What a strange twist of fate.
Still, he needed to confirm. Ye Yang asked, “What was the name of that old lady?”
Tu Tu gave a name. Ye Yang remembered it—it was indeed one of the deceased in his investigation files from back then. When the ambulance arrived, they had only found the old woman lying on the floor with a little white dog crouched beside her. They searched the house high and low but couldn’t find who had made the emergency call. In the end, they had no choice but to take the old woman to the hospital. To this day, no one had paid her outstanding medical bills.
Ye Yang’s gaze toward Tu Tu softened considerably. Regardless of anything else, Tu Tu had genuinely helped that old woman.
Shen Ming’s attitude also cooled slightly. “If you look at it that way, he could be considered a victim of the cult as well?”
Ye Yang joked, “Should I apply for victim relief funds for him?”
Shen Ming looked up at him. “You might actually need to.”
Ye Yang: “?”
…
Half an hour later, clutching his newly acquired phone and subsidy, Tu Tu lay motionless on a specially made oversized hospital bed, not daring to move as Li Chanyi flipped him over and examined him thoroughly.
“A very healthy puppy. This wound looks nasty, but it’s not very deep. Should be fixed up soon.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“But he probably can’t go back after this. He’ll likely need to be handed over to internal affairs.”
“I know. That’s only right. I’ll just have a word with Chi Lian.”
Ye Yang and Li Chanyi settled Tu Tu’s future back and forth like that, completely ignoring Tu Tu’s protests.
There was no way around it. Tu Tu couldn’t just stay cluelessly at the company or Ye Yang’s place—he was still a hou, after all. And frankly, YCG was a better destination for him anyway.
After they’d discussed it and reported the situation to Director Tu’s Department for the Management of Inter-Realm Relations, Li Chanyi suddenly thought of a question.
He studied the listless, dejected Tu Tu, sprawled out, and carefully asked, “What’s your relationship with the Golden-Haired Hou?”
Ever since joining YCG, Li Chanyi had become particularly interested in various myths and legends. He had read many books and even followed Ye Yang to his company to “see” Xing Tian and Suanni…
As soon as he heard that Tu Tu was a hou, he immediately thought of the Golden-Haired Hou from Journey to the West—Guanyin’s mount!
The legendary Golden-Haired Hou was a fierce dragon prince who also enjoyed eating humans, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, the Golden-Haired Hou and Boss Long (the Suanni) were considered brothers. So did that mean Tu Tu…?
“No, no, no. I’m just an ordinary hou—no, even less than ordinary. How would I dare compare myself to that one!” Tu Tu denied it repeatedly.
Before leaving, Ye Yang said, “One last question. Where did the money come from when you bought snacks last time?” Who even carried cash anymore? At the time, he’d been too stunned to ask.
“It… it was from that big crow…” Tu Tu looked even guiltier.
Ye Yang was speechless. He remembered now—Sister Wu, being a large crow, had the same bad habit as Little Crow: she loved all kinds of shiny, colorful things. Banknotes suited her aesthetic perfectly. That’s why you could always find some cash in every drawer of the desks in the lobby where she kept her things. Sister Wu collected so much stuff that she probably hadn’t even noticed the missing money.
Well, he’d have Chi Lian pay her back.
·
Ye Yang persistently kept posting threads, frequently updating Little Parrot’s progress in learning to talk. Finally, someone showed interest in adopting the little bird.
After vetting the person, Ye Yang found that they already kept budgerigars at home and took good care of them. Only then did he feel at ease sending Little Parrot off.
Collapsing onto the sofa, enjoying the long-lost peace and quiet, Ye Yang let out a comfortable, long sigh. “Finally gone.”
Little Crow: “Caw.” His tone held no trace of reluctance—only the relief of being rid of a burden.
Only Shen Ming felt a little regretful. The room he had prepared for Ye Yang ultimately went unused.
The next day at the company, everyone already knew that Tu Tu was a hou.
Chi Lian was the least willing to believe it. “This is playing with my feelings!” He kept his head buried in his own coiled tail, refusing to face reality.
Who knew that just yesterday, he had still been daydreaming about moving out of the dorm and living happily with a dog?
Xing Tian and Boss Long were relatively unfazed. A bit surprised, perhaps, but they didn’t see it as a big deal. Just a hou whose natural talent was geared toward concealment.
After hearing the story, Boss Long simply returned to his office.
Grey was a bit angry—mostly at himself. Sure, he often hung around the flower bed downstairs, but he’d always taken his responsibilities seriously. Having a hou disguise itself as a dog—his most hated animal—and sneak into the company was an absolute humiliation!
Ye Yang couldn’t find any comforting words to say. He looked around and asked, “By the way, where’s Sister Wu?”
No sooner had he spoken than Sister Wu came through the company’s front door, dragging a large burlap sack behind her.
“Oh, everyone’s here? Come quick, come see what I caught!”
Excitedly, she shut the front door and herded everyone into the conference room, even locking the door behind them.
Chi Lian, still wallowing in sorrow, was kicked to his feet by her and reluctantly followed. “What is it? So mysterious…”
As soon as the burlap sack was opened, a white monkey shot out like a slippery eel. It moved so fast that Ye Yang barely caught a glimpse of it, but Sister Wu was even faster. She reached out and grabbed the monkey by the scruff of its neck.
The white monkey instantly went limp, its slender arms and legs dangling all the way to the floor—clearly having been subdued by Sister Wu many times before.
Chi Lian: “What’s this? A monkey?”
The creature looked somewhat like a monkey but not quite. Its white fur was streaked with black stripes, and its two ears were strikingly white. Ye Yang guessed, “It looks a lot like a xingxing [a mythical ape].”
“Heh heh, bingo—it’s a xingxing. This one’s wild. I caught it. Want to eat it together? They say eating one lets you walk with superhuman speed. I’ve never tried it myself, hahaha.”
Grey perked up with interest. “The speed part doesn’t matter. How does it taste? What’s the meat like?”
Xing Tian stroked his chin, intrigued. “Should be pretty good. Quite a few people loved eating them back in the day.”
“…The meat…” Boss Long had appeared from his office at some point. His expression and demeanor were as calm and serene as ever, but the predatory gleam in his eyes was unmistakable.
The xingxing was terrified and immediately abandoned its pretense of being an ordinary monkey that couldn’t speak. It struggled and yelled, “Rumors! Those are all rumors!”
“Tell me, who on a full stomach can’t walk fast? That guy couldn’t walk because he was starving, not because his legs were broken!”
Xing Tian continued stroking his chin, teasing further. “Is that so? But I heard that even people on their deathbed, after eating xingxing meat, can stand up and walk like the wind.”
“Misinformation! All of it!” The xingxing was scared out of its wits. “Fast walking, fast walking—show me a normal person who can’t walk fast! They’re just coveting my tender meat. The truth is, sick people won’t suddenly regain full mobility after eating me. Really!”
Sister Wu couldn’t watch anymore. “Alright, enough messing around. Didn’t expect it to be an enlightened one. What a shame—I really wanted to eat it.”
Boss Long, however, said, “Would an enlightened one be even more effective?”
“!” The xingxing’s entire body went stiff.
Ye Yang couldn’t bear to watch. He quickly tried to comfort it. “Don’t worry. They’re just joking. We don’t eat enlightened demon-kind.”
To his surprise, the xingxing wasn’t grateful at all. Instead, it shot Ye Yang a scornful sideways glance. “What do you mean, ‘demon-kind,’ you hick? I’m a spiritual creature.”
Ye Yang was speechless for a few seconds, then looked up at the supervisor. “It’s so plump. Just enough for all of us to share. Should I go home and grab a pot?”
The xingxing couldn’t believe it. “Y-you…”
“Bahahaha!” Sister Wu nearly died laughing. It took her a long time to stop, and she wiped away a tear. “Alright, enough fooling around. I’ll take him to YCG later.”
…
This xingxing had also fled from the demon realm to escape the ongoing wars between other demon clans. After returning, Sister Wu remarked, “First Tu Tu, now a xingxing. Things have been unstable in the demon realm lately.”
After everyone dispersed back to work, Ye Yang thought for a moment and contacted Little Thirteen.
Little Thirteen had finally returned to his people’s new territory the year before, throwing himself wholeheartedly into rebuilding it. He was so busy that his head was spinning, and he had been in less frequent contact with Ye Yang. But their friendship was still strong.
Upon receiving Ye Yang’s greeting, Little Thirteen couldn’t help but send several long voice messages, venting his frustrations.
His otter clan and a few other races had become enemies because of the previous blockade incident. Now that they were separated and no longer in the same area, those other races still occasionally made sneaky moves to cause trouble.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. The biggest problem was that their territory bordered the Underground Floating City.
The Underground Floating City was the demon realm’s black market—most of the city was underground. With the recent chaos and warfare among many demon cities, all kinds of factions had been moving in and out of the Underground Floating City more frequently. The people coming and going were mixed, and it was greatly affecting the otter clan.
“Sigh, really. Lately, our patrolling clan members often come back injured. The demon realm’s rules don’t restrain those people at all. Besides demons, spiritual creatures, and humans, there are also beings we can’t even identify—none of them have any regard for reason.”
Ye Yang mentioned Tu Tu and the xingxing. Little Thirteen wasn’t surprised at all. “Lots of lesser demons have fled. Those still in the demon realm are either like me—with too much invested to leave—or simply have no way to get to the human realm.”
“YCG has been taking in a lot of demons lately. How come you didn’t know? You’re at YCG!”
Ye Yang really didn’t know.
“The fighting is practically turning the world upside down, and you don’t know a thing?” Little Thirteen pretended to complain, then couldn’t help venting further. “This is when you really see things clearly. What’s wrong with YCG? They have so many powerful beings, yet not one of them lifts a finger!”
If YCG’s powerful beings heard that, they would probably be just as frustrated. What could they do? They couldn’t just interfere in the affairs of demon cities.
“Lan Bao ran off to who-knows-where near the Western Mountains for some reason, but recently she went to the zoo to join Huan Huan. I hear she’s doing pretty well.”
“Xiao Fan is now in Wumeng Sea. With Teacher Yu there, it’s very safe.”
Little Thirteen was well-informed about the situation of several friends. Ye Yang grew even more worried. “What about you? Do you need any help?”
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