and go wash up. Change into a clean set of clothes too. You’ll feel much more comfortable.]
Tang Rong had also been wanting to take a bath for a long time. He did not want to leave dirty marks everywhere he went.
So that day, after watching the little fox’s eating broadcast and returning to his room, just before he was about to take his noon nap, Tang Rong took the initiative to call out to the butler. “Butler Uncle.”
“What is it?” The butler bent slightly at the waist.
After spending the past few days together, Tang Rong had grown much bolder and would now also take the initiative to call him uncle.
“I want to wash up,” Tang Rong said.
The butler froze for a moment. It was noon—wash what? Then he quickly reacted and said in surprise, “Take a bath?”
Tang Rong obediently nodded.
“Alright, I’ll go draw the water.” The butler immediately rose to his feet.
Wonderful. Little Young Master was finally willing to bathe.
Once he finished bathing, he could change into those new clothes Second Young Lady had prepared for him.
…
Every day after lunch, the little fox would take a nap for a while.
Since Tang Rong also had to nap and could not continue accompanying it from afar, it got a little bored, so it might as well nap too.
Usually after waking from his nap, Tang Rong would watch cartoons for a while. At first, he watched them in his own room, but later he asked Butler Uncle to let him come here and watch together with it.
It could tell that Tang Rong liked it, yet he still did not dare get too close. It had no idea why.
Butler Uncle said he had a friend who especially liked beautiful insects and had collected all kinds of insect specimens, yet was afraid of living insects. Using that as an analogy—perhaps because the chasing on their first meeting had scared Tang Rong too badly, even though he liked it now, he still did not dare easily approach or touch it.
Do not ask. If you ask, the only answer was regret.
If time could turn back, it definitely would not have chased its little brother back then and scared him into tears.
Unfortunately, time could not flow backward. It could only slowly build favorability and wait for the day the little child truly opened his heart to it.
At noon that day, the little fox also took a nap as usual.
The reason it woke up was because it heard approaching footsteps and caught a faint fragrance mixed with something pleasant.
The little fox instantly opened its eyes, perked up its ears, and looked toward the door.
A few seconds later, as the footsteps drew closer, the door opened. The butler appeared in its line of sight, holding the hand of a little child who looked somewhat unfamiliar after being tidied up anew.
The little fox’s pupils instantly contracted.
Yes—unfamiliar.
Aside from those beautiful light green eyes, which were still familiar, the little child had undergone an enormous transformation from head to toe.
That faint scent it had smelled earlier was the fragrance of shampoo and body wash.
After being scrubbed clean, the little dirty dumpling had turned into a sweet, fragrant little cake.
His slightly long black hair now hung to just below his shoulders. After being washed, it had become clean and silky, and even his bangs had been trimmed into an exceptionally neat and obedient style.
It knew that Butler Uncle had quite a few “talented people” under him, including one whose former dream had been to become an outstanding hairstylist. Later, after being cheated when opening a shop and burdened with a mountain of debt, he had been forced to change jobs.
When it was little, that same person had even trimmed the fur on its fox form.
The clothes that had once been so dirty their shape could hardly be seen had now been replaced with an adorable and comfortable embroidered sweatshirt and a pair of casual pants. The pattern on the sweatshirt was a familiar round little bird. One look and it was obvious it had to be Second Sister’s handiwork.
Because the junk planet received so little sunlight, the little child’s skin was very fair. He was just too thin, malnourished, with obvious bones and no flesh at all on his cheeks, making one’s heart ache just looking at him.
Even so, it was still clear that his features were especially delicate. If he were raised properly and allowed to grow into them, he would surely become a very beautiful child.
The little fox was so excited that all nine of its tails wagged so fast they left afterimages. Ying-ying cries spilled from its throat as it eagerly wanted to cuddle with the freshly washed, soft, and sweet-smelling little child.
Unfortunately, this time Tang Rong was still holding the butler’s hand and stopped about two or three meters away from the little fox, without getting too close.
The little fox’s hopes were dashed again. All nine tails drooped as it blinked and stared at the newly refreshed little child, letting out wronged little yings from its throat.
Why was it so hard for a fox to snuggle a human?
Seeing this, the butler crouched down until he was eye level with Tang Rong and said gently, “Can Uncle ask why Xiao Rong is unwilling to get close to Big Brother Xiao Hu?”
After discovering that Tang Rong liked being called “Xiao Rong” better, the butler would occasionally switch the way he addressed him.
So many days had already passed, yet Tang Rong still refused to get close to the little fox. That really was too abnormal. He had long wanted to find an opportunity to ask.
Tang Rong’s lips moved. Because he was nervous, his small hands clenched tighter, and for the longest time he could not squeeze out a single syllable.
He did not want to tell anyone the secret about his allergy, but he was also bad at lying.
The system promptly came to his aid: [Just say that you were bitten by an animal before, so you’re scared and don’t want to get too close. Looking from a distance is enough.]
“Bit… bitten… scared… scared… close… look…” Tang Rong nervously repeated, turning into a tiny stammering bundle.
The system looked like it was about to panic to death as well and hurriedly came up with another idea: [Then just throw yourself into his arms. If he can’t see your expression, you won’t give yourself away, and if you can’t see him, you won’t be so nervous either.]
The moment those words fell, Tang Rong buried his head straight into the butler’s arms and hugged him tightly. His beautiful eyes blinked quickly, and his long curled lashes brushed lightly against the chest of the uniform.
The butler froze for a moment, then quickly began smoothing his back and soothing him with heartache.
It seemed that Little Young Master did not dare get close to the little fox not just because of the fox itself, but also because of some of his past experiences.
He must have been bullied by animals on the junk planet.
When helping Little Young Master bathe earlier, he had already seen some scars left on his body from who knew when. They had all healed naturally and were not especially numerous, but for a child this age, they were by no means few.
Four years old—an age when even a simple bump or scrape would make the hearts of family members tremble—yet he had already suffered so much.
Taking advantage of the moment, the butler simply lifted Tang Rong into his arms and carried him back to the children’s room, no longer bringing up the matter of getting close to the little fox.
Mental health was just as important as physical health.
It was true that the way to overcome fear was to face it, but no one got fat in a single bite. Once they reached the main planet, they could let a professional childcare specialist guide him slowly.
And if he truly did not want to get close to animals, that was alright too. It would not affect everyday life anyway.
…
After returning to the room, Tang Rong’s attention was quickly caught by the small cleaning robot that was huffing and puffing as it tidied up, and he curiously followed behind it, watching it clean and organize the bathroom.
The little cleaning robot was pure white all over. It could freely switch between a maid dress and a male servant’s uniform. On top of its head was a pair of white cat ears, and behind it was a curled cat tail. When it was not activated, the display screen would show all kinds of amusing emoji faces.
There were quite a few robots on the junk planet as well, but to save materials, most of them had simple, rough appearances and were nowhere near as cute as this one.
Seeing Tang Rong watching so intently, the butler did not disturb him and left the room, intending to go chat with the little fox.
By sheer bad luck, the first thing that entered his eyes was the scene of the little fox scratching up the sofa.
The butler adjusted his glasses.
The little fox guiltily tucked away its claw hooks and inched forward like a caterpillar, using its body and fluffy fur to cover the area it had scratched into splinters.
It was just too angry. It had not meant to ruin the sofa on purpose.
Some blind fool had actually bitten and bullied its little brother!
The butler strode over, picked up the little fox, and set it aside, telling a subordinate to clean up the shredded sofa.
The little fox had originally wanted to explain itself with a few words on the optical brain, but then heard the butler suddenly ask, “There are only two or three days left before we reach the main planet. How long are you planning to stay this time? Will you remain and keep accompanying Little Young Master? Or are you going back to being a ‘star pirate’?”
This was actually something he had wanted to ask the little fox for quite a while now, but he had never found the right opportunity. By chance, today he had learned the true reason Little Young Master dared not approach the little fox. Once they reached the main planet, the little fox would likely still need to cooperate further, helping Little Young Master walk out of the shadow left by those past scares—after all, the main planet would be an entirely unfamiliar environment to him, and the little fox, whom he had spent so much time with already, could at least give him some sense of security.
But the little fox fell silent.
That was right. Back then, it had fled the main planet and boarded that fake star pirate ship for two reasons: first, Mother’s death and its little brother’s disappearance, and second, to search for its little brother.
Now that little brother had finally been found, its goal had already been achieved. Was it really going to keep running away?
Little Uncle had always been trying to persuade it to let go of what happened back then, saying that Mother’s ambush had nothing to do with her taking it to the music hall. Those people had clearly planned it all in advance. Even if they had not attacked that time, there would have been a next time. He told it not to blame itself so much.
But how could something like that be so easy to let go of?
Back then, it had been in the hovercar. Frightened, it had been scared into revealing its beast form, and Mother had pulled it into her arms and protected it. At the time, Mother was already carrying little brother in her belly, already fragile to begin with, yet she still had to look after it, this “extra burden.”
It could never stop itself from thinking—if it had not been there, if Mother had not needed to protect it, then maybe she would not have died.
Now that little brother had finally been found, it truly should not keep running away any longer.
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