Lan Bao was utterly crushed. He had even started rambling incoherently: “She’s lying. She has to be lying. She’s just vain!”
Ye Yang could only give him a pitying look. They both knew Yuan Qian’er wasn’t lying. She really had never felt full.
There was nothing to be done. What else could he do? His good classmate could only be indulged. So Ye Yang didn’t go back to the company or home. He just stayed with Lan Bao, continuing to follow Yuan Qian’er at a distance.
They kept at it until the sky began to darken. Yuan Qian’er and her new friend Shu Tan finally tired of shopping and walked into a noodle shop by the roadside.
Ye Yang asked Lan Bao, “Should we grab something to eat too?”
“No!” Lan Bao refused outright. “People are most relaxed when they eat. Maybe we’ll overhear something important. But we have to stay highly alert!”
Ye Yang wanted to say something but stopped. Putting aside the question of whether this so-called secret even existed, wasn’t their stalker-like behavior a bit inappropriate—even for the sake of both realms’ safety?
Besides, Lan Bao, you clearly want to eat those rice noodles too. You’re practically drooling!
Just as he was trying to lure Lan Bao away with various delicious foods, a very familiar presence rapidly approached.
Ye Yang turned around and, sure enough, saw that familiar tall figure. “Professor Shen, what a coincidence.”
Shen Ming: “Not a coincidence. I came looking for you.”
Ye Yang tensed up immediately. “What’s wrong? Did something else happen?”
“…Nothing’s wrong. Aren’t you on leave? I noticed you hadn’t come home, so I came to check.” What does he mean ‘did something else happen’? Shen Ming was starting to wonder what kind of image he had in Ye Yang’s mind.
“Oh, oh, glad nothing’s wrong. Professor Shen, you came at the perfect time. Let’s go eat together.” Ye Yang was too embarrassed to admit he’d been stalking someone.
Lan Bao frantically tugged at Ye Yang’s clothes from behind, but the moment Shen Ming’s somewhat cold gaze swept over him, he instantly froze.
The group walked into the noodle shop. Lan Bao’s last shred of defiance was choosing a corner spot with a direct view of Yuan Qian’er.
The shop was an old establishment with consistently good food. Soon, Ye Yang and Shen Ming had barely taken a couple of bites when Lan Bao was already on his second bowl—completely forgetting his earlier vow to keep his eyes locked on Yuan Qian’er even while eating.
Ye Yang casually ordered five more bowls for Lan Bao, plus ten braised chicken legs, then suddenly felt a chill. He looked up to find Shen Ming staring at him. Ye Yang: “Professor Shen, would you like some more too?”
Shen Ming: “…No thanks. You two eat up.”
Ye Yang suspected his ears might be malfunctioning; otherwise, why would he think Professor Shen sounded like he was grinding his teeth? But looking more closely, Shen Ming seemed perfectly normal—except he didn’t appear to like the bowl of beef noodles he’d ordered. He kept stirring them around without taking a single bite.
Shen Ming was indeed a bit irritated. He had planned to let Lan Bao finish eating and then send him on his way, so he could be alone with his little sea hare—or better yet, take him straight home. Now, it looked like they’d be stuck here for quite a while.
Once upon a time, he could stand motionless for centuries waiting for a single volcanic eruption just to obtain a lava crystal. But now, for some reason, his patience was wearing thinner and thinner.
Ye Yang still thought Professor Shen just didn’t like the flavor. He pulled out his phone to order a different one, but Shen Ming quickly pressed his hand down and changed the subject. “I haven’t asked yet—what are you two doing here?”
At the trigger word, Lan Bao’s head shot up. “We’re investigating a suspicious woman!”
His voice carried. Several curious customers looked over. Ye Yang quickly stuffed a chicken leg into his mouth, then lowered his voice and explained the situation to Shen Ming.
Shen Ming looked at Yuan Qian’er, then at Shu Tan beside her, and confirmed: “That newly initiated cultivator—she’s from YCG, isn’t she?”
Ye Yang: “Yeah.”
Shen Ming put down his chopsticks. “That’s strange.”
Ye Yang: “Huh?”
“The person she’s sitting across from—the one you’re watching—she carries the aura of a divine beast.”
“!!!” ×2
Lan Bao even dropped his chopsticks. “Wh-what? The aura of a divine beast?!”
Ye Yang was equally startled. He had only been going along with Lan Bao’s antics to help him let go of his obsession. But unexpectedly, they had actually found a lead!
—
With Shen Ming’s help, YCG quickly determined that the divine beast aura on Yuan Qian’er wasn’t something she had accidentally picked up or carried through an external magical artifact. It was within her very bloodline!
Now that they had a direction to pursue, and since the subject wasn’t an ordinary human, things became much easier. Shu Tan discreetly obtained a sample of Yuan Qian’er’s blood. After running tests, they discovered—
This girl was a bloodline descendant of Taotie!
No wonder she had entered Luoyang City as if it were empty. Her aura would have been automatically recognized as one of their own in the demon realm—how could the barrier possibly react? And her entry into Luoyang City was likely an unconscious pull from her own bloodline.
Eight thousand years ago, Luoyang City had been Taotie’s temporary residence.
No wonder their searches had turned up nothing. The aura of a divine beast can only be perceived by other divine beasts or the Four Directional Deities. The few divine beasts at YCG headquarters weren’t about to go searching for a human girl like her. If Shen Ming hadn’t accidentally crossed paths with Yuan Qian’er, they would have turned Dongzhou upside down looking for that nonexistent fissure.
…
A descendant of a divine beast, living among the human realm!
The head of the Operations Department exploded again. He proceeded to investigate Yuan Qian’er’s ancestry, going back as far as eighteen generations. After cross-referencing multiple sources, they determined that her lineage was indeed connected to Taotie, though the exact nature of the relationship could not be traced.
By the time of Yuan Qian’er’s great-great-grandmother’s generation, the Taotie blood in her veins had already become extremely diluted—indistinguishable from an ordinary person. Aside from a faint sensitivity to non-human creatures, there was nothing unusual about her. She had blended completely into the masses.
But then came Yuan Qian’er. The bloodline had strengthened, exhibiting atavism. A stomach that could never be filled. An insatiable appetite.
Since she wasn’t an ordinary human, YCG decided to simply bring her in for a conversation.
True to her divine beast bloodline, when Yuan Qian’er suddenly learned that another world existed beyond everyday life, she was only briefly surprised before accepting it.
YCG didn’t give her a hard time. They just asked a few simple questions to confirm their concerns.
As it turned out, on the night she got drunk, Yuan Qian’er had been drawn by her bloodline and accidentally wandered into Luoyang City on her way home. Because of that very bloodline, she had crossed between the human and demon realms effortlessly, without alerting a single person or demon.
At the time, seeing the strange sights before her, the intoxicated Yuan Qian’er had no idea she had encountered something supernatural. She thought she was dreaming.
When asked about it again, Yuan Qian’er finally realized it hadn’t been a dream. “That explains it! I remember waking up the next day feeling so satisfied—like I was half-full. I thought it was just my imagination, but I really did eat.”
But her situation was unique. Despite carrying Taotie blood, aside from her extraordinary appetite, she had no other non-human traits. She couldn’t be classified as an ordinary human, but she wasn’t a demon either. And she was already the most famous competitive eating queen—they couldn’t just tell her to give up her career, could they? You can’t stop a child from eating!
So after assessment, YCG’s proposed solution was simple: non-intervention.
With just one condition. To avoid affecting human medical research and other scientific progress, all of Yuan Qian’er’s future medical checkups and treatments had to be conducted at Dongzhou Field Hospital. She could not accept any invitations for private research studies.
As for participating in eating competitions—that was fine. But she absolutely could not allow anyone to study her body.
And because of her unique identity, her memories of the demon realm were not erased.
But Yuan Qian’er herself raised a concern: “When I compete, it’s too unfair to others… but I also want to feel full, so… are there any competitions like that mooncake-eating contest?”
She was an honest kid. If it was unfair to humans, then competing against demons would be fine, right?
…
That turned out to be a good solution. Soon, Yuan Qian’er was granted the right to enter and exit the demon realm under protection and participate in various demon realm competitions.
The head of the Operations Department no longer had to worry about major cross-realm security issues. The newly appointed enforcement team in Luoyang City didn’t have to clean up their predecessors’ messes. It was a happy ending for nearly everyone.
The only casualty was Lan Bao. “Why?! After she was gone, I won several championships in a row! What am I supposed to do now that she’s back?!”
Ye Yang wanted to comfort him, but he couldn’t find any comforting words. In the end, he could only pat him on the shoulder. Sorry, buddy, but when you really think about it, didn’t you bring this on yourself?
—
The next morning, Ye Yang washed up and ran next door. He took a big sip of the freshly made strawberry milkshake, devoured an entire giant cheese egg burger, and leaned back contentedly in the dining chair, patting his stomach.
On the dining table still sat the bouquet of ranunculus that Ye Yang had given Shen Ming. Days had passed, yet the flowers continued to bloom brilliantly—clearly well cared for.
Seeing how much Shen Ming liked them, Ye Yang made a mental note to give him another bouquet next time.
Shen Ming poured a cup of hot tea and asked, “So, you spent all that time and effort searching for a fissure that doesn’t exist?”
“Yep.” Ye Yang stirred his milkshake and asked somewhat curiously, “Why do you sound even more unhappy about it than I am, Professor Shen? The bonus was pretty generous. It wasn’t a waste of time.”
Shen Ming choked. After a long pause, he said, “…I’m not unhappy.” Like hell he wasn’t!
“It’s just that the movie you wanted to see is no longer showing.” So, shall we pick another one?
Ye Yang smiled, his eyes curving into crescents. “Ah, so that’s why. It’s not like I really wanted to see it that badly. Thank you for thinking of me, Professor Shen.”
“Honestly, for me, it’s more about the person I’m watching the movie with. What movie we actually watch doesn’t really matter.”
Shen Ming sucked in a sharp breath. His little sea hare had just casually dropped a line like that out of nowhere!
And what’s worse, he didn’t even realize how ambiguous it sounded. He raised his cup and downed the rest of his milkshake in one go. “Ha! Well, I’m off to work. Bye~”
Shen Ming sat at the dining table for a long time, waiting until the fried egg in front of him had gone cold before it suddenly hit him—Wait! No! I forgot to set a date with Ye Yang for our next movie! Argh, I missed the chance again!
He had been completely spellbound by a single sentence from his little sea hare for that long!
Shen Ming sighed. He picked up the vase from the table. The ranunculus inside had inadvertently been infused with a great deal of divine power, blooming even more brilliantly than the day Ye Yang had given them to Shen Ming.
Ye Yang thought Shen Ming liked ranunculus, but that wasn’t it. It wasn’t that he loved flowers. It was that he treasured Ye Yang’s thoughtfulness.
Whether Ye Yang harbored the same feelings or not, Shen Ming was grateful to have received such a gesture.
As he continued channeling divine power into the flowers, Shen Ming quietly pondered. Maybe going to the movies wasn’t the right choice. Should he find something more romantic? Yan Yungui had said that romance was important too. And speaking of—weren’t they supposed to be on break? What exactly was this “work” Ye Yang was going to today?
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