Chapter 20
Rain covered the car windows, squeaking against the rapidly moving wipers. Ning Zhixia gripped the steering wheel, more alert than ever, his eyes fixed on the winding mountain road as he drove down in silence.
Because many people returned to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors during the Qingming Festival period, the ancient town, with the pitter-patter of rain, was still bustling. A long queue formed in front of Grandma Meng’s stall, the white, steaming air blurring Ning Zhixia’s vision.
Yeerba was made of glutinous rice dough wrapped around a filling of dried tofu and minced meat, steamed in a leaf. When cooked, it was plump and white, quite adorable. Older generations preferred to call it “piggy ba.”
When he was young, during school holidays, he and Qu Banqing would follow his grandfather to their hometown. The ancient town offered more interesting things to play with and eat than the city. The two children would wake up and go hand in hand to buy yeerba, holding the warm, white dumplings, squatting by the riverbank and watching the fish.
Children of that age were interested in everything: playing with water guns, watching birds, mediating fights between cats and dogs on the street corners, having mud fights with foul-mouthed kids… Their figures could be seen in every nook and cranny of the ancient town’s winding alleys.
When they were tired from playing, the aroma of food would drift from every household. The two dirty little rascals would always return to their old house just in time for dinner. Grandfather only needed to make a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, divide it in half, and that would be enough.
The salty and sour sauce was appetizing, and they would eat a large bowl of rice with it, then lie like piglets on the cool bamboo mat under the shade of the trees, their round bellies covered with a thin blanket, sleeping soundly.
They didn’t need to think about anything, they didn’t need to worry about anything, two fluffy heads together, and they could spend the happiest days.
Ning Zhixia queued for a long time, following the blurry figures in front of him, and finally returned to his car with the yeerba.
The wipers in front of him swayed like a pendulum. The headlights turned on, and the rain falling into the river bloomed like fireworks on the water’s surface. He looked up, distant memories resurfacing in his mind.
Every time they bought yeerba and squatted by the river, Qu Banqing would always bite open the glutinous rice dough and shake out the filling, attracting the small, round black fish to gather and create ripples in the water.
As Ning Zhixia thought about this, a wry smile appeared on his face.
Perhaps it was him who liked yeerba. Qu Banqing had never liked it. His excuse for delaying was so flimsy, yet he couldn’t remember it.
Ning Zhixia blinked, feeling as if the rain was falling on his face through the car window. What was the relationship between the person in the portrait and Qu Banqing? Who was the friend who grew up with him? His gentle and perfect parents, his deliberate separation after high school graduation… If all the unusual signs had only been noticed now, then he was truly the worst friend.
The seatbelt tightened across his chest, and as the tide receded, all that remained in his memories were the sharp shards of shells that pricked his heart.
The gray electric car sped through the rain again. Ning Zhixia wanted to go home quickly because they had said goodbye, and just like when they were young, they would definitely meet again.
No matter what he would see this time.
The sky had completely darkened. The long street in the pouring rain seemed endless, the neon lights like hundreds of blooming roses, flickering in the empty night.
Cold rain covered his face with water droplets. Ning Zhixia jumped out of the car, ignoring his umbrella, and hurried through the swaying rain illuminated by the headlights.
As he quickly pushed open the courtyard gate of number 19, the sight of the lush, wet greenery made his pupils constrict.
The neatly arranged clay pots in the flower stands were shattered, and the vibrant vines, no longer droopy like in the past few days, were gushing out of the stands like a waterfall.
Green vines rapidly sprouted new branches, tender leaves wrapping around the pointed flower buds, tightly intertwined. As the young man looked at them, countless small flowers bloomed, a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
Ning Zhixia was incredibly grateful that it was late at night, and no one saw his home-turned-botanical-explosion.
Sensing the young man’s presence, the thick vines on the ground affectionately wrapped around him, their lush leaves shielding him from the rain.
As he walked forward, the other vines surged like green waves, rustling and retreating to the sides.
That dazzling silver-gray in the night, flowed slowly into Ning Zhixia’s view.
Lush greenery surrounded the small house, and the kittens, almost swept away by the overly enthusiastic vines, were clinging to Audrow.
“You’re back.”
His usually cool voice carried a hint of laziness, his unreadable gaze slowly sweeping over the drenched young man.
Ning Zhixia nodded slightly, not needing to ask any more foolish questions. His intuition told him that the other party must know something.
“Come here, Ning Zhixia.”
Audrow looked down at him, silver-gray hair falling over his brow bone, his eyes shining like gemstones shimmering under the moonlight, like a host welcoming a late guest.
Ning Zhixia approached him and suddenly felt a cold hand on his lower back, gently pushing him towards the door.
Audrow guided the young man’s wrist to the doorknob and asked softly, “Are you afraid?”
A cool sensation pressed against his back. Ning Zhixia was calmer than ever, and he honestly shook his head.
An unreadable, faint chuckle sounded beside his ear, and his head was suddenly nuzzled like an animal.
“So brave…”
Soft hair brushed against his neck in the night breeze. Ning Zhixia heard the other party’s deep, pleasant voice, like a tempting demon, saying, “Then open the door, and you’ll see everything you want to know.”
The doorknob in his hand was scorching hot, like it had been burned by fire, his heart pounding.
Ning Zhixia opened the door slowly without hesitation.
“Creak… creak…”
The remaining humanoid shadow writhed on the ground, dragged back into a corner by something, its shrill screams like a crying baby drowned out by strange chewing sounds.
The sound of rain dripping from the eaves seemed to be blocked out, and the world suddenly fell silent. Ning Zhixia could only hear his own breathing.
“Zh-Zhixia?”
A gray arm covered in black armor withdrew from the shadow’s chest, sticky bodily fluids dripping from its sharp claws onto the floor, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window onto the scene of carnage. A tall figure stood amidst the dismembered limbs, staring at him in astonishment.
Ning Zhixia’s eyes widened, the blood in his body slowly freezing, yet he couldn’t help but take a few steps forward.
“Get out!”
The figure seemed to react, suddenly letting out a mournful roar that startled Ning Zhixia.
He looked like a dirty, gray-skinned elf, his spine covered in a shiny black, scorpion-like exoskeleton that extended all the way down, ending in a hooked tail.
Sensing Ning Zhixia’s gaze, he cowered like a frightened animal, his body hunched over in the corner, his feet shuffling on the wet floor.
Small wings, covered in metallic feathers, sprouted from the sides of his dark head and quickly covered his face, leaving no gaps.
“Don’t… don’t look at me… don’t look at me!”
“Qu Banqing” grabbed the curtains and desperately tried to cover himself, but he was too large, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t hide completely. He could only hug his tail and whimper almost pleadingly, “I’m so ugly…”
“I’m not looking, I won’t look…” Ning Zhixia was at a loss, standing still, obediently covering his eyes with his hands, and asked urgently towards the corner, “Qu Banqing, are you Qu Banqing?”
“Qu Banqing” shook his head, then nodded, carefully lifting a feather. Seeing that the young man a few meters away couldn’t see him, he turned his head and remained silent.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The severed limbs of the whimpering shadow crawled towards the door, their path blocked by rustling, light blue ice crystals.
Audrow leaned against the doorframe, his gaze calmly fixed on the young man who was peeking through his fingers.
“I am Qu Banqing, and I am also Peleg, the elf from Shadow Isle.”
As if noticing the young man’s small movement, the figure in the corner spoke his long-lost name, like a concealing black cloth being pulled away, exposed under the harsh light.
He looked up at the bewildered young man and the carnage behind him, his voice dry and hoarse.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, it shouldn’t be like this.
Today, he should have been happily buying yeerba, and when he returned, he and Audrow would have taken care of everything. He could have nestled on the sofa, bragging about how difficult it was to drive on the mountain roads, how long the queue for yeerba was, and then pestered him to make a late-night snack, and after eating, gone to sleep soundly.
Now everything was ruined.
The unfamiliar term pulled his wandering thoughts back. Ning Zhixia was surprisingly calm. He stared at the bundled-up curtains for a while, then asked softly, “What do you mean?”
“Qu Banqing” muttered “stupid Meow Meow” and quietly began to tell his story—
The elves of Shadow Isle didn’t resemble those beautiful fantasy creatures. Peleg had never liked his appearance. He painted his shell with rare berry juice, decorated his bony tail with brightly colored flowers, and made cute trinkets out of precious metals, becoming the most peculiar being on the entire island.
One night, he accidentally activated an ancient magical machine, and a plane passage suddenly opened. With a flash of blinding white light, he instantly appeared in a dark mountain with a raging torrent.
The entire mountain seemed to be rumbling. Peleg frantically dodged falling trees and boulders, the muddy stream surging with waves. Faint screams in the darkness caught his attention.
He curiously followed the stream, and a few small heads bobbed in the water. A cold light flashed, and his bony tail hooked the last child, pulling the small figure out of the water.
“Oh dear…”
The cold, limp body was lifeless. Peleg looked at the boy’s chest, pierced by a branch, and sighed regretfully.
The next moment, a bright light, like daylight, pierced through the leaves and shone on him. His small wings fluttered in fright.
The Qu family, searching all over the mountain for their child, stared wide-eyed in horror at the strange creature in front of them, muttering, “What are you! Monster! Monster!”
Peleg shook his head in confusion: “I’m not a monster.”
The woman trembled, and upon seeing the body in the monster’s arms, she couldn’t hear anything, her heartbroken cries interrupting him.
“Qu Qing, my Xiao Qing!”
She pushed her husband aside and rushed forward, screaming, “Give him back! Give my child back!”
“I didn’t hurt him… I pulled him out of the water…” Peleg explained helplessly, his arms suddenly empty. He stared blankly as the woman, like an enraged lioness, raised a wooden stick and swung it at him.
Sharp stones rained down on him. Peleg, feeling wronged, waved his tail and dodged, finally scrambling into the dark bushes, leaving the panicked shouts and curses behind him.
Two days later, the administrators of the Dimensional Management Bureau found him in a hidden cave. They altered the Qu family’s memories and brought Peleg back to the Bureau. Otherwise, this story alone could have been a ten-episode documentary.
Because this world was more to his liking, Peleg traded the machine that could open plane passages for the right to stay here for twenty years.
The first step to fully integrating into human society was to change his appearance. The face Peleg created for himself was quite bizarre. Finally, the administrators couldn’t stand it anymore and told him to find a human as a reference.
Peleg, who had been living like a caveman for two days, pondered, then with a “poof,” transformed into a delicate-featured little boy. He touched his face, made a few adjustments, tiptoed closer to the device in the administrator’s hand, and recorded his new appearance in the system.
Thus, on this day, Peleg became Qu Banqing.
To fully experience human life, he followed the plan the Bureau had made for him, entered Yucheng Experimental Primary School, and gloriously became a first-grade student.
The life of an elementary school student was simple. Qu Banqing sang nursery rhymes every day, did morning exercises, and apart from attending those childish classes, he spent his time making cute dolls and little flower dresses for them.
The boys in his class mocked him for being a sissy, throwing crumpled paper balls at him.
Qu Banqing shrugged it off, not taking it seriously. After all, paper balls were much gentler than stones.
He ate and napped alone, and even when the class had an odd number of students, he was the extra one without a deskmate.
Until the second semester started, and the teacher led a strange little boy to the podium.
“Hello everyone, my name is Ning Zhixia! I’m seven and a half years old, and I love drawing.” The boy with a puppy backpack introduced himself cheerfully, taking out his sketchbook and proudly showing it to the curious children.
“Such a cute kitty!”
“I don’t like cats, why don’t you draw dinosaurs? Dinosaurs are much cooler!”
“His backpack has so many flower decorations.”
“Ew, sissy.”
A few boys’ teasing voices, accompanied by exaggerated expressions, made everyone laugh.
The teacher interrupted in time: “Alright, alright, welcome Ning Zhixia to our class, let’s give him a round of applause!”
A messy applause followed. Little Zhixia didn’t mind, clapping along with his sketchbook, and was led by the teacher to sit next to Qu Banqing.
The boys in the front rows turned around and whispered, “Look, two sissies.”
“Blegh!”
Little Zhixia stuck out his tongue at them, took out his pencil case from his puppy backpack, and heard his deskmate whisper, “Your drawing is very nice, and your backpack is nice too…”
“Really?”
Little Zhixia abruptly turned his head, his sparkling eyes making Qu Banqing almost sprout a tail.
Qu Banqing hesitated for a moment, then nodded under his expectant gaze.
“You have good taste.” Little Zhixia took a flower decoration off his backpack and gave it to him. “My mom made it, here you go!”
“Oh, oh.”
Qu Banqing carefully accepted it with both hands. This was the first gift he had received in this world.
The new classmate was talkative and lively, always having something to say, whether during class or break time.
Even when the teacher pinched his ear to remind him, he didn’t care, simply writing down his words and drawing cute little dogs as emojis.
Soon, thanks to Little Zhixia’s arrival, Qu Banqing found someone who shared his interests, and suddenly felt that school was quite interesting.
Once, during their favorite art class, Little Zhixia brought a deluxe set of colored pencils, refusing to lend them to anyone, but generously sharing them with him.
Qu Banqing thanked him but declined, taking out cotton and scraps of fabric from his backpack, and telling the dumbfounded child that today’s art class was about making handmade toys.
The unremarkable materials in his hands transformed into a bunny doll with a bow tie. Little Zhixia just kept clapping and exclaiming “wow,” completely forgetting to do his own work, and handed in a hastily made paper airplane to the teacher at the end of class, surprisingly receiving a passing grade.
But Little Zhixia didn’t care.
When the teacher invited Qu Banqing to the podium and stuck a “first place” sticker on his chest, Little Zhixia clapped enthusiastically, even though his palms turned red.
He held his head high, looking around smugly.
“First place, first place, Banqing is first place!”
After school, Little Zhixia didn’t want to go home and happily swung on the swings in the playground, relishing the awkward expressions of those mean boys. He turned his head and saw Qu Banqing quietly making a doll, and the swing gradually slowed down.
Qu Banqing, sitting on another swing, was absent-minded, staring at his shoes as he traced patterns in the sand.
Lost in thought, he suddenly heard a “thud” beside him.
“A-are you okay?” Qu Banqing turned his head, stunned.
“I’m fine!”
The empty swing beside him swayed randomly. Little Zhixia, landing too quickly, had fallen face-first onto the ground.
He got up, dusted himself off, and asked, his dirty face tilted upwards, “Why is Banqing unhappy?”
“Um… because I’m thinking…”
Qu Banqing’s eyelids drooped as he fiddled with the pink bow on the bunny doll. “If what you like, what you want to do, isn’t recognized by the people around you, then doesn’t everything you’re experiencing now become meaningless?”
Wh-what?
His good friend rarely spoke so much at once, but Little Zhixia felt dizzy.
“I… I…” Little Zhixia scratched his head, struggling to understand his friend’s question, then tilted his head and scratched his head again, finally admitting with a dejected expression, “Waaah, I’m a bit stupid, I don’t quite understand.”
Qu Banqing nodded: “I thought so.”
What could a not-so-bright human child understand?
Qu Banqing thought about his days on Shadow Isle, his expression downcast.
“Why is Banqing thinking about such things?” Little Zhixia waved his fingers in front of his eyes. “We’re kids, we shouldn’t think so much.”
Qu Banqing silently pushed his fingers down.
You are, I’m not.
He muttered, looking down, “Just random thoughts.”
“Okay.” Little Zhixia sat back on the swing, kicking the ground with his short legs.
He was unusually quiet for a few minutes, glancing sideways at Qu Banqing, then glancing again after a while.
Just as Qu Banqing was about to jump off the swing and say it was time to go home, Little Zhixia’s eyes lit up, and his soft voice sounded again,
“My grandpa said, whether now or in the future, we should be free like the birds in the sky, going wherever we want, picking any fruit we want to eat, and chirping loudly for anything we want.”
“And if anyone disagrees—” Little Zhixia covered his mouth, his eyes curving into a smile, “We can poop on their heads!”
The last sentence was clearly added by the child himself.
Qu Banqing was stunned. The happy child gripped the ropes and kicked hard, soaring high like a joyful little bird, flying higher and higher, the orange-red sunset reflecting in his brightening eyes.
With a friend, his days at school became interesting, but Qu Banqing had to maintain his disguised human identity, carrying his backpack and small flower-print lunch bag every day, like an innocent elementary school student, going to and from school with Little Zhixia.
Over time, he became a regular at Little Zhixia’s house, eating and sleeping with his new friend, even having a butterfly-print pajama set and slippers made by Auntie Lu, the highest honor for a friend.
In return, Little Zhixia wanted to visit his house.
This sent Qu Banqing into a panic. He decorated his house overnight and even used magic to create two lifelike wooden puppet parents. As someone who struggled with creating faces, he used the Qu family’s appearance as a reference.
The puppet father was humorous and witty, the puppet mother gentle and caring, perfectly portraying a model family of three when Little Zhixia came to visit.
“Your dad is so nice, he even paints and makes dolls with you.” Little Zhixia was a little envious, still muttering after reluctantly going home that he wished Qu Banqing’s dad was his dad.
However, his father, who had just returned from a business trip with gifts, overheard him. The next day at school, Qu Banqing saw Little Zhixia place a soft cushion on his seat.
Qu Banqing cherished this hard-won friendship with Ning Zhixia, following the pace of human growth, spending elementary, middle, and high school with him.
Qu Banqing enjoyed all the experiences this new world offered, a life completely different from Shadow Isle.
It could be said that Ning Zhixia was a part of his understanding of this world.
However, with each passing stage, Qu Banqing realized more deeply that friends in life come and go.
He could no longer remember the faces of the boys who had chased them and called them sissies in elementary school. In middle school, he made a group of friends to play games with, and by high school, the people around him had changed again, coming and going, until only he and Ning Zhixia remained.
Ning Zhixia was also busy with training, catching up on his studies, and experiencing the next stage of life. He would no longer jump around excitedly in the middle of the night just because he had finally defeated a boss after hundreds of attempts.
Qu Banqing loved this world and was grateful for meeting Ning Zhixia. The closer they got to graduation, the more panicked he felt, because he was only allowed to stay in this world for twenty years.
So, using high school graduation as an excuse, Qu Banqing applied to a different university.
In his understanding, human friendships were strange. They could be close and inseparable one moment, then drift apart with time and distance, eventually fading away.
If time and distance could erase him from Ning Zhixia’s memory, then when he left, Ning Zhixia wouldn’t feel too sad when he remembered his childhood friend, only sighing softly— Oh, it’s been a while.
Having said this, “Qu Banqing’s” voice gradually trailed off, and he burrowed deeper into the curtains.
Ning Zhixia’s nose tingled as he asked, “Why did you come back?”
A muffled voice came from behind the curtains: “I learned from the administrators that 19 was a plane connection point. I thought that even if I couldn’t stay in this world, I could still visit you through 19.”
“You knew all along!” Ning Zhixia’s mouth trembled, his nose sniffling. “Why didn’t you just tell me you weren’t human?!”
“I didn’t want to, wuwuwu… I’m so ugly, wuwuwu…”
“Qu Banqing” burst into tears, unable to forget the look on the Qu family’s faces when they saw him, even more afraid that the same expression would appear on Ning Zhixia’s face.
The thought of hiding it for so long, the sadness and unease weighing heavily on his heart.
Now it was all over, Ning Zhixia must hate him.
He hugged his tail and covered himself with the curtains like a child hiding from the truth, then suddenly felt warmth approaching.
“Banqing, Qu Banqing.”
Ning Zhixia squatted down, poked the tip of his tail, and called softly, “Don’t cry, look at me.”
“Wuwuwu…”
The figure continued sobbing until, after a long while, the small metal wings covering his face slowly moved aside, revealing swirling, green eyes.
Ning Zhixia pulled a face, his mouth and eyes askew, making a ridiculously ugly expression.
In his eyes, Qu Banqing was Qu Banqing, no matter what he looked like.
It was him who built sandcastles with him, him who secretly bought spicy sticks with their pocket money, him who played study games with him. He might forget many things, but he wouldn’t forget the days they swung together under the setting sun, because Ning Zhixia’s understanding of this world also included their friendship.
Qu Banqing froze, large tears rolling down his cheeks.
Ning Zhixia smiled, taking out a tissue to wipe his unusually colored face.
He sat down against the wall, scooting closer to Qu Banqing, and asked softly, “So, were you involved in scaring Mrs. Jin?”
“A little bit. I wanted to teach her a lesson, but the fox cubs got there first…” Qu Banqing recalled and felt like crying again. “She saw my tail and fainted, wuwuwu…”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, your tail is so cool!” Ning Zhixia quickly comforted him. “Qiushui and the fox cubs have so many tails, but none of them are as…”
Qu Banqing looked at him expectantly.
Ning Zhixia said seriously, “…sturdy.”
Qu Banqing was silent for a moment, then pulled the sturdy tip of his tail away from his hand.
Ning Zhixia scratched his face awkwardly. Seeing that his mood had improved, he helped him up, looked at the disgusting black shadows, and said seriously, “You’re one to talk, you eat all sorts of weird things yourself.”
“They’re not weird things.” Qu Banqing shook his head, looking at the shadows restrained by the ice crystals. “They’re a type of evil spirit from your plane that can affect the fortune of an entire house and use it for their own gain. The way to deal with them is to devour them.”
“Our plane? The entire house?” Ning Zhixia felt like his brain was overloaded, and he suddenly felt sorry for the wilting pothos.
He didn’t know how many spicy sticks this gentle, beautiful member of his household had secretly chewed on.
Qu Banqing patted his head: “Don’t worry, although I still don’t know who placed this malicious curse, Audrow said that as long as we eliminate them, it’ll be fine.”
Hearing the familiar name, Ning Zhixia wasn’t surprised. With so many things happening, Audrow couldn’t have been idle.
Ning Zhixia followed his gaze. The pale moonlight flooded the room.
The shadows trying to escape were frozen by ice crystals, shattering like fragile ice sculptures.
Audrow beckoned with his finger, and many obedient vines gathered around him, their eager movements making Fatty Orange sneer and turn its head away in disdain.
Now that the shadows were frozen and the black aura surrounding them had dissipated, they could become nutrients for these plants without any side effects.
Audrow stared thoughtfully at the vines, casually flicking his hand, and a few severed limbs were thrown into the air, instantly wrapped by the snake-like vines.
Vines: “Crunch, crunch…”
Ning Zhixia and Qu Banqing watched with complicated expressions, as if remembering the time they fed bread crumbs to dogs in the old town when they were young.
Ning Zhixia lowered his voice and asked, “So, he asked you to do it?”
Qu Banqing nodded. He had also heard from the gossiping administrators about the new director’s past. He had been a little panicked when Audrow found him. If it hadn’t involved Ning Zhixia and number 19, he would have preferred to avoid such creatures.
“Due to the limitations of plane rules, even if Audrow is from the Bureau, he can’t directly intervene, but I can. This way, he can step in under the pretense of handling inter-plane disputes. Otherwise, there are so many of them, I can’t deal with them all at once.”
Qu Banqing used his tail to pick up the broken tableware, his small wings drooping listlessly. “I wanted to finish it before you came back, but I didn’t have enough time, and I made a mess.”
“It’s okay, we can clean it up slowly.” Ning Zhixia said optimistically, taking Qu Banqing’s arm, covered in black armor, and shaking it like when they were young.
Apart from life and death, everything else was trivial.
“Waaah…”
Qu Banqing’s swirling green eyes teared up. He had never dared to imagine how Ning Zhixia would react upon seeing his true form. He suddenly lifted Ning Zhixia by his armpits and asked, “Are you really not afraid of me? Not at all?”
Ning Zhixia, unexpectedly lifted like a child, moved his lips but remained silent.
Qu Banqing’s eyes were filled with anxiety, his bony tail twitching nervously.
“You… you…”
Ning Zhixia looked down, dangling his feet, and suddenly realized a harsh, unchangeable truth.
He suddenly burst into tears, his face tilted upwards. “We promised to be 178cm together, why are you so big, wuwuwu!”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, I, I can change back!”
Qu Banqing panicked, rocking him like a doll, and the messy room instantly became even more chaotic.
Amidst the chaos, the vines cleared away the remaining shadows, and a few kittens huddled affectionately against a pair of long legs in the corner.
The person leaned against the window, a look of amusement in his eyes, hidden in the shadows cast by the moonlight.
He didn’t mind the deviation from his expected scenario, as if the scene in front of him was more interesting than the young man fleeing in terror.
Audrow silently curled his lips, revealing a flash of white fangs, his light-colored eyes fixed on the dangling feet of the human, a few cheerful syllables escaping his throat.
The kittens, not understanding, wagged their tails and purred along.
Meanwhile—
In the gloomy office, the Lanhua couple watched in horror as the red cloth fell to the ground, two streams of blood and tears slowly oozing from the benevolent jade Buddha’s eyes.
“How could this be, how could this be…”
The owner’s wife of Lanhua shook her head in disbelief. “What is that shop? This has never happened before, something must be wrong… it must be…”
Sticky blood dripped from her forehead onto the floor. The woman knelt on the ground, frantically kowtowing, praying for the return of the shadows that had brought them wealth.
“Stop kowtowing, damn it, stop!” Her husband’s face was pale. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, his voice trembling as he pointed at the Buddha statue, “Look!”
“Empty, empty, empty…”
The chanting words were like a curse. The Buddha’s face began to distort into a deep, dark hole, and a large, bony hand slowly emerged, groping blindly on the carpet.
The couple screamed in terror, scrambling towards the door—
“Thud!”
Hot blood splattered against the white wall. The two corpses, their eyes wide open, were crushed like insects by the bony hand behind them…
“Hmm, so many bugs flying in with the rain.”
After the violent struggle, the room looked like it had been bombed after the evil spirits were dealt with. Ning Zhixia, preparing to rebuild, casually swatted a small flying insect.
A moss-green vine, helpful as ever, swept the dead bug away and gently rubbed against the young man’s palm.
“Shoo, shoo.”
Qu Banqing, back in his human form, regained his confidence as an evil stepmother, swatting the vines away and tossing a broom into Ning Zhixia’s arms. “Hurry up and clean, or we’ll be up all night.”
“Ugh…”
Ning-derella, holding the broom, swept the broken porcelain pieces on the floor, grumbling, “You’re an elf, can’t you just use some magic to restore everything?”
“Power creep is a thing…” Qu Banqing said resentfully. “This isn’t my home turf, I’ve been nerfed, okay?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the well-fed vines snaked over and snatched the vacuum cleaner from his hand, a leaf pressing the power button as they wrapped around the metal handle.
A vine even waved at the two dumbfounded humans— Go play, your god is here.
Qu Banqing: “…”
More and more vines poured in through the window and door, dividing the labor efficiently. Some meticulously collected the debris on the floor and sorted it, others set up the overturned furniture… A few thinner vines, unable to compete with their companions, rubbed their leaves together, grabbed a bag of cookies, tore it open, and happily offered them to the stunned young man.
Great, now even the vines were bootlickers.
There was still a lot of debris that couldn’t be put back in place. Several vines gathered them together, then retreated as someone approached.
Audrow snapped his fingers lightly, and the broken dishes and bowls floated in mid-air, reassembling themselves. The gel polishes and Swarovski crystals also lined up obediently, floating back to their places. The dirty walls, damaged appliances, everything was restored to its original state.
Qu Banqing hugged his beloved, one-of-a-kind tableware and cried tears of joy: “Oh! My old friends, I’m so glad you’re okay!”
Ning Zhixia, as if seeing his fairy godmother, munched on a cookie, his mouth full as he clapped enthusiastically.
Clap, clap, clap, clap—
“That’s amazing!” Ning Zhixia’s eyes sparkled with admiration. “Thank you so much, Xiao Ao!”
“You’re welcome.”
Audrow seemed to be in a good mood today. He looked down at the small creature rubbing against his leg. “Sugar-Free White Bread Roll, put your toys back where they belong.”
Wait, what’s its name?
Ning Zhixia stared blankly as the renamed White Cat meowed sweetly, picked up a butterfly toy, and tossed it into the toy box.
Audrow then tapped the windowsill twice with his knuckles.
Tiger Roll struggled to drag a cushion back to the sofa, Red Bean Bun wiped the coffee table with a cloth, and Oreo rode the robot vacuum cleaner past his feet.
Ning Zhixia watched them, perfectly demonstrating efficiency and order, showering Audrow with compliments.
“You’re so amazing, how did you do that?” Ning Zhixia nudged Audrow, tugging on his arm as he turned to look. “Can you do it again?”
“Yes.”
At the young man’s soft voice, Audrow closed his eyes contentedly, pulling the fat orange cat off his shoulder.
Fatty Orange, renamed Golden Toast, was now tasked with cleaning its cat bed, its head wrapped in a bandana, its confused expression showing it hadn’t fully recovered.
This was insane.
Sensing the faint surge of magical power in the house, the porcelain in Qu Banqing’s hand almost slipped from his grasp.
What was this, the Emperor and his concubine playing with kittens?