Chapter 42: Red String

Though the Kunpeng had some dislike of Chu Yu, he gave up on eating the fish after finding out that he was friends with Fu Li. A little yao who couldn’t even maintain his human form upon seeing him actually dared to recklessly wander about outside. It seemed that the times were indeed different.

“Forget it, forget it. I’ll give you this face,” The Kunpeng didn’t snatch the ugly fish in Fu Li’s hands that dared not even move. “You said you’ll take me to eat mala crayfish the other time, when are we going?”

He had started planning for this upon discovering Fu Li’s qi. However, to not look overly anxious, he had waited in his room for ten minutes before heading up to find Fu Li.

“Let’s go now?” Seeing the Kunpeng nod repeatedly, Fu Li placed Chu Yu into the bathroom sink and even kindly filled half the sink with water for him. “Chu Yu, I’ll bring the Kunpeng out for a meal. You can go out after we leave.”

Chu Yu flapped his tail weakly. Flipping over onto his belly, he allowed himself to float on the water.

After Fu Li and the Kunpeng left, he hastily jumped out of the bathroom sink, changed into his human form, and spat multiple times in succession to get all the water in his mouth out. He usually detested soaking in tap water due to the taste of bleach.

Although it wasn’t yet the peak period for meals, there were already many customers seated in the crayfish shop Fu Li chose. Everyone sat in twos and threes, drinking beer and tucking into crayfish. The humming of the air-conditioner didn’t dispel everyone’s enthusiasm.

The crayfish was served. Not afraid of being scalded, the Kunpeng picked one up and threw it in his mouth before nodding. “The taste is indeed quite good, although it’s a bit too small.” When he went back, he would fish up some large sea prawns and let the humans prepare them the same way.

If he had known that there were so many delicious things in the human world, he wouldn’t have eaten the humans but locked them all up to cook for him.

Several lively youngsters were seated at the table adjacent to theirs. Despite the fact that they were eating crayfish, they were enthusiastically discussing whether abalone and bird’s nest tasted good. In the end, they concluded that the important thing was not the taste, but their inability to afford them.

“Ai, do you still remember the passage in our high school textbook?” A girl took a sip of her drink. “I think that sort of fish might taste good.”

Upon hearing the title , Fu Li instinctively felt that these humans were about to cause trouble.

“You mean the Kunpeng?” A glasses-wearing boy with acne chuckled. “There is a fish in the Northernmost Ocean called the Kun. With the Kun’s enormous size, it can’t be stewed in one pot. When it transforms into a bird, its name is the Peng. Given the Peng’s enormous size, it’ll need two grills – one for the secret recipe, and one for mala. Who knows? It might really be delicious. And there’ll even be enough for many people to eat.”

The Kunpeng who was chewing on crayfish pricked up his ears. What was this??? He didn’t intend on eating humans, yet the humans wanted to take action against him?

The dignity of Kunpeng daren could not be sullied by insignificant humans!

He slapped the table and decided on the spot that he would change into the Peng and swallow these ignorant humans.

“Daren,” Fu Li grabbed the Kunpeng’s arm, bringing his impulse to change into bird form under control. He pointed towards the mostly-consumed crayfish on the table and spoke in a low voice, “It is a minor thing to eat these few ignorant humans, but if it were to get out and cause a ruckus, you would not be able to eat human culinary delicacies in the future. These ignorant humans can only live a hundred years and have never even gotten a glimpse of daren’s formidable figure, which is why they dare to crack such jokes. Considering that the humans invented these culinary delicacies, let it be.”

It was indeed a minor thing to swallow the humans, but since it came with the cost of only being able to eat fishes at the bottom of the sea in the future, the Kunpeng decided there and then that he would be lenient and forgive these ignorant humans. He gave a hmph, “Forget it, I’ll give you this face. Come, another two more plates of crayfish!”

“Sure,” Fu Li beamed and agreed.

Compared to the Zhuyan who didn’t give them any face, the Kunpeng who had already shown him face multiple times became much cuter in Fu Li’s eyes.

Fu Li and the Kunpeng were eating happily on this end. But at the management bureau, Chu Yu literally had to rely on the wall to support himself in order to make it back to the office from the residential area. Seeing that he appeared on the brink of death, the other colleagues thought that he had suffered an attack by an evil yao and helped him in a disordered flurry to a chair.

Old Huang saw Chu Yu’s hands trembling as he held a cup of water and asked with concern, “Old Chu, what happened to you?” What a pitiful appearance, he was so frightened that he hadn’t even withdrawn the scales on his face.

“You might not believe me, but I was nearly swallowed by the Kunpeng just now,” Chu Yu downed the entire glass of water in two shots, resembling a little girl who had just been violated. “The moment he opened his mouth, I thought I was done for.”

“How did you escape?” Everyone was very curious about the Kunpeng. Given Chu Yu’s cultivation, wasn’t he just talking big by saying that he managed to escape from the Kunpeng’s mouth?

“Fu ge snatched me from the edge of the Kunpeng’s mouth,” Chu Yu wanted to cry, but couldn’t produce any tears. “It looks like Boss was right. If we don’t put any effort into cultivating, we won’t even be able to maintain our human forms when our cultivation is suppressed.”

The moment it came out that it was Fu Li who had saved him, everyone instantly abandoned the suspicion that Chu Yu was bragging.

“That scary?” Old Huang shivered. “I live in the residential area, will I bump into him into the future?”

“What do you think?” Chu Yu smiled bitterly. “My experience today is enough to brag about for a millennium.”

“Tsk!” Seeing that Chu Yu still had energy to spout such rubbish, everyone knew that he was all right. Thus, they tossed him to a corner and went back to doing their own things.

“I’ve already split up the areas everyone is in charge of,” Xu Yuan had made a list of the employees conducting the census. “According to regulations, every team should have one newcomer, but the circumstances are a bit different now, so I allocated Song Yu and Fu Li to the same team. Does anyone have any objections?”

Everyone simultaneously shook their heads. What objections could they have? Average people like them couldn’t handle these ancient great yao.

Their one meal of crayfish lasted for nearly two hours. Fu Li and the Kunpeng’s combat ability was so formidable that the boss took a zero off their bill and even enthusiastically asked them to return.

The Kunpeng silently followed after Fu Li. He remained silent even after they had walked a long distance.

Fu Li turned back with some curiosity. “Daren, is anything wrong?”

The Kunpeng stood in the street. There were tall buildings in bizarre shapes, and cars that resembled metal boxes. Pedestrians came and went, their pace hasty. The entire world seemed to be occupied by humans. He lowered his voice and asked, “Our yao race has already fallen to this level?”

The spiritual qi in the world was nearly exhausted and the sky was no longer a clear dark blue. All the humans lived in narrow boxes packed closely together. Distance-wise, they seemed close, but at the same time cold and detached.

Fu Li had lived for more than four thousand years and had little contact with humans. Two thousand years ago, he had not known about the rules of the human world. When the pet he was raising fell ill, he went down the mountain in his original form in search of a physician. In the end, he scared the physician into crying bitterly and begging for forgiveness. Ever since then, he never again revealed his original form to a human. At that time, he had thought that the physician feared his original form. But now, he understood that what humans feared were those who were different from them and yet spoke human language.

He had not personally witnessed the previous majesty of the yao race. Even before that, he had not lived in the human world. His understanding of the yao world came almost entirely from White Ape, who was fond of rambling. His understanding of human culture stemmed from the human pet he had raised for a good many years. Although the human pet didn’t have much fur nor a particularly cute appearance, he was able to tell stories and write, so it was quite interesting.

Because he was ignorant of everything, he could not understand the Kunpeng’s regretful and depressed mood.

“In fact, some humans are very interesting. When daren has stayed in the human world for some time, perhaps daren might come to like living here,” Fu Li didn’t know what he should say, so he could only stand together with the Kunpeng and watch the traffic go by.

“That type of person is also very interesting?” The Kunpeng pointed ahead.

Not too far in the distance, an elderly man with a head full of white hair was putting his all into pedaling a rickshaw. Some fruits were placed at the back of the rickshaw. Taking advantage of the fact that the old man was toiling at pedaling and wasn’t paying attention to the back, two youngsters had secretly stolen two bunches of bananas.

After taking the bananas, they each took one banana and threw the remaining into a rubbish bin. As if pleased with their conduct, they laughed out loud.

Fu Li didn’t reply.

The Kunpeng wanted to mock Fu Li, but saw several youngsters opposite the street rush over. Not only did they help the elderly man push the rickshaw, but they also bought almost all the fruits on the rickshaw. These few youngsters were a little familiar – they were the ignorant humans who had hooted about wanting to eat him.

Seeing this scene, the Kunpeng snorted coldly. He walked to the two youngsters who had stolen the bananas and kicked their lower legs wordlessly.

“F*ck!” The two youngsters who had been kicked climbed up from the ground. “What do you want?”

“I’ll hit you if I want to,” The Kunpeng straightened his tummy. “Don’t you know what you did?”

Seeing the Kunpeng’s ferocious appearance, the two people went off into the distance spitting curses, not daring to get into a real fight with the Kunpeng.

The Kunpeng scolded their backs angrily, “Cowards.”

Fu Li watched the Kunpeng give off the image of a socially principled person and couldn’t help laughing.

In the management bureau, Zhuang Qing’s gaze swept across the common work area. “Where did Fu Li go?”

“Boss, Fu Li brought the Kunpeng out for a meal,” Chu Yu answered softly.

Zhuang Qing nodded. He turned and glanced at Song Yu, who was seated at a corner. “Song Yu, you’ll be in the same team as Fu Li in the future. For work-related things, listen to Fu Li’s orders.”

“Okay,” Song Yu agreed immediately. In his heart, Fu Li had become his boss ever since he sent his feathers flying all over the sky. It was completely right for little brothers to follow what their boss said.

Just as Zhuang Qing finished speaking, Fu Li walked in.

“I’m back,” Fu Li walked in, smelling like mala crayfish. Seeing everyone gaze at him as if he was a hero, he asked doubtfully, “What’s wrong?”

What a majestic yao! He dared to eat at the same table as the Kunpeng!

Huang Can poured a cup of tea for Fu Li. “Fu ge, it’s been hard on you.”

“I do it to… serve the people?” Fu Li held the teacup and replied with confusion.

“Settle down,” Zhuang Qing rapped the table, attracting everyone’s attention. “This year’s cultivation world census will be done in groups led by seniors. This will be beneficial for the newcomers since they can familiarize themselves with the cultivation world. Xu Yuan, give out the name lists.”

Fu Li glanced at the name list. He was in the same team as the Suanyu and Zhang Ke, and they were mainly responsible for noting down the cultivators in the provinces of Sichuan, Nanzhao, and Qian An.

“Everyone can rest tonight and leave tomorrow morning,” Zhuang Qing wasn’t a leader who liked to nag. After allocating the work, he prepared to return to his personal office. In the end, before he left, he received a call from the guard at the entrance saying that a police officer was looking for Fu Li.

Everyone looked towards Fu Li simultaneously. Had he gone out with the Kunpeng and caused some sort of trouble?

Peng Hang looked at the large golden and shiny words ‘Chang Long Biotechnology Limited” and glanced at the youngsters in security uniforms guarding the door. He felt that the youngster called Fu Li had pretty good prospects. He became a security guard after working as physical labor, and then transitioned from being a security guard to an employee at a large company.

“Mr Police Officer, I’ve already contacted our leader. Our company does indeed have an employee named Fu Li. We apologize, please enter,” The security guard opened the electronic door and invited Peng Hang as well as his colleague in.

“Whoa!” The colleague walked through the door and exclaimed in admiration, “This company has such an imposing style. They’re really worthy of being a famous brand within the country.” He was a man, but knew that Chang Long’s makeup and skincare products were very famous. It was said that this company even manufactured clothing, toys, shoes, bags; their products were extremely diverse.

The pretty and polite lady at the front counter invited the two people to drink tea.

A large crystal chandelier hung suspended in the hall. The floor was so bright they could see their reflections. The handrails of the stairs were made entirely out of natural wood, engraved with beautiful carvings. The employees that came and went all had outstanding looks. Standing there, Peng Hang and his colleague suddenly felt that they were the world’s ugliest people.

“Please follow me,” A young woman dressed in a suit led the two people to a guest room on the second floor. She smiled elegantly at them. “Please sit for a moment.”

Her walking posture was extremely attractive, just like a rich, unmarried lady during ancient times who had received a good upbringing. Every frown and smile exuded sophistication. All those supposed ladies in television dramas appeared pretentious in comparison to her.

Peng Hand took another look at the wall, where several scrolls hung. Despite being an uncouth fellow who didn’t understand the arts, he felt that these words were particularly good looking. There was even a certain flavor to them that he couldn’t put into words. Moreover, he didn’t know if it was just his misconception, but he felt that the female employee who had led them in seemed to resemble the court lady in a painting depicting a court lady teasing a cat.

“Sorry, I’ve interrupted you. Please enjoy,” The female employee was carrying a tray with two plates of refreshments and two cups of tea.

The teacups and plates were very pretty. Peng Hang didn’t dare to use too much strength when holding up the teacup, for fear that he would squeeze them too hard and break them. His one month’s worth of salary wouldn’t be enough to pay it off.

“Do the large companies nowadays pay so much attention to quality? They even use such good tableware to serve guests?” After the female employee left, Peng Hang’s colleague spoke softly into his ear, “Captain, do you sense something strange about this place? Like we can’t relax?”

“I heard this Chang Long Biotechnology Company was called Chang Long Cloth Workshop more than a hundred years ago. Though its name is different now, the surname of the person in power has not changed. A big company like this that has been passed down to future generations for more than a hundred years and still stands tall will like to emphasize a bit more on style and culture,” Peng Hang patted his colleague on the shoulder. “When the people of our country emphasize something, they do it even more elegantly than aristocrats outside the country.”

The colleague responded with sudden understanding, “Captain is still more knowledgeable and experienced.”

Peng Hang turned and glanced at the painting of the court lady on the wall, giving two dry coughs.

Fu Li came to the second floor, passed through the barrier, and arrived at the ordinary guest room. After seeing that it was Peng Hang who was seated in the room, he knocked on the door and said, “Good evening, fellow police comrades.”

“Mr Fu, we apologize for disrupting you at this time,” Peng Hang stood up. “Can we talk while seated?”

“Sure,” Fu Li sat down. “May I know what you came to find me for?” He paused for a moment and defended himself, “I didn’t sell fake medicine to anyone.”

“Mr Fu has misunderstood. We came today because your landlord made a police report stating that they picked up the money you lost. They couldn’t contact you, so they hoped that we could get in touch with you,” Peng Hang explained. “We obtained various bits of information before finding out that you’re employed at this place.”

“Mr Fu,” The female employee came in carrying tea and refreshments. She bowed and placed the teacup in front of Fu Li with both hands. “Please enjoy.”

“Thank you,” Fu Li gave a word of thanks.

As if overwhelmed by the favor, the female employee repeatedly uttered ‘no need’ as she lowered her head slightly and retreated, even carefully helping them to close the door.

Peng Hang looked at the shut door and revealed a smile. He said in a teasing tone, “It hasn’t been long since Mr Fu started working, but Mr Fu is already very well liked by his colleagues.” This couldn’t even be termed well liked. In front of Fu Li, that female employee could even be called deferential, as if Fu Li’s identity was very out-of-the-ordinary.

“No.” Fu Li took a sip of tea and said casually, “I have some relations to the higher-ups managing this company, so my colleagues are just giving the leader face.”

Peng Hang’s colleague, “…”

Wasn’t it a bit inappropriate for him to be telling them so blatantly that he had walked through the backdoor?

Peng Hang laughed. “Mr Fu really knows how to crack jokes. Let’s move on to the lost things.” He fished out a wad of cash and placed it in front of Fu Li. “Please count it and check if the amount is correct.”

Fu Li stared at the cash silently. He was very clear in his heart that he hadn’t lost any money.

“What’s wrong?” Peng Hang saw that Fu Li wasn’t moving and thought that the amount wasn’t right. “Did the amount decrease?”

“No,” Fu Li reached out and casually put the money into the pocket of his jacket. He took out a red string and passed it to Peng Hang. “I am very grateful to the landlord for picking up my lost things, this is a thank you gift for her granddaughter. May I request for you to pass it on to her?”

“All right,” Peng Hang took the red string and stood up. “We won’t continue disturbing Mr Fu’s work then. Goodbye.”

“Take care,” Fu Li stood up and sent them off. As they walked from the second floor to the main entrance, the employees took the initiative to greet Fu Li with so much enthusiasm that it bordered on eager attentiveness.

Peng Hang looked at the employees whose hands and heads were lowered and looked again at Fu Li who was sending them off. He felt like he was looking at an idol drama similar to ‘The Frog Who Turns Into A Prince’ in which the main character was Fu Li.

After walking out the door, Peng Hang looked back at Fu Li, who was standing at the entrance. The transparent glass door seemed to represent the two different worlds in which he and Fu Li was in – the area he stood at was the ordinary human society, whereas the place that Fu Li was standing at was a different mysterious world.

“Captain, what are you looking at?” The colleague patted him on the back. “Are you envious of all these people with connections?”

“Envious your ass,” Peng Hang turned around, regaining his wits. “Where should we eat tonight? My treat.”

“Captain is still the best! Completely unlike these rich people who express their gratitude by sending only a single worthless red string. Truly, the wealthier the person, the stingier they are.”

The next day, the colleague who uttered this statement watched the landlord’s entire family carry off the red string given by Fu Li as if it was a treasure, feeling like cracks had appeared in his worldview.