For many people in the Special Service Bureau's technical department, today is yet another good day for overtime—this time not only can they enjoy the thrilling activity of continuing work after hours, but they also get to work overtime with their esteemed director...

However, the "culprit" causing this overtime remains completely oblivious.

Having eaten and drank to her heart's content, Hu Li happily followed beside Yu Sheng, the two strolling along the edge of a small river in the old city.

For Yu Sheng, he hadn't enjoyed such a relaxed and leisurely time for a long while. Since arriving in this "Boundary City," his nerves had mostly been tense. Just when he adjusted to life here, small and large troubles kept arising. Enjoying a carefree walk outside like this seemed almost like a thing of another lifetime.

Even though his previous life wasn't too long ago.

As for Hu Li, tagging along with Yu Sheng for a walk outside was an exceedingly delightful affair—although frolicking in the valley is fun, this is a different kind of joy.

She enjoys the process of Yu Sheng helping her slowly get familiar with the city—even if it's just remembering one more street, knowing one more shop, encountering one more animal of this world, seeing one more blade of grass, one flower, one tree...

This process makes her gradually feel at ease, though she herself can't quite explain what this feeling of ease is about.

The evening breeze blew through, a bit chilly, and in the wind, the faint music from the distant shopping street could be heard.

Yu Sheng walked slowly along the riverbank, watching Hu Li happily run around nearby—although it's called a walk, in truth, this girl barely spent a few minutes quietly and slowly following him; she mostly ran all over the place, sometimes on the grassland by the riverbank, sometimes on the concrete platform along the river. Occasionally, she darted into the surrounding bushes, never at peace.

Sometimes, when he turned his face, Yu Sheng couldn't find where she ran off to, but as soon as he glanced around a few times, the demon fox girl would once again suddenly pop out from some unknown nook, often excitedly showing off the "treasures" she found nearby.

"Savior! I found a flower! Still blooming in winter!"

Hu Li returned from the nearby grassland, eyes shining while waving a handful of small flowers in front of Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng smiled helplessly and introduced her: "I don't know it, just call it wildflower."

"Okay!" Hu Li nodded happily and stuffed a few flowers into her mouth, then turned to run off into the distance again.

A few minutes later, she excitedly ran back: "Savior! The stone on the riverbank!"

"Hmm, stone."

"Savior! A straight stick!"

"Hmm, stick... Hey, give me this; I'll take it home, it's useful."

"Savior! A drink bottle!"

"...Throw it in the trash can."

"Savior! A balloon!"

"Hmm, balloon... Where did you get the balloon?!"

The next second, cries of children came from the roadside nearby, a little kid half a head shorter than Xiao Xiao was crying heartbreakingly a few meters away: "Sister took my balloon—"

Cold sweat gathered on Yu Sheng's forehead as he hastily nudged Hu Li: "Give the balloon back to them..."

While returning the balloon, Hu Li was muttering, "The balloon floated away from his hand, I thought he didn't want it anymore..."

Half a minute later, Hu Li returned to Yu Sheng clapping, still with that cheerful expression.

Yu Sheng could see the demon fox girl was very happy, but he felt that bringing her out for a walk was somehow odd, unable to put his finger on what exactly felt off...

During his brief lapse of thought, Hu Li seemed to discover another interesting thing and swiftly darted out of Yu Sheng's sight, only to swiftly return moments later, excitedly holding something in her hand: "Savior! Mouse!"

Yu Sheng was shocked: "...You don't need to bring that to show me—and don't eat it!"

"Alright," Hu Li reluctantly curled her lip, the mouse in her palm instantly refined into a ball of scorching afterglow, "though we do have a dish back home..."

Breaking into a sweat, Yu Sheng instinctively checked to make sure no one was around before helplessly looking at the demon fox in front of him: "Stop darting around, you'll scare people—how about just strolling with me for a bit."

"Sure!" Hu Li immediately nodded happily—even though this process has been repeated several times, she at least calmed down again and began to follow Yu Sheng unhurriedly.

"Why are you so happy?" To keep this overly excited big fox calm beside him for a few more minutes, Yu Sheng decided to shift her attention with some conversation.

"Just going out for a walk makes me happy, and walking with my Savior makes it even better!" Hu Li said with a grin, her entire being bright and white, smiling like a radiant bloom in the winter, unexpectedly beautiful, "Too bad Erin didn't come along, it's fun to have her with us too..."

"If she hears you say that, there'll be another bout of noise," Yu Sheng shook his head helplessly, "She's only interested in shopping at the mall and thinks strolling outside is boring. Unlike you—you're fine as long as you get out."

"That's how we demon foxes are. We've been cultivating in the wilderness since ancient times..." Hu Li said seriously, then suddenly dashed off before Yu Sheng could reply, and scampered back in no time, "Savior! Screws!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

He finally understood the strange feeling of taking Hu Li out for a walk—I'm a nine-tailed cyber-cultivating touring fox dog!

This isn't a walk! He's just short of tying a rope around this girl...

Yu Sheng thought about Hu Li's strength, her speed darting around, and her nearly inexhaustible energy, and realized if he really tied a rope, it's likely he'd be the one walked around, so he didn't dare continue that line of thought...

Then, the streetlights came on.

Yu Sheng stopped minding the demon fox girl frolicking around and instead took a deep breath in the night breeze, and exhaled slowly, enjoying the night of Boundary City with unprecedented relaxation.

Once upon a time, this night scene only made him feel strange and tense.

But unconsciously, even those deceitful "illusions" appearing in the city after dark had become things he was especially familiar with here, even feeling somewhat "close."

The nearby streetlights flickered slightly, and amidst the flickering light, a tall and thin phantom slowly emerged, that hollow giant ghost quietly standing in the light, watching Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng looked at it too, and noticing there were no outsiders around, he cheerfully greeted it.

In the distance, among the buildings, appeared the steam engine running through the night sky. It billowed white smoke, slipping silently into one building before re-emerging from another's glass curtain wall, disappearing into the depths of the distant sky.

Yet Yu Sheng seemed to hear the sound of the train whistle, ethereal, blurred, as if penetrating many layers of space-time.

He now knew that compared to those dangerous entities generated in various Exotic Realms, these things that simply appeared in Boundary City after dark, which even ordinary people couldn't see, were just mild and harmless illusions, nothing to be tense about.

Just then, Yu Sheng heard the pleasant ringtone emanating from the phone in his pocket.

Taking out his phone, he saw the caller was Baili Qing.

...Calling at this hour? Not off work?

Yu Sheng was slightly surprised, then casually answered the phone, "Hello? Good evening..."

"Good evening," Baili Qing's voice came through, "There are two things, is now a convenient time to talk?"

"Sure, I'm just relaxing," Yu Sheng replied while keeping an eye on Hu Li's movements, "Taking a stroll nearby."

"Alright, first, can you open a few teleportation gates at random right now? It doesn't matter where they lead."

Yu Sheng was taken aback by her words, "Open teleportation gates? Why?"

"We've just launched an automatic identification and filtering system," Baili Qing's voice was still quite calm, but Yu Sheng somehow detected a hint of an unusually cheerful tone, "It can automatically identify time-space rifts you open, block warnings, and record automatically. The system is now online; we hope you can help test it—if it runs properly, you won't need to report anymore when you open gates."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng was instantly delighted, finally understanding why Baili Qing, with her ironclad expression, showed a hint of cheerful emotion in her voice, "No problem, give me a moment; I'll find an empty corner and try a few small gates..."

Talking as he moved, he found a place behind a large billboard nearby and opened a gate to the basement of No. 66 Wutong Road without any advance notice.

"How about that? I've opened the gate already."

From Baili Qing's side came some indistinct report sounds, suggesting that some technical personnel nearby were reporting the situation.

"The system is effective, please try a few more times."

"Sure," Yu Sheng was happy to cooperate and successively opened several teleportation gates leading to different places—some within the Boundary Land, some to the "Valley," the "Museum," and even to some desolate alien planet. He went through nearly all types of teleportation gates he was familiar with, simultaneously giving updates, "…I've opened them all, what's the response from your side?"

"Other than a slight acceptable delay when opening the gates leading to Exotic Realms, the entire identification and filtering system is functioning normally," Baili Qing's voice was noticeably more cheerful than before, even seemingly smiling, "In the future, there won't be any need to go through reporting steps when you open a gate."

"Ah, that's great, congratulations! It'll save a lot of trouble in the future," Yu Sheng's tone became cheerful too, and he promptly inquired, "What's the second thing?"

Baili Qing was silent for a moment or two.

"The second thing," her voice had an unexpected hint of hesitation, "I wanted to ask, last time when you brought Hu Li to the Special Service Bureau cafeteria, the 'iron ingots' she used to settle the bill...do you still have any?"

Yu Sheng: "…Ah?"

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