Future Pet Shop

After taking care of everything, Shen Yibin crawled back into bed. What else could he do? It was chilly, but he still had to keep the AC set to sixteen degrees Celsius. It was impossible to sleep without burrowing under the covers. Even Hah’Er and Maphario had snuggled under the covers with him.

He dozed off again for a little while. Soon, Shen Yibin felt something brush across his nose again. This time, he didn’t stay in bed. He’d slept long enough and felt rested, so he opened his eyes and sat up. The first thing he did was look at the basin. As expected, the ice cubes inside had completely melted again.

"No more sleeping. I’ll go buy you some ice cream!" Shen Yibin carried the Snow Fox to the terrace, then handed some cash to Li Shiqing and asked her to buy some ice cream from the shop next door. The four girls each had one, and the rest were piled up in front of the Snow Fox. The little creature lay right on the tabletop, pressing itself against the cold containers. It seemed this was the only way it could feel comfortable.

"Boss, did you just bring this back from the Northeast?" Girls always fall for cute animals. The Snow Fox, pure white from head to tail with an adorable foxy face, instantly captivated Li Shiqing. After putting down the ice cream, she couldn’t bear to leave. She leaned over the table, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the little creature and fired off a stream of questions. "Boss, it likes ice cream? What flavors does it prefer? Cream? Chocolate? Yogurt? Or vanilla? I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m buying. Also, what is its name, anyway?"

"I’m not sure what flavors it likes. It did finish off the two plain milk ones left in the fridge yesterday. Why don’t we open them one by one and let it try? As for a name..." Shen Yibin hesitated, mentally weighing the names ’Scarf’ and ’Little Hu Fei.’ Finally, he paused and said, "From now on, you can all just call it Scarf!" After all, both the girl at the hotel’s front desk and Xia Shixuan had mistaken the little thing for a scarf at first glance.

"Scarf, come on. Which flavor do you like? I’ll feed you." Li Shiqing seemed to guess the origin of the name and let out a snicker. She opened a container of ice cream, scooped out a spoonful, and held it to Scarf’s mouth. Scarf was suffering from the heat, so as soon as it saw the ice cream, it eagerly opened its mouth and began to lick. Its adorable display made Li Shiqing squeal with delight, which drew Xia Shixuan and Xie Nannan, who were on duty downstairs, up to the terrace.

"Don’t you have work to do? Get back downstairs and tend to the customers! Don’t come up here to slack off." Shen Yibin waved his hand, shooing them away. Now that Li Shiqing was feeding Scarf, he had time for other errands. He grabbed his car keys and stood up. "I’m going out to buy a few things, and I’ll pick up some groceries for lunch while I’m at it. Take good care of this little one. If it gets too hot, make an ice pack and place it beside it."

"Got it, Boss. Be back soon!" Li Shiqing replied without looking up, her attention completely focused on the beautiful and adorable little fox in front of her. While feeding it ice cream, she mumbled, "Aren’t regular foxes supposed to have that musky smell? How come this one doesn’t smell at all? In fact, it has a faint, pleasant scent."

’Well, duh. This is a product of the Future Pet Shop.’ Shen Yibin himself wasn’t sure if it was because of a natural genetic mutation or a change from the pill it took.

When he got down to the first floor, he saw that the motley crowd had thinned out considerably. Most of the reporters and fans were gone. It was probably because Hah’Er hadn’t made an appearance in the shop for a while. The people coming in now were customers who genuinely wanted to buy pets. ’Looks like I can move back into the shop now,’ he thought. ’I won’t have to worry about being harassed anymore.’

He left the shop, got in his car, and drove toward the electronics market in Yunzhong City. Once there, he parked and walked into the largest store. A salesperson immediately came over to greet him. "Welcome, sir. What kind of appliance are you looking for today?"

"Uh, I’d like to buy a freezer. How low a temperature can your freezers generally reach?" ’Snow Foxes usually live in environments around negative twenty degrees Celsius. I wonder if a standard freezer can get that cold. And whether it’s a freezer or a fridge, they only maintain low temperatures when sealed shut. This freezer is meant to be a den for Scarf. A completely sealed one is out of the question; the poor thing would suffocate inside.’

"But sir, if it isn’t sealed, the cold air will escape, and the temperature inside will naturally rise." Hearing Shen Yibin’s detailed requirements, the salesperson looked troubled. She’d worked here long enough to have sold enough freezers to fill an entire warehouse, but she had never encountered such a strange request.

’Other people buy freezers for food. I’m buying one to be a den for a Snow Fox. How can that be the same?’ Shen Yibin waved his hand and said, "These are my requirements. If you can do it, name your price. If not, I’ll go check other stores!"

"I’ll go ask our engineer for you." The salesperson was remarkably professional. Instead of dismissing such an odd customer, she immediately found the on-site engineer and consulted with him in detail. It turned out they did have a solution, but it would require modifying an existing freezer, and the price would be considerably higher.

"Money is no object. We’ll go with the price you quoted. How soon can I get it?" Shen Yibin was completely unfazed by the cost.

"If we start now, it will take about two hours," the engineer said after a quick mental calculation.

"Alright, I’ll pay now and be back to pick it up in two hours." Shen Yibin paid with his card right away. The two-hour wait was perfect for grocery shopping. After he finished, he still had some time to kill. He thought for a moment, then drove to the salvage yard run by Hou Longtao’s family. He went inside, scrounged up a few things he thought would be useful, and loaded them into his car.

By the time he returned to the electronics store, the freezer had already been modified to his specifications. They had installed the door on the front, unlike a standard top-loading freezer. There were also sliding windows on all four sides—front, back, left, and right. The routing of the cooling pipes was also completely different from a normal freezer.

From a distance, it looked like a miniature house, exactly what Shen Yibin had asked for. He plugged it in and turned it on to test it. Sure enough, a blast of frigid air hit him. Shen Yibin nodded in satisfaction. "Perfect. Let’s get it to my car!"

He returned to the shop with the heavily modified freezer and had the delivery guys from the electronics store help him carry it up to the second-floor terrace. Shen Yibin opened the freezer door and beckoned to Scarf. "Come on, go inside and try it out. See if it’s comfortable in there."