Chapter 8: Zoujiao

After a few days of work at the hotel, Fu Li still hadn’t seen the younger generation cultivator boss of the hotel. However, he did receive quite a few tips. This hotel was a top-grade one and many service staff or security guards had to help customers carry their luggage as part of their service duties. Fu Li had considerable strength and protected the customers’ luggage very well, so he had received numerous tips.

Many customers even specially praised Fu Li in the suggestion book when they left. Thus, despite working for only half a month at the hotel, he was named and rewarded by the lobby manager during the staff meeting.

After the meeting ended, Fu Li faintly heard statements like ‘boy toy’ and ‘bedwarmer’. When he turned around, those people didn’t dare to open their mouths anymore. The manager of the security department came over and patted him on the shoulder, smiling. “Little Fu, little He’s wife is going to give birth. Help him cover his shift tonight.”

The reproduction of a species was a major event; Fu Li agreed without even thinking.

The manager smiled even more happily. As a superior, he was naturally very satisfied with this newcomer who was steadfast, capable, and obedient.

For top-grade hotels like Affinity Moon, checking-in of guests took place twenty-four hours on a daily basis, including the provision of food, beverage, leisure, entertainment and accommodation. Therefore, the employees at this place worked according to a three-shift system in order to ensure the customers could enjoy service of the highest quality at any time.

After night fell, the sky became somewhat gloomy. Fu Li glanced at the sky and told the cleaner auntie who was in a rush to get home, “The weather isn’t very good. Go home earlier, don’t tarry on the way back.”

“Ai, okay,” The cleaner auntie took out a box of sweets from her bag. These were the leftover sweets from the wedding in the hotel today. The customers didn’t want them, so they were distributed to the workers. “Little Fu, eat some sweets and let the happiness rub off on you. Quickly find a girlfriend that’s to your liking.”

“Thank you,” Fu Li didn’t reject her. He took the box of sweets and stuffed it into the pocket of his pants. Then, he went to the front counter and loaned an umbrella, passing it to the cleaner auntie. “Use it on the way back.”

The cleaner auntie didn’t intend to bring it along, but seeing Fu Li insist on it, she felt that she shouldn’t waste the kindness of a young man and thus brought it along.

Midway, the cleaner auntie saw that the nearby supermarket was giving a discount on vegetables and fruits, and thus went in to buy some. She had just walked out of the supermarket when a gale abruptly arose outside. Rain and hail pitter-pattered as it struck the ground chaotically.

This place was only a few hundred meters away from her house. She opened the umbrella Fu Li lent to her, blocked the frightening hail, and brisk walked towards her house.

The her who was anxious to return home didn’t realize that the large hailstones that landed on her umbrella all transformed into rainwater. Neither did the strong winds overturn the seemingly poor-quality umbrella.

The longer the rain went on, the stronger it became. The entire city was immersed in torrential rain. The Affinity Moon hotel was on higher ground, so no rainwater had seeped in for now. But outside, there was a dense mass of gale, sudden claps of thunder, heavy rain, and hail. It was a somewhat frightening sight.

The few ladies at the front counter huddled together and beckoned Fu Li, who was standing at the entrance, to come over and hide from the rain. They were all aware that Fu Li didn’t have high academic qualifications and had come from the countryside, but because he was good-looking and polite, their good opinion of Fu Li wasn’t affected.

“Do you think some almighty figure is undergoing a tribulation?” One of the front counter ladies joked. “This weather is too abnormal.”

“Maybe it’s zoujiao?”

“What’s zoujiao?” The front-counter ladies were all young and had a strong sense of curiosity.

“Jiao who want to transform into dragons will attract thunder and rain. Then, he will find a fated person by the road to confer him a title by asking him if there are dragons or snakes in the waters,” Fu Li observed that the ladies seemed to be very interested in this, so he continued. “If the fated person answers snake, then the Jiao will fail to transform into a dragon. If the fated person answers dragon, then the Jiao will be able to soar into the skies as a dragon.”

“What about the fated person then?” The front-counter ladies grew even more interested. “Will Jiao who become dragons repay the act of kindness?”

“A kind Jiao turned dragon will naturally repay the debt of gratitude, but if it’s an evil Jiao…” Fu Li suddenly stopped.

“What will happen?” The front-counter ladies continued to ask.

“The fated person will be eaten, concluding the circle of cause and effect.”

The revolving door was pushed open, and a man wearing a black top and pants walked in with large strides, soaked from head to toe. His gaze swept across Fu Li and the rest. “The rain is very heavy, I’ll book a room.”

The front-counter ladies took the identification card he handed over and started on the accommodation procedures. The black-shirt man looked at Fu Li and teased, “The rain today is so heavy, could a dragon have soared into the skies?”

“There are no dragons,” Fu Li looked at the man with a calm expression and glanced at the thunder and lightning that flickered unceasingly outside. “This is a scientific society. All myths are scams.”

The black-shirt man was originally smiling very cheerfully, but the next moment, his complexion darkened. He snatched back the identification card from the front-counter lady, his pitch-black eyes staring fixedly at Fu Li. He turned around and left.

The front-counter ladies were very puzzled by this change. Wasn’t he going to stay in the hotel? Why was he still running outside when there was such heavy rain?

“Maybe he forgot to bring his wallet,” Fu Li stood up and picked up the mop at the corner, mopping the wet footprints the customer had left behind till there wasn’t a single speck of dust left.

The rainstorm continued for an entire night. When Fu Li got off work in the morning, the rain still hadn’t stopped. The rented house he lived in was quite a distance away; he still had to walk for another twenty to thirty minutes after taking public transport.

Practically no one would walk along a narrow alley when there was heavy rain in the morning. Fu Li wasn’t the least bit surprised when he saw the man in black clothes standing in the alley.

The man’s face was filled with anxiety. Staring at Fu Li, he repeated, “The rain today is so heavy, a dragon must have soared into the skies.”

“No,” Fu Li was a principled yao. If he said there wasn’t, then there wasn’t.

A gale rose immediately, producing dreadful whistling sounds in the alley.

The man’s eyes turned red and a frightening black-veined pattern appeared on his face. “I’m going to eat you.”

He had cultivated for a thousand years and consumed countless virgin girls and boys in his early years for the sake of becoming a Jiao. All his days were spent hiding from monks and Taoist priests, yet all of it had been ruined by this one human. Once he failed to become a dragon, he would need to cultivate for a few more centuries. Who knew whether he would lose his life to a human cultivator in this several hundred years?

The yao transformed into a black Jiao and moved to attack him, prompting Fu Li to stretch out his umbrella to block it.

He was the least fond of this sort of furless animal whose entire body was smooth and cold. Just a few glances at it was enough for goosebumps to rise on his skin.

The occurrence of a yao who transformed into his form and started creating havoc caused anxiety to form in the hearts of all the yao in the city. The cultivators’ management bureau had rushed around for an entire night. They hadn’t even had the chance to pant a few times when they realized that the flickers of thunder and lightning in the western part of the city had already exceeded the scope of natural phenomena.

“This is bad, a yao’s zoujiao failed and it’s having difficulty calming down its fury. It’s about to commit evil,” Xu Yuan put her fingers together and calculated. Pulling open the window, she jumped down from the fourth floor.

In the alley, Fu Li held up the umbrella, not a single raindrop on his body. The black Jiao transformed back into his human form, a bruise on its forehead. There was a few meters’ distance between the two people. Nobody moved.

“So you’re also a yao. Since we’re both yao, why didn’t you lend me a helping hand?” Fury filled the black Jiao’s eyes.

“Why should I help you?” Fu Li was bewildered. Transforming into a dragon through zoujiao was inherently an opportunity given by heavenly law. This human-eating evil Jiao had identified him as his fated person and failed to be conferred a title, meaning that heavenly law was unwilling to help him. “You used human flesh and other little yao as food. There is no chance for you to become a dragon.”

“That was hundreds of years ago!” The black Jiao wasn’t resigned to this outcome. “Even if I didn’t eat those people, they would have died very early on. The yao world has always been about the survival of the fittest. They deserve to be eaten by me.”

Since the founding of the nation, he had never again eaten any humans. For what reason should all that boring old stuff from his early years be investigated?

“Heavenly law is just. It will not erase the things you have committed in the past just because it happened a long time ago,” Fu Li looked up at the continuously roiling black clouds in the sky. “Leave, you won’t become a dragon.”

If he still didn’t leave, all the buns at his favorite steamed bun stall would sell out.

“Ignorant yao, don’t spout rubbish,” The black Jiao could no longer hold back his rage and wild nature. “I will eat you.”

Fu Li sighed. “I really can’t understand all you city yao. In the past, you would kill yao for saying one sentence that you disagree with. Now, if you can’t come to an agreement within a few sentences, you still want to eat yao. Are you trying to bully us countryside yao for not having seen the world?”

Fu Li believed that he was good-tempered and reasonable. However, he disliked others bullying him without any cause or reason.

Countryside yao had their limits and face too.

Xu Yuan’s driving skills were quite good. But no matter how good her driving skills were, she couldn’t contend with the traffic congestion in the capital. The situation at the western part of the city was changing by the minute. Stricken with anxiety, she hated that she couldn’t step onto her flying sword and directly fly over.

“It’s no use being anxious,” Zhang Ke advised. “Xu jie, the capital is the land where national fate prospers. Moreover, it is overseen by a golden dragon. That evil Jiao shouldn’t have enough guts to come out and create a ruckus.”

“I’m scared that he failed at obtaining his title and vented by killing the fated person,” Xu Yuan looked back at the silent Zhuang Qing seated at the back. “Boss, what should we do now?”

Zhuang Qing looked at the skies over the western area of the city. The yao qi there was overflowing, and black clouds were roiling, as if a sudden clap of thunder could arise at any point in time. He took out his handphone and called the local police station in charge of public security at the western areas of the city.

“Little Peng,” The chief walked out and spoke to Peng Hang, who was drinking soy milk and eating steamed buns. “Bring a team to search through all the alleys immediately. The masses have reported a suspected murderer there.”

“Murderer?” Peng Hang stuffed the remaining half bun into his mouth and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Chief, are you joking with me?”

The masses now could even tell using their naked eyes which passerby was a murderer? Most importantly, their station didn’t seem to have taken on any huge case recently?

“Don’t talk so much rubbish, quickly go over and take a look,” The chief couldn’t say that it was a call from national security, so he could only let the masses shoulder the pot. Anyway, the masses comprised of so many people, who would know which person it was?

Peng Hang and his colleagues went to multiple places without finding the supposed murderer. Although along the way, they did encounter two men and a woman with stern expressions who were racing towards a certain alley. After thinking about it, he and his colleagues went over as well.

A young man carrying an umbrella stood in the alley, a black snake as thick as the rim of a bowl lying beside his feet. It wasn’t clear if the snake was dead or injured; it lay in a puddle of rainwater motionlessly.

The young man noticed their appearance and pointed at the snake. “There’s an injured python here, does it need to be sent to the zoo?”

Peng Hang propped himself up against the wall. F*ck, wasn’t this the stinky brat that scammed someone using fake medicine?