Chapter 55
Liu Wenzheng snorted coldly: "'Medicinal catalyst' is of course used to refine 'medicine'."
“Those old monsters who have lived for hundreds or thousands of years are unwilling to accept death and desperately seek all sorts of ways to prolong their lives. Once they have developed a tolerance to all kinds of spiritual herbs and medicines, they set their sights on newborn monster cubs.”
"They believe that the inner core of a newborn monster is the embryo of the highest-grade elixir, and with the addition of blood and flesh tempering, one can obtain a longevity elixir."
"Their needs have given rise to a profession similar to 'mercenaries'."
"The person who tricked Xiaobai from Xiaobai's parents is called Tianye. He is a mercenary who will find suitable 'medicinal catalysts' according to the needs of his superiors."
"He possesses a certain ability to gain the trust of demons, and using this talent, he has committed at least a hundred cases across the country over the past thirty years."
Yu Miaomiao was startled. "There must be quite a few people like Tian Ye, right?"
Liu Wenzheng nodded. "That's right. After meeting with Dr. Yang, we followed the clues and in the past half month, we destroyed seven related organizations, arrested more than a dozen masterminds, and hundreds of accomplices."
"From their mouths, we extracted more than a thousand mercenaries who made a living this way. These mercenaries stole, robbed, or cheated. Some even slaughtered the entire family of a weak monster they encountered. Over the past thirty years, more than ten thousand monster cubs have been abducted and turned into elixirs."
Upon hearing this, Yu Miaomiao frowned deeply.
She guessed there would be many victims, but she didn't expect there to be so many. Monsters already have a low birth rate, and these tens of thousands of cubs represent the precious efforts of countless families, yet they have become a mere drop of medicine at the fingertips of some powerful figures.
She couldn't understand why immortality was so alluring to certain monsters, leading them to commit such a heinous crime.
At this point, Liu Wenzheng suddenly stood up.
He looked at Yu Miaomiao, "Miaomiao, and... Chengyi, thank you so much this time."
"If it weren't for your persistence and help, I don't know how many more years it would have taken for this matter to come to light; I don't know how many more families would have suffered because of it."
"On behalf of the Enforcement Division and these families, I thank you for your efforts and contributions."
He bowed deeply.
Yu Miaomiao also stood up, took a step back, and avoided Liu Wenzheng's thanks.
She frowned. "I did all this just to save Xiaobai, it has nothing to do with what you're saying."
She could accept Xiaobai's parents' gratitude without hesitation, but she felt somewhat uncomfortable with Liu Wenzheng's thanks.
Liu Wenzheng insisted: "Whether you admit it or not, your contributions are objective and cannot be denied."
"After consultation, the entire Enforcement Division unanimously agreed to apply for awards for the two of you."
He first took out a document and handed it to Jiang Chengyi.
"Mr. Jiang Chengyi, given that you have already signed the 'Confidentiality Agreement,' the reward I have applied for for you is the qualification to enter the Science and Technology Division of the Monster Department. Here are the details, you can take a look."
"If you do not wish to join the Yokai Division, we can also apply for other rewards based on your needs."
Jiang Cheng calmly took the document and began to read it.
After reading it, he didn't show much joy, saying, "I'll consider it."
Liu Wenzheng didn't explain, only saying, "Okay, the reward application won't be implemented until after the New Year. In the meantime, you can ask Miss Yu and think it over before making a decision."
Yu Miaomiao was somewhat surprised, as she knew how significant this reward was.
The biggest perk for human employees in the Yokai Department every year is a variety of pills. These pills might be just sugar pills with some health benefits for yokai, but for humans, they are miraculous medicines that prolong life and strengthen the body. With these medicines, living to a hundred years old is no longer a luxury.
Compared to the above, the high salary, relaxed environment, and some small internal benefits seem less important.
The generous conditions come with strict entry requirements. Employees who can enter the Monster Department are either deeply connected with monsters or directly assigned by the organization. For someone like Jiang Chengyi, who only knows one monster, Yu Miaomiao, it would be almost impossible to get in.
Liu Wenzheng then took out another document and handed it to Yu Miaomiao.
“Miss Yu, I have inquired about you with some people in the Monster Department, so your reward is the qualification to be specially recruited into the Monster Supervision Committee after graduation.”
His words seemed to imply: "I think this is what you need most right now."
Yu Miaomiao took the document, scanned the key information, and found that what Liu Wenzheng said was true.
The qualifications for this special recruitment to the Demon Supervisory Committee can be said to be very lenient.
Relaxing educational requirements, eliminating the need for awards, exams, and medical examinations... however, none of these are the most important factors.
Most importantly, it does not scrutinize social relationships.
In other words, the problem that Yu Miaomiao had previously worried about—that she would not be able to pass the review due to signing the "Joint Liability Agreement"—no longer exists.
Faced with this reward that hit Yu Miaomiao's sore spot, she was almost ready to agree immediately.
"Miss Yu, don't worry."
Liu Wenzheng stopped her, "Engineer Xu has also applied for another reward for you. Due to the rules, you can only choose one of these two rewards. I think you can listen to Engineer Xu's reward."
Just then, Xu Zhou walked in.
Upon hearing Liu Wenzheng's words, he smiled and said, "Perfect timing, that's exactly what I came here to discuss."
He placed a stack of project proposals on Yu Miaomiao's desk.
"Miaomiao, this is an introduction to an inner alchemy regeneration project."
Upon hearing the words "internal alchemy regeneration," Yu Miaomiao lost interest in listening further. She frowned and said, "This kind of project is useless to me."
"This is different from those projects that fraudulently obtain funding."
Xu Zhou shook his head and opened the project proposal for her. "This is a project that my teacher has devoted all his energy to researching for twenty years."
"Over the past twenty years, we have conducted ten clinical trials, and the regeneration rate of the inner core has increased from 5% at the beginning to 98%."
Following Xu Zhou's words, Yu Miaomiao also saw the success rate curve. It was specially marked in small print that the reason the success rate was 98% was because a volunteer died in a battle with his nemesis before the follow-up examination.
If we exclude this person, the success rate should be 100%.
Seeing Yu Miaomiao's surprised expression, Xu Zhou smiled proudly.
"The eleventh phase of clinical trials will begin in two months. As soon as the news came out, everyone was scrambling to get in. However, my teacher is very strict in selecting volunteers, with high requirements for demonic energy concentration, original form, and other aspects."
"Right now, given your physical condition, Miaomiao, you definitely wouldn't have passed the screening."
"But he was deeply moved after hearing about your story, and with my persistent pleading as your last disciple, the teacher decided to give you an extra spot."
Yu Miaomiao looked at the two documents in front of her and fell silent.
Liu Wenzheng did not urge them. "Miss Yu, Mr. Jiang, you can take these documents back and consider them carefully. You can give us a reply after the New Year."
After saying that, he answered a phone call and left in a hurry. Xu Zhou also said goodbye.
As Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Cheng walked out of the conference room and passed by the laboratory, Hu Li pulled her inside.
After hearing about the two rewards, she immediately said, "What's there to consider? Of course, I'll choose the Inner Alchemy Regeneration Project. I know Engineer Xu's teacher; she's an incredibly powerful figure in the industry. She wouldn't lie to me."
"Miaomiao, with your abilities, passing the exam for the Demon Supervisory Committee is a piece of cake. You don't need special admission at all."
Yu Miaomiao didn't respond. Instead, she asked, "Has Xiaobai finished her checkup?"
"It's still being worked on."
Hu Li said, "Xu Gong's guess is correct. Xiao Bai's mother and father both have the talent for spatial jumping, and they are particularly good at it. They can even take others with them when they jump."
As she spoke, Yu Miaomiao noticed that the space in front of her was slightly distorted, and then two figures appeared before her.
It was Xiaobai's mother and Xu Zhou.
As soon as Xu Zhou landed, he knelt down, his face contorted as he hugged the trash can and vomited violently.
The mother apologized, "I'm so sorry, Dr. Xu, every time you prick me with that needle, I can't help but activate my abilities."
Xu Zhou wiped his mouth, stood up, and said, "It's nothing, we're just testing."
How many people do you think you can bring along at most?
“There’s definitely more than one.” The mother sensed it and hesitated, “Two, three? I’m not sure.”
"Ayan, Ayan, where are you?"
A hurried male voice approached from afar, stopping in front of the mother before letting out a sigh of relief, "You scared me to death! I thought you were missing too."
Mom hugged Dad, "A-Yin, don't worry, I'm fine."
The two of them started crying silently again.
The cub, squeezed between the two, struggled to squeeze out its head and howled at Yu Miaomiao.
Help me, help me, I'm drowning in tears.
Amidst the cries of the cubs, the two finally discovered Yu Miaomiao's presence.
The couple handed over a phone number that they had copied crookedly onto a piece of paper.
“My benefactor, this is the telephone number I just got. Please feel free to call me if you need anything.”
He once again expressed his deepest gratitude to Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Chengyi, and offered to treat them to a meal.
Xiao Bai also held onto Yu Miaomiao tightly and refused to let go.
After going through countless hardships, the two finally escaped thanks to the pleas of the snow leopard family.
Back in the car, Yu Miaomiao breathed a sigh of relief.
Jiang Chengyi tugged at a corner of her clothes. "It's torn."
She looked down and saw that the spot where Xiaobai had just grabbed her was not only torn, but practically ripped into tassels.
Jiang Chengyi suddenly brought up another topic out of the blue, "Engineer Xu said that they will stay here for a month to cooperate on the research, and then return to X Province."
Yu Miaomiao hummed in response, looking listless. "What's wrong?"
Will you miss Xiaobai?
She paused for a moment and said, "Those are its parents. It should have lived with them. I was just taking care of it for a month."
However, he did not answer Jiang Chengyi's question.
On the way back, Yu Miaomiao looked out the car window without saying a word.
-
The next day, Yu Miaomiao returned to school to cancel her leave.
She took almost two weeks off this time, citing illness as the reason. During class, her pale face and noticeably thinner figure left no room for doubt.
Li Zhi cupped her face in her hands and looked at her from all angles.
"Miaomiao, are you really okay? You've lost so much weight, are you alright...?"
"It's alright."
Yu Miaomiao coughed twice, put the medicine in her mouth, and said, "Just take your medicine on time."
Looking at the densely packed pills, Li Zhi felt a little strange, but whenever Yu Miaomiao spoke in a cold and calm tone, she couldn't help but believe her.
"Then you should take your medicine properly."
Li Zhi said, "When are you going to the hospital for a follow-up check-up? I'll go with you."
No need for a follow-up examination.
Li Zhi was relieved; there was no need for a follow-up examination, so it shouldn't be anything serious.
After a day of classes, Yu Miaomiao resumed her plans for volunteer activities.
With only two weeks left until her FA scholarship defense, and the deadline for submitting materials three days in advance, she couldn't afford to waste the remaining twelve days.
She is still partnered with Jiang Chengyi, and this time their target is a pair of orange cats who have wandered over here.
The husband cat was easily caught and put into a cage because of his gluttony, but the other female cat was timid and wary, and it took the two of them a lot of effort to catch it with a net. The cat desperately tore at the mesh of the net, screaming pitifully, its fur standing on end.
Jiang Cheng tried to get close to him several times but failed each time.
“It’s a stress response,” he said.
Yu Miaomiao said, "I'll do it."
She approached the mother cat, who sensed her approachability and stopped meowing warningly. However, the cat was still trembling and showed signs of incontinence, indicating that it was in very poor condition.
She stroked the cat's head and infused it with a wisp of demonic power, and the mother cat's condition visibly improved.
The two people took the cat to the hospital.
Yu Miaomiao rested with her eyes closed on a chair in the hospital lobby, her breathing heavy.
"You just used demonic power?"
“Yes.” Yu Miaomiao spoke slowly, “Just now, I accidentally used up all my demonic power, and I feel a little uncomfortable.”
After a while, she stood up, leaning against the wall, and said weakly, "I'm going back now."
Jiang Chengyi also stood up, "I'll see you off."
"No need, it's only a few hundred meters." Yu Miaomiao refused firmly.
She slowly moved her body, and just as she reached the door, her mind went blank and she collapsed.
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