Although it is the height of summer, the latitude and sea breezes keep the air pleasantly cool here. Xi P is comfortably playing with his VR headset in the living room. He once boasted that he had enough local games saved to last him a lifetime, and, given the current situation, that claim is increasingly becoming a reality.

  Just then, a loud thud echoes from outside — so loud that Xi P can hear it even through the headset's ear cups. He pauses the game and walks towards the door, listening intently.

  The sound stops.

  He tries to peer through the peephole, but his nose keeps pressing against the door, making it hard to get a clear view. Still, he can tell that there is nobody by the door. Just as he turns to leave, the sound resumes, accompanied by vibrations that shake the door. Reluctantly, Xi P moves quietly to the window and looks out sideways.

  Having forgotten his sunglasses, he is temporarily blinded by the brightness of the scene. After a single glance, he has to pull his head back behind the curtain. Yet even that is enough to confirm that the doorstep is indeed empty.

  He naturally doesn't believe in supernatural forces. Seeing the door still vibrating faintly, Xi P can no longer suppress his curiosity. He quickly slips into his disguise outfit and quietly opens the door a crack.

  The sound stops again.

  Steeling himself, Xi P abruptly pushes it open another 20 degrees.

  He immediately regrets it.

  A silver-grey, beast-body monster squeezes through the door crack, and starts circling (happily) around him!

  That silver fox!

  ***

  "CP 1765, September 29. 79 days have passed since landing. Local time: AD 2016, November 4."

  "Today is the most terrifying day I have endured here. There may not have been any gutting or brutal torture, but what happened feels just as bad — that fox has come back! And I was the one who opened the door for it!"

  "This is utterly absurd — it shouldn't even be here! Min clearly gave it to the neighbours, yet it snuck back on its own! Why, why can't I escape this terrifying creature?! The only glimmer of hope is that, when Min returns, he can send the fox away again. Let's hope it won't come back again..."

  "It just won't settle down; it's constantly trying to pounce on me to CUDDLE! It's basically destroying my worldview, my sanity. Passing out might offer temporary relief, but that's not a solution: I fear it would come lick my face then."

  "I'd rather dive into a fire for maintenance work — at least I anticipated that day might come; but this thing? When I imagined alien lifeforms, this was definitely not what I pictured."

  "And restricting its movement? I simply can't bring myself to do it. Though catching it isn't hard — it even approaches me willingly. But what then? I can't kill it. I just can't bring myself to do it for every reason imaginable: disposing of the body would be too hard, the risk of being discovered is too great, and it's just too disgusting. As for the fallback, I couldn't even tie it up to restrict its movement, because I actually felt guilty about doing that!"

  "It's ridiculous that I feel guilty about something like this. For now, the best solution is to make sure it doesn't get close to me at all, so I've locked myself away."

  Ignoring the knocking sounds outside the study door, Xi P continues writing: "Forget that fox. Back to the matter at hand. There are certain things you simply don't ponder unless you experience them first-hand, even if they happen right beside you. Now I've experienced it and am reflecting on it: it's common knowledge that many herbivores eat almost nonstop. Given food nearby and nothing else to do, they'll choose to eat without hesitation. I swear on my social reputation that I don't mean to disparage the local aliens by comparing them to those herbivores, but honestly, their feeding frequency really makes me think that way, and I have no choice but to accept it. Weekdays are fine, but on days off, I have to eat three meals a day. This eating pattern is starting to make me uncomfortable. Maybe I should tell Min Ye about the situation..."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "The weather changes so quickly. At noon, the sun was still warm and shining, and now it's actually starting to snow... This is the first time I've truly seen snow since arriving here. Maybe I can try catching a few snowflakes – should be fine as long as I wait until dark..."

  ***

  When Min opens the door, he stares in bewilderment at the sight of a silver fox lying on the living room floor.

  Spotting him, the fox springs up and trots towards Min. He instinctively scoops the fox into his arms and strokes its fur as he begins to piece together what happened. Why is this silver fox — one that he had already given away — back here? Could the family have abandoned it? That would be cruel.

  He calls Xi P over to ask what happened. However, Xi P's answer only serves to deepen Min's confusion. Given its current state, both scenarios — abandonment or escape — seem plausible. In order to find out exactly what happened, he probably has no choice but to go and ask the neighbour directly.

  Thankfully, the snow is light enough that travel isn’t difficult. Acting swiftly, Min cycles over to the neighbour's house. Although he hasn't heard the full story yet, he already has a vague suspicion. However, upon hearing their explanation, he can't help but sigh and press his hand to his forehead: Their child had teased the silver fox relentlessly and in such cruel ways that it was terrifying. The silver fox itself also had a habit of scratching fabrics such as the sofa. Under this dual pressure, they had no choice but to release it. The fox's return to Min's home takes them by surprise, leaving them thoroughly embarrassed when he arrived to confront them.

  'What kind of people are they? Just abandoning a pet because they don't like it anymore? If this fox hadn't been neutered, it would be like releasing a fox back into the wild." Min grumbled to himself, "Australia's wild rabbit plague and the global invasion of Brazilian turtles are all caused by people like this.'

  With no other choice, Min heads home. That the silver fox likes to scratch at sofas is something new to him — it never did that at his place.

  ***

  As soon as he enters the house, Min notices that Xi P is wearing a mask-like device over its face. It resembles a dog gas mask, though this one is far more sophisticated in design and clearly prevents the wearer from opening their mouth. This must be the mask that Xi P mentioned earlier.

  Thinking the fox must be starving, Min places the retrieved pet supplies on the ground, and pours some dog food into the bowl. The sight of the silver fox lowering its head to eat seems to trigger some negative associations in Xi P, who immediately turns and leaves the living room, striding quickly towards the study. Suppressing a laugh, Min follows closely behind.

  With a forceful tug, Xi P rips the mask off his head and takes two heavy breaths. Though wearing it is entirely unnecessary, he has chosen to add this detail to bolster the credibility of his "allergy" to the silver fox. Noticing Min has followed him into the study, he casually closes the door and gestures for Min to speak.

  "So that's what happened..."

  As Min describes the events, a chill slowly creeps through Xi P. Though directed at the silver fox, the child's methods can only be described as inhumane: plucking clumps of fur from its back, prying open its mouth to dig his fingers inside, trying to force it to stand up and use an oven, and even pulling at its tail. Even Xi P begins to feel sympathy — he knows all too well how excruciatingly painful being plucked is...

  As he recounts the silver fox's ordeal, Min observes Xi P's visibly shocked and horrified expression. Suddenly, an intriguing question occurs to Min, and he seizes the moment: "So, what does it feel like for you when I pet the silver fox?"

  As expected, Xi P shoots him a vicious glare and retorts: "Try putting yourself in that situation?"

  Min complies: imagining a "standard" alien with greyish-white skin and entirely black eyes, stroking a human-faced fox whose facial features contort in expressions of pleasure...

  It is a bizarre scene, as if he's inhaled some strange substance. Min takes a deep breath and shudders involuntarily. Seeing Min's reaction is even more intense than his own, Xi P feels quite satisfied, though he remains expressionless as he waits quietly for Min to recover.

  'Alright, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Maybe I really shouldn't have kept a fox near him. But seriously, this whole thing also feels a bit off.'

  Although there is no concrete proof, Min is growing increasingly suspicious that Xi P's allergy is feigned. Moreover, from a scientific standpoint, the idea of Xi P being allergic to foxes and only foxes is absurd. With so many new things on Earth that he'd never encountered before, why did it have to be foxes?

  Suddenly, an idea strikes Min. He isn't confident it will work, but he turns to Xi P and says: "Xi P, you know what?"

  "Ra?"

  "I've always suspected you might not actually be allergic to fox fur. So over the past few days, before coming home each time, I've been getting some fox fur from the pet store and scattering it randomly around the house. Now it seems you're perfectly healthy — not at all like someone who should be allergic. You can stop pretending. I know you don't like foxes, but you don't need to resort to self-harm to deal with it, do you?"

  "...I don't understand what you're talking about."

  Min stares intently at Xi P's face and is disappointed once again. The alien's expression remains utterly blank, his ears standing stiffly erect on top of his head — neither tense nor relaxed — reveal no hint of an emotional reaction to the words.

  With that, Min can only sigh deeply. He turns away, retrieves a map from the bookshelf, and begins searching for the next person willing to adopt a silver fox.

  Just then, the phone rings abruptly.