Waking up with dreams of striking it rich, Qiao An was startled for a moment by the Little Fox lying beside her. The fox immediately opened its round eyes, dove right into her arms, and began to whimper and whine affectionately.
Seeing this green-tea act, Little Bai just burrowed deeper into the blankets, unconcerned.
Little Qing, however, was indignant. 'Why does this fox, who just got here, get to cling to her all day?' Seeing how close the two were, Little Qing shot Qiao An a look of utter despair.
It was then that Qiao An truly understood the trouble with being favored by beauties. She was just too popular in the animal kingdom.
'After all, who wouldn't rather cuddle something fluffy and warm over a cold snake in the middle of winter?'
'Especially when she was too poor to even pay for heating!'
But seeing Little Qing's resentful expression, like a spurned wife watching her cheating husband embrace his new lover, Qiao An's heart softened. Braving the morning chill, she pulled Little Qing close.
"Alright, alright, stop acting out some palace drama for me. I'm not the emperor, so winning my favor won't get you anything."
After teasing the Little Fox, putting out food for everyone, and taking the time to warm some goat's milk for the ailing Ao Bai, she finally picked up her cleaning tools and left her less-than-warm home.
Buffeted by the shivering wind, Qiao An deeply understood that online saying: 'There's no dignified way for the poor to get through winter!'
As she gritted her teeth and pushed through her cleaning work, stray cats and dogs would occasionally pass by. Tossing them a cheap sausage was the most she could do within her means.
When the sunlight finally slanted across the street, Qiao An looked up, wiped the sweat from her brow, and squatted by a wall to rest.
A soaking wet little mouse crawled out of a drainage ditch and began to bow at her.
"Human, it's been strange down there lately. We heard there's a lot of food downtown, but we're scared. The rats over there are fat and big, and we can't beat them. Can you help us?"
'Downtown? Lots of food?'
Hearing these keywords, Qiao An was reminded of last night's unpleasant memory.
Although she hadn't seen what happened to the man who was carried out, she knew from the rats' indignant cries at the time that he had likely been eaten quite a bit.
"You want food? I'll do my best to figure something out for you this winter. But you'd better stay away from downtown. I have a feeling something big is about to happen..."
Conflicted emotions welled up inside her. Qiao An really wanted to help Mu Zimo, but she was afraid that if she told too many lies, she wouldn't be able to cover for them later. It would just be a snowball effect, growing bigger and bigger!
"Here, I'll reward you with a few small sausages. Stockpile them for the winter. In return, go downtown and gather some information for me. Find out exactly where large amounts of food are appearing, got it?"
With the sausages in its mouth, the little mouse immediately nodded and bowed, readily agreeing.
The Urban Village was filthy, chaotic, and shabby—originally the perfect place for rats to live. But there were too many scavengers here who would get into fights over a few rotten vegetable leaves, let alone these scurrying creatures of the dark.
Going hungry was a common occurrence, not to mention the many households that set traps for them.
Just as Qiao An finished packing up her tools and was about to head home to rest, she unexpectedly ran into Mu Zimo at the entrance to an alley. She was both surprised and delighted, and rushed right over to him.
Mu Zimo was still hesitating when he heard a CLANGING and BANGING. It turned out to be the sound of Qiao An's tools bumping against each other in her bucket.
"Brother Mu, what are you doing here? Did you just get off work?"
The barrage of questions left Mu Zimo speechless. He could only shove the box in his hands toward Qiao An.
Her mind full of question marks, Qiao An looked down and saw the box containing a new phone. She was completely stunned.
"Th-this is..."
Qiao An was so excited she was a little incoherent. A blush had risen to her cheeks from her short run, and her watery eyes looked up at Mu Zimo, making him turn his head away shyly and give two awkward coughs to cover it up.
"After you were attacked last night, I saw your phone in the evidence bag looked like it was broken. I figured you probably didn't have the money for a new one. This is from all of us, so don't feel burdened by it."
In reality, there was no "all of us." This was a new phone that Mu Zimo had ordered overnight and had just been delivered to the police station.
Afraid that Qiao An wouldn't accept it if it was too expensive, he had carefully compared prices and chosen this model for its large memory, great value, and durability.
Unaware of the truth, Qiao An bit her lip, on the verge of tears. 'There really are so many good people in the world!'
"Um, thank you all so much. I'm always causing you trouble. I'm sorry. I'll try my best to pick safer places to stream from now on..."
Seeing Qiao An blame herself like this, Mu Zimo's heart once again swelled with guilt.
When Qiao An looked up, she saw that the subtitles above Mu Zimo's head had changed again. They shifted from "pity," to "self-blame," and finally to "resignation."
Before Qiao An could figure it out, Mu Zimo had already begun to explain patiently, "There's a lot I can't disclose to you, but you should probably stop streaming outdoors for a while."
Having accepted both his help and his gift, Qiao An was in no position to refuse. She could only nod obediently in agreement.
But she already knew there was something else in the sewers downtown. Qiao An desperately wanted to tell Mu Zimo, but she didn't know how to bring it up. She had to think of a way.
In the morning sunlight, Mu Zimo insisted on escorting Qiao An home.
Only after opening her door did she feel a hint of warmth. Qiao An shed her heavy clothes, changed into fluffy pajamas, and huddled on her small single bed, fiddling with her new phone with a delighted expression. She couldn't help but marvel at how technology was advancing by leaps and bounds.
Although she was born in an era of technological explosion, most planets' resources were depleted. Aside from a few planets controlled by advanced beings, most were barren lands where, beyond the struggle for food and warmth, there wasn't even basic safety or entertainment.
But life on Blue Star was incredibly comfortable for Qiao An. Besides its robust legal system, it also had an extremely developed entertainment system. The platform she streamed on had all sorts of bizarre and wonderful things, and every time she browsed her phone, she would become completely enthralled.
It was just that her old phone was terribly laggy with very little storage space, so she never dared to mess around on it. She was afraid it would give out and affect her ability to earn money from streaming.
But now, things were different. She had a new phone!
The small box was placed ceremoniously in the middle of the bed. Little Bai and Little Qing coiled up at either end, while the Little Fox sat properly in the middle, facing Qiao An.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Qiao An opened the packaging with trembling fingertips. Feeling the texture of the bare phone, her eyes grew moist.
"I can finally stay up all night scrolling on my phone! This happiness came so suddenly, I feel like I'm dreaming!"
Seeing the square object, Little Bai and Little Qing lost interest and burrowed back into the blankets. The Little Fox, however, curiously squeezed in next to Qiao An to look at the phone with her.