Allergic To Furry Things But Can Pet Them Mentally – CH8

Chapter 8

The hovercar paused briefly at the entrance to Eden Garden, cooperating with the guards as they carried out the required scans and inspections. After passing through, it continued on toward the Tang family villa.

There were quite a few buildings here, but they were spread far apart. Each one was either a hospital, a breeding base, or a laboratory. The vast majority of the area, however, was filled with flowers, grass, and trees left close to their natural state, with a number of tagged small animals roaming freely among them.

It was currently autumn, but the temperature had not dropped yet. They had been on the road for quite a while, and by now the sun was just about to set. The evening glow spread across the horizon in brilliant colors like an oil painting, making this place look even more like something out of a fairy tale.

The Tang family villa had been built in a relatively remote spot. At a glance, there were no other buildings anywhere nearby, yet the Tang family villa alone covered as much ground as an entire breeding base.

The hovercar drove straight into the villa grounds, followed the path, and stopped steadily in front of the house specially prepared for Tang Rong, right at the gate of the courtyard.

The butler immediately led Tang Rong out of the car by the hand.

Eden Garden was very far from the spaceport. Even though the hovercar was fast, it had still taken nearly half a day to get there.

Ever since that conversation in the tunnel, Tang Rong had no longer been as excited as before about looking out at the scenery through the window. After staring out absentmindedly for a while, he had yawned and fallen asleep curled up beside the butler, only waking groggily again when they were almost at Eden Garden.

Perhaps because everything in sight was full of fresh plants and bathed in the gentle colors of the setting sun, this place gave him an especially comfortable feeling.

“We’re home,” the butler said as he led Tang Rong out of the car by his little hand.

Tang Rong followed closely at the butler’s side, passed through the little flower garden, changed into the house slippers that had long been prepared for him at the entrance, and walked inside.

A round little housekeeping robot was already standing by in the foyer.

In its hands was a tray, and on the tray lay a tiny optical brain ring threaded onto a red cord.

The butler picked up the ring on the red string, warmed the cool ring in his palm first, and only then hung it around Tang Rong’s neck.

An optical brain ring could be worn on the finger, or as an accessory on the body. As long as it touched the skin, it could be used directly.

By custom, putting a red cord on a young child carried the beautiful meaning of blessing and protection, which was why Tang Rong’s optical brain ring had been strung onto this red cord.

Following the butler’s instructions, Tang Rong activated the ring, registered his identity, and received the first optical brain that truly belonged to him.

All it took was a single thought, and the optical brain screen would appear before him.

How magical!

Tang Rong still remembered that back on the garbage planet, most people’s optical brains were rather outdated. They had to manually touch the ring before the virtual screen would pop up. The screens were nowhere near this clear, and there were not many functions either. A lot of the time, they even needed a projection curtain to improve visibility.

Grandma had not owned an optical brain ring, but while she was alive, she would often bring Tang Rong next door to Auntie’s house, where he would watch cartoons together with Auntie’s child on her optical brain.

Auntie had never said much about it, since someone playing with her child was not a bad thing, and it was only cartoons anyway—whether one child watched them or two made no difference. Tang Rong had also been very well-behaved, and had never once tried to sponge food or drink off their family.

After Grandma died, however, Auntie started avoiding Tang Rong whenever she saw him. She no longer let her own child watch cartoons with him either, afraid that this little orphan with no grandmother left would cling to their house and refuse to leave.

Back then, Tang Rong had always thought that when he grew up, he would work hard to earn money and buy an optical brain ring of his own, then watch cartoons together with Grandma.

Later, Grandma died, and all Tang Rong wanted after that was simply to survive.

The optical brain had already been set to child mode, and everything Tang Rong might need at his age had already been downloaded. There was no need to worry about him seeing anything “inappropriate” on it. Once he grew a little older, the mode could be switched and upgraded.

Then the butler brought Tang Rong over to the little housekeeping robot and registered his identity with it as well.

Very quickly, the housekeeping robot’s information appeared on Tang Rong’s optical brain.

Tang Rong could give direct voice commands to the little robot in person, or use the optical brain to operate it remotely. It was all very convenient.

Delighted by the novelty of it, Tang Rong gave his very first command: “Spin in a circle.”

The housekeeping robot immediately turned in a full circle on the spot, and an even brighter pixel-style smiling face popped up on its screen.

Tang Rong’s eyes curved happily as well.

Then he suddenly thought of something, tilted up his little head, and asked the butler, “Butler Uncle, where did Xiao Hu-brother go? Will he come back tonight?”

The butler raised his hand and pointed in a direction. “He lives in the house over there. If Rongrong wants to see him, Uncle can take you tomorrow.”

Tang Rong blinked blankly, then asked again, “Why doesn’t Xiao Hu-brother live with us? There are so many, so many rooms here.”

When they had entered the courtyard, Tang Rong had already taken in the whole house with one glance. It had three floors, and the second floor alone had far more than three or five rooms. But since his family had a lot of people—Grandfather, Father, Eldest Brother, Second Sister, Third Brother, butler Uncle, butler Uncle’s subordinates, and now him too—having more rooms made sense. Otherwise, how would everyone fit?

Back on the garbage planet, only extremely, extremely rich people had a house this big… Who would have thought his family was actually this rich!

The butler adjusted his glasses and more or less understood what Tang Rong had misunderstood, so he explained, “This house belongs to Rongrong. Those rooms include Rongrong’s bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, family theater, toy room, game room, study, and so on. The flowers in the little garden were planted especially for Rongrong by Grandfather. The rest of the family lives in the houses next door. Each person has a house of their own.”

Tang Rong’s mind gradually went blank, and it took him a very long time to process.

Th-this huge house… is for him alone?!

…

And all those houses next door… are his family’s too??!!

Baby Rong was stunned.

…

Meanwhile, the hovercar carrying the little fox did not follow the one heading to Tang Rong’s house. Instead, it went directly to Tang Qiu, the second sister.

Tang Qiu’s house stood at the far western edge of this area, and it was also the largest one—because of her profession: tailor.

Perhaps because of her stutter, or perhaps because she was naturally introverted, she had never really liked socializing ever since childhood. Instead, she loved all kinds of dolls.

When her mother discovered that her hands were skillful, she encouraged her to try making little clothes and accessories for her dolls herself.

Gradually, it got completely out of control.

From dolls small enough to fit in one hand, to life-sized dolls and even larger ones, Tang Qiu had them all. Nearly all of the dolls’ clothes and accessories had been made by her own hands. She even did the eyes and makeup herself.

As the number of dolls and doll-related items grew, she needed more and more space to store them. Over the years, Tang Qiu’s house had been expanded again and again, which was why hers was the largest.

Some of the clothes the butler had brought for Tang Rong had been carefully selected by Tang Qiu from clothing stores on the capital planet—she had very good taste in that area. Others had been handmade by Tang Qiu herself, sewn for doll models around the same size as human young children.

Tang Qiu had tossed and turned all night and had not slept at all. After getting up that morning, she had only managed to doze off in bits and pieces. By noon and afternoon, when she learned that the spaceship had already arrived at the capital planet’s spaceport, she sobered up instantly. Since then, she had been constantly watching the surveillance footage from inside the hovercar that the butler had shared with her, though the dark circles under her eyes were still obvious.

In the surveillance footage, her younger brother had the exact same pale green eyes as Mother. They were especially beautiful.

He was so tiny, and dressed in the clothes she had made. He was unbearably adorable, with delicate features like a finely crafted doll.

Just from looking at him, she had already come up with many ideas about how she wanted to “dress him up.”

Ding-dong.

The bell outside the courtyard suddenly rang.

Tang Qiu knew it was the little fox, and ordered a robot to open the gate for him.

The robot opened the courtyard gate. One of the butler’s subordinates opened the cage he had been carrying in his hand, then placed the muzzled little fox down on the ground.

At once, the little fox lifted all nine tails and ran straight along the path in the courtyard toward the main door the robot had opened.

Before entering, the little fox very consciously washed all four paws at the entrance. Only after confirming that all four paw pads were squeaky clean did it walk in.

Second Sister did not actually have that severe a cleanliness obsession, but she tended to leave all sorts of materials and design drafts lying around wherever she happened to be working. Whenever inspiration struck, she would add a little here and there. They were all her treasures. Once, his dirty paws had stepped on some of them and left ugly stains behind. In a fit of anger, she had become truly furious inside and ignored him for a whole month.

After that, an animal paw washer had quietly appeared outside her door.

He had not expected that even after he had been away from the capital planet for so long, and only came back occasionally for New Year’s dinner before leaving again, Second Sister would still have kept the paw washer there.

The little fox could not help feeling a little emotional.

Second Sister did not talk much and was not good at expressing herself. Sometimes when she got angry, other people would not even notice, but in truth, her heart was delicate, and she was especially kind…

Not long after entering the house, the scruff of the little fox’s neck was grabbed.

The person holding him carried him straight into the kitchen and, without the slightest hesitation, placed him into a pot.

…Kind.

The little fox was so startled that all the fur on its tails puffed up, but it knew that kind-hearted Second Sister would never really cook him. Although he was shocked, he still did not struggle.

The little fox had too many tails, and his fur was too thick. On top of that, the diet meals he had been eating on the ship these past few days had not yet shown much effect, so the whole pot was stuffed full with him.

Then a cold AI electronic voice rang out in the kitchen.

“So now you think you’re capable, huh, Tang Hu? Your wings have hardened…”

“Sleep, sleep, sleep. All you ever do all day long is sleep. Anyone who didn’t know better would think your spirit form was a pig…”

“Your optical brain isn’t there for decoration. I suggest canceling it outright and selling it dirt cheap on QQ Secondhand to someone who actually needs it…”

It was an AI scolding service ordered by Second Sister.

You input the other party’s name and relevant details, and the AI would scold them tirelessly until the end of time.

The moment the voice started, Tang Qiu turned and left the kitchen, closing the kitchen door behind her.

The little fox flattened its triangular ears in misery and went completely limp inside the pot.

—The fire was not on, but it had already melted.

…

About ten minutes later, the robot finally waddled over and pushed the kitchen door open.

The little fox, as though granted a pardon from death, leaped out of the pot, darted through the narrow crack of the half-opened door, jumped precisely onto the sofa, and landed steadily in his second sister’s lap.

“Ying.”

Trying to act cute in hopes of softening his sister’s heart.

Tang Qiu stroked the fur of the little fox in her lap, then slowly said two words: “You got… fatter.”

The little fox immediately flicked all nine tails and let out another aggrieved little ying.

After so long apart, the very first thing Second Sister said to him was that. It truly wounded the fox’s heart.

Tang Qiu spoke again: “I… I made… clothes for you. Go… go put… them on.”

The little fox did not delay any longer and followed the robot to the dressing room prepared for him.

At the same time, he let out a heavy sigh inwardly.

Second Sister’s stutter had become worse than before.

Back then, with the help and guidance of the family and a speech therapist, she had already improved quite a lot and could speak much more smoothly. But after Mother died, it suddenly became much worse again.

All these years, they had been busy investigating what had happened back then and searching for their little brother’s whereabouts, but in doing so, they had overlooked too much within this family.

Grandfather’s health had gotten even worse. Father’s spiritual power had become more and more difficult to control. Eldest Brother spent all year long leading troops around the various star systems on missions and fighting against foreign enemies, and even the relationship with the girlfriend he had been with for years had begun to have problems. Second Sister’s stutter had worsened too. And as for him…

Closing the door behind him and seeing that the curtains were already drawn shut, the little fox directly reverted to human form and began putting on the clothes his second sister had prepared for him.

Clothing could not freely switch back and forth between spirit form and human form. If he wanted to transform back, he had to prepare clothes and a changing room in advance.

He did not like wearing all those restraining devices in human form. A little fox wearing a muzzle and a human wearing one felt completely different. That was also why, after the spaceship reached the capital planet, he had not transformed back into human form right away.

There was a full-length mirror in the room—because of Second Sister’s hobby, nearly every room in her house had a mirror. Once fully dressed, Tang Hu walked up to the mirror and took a look.

At sixteen years old, the boy was already 178 centimeters tall. He could probably grow a bit more—180 centimeters was definitely possible. Reaching Eldest Brother’s 190 was probably hopeless, though.

He was not actually fat. It was just that the flesh on him was not especially firm. The real problem was probably that he had snuck too many extra meals, and that was all Little Uncle’s cooking being too good.

If he kept eating diet meals under his little brother’s supervision and exercising every day like he had on the spaceship, the day he became a fox with eight-pack abs was probably just around the corner.

After glancing at himself in the mirror, Tang Hu straightened his collar and walked out of the room.

Tang Qiu was looking at her optical brain. When she saw him return, she lifted her eyes to admire the new outfit she had made, then smiled faintly.

Tang Hu knowingly went over and sat beside her. “What are you looking at?”

Tang Qiu did not answer. She simply turned her optical brain screen toward him.

It showed the surveillance feed from inside Tang Rong’s house.

Tang Rong was still too young, so naturally the whole house had been fully outfitted with surveillance cameras to ensure his safety. Once he grew older and could take care of himself, they could be removed.

The butler had also explained the cameras to Tang Rong already, and Tang Rong did not mind.

In the footage, Tang Rong was eating together with the butler, one cheek puffed out into a little round bulge. He looked unbearably adorable.

Tang Hu smiled and said, “When I first saw him, he was dirty and skinny, completely different from how he looks now. After eating well and resting well on the spaceship to make up for his nutrition, he’s finally put on a little flesh. Once he got cleaned up and put on the clothes you made, Sis, he became explosively cute. Especially that hoodie with the little white bird embroidered on the chest…”

Tang Qiu did not talk much, so whenever Tang Hu was with her, he became especially talkative.

Tang Qiu listened with unusual seriousness to every word of his description of Tang Rong.

Finally, when Tang Hu paused for a moment because his throat was dry from talking so much, she gathered her courage and spoke, somewhat nervously:

“I… I want… want… to go… see… see him.”

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