Drip. Ye Yang stopped in his tracks and twitched his antennae.
Drip. After a long while, another drop fell.
Drip. The sound was very regular. Ye Yang confirmed it was coming from somewhere not far away.
He didn’t hesitate any longer. He immediately set up a five-meter barrier and then turned on the light.
The sound was coming from one of the shower stalls. Ye Yang held a defensive spell in one hand in front of him and yanked open the blue shower curtain with the other.
Sure enough, it was here. Ye Yang stared expressionlessly at the sight before him. Finally, after a long moment, he mechanically lowered the hand holding the defensive spell, pulled out his phone, and sent the signal that the mission was complete.
…
Soon, a young man with a full head of bleached-blond hair came bounding in. Seeing Ye Yang sitting at the bathroom entrance, his face showed both excitement and nervousness. “So? So? Is it really a mermaid?”
Ye Yang had been spacing out for a while. He wiped his face upon hearing the voice and said in a heavy tone, “It’s not a mermaid. It’s a Diren.”
The blond tilted his head and twitched his nose twice. “Diren?” What was that?
Just then, a short-haired girl with a classical temperament walked in. “I let the police officers stationed outside go. Once we wrap up, we can clock out.”
Seeing Ye Yang, her eyes lit up. She smiled and said, “So you’re the new field agent, Ye Yang? You really are cute. Hello, I’m Shu Tan, from the Intelligence Department.”
The blond finally remembered he hadn’t introduced himself yet. He chuckled sheepishly. “Hehe, I’m Lu Xun. I’m the one at the Mission Assignment Center who specifically verifies completed tasks. You can call me Brother Lu!”
Ye Yang had somewhat recovered. He managed a faint smile. “Hello, Brother Lu, Sister Shu. The target is unconscious right now, no danger. Just take him… her… it away.”
“Hey, wait, Little Ye, you still haven’t explained what a Diren is. The mission brief said ‘mermaid,’” Lu Xun said.
Lu Xun really loved mermaids. He’d never seen one and always longed for them. When he heard about this mission today, he insisted on coming even if it meant overtime.
Shu Tan asked, “Diren? I’ve only heard of jiaoren (silk-shedding merpeople).”
Ye Yang’s little face scrunched up. He agonized for a moment, not knowing how to describe it, and finally said, “It’s not a mermaid… Ah, forget it. You’ll see when you look.”
What he really wanted to say was, “Maybe you’d better not look,” but that was impossible.
Five minutes later, the number of people sitting dazed at the bathroom entrance had increased from one to two.
Shu Tan waited for a while, and when she saw they were still sulking, she sighed. She ruffled both Ye Yang’s and the blond’s hair. Though both demons were several hundred years old, their stress tolerance really couldn’t compare to humans. Poor puppy Lu Xun, he had so longed for a mermaid, only to see something like that. He’d definitely have nightmares tonight, right?
Then she dug through Lu Xun’s hair, pulled out her Spirit Cage, and stuffed the still-unconscious Diren inside.
After thinking for a moment, she cast a small spell to hide the scene inside the Spirit Cage. She didn’t want to see it either.
Ye Yang had only confirmed it was a Diren after looking up information.
Mermaids versus fish-people – who would have thought the difference between these two creatures could be so huge??
It was too terrifying, too bizarre. One more look and his sanity would walk out the door.
This Diren had an enormous face, three times the size of a normal human’s. It looked like a human but not quite – a flat, broad, pancake-like shape. The facial features were also shockingly large, crammed onto the entire pancake face, and all equally flattened.
Its hair was quite long, thick and pitch-black, matted into strands against the fish scales by the water. The more you looked, the scarier it got.
The face was directly connected to a fish body, without even a neck. Both the face and the fish body were a dark grey with an eerie silver sheen. There was a lot of mud and seaweed stuck between the scales.
Wide, translucent fins drooped wetly. Looking closely, something seemed to be wriggling at the joints where the fins met the body.
Overall, it looked like an ugly fish that had swapped its fish head for an even uglier human head!
Before today, Ye Yang never thought he was a demon who judged by appearances. Now, he could only say that he was. He was exactly that shallow. Just recalling the Diren’s looks made him break out in goosebumps.
Although he was deeply shocked, Ye Yang hadn’t forgotten to check the Diren’s condition. Its injury was on its tail – not life-threatening, but the blue blood staining the tail made it even more horrifying.
Okay, stop thinking. Ye Yang patted his cheeks and stood up.
He turned and saw Lu Xun was still listless. He shook the blond’s shoulder. “Brother Lu? We should get going.”
Lu Xun remained in his dazed, self-isolating state of questioning his existence, eyes blank, even his sleek bleached-blond hair having lost its luster.
Shu Tan couldn’t resist teasing, “I told you not to look.” She had been the one to enter first earlier. She took one look, immediately closed the curtain, and stopped Lu Xun from going in. But this puppy Lu Xun – the more you told him not to look, the more curious he got.
“Ahhh –” With a wail, Lu Xun stood up unsteadily and took the Spirit Cage. “My dreams are shattered! How am I supposed to face The Little Mermaid now? I was determined to marry a mermaid!”
“Wake up. A mermaid wouldn’t fall in love with a dog.”
In the past, Lu Xun would have launched into a long-winded argument, but now he didn’t even have the strength to retort. “Let’s go. Let’s just get back and hand this over. I don’t want to stay with this Diren another second. Not one second.”
The three of them walked out of the seaside bathhouse gate and came face to face with someone speeding toward them on a small electric scooter.
With a drifting skid and an abrupt stop, Tu Manli came to a halt right in front of Ye Yang. “Mission accomplished?”
Shu Tan asked, “Director Tu, what are you doing here?”
“I happened to hear about this mission, so I came to check on Little Ye.” Seeing that Ye Yang was fine, Tu Manli got off her scooter and handed each of them a banana. “Good work on the overtime. Here, have a banana.”
Then she turned to Lu Xun. “You caught it? Why’s it all dark? Is the mermaid afraid of light?”
Ye Yang hemmed and hawed. “It’s not a mermaid. It’s a Diren… and it’s not afraid of light…”
Director Tu didn’t care what it looked like. As soon as she heard it wasn’t a mermaid, she sighed with relief and patted her chest. “Thank goodness. If it really had been a mermaid, that would’ve been trouble.”
Ye Yang was curious. “Why do you say that?”
Tu Manli waved a hand. “Ah, it’s a long story. Just thinking about it is annoying.”
Shu Tan explained to Ye Yang: “Although YCG does cooperate with official human institutions, we’re always very restrained in our communication to avoid dragging ordinary humans into non-human affairs as much as possible. If it really had been a mermaid – one of those Siren types – we would’ve had to communicate with similar organizations in other countries.”
Lu Xun translated: “She means we have very little exchange with them and almost never collaborate. If it really came from abroad, we’d have to put in the effort to deal with those foreigners.”
“Ugh, I really don’t want to bring it up. Once other countries get involved, even the simplest problems become complicated and sensitive. One small misstep and it turns into a major international incident!” Director Tu’s face soured at the memory.
She had just been worried about Ye Yang and had come specifically to check on him. Since the matter was settled, she headed back.
“Alright, since there’s no problem with the mission, you should all head back early. I’m off too. Bye!” With that, Tu Manli gracefully hopped back onto her scooter as effortlessly as she had arrived. Her little electric vehicle roared off with the presence of a Harley, quickly disappearing at the end of the road.
…
There was no rush on the return trip, so there was no need to waste magical energy or talismans. The three of them simply walked back to the branch office.
On the way back, Lu Xun and Shu Tan chatted quite a bit with Ye Yang.
These two new friends were pretty interesting. Lu Xun was a mixed-breed dog demon, his true form resembling a yellow mutt. Both his parents were ordinary demons. He, however, was more ambitious, talented, and had studied diligently at YCG’s free school. After more than a decade of hard work, he had finally become a full-fledged YCG employee. Now, he alone supported his entire litter.
Shu Tan was from the Intelligence Department. As it happened, she and Qin Zhi were from the same sect, but unlike him, who was a sword cultivator, she was an artifact cultivator.
Since the resurgence of spiritual energy, reclusive practitioners had emerged one after another to adapt to the changing world, hiding among ordinary people. Those with deep foundations managed fine, but some with weaker backgrounds were forced to work regular jobs to make a living.
Being an artifact cultivator these days was a really tough career path. Spiritual energy had been depleted, cultivators were few, and even fewer could afford to use magical artifacts and spiritual tools. Their wallets couldn’t support it, and their cultivation levels couldn’t support it either.
She was one of the lucky ones, able to land a job at YCG that was somewhat relevant to her skills. Her senior fellow disciple, on the other hand, had grown up in the mountains, disconnected from modern society, and had no formal education. He couldn’t even work as a laborer at a construction site. All he could do was live at home and depend on his parents.
As they neared the branch office, Lu Xun suddenly asked Ye Yang, “Do you think Director Tu is really capable, that she handles everything well?”
Ye Yang nodded.
Lu Xun shook his head. “She is truly capable, but her current position is an underuse of her talents. There’s no helping it, though. The truth is, Director Tu used to hold a higher position and was responsible for much more. But the first time she had to deal with the country of Meili* – she underestimated the severity of the situation. She committed a major taboo during communication, had to revise the plan several times, and nearly caused a huge disaster.”
Shu Tan said indignantly, “But you can’t blame Sister Manli entirely for that. She acted out of caution. The burden on her shoulders was so heavy back then, she was busy all the time, and there was no one to share the load.”
She sighed, then added, “But I think Sister Manli is doing great now. She has fewer responsibilities, has time to go home and cook every day, and her daughter is much closer to her.”
Lu Xun tilted his head. “That’s true.”
So something like that had happened. Ye Yang looked thoughtful.
Lu Xun was quite talkative; his mouth hadn’t stopped the whole way. “Things are a lot better now. Before, it was even worse. Before we actually had to deal with the unusual humans from Meili, our Foreign Affairs Activity Department was basically just for show. They’d never done any real work, had zero practical experience.”
“So when they actually encountered a diplomatic incident, they were completely lost. They offended everyone right off the bat. Luckily, Elder Li took over personally in time.”
“Later, we sent quite a few people to study in the human foreign affairs departments, and even sent people to the United Nations. Now we have at least some diplomatic ability, so Elder Li doesn’t have to worry about everything.”
“Speaking of which, relations with Meili are actually pretty decent now – I’m referring specifically to the non-human part, of course. Thanks to Yan Yungui’s connections.”
“The truth is, YCG is short on all kinds of talent, and it’s still that way. You probably know this already, but getting into YCG is extremely difficult – way harder than humans taking civil service exams. The requirements are numerous and strict. Out of my several hundred siblings, I’m the only one who passed.”
Ye Yang started to worry. “There’s an exam? I’m still just a provisional member… What if I fail…” What would happen to his mountain of debt then?
Lu Xun perked up, putting on the airs of a senior colleague. “Don’t worry, Little Ye. You call me Brother Lu, so I’ve got your back. I have a ton of study materials at home. I’ll give them all to you later. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just come ask me!”
—
*Translator’s Note: The original text uses “Meiliguo” (美丽国), literally “Beautiful Country,” which is a common placeholder or satirical nickname for the United States in some Chinese online contexts. The translation uses “Meili” to preserve this coded reference.
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