Ten o’clock at night.
Deviant finished organizing the revised contract and sent it to Gu Demiao Ning. Then, he waited for a reply.
Five minutes passed. The chat box remained silent.
Deviant leaned back in his chair, waiting patiently.
Ten minutes passed. Still no activity in the chat box.
Deviant fiddled with a decorative piece on his desk and continued to wait.
Fifteen minutes passed...
Deviant ran a hand through his hair, stood up, and began pacing around the living room.
"Can you stop pacing in front of me?" Annoyed by the constant movement, Idelos looked up from his terminal.
Deviant raised his wrist to check the time. "It’s only ten. He couldn’t be asleep already, could he? Why hasn’t he replied? Is he unhappy with the changes I made to the contract? I only made a few small tweaks to the clauses."
Hearing this, Idelos got up, walked over to the desk, and picked up Deviant’s contract to read it.
After finishing, he said with a grim expression, "You already changed the split from 20-80 to 30-70. Why did you keep the clause that makes me turn into my beast form?"
Deviant, perched on the edge of the sofa, stared at the chat window with Gu Demiao Ning. "It’s just a small condition..."
Feeling Idelos’s piercing gaze, Deviant looked up and said, "I did revise it. I only agreed to have you transform, not to let him touch you. I know this guy is only making this kind of demand to test our sincerity. I can’t just let him lead me by the nose."
’If I agreed to all the conditions, there’s no telling how they’d hold it over me in the future.’
Idelos said, "His sincerity is no less than ours. I’m afraid you’ll have to revise the contract again."
"What?" Deviant asked.
"He posted a new video," Idelos said.
Deviant froze, then hurriedly clicked on Gu Demiao Ning’s video page.
After several days, Gu Demiao Ning had finally posted a new video.
Deviant’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the thumbnail for the latest pinned video.
’Isn’t this the photo Gu Demiao Ning sent us?’
He clicked on the video.
The video was short, only ten seconds. The scene was the same as in the photo. A young female with a pair of white fox beast ears, wearing a long white dress, walked into the frame. She was barefoot on a plush white rug, her fluffy white fox tail trailing behind her on the carpet.
After less than two seconds, the camera panned up, capturing only her back from the knees up. The shot followed her as she sat down on a sofa. The video ended with the masked young female looking up at the camera.
Her face still wasn’t shown, but the short ten-second video was enough to send the Beastmen into a frenzy.
The video had been out for less than half an hour, but the comment section already had over ten thousand comments. Deviant scrolled through casually and saw a large number of comments from accounts with Fox Clan profile pictures.
[Fox Clan Yuanbao!!! Oh my fox, so beautiful!]
[I thought after what that "Light of the Second District" and those official bastards did, our Fox Clan was done for. I never expected such a beautiful Fox Clan Yuanbao to appear!]
[Holy crap, this animation quality... are you sure this isn’t a real female?!]
[What kind of Divine Beast is Gu Demiao Ning? How can he make a virtual female look like this... If I keep watching, I won’t be able to court any other young ladies.]
[What are you dreaming about, buddy? Even without virtual females, you’re not qualified to court any young ladies.]
[Haha, exactly. You get to look at Yuanbao, so just count yourself lucky.]
[Is Gu Demiao Ning planning to create a female for every Beast Clan? If so, this guy is pretty fair. I should probably curse him out less in the future. Maybe I can wait for a Sheep Clan female.]
[Yeah, when are we getting a cute baa-baa female? Why are they all carnivorous Beast Clan females? There isn’t a single herbivorous one. How is that fair?]
[Exactly! Fair my ass! Our Dog Clan Yuanbao didn’t even show her tail! The Fox Clan is getting way too much special treatment!]
[Our Fox Clan Yuanbao only got a ten-second video, did we say anything? You dogs better stop barking here, or we’ll mass-report you to Gu Demiao Ning and he’ll never make a Dog Clan female Yuanbao again!]
[Such vicious foxes! You think we can’t report you too?!]
[Stop fighting. Can’t we all just watch the video in peace?]
[Yuanbao is a white fox female this time. Why a white fox? Not a red, black, or blue fox?]
[You foxes are so picky. We Cat Clan folks didn’t say anything about Yuanbao not being other branches of the Cat Clan (please make a little orange cat Yuanbao).]
[...]
Deviant scrolled through the comments for a while, watched the video again, and then dragged the progress bar back to the beginning, replaying the two seconds of the young female’s bare feet over and over.
Idelos walked past him, glimpsing the video paused on a specific frame. "This is the first time I’ve seen this Yuan... virtual female show her tail."
Deviant stroked his chin and said, "Yuanbao’s feet are really beautiful."
Idelos: "..."
"Are you going to get back to business or not?"
"No rush." Deviant admired the video a few more times, a look of determination appearing on his face.
’I’m not afraid of them making demands; I’m afraid of them not reacting at all. By releasing this video now, they’re making a move against me. Since my opponent has played their card, it’s my turn to respond.’
Deviant thought for a moment, then opened the chat with Gu Demiao Ning and sent the original, unedited contract:
[We’ll go with the contract terms as you proposed. However, we need to sign it in person. If that’s inconvenient for you, a video call to sign will be fine.]
After a few minutes, Gu Demiao Ning finally replied:
[Okay. We’ll sign tomorrow afternoon. I’ll call you.]
After sending the message, Gu Ning turned to Barto. "Are you sure you want to sign via video call with him?"
Barto said, "Even if we don’t do it over video, he’ll find a way to investigate my identity. It’s better if I just tell him myself."
Gu Ning said, "You’re a fox."
Barto understood what she meant. "Don’t worry, I won’t use my Mixed Breed form for the video call."
After speaking, Barto asked, "Didn’t Andrew send you our household registration numbers? Send them to me."
"Mhm."
Speaking of which, Gu Ning opened her terminal to look at the message Andrew had sent her. She told Barto, "We also need photos."
She hadn’t expected Andrew to handle their household registrations so quickly. They now had official registrations, but Andrew said they still needed ID photos.
[Don’t worry, the head of household’s information is strictly confidential,] Andrew’s latest message read.
Gu Ning replied with an "okay," asked about the dress code requirements for the photos, and then prepared to take ID photos for the three of them.
There weren’t many requirements for their attire, as long as it was decent. However, the background couldn’t be cluttered, and their clothes couldn’t be the same color as the background, or they would blend in and be hard to distinguish.
The ID photos were only half-body shots, so it wouldn’t be difficult.
Gu Ning found an altered black long-sleeved Beastman shirt, put it on, combed her hair smooth, and quickly took her own photo.
Then she dressed Cook. "Cook, stand up straight. That’s right, smile a little."
Cook obediently did as Gu Ning said, standing straight and breaking into a wide, bright smile.
"Alright." Gu Ning took a few shots, figuring they would be usable.
"Barto, are you ready?"
Gu Ning turned to look at the little fox. He had changed into his human form and was rummaging through chests and cabinets in the corner, tossing clothes everywhere.