IBO – Chapter 13 The Little Fox’s Brainstorms

This novel contains sensitive and taboo content like R*pe, Mu**er etc. Read only if you are comfortable.

Song Xiuhu didn’t remember why he had appeared in this park. Right—he didn’t even have a name yet. He was just a stray little fox.

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

The sound came from the little fox’s stomach. He was a bit hungry. He wanted to go rummage through a trash can for something to eat, but there were still quite a lot of people in the park right now. He would have to wait a while longer.

If he went out now, there was a high chance he’d be bullied by children. Most adults treated him with indifference, but children especially loved to bully him. Even if things went too far, those parents would never intervene.

The little fox thought of that time he had been bullied.

That day, after a lot of effort, the little fox had finally found some food in a trash can—but he was seen by a group of children. The little fox was beaten up, and the food was trampled to pieces by them.

That day, they forced him little by little into a narrow alley. Then the little fox was caught by the tail by a boy who seemed to be the leader and lifted upside down.

“Trash is trash, still eating garbage from trash cans!”

“Why are you always digging through trash cans? Your home isn’t in a trash can, is it? Hahahahaha! Oh right, I forgot—you don’t even have a home. Hahahahahaha!”

“Since you like eating garbage so much, how about we call you ‘Garbage Ghost’ from now on?”

“‘Garbage Ghost’! Why aren’t you answering? Answer! Hurry up, answer!” After saying that, the leading boy shook the little fox hard, like he was shaking a toy.

The little fox struggled with all his strength. He didn’t want to bow his head to these people. He was not a Garbage Ghost.

But how could a thin, weak little fox cub possibly resist human children who were well-fed and plump?

While struggling, the little fox scratched the boy who was holding his tail. When the boy saw that he had been scratched, he immediately flew into a rage out of shame.

Just a lowly inferior—how dare it strike him?

“I got scratched by the ‘Garbage Ghost’! Everyone, help me beat him up!” The boy called out to his little lackeys.

When the lackeys saw that their boss had been “bullied,” they were furious. A group of them surrounded the little fox and viciously taught him a lesson.

The little fox was beaten for a very long time—so long that he couldn’t even remember how long it lasted. He had originally thought he would be beaten to death in that alley.

Later, the parents of that group arrived.

Those adults acted as if they hadn’t seen him at all, even though he had been beaten black and blue. They only scolded their own children: “Why aren’t you home yet for dinner? You’ve been running wild outside for so long! Hurry up and come home to eat!”

And then that group was dragged away by their parents to go eat dinner.

The little fox struggled to climb up from the ground, wanting to find the half tube of expired nutrient solution he had scavenged from the trash can. In the end, he discovered it had already been stomped into a mess by that group, completely spilled out and gone.

In the end, the little fox returned to the patch of grass where he usually slept, his stomach empty. Normally, he rarely went to the trash cans in that area to rummage for food, because the children there were especially hostile toward him. Every time they saw him, they would throw small stones at him.

But this time, he was truly at a dead end. He had searched all the trash cans he usually went to and found nothing.

He hadn’t found anything to eat for two days already. If he didn’t find food soon, he would starve to death. He had no choice but to take the risk and go rummage through the trash cans in that area.

The little fox lay in the grass, carefully licking his wounds. Suddenly, a gust of cool wind blew past, carrying away the little bit of warmth left on his body.

This gust of wind was like the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The little fox could no longer hold back the bitterness in his heart and began to whimper softly.

He didn’t understand what he had done wrong. Clearly, he hadn’t done anything at all—so why was he being bullied like this?

He didn’t want to dig through trash cans every day either, but he really couldn’t find anything to eat.

He didn’t want to be abandoned by his mom and dad the moment he was born. He wanted a home too.

He didn’t want to keep wandering anymore.

But why—why was he being treated like this?

Just because he was an inferior species…?

After that, the little fox became even more wary of human children. Whenever he saw them, he would hide far away. He didn’t want to be beaten again.

The little fox crouched quietly in the grass, waiting for the people in the park to gradually disperse. However, being so young, he didn’t notice the strange phenomenon that not a single person looked in this direction.

Xiao Zhong’er came over to Song Yiran and started spouting nonsense: “Young man, the second child has appeared.”

Song Yiran was originally preparing to fry crispy pork when he heard this, and he was caught completely off guard. He put down the plate in his hands and asked, “Then where is the second cub right now?”

Xiao Zhong’er continued his spiel: “He’s in the grass of a small park right now, but he’s very wary of people and hard to approach.”

Song Yiran felt a bit troubled and asked, “Then how is his situation now? If he’s in bad shape and hard to get close to, how should I help him?”

Xiao Zhong’er kept on reassuring him: “Don’t worry. He’s in pretty good condition right now—he’s just hungry. You can bring some food to lure him out.”

“Young man, aren’t you frying crispy pork? I want to eat some too! Remember to save me a portion,” Xiao Zhong’er added.

Song Yiran agreed. “Okay! I’ll save you a portion. Sorry—I always thought you didn’t need to eat. From now on, whenever I cook, I’ll leave you some.”

Thinking about a cub somewhere in a park going hungry, Song Yiran sped up his movements while frying the meat.

After frying four portions of crispy pork, Song Yiran hurriedly packed the meat into a lunch box, then picked up Song Buli and headed out.

Xiao Zhong’er gave Song Yiran a map with a small red dot marking the location of the second cub.

After arriving at the park, Song Yiran didn’t immediately go look for the second cub. Instead, he first accompanied Song Buli to play.

Although he needed to find the second cub today, Song Yiran hadn’t forgotten that it was also Song Buli’s birthday. He wanted Song Buli to have a happy day.

Of course, he also hadn’t forgotten about finding the second cub.

While accompanying Song Buli at play, Song Yiran quietly observed his surroundings the whole time. He knew the second cub was quite wary. If he rashly went searching through the grass, the other party might run away immediately, so he had to take it slow.

That said, this park really was quite fun.

There were many facilities suitable for children to play on, and the most eye-catching one was the gigantic slide in the center of the park.

Fortunately, there weren’t many people in the park at this time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to line up for the slide at all.

After waiting in line for a while, it was finally their turn. Song Yiran held Song Buli and slid down from the top. A giant slide really was different—it was much more exciting than an ordinary slide.

Sliding once wasn’t enough. Song Buli said he wanted to slide again. Song Yiran smiled and patted Song Buli’s head. “Today, Lili is the birthday star. Don’t just say one more time—even if you want to slide ten more times, as long as Lili likes it, that’s fine.”

Song Buli’s already round, bright eyes widened even more. He buried his head into Song Yiran’s arms. “Big brother is the best!”

Just like that, Song Yiran and Song Buli played on the slide several more times.

After they were tired from playing, Song Yiran took Song Buli for a slow walk around the park.

During this time, some people cast strange looks at them, but Song Yiran didn’t take it to heart.

He was a bit worried that Song Buli might be affected by other people’s gazes, but after observing carefully, he found that Song Buli didn’t care about them at all and was instead having a great time.

Only then did Song Yiran feel relieved. Then, like a peeping tom, he quietly used the corner of his eye from time to time to observe the surrounding grass.

After an entire afternoon, both Song Yiran and Song Buli were tired.

Song Buli was physically tired from playing, while Song Yiran was mentally exhausted.

For the entire afternoon, he kept scanning the surrounding bushes out of the corner of his eye, but found absolutely nothing.

The corner of Song Yiran’s eye was twitching nonstop by now—he felt like his eyes were about to turn cross-eyed.

How could this second cub be this good at hiding? If they ever played hide-and-seek in the future, this one would definitely be the last winner every single time.

Left with no other choice, Song Yiran brought out his final trump card.

He found a clean patch of ground and took out the lunch boxes.

He opened one of them and placed it in front of Song Buli to let him eat first, then used going to the restroom as an excuse to leave.

Was Song Yiran really going to the bathroom?

Of course not. He simply hid himself in a spot where he could still see Song Buli.

Since the second cub was extremely wary of humans and also very hungry, it might be less cautious toward Song Buli—a wolf cub guarding food.

After all, Song Buli wasn’t in human form, so the other party might lower its guard.

Besides, Song Yiran had an inexplicable confidence in his own cooking skills. He didn’t believe there was any cub that could resist the temptation of the fried crispy pork he made himself.

That was Song-family secret-recipe crispy pork—crispy on the outside with a hint of tenderness, crunchy yet pleasantly chewy.

Sure enough, after waiting just a few minutes, the other party finally appeared.

What Song Yiran didn’t know was that the other one had actually noticed him long ago—back when he was holding Song Buli in line at the slide.

When the little fox saw Song Yiran carrying Song Buli, he was genuinely astonished.

He had never seen a human willing to hold children like them in beast form.

Watching Song Yiran keep carrying Song Buli while lining up to play on the slide, the little fox couldn’t help feeling a bit envious.

If only someone could treat him like that too.

But the more he thought about it, the more something felt off. It seemed like he had heard of something like this before—but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember.

Then he finally recalled it.

Back when he was rummaging through trash cans, he had overheard people talking about something.

Roughly speaking, there was a kind old man who handed out nutritional fluid for free every day to children like them. Later, someone discovered that the beast-form children around that old man gradually disappeared.

The causes of death varied wildly—some died of illness, some went missing, some went mad and killed themselves by crashing into things.

Only after the old man died did people discover, through his diary, that he actually took pleasure in abusing beast-form children. The reason he was never suspected was because everyone thought he treated those children very well.

The little fox immediately associated Song Yiran with that old man.

Afraid that Song Buli might be in danger, he rushed over to Song Buli as soon as he confirmed that Song Yiran had left.

At that moment, Song Buli was stuffing his mouth with crispy pork when a fluffy red paw suddenly appeared in front of him.

He looked up and saw a red little fox about the same size as himself.

Just as he was about to greet him, the little fox leaned in mysteriously and whispered, “Does the person who was playing with you just now usually bully you? Does he abuse you?”

Song Buli was stunned for a moment.

He wanted to explain that his brother was actually very good to him, but the little fox spoke far too fast—he couldn’t get a word in.

The little fox went on like a floodgate had been opened:

“Listen, you really have to be careful. Are you sure he’s genuinely good to you? Not just good on the surface?”

“I’m telling you, I’ve heard of something like this before. There was this really bad old man who looked super nice to beast-form kids on the outside, even giving out free nutritional fluid—but behind the scenes, he was someone who loved abusing beast-form children. Really, really bad!”

“You mustn’t let temporary kindness blind you. If he really is a good person, then fine—but what if he’s a bad one?”

“You have to figure out whether he’s sincerely good to you or just pretending to be. This is extremely important—you have to keep your eyes wide open!”

“Otherwise, if you really run into a bad person, there’s only one ending—death. After all, no one cares whether we live or die.”