Because the geographical positions of the demon realm and the human realm correspond through specific nodes, and each city in the demon realm and each province in the human realm has its own barrier, we can now confirm that if this rift exists, it must be within Dongzhou’s borders. Moreover, it must be a physical rift, and it has to be in a place accessible to humans.
The field agents from the Operations Department have all been deployed. They’re first conducting a systematic search based on the locations where Yuan Qian’er has appeared. If that fails, they’ll conduct a full-scale search of the entire Dongzhou city.
Ye Yang didn’t waste any more time either. He also applied for a designated area to carry out an on-site investigation.
As for how dark Shen Ming’s face was when he saw Ye Yang’s message that morning—well, no one knows.
…
Two hours later, the sky was fully bright. The office-dominated neighborhood was still very quiet, but Ye Yang’s company had already gathered in full.
President Long personally oversaw the operation, sitting calmly in the conference room with his eyes closed, resting. When everyone arrived, he opened his eyes and scanned the room. “You’ve all returned, so it seems there’s been no progress.”
Sister Wu shrugged and spread her hands.
Xing Tian shook his head. “Not enough time. We only managed a rough check of the places Yuan Qian’er had been.”
President Long nodded. “The current instruction from above is to first send someone to make contact with Yuan Qian’er, while simultaneously swapping areas and continuing the search.”
Shu Tan from the Intelligence Department has already begun taking action. Although she’s an artifact cultivator, she’s hardly any different from an ordinary person. Being a young woman as well, it should be easier for her to get close to Yuan Qian’er.
“Besides Shu Tan, several other branches have also assigned personnel. We need to send one person from here as well to make direct contact, but there’s no rush. We’ll handle that after the second or third round of searches.”
By the time the meeting ended, it was nearly nine o’clock. The building was gradually coming to life. Ye Yang glanced at Shen Ming’s message: It’s okay. Stay safe.
After replying, he set off again immediately. The second round of searches couldn’t wait. Every extra second the rift existed added more danger.
The second round still followed the areas where Yuan Qian’er had appeared, but this time it was more thorough and took more time. Yet after a full day, there was still no result.
The head of the Operations Department was deeply worried again. Chi Lian quietly whispered to Ye Yang, “You were smart. Good thing you didn’t actually become head of operations. This job is really tough—too much brainwork!”
Sister Wu agreed. “Kid, you really hide your depth. Did you see this coming?”
Ye Yang could only respond with a silly chuckle.
The third round of searches began. At this point, they couldn’t worry about too many restrictions. The entire Dongzhou area was turned upside down. Everyone worked for several days and nights. Ye Yang didn’t go home for five days and didn’t sleep, practically wishing he could plow through every inch of land.
But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The operations head grew even more troubled. After a day of thought, he made a bold decision—launch a fourth round of searches. If they still found nothing, he would resign and take responsibility.
—Which would conveniently let him retire.
Before the fourth round, Ye Yang finally went home.
He was exhausted. He got a good night’s sleep.
At some point, Shen Ming had quietly come to check on him. Seeing Ye Yang sleeping soundly, he didn’t disturb him. He gently placed a bowl of chicken soup wontons and a small fried pancake, both kept warm under a preservation barrier, on the nightstand.
The next day, as soon as Ye Yang woke up, Shen Ming noticed.
He immediately left the egg-incubating room and returned to the sofa, holding a cup, appearing relaxed but carefully posed from head to toe, waiting for Ye Yang to come find him.
Ye Yang got up, went to the bathroom… Hold off on using perception… came out, went into the kitchen, then back to his room, then out again—he was at the door!
Shen Ming unconsciously held his breath. Here he comes, here he comes… Wait—why is he heading toward the elevator?
Ye Yang’s presence slowly drifted away in Shen Ming’s perception, fading out. Shen Ming couldn’t sit still anymore. He stood up, picked up his phone, just as a message from Ye Yang arrived: “Good morning, Professor Shen~ Thanks for the wontons and the pancake. I washed the bowls and left them in my kitchen. Gotta go, I’m busy now!”
Shen Ming: “…” Damn YCG!
He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to see what Little Sea Hare had been so busy with all week.
·
The persistent Lan Bao privately tracked down Ye Yang, who was still conducting searches.
“I still think there’s something off about that Yuan Qian’er.”
Back in the day, Lan Bao had been dead set on winning the Mooncake Eating Contest. Who knew that Yuan Qian’er would appear out of nowhere? It had become Lan Bao’s psychological shadow.
He’d tried many times since then to find her, but never succeeded. Now he understood—no wonder he couldn’t find her. How could he, looking for a human in the demon realm?
Ye Yang said, “So… what do you want to do?”
Lan Bao: “I want to look into her again.”
Ye Yang casually brushed him off. “Then go ahead and investigate.”
Lan Bao: “I don’t have the clearance. Ye Ye, you’ve got to help me.”
Ye Yang was full of question marks. “?”
Just as he was about to reason with Lan Bao, a phone call came in.
Xing Tian told Ye Yang he could call it a day.
“Lord Xuanwu personally took action and confirmed that the barriers of both Dongzhou and Luoyang City are intact. The problem might be elsewhere. In any case, it’s fine for now. Thanks for your hard work during this time. President Long says everyone gets two days off. We’ll notify you if anything comes up.”
Ye Yang hung up and looked at Lan Bao, who was staring at him pleadingly. Now, he had no excuse to refuse. “Alright, I’ll help you look into her.”
He didn’t have anything else to do anyway. Even though it would probably be a waste of effort, at least it would stop Lan Bao from obsessing over this.
That’s just what kind of warmhearted team leader he was.
Meanwhile, Shen Ming—who, in a fit of divine rage, had blasted the entirety of Dongzhou and Luoyang City with his power and forced President Long to give Ye Yang time off—sat on the sofa waiting from morning till night, utterly baffled. Why isn’t my little sea hare back yet?
…
The operations team sent to make contact with Yuan Qian’er had yet to make any progress. Ye Yang took Lan Bao along and first reviewed the available information.
Yuan Qian’er had originally been a left-behind child in the Yunchuan Mountains. Her grades were average. She didn’t finish middle school before leaving her hometown to work elsewhere, eventually ending up in Dongzhou.
Before her sudden rise to fame, she had no idea she was a competitive eater—because she had never once felt full. She had always assumed that constant hunger was normal. As a child, if she wanted an extra bowl of rice, her grandparents would beat her. So she went through life hungry.
Years later, at nineteen, after working for a few years, she had saved up some money and even got a boyfriend. He took her to a thirty-five-yuan all-you-can-eat hot pot buffet. When she heard she could eat until she couldn’t eat anymore, she just kept going—and going—until she cleared out the restaurant’s entire stock.
She ate so much that not only the owner but also her boyfriend got scared—afraid she might eat herself to death right there. After paying the bill, the boyfriend immediately ran off and blocked her.
But even then, Yuan Qian’er still hadn’t experienced what people called “feeling full.”
The owner, to his credit, was a pretty decent guy. Even though he took a huge loss, he didn’t give Yuan Qian’er a hard time. Seeing that she seemed perfectly fine, he marveled at her and suggested she stop working in the factory. He told her she could make big money as a competitive eater live-streaming and even explained how to sign up for eating contests.
Yuan Qian’er took his advice, and that’s how she became the competitive eating queen she is today.
Ye Yang: “Nothing seems unusual here, aside from her extraordinary appetite.”
Lan Bao had read through these materials countless times, but he still felt something was off. “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I just know something’s wrong! There has to be something we’ve missed!”
Ye Yang thought for a moment. “Here’s what we’ll do. YCG has sent a lot of people to make contact with Yuan Qian’er. We’ll tag along and observe from the shadows.”
Lan Bao was fired up. “Let’s do it!”
Not knowing how far the others had gotten, Ye Yang decided to sync up with Chi Lian directly.
As it turned out, Chi Lian was right at that moment talking to Yuan Qian’er under a footbridge.
Ye Yang watched from a distance. “What is Chi Lian doing?”
“Looks like… fortune-telling?” Lan Bao wasn’t entirely sure either.
They exchanged glances and continued watching the pair under the bridge.
Sure enough, Chi Lian was disguised as a fortune teller, insistently offering Yuan Qian’er a free reading. Yuan Qian’er had been hustling in the real world for years and wasn’t about to engage. But Chi Lian was clever enough to pull out a few pieces of information from her file that no outsider should have known, and that finally made Yuan Qian’er stop.
As they talked, Chi Lian steered the conversation toward what he really wanted to know: “Have you ever encountered anything strange? Anything that defies common sense?”
Yuan Qian’er: “Strange things… No. But I do have weird dreams sometimes.”
Chi Lian raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Tell me about your dreams. Pick the strangest one.”
“The strangest? I don’t know which one qualifies as the strangest—they’re all weird. Alright, I’ll tell you the one that left the deepest impression on me.”
It happened back when she first arrived in Dongzhou. Some punks had taken her out drinking. She drank a lot—so much that she blacked out and had no idea how she got home. When she woke up, the only thing she remembered was a dream.
“I went into this really wonderful place. There were lots of people, lots of animals, and even creatures just like the ones on TV—demons with fox ears and tails.”
She had actually had dreams like this since she was a child—dreams full of strange monsters and spirits. But the important part came next.
“There were so many people. I got pushed and shoved along until I ended up at what looked like a competition arena.”
That was the exact place where the mooncake-eating contest had taken place. Everyone already knew what happened after that.
“That dream was years ago, but I still remember every detail. It felt so real—like I had actually eaten those mooncakes.” As she spoke, she couldn’t help smacking her lips.
“After waking up, I bought a lot of mooncakes over time, but none of them could compare to the ones I ate in that dream.”
Yuan Qian’er concluded by saying that this dream had planted the seed for her competitive eating ambitions. So when she heard about the eating contest, she was instantly drawn and signed up without hesitation.
Both Chi Lian and the eavesdropping duo immediately realized that this was the moment she had crossed through the barrier. Chi Lian promptly began questioning her in detail.
But so many years had passed—there was no way Yuan Qian’er could remember any other specifics.
They chatted a little longer, and when no useful information came up, Chi Lian threw out a few random lines and sent her on her way.
From start to finish, the most shocking thing to all of them was something Yuan Qian’er had casually said: “To be honest, even after all that eating, I still haven’t experienced what it feels like to be stuffed. I’m hoping I get a chance at the national competition.”
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