Ye Yang didn’t even have time to take off his shoes. He rushed straight to the window, tossing his half-eaten pancake onto the dining table along the way.
He opened the window and extended his sensory perception to its fullest. Immediately, he sensed the little crow’s familiar yet extremely faint aura.
The aura had weakened to the very brink. The little crow’s body showed no signs of movement, and Ye Yang almost missed it.
He quickly scooped up the dying, ice-cold little crow, cradled it in his hands, and brought it inside, placing it on the dining table. Brushing away the snow, he was shocked to discover a massive, gaping wound that had nearly split the little crow in two. The blood was still fresh.
Dried, dark crimson blood was still splattered on the air conditioning unit outside. It was hard to imagine how the little crow had managed to fly all the way here with such severe injuries.
In just that short moment, the crow’s aura weakened even further. There was no time to treat the wound properly. Without overthinking it, Ye Yang placed one hand directly on the little crow’s head and began channeling his unique mystical energy.
There hadn’t been much sun lately, and with the extreme cold keeping him indoors, Ye Yang hadn’t stored up much energy. The little crow’s injuries were severe, and Ye Yang, fearing he wouldn’t be able to save it, poured out all his power.
A few seconds after the energy channel opened, the special energy suddenly began to flow slowly into the little crow’s body on its own. Startled, Ye Yang instinctively moved to pull his hand back, but the little crow let out a very pained cry.
Ye Yang hesitated. He carefully sensed the flow of energy and didn’t notice anything wrong, but the little crow’s condition had indeed improved considerably. Its heartbeat had returned.
He had too little experience using his innate ability to heal others and didn’t know if this was normal, but saving the crow was the priority. He’d set everything else aside for now.
As waves of energy and demonic power flowed in, the little crow’s body temperature gradually rose, and its heartbeat grew stronger. But it still didn’t wake up.
Because Ye Yang’s energy could only stimulate potential—it couldn’t truly heal injuries. If the little crow didn’t wake up and regain consciousness, even if it recovered temporarily, as soon as Ye Yang’s energy stopped, its condition would rapidly deteriorate. Worse, since its physical potential had been overdrawn, it might die even faster.
Minute by minute passed. Ye Yang’s energy was almost completely depleted, and he could barely maintain the flow. Suddenly, some black blood sprayed out of the little crow’s wound.
This black blood resembled oil, shimmering with an ominous luster. Accompanying it was a foul stench, along with a vaguely familiar aura… It seemed like, it seemed like… how could it resemble Shen Ming’s?!
Actually, it both resembled him and didn’t.
Ye Yang frowned deeply. After the black blood, some fresh blood began to flow out. He immediately reached out his other hand, trying to apply pressure to the wound.
If it lost too much blood, it would be too late to save it.
The instant his hand touched the wound, a tremendous suction force suddenly struck. Not only his energy, but all the demonic power in his body went out of control, surging like a flood into the little crow’s body. The little crow let out a loud, agonized scream.
As for Ye Yang, he couldn’t even cry out.
Just before losing consciousness, a red shadow seemed to flash before his eyes—something like a dog, and yet also like a fox.
·
When Ye Yang woke up again, he was in his own bed.
The curtains were tightly drawn, the blanket was properly tucked around him, and he was wearing his pajamas.
Ye Yang felt dazed. Had what happened earlier been a dream?
He reached for the bedside table. No, his phone wasn’t there.
He immediately ran out of the room. Outside, it had already turned dark, and the living room was pitch black. He turned on the overhead light. His phone was on the dining table, with a note pressed underneath it.
“You passed out. When you wake up, remember to eat something substantial. The pancake is in the fridge. The bird is in the box.”
Signed, Shen Ming.
“So it wasn’t a dream… Teacher Shen saved me?” Ye Yang muttered to himself. His mind was still a bit foggy from just waking up. He checked his phone and saw that an entire day had passed.
“A box? What box?”
The little crow’s scent was everywhere in the apartment. Ye Yang wandered around and finally discovered a cardboard box in the kitchen that he hadn’t seen before.
The box was neatly sealed with tape and completely silent. Had it died after all?!
He poked the box. Immediately, loud, shrill cawing and the sound of flapping wings came from inside. Ye Yang quickly sliced through the tape. The little crow burst out, nearly flying right into Ye Yang’s face.
It was so lively and energetic that it was practically a different bird from before. Ye Yang sighed in relief. It seemed Teacher Shen had saved not only him but also the little crow. What a relief.
However, the little crow’s mood might have been a different story.
Ye Yang had no idea what Shen Ming had done to it. The moment the little crow came out, it first did something unprecedented—it rubbed against Ye Yang’s finger in gratitude. Then it flew to the front door and started screeching wildly in the direction of Shen Ming’s apartment.
“Wah wah wah caw caw—wah wah—” Its tone was extremely agitated, and its voice was very shrill. In short, it was very fierce.
Although Ye Yang didn’t speak bird, he somehow vaguely understood what the little crow was cursing about…
He tried to stop it but failed, so he gave up. Whatever. First things first—time to fill his stomach.
He had used up too much demonic power, and he was now starving to the point of stomach pain. Fortunately, there were still some frozen foods in the fridge, along with the pancake he’d only taken one bite of that morning.
The little crow must have been starving too. As soon as it caught the scent wafting from the microwave, it forgot all about cursing and fluttered down onto the dining table with lightning speed. In one quick, precise strike, it pecked at the egg-filled pancake Ye Yang had just taken out.
“!!!”
“Careful, it’s hot—”
The little crow was too fast. Ye Yang’s warning had barely left his mouth when the crow was already bouncing wildly on the table, head thrown back—not because it was hot, but because it had just tasted the most delicious thing it had ever eaten in its life.
After a few bounces, it quickly lowered its head and started chowing down furiously, not looking up again.
Ye Yang’s heart had leaped into his throat, but now it slowly settled back down.
“Oh right, crows aren’t afraid of hot things… Hey, hey, don’t eat it all!”
After both man and bird had eaten and drunk their fill, they lounged comfortably on the sofa. Ye Yang had already checked—the little crow’s wound was nearly healed, and its feathers had even grown back.
“As expected of Teacher Shen. This little injury will be fully better in a few days, right?”
He applied some iodine to the little crow, and only after confirming there were no issues did he finally check on his own body.
Looking inward, aside from his demonic power and innate energy being so depleted that his limbs felt a bit weak, there were no other problems.
That should be fine now, right?
But he was still troubled. What exactly had caused the anomaly when he was channeling energy into the little crow? What was that familiar yet unfamiliar aura at the wound? And that red, fox-like shadow…
He couldn’t just ignore any of these things.
“Do you remember how you got hurt?” Ye Yang suddenly turned and asked the little crow.
The little crow tilted its head, clearly not understanding.
Ye Yang pointed at its wound and repeated the question. The little crow suddenly seemed to remember something. It flew up immediately, rushed to the front door, and resumed its “chirp chirp caw caw” cursing.
Good food really made a difference—its yelling was now full of vigor.
Ye Yang: “…”
He was being foolish. Although it was smarter than other birds, it was still just a little crow. How could it understand him?
It seemed he wouldn’t find out why the little crow had suddenly disappeared before.
“It’s okay. The important thing is that you’re safe now.”
Unable to get any answers, Ye Yang let his mind go blank and digested his dinner for a while. Then something suddenly occurred to him: “Wait a minute… isn’t Teacher Shen supposed to be hibernating?”
“Could he have come over specifically because he heard the little crow’s cries?” Ye Yang felt terribly guilty. Why did he keep causing trouble for others? “Mm… he probably went back to sleep. This is already the second time. I can’t disturb him again. I’ll just wait until he wakes up.”
That wait ended up lasting all the way until after the new semester began.
·
After saving the little crow, Ye Yang let it stay at home for three days.
He had initially wanted to shoo it away directly. Not because Ye Yang was heartless, but because the temperature had been rising rapidly over the past two days, and the little crow could easily live outside normally.
More importantly, the little crow’s species was the jackdaw—a protected wildlife species. It was illegal to keep one!
And it was absolutely not because the bird had brazenly taken over Ye Yang’s windowsill, preventing him from opening the window for ventilation during the day and forcing him to sleep in the cold wind at night…
But strangely enough, despite eating and drinking heartily every day and living quite comfortably, the little crow’s wound wasn’t healing well. After three days, there seemed to be no change at all.
On the fourth day, Ye Yang took the little crow to the hospital where he had stayed before.
As it happened, Wu Rong was there. She took one look at the little crow’s wound and said, “Go find Yu Bei. I can’t do anything about this injury.”
Ye Yang was shocked. “It’s that serious?! Even you can’t handle it?”
The little crow jumped from the top of Ye Yang’s head into his arms and curled itself into a tiny ball.
Wu Rong’s round, cute little face turned serious, her expression grave. “It’s not serious, but it is serious.”
…
Only after arriving at Yu Bei’s place did Ye Yang understand what Wu Rong had meant.
Yu Bei examined both the little crow and Ye Yang and concluded that Shen Ming had likely used his divine power to treat them. This might have extended Shen Ming’s hibernation a little, but it wasn’t a big problem.
Ye Yang was completely normal now. As for the little crow, it had probably just been unlucky—caught in the crossfire of a fight between other demons. After all, who would pay attention to an ant passing underfoot when rushing somewhere?
Yu Bei: “What can be confirmed is that this injury was caused by a demon, but I can’t get any more specific information than that.”
Ye Yang quickly asked, “I saw a red shadow right before I passed out. Could it be related to the demon that injured the little crow?”
“Possibly. I found a force in the wound. This force continuously damages the bird. So even though Shen Ming treated it, it hasn’t fully healed yet—because the wound keeps suffering from this invisible harm.”
Ye Yang gasped. Yu Bei continued, “Don’t worry. There’s not much of this residual force. It will dissipate on its own after some time, and then the wound will heal. No need to be too concerned.”
Ye Yang let out that breath.
After thanking Yu Bei, he took the little crow home. Looks like they’d have to keep living together for a while longer.
After Ye Yang left, Yu Bei fell into deep thought.
The little bird’s injury wasn’t the real concern. It was another issue entirely.
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