The story afterward
Around nine o'clock, Jiang Cheng heard the sounds of General Manager Lin and the review team exchanging pleasantries coming from the archives room, which meant the review was almost over.
He washed the coffee cup, went downstairs early, started the car, and turned on the air conditioner.
A dozen minutes later, the passenger side door was opened, and a girl, shivering with cold, got in.
Her cheeks were red from the cold, and she was shivering all over. "It's so cold."
Jiang Cheng took a blanket from the back seat and covered her with it. "The air conditioning is on in the car, you'll feel better after a while."
Yu Miaomiao buried her entire body in the blanket; the warmth brought her back to life. She complained, "I hate wearing uniforms."
The temperature was very low on autumn nights in City A. The thin winter uniform Yu Miaomiao was wearing offered absolutely no protection against the cold—in fact, it was more accurate to say that the uniforms designed for monsters were never intended to provide warmth.
Jiang Cheng drove the car out of the parking lot. "I'm getting home a little late today. Eating too much isn't good for my stomach. Can I cook some noodles?"
Yu Miaomiao nodded. Jiang Chengyi's cooking skills had become increasingly superb after years of honing them, and everything he made tasted delicious. She never complained.
However, she still made a personalized request: "I want two fried eggs."
Thinking about her appetite, she hesitated for a moment and changed her mind, "Hmm... one is fine."
Jiang Chengyi's smiling voice rang out, "Okay, Team Leader Miaomiao."
"Don't call me that!"
Yu Miaomiao wanted to pounce on him and bite him, but the driver always had special privileges. In the end, she could only angrily poke Jiang Chengyi's thigh with her finger.
Half an hour later, they returned home.
After graduating from university, Yu Miaomiao did not pursue postgraduate studies but went directly to work in the Monster Department. They rented a new house near the Monster Department, and Yu Miaomiao only needed to walk five minutes to get to work every day.
It's a bit far from Jiang Chengyi's workplace; it takes about half an hour to drive there.
After returning home, Jiang Cheng put on an apron and went into the kitchen to start cooking. Soon after, two bowls of noodles were served.
The broth was clear, the noodles were snow-white, and it was garnished with emerald green vegetables and golden fried eggs, with an enticing aroma.
Yu Miaomiao was extremely hungry and finished the noodles in no time. The consequence of eating too fast was that she felt uncomfortably full.
She rubbed her stomach and walked around twice, still feeling uncomfortable. So she turned into a cat, jumped into Jiang Cheng's arms, rolled over, gently patted his arm with her long tail, looked at him with her round green eyes, and meowed twice.
Even though he didn't understand the meaning of the cry, Jiang Chengyi understood immediately from the action.
He stretched out his palm and placed it on the kitten's soft belly, which was swollen and looked quite full.
He gently rubbed the kitten's belly with slow, gentle movements, circling it around and around. Before long, the kitten started purring.
Mmm~ It really feels better when Jiang Cheng massages me~
After rubbing her belly, Jiang Cheng pinched the fluffy ears to wake the drowsy kitten, "Miaomiao, go take a bath."
The kitten rolled over, covered its ears with its paws, and meowed softly.
I'm so tired, can you help me wash?
Yu Miaomiao had been busy lately, and after finally finishing the programming project and completing the review, she relaxed and didn't want to move at all.
Jiang Chengyi sighed helplessly, "Alright, let's shower together then."
He took the kitten into the bathroom to give it a bath, turned on the shower, and asked again, "Miaomiao, are you sure you want to wash it like this?"
The sound of flowing water woke the tired kitten up. She meowed in alarm and transformed into human form the next moment, landing in Jiang Chengyi's arms.
That was close; her beautiful fur almost got wet.
Although she can't be considered a pure animal or monster, Yu Miaomiao still retains some of the cat's nature, such as liking to eat cold food and disliking having her fur wet.
Even after becoming human, Yu Miaomiao had no intention of washing herself. She rested her head on Jiang Chengyi's shoulder. Without any fabric separating them, his skin was smooth and warm, which felt very comfortable to her.
She rubbed her cheek against the ground. "You wash me."
This had happened many times. Sometimes it was because Yu Miaomiao stayed up all night and was not fully conscious, sometimes it was a side effect of a new drug, and sometimes it was because she was so tired after exercising that she couldn't even lift a finger. At these times, Jiang Chengyi would carry Yu Miaomiao to the bathroom, wash her carefully, dry her off, and then put her in bed.
At first, Yu Miaomiao was a little uncomfortable, but perhaps it is a cat's nature to enjoy being served, and soon she got used to it.
After taking a shower, Yu Miaomiao was tucked into bed. Jiang Cheng left the bedroom and returned shortly after, carrying a glass of warm water and two pills.
"Miaomiao, it's time to take your medicine."
Yu Miaomiao sat up with her eyes closed, skillfully took the pill, put it in her mouth, drank some water, and then lay back down.
Over the years, her medication dosage has been decreasing, but this does not mean that her health is improving; rather, it means that the medication has become ineffective.
In the doctor's words, "They've developed drug resistance, so what's the point of taking any more?"
When she last went to the hospital six months ago, the doctor only prescribed her a basic medicine that provided her with demonic power.
Yu Miaomiao accepted this well, after all, taking medicine like food every day was a bit tiring, but after returning home, Jiang Chengyi held her in silence for a long time.
Jiang Cheng turned off the light and got into bed. Yu Miaomiao rolled onto him, her brows relaxed—it was still the most comfortable mattress.
She yawned slightly and was about to fall asleep when Jiang Chengyi's voice rang out.
"Miaomiao, there's something I want to talk to you about."
The unusually serious tone brought her to her senses slightly. "What is it?"
"If the inner alchemy restoration project passes the review, I hope you can register as soon as possible and join the matching process."
After graduating from university, Jiang Chengyi did not accept the reward and joined the Monster Club.
After gaining a deeper understanding, he discovered that the Monster Department Laboratory was extremely slow in applying for and approving projects and funding. It often took more than ten years for a project to go from initiation to implementation, and he simply could not accept making Yu Miaomiao wait for more than ten years.
After careful research and consideration, he was admitted to Tsinghua and Peking Universities for graduate studies and joined a university-enterprise cooperation project between Tsinghua and Peking Universities and a certain monster-themed biotechnology company.
Unlike other internal alchemy regeneration projects, this project specializes in internal alchemy transplantation and repair, greatly increasing its feasibility.
With Jiang Chengyi's involvement, the project matured to the point of being ready for market launch in just five years.
Jiang Chengyi also proposed cooperating with the government, because only with strong official promotion could more monsters understand and join the project, increasing the matching probability.
Yu Miaomiao was taken aback, a hint of resistance rising in her heart. She muttered, "There's no need to rush, I'm perfectly healthy..."
"It's not fast at all."
Jiang Chengyi said, "I have been waiting for many years."
She rolled off him, moved to the corner of the bed, and curled up into a ball.
Seeing this defiant act, Jiang Cheng smiled wryly.
He knew why Yu Miaomiao was angry.
Once she possesses the inner core, her health will certainly improve, but the lifespans that were originally nearly equal between the two will rapidly widen, becoming an insurmountable chasm.
Yu Miaomiao has stated many times that maintaining the status quo is fine.
Jiang Chengyi's selfish side also echoed in his heart: Indeed, this is not bad either. They live together and die together. It won't be like the many cases he heard from his demon colleagues, where humans lose their looks in their fifties or sixties and are abandoned by demons; or where humans die and demons die for love; or the most common situation, where demons accompany humans until death and then find a new partner.
But……
He moved closer to Yu Miaomiao, ignoring her slight resistance, and pulled her into his arms again. His voice was low and pleading, "Miaomiao, just for my sake, please give it a try, okay?"
However, Jiang Chengyi simply couldn't accept it. There was an opportunity right in front of him that could have allowed Miaomiao to live a healthy life to three or four hundred years old, but he turned a blind eye to it and watched helplessly as she could only drag her frail body and die at the age of eighty.
He cannot forgive himself for this.
Much later, a barely audible "hmm" was heard.
Jiang Chengyi gently kissed Yu Miaomiao's hair and sighed, "Thank you, Miaomiao."
He knew that in the end, Miao Miao still compromised for him.
-
Three days later, the review results were released, and the project was approved.
A month later, the project was rolled out nationwide.
On the first day of open DNA matching, Jiang Cheng took Yu Miaomiao to fill out the application.
Yu Miaomiao reluctantly had her blood drawn, her face grim, and she cursed, "I hope it won't be a match for seven or eight years."
Jiang Chengyi said, "The genetic diversity among demons is very low. At most, it will take two years to find a match."
But his expression wasn't very optimistic.
The difficulty of the project lies not in finding a matching monster, but in the monster's willingness to donate.
After all, which monster would be willing to give half of its inner core to someone else?
This is extremely harmful to the monster.
But things turned out very differently than the two of them expected.
In the second month, a monster with a 90% compatibility score with Yu Miaomiao appeared.
Before Yu Miaomiao could even process this explosive news, she signed the consent form in a daze and was wheeled into the operating room.
When she woke up again, the attending physician was standing by her bedside, congratulating her, "Miaomiao, from today onwards, you are a monster with an inner core!"
As soon as they came out of the operating room, Jiang Cheng rushed over, looking anxious. His fingers, which were icy cold, touched Yu Miaomiao's face. "Miaomiao, how are you feeling?"
Even though he had been involved in the entire project and had conducted countless experiments, and was intimately familiar with all the situations, he still felt as flustered as someone experiencing something like this for the first time while waiting outside the operating room for an hour.
Yu Miaomiao clenched her fist and then opened it again, feeling the unprecedented abundance of demonic power within her body, without any of the weakness after the surgery. She hesitated and asked, "It feels...good?"
-
Once the anesthesia wore off, Yu Miaomiao was discharged from the hospital.
Just two hours later, the surgical wound in his dantian had healed almost completely under the influence of demonic power.
After the examination, the doctor exclaimed, "Excellent, excellent! This recovery ability is more normal than before; it's so much better than you used to be."
He further instructed, "You currently only have half an inner core inside you, so you must cultivate diligently according to the cultivation method, take your medicine regularly, and have a check-up every six months. Also, you must remember these prohibitions..."
The doctor was halfway through his sentence when he looked at Jiang Chengyi beside him, slapped his forehead, and said, "Oh dear, I almost forgot, the project manager is right here."
"You definitely know better than I do, so I won't say any more."
On the way back, Yu Miaomiao was still experiencing a physical state that was completely different from before.
Her fingertips conjured a cluster of flames, a snowflake, and a flash of light, having a great time—you should know that in the past, she could barely manage to use one of these spells even if she squeezed out all her demonic power.
As Jiang Cheng drove, he watched her play. Seeing her unusually curious expression, he couldn't help but laugh and ask, "How is it? Better than before, right?"
Yu Miaomiao paused, held the snowflake in her palm, and snorted, "It just means you can cast more spells, but it's not very useful."
It was only after some time that she truly understood the benefits of having an inner elixir.
First of all, they can use their demonic power without restraint.
Yu Miaomiao bought many small gadgets powered by demonic energy and placed them in the house, having them clean, broadcast announcements, and dust.
Secondly, his physical fitness became exceptionally good.
She no longer feels sleepy at 10 pm, or feels tired the next day if she doesn't get nine hours of sleep. Now, she sleeps for three hours a day and is still full of energy the next day.
After discovering this benefit, she began to squeeze out more sleep time. She would finish get off work at six o'clock, eat a quick meal, and then sit in front of the computer writing code until four o'clock in the morning before going to bed.
Jiang Chengyi once offered a tactful suggestion, "Miaomiao, even if you have an inner core, your body still needs rest."
But Yu Miaomiao pretended not to hear and continued to stay up late.
The craziest time was when Yu Miaomiao didn't sleep for three consecutive days. She was coding before Jiang Cheng fell asleep, and she was still coding when Jiang Cheng got up. She only started washing up and getting ready for work after Jiang Cheng left the house.
On the fourth day, as soon as Jiang Cheng got off work, he prepared the meal and went to the study to call Yu Miaomiao for dinner. After receiving a perfunctory "I don't want to eat," he couldn't hold back any longer and picked Yu Miaomiao up from the computer desk.
She exclaimed, "I haven't saved it yet!"
He hoisted Yu Miaomiao onto his shoulder with one hand, used the other to move the mouse, saved the code, then shut down the computer, walked to the bedroom, and threw her onto the bed.
Yu Miaomiao groggily got out of bed. Just as she was about to get angry, she looked up and saw Jiang Chengyi's ambiguous expression. Recalling her actions over the past few days, she couldn't help but feel guilty.
She whispered, "I almost did it. Once I finish this project, I'll never do it again."
As she spoke, she carefully got out of bed, seemingly intending to run to the study.
Jiang Cheng was so angry he laughed.
Before she could run out of the bedroom, he slammed the door shut and forced her step by step toward the bed.
With nowhere to retreat, Yu Miaomiao sat on the bed, watching the man unbuttoning his shirt one button at a time, at a loss for what to do.
"W-What are you going to do..."
Jiang Cheng threw his shirt on the ground, leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Since Miaomiao has so much energy, why don't we do something else?"
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