“Want to head to the cafeteria together later?” As the last morning class ended, Li Chanyi asked Ye Yang as usual. Unsurprisingly, the answer was the same as always.
Ye Yang: “No, I’ve got some things to do. You guys go ahead and eat.”
Li Chanyi rubbed his chin, a little worried. “You can’t just keep skipping lunch. If something’s wrong, you can tell me.”
Ye Yang shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”
Li Chanyi nodded and didn’t press further, though his concern only deepened.
Ye Yang didn’t dwell on it and hurried off.
He went back to the little crow’s park.
It had been a long time since the little crow left without saying goodbye, and it had never reappeared. As the weather grew colder, the crows in the park had noticeably dwindled. After lingering for half an hour, Ye Yang sighed and returned to his dorm.
·
“Little brother, you’re finally back! Another minute later and we would’ve been done for!”
No sooner had Ye Yang stepped into the dorm than Qin Zhi, the second oldest, scooped him up and spun him around several times.
Caught off guard, Ye Yang lost a shoe, which flew across the room and landed squarely on the desk of Shen Xiuyun, the oldest. Qin Zhi quickly set Ye Yang down. “Oh man, sorry, sorry~”
Shen Xiuyun’s temple twitched violently, but he swallowed the curse and simply handed Ye Yang’s shoe back.
His uncharacteristic restraint startled Qin Zhi, who scratched his head and asked cautiously, “You okay, boss?”
Ye Yang watched his shoe warp in Shen Xiuyun’s grip and silently took two steps back.
Shen Xiuyun shut his eyes and rolled them hard. “Alright, let’s get to the point.”
“Ye Ye, keep an eye on your classmate, Li Chanyi.”
“What about him?”
Qin Zhi: “He’s been coming by our dorm every single day.”
Ye Yang had already explained his recent absences in the dorm group chat with the excuse of going back to his hometown to handle paperwork—the same thing he’d told Li Chanyi.
So he was genuinely confused. “Why is Li Chanyi coming here?”
Zhuang Li took a sip of coffee and smiled. “He’s really worried about you. He’s been coming around asking about you.”
Qin Zhi shuddered at the thought of that guy. “You have no idea. He’s so weird and stubborn—won’t listen to reason!”
The three roommates had taken turns trying to explain things to Li Chanyi, but he always had new questions. First, he’d ask why Ye Yang’s paperwork was taking so long, then why it hadn’t been finished before the semester started.
Logically, since Zhuang Li had already told him they barely knew Ye Yang and weren’t familiar with his situation, a normal person would have stopped bothering them. But Li Chanyi didn’t care. He just instinctively knew the three of them must know something.
And the worst part? His instinct was right.
Annoying as it was, none of them could bring themselves to be harsh with a frail, younger classmate with a congenital condition. So they just endured it and tried to avoid him.
Shen Xiuyun was equally frustrated just thinking about this guy. “We told him ‘we don’t know’ a thousand times, but he was fixated on it. He came every single day for the first three days!”
But they really couldn’t say anything too harsh to Li Chanyi. Partly because the kid was emotionally intelligent and skilled in the art of conversation, and partly because he genuinely cared about Ye Yang.
Zhuang Li’s expression was complicated. After a long pause, he said, “Li Chanyi means well, it’s just… maybe a little too much well-meaning.”
Qin Zhi was more direct. “I think there’s something wrong with how his brain works.” Recalling the conversation he’d had with Li Chanyi still left him speechless.
“Don’t think you can keep me in the dark. I already know, actually. His family isn’t well-off.” Those were Li Chanyi’s exact words. After being brushed off with the same explanation multiple times and getting nowhere, he’d dropped that bombshell and left all three roommates utterly stunned.
Li Chanyi saw Ye Yang as a friend, so of course he wanted to look out for him. That wasn’t a problem in itself. The problem was the kid’s observation skills were just too sharp.
From the very beginning, he’d had suspicions. Ye Yang thought he was hiding it well, but to Li Chanyi, he seemed deeply strange. After some careful analysis, Li Chanyi became convinced—Ye Yang was so poor he couldn’t even afford meals!
Even though Ye Yang never came across as destitute or like he was starving, the more casually he acted, the more Li Chanyi felt he must be struggling financially but was too proud to let anyone see it.
But how could something like that really stay hidden?
He’d noticed long ago: Ye Yang knew nothing about things most people his age took for granted. He seemed never to have read a novel or comic, watched anime, or seen any popular movies or TV shows.
His phone was a mid-range model—neither new nor old—cheap on the secondhand market. And aside from calls and one messaging app everyone used, Ye Yang never seemed to use any other functions. He’d never even played a single game.
His clothes were clean, but he only ever rotated through three outfits. Same with shoes—he had just one pair.
He never ate lunch at the cafeteria, never ordered takeout. He didn’t even have food delivery apps on his phone. Every noon, he’d head out—and where else could he be going if not to a part-time job?
After getting closer to Ye Yang, Li Chanyi even tried to hint at it. He joked, asking Ye Yang if he was a “small-town exam warrior,” a term for hard-working students from underprivileged backgrounds. To his surprise, Ye Yang paused thoughtfully and replied, “I think I’m more of a ‘big-sea exam warrior.’”
This answer left Li Chanyi utterly confused, but it only strengthened his conviction that Ye Yang’s family situation must be quite difficult.
Ye Yang was stunned for a long moment before saying, “But I didn’t notice anything strange about him today at all.”
“That kid is worried about hurting your pride!”
Ye Yang felt both touched and a little ashamed. “Then I should just come clean with him.”
“Don’t.” Zhuang Li immediately stopped him. “What are you going to tell him? You can’t exactly say you’re a demon.”
Shen Xiuyun and Qin Zhi whipped their heads around so fast their eyes nearly popped out. Holy crap! Did the third brother just blurt that out?
Then, almost in unison, they turned to look at Ye Yang. Sure enough, this inexperienced and oblivious young demon had gone completely stiff. Wait—what was he hiding behind his back??
Qin Zhi lunged on instinct and, with a bare-handed sword strike, sent the phone in Ye Yang’s grip flying.
The phone spun five or six times in the air before hitting the ground, the screen displaying the phone number of the captain of YCG Eastzhou Crisis Unit 3, the unit closest to Eastzhou University—Ye Yang had gotten it from Shen Ming.
He’d been just a second away from making that call. How come his reflexes were so fast in a moment like this?
With his phone knocked away, Ye Yang grew even more wary. “All of you know?” As he spoke, he raised his right hand like a knife, apparently ready to solve this the violent way.
Shen Xiuyun practically leaped up and grabbed his arm. “Wait, wait, wait! Let us explain!”
…
“So none of you are ordinary people…” Ye Yang wished he were dreaming.
From their introductions: the oldest, Shen Xiuyun, was YCG reserve personnel. Born with yin-yang eyes, he’d been scouted by YCG long ago and studied Daoist magic under Master Yu Shuishui, specializing in formations—which was also why he majored in Religious Culture Communication.
The second oldest, Qin Zhi, came from a lineage of sword cultivators. A sports student now in his third year majoring in martial arts. He’d been admitted on a special basis for his outstanding athletic achievements, though his other subjects were strong too. He clearly had the grades for a top-tier university, yet chose Eastzhou University—a good school, certainly among the second tier in the country, but not the absolute best. His enrollment had caused quite a stir back then.
Good grades, good looks—if his emotional intelligence weren’t so appallingly low, he’d at least be a campus heartthrob.
Qin Zhi himself didn’t care about any of that. He only cared about his sword and swordsmanship. “I came here for the reclusive grandmaster. I heard there’s a rogue sword cultivator—a true master—in this ancient city of Eastzhou.”
Ye Yang blurted out, “So did you find him?”
Qin Zhi shrugged casually. “No. But I don’t mind. You can practice swordsmanship anywhere.”
Since their identities were already out in the open, he went ahead and explained what had happened between him and the oldest. “Back then, I sensed unusual activity on Jun Mountain in the Eastzhou suburbs and went there to slay demons. Turned out I ran into one of the oldest’s formations. Total misunderstanding. Both of us got hurt.” And that’s how the bad blood started.
“So… you’re all with YCG…” Ye Yang felt dazed.
“No, just me. The second brother just took a mission.” Shen Xiuyun corrected.
Ye Yang was speechless. What difference did that make? Weren’t you all brought together for a YCG mission??
He turned to look at the third brother, Zhuang Li, with a mixture of fear and hope in his eyes. Surely not all three of them were non-human?
But he forgot—Zhuang Li was the very first person to call out his identity.
Zhuang Li met Ye Yang’s gaze and smiled back.
Yes, even Zhuang Li—the most normal, most human-looking of them all—turned out to be special. More special than the other two, in fact.
He wasn’t even human at all!
He was one-eighth nine-tailed fox. And the traits he’d inherited were bizarre: neither the nine-tailed fox’s famously exceptional looks nor any of its bewitching abilities. Instead, he was saturated with Buddhist nature. If his bloodline weren’t so clearly authentic, his parents might have suspected he’d been switched at birth.
That Buddhist nature was also why he stayed so calm while gaming and could farm experience unnoticed like a ghost.
In present-day China, half-demons like him—those with mixed, impure bloodlines—were just as rare as low-cultivation demons like Ye Yang.
Ye Yang grew even more disoriented. “So being assigned to this particular dorm… it wasn’t a system glitch? It was all arranged?”
“Little Ye Ye, you know your situation is special. Having the Xuanwu God as your mentor should’ve made everything foolproof—” Zhuang Li paused mid-sentence, clearly reminded of what had happened not long ago.
He pretended he hadn’t said anything and continued. “But anyway, there’s nothing wrong with being cautious. Since the three of us happened to be here anyway, YCG just issued a targeted mission—to have us stay close and keep you company.”
Shen Xiuyun added, “This isn’t about surveillance. We’re not restricting your freedom.”
Qin Zhi: “Exactly! You’ve secretly used cleaning spells so many times, and we’ve never once reported you!”
Ye Yang’s pupils trembled. He thought he’d been hiding it so well! How did they even figure it out?
Zhuang Li looked away, his expression one of secondhand embarrassment.
Shen Xiuyun shot Qin Zhi a furious glare. You big leak—why do you have to blurt everything out! He quickly tried to comfort Ye Yang. “It’s fine, it’s fine. We only caught it occasionally. Ordinary people definitely wouldn’t notice.”
Ye Yang’s voice was full of despair. “I didn’t even notice that you’re not ordinary people.”
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