Dimensional Hotel

At the dining table, the fox girl sat across from him, clumsily gripping a pair of chopsticks. She was shoveling food from her bowl into her mouth at an astonishing speed.

It was just the simplest noodle soup, with a few greens, some sliced ham, and two fried eggs. But Foxy was eating as if it were the most exquisite delicacy in the world. Her eating manners weren’t exactly refined—but she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

Strictly speaking, this was the first hot meal she’d had in years. Though the biscuits and instant noodles Yu Sheng had previously brought her were appreciated, sitting safely at a dining table like now, eating a bowl of steaming food, was an entirely different experience.

“Slow down,” Yu Sheng said gently, watching as Foxy nearly finished her bowl in the blink of an eye. He felt a twinge of concern and lightly touched her hand. “There’s more in the pot if you’re still hungry. And that’s not how you hold chopsticks—look at me.”

Foxy lifted her eyes from the bowl and glanced at Yu Sheng’s right hand. While chewing on a fried egg, she awkwardly adjusted her own grip on the chopsticks.

She was a quick learner.

“Am I eating too fast?” Foxy asked a bit shyly after finishing her bowl of noodles. She noticed that Yu Sheng’s bowl was still half full, and beside him, Irene had a bowl in front of her that hadn’t been touched at all. “I just… always feel that if I don’t hurry, the food might disappear.”

“It’s alright,” Yu Sheng reassured her with a smile. “You’ll get used to it. And with your physique, eating more won’t harm your health. If you’re still hungry, I’ll get you some more.”

“Mm-hmm,” Foxy nodded eagerly.

Before Yu Sheng could stand up, Irene, who was perched on the table, spoke up. “Let her have my bowl first.”

The tiny doll pushed the bowl in front of her toward Foxy with both hands.

“Thank you,” Foxy said, not questioning why there was a bowl of food in front of a doll who couldn’t eat. She simply lowered her head and began eating quickly.

After the meal, Yu Sheng noticed that the bowl and chopsticks Foxy had used hardly needed washing—they were licked so clean they practically shone.

Once he tidied up the kitchen, Yu Sheng changed into his outdoor clothes.

He also found some of his own clothes for Foxy—a shirt, pants, and a jacket. To be honest, they didn’t fit well. Yu Sheng was much taller than the fox girl, and his clothes hung loosely on her no matter how they tried to adjust them.

Sleepwear could be a few sizes off and still be manageable, but going-out clothes were a different story. In the end, Yu Sheng had to use numerous hidden safety pins and some quick stitching to make his clothes stay on Foxy securely and not look too incongruous.

Even so, a girl about five foot three wearing obviously ill-fitting men’s clothes would still look rather odd walking outside. But fortunately, Foxy’s good looks compensated for that.

As it turned out, a pretty face really did let you get away with almost anything. The fox girl’s features were indeed lovely, so when she walked outside, she would at most look like a fashionable girl with an unusual taste in clothes.

While Yu Sheng was busy adjusting Foxy’s outfit, Irene sat cross-legged on the shoe cabinet nearby, her chin propped up in her hands as she watched with interest. When Yu Sheng was nearly finished, she couldn’t help but mutter, “Foxy, you can make your ears and tails disappear, so why can’t you change your height? And your clothes—my outfit is something I conjured myself. Can’t you fox spirits transform like that?”

“The powerful fox spirits can!” Foxy immediately defended her kind. “Dad said that truly powerful fox spirits can become as tall as mountains in the blink of an eye! They run through forests and mountains, chased by thousands of celestial officers. If they’re caught, they could be sentenced to over five hundred years! But I can’t do that. I’ve only learned to refine my ears and tails…”

Irene blinked, her expression somewhat baffled. “Um, that doesn’t exactly sound like something to be proud of… Hey, you’re speaking more fluently now!”

Foxy’s eyes lit up, clearly pleased. “I’m getting used to it as I talk.”

Irene turned her gaze to Yu Sheng, her thoughts a mystery. Suddenly, she spoke up, “Are you two going out together?”

“Of course,” Yu Sheng replied, nodding. “She doesn’t have any clothes or shoes of her own, and she can’t go shopping by herself. I have to go with her.”

“I want to go out too,” Irene declared, propping her chin on her hands.

Yu Sheng looked surprised. He finally realized what the little doll had been plotting since morning, but it still caught him off guard. “You? How can you go out? A two-foot-tall living doll walking around in public? You’d scare people half to death!”

“You can carry me,” Irene suggested confidently. “I’ll disguise myself.”

“How exactly would you do that?” Yu Sheng asked skeptically.

Without another word, Irene slumped down, her limb joints going limp, her head lolling to one side. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, devoid of any spark of life.

Her voice echoed in Yu Sheng and Foxy’s minds. “See? Now I look just like a regular doll. There are plenty of dolls like me in toy stores. If you put me in a shop window, no one would notice me all day.”

Yu Sheng stared at her, amazed by her ingenuity.

But then a thought made him uncomfortable. “Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it look a bit… odd for a grown man like me to be carrying around a large doll in public?”

The light in Irene’s eyes instantly returned. In a flash, she leaped from the shoe cabinet onto Yu Sheng’s head. “You didn’t think it was weird when you carried me into other worlds to fight monsters! Now you won’t even take me out for a stroll? If you don’t agree, I’ll bite your head until it’s covered in teeth marks—you won’t be able to hide it with band-aids!”

Yu Sheng flailed about, trying to deal with the doll who was now clawing at his hair. After a struggle, he managed to pull her off and thrust her into the arms of a bewildered Foxy. “Alright, alright, we’ll take you out. But Foxy has to carry you.”

Irene grinned, satisfied. She just wanted to go outside; it didn’t matter who held her.

In fact, she wouldn’t have minded being stuffed into a suitcase and wheeled around. She could always unzip it a little to peek outside.

She hadn’t seen the world beyond these walls in a very, very long time.

“It’s just that your painting is a bit of a problem,” Yu Sheng remarked, frowning at the framed picture Irene usually carried on her back. Because of it, Foxy had to hold the doll in an awkward position, and the frame obstructed her view. “It’s conspicuous, and more importantly, it’s in the way.”

“Then I’ll take it off and hold it separately,” Irene suggested, removing the frame from her back. “Just don’t let it get too far from me.”

Foxy nodded. Before Yu Sheng could say anything, she turned around, and with a soft “whoosh,” a cluster of fluffy tails appeared. She deftly tucked the frame into one of them.

This time, Yu Sheng couldn’t hold back his curiosity. He realized that Foxy’s method of storing things in her tails was not what he’d imagined. “Wait… How did you do that? Is there some kind of storage space in your tail?”

Foxy blinked and then, as if only now realizing his confusion, turned to show him her tails in detail for the first time. “This one is for storage,” she explained, pointing to a tail. “These two are for hugging when I sleep to keep warm. These others can be used as blankets or to grab things. Except for the storage one, the other tails can be used in fights.”

Yu Sheng stared, astonished. “You mean… you can shoot them out?”

“Yes,” Foxy confirmed.

“And these abilities are all results of your ‘refinement’?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then could only sigh. “Fox spirits are truly amazing.”

More remarkable than humans, he thought.

Meanwhile, at the Special Affairs Bureau’s Second Division, Song Cheng walked into the office twenty minutes later than usual.

Almost as soon as he sat down at his desk, the monitor flickered to life. The face of Director Bai Li Qing appeared on the screen, her expression as cool and composed as ever.

“It seems you’ve been to the ‘Train,\'” her calm voice emanated from the speakers. “Was everything alright?”

“Yes, but there was a slight hiccup,” Song Cheng admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Today’s ‘Train’ had a more complex carriage structure than usual. When I returned to the real world, I realized I’d missed my stop.”

“How did the communication with Passenger Zero go?” Bai Li Qing asked directly.

“Chief, something seems off,” Song Cheng said, adjusting his posture and leaning forward slightly. “Regarding Station No. 3 on Wutong Road, the passenger said, ‘No such station.’ That’s unusual, but not entirely unexpected. The real issue was when I asked about ‘Nightfall Valley’…”

He paused, his expression grave. “Passenger Zero replied that the station has been canceled.”

For the first time, he saw a look of surprise flash across Bai Li Qing’s face.

He had always thought her expression was unchangeable.

“This is the first time we’ve received such a response,” Song Cheng continued cautiously, observing her reaction. “Do you think…”

“Arrange for the Deep Divers to perform an immediate deep dive,” Bai Li Qing ordered swiftly.