Chapter 56

When Yu Miaomiao opened her eyes again, she found herself in a speeding car.

She blinked and looked to her left. Jiang Chengyi was driving intently, his brows furrowed, looking worried.

"Where...are you going?" she asked.

Jiang Cheng was startled, then turned his head sharply, his furrowed brows relaxing slightly. "You're awake. I—"

At that moment, the traffic light at the intersection suddenly turned red. He quickly stepped on the brake, leaned forward, and was pulled back into the seat by the seatbelt, showing a rare moment of frantic activity.

He said, "You suddenly fainted, and I was just about to take you to the hospital."

“No need to go,” Yu Miaomiao said. “It’s just a side effect of using up all my demonic power.”

Jiang Cheng insisted, "Then let's go get a medical check-up."

Yu Miaomiao couldn't argue with him, so she let him be.

After the examination, the doctor looked at the stack of reports and scolded, "I told you to use less demonic power, why didn't you listen! Don't you know your own body? Without an inner core, how can you act as casually as other demons?"

He clicked on the computer, and the printer spit out two forms. "Here, I'll prescribe two more medications to restore your basic health. Take them with the previous medication for at least another year. We'll see how things go and decide whether to stop the medication."

After leaving the clinic, Jiang Cheng asked Yu Miaomiao to sit down and rest. He went to the pharmacy to get the medicine, poured her some warm water, and watched her take the medicine.

While waiting for the medication to take effect, Jiang Cheng asked:

"Is Professor Xu Zhou's project really that special?"

A sentence without beginning or end.

"Maybe."

Yu Miaomiao stroked the outside of the paper cup, the warmth of the water seeping into her fingertips. "Didn't Xu Zhou say everyone wanted to go?"

"So do you want to go?"

“The inner core is of no use to me,” Yu Miaomiao said casually. “Many demons want the inner core only to increase their demonic power; I don’t need those.”

"Is it merely to increase demonic power?"

Yu Miaomiao paused for a moment, then said firmly, "Yes."

"And what about lifespan?" Jiang Chengyi's voice followed immediately after her words.

"You only have less than a hundred years to live, and it won't affect your health?"

Jiang Chengyi's voice was low and gentle, but Yu Miaomiao's body stiffened.

For some reason, she felt a little guilty.

"Who told you that?" she asked, "Hu Li?"

"What a blabbermouth! I specifically told her not to tell anyone—"

Are you trying to change the subject?

Yu Miaomiao's words came to an abrupt end.

After a long silence, she said, "I really don't need an inner elixir. A hundred years is enough for me."

She didn't look at Jiang Chengyi, but stared ahead. The lights there seemed to be broken, flickering and dimming, which was annoying to look at.

"I was never a pure monster to begin with."

She tried to make her voice light and cheerful, "My demonic power has been very weak since I was a child. My lifestyle is similar to that of humans. I can still live for more than a hundred years. In the eyes of humans, wouldn't that be living to be a hundred years old?"

"But your hundred years will be spent in this situation forever."

He held Yu Miaomiao's left hand in his arms. It was a pale hand with dark purple nails, and her palm was cold and damp, trembling slightly—her symptoms had not improved even after she had taken the medicine for a long time.

"This is nothing."

Yu Miaomiao withdrew her hand, acting as if nothing had happened.

The phone suddenly rang.

Yu Miaomiao answered the phone. In the quiet hall, the voice on the other end of the receiver was very clear; it was Liu Wenzheng.

"Ms. Yu, Engineer Xu asked me to ask one last time: this inner alchemy regeneration project is extremely rare, and there may not be a second chance. Are you really not going to reconsider?"

"I've made my decision, there's no need to ask anymore."

Her voice showed not the slightest hesitation.

"Okay, I respect Ms. Yu's decision. I will report your needs to you when I get to work tomorrow."

"Thanks."

As the phone hung up, Jiang Cheng asked, "Did you choose the qualification to join the Demon Supervisory Committee?"

"Obviously."

Jiang Chengyi's voice was tight, as if he was suppressing something, "So you gave up your own body."

"This is not called giving up."

"I just chose something more important."

Yu Miaomiao's voice was calm, even bordering on indifferent.

Jiang Chengyi felt his body growing colder and colder, and he finally realized the cold and calculating nature of Yu Miaomiao's personality.

Everything can be weighed on a scale, its weight compared, and it can be categorized as "important" or "unimportant," discardable or non-discardable, even one's own life.

Jiang Cheng gave a wry smile. "I don't understand, is joining the Demon Supervision Committee really that important?"

Is it that important?

Yu Miaomiao repeated Jiang Chengyi's words and suddenly sneered.

"Did you know that among demons, the only standard by which they measure each other is the strength of their demonic power?"

“Bullying classmates and forming cliques? It doesn’t matter, because among monsters, the law of the jungle is the norm, and it’s only natural for the strong to bully the weak.”

"Failed exams, fighting, skipping classes? No problem, as long as his demonic energy concentration meets the standard in each semester's physical examination, he will be the most popular outstanding student."

"Did you fail the college entrance exam? No problem, as long as your demon power is strong enough, there are special admissions programs for demon vocational schools, and you can go straight into the demon department after graduation."

"All of this is because their demonic energy concentration is high enough."

"The Demon Department has a total of nine departments. In eight of them, the minimum standard for demon energy concentration is 7.3 mol/L, while my physical examination data is 1.32 mol/L."

Her voice trembled slightly, "Just because I am a half-demon with weak demonic power, no matter how many first places I have won, how many scholarships I have received, or how many awards I have received, I am not even qualified to submit my resume to these eight departments."

"The Demon Supervisory Committee is the only way for me to enter the Demon Department."

Her glassy eyes burned with fierce anger. "I will never allow those who bully me, mock me, and whose scores are not even a fraction of mine, to step on my head!"

Jiang Cheng stared at Yu Miaomiao with his dark phoenix eyes, his gaze filled with heartache.

"Miaomiao, you are already very good. You don't need to care about the opinions of other monsters."

"Are you pitying me?" Yu Miaomiao asked, tilting her head.

"I don't need your sympathy."

She took a step back. "I don't need your opinion."

Jiang Cheng caught up with Yu Miaomiao, his voice urgent, "You know what I mean, I just feel sorry for you."

He gripped the girl's slender shoulders with both hands, her prominent shoulder blades digging into his palms. "I know the Demon Supervisory Committee is important to you, but you can still enter it through an exam. However, the Inner Core Regeneration Project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

His voice lowered, tinged with pleading, "Just for your health, don't give up on this project, okay?"

Yu Miaomiao pulled her hand away, her breathing rapid, "Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to make choices for me?"

"Can--"

"I must join the Demon Supervisory Committee."

She gave Jiang Cheng a cold look, then turned and left.

-

get out of class ended early today. After catching the cat, Yu Miaomiao took on a volunteer task of picking up trash in the back hill. Li Zhi also came along. The two chatted as they put water bottles and plastic bags into the trash bags.

"Miaomiao, how many volunteer hours have you accumulated?"

"Including today's, there are 107."

"Wow, he's already surpassed so-and-so from the finance, law, and mathematics departments—that's Jiang Cheng—"

Li Zhi swallowed the name she hadn't finished saying and cautiously observed Yu Miaomiao's suddenly cold expression.

About ten days ago, Li Zhi discovered that Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Chengyi were having a cold war.

It wasn't that she had particularly keen observation skills, but rather that Yu Miaomiao's behavior changes were simply too obvious.

When doing volunteer work, she would refuse to go with Jiang Chengyi; when she encountered Jiang Chengyi on the road, she would simply walk past him as if she didn't see him; and for a period of time, going home for meals turned into eating in the cafeteria with Li Zhi; in the past few days, it has even developed into her giving a cold face whenever she hears someone mention Jiang Chengyi's name.

Li Zhi also sought confirmation from her informant, Cheng Nuo.

Cheng Nuo poured out his grievances to her, saying that his good friend Jiang Chengyi had been acting strangely lately, disappearing as soon as get out of class was over, refusing to let him copy his homework, and refusing to play basketball. When asked if he and Yu Miaomiao had quarreled, he only said, "I made her angry," and then fell silent.

Seeing that Yu Miaomiao's mood was getting worse, and that she was picking up trash without saying a word, Li Zhi sighed inwardly and took out her phone to confide in Cheng Nuo.

A lychee: [Damn it, how could I forget again that I can't mention Jiang Chengyi's name?]

CN: [Be content, at least she still lets you copy her homework. These past few days, it feels like Lao Jiang has unilaterally severed ties with me.]

CN: [I just called Lao Jiang, and he hung up on me after I only said one sentence. Can you believe it? My heart is broken. This is what our friendship of over ten years is like. *crying*

A lychee: [Didn't Jiang Chengyi tell you what he went to do?]

CN: [Wow, he left as soon as class was over, I couldn't stop him no matter how much I called him. He even asked me questions, acting all mysterious. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't say a word.]

CN: [No matter what they argued about, please make up quickly, I'm praying.jpg]

A lychee: [Please let them make up soon, I'll never curse Jiang Chengyi to never catch up with Miaomiao again, please.jpg]

CN: [What! You even cursed Lao Jiang to never catch up with Yu Miaomiao? Lao Jiang is such a good person, why?]

A lychee: [I treat anyone who tries to take Miaomiao away from me the same way. Okay, let's not worry about these trivial details.]

A lychee: [They should make up quickly.]

CN: [They should make up quickly.]

After sending the message, Li Zhi looked up and found that Yu Miaomiao had already walked dozens of meters away. She quickly caught up, "Miaomiao, wait for me!"

An hour later, the two submitted the task carrying a full bag of trash. Li Zhi clutched her stomach and said, "Miao Miao, I'm so hungry, let's go eat."

Yu Miaomiao shook her head, "You go ahead, I'm not hungry, I'm going home first."

She walked slowly back to her apartment complex alone, and while waiting at a red light, she met Jiang Chengyi.

Jiang Cheng carried a bag, his windbreaker zipped up to his chin, dressed for an outing. His hair hadn't been cut in a while; his bangs slightly obscured his eyebrows and eyes, revealing only his strong brow bone and high, smooth nose. His thin lips were slightly pursed, giving him a gloomy look under the dim sky, quite different from his usual image.

The two looked at each other and were both stunned for a moment.

Yu Miaomiao immediately looked away, focusing on the endless stream of cars, so she didn't know that Jiang Chengyi's gaze lingered on her for a long time without leaving her for a moment.

"you--"

Just as Jiang Cheng was about to say something, the red light turned green, and Yu Miaomiao stepped past him without saying a word.

"etc."

Jiang Cheng grabbed Yu Miaomiao's wrist.