Chapter 354 Yan Zhu and Mao Qiu
Yan Zhu walked out of the room and squatted down in front of the cabinet quietly. She was very satisfied to see that all the candies she had scattered earlier disappeared completely, without a single one left.
The cleaning lady at home always comes in the afternoon, so usually no one pays attention to the candies hidden under the cabinet.
Yan Zhu was sure that her candy had been taken away by those cute little fur balls.
What are those little fur balls? Yan Zhu thought of them as spherical hamsters. They looked very cute, but they were extremely timid and cautious. She wanted to find out what kind of creatures they were. She had several chances to catch them in the past few days, but they ran very fast and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The evidence videos she occasionally took would be replaced by cat videos in the blink of an eye (this was all done by the evil apple peeling robot).
"What on earth do you want to do?" One day, after the video she had taken desperately turned into a cat video, Yan Zhu angrily rushed to the apple peeler to question it, but the apple peeler just raised its metal arm and peeled the pear in its hand very steadily. Yes, it can also peel pears, and it peels them very well. Faced with the elementary school girl's loud questioning, the evil apple peeler seemed indifferent.
"Remember this!"
Rather than getting angry at the apple peeler, she thought it was more constructive to pay attention to the fur balls. According to Yan Zhu's previous experience in buying stray cats near the community, food is the best friendship weapon. No creature in the world can resist the temptation of food. While using food to reduce the vigilance of these fur balls, regular feeding can really control their actions.
After the candy was successfully taken away by the fur ball the first time she scattered it, Yan Zhu set a time to feed the cats - 11:30 every night. By that time, her parents had already gone to bed, which was the most convenient time for her to act.
Every night at 11:30 she would sprinkle a few candies, and when she got up in the morning she would check, and the candies under the cabinet would disappear completely. She knew that the fur must have accepted her candies. After a few days of this, Yan Zhu stopped supplying candies on that day.
She sat on the bed and stared at the slowly ticking alarm clock. Time seemed to be going very slowly at this moment. Half past eleven. No, wait a little longer. She twisted her body and counted sheep in her mind. After waiting for another ten minutes, Yan Zhu jumped off the bed.
She quietly pushed open the door, walked to the cabinet, and slowly lay down.
Furballs! Those little furballs appeared.
One, two, three, four, five... there were six fur balls in total, and they were staying in the place where she had originally placed the candies.
Yan Zhu's appearance obviously startled them, and they quickly retreated and huddled together. After staring at Yan Zhu for a few seconds, their fur swelled and trembled, and some of them rolled over on the spot.
How funny! Are they scared?
Yan Zhu looked at it with interest for a while, then slowly stretched out her hand and put down two candies. The fur balls gathered together, reluctant to move forward. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Yan Zhu said softly to them.
Her voice seemed to have caused some panic in them. The fur balls retreated a few steps and shook their fur violently. After a few minutes, Yan Zhu did not make any more moves. One of the brave fur balls rolled out and rolled to the candy. It carefully lifted the candy and shook its fur to retreat to the middle of the fur balls. Seeing that it was fine, another fur ball followed suit and took the candy.
She propped up her chin and looked at them with a smile. They shook their fur violently again, then huddled together and left happily with the candy on their heads.
Since then, she would appear by the cabinet at a fixed time every day to give them a few candies, and after feeding them in person, the fur balls finally stopped dodging her. Yan Zhu used fruit candies, milk candies, potato chips, hawthorn cakes and even beef jerky to give them snacks in turn, and the fur balls took them all every time. This is much better than the picky sea king before. Yan Zhu believes that she has won the favor of the fur balls.
After getting familiar with them day by day, Yan Zhu has learned how to distinguish these fur balls and named them. The white fur ball at the head is called Peng Peng, because its fur is the most fluffy every time it shakes. The slightly smaller white fur ball is called Xiao Xiao, and the brown fur ball is called Dou Dou Xiong. Every time she appears in front of them, they will shake their fur like crazy and keep a relatively safe distance from her. Yan Zhu really wants to touch these fur balls, but under An Yuan's education, she knows that you can't touch small animals without knowing their details, because they may have dangerous bacteria, so she controlled her hands.
After establishing a special connection with these fur balls, Yan Zhu noticed that as long as she didn't take photos or videos of the fur balls, the apple peeling machine would just watch from afar and didn't interfere with her actions. So in her mind, the evilness of the apple peeling machine was slightly reduced, well, just a little bit.
A day later, she found the fur balls in her room. This time they were carrying a colorful object along the edge of the table. Yan Zhu took a closer look out of curiosity and found that it was the Lego toys her father had bought her before. She had a lot of toys, and she had stopped playing with these Lego blocks a long time ago. The fur balls were seen carrying a few Lego blocks and crawling down the corner of the table, like a string of wool balls. They looked like fat fur balls, but they were able to slide down the table legs flexibly. One by one, they climbed to the ground with Lego blocks on their heads.
"What are you doing?" Yan Zhu asked.
The fur balls finally noticed her and they immediately stopped, put down their Lego blocks, shook their fur at her, then quickly picked up the blocks and crawled under the cabinet, staggering away.
The fur balls don't just want the candy, they want the Legos, too.
But what can they do with the Legos? Yan Zhu interpreted this as the hamster's hoarding habit. Anyway, she couldn't use the old Legos herself, so she wasn't angry when the fur balls took them away. She simply cleaned out some of the old Legos that were not used and put them in a box. When the fur balls appeared again that night, she poured out some of the Legos in the box in front of the fur balls. The fur balls were immediately delighted, shaking their fur and rolling around in front of her. Yan Zhu couldn't help but feel happy to see them so happy.
There were a lot of Lego blocks given this time, and each fur ball lifted at least two or three at a time. They looked small, but it seemed effortless to lift these Lego blocks. What surprised Yan Zhu was still to come. The Lego blocks that Yan Zhu poured out were not all scattered pieces, and some Lego blocks had not been completely disassembled. One of the fur balls noticed this, and it pushed the large block of Lego over and smelled it carefully (Yan Zhu suspected that it was an observation and research). After a while, it turned around and put the two small Lego blocks next to it together. As if to promote its experience, it showed the put-together Lego blocks to the other fur balls. The other fur balls immediately followed suit and quickly put the Lego blocks together. The scattered Lego blocks were not very convenient to carry, but the large blocks put together were different.
In the blink of an eye, the Lego blocks that Yan Zhu poured out were assembled into large and small blocks by the fur balls, which made it more efficient to carry than to carry individual blocks. She looked in surprise as they left carrying Lego blocks that were several times the size of their bodies.
How amazing! Yan Zhu exclaimed sincerely.
These fur balls are really smart.
Lying in bed that night, she stared at the dark ceiling with her eyes open. Her mind was filled with those cute, fluffy, lively balls of fur. She was so excited that she couldn't sleep all night.
After confirming Yan Zhu's good intentions, the fur balls appeared more frequently. They often wandered around Yan Zhu's room, but they were not always carrying things. Once, when Yan Zhu was doing homework, she saw a small fur ball wandering from one end of her room to the other. Yan Zhu thought it was looking for candy or wanted to move some new and interesting things, but it didn't take anything, it was just wandering around leisurely.
Under Yan Zhu's gaze, the little fur ball stopped in front of her display cabinet. In the center of the cabinet was a Lego castle, which was the princess castle she and her brother completed two years ago. Even now, Yan Zhu is satisfied and proud of this achievement. It is a very delicate and beautiful magnificent building, and it is the most eye-catching scenery in Yan Zhu's bedroom. Every classmate who comes to her bedroom will say "Wow..." to this Lego castle, which greatly satisfies her vanity. She puts her favorite dolls in the castle and admires it every day before going to bed.
"I can't give this to you." Yan Zhu said, "This is something very important to me."
She didn't know if the little ball had heard her words, as it still stayed in front of the display case. Yan Zhu stood up and came to the little ball's side. She took out a doll from the castle and shook it at the little ball, "Hello!" The ball's fur puffed up again, and its black eyes, as big as beans, stared at the doll curiously.
Seeing its cute appearance, Yan Zhu suddenly felt like teasing it. She took off the doll's hat and put it on the fur ball's head. The fur ball was startled, and the hat on its head also shook a few times. It was an orange beret, which was particularly suitable for the fur ball's head. "How cute!" Yan Zhu smiled.
The fur ball took a few steps back, then turned around and looked at the display case again. Yan Zhu didn't know whether it was looking at the castle in the display case or its own reflection on the glass. After observing for a few more minutes, the fur ball ran away wearing a small hat.
When she turned around and prepared to go back to her desk, she saw the apple peeler at home. The indicator light on it was flashing, like the eyes of a living creature. Then the apple peeler spoke: "Please don't get too close to them."
"..." Yan Zhu shouted, "You really can talk!!"
The apple peeler said, "I have the ability to communicate with humans."
"So you admit you're a bad robot?"
"Invalid question. There is no necessary correlation between communication ability and the properties of a machine."
"Then what do you want to do!"
"My advice is that you don't get too close to them. These creatures are not meant to be perceived by humans."
"What are they?"
“It’s a hairball.”
"I just observed them." Yan Zhu said, "I didn't do anything to them." She suddenly thought of her own videos, "You did something to my videos, right? In order to cover up the existence of the fur balls, you replaced my videos with cat videos!!"
"If this creature is discovered by humans, it will be difficult to deal with it," said the apple peeler. "If you want to do it for their own good, I suggest you keep your distance." After that, the machine slid away quietly.
A day later, when these fur balls appeared in her room again, Yan Zhu noticed their changes.
The little fur ball still wore the little hat she gave it. It looked very proud and walked at the front of the fur ball team. As if learning, the other fur balls also wore something on their heads. Some were small pieces of velvet. Yan Zhu recognized that they were the extra fabrics from Aunt Li's needlework. Some were wearing half a piece of candy wrapper, some were wearing gum foil, some were wearing napkins, and one was wearing a piece of thick paper with a cosmos pattern. The cosmos was beautiful lemon yellow and clear blue. If you ignore the fact that it was a puzzle, it was indeed a very beautiful "hat".
All the fur balls were inspired by the hat and dressed themselves up.
"..." Yan Zhu felt like she was witnessing a fashion trend, even though most of the fur balls were dressed in ridiculous outfits.
She thought for a moment, then took out two handkerchiefs from her drawer and cut them into strips with scissors. The fur balls were extremely excited after receiving the strips. They formed a circle around Yan Zhu and shook their fur to express their gratitude.
This funny circle dance made Yan Zhu laugh for a full ten minutes.
With Yan Zhu's strong support for materials, the fashion trend of the fur balls officially began. The fabric of the handkerchiefs was made into various shapes by the fur balls. Some were made directly into the shape of hats and worn on the head. Some were made into capes, and some even made a skirt with the handkerchiefs tied around the body. This handkerchief skirt happened to have a flower pattern on it, and this little fur ball deliberately placed the flower pattern in the center of the skirt. At first, Yan Zhu didn't quite understand how it made the skirt, but later she suddenly realized it after seeing her own display cabinet. It turned out that this fur ball was dressing itself up like a doll.
This means they can recognize patterns. How interesting, Yan Zhu thought.
During this week, Yan Zhu put all her attention on these cute fur balls. She ignored the warning of the apple peeler and spent a lot of time observing the fur balls every day after returning home.
The fur balls like sweet things very much. Compared with cookies, they prefer toffee and fruit candy. Of course, they also like chopped fruits. Unlike hamsters, the fur balls almost never make any sound. Yan Zhu firmly believes that they communicate with each other through a mysterious collision, or the legendary telepathy. However, the mice in the animal world do not seem to communicate through sound. Yan Zhu wrote in her diary that animals must have a set of unknown ways of communication.
In the biology class at school, the biology teacher showed them a little white mouse. The little white mouse was running around in the cage in a panic. Its desperate look left a deep impression on Yan Zhu. It was small and soft, and really looked like a ball of fur. But fur balls are much smarter and cuter than it. Later, when the little white mouse was being demonstrated in the next class, it jumped out of the cage. The excited students shouted and tried to catch it, but accidentally stepped on it to death.
Yan Zhu had just walked out of the classroom at that time and saw the teacher sweep the body of the little white mouse into the dustpan. It was flattened like a piece of paper and did not resemble a ball of fur at all.
That night, Yan Zhu had nightmares all night long. She kept dreaming that the fur balls were trampled to death, and she cried but could do nothing to stop them. When she woke up in the morning, her eyes were red and swollen. An Yuan asked her worriedly what happened, but she lowered her head and said nothing.
That weird apple peeler might be right, and these fur balls should still be kept away from humans.
I just need to be their friend, she said to herself.
One day, she found a bottle of buttons in the handmade bag in the drawer. There were all kinds of small buttons in it, some with fine patterns, some with shining artificial crystals, some with wooden buttons in the shape of small animals, and some with clear glass buttons. They were all her past collections. She dumped these small buttons of various shapes on the floor. The fur balls immediately surrounded her and rushed to move the pile of buttons away.
The next day, most of the fur balls that appeared in front of Yan Zhu were decorated with buttons. Most of these beautiful buttons appeared on their hats, and some were directly decorated on their "skirts" or "clothes".
When one fur ball becomes fashionable, most fur balls will follow suit.
This is much more interesting than playing mobile games, Yan Zhu thought.
…
…
"Zhuzhu, you seem to be daydreaming lately." Her good friend Cheng Jiaying said, "Are you worried about your brother again?"
"No."
"You look like you have something on your mind again."
"Really not." Yan Zhu didn't dare to look into her friend's eyes. She felt a little guilty for hiding the matter of Maoqiu from her friend. But when she thought of the threat of the evil apple peeler, she thought it would be better to keep the secret to herself for the time being. Sorry, Jiajia.
"Well, okay." Cheng Jiaying looked at her, and then she said, "By the way, Zhuzhu, do you remember the USB drive I lent you earlier? My mother copied some data into it earlier, and she has been asking me for it these past two days."
"I remember. I'll return it to you tomorrow." Not long ago, Yan Zhu borrowed a USB drive from Cheng Jiaying to copy study materials. Because all her attention had been taken away by the ball of fur recently, she forgot to return it.
After arriving home, Yan Zhu finished her homework and began to prepare the textbooks she would take tomorrow one by one according to the memo.
"Chinese, math, English, art... Ah! Cheng Jiaying's USB drive!" Yan Zhu opened her schoolbag, "Where is it?"
She turned her bag upside down, but found nothing. She recalled the details of the day she brought the USB drive and shook the pages of all the books on her desk. Nothing. She opened the drawer and took out the stationery one by one, but nothing.
She lay on the ground, staring at the dark spaces under the cabinets, but there was nothing.
USB drive! I can’t find Jiajia’s USB drive! ! Yan Zhu yelled in her heart.
In addition to Cheng Jiaying's study materials, there was also a folder that seemed to contain Cheng Jiaying's mother's things. According to Cheng Jiaying, her mother would use it in the next two days. This must be returned to her. Yan Zhu had a deep impression of Cheng Jiaying's strict mother, and she didn't want Jiajia to be scolded by her mother because of her.
Yan Zhu was so anxious that she immediately searched frantically in the bedroom, but after searching for a long time, she still found nothing. She had to ask her parents, brother and Aunt Li, but everyone said they had never seen the USB drive.
Finally, she had no choice but to search the room again by herself, but still didn't see any shadow of him.
Just as she was walking around the room anxiously, a small shadow squirmed at the corner of the table, and the fur balls appeared.
They crowded over as usual and played around the legs of her table.
As soon as she saw the ball of fur, Yan Zhu's eyes lit up.
"Little furballs, do you know where my USB drive is?"
After she spoke, the fur balls did not react except shaking their fur towards her.
"U disk, Jia Jia's USB disk, do you know about it? Have you ever taken it?"
Seeing her approach, the fur balls only shook their fur even more vigorously.
"..." Yan Zhu sat on the bed in frustration. This way of asking questions was totally irrelevant.
She looked around the room helplessly, wondering where Jia Jia's USB drive was. Her eyes fell on the doll in the display cabinet.
That’s right! Yan Zhu jumped up.
She took out her tablet and quickly opened the webpage. "U disk, U disk..." she muttered to herself. After a while, she stood the tablet upright in front of the fur balls, "Have you seen a U disk like this?"
On the tablet screen, there was a picture of a USB flash drive. This was the same USB flash drive Yan Zhu had found on the web, and it looked exactly like the one Cheng Jiaying had lent her.
The fur balls gathered around the tablet curiously.
"Yes, you can identify the picture, right?" Yan Zhu pointed at the picture and said, "It's this USB flash drive. Can you help me find it?"
The fur balls gathered around the tablet, continuing to watch in confusion.
Yan Zhu took out a pen and tapped the picture on the tablet a few times. She raised her voice and said, "This is the USB drive. Can you find it?"
After she said it four times in a row, the tablet went into hibernation. The light went out, and the fur balls scattered as if frightened, and then they left one after another.
Could they help her find it back? Yan Zhu had no hope at all.
At this point, all that was left was metaphysics. Yan Zhu had no choice but to kneel on the bed and start praying to the heavens and unknown gods.
"Please, as long as I can find Jia Jia's USB drive, I am willing to not eat sweets for a month!" Yan Zhu whispered her oath, then she thought about it and added not eating chicken wings for a month. Considering the weight of Cheng Jiaying in her heart, she resolutely added milk tea and steak.
When it was time to go to bed at night, Yan Zhu tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.
Her last effort to search before going to bed also failed. She cursed herself for being brainless and careless while praying for a miracle.
She kept her eyes open until three in the morning, when Yan Zhu heard a sound coming from outside the window .
It seems... to be from the garden.
Yan Zhu jumped out of bed, pushed open the door, and tiptoed to the garden.
She saw a shadow whizzing to the side of the bush. She turned on the flashlight, and the light illuminated the shadow. It was a long weasel. It had something in its mouth.
Yan Zhu took a closer look and found that it was a small ball of fur. The weasel held the fur in its mouth and stared at her fiercely.
"Fur, fur ball..." Yan Zhu's voice was trembling, "Let it go!"
Before she finished her words, a flash of light shot out from behind her and hit the little animal directly. The weasel jumped up with a hum, dropped the little fur ball in its mouth and ran away.
The apple peeler slid out silently from behind her, and its mechanical arm picked up the limp, dying little ball of fur on the ground, and something fell to the ground.
Yan Zhu picked it up. It was the USB drive she had been looking for all night.
"Was the little fur ball caught by the weasel because he was looking for it..." Yan Zhu said in a low voice.
"I told you to keep your distance from them," the apple peeler said coldly, and it turned and left with the ball of fur.
Yan Zhu held the USB flash drive in her hand. There was a small object rolling on the ground. She looked down and saw that it was a small glass button. Yan Zhu picked up the glass button and returned to her bedroom listlessly.
She turned on the desk lamp and prepared to put the USB drive into her schoolbag.
The moment the light came on, she couldn't help but scream in surprise.
I saw at least dozens of USB flash drives piled up on her desk, and they looked exactly like Cheng Jiaying's. Under the lights at night, the metal shell of the USB flash drives shone brightly.
