Chapter 41

The next morning, Xu Zhou returned the call.

"Miaomiao, I'm sorry, I went to bed early and didn't hear your call yesterday."

After hearing about yesterday's events, he slapped his forehead.

"Oh dear, I forgot to write this note down."

"Wait here, I'll release a more detailed feeding guide."

In the afternoon, detailed feeding instructions were sent to Yu Miaomiao's phone.

Yu Miaomiao watched it several times, and then started watching various videos of snow leopards being raised online.

After all, she choked on her own milk while breastfeeding, which shows that just reading the guide is not enough; you also need to watch videos and practice in person.

After watching the four-hour video, she felt full of confidence.

Even the most complex code is no problem for her, so raising a snow leopard shouldn't be too difficult for her either.

After all, she didn't want to go to Jiang Chengyi every time she encountered a problem.

That evening.

The door to Jiang Cheng's family was knocked on once again.

"Jiang Chengyi, Jiang Chengyi!"

Yu Miaomiao held the baby up, the scene was exactly the same as yesterday.

"Why does it keep hiccuping? No matter how I pat it, it doesn't help!"

...

After another round of commotion, by the time the little one had settled down, both of them were covered in milk.

"You've been breastfeeding too much."

Jiang Cheng drew a conclusion.

"After it finished drinking its milk, it still looked very hungry, so I fed it a little more."

Yu Miaomiao recalled the little cub's pitiful cries.

"It keeps meowing, and I feel like it will starve to death if we don't feed it."

"Don't be fooled by it."

Jiang Cheng patted the little snow leopard's head.

The little brat turned his head, opened his mouth wide, and tried to bite his hand, but missed.

Jiang Cheng raised the corner of his lips: "Small in stature, but big in appetite."

Yu Miaomiao then wrote a note in her memo.

[Feed in measured amounts; don't be misled by the plight of the infants.]

The third day.

"Jiang Chengyi! Jiang Chengyi! Why is it still sleeping and I can't wake it up?"

Day 4.

"Jiang Chengyi! Jiang Chengyi! I tried the method you taught me, but it still won't pee!"

Day 5

...

Sometime later, Li Zhi visited Yu Miaomiao's home.

She saw Yu Miaomiao holding a kitten and expertly knocking on Jiang Chengyi's door.

Having heard about what has happened these past few days, I can't help but sigh.

"Why go through all this trouble? You might as well let him raise it, so you don't have to run around all the time."

"no!"

"no."

Her proposal was met with unanimous opposition from both Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Chengyi.

Yu Miaomiao naturally does spatial jumps because the little cub will move away from her.

Jiang Chengyi's reasons also sounded quite convincing.

"It doesn't like me. If I keep it here, it will become depressed, which will affect its development."

As he spoke, he reached out to tease the cub lying on the table, playing with its paws.

The little cub let out a "woof" and bit Jiang Chengyi's hand, then rolled over and crawled towards Yu Miaomiao.

Despite its short legs, it's surprisingly fast.

He only calmed down after he plopped down on Yu Miaomiao's hand.

He didn't forget to turn around, give Jiang Cheng a snort, and put on an extremely human-like expression.

His disdain was palpable.

Jiang Chengyi calmly withdrew his hand, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

Yu Miaomiao couldn't help but laugh.

She did laugh, but it was mostly a cold laugh, a sneer, or a mocking laugh.

Such pure, heartfelt laughter is so rare.

She looked up and found Jiang Chengyi staring at her, looking somewhat lost in thought.

She looked at Jiang Chengyi, her smile still lingering, "What's wrong?"

"fine."

Jiang Chengyi turned his head away somewhat awkwardly, pulled out a wet wipe, and pretended to seriously wipe the drool off his hands.

-

A week later, it was time for the snow leopard cubs to have their check-up.

The examination was conducted at the Yokai Department's affiliated hospital, which offered more medical services and a wider range of examinations compared to the laboratory.

Xu Zhou attached great importance to this and specially invited Wu An from the Enforcement Division to accompany him.

Wu An called early in the morning.

"Ms. Yu, I'm downstairs in the apartment complex."

"We've arrived."

Yu Miaomiao held the baby in one arm and the phone in the other.

Wu An also saw Yu Miaomiao and got out of the car to greet her.

Upon seeing Jiang Cheng behind Yu Miaomiao, he frowned.

"Yu...Miaomiao, who is he?"

Wu An sized up the person opposite him, confirming that he did not sense a trace of demonic energy.

"He is Jiang Chengyi, and he is going with us this time."

He then introduced Wu An to Jiang Chengyi, saying, "My friend was worried about him, so he asked his family to come with him for the checkup."

Jiang Chengyi also sized up Wu An.

Two strands of white hair were highlighted in the long blue hair, and he wore red contact lenses; he was a typical non-mainstream style.

He was the kind of good-for-nothing scoundrel that Yu Miaomiao hated the most.

Reassured, he extended his hand and said, "Hello."

"Hello."

Wu An shook hands with Jiang Cheng and then quickly let go.

He said to Yu Miaomiao, "Miaomiao, I have something I want to ask you."

Yu Miaomiao knew what he wanted to ask, nodded, and the two walked to the other side of the car.

Watching the two figures walk away together, Jiang Chengyi's expression darkened slightly.

As soon as he stood still, Wu An couldn't help but speak.

"Miss Yu, he's just an ordinary human being, isn't he?"

“That’s right.” Yu Miaomiao nodded, “But I need him.”

"Just an ordinary human, who knows nothing, how could he be more powerful than us monsters?"

Wu An looked unwell, as if ordinary humans were a dangerous pathogen that would cause injury if approached.

Yu Miaomiao was not surprised by his performance at all.

This is a "mainstream" idea among monsters.

They believe that humans are inferior to monsters, weak and useless; they refuse to be friends with humans or have any contact with them; this is often accompanied by a glorification of force and a worship of powerful monsters; in extreme cases, they even discriminate against weak monsters.

She wasn't going to try to persuade Wu An of her deeply ingrained ideas; she would let the facts speak for themselves.

"Including travel time, the entire inspection takes about four hours."

“This little cub,” Yu Miaomiao pointed to the snow leopard cub in her arms, “want to drink milk, want to pee, want to make trouble, want to burp.”

"Can you handle this?"

"I—I can't."

Wu An was still a single demon, how could he take care of cubs? He could only reluctantly admit it.

Yu Miaomiao said, "I couldn't handle it either, so I found someone who could to accompany me."

Wu An still resisted, "But the hospital is full of monsters. What if he notices something is wrong?"

"Then let's finish this quickly before he can react."

"Can--"

"If it is indeed discovered, isn't there still the amnesia serum?"

Wu An still seemed somewhat disagreeing, but due to Yu Miaomiao's insistence, he had no choice but to agree.

As he left, he muttered, "He's just a human, what can he know? If he messes it up, I'll get yelled at by the boss..."

But Yu Miaomiao believed there wouldn't be any problems.

Jiang Chengyi once discovered that she was doing things that were different from ordinary people, but he neither investigated nor revealed it.

Therefore, she had a sense of trust in Jiang Chengyi.

This trust is both wondrous and unwavering.

Perhaps that's why she knocked on Jiang Chengyi's door that night, holding a snow leopard cub.

Wu An reluctantly watched as Jiang Cheng got into the car and slammed the door shut.

The roads were incredibly congested on the weekend; an hour later, we were still five kilometers from the hospital.

The little one was hungry and was howling loudly with great energy.

Jiang Cheng quickly poured hot water from the thermos, mixed it with milk powder, and then shoved the nipple into the baby's mouth.

The shouting finally subsided.

Wu An breathed a sigh of relief and finally stopped yelling.

The little creature's cries were so sharp, piercing, and frequent that they gave him a throbbing headache.

After finally calming down and finishing their milk, the cubs started fussing again.

As it grew a little older and was able to open its eyes, it stopped drinking and sleeping and became unusually energetic.

It crawled around in the carriage, its claws hooking onto the leather seats, making an ominous "sizzling" sound.

Wu An screamed, "My newly bought car!"

After playing for a while, the little one climbed onto Yu Miaomiao.

With its sharp claws hooking onto her clothes, the cub climbed up from its calves. Yu Miaomiao picked it up by the neck and threw it away.

The little guy rolled over on the sofa, shook his head, let out a "woof," and his eyes lit up.

Seemingly finding it amusing, it jumped onto Yu Miaomiao again.

Yu Miaomiao threw it away again.

It climbed persistently, from its calves to its thighs, and then to its arms.

No matter how many times he was thrown away, he was still having a great time, as if he was treating Yu Miaomiao as a giant cat tree.

Unable to bear it any longer, Yu Miaomiao decided to use the ultimate weapon—

"Jiang Chengyi."

She called out.

But the vehicle happened to be passing a construction site, and the rumbling noise drowned out her voice.

She had no choice but to stick out a finger and poke Jiang Chengyi's arm through his clothes.

There was no response, so she increased the pressure a little.

The other person was tidying up the baby bottles and seemed unaware of what was happening.

Yu Miaomiao stared at Jiang Chengyi's black coat, utterly puzzled.

Is it because I'm wearing too many layers of clothing?

She had no choice but to aim at the areas that weren't covered by clothes.

For example, Jiang Chengyi's face.

She poked Jiang Chengyi's cheek.

Jiang Chengyi has very fair skin; she had known that for a long time.

However, when I touched it, I found that it felt pretty good.

It feels cool and delicate, with a texture similar to jade.

Yu Miaomiao's finger poked a dent in her cheek, like a shallow dimple.

This small change gave him a completely different temperament than usual.

Yu Miaomiao stared at that dimple, somewhat lost in thought.

It wasn't until Jiang Cheng turned his head and looked over that he raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly puzzled.

Remembering her business, she reluctantly withdrew her hand.

She glanced at the little cub jumping around, her cat eyes narrowed, her gaze cold, the meaning self-evident.

It's up to you now, hurry up and get on it.

Jiang Chengyi then put down the baby bottle and quickly grabbed the little one.

The cub's excited howling stopped abruptly, its fur standing on end slightly.

It frantically waved its short, thin limbs and twisted its head, trying to escape from the terrifying human.

But it was just a kitten less than a month old, how could it possibly win against Jiang Chengyi, who had caught countless cats?

Finally, after struggling for a while, it collapsed, exhausted.

A desperate whimpering sound came from its throat.

It really does sound like a kitten.

Yu Miaomiao pinched the cub's big tail and sneered.

Its tail is thick and long, fluffy, and feels quite nice to the touch.

"Will you dare to be naughty again?"

Monster cubs are different from ordinary cubs. At one month old, they can already understand some simple short sentences with strong tones.

As expected, upon hearing Yu Miaomiao's words, her large, blue eyes, still showing signs of distress, welled up with tears.

It pulled its tail over, bit it in its mouth, turned its rear end towards Yu Miaomiao, its round ears twitched, and made a whimpering sound in its throat.

There was a sense of resentment and sulking about it.

You won't play with me, you watch others bully me, and you even yell at me! Now you can't play with my tail anymore!

Wu An stared in disbelief at everything he saw through the rearview mirror.

As a single heron, this was the first time he had ever witnessed how difficult it was to raise children.

I can't help but admire how easily this human could manipulate the cubs.

Before long, the sulking little snow leopard couldn't hold back anymore.

She peeked up and saw that Yu Miaomiao had her eyes closed, seemingly asleep and not paying attention to them.

It slowly moved its fat body closer to Yu Miaomiao.

Only after pressing his head against her thigh did he find a comfortable position to curl up.

After doing all that, it yawned.

After all, it was a newborn cub, and all that fuss had already exhausted it.

Before long, he closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.

Yu Miaomiao opened her eyes, her gaze clear, showing no signs of sleepiness.

She exchanged a glance with Jiang Cheng and whispered, "The blanket."

The other person took a small handkerchief out of their bag and handed it to them.

She covered the cub with the small square cloth and nodded in satisfaction—the size was just right.

This is a rag that was bought too big. It has never been used since it was bought and has been left unused.

Because it's soft and absorbent, it's now being used to make blankets for my little one, which is a perfect way to reuse waste.

We finally arrived at the hospital.

Wu An made a phone call while parking the car.

"Dr. Xu, yes, there's a special examination that Xu Zhou, the engineer, booked. He's already arrived..."

The little one was still asleep when Yu Miaomiao picked it up and got out of the car.

The group entered the hospital.

Jiang Chengyi looked at the flow of people coming and going, somewhat surprised.

As the president of the Stray Animal Association of University A, he has access to resources for many pet hospitals of all sizes in City A.

But I never knew there was such a large pet hospital.

The hospital is not only large, but also very new. It is bustling with people, and there are special signs in the lobby indicating the location of different departments.

The department classification is strange.

Cercopithecidae, Mammalia, Aves, Crustacea, Plantae...

At first glance, it appears to be categorized by pet type.

But... why is there a plant family?

Because they had made an appointment in advance, the group did not register and went directly to the corresponding department.

Dr. Xu looked like a middle-aged man in his forties, but he had snow-white hair.

He picked up the snow leopard cub and performed a simple physical examination.

"Eyes are open, fur is thick, no tear stains, weight gain is progressing well—"

"Aww!"

His words were interrupted by the cub's shrill cry.

It was woken up by a stranger and is now very irritable.

It bit the doctor's finger with a loud thud.

Dr. Xu slowly pulled his finger out of the baby's toothless mouth.

He said with a smile, "Not bad, full of energy."

He operated the computer and generated more than a dozen examination forms.

Then they called over another doctor. "Some of the procedures are quite complicated, Xiaobai, you take them there."

The doctor named Xiaobai was a very young man.

With medium-length, snow-white hair mixed with a few strands of orange-yellow, he looked quite arrogant, yet his demeanor was very composed.

He greeted the group, "Hello, I'm Bai Muyun."

He took the sturdy cub from Dr. Xu and stroked its fluffy head.

"Let's go, little one."

With a doctor leading the way, the examination was completed very quickly.

One of the procedures involved drawing blood, and the cubs howled pitifully, flying around the room.

There was no other way, so Jiang Cheng had to go in and help control the cubs.

The remaining three people sat outside. Bai Muyun looked at the thick stack of examination forms in his hand, then glanced at the humans inside to make sure they couldn't hear him before speaking.

"This kitten isn't an ordinary domestic shorthair cat, is it?"

"Hey, what country cat looks like that? It's just a fake identity."

Having held back his words the whole way in front of Jiang Chengyi, an ordinary person, Wu An couldn't help but become a bit more talkative.

"Can you guess what it is?"

"Could it be a snow leopard?"

“You guessed it right!”

Wu An gave a thumbs up, "It's a snow leopard."

Bai Muyun smiled and said, "I'm a professional doctor, how could I not see it?"

She then asked in confusion, "Our hospital is connected to City A's monster registration system, but I remember there's no record of a snow leopard?"

"It's definitely not from City A. Sigh, it's a long story. Our entire department was going crazy trying to find its parents, and it even dragged others into this mess—"

Wu An stopped abruptly, waving his hand, "I can't say, I can't say."

Bai Muyun, understanding the situation, changed the subject.

"What kind of monster are you? Your aura feels similar to mine?"

"I am a night heron, a master hunter!"

Wu An proudly puffed out his chest and pointed to his red eyes, "No prey can escape my eyes."

“That’s amazing.”

Bai Muyun said enviously, "I'm a cattle egret, not as powerful as you."

"You're a doctor, that's pretty good, hahaha."

After chatting for a while, Wu An turned the conversation to Yu Miaomiao.

"Miss Yu, what kind of monster are you?"

"Chinese domestic cat".

Yu Miaomiao was looking down at Xiaobai's medical report and answered without looking up.

"Country cats are pretty good too. I remember that a powerful demon I found in the monster's cave was also a country cat."

Wu An said with great interest, "Your aura is so faint. Did you use a concealment spell? That's so difficult. I've never learned it."

"Interested in joining our Enforcement Division? Our benefits—"

"Born that way."

She closed the medical report and looked at Wu An. "I am a half-demon."

Wu An's proud expression suddenly froze, and a hint of astonishment and disdain involuntarily showed on his brows.

Under Yu Miaomiao's indifferent gaze, he quickly forced a smile, but the contempt hadn't yet subsided, and the conflicting emotions on his face created a rather comical expression.

"Hahaha, so you're a half-demon."

The laughter was dry and forced. "That's a pity, the Enforcement Division doesn't recruit half-demons."

"No, no, I didn't mean anything by it. Other departments are still hiring, such as the Science and Technology Department, the Public Opinion Department, and the Education Department."

"Our Monster Department never discriminates against any intelligent life."

He shouted the words with righteous indignation, as if reciting lines from a script.

Yu Miaomiao glanced at Wu An, and under her unwavering gaze, Wu An's voice gradually lowered.

He felt like a poorly performing clown.

The examination wasn't finished until 3 p.m.

Wu An carefully kept the inspection reports and gave them to Xu Zhou.

Bai Muyun escorted the group to the parking lot.

After spending several hours together, he seemed to have developed feelings for the adorable cub.

Before parting, I gave the cub a good pat before letting go.

"Are you that reluctant to part with it?"

Wu An laughed and said, "We'll come back for another check-up in two weeks, then you can touch it to your heart's content."

Bai Muyun, his thoughts exposed, smiled sheepishly and said, "Then I'll wait for you."

He started the car, waved, and only put his hand down after he had passed the corner and the car was out of sight.

He didn't leave, but instead looked down and examined his entire body, picking up a few fine, white hairs from his clothes.

He then took out a sealed bag from his pocket, opened it, put the hair inside, and smiled silently.