Shen Ming had agreed to become Ye Yang’s mentor. However, according to YCG’s regulations, the arrangement would only be announced after Ye Yang completed all his general education courses. So for now, Ye Yang remained unaware of the news.
Director Tu, however, found out first.
Tu Manli: “Become a mentor to a little demon? Shen Ming actually agreed???” When she received Yubei’s call, her first thought was that Ye Yang had gotten into trouble. Never did she expect to hear such an explosive piece of news.
Though she was human, her main job involved mediating conflicts between humans and demons. She was no stranger to the various great demons, powerful beings, and difficult personalities within YCG.
Among them, Shen Ming was both the most powerful—the Northern God—and one of the most difficult to deal with.
“You actually managed to convince him?!” Tu Manli couldn’t help but ask, unable to believe it.
Yubei smiled smugly and didn’t go into details.
After hanging up, Tu Manli rubbed her chin and pondered for a long time before finally concluding, “Looks like little Ye has some luck on his side after all.”
·
The next morning, it was back to general education classes. Ye Yang attended obediently, diligently memorizing the course material. Following Yubei’s advice, he spent almost the entire morning lying by the pool in human form, taking copious notes.
What he didn’t know was that no one had ever taken notes in the preschool class before him. This directly caused some of his classmates to get distracted instead of listening to the lesson.
Not far behind him, Little Thirteen was daydreaming. As he tried to listen to the lecture, his gaze kept drifting toward Ye Yang—
How had he never noticed before how good-looking Ye Yang’s human form was? That lustrous hair, soft and fluffy—even those few mischievous stray tufts were adorable. It looked so fuzzy and soft, completely different from his own coarse fur or Lan Bao’s. He really, really wanted to touch it!
Aside from him, another pair of eyes—decidedly unfriendly from the very start—kept fixing on Ye Yang from time to time. But Ye Yang was too focused on the lesson to notice.
All morning, Ye Yang was blissfully immersed in the sea of knowledge. But when noon came, he found himself at a bit of a loss.
…
Yubei walked into the classroom and heard a loud growl.
He followed the sound and saw that the classroom was otherwise empty—only Ye Yang’s pool had some ripples on the surface. Walking closer, he spotted a sea hare the size of a thumb floating motionless on the water, looking somewhat dead.
Yubei approached and somehow managed to read a sense of hunger in the tiny sea hare’s beady little eyes.
Thinking burned a lot of energy.
After a moment’s hesitation, he bent down carefully and asked, “Are you… haven’t you eaten yet?”
Ye Yang slowly emerged from the edge of the pool and nodded shyly. “Teacher Yu, I don’t have a meal card…”
Yubei found this very strange. “Why would you need a meal card? Isn’t your lunch always in the…”
He stopped mid-sentence as his gaze landed on the bottom of the pool. He suddenly froze, and a hint of alarm crept into his voice as he blurted out, “??? Your pool is empty!”
The pool had originally been covered with algae—perfect food for Ye Yang. And the algae kept growing. For an ordinary sea hare, it would have been a lifetime supply. Even though Ye Yang’s true form was much larger than a normal sea hare, the algae in this pool should have been enough to last him at least a month.
But now, only the second day—had some classmates deliberately bullied Ye Yang and stolen all his food?
Yubei’s expression gradually grew serious. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that Ye Yang might have eaten the entire pool bare. He assumed something had gone wrong.
Then Ye Yang stammered out something that left him utterly shocked: “It’s been empty since after lunch yesterday…”
Yubei was at a loss for words, his brain practically short-circuiting. “You mean… you finished it all yesterday?? That was supposed to be a month’s worth of lunches…”
Ye Yang froze. Then his entire body flushed crimson, even the tips of his tentacles turning pink. “I-is that so?” So that’s how it was?
Without any frame of reference, Ye Yang had never realized what his appetite was like. Only now did it occur to him that a few hundred years ago, his appetite had indeed been very, very small. But as his cultivation progressed, his appetite had grown larger and larger.
He had thought this was perfectly normal!
Just yesterday, he had even remarked to himself that he’d finally had a full meal after coming ashore…
At that thought, he looked up and saw the undisguised shock on Yubei’s face. Ye Yang felt even more ashamed. How embarrassing! True, as long as he had one full meal, he could go many days without eating—though it wasn’t as comfortable as eating every day, it was bearable. At worst, he could bask in the sun to regain his strength. And to save money, he hadn’t eaten dinner yesterday either…
The more Ye Yang thought about it, the more awkward he felt. He was on the verge of burying himself at the bottom of the pool.
Just then, Yubei finally snapped out of it and resumed his usual gentle expression. “Well, this was our oversight. None of us had ever seen a sea hare demon before, so we didn’t know about your appetite. I’m really sorry. Come on, I’ll take you to eat. I promise this will never happen again.”
There was a hint of laughter in his voice as he spoke, which made Ye Yang feel even more flustered. “No, no, no! I’m the one who eats too much!”
“This is nothing,” Yubei said, waving his hand dismissively. Seeing that Ye Yang was still shrinking by the edge of the pool, he simply scooped him up. “Come on, I’ll take you to the cafeteria.”
Yubei genuinely felt the need to reconsider. The algae at the bottom of the pool looked like a lot, but if you pressed it all together, it might only fill ten large bowls. So what if a demon ate ten bowls of food in one meal?
Besides, Ye Yang’s appetite was astonishing only relative to the size of his true form, which was no bigger than a thumb. Compared to the black bears and Shan Gao in his class, he could only be considered a tiny eater!
After being scooped up, Ye Yang’s perspective suddenly rose dramatically, and he froze, not daring to move. But Yubei used magic to keep his body moist, and his own aquatic aura—so similar to Ye Yang’s—naturally helped Ye Yang relax.
A minute later, Ye Yang had unconsciously sprawled out on Yubei’s hand like a flat sea hare pancake.
But the moment he saw the cafeteria, Ye Yang puffed up into a round ball with a pop!
“Th-this is the cafeteria?” Ye Yang asked in disbelief.
It wasn’t his fault for always being so easily shocked. This cafeteria was truly astonishing. After rounding a corner past an exquisite small Suzhou-style garden landscape, a grand and towering palace complex suddenly appeared before him. The buildings had crimson walls and golden roofs, covering an enormous area. At the largest building in the front, a plaque above the door bore two large characters: “Cafeteria.”
But once inside, the interior was completely at odds with the exterior. Along the north and west walls were rows of transparent windows, while the center was filled with neat rows of stainless steel tables and chairs.
How to describe it? It was like a university cafeteria that was relatively spacious, with wider gaps between tables and slightly fewer people.
Ye Yang immediately spotted his classmates. They were hard to miss—a bunch of animals right in the middle of the crowd were just too conspicuous.
They were in the eastern corner. Yubei led Ye Yang over and placed him right next to the black bear’s bowl. The black bear was too focused on devouring the mountain of meat in front of him to notice Ye Yang’s arrival. Ye Yang craned his neck but still couldn’t see the top of that meat mountain. He instantly felt a deep sense of respect for the black bear.
Soon, Yubei returned with a large basin. For some reason, he himself reeked of the sea.
But Ye Yang’s attention was entirely drawn to what was in the basin—all his favorite types of algae, pressed flat and compact. One look was enough to tell how substantial it was!
That meal, Ye Yang ate until he was full—more than full. He was extremely satisfied.
Even better, Teacher Yu had gotten him a meal card. Like everything else he was enjoying now, it would be billed to him, and he could pay it back once he was capable of earning money. From then on, he could eat at the cafeteria himself—three meals a day, never needing to go hungry again.
·
In the blink of an eye, Ye Yang had been at YCG headquarters for over a week and was gradually getting used to life there.
He had found his purpose. Every day, as soon as he opened his eyes, it was all about eating and learning. Thanks to his rapid progress and his harmless, adorable true form, he quickly became familiar with his classmates.
Little Thirteen, the baby otter, played a huge role in this.
Whenever he had free time, Little Thirteen would run over to Ye Yang. He always had endless topics to talk about, and when he didn’t, he was great at making small talk—like lavishing Ye Yang with extravagant compliments about his appearance, never repeating himself once.
“Ye Ye~ You look so beautiful today~ The moment you walked in, the whole classroom lit up~”
“Ye Ye, why aren’t you talking to me? Hehe, but you look good even when you’re silent. Can I touch your gem-like leaves?”
Little Thirteen cupped his cheeks. “Your little horns are so cute! And they move!”
Ye Yang: “…” What kind of comment was that? If they didn’t move, would they even be tentacles?
Once, Little Thirteen even suddenly whipped out his phone. “Can I take a picture of you?”
At that, Ye Yang finally couldn’t hold back anymore. He blew a bubble and emerged from the water. “How can you bring your phone to class?”
As for phones—essential for navigating human society—Director Tu had already gotten Ye Yang one on the second day after his arrival. Of course, the cost was also added to Ye Yang’s tab.
Phones were just too much fun. Non-humans were even more dependent on them than humans, and every one of the preschool cubs had at least one.
But in principle, phones weren’t allowed in class. After all, there was no situation where an infant demon couldn’t be reached by their parents without a phone.
Little Thirteen was completely unapologetic. “As long as you don’t take it out during class, Teacher Yu doesn’t say anything.” As long as it didn’t threaten the safety of the two realms, Yubei wasn’t too strict. In his words, most of the students were tiny little cubs—converted to human ages, they were still at an age where they couldn’t even control their own bladders and bowels.
He pointed behind some bushes, and when Ye Yang looked closely, he saw that almost every animal had a phone tucked against them! Even Xiao Fan, who had no hands—everyone from bird claws to monkey arms were swiping away furiously.
Before Ye Yang could say anything more, Little Thirteen asked again expectantly, “Can I take your picture? I’m really good at it. I’ll make sure you look absolutely beautiful!”
Ye Yang blew another bubble and dove back into the water—wordless but firm in his refusal.
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