Lin City, Panlong Bay.
Chilling cold piled up across the world.
The torrential rain poured down like water, the night sea surged, and the sound of tires crushing through puddles echoed from the silent harbor.
Passing a speed bump, the small van shuddered violently.
“Bang!”
The beta in the passenger seat hurriedly looked back and whispered a reminder to the driver: “Brother Kun, slow down a bit, there is cargo in the back.”
The alpha in the driver’s seat remained unconcerned. “Relax, that brat won’t rattle to death.”
Despite saying that, he still raised his eyes to glance backward through the rearview mirror.
Several cardboard boxes were stacked layer upon layer, neatly arranged without any collapse or tipping, revealing nothing unusual to an outsider.
Seeing that they were about to enter the harbor, Brother Kun hurriedly took out the entry pass he had prepared beforehand, patiently brought the van to a stop, and let the harbor staff inspect it.
“Yaya! Jiang Yaya!”
Amidst the pitch-black darkness, Jiang Nianxing hugged the rabbit plushie tightly against his chest, curled up in the corner of the cardboard box, his consciousness already growing hazy.
He felt as though someone was calling him, yet he could not clearly distinguish who it was, and could only respond out of pure instinct.
“Big Brother…”
He whimpered, desperately stretching out his hand as if trying to touch something. A thin layer of perspiration coated his cheeks, and his once snow-white palms were now completely red.
The system quickly ran a scan.
Oh no! The cub’s fever had hit thirty-nine degrees!
The system panicked into a string of garbled code, jumping wildly with anxiety inside Jiang Nianxing’s mind.
No way, no way, no way! It had only bound with its host for less than two hours, and was the mission going to fail already?!
It couldn’t end like this! It had just passed the civil service exam for the Main God Space!
“Yaya, Jiang Yaya! Don’t sleep, absolutely don’t sleep! Just hold on a little longer! Someone will come to save you soon!”
Jiang Nianxing obediently nodded, resting his chin on the rabbit plushie in his arms and hugging it a bit tighter. His eyelashes trembled as his consciousness drifted further.
“Mm, Big Brother, I won’t sleep, Yaya won’t sleep.”
He tried hard to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt as though they were glued shut, making such an ordinary, simple action extraordinarily difficult.
“Bang.”
Another collision sound echoed from the cardboard boxes.
Jiang Yaya gave a start from the shock, his eyelids parting just a tiny fraction.
“Big Brother, Yaya feels uncomfortable,” he whispered in a tiny voice. “My head is spinning.”
Seeing him like this, the system felt like crying itself to a system crash.
Little cub! Hang in there! Hold on just a little longer!
“Screeech.”
The speeding vehicle came to a sudden halt. The cargo compartment door was thrown open, and Jiang Nianxing felt as though he flew for a moment before landing back down on the ground.
“Big Brother, did I go to heaven?” he asked half-asleep.
The system wanted to cry without tears.
Silly Yaya, how is this going to heaven? This is clearly the bad guy lifting the box containing Jiang Yaya out of the truck!
“Just dump him here?” asked the beta who stepped down from the passenger seat. “Brother Kun, didn’t that boss tell us to…”
The beta made a slashing gesture across his neck.
Brother Kun gave him a cold look. “Could you bring yourself to do it?”
The beta hesitated.
Harming children was a taboo in their line of work, let alone an omega child whose very appearance melted one’s heart.
The only reason the two of them violated the rules to take this job was because the price offered by the employer was simply too high.
Who would turn away money?
He had no idea why the employer issuing the order hated a child so much; the sole directive was to completely eradicate this kid.
Gazing at the box, Brother Kun said with cold pity, “Just dump him here. We don’t even have to dirty our hands—someone will naturally come to deal with him.”
The beta didn’t understand. “Why?”
Brother Kun reminded him, “What is his last name, and whose territory is this?”
The beta immediately fell silent, casting a pitying glance at the box.
Looking left and right, Brother Kun nudged the cardboard box holding the cub a bit closer to the middle of the obvious roadway before getting back into the vehicle.
Before starting the engine, he glanced back.
The pouring rain had already soaked the cardboard box through.
“What a pity,” Brother Kun muttered.
Catching sight of floodlights beaming from afar in his peripheral vision, Brother Kun hurriedly started the truck, drove forward, and vanished into the night.
The rain kept falling.
A modified bulletproof vehicle suddenly halted.
In the driver’s seat, Huo Qi gripped the steering wheel tightly, cold sweat pouring down.
“T-Third Master, I’m sorry, there’s something in front.”
Huo Ningye didn’t even lift his head. He caught a suddenly collapsing tower of bullets in his palm and said lazily, “What? Want me to get out and move it?”
Huo Qi shook his head hurriedly. “Third Master, please wait a moment.”
He raised his hand out the window and gestured backward.
Two men quickly climbed out of the trailing car and ran over with disciplined strides, lifting the box aside.
Huo Qi didn’t hesitate and drove forward straight away.
Barely a hundred meters out, his phone rang.
Huo Qi answered it. A few seconds later, a headache struck him, and he tentatively looked back—the bullet tower that had just collapsed had already been rebuilt.
“Third Master…”
Huo Ningye grew impatient. “Fussing and dilly-dallying, Huo Qi, did you take the wrong medicine today? Spit it out if you have something to say.”
Huo Qi said cautiously, “Third Master, they said… there was a child inside that box just now.”
Huo Ningye smiled. “Am I a cop? Is missing children’s cases my jurisdiction?”
Huo Qi’s voice dropped even lower. “Third Master, they also said… that it looked like a child from the Jiang family.”
The ammunition spinning at his fingertips stopped rolling.
“Third Master, do you want to go take a look?”
Huo Ningye sneered. “Am I that free? Throw whatever trash wherever you found it, what does it have to do with me?”
A minute later.
Holding an umbrella, Huo Qi followed Huo Ningye over to the cardboard box.
The box had already been moved by his subordinates to a sheltered spot away from the rain, with a small opening torn at the flap.
His subordinates explained nearby that during transport, they noticed something felt off and heard noises. Fearing danger, they had broken the rules to take a peek inside.
Huo Ningye stood beside the damp cardboard box, lowering his gaze in silence.
Since he made no move, no one around him dared to move.
Inside the cardboard box, the anxiously waiting system faintly sensed a surge of powerful energy.
This was the kind of energy possessed only by major characters who appeared multiple times in the original novel!
And it was top-tier alpha energy at that!
“It’s here, Yaya! It’s here, it’s here!”
The system was so happy it was about to glitch into garbled code again.
“Yaya! Our savior is here!”
It knew it! It wasn’t going to fail just like that!
It, Dove01, was a top-tier cub-raising system!
Summoned by the passionate calls of the original novel’s fans, it had been dispatched by the Main God to the current world to look after the protagonist’s younger brother.
Even though, ever since it arrived in this world, the plot had suffered a tiny, minuscule deviation…
It didn’t matter! Right now, the plot was about to get back on track!
As a business-war legendary web novel, the protagonist Jiang Tingbai had a tragic background. Though born into a prestigious family, he was besieged on all sides; his parents had been plotted against, leaving no one around him trustworthy, and even his young younger brother Jiang Nianxing suffered from a rare omega gland condition.
To protect his younger brother, Jiang Tingbai had always hidden him away from the public eye while vowing to clear away all obstacles from the Jiang family for him.
When Nianxing was three years old, crisis struck again, and Jiang Tingbai had no choice but to entrust his brother to the care of the allied Pei family.
Dove01 had chosen precisely this juncture to bind with the cub.
Jiang Tingbai had entrusted trusted subordinates to escort his younger brother, but they were intercepted midway by members of the Jiang family. Despite weathering a few hardships, the eldest young master of the Pei family, having received the message, was supposed to arrive in time and rescue the cub.
Right now! This was the exact moment the cub was supposed to be rescued by the eldest young master of the Pei family!
Dove01 was so emotional it was practically crying.
“Yaya, wake up! Yaya, you don’t have to be afraid anymore! Your hero big brother is here! Grab onto him later! Hold on tight and don’t let go, and we’re saved!”
Hero big brother? Hold on? Saved?
Jiang Nianxing heard these words through his haze and forced his eyes open.
Right at that moment, the lid of the cardboard box was opened, and the glare of white electric light replaced the damp, gloomy darkness.
Clutching his little rabbit tightly, Jiang Nianxing curled up in the corner of the soggy, softened cardboard box and looked up to clearly make out the hero big brother’s face.
Silver-gray hair, sanpaku eyes, pupils like blue glass beads, and a small scar with a faint silver sheen at the tail of his eyebrow. There was also a hint of silver on his lips—what was that?
Jiang Nianxing had never seen him before, but out of trust in the system’s words, he mustered all his remaining strength to politely call out: “Big Brother…”
Huo Ningye didn’t reply. He pushed his lip piercing with the tip of his tongue, his grayish-blue eyes sweeping over the hard-to-ignore longevity lock around the cub’s neck.
It wasn’t the tacky gold or silver style commonly seen on the market; the little cub’s longevity lock was crafted from a single piece of warm, delicate, top-tier mutton-fat white jade.
In the center of the jade lock, an ancient family totem was relief-carved:
[Jiang]
Was this really a cub from the Jiang family?
“Third Master, this kid doesn’t look right,” Huo Qi muttered in a low voice.
Huo Ningye wasn’t blind; he could see it.
This little cub had a pale complexion, flushed cheeks, was soaked through, spoke with zero strength, and had a weak gaze—lacking half the arrogant aura of those hypocrites in the Jiang family.
“Pick him up, get him treated, and once he’s cured, send him back to the Jiang family and make them pay for the medical bills,” Huo Ningye arranged.
Huo Qi nodded, casting a glance to his side, and a subordinate reached in to lift the child out.
Jiang Nianxing refused to cooperate.
He still remembered what the system said, mumbling as he dodged away. Even though he had virtually no strength left, he still tried to resist: “I don’t want you, I want Big Brother.”
The little dumpling, drenched in water, looked up with pleading eyes.
Both the subordinate and Huo Qi couldn’t bear to watch and looked over as well.
Huo Ningye grew intensely annoyed. “What are you looking at? My suit today cost three hundred thousand.”
The subordinate who had just been pushed away by the little cub anxiously said, “Third Master, this kid is running a really high fever. I touched him just now, and those little hands felt like burning charcoal.”
“Tch.”
Huo Ningye turned his head.
Huo Qi: “…Third Master, this outfit of mine wasn’t cheap either!”
Huo Ningye: “Take it off, I’ll reimburse you.”
The moment Huo Qi pulled off his jacket, Huo Ningye reached out, snatched the garment away, and tossed it over the soggy little cub, wrapping him inside and out alongside his rabbit plushie until the little fellow was swaddled from head to toe like a silkworm cocoon, before scooping him up.
The moment he drew close to his embrace, the cocoon stirred, struggling to poke out two hands wrapped inside the jacket sleeves. Failing that, he simply rested his bare head directly against Huo Ningye’s chest.
Quick as lightning, Huo Ningye pushed him away.
Who would have thought the little cub would naturally rest his cheek against Huo Ningye’s palm instead, gazing up with wet eyes, his eyelashes drenched—unclear whether from tears or rain.
Such a soft little face, such clean eyes.
So…
So damn scorching hot.
“To the hospital,” Huo Ningye commanded immediately.
“Wait,” he corrected himself, “call the Gu fellow, tell him to get his ass over here immediately, and have the harbor doctor summoned too.”
Huo Qi kept pace with his stride. “Third Master, why don’t you hand the kid to me? Someone’s still waiting over by the boat.”
Hearing this, Jiang Nianxing hurriedly burrowed deeper into Huo Ningye’s arms.
Huo Ningye said in disgust, “Does this look like something I can just hand to you?”
Since when did he not know the Jiang family produced human velcro?
“Let them wait a bit longer,” Huo Ningye ordered.
Confirming that this hero big brother wasn’t going to hand him over to someone else, Jiang Nianxing, who had been running on a single breath, finally relaxed as his heavy eyelids closed shut.
He searched around in his mind and found a cluster of light glowing in the corner.
“Tongtong! We’re saved!”
Jiang Nianxing was overjoyed.
Feeling the cub’s joy and relaxation, and remembering his current physical condition, Dove01 swallowed back any warning and lied unconvincingly: “Mm-hmm, Yaya did great! You can rest properly now!”
…Right, right my foot!
Dove01 blocked the cub’s consciousness and wept tears of blood all by itself.
Main God! Author! Readers! Someone tell it! What kind of development was this?! This was completely different from the promised original plot!
Where was the eldest young master of the Pei family?
Why was the picked-up cub this person instead?!
Huo Ningye: the third junior among the Huo family’s younger generation, widely known as Third Master Huo, notoriously ruthless, untamed and rebellious, and most importantly…
This person was the arch-nemesis of the cub’s biological brother! He was the major villain in the original story who constantly opposed the cub’s biological brother everywhere!
The Huo family he belonged to was a veritable villain’s nest, harboring a blood feud with the Jiang family that went back generations!
And now the cub had fallen right into his hands…
Dove01 trembled all over.
It’s over! Everything is completely over!
Author’s Note:
The novel is officially launched! Tentative update time is six o’clock in the evening! Not sure if anyone is reading, but please show lots of support for our baby Yaya, aunties! Dropping a super cute pre-released synopsis. It definitely won’t disappoint everyone! Full cute-power activated! Even Foxes Can Be Darlings, Right?
Yun Yi was a stray little white fox living on a wild mountain. At the age of five, he awakened book-transmigration memories and discovered he was a rare healing-type entity once in a century in the demon realm. Before long, someone would discover his identity and tear him apart. To escape this dreadful fate, he chose to overnight latch onto the combat ceiling powerhouse of the original work, Wen Jie. Rumor had it that Wen Jie wielded a malevolent sword, guarded the Thirteenth Bureau of the Demon Realm, and single-handedly suppressed all demons so they didn’t dare raise their heads. More importantly—he hated foxes the most!
Yun Yi clenched his little paws: “…” Sigh, not a big problem! Brave little fox! Fearing no difficulties!
The instant he was hoisted up by the scruff of his neck by Wen Jie, Yun Yi decisively altered his voice into a baby-talk pitch: “Woof woof.”
He wasn’t a little fox at all! As long as he barked loudly enough, he was a pure white infant Samoyed!
Gazing at the dusty, skinny little lump in his palm, Wen Jie fell silent for a moment before carrying him back to the Thirteenth Bureau.
The Thirteenth Bureau was the most dangerous place in the demon realm. It had imprisoned Qiongqi, raised vicious flood dragons, and suppressed dream-eating great demons. Everyone assumed this frail little fox cub wouldn’t survive a single night in the Thirteenth Bureau.
Yet, from that day onward, the style of the villain-packed Thirteenth Bureau underwent a drastic transformation.
The ancient fierce beast Qiongqi willingly became the little fox’s mount; the abyss flood dragon spent all day disguised as a pretty little collar to protect the little cub close at hand; and the dream-eating great demon, who could effortlessly shred others’ spiritual seas, stood guard by the small bed every night without fail, carefully devouring all of the cub’s nightmares to ensure his peaceful sleep.
Even Wen Jie, the god of slaughter who could flatten nine rivers with a single sword, began clumsily learning how to mix baby formula and picked up a tiny comb to gently brush the fur of the white dumpling sleeping belly-up in his arms… He even coerced and bribed the canine clan elders to come forward and recognize their kin, awarded him the purest Samoyed bloodline certificate, and took the child to participate in a canine beauty pageant, effortlessly winning first place.
Yun Yi puffed out his chest proudly: That’s right, my disguise was super convincing!
The entire demon realm was speechless: …Are you guys in the Thirteenth Bureau out of your minds?! We’ve seen people calling a deer a horse, but we’ve never seen anyone calling a fox a dog!!