Chapter 107: Any Objections?

When the excited management bureau staff found Zhuang Qing, Zhuang Qing was carrying a dog with his left hand while nibbling on the buns held in his right hand. The white dog had its two front claws resting on his shoulder and was holding a steaming-hot bun, munching on it with its tail shaking from side to side. A few girls nearby were secretly snapping photos of them with their phones.

Upon seeing this scene, the excitement coursing through everyone’s bodies disappeared in a blink of an eye, just like a balloon that had been pricked by a needle.

Although the emotion in their excitement was gone, what came next was a sense of security – a sense of security that their boss wouldn’t abandon them no matter how strong he became. Everyone had observed the fluctuations that occurred in the early morning; anyone with a bit of knowledge would know what it meant.

“What are all of you standing here for?” Zhuang Qing took a bite of the bun in his hands. “Do you want your wages to be deducted for not going to work?”

Only then did everyone return to their senses and run towards the management bureau without looking back.

Who would want to have their wages deducted?

Fu Li finished his bun and laid his head on Zhuang Qing’s shoulder. “I’ll take a half-day sick leave today and sleep for a bit.”

“Sleep then,” Zhuang Qing stuffed the bun he hadn’t eaten into his mouth and took him into his embrace with both arms. As expected, Fu Li had already fallen asleep. Fu Li had exhausted all his spiritual qi yesterday night to help him transform successfully. If he had dragged it on a bit longer, Fu Li’s cultivation might have regressed.

Fu Li would occasionally render him angry yet helpless, and he would itch to give his head a good shake. But sometimes, the things Fu Li did made him unable to bear putting him through the slightest torment. The guy in his arms was hateful in this way.

Zhuang Qing’s fate was implicitly tied to the nation’s fate, so after his successful transformation, blessed rain descended from the skies, showering all creatures with grace. Even the country’s fortune inexplicably improved a little. For instance, research institute A’s experiment succeeded, scientific academy B overcame a certain difficulty in a project, and scientific research center C successfully developed a certain medicinal product. There was even a reduction in the levels of pollution seen in all the large water bodies within the country.

The various departments were momentarily full of joy. Not only did they allocate a sum of money to the management bureau in the name of ‘scientific fees’, they even rewarded Zhuang Qing with a house and car. The department leaders on friendly terms with Zhuang Qing all sent generous gifts as well.

To this country’s humans, dragons had always been symbols of luck and protection. So everyone who gave gifts were most willing to do so, and did so with exultation.

All the major sect leaders in the cultivation world and several famous yao cultivators started preparing generous gifts and personally called on Zhuang Qing before the human world’s gift brigade had even dispersed. Zhuang Qing was now the emperor of the aquatic races, and the importance of water on earth went without saying, so no one wanted to offend the aquatic emperor unless they felt that they were living too good a life.

The various major sect leaders knew where Zhuang Qing lived in the human world, but when these sect leaders called on him and realized that there was no other yao or person in his house apart from Fu Li, their mood turned complex.

They had long heard that there was some ambiguity between Zhuang Qing and the daoyou called Fu Li. They had only taken it as rumor, yet the two parties were actually already living together.

Sect leader Zhao Xiu of the Qing Xiao Sect and sect leader Tian Feng of the Fields Sect were old friends, so the two people arranged to go together even when they went to offer Zhuang Qing gifts.

From their seat at the couch, they glanced at the landscape on the wall pieced together with jewels, and then glanced at Fu Li beside Zhuang Qing. An awkward but not discourteous smile hung on their faces.

Zhuang Qing was also not the talkative type. Fortunately, Fu Li had a more easygoing personality, so the atmosphere wasn’t too terrible.

Later on, the two sect leaders couldn’t bear to sit any longer and stood up to take their leave. Zhuang Qing got up and saw them off at the door. “There’s heavy snow and wind outside, please take care.”

“No need to see us out, Chief Zhuang,” How could Zhao Xiu and Tian Feng allow Zhuang Qing to see them out the door? Which resulted in them repeating this phrase over and over again. Zhao Xiu even depended on the fact that his sect’s disciple was a high-ranking employee in the bureau to crack a few jokes.

“Chief Zhuang and Fu daoyou has a good relationship. Should there be a Dao-Bonding Ceremony held someday, this Zhao will definitely shamelessly drop in for two cups of wine.”

Zhuang Qing glanced back at Fu Li, who was washing the teacups in the kitchen. A hint of a smile appeared on his perpetually blank face. “If there is such a day, this Zhuang will definitely send an invitation.”

One look at his expression, and Zhao Xiu and Tian Feng knew that this new emperor of the aquatic races already harbored intentions in this aspect. Instantly, they revealed ambiguous smiles. After getting into a small car arranged by their sects, they left the villa.

“Zhuang little dragon,” Fu Li walked out of the kitchen and spat out a breath of air to blow-dry his wet hands. “The story you told me yesterday night – what happened later on?”

Zhuang Qing closed the villa’s main door. “Wait for me on the bed first, I’ll be up right away.”

“Quickly come up then,” Fu Li went upstairs and jumped onto the soft bed with a plop. He turned into his original form and then lay down lazily, not moving. Ever since discovering that Zhuang Qing had heard of many interesting human legends, he got hooked onto Zhuang Qing’s ‘bedtime stories’.

Or maybe it was because Zhuang Qing’s blood had become even purer after his successful transformation. These days, Fu Li often smelled a sweet fragrance on Zhuang Qing, the very delicious type. He had been ashamed of this thought at first, but after realizing that this smell could hasten the speed with which the spiritual qi in his meridians circulated when he was asleep, the shame turned into worry.

With Zhuang Qing’s current constitution, wasn’t he a bit too great of a temptation to yao cultivators?

Every part of a dragon was a treasure. What if some yao wanted to eat Zhuang Qing to increase its cultivation? He had originally thickened his skin and lived with Zhuang Qing for the food he cooked, but he was even less reassured about leaving now. With him around, Zhuang Qing would have an extra helper when fighting.

Zhuang Qing washed a plate of fruits and then turned towards the furtive shadow outside the window with a cold smile. “Scram.”

With a shiver, the shadow instantly vanished without a trace.

Zhuang Qing had removed the barrier outside the villa due to the many guests recently, which was why there were also more unknown creatures roaming about outside the villa.

Fu Li, who was splayed out on the bed, turned his head towards the window. There was an evil spirit lying outside the window with a malevolent expression. With a shake of Fu Li’s ears, the evil spirit outside the window let out a miserable shriek and its soul scattered, turning into a true dead ghost.

The other guests hidden at various corners turned and floated out upon seeing this. Along the way, they bumped into a yinchai army from the underworld. The next instant, there was once again a peal of ghostly cries and howls.

“Leader, you’re so wise. Hiding here really will let us capture fugitives from the underworld,” A ghost messenger used their Soul-Locking Chain to bind an evil spirit as they cast a look of worship at Li Xu.

Li Xu spat out a ring of smoke, his gaze deep. “The person inside has rich spiritual qi. To ignorant evil spirits, it’s a huge temptation.”

Also, only these brainless evil spirits would dare to do such things. Look at how tactful the yao cultivators were – those with high cultivation politely sent gifts while those with low cultivation saluted from their hiding spots in the distance, completely unlike these stupid ghosts.

Forget it. If they were smart, how could they be escaped criminals listed in the underworld’s records?

Unfortunately, they had basically already captured what evil spirits that could be captured. The free bait – Zhuang Qing’s – reputation had probably already circulated throughout the underworld. Who knew where they could find another bait as good as Zhuang Qing?

The cultivation world was in a commotion for a period of time because of Zhuang Qing becoming the Dragon Emperor. Only when the Lunar New Year was imminent and everyone started making preparations for the new year did the fervor gradually decline. The few days leading up to the Lunar New Year was the capital’s peak period for traveling, and also the only time in the year that human movement occurred on a large scale. Whenever this period arrived, not only would the various major affiliated departments be incredibly busy, even the management bureau had to dispatch people to large airports, bus stops, and train stations across the entire country for fear that a cultivator would suddenly have the thought of taking revenge on society and explode their internal core. That would make for quite some trouble.

The area Fu Li was responsible for was the capital’s largest train station. He looked on as countless humans carting bags of all sizes jostled through the crowds, and had a whole new level of respect for the life forms known as humans.

People were practically piled on top of one another, yet they could still squeeze into the vehicles. It was practically a miracle.

Fu Li guarded the place for three or four days and didn’t capture any yao who wanted to take revenge on society, although he did discover quite a few little yao who attempted to travel for free as stowaways. These little yao had ordinary cultivation and didn’t get by very well, so they would lie on car roofs or storage cabins in their original forms to save on that bit of transport money.

These little yao had very pure auras, so Fu Li closed one eye to their behavior and allowed them to freeload a ride.

The closer it was to the end of the year, the less people there were in the capital. On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Fu Li took a train back to the management bureau after getting off duty. The train was vacant, with him and two other girls being the only passengers in the carriage.

The female passenger closer to him had long hair that trailed over her shoulders. Although she couldn’t be considered very pretty, she had very fair skin. The other female passenger was hanging her head, preventing her appearance from being seen, and had a slightly plump figure.

All of a sudden, the lights in the train flickered once. The long-haired female passenger glanced up at the lights before glancing at Fu Li, who was seated opposite. Picking up her bag, she got up and moved to a seat closer to him.

The train doors opened very quickly. Quite a few people got on at this station, all of whom were silent after getting on. The atmosphere was exceedingly quiet.

“Do you feel like the train seems to be traveling for a very long time today?” Unable to stand the silent atmosphere, the long-haired girl shifted towards Fu Li and asked softly.

“En, the road is a bit long,” Fu Li didn’t speak in a low voice, causing the people seated opposite him to look at him uniformly.

Fu Li ignored them and told the long-haired girl, “Get off with me later.”

As if having found a pillar to lean on, the long-haired girl nodded repeatedly. The people seated opposite them also retracted their gazes, no longer looking at them. The long-haired girl took out her phone and took a few looks at it, her body trembling the last few times.

The people seated opposite her were dressed normally and had normal appearances, but not a single one of them was on their phone!

Riding the train was a very boring affair, how could there be no one using their phone? This was too creepy.

“The train should be stopping soon,” Seeing the girl’s trembles intensifying and the way she nearly couldn’t hold back her tears, Fu Li sighed. He took out five copper coins from his pocket, threaded a string through them, and then offered it to the girl. “Take it.”

“W-What are these?” The girl accepted the copper coins and found ‘Kaiyuan Tongbao’ or something written on them.

“Copper coins,” The management bureau had plenty of these things, and five of them had just been taken by Fu Li via a teleportation skill.

“Thank you,” The long-haired girl had heard of the legend of the ‘Five Emperor Coins’, so regardless of whether or not these five copper coins were real or fake, she was very grateful for the other party’s kind intentions. It seemed the other party, like her, had also sensed that these ‘passengers’ were abnormal.

After she gripped ‘Five Emperor Coins’ tightly, the train slowed to a halt. Fu Li turned to her. “Come with me.”

According to her usual habits, she wouldn’t have listened to an unfamiliar man. However, she subconsciously followed what the other party said, perhaps because the atmosphere today was too scary, or maybe it was because this young man looked handsome and reliable.

Both of them walked to the door and the girl realized that the passengers seemed to want to get up and obstruct them. Only by covering her mouth could she control her desire to scream.

Fu Li picked the girl up, and then they were out of the train. The girl glanced back. The train was already slowly moving off. The plump woman who got on with her was standing by the window, seemingly resenting them for leaving.

“S-She…”

“Don’t be scared, they’re just going home to visit their family,” Fu Li smiled at the girl. “They won’t intentionally harm people.”

“Those things… also need to visit their families?” The woman’s trembling hadn’t ceased. She gripped the Five Emperor Coins given by Fu Li tightly, as if she would feel more at ease by doing so.

“Of course, everyone will be on vacation on a day like the eve of the Lunar New Year,” Taking advantage of the girl’s inattention, Fu Li waved a hand in the air and the mist in the train station disappeared. Everything seemed to have returned to normal.

The girl didn’t seem to be trembling as badly either. She looked at Fu Li with gratitude, “Handsome, are you a great master?”

“I don’t have a very good understanding of these things, and just have some knowledge on one or two things,” Fu Li wasn’t lying, he really didn’t understand human methods for expelling ghosts. To yao cultivators, brute strength was much more effective than talismans, seals, and whatnot.

The girl thought that it wasn’t convenient for Fu Li to divulge anything, so out of embarrassment, she didn’t ask more either. After walking out of the train station, she took her phone out. “Handsome, you extended such a huge helping hand to me today. Can I treat you to a meal if there’s a chance in the future? Let’s add each other on Wechat?”

“Fu Li.”

The girl turned back and saw a long-legged, handsome brother. The other party was wearing a long, black windbreaker, and walked in an extremely graceful manner. It was just that his face was expressionless, so he looked very unapproachable.

Only when the handsome brother beside her walked alongside the other party did the girl realize that the other party had specially come to fetch the handsome brother who had traveled with her.

Watching the two people from the back, the girl exhaled a breath of warm air on her palms and then placed her phone and the Five Emperor Coins back into her pocket. The money for treating someone to a meal wouldn’t be spent. With how unusual tonight’s matter was, she might as well donate a bit of money to Project Hope.

Wasn’t there that one good saying called ‘financial loss might prevent disaster’?

“That human girl has a very good opinion of you,” Zhuang Qing pulled open the car door for Fu Li.

“Maybe it’s because I have a likable appearance?” Fu Li buckled his seatbelt and asked with little care, “We can go on holiday after work tomorrow?”

Zhuang Qing looked at Fu Li’s face and gave an enigmatic laugh. “En, it’s quite likable.”

“En?” Fu Li didn’t understand. What did that mean?

“If nothing major happens tomorrow, we’ll be on holiday after work tomorrow till the end of the seventh day,” Zhuang Qing started up the car. After a long period of silence, he said, “Human lifespans are very short.”

“You’re right, ordinary humans only have a lifespan of around one hundred years. To us yao cultivators, it is indeed quite short.”

“So you must keep your distance from humans. Even if you… feel the stirrings of love, they are still not suitable for you.”

“Zhuang little dragon, I didn’t expect you to start thinking of these things not long after you succeeded in your transformation,” Fu Li clicked his tongue. “If I was interested in humans, I would have been moved two thousand years ago. Why would I need to wait till now?”

Two thousand years ago?

Zhuang Qing’s mouth tensed up even more. Was Fu Li talking about that human pet of his?

“You liked that human pet very much?” Zhuang Qing asked with a straight face.

“I quite liked him,” Fu Li nodded. “Sister Zhu Yue even said before that he was the very good-looking type of human.”

Zhuang Qing was silent.

“But I don’t remember what he looks like,” Fu Li furrowed his brows, turning to look at Zhuang Qing. “But his human appearance probably isn’t as good-looking as your face.”

“Since you liked him quite a bit, why don’t you even remember his appearance?” Zhuang Qing’s mood lifted a little.

“I rarely interacted with humans back then and didn’t use my human form much either, so my ability to distinguish between human appearances wasn’t strong,” Fu Li’s face was a bit red. “But this shortcoming was already righted before I registered for my identification card at the Yao Union.”

“It’s fine even if you don’t remember, he’s already been reincarnated anyway. Rather, his beauty will be lost if you remember it.” So what if this human was Fu Li’s only pet? Thought Zhuang Qing inwardly. A pet whose appearance wasn’t even remembered by the owner was a failure of a pet.

As for the possibility of the ‘owner being too much of a slag’, Zhuang Qing subconsciously ruled it out.

The fault would always lie with others, it was impossible for the fault to lie with his own people.

This Dragon Emperor, the closest of all the dragons to the humans, had perhaps already acquired the ‘muddle-headed emperor’ shortcoming of the human feudalistic period.

On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the last day of work, few people were in the mood for work, and most were just waiting to go on holiday. In the public office, everyone was discussing how they would be passing the new year and what Lunar New Year merchandise they would be buying.

The majority of cultivators present had close relatives or belonged to a sect, so there was definitely no lack of liveliness when they celebrated the Lunar New Year. Only Fu Li was splayed on his desk, listening to their spirited voices.

Because he had no sect, no relatives, and no elders. To him, there was nothing special about this year.

“There’s trouble, a zealous yao sent us a complaint email saying that the boss and Fu ge accepted bribes. The other party even provided a photo of the incident,” Chu Yu received a call from the supervision division and turned towards Fu Li. “There are quite a few yaoguai kicking up a fuss downstairs, asking us to give an explanation.”

“Ah?” Everyone stared blankly, their heads turning towards Fu Li simultaneously. None of them felt that such a thing was possible.

When Fu Li went downstairs to the reception room, Zhuang Qing was already present. A few yaguai were seated there, slamming the tables and hitting the stools as they spouted something about the management bureau accepting bribes, betraying the trust of the cultivation world, and so on.

He picked up one of the photos serving as evidence and glanced at it. Was this taken when Uncle Feng gave them the Qiankun pouches outside the Yao Union?

Seeing that Fu Li had picked up the photo, the yao cultivators cursed even more harshly as if they were injected with confidence.

“The management bureau has been requesting us to do this and that these few years, and wants to manage us even if all we did was steal a wallet,” The mouse yao’s eyes shifted left and right, but the words he spoke were said in an extremely infuriating manner. “But you don’t even need to go out and steal, any random yao just has to give you a few gifts and there’s nothing much for you to worry about.”

“Yes. The way I see it, they’re in with the snakes and mice, and don’t attach any importance to us ordinary yao,” Another yaoguai echoed his words.

The mouse yao rolled his eyes. “Who are you cursing? Who’s with the snakes?”

“My mistake, my mistake,” The other yao smiled awkwardly. How had he forgotten that this individual was a mouse yao?

The Yao Union’s person-in-charge sat there with an awkward expression. Given Zhuang Qing’s identity and status, how could he be lacking in gold, silver, pearls, or whatnot? Naturally, he wouldn’t accept any bribes either. But the difficulty lay in the fact that the people kicking up a fuss had photos and videos as evidence. He momentarily didn’t know what would be appropriate to respond with, so he could only wait in silence.

This whole matter reeked of something fishy. Given Zhuang Qing’s present status, how could this little yao dare to intentionally smear the reputation of the management bureau?

The destruction of the management bureau’s reputation would definitely not be beneficial for the entire cultivation world. The eventual sufferers wouldn’t be the elites of the management bureau, but the little yao at the lowest rung of the yao world.

He raised his head and glanced at Zhuang Qing. The other party’s expression was normal. These little yao’s screeches hadn’t angered him.

Fu Li was seated beside Zhuang Qing. In his opinion, given the cultivation base of these little yao, it was impossible for them to secretly snap photos of them without being discovered.

“I heard someone reported my nephew for accepting bribes?” A man kicked open the door of the management bureau’s reception room. “As an uncle, can’t I give my own family’s junior some pocket money?”

This man was extremely good-looking. At this moment, his chin was raised, and his lofty gaze seemed to be proclaiming his lack of care for the majority of the yao present. In his eyes, the several yao facing Fu Li and slapping the table were nothing more than trash. “I have a lot of money, and I’ll spend as much as I want on my junior. If you have any objections, I’m all ears, en?!”