Chapter 36 The Cage: He chose her.
Ever since revealing this ability to Jin Wanli, Shu Qing never thought she could hide it from the Super Management Bureau. Now that Xie Heng has come to ask, she naturally admits it and even asks in return, "Is it that special?"
“Yes, it’s very special.” Xie Heng smiled and led them forward. “Nowadays, people with special abilities are almost extinct, let alone someone with a talent like Miss Shu’s.”
He added, "Wanli also told me that he was interested in collaborating on a project with Miss Shu. I wonder if he has mentioned it to you?"
The words "Jin Wanli" and "cooperative project" didn't seem like they should appear in the same sentence at all. Shu Qing's eyes widened in surprise: "...Huh?"
Jiu Su smiled at her, her eyes crinkling like a spring breeze, clearly in a very good mood: "Yes, he hasn't decided yet, and he's unwilling to take it out."
Shu Qing was dazzled by the smile and couldn't help but smile back. Her face slowly regained its color—what was she thinking? According to Jiu Su's account, he was a great demon who had lived for over a thousand years, not someone under the age of eighteen with limited capacity for action, and she was the one who needed to take responsibility.
He chose her, and now, he is clearly happy with that choice.
Isn't it pointless for her to waste her time and energy on her own overthinking?
Shu Qing put aside her inner conflict and focused her thoughts entirely on the issue at hand. She clicked her tongue, understanding the situation. Jin Wanli, that arrogant and proud guy, couldn't possibly write a project proposal; he was just trying to catch up because he was embarrassed to embarrass himself in front of her, a working stiff.
“Fine,” she smiled maliciously, “I’ll wait and see what kind of PowerPoint presentation he can come up with for me.”
Xie Heng thought to himself, "PPT, my foot! It would be good enough if he could just show you a Word document."
"Then let me give Miss Shu a heads-up first," Xie Heng said. Guiding high-risk monsters to integrate into modern society is also an important KPI for regulators. As the head of the special operations department, it is a good thing for Jin Wanli to be able to promote a project in a human way, so he naturally gave his full support. "Many low-level supernatural beings privately raised by the Huiyao Group, such as Niannian from Miss Qi's family, have some congenital problems to varying degrees."
Shu Qing instantly understood: "You want me to use my 'golden finger'... oh, talent, like you did with Nian Nian, to heal them?"
Xie Heng swiped open another door and said, "Yes."
Shu Qing looked up and saw a large containment room in front of her. Considering the future cooperation, Xie Heng brought them to a containment room for low-level monsters. They did not have the same conditions as Jiu Su when she temporarily stayed at the Super Management Bureau. They did not have single rooms or their own beds. It was almost as if the "accommodation" of Huiyao Group had been moved over exactly as it was.
A dense array of square grids, each half a meter wide, lay before me, with little monsters locked inside, much like the parcel lockers at the entrance of a residential complex, where goods from all over the world each occupied a space, waiting for people to scan a code and pick them up.
A small, palm-sized kitten, quite clever, climbed out of the cubicle and meowed at Shu Qing in a flattering manner.
Shu Qing had only seen the photos online before, and she already felt sorry for them. Now that she saw them in person, her head was throbbing.
“Okay,” Jiu Su said, still holding her close, answering Xie Heng’s question for her, “I will discuss it with her.”
Actually, even if he hadn't said that, Shu Qing wouldn't have agreed so readily out of sympathy. This matter was far more complicated than simply helping the Super Management Bureau promote the adoption of little monsters—the specifics of how to cooperate, the timeframe, and what to do if they couldn't be cured were all left unsaid.
Ordinary medical disputes can be fatal, and it's even more unpredictable when monsters cause trouble. Shu Qing doesn't consider herself a hot-blooded girl and won't easily become a pushover.
But Jiu Su was a demon, and at this moment, his priority was to protect her. Shu Qing appreciated this and secretly squeezed his hand.
Jiu Su asked with a smile, "Aren't you going to take a look?"
"Oh," Shu Qing's gaze fell on the layers of cubicles, confirming, "I can take whichever one I like?"
Xie Heng: "Yes."
Shu Qing first picked up the persistent kitten that kept whining to her—the Super Management Bureau was quite efficient, having already figured out the kitten's background. It wasn't high-level, only level 1.2, and its abilities weren't very useful; it was just something that made people happy, not much better than an ordinary cat.
But Shuqing liked them very much, so she handed them to Jiusu to hold, and looked at them one by one herself.
Jiu Su had told her before that she could keep a pair of "Dream Weavers," and she immediately looked for them on the label, finding them in three seconds. As an insect-type monster, the Dream Weaver didn't even deserve a single compartment; they were colorfully displayed in a pile of glass jars, like a group of specimens of various colors.
Several of them were flying around lively inside the jar, as if they had entered a new world, because they were a row of test tubes in the former residence of the Radiant Group.
"Be careful." The glass jar was placed a bit high, so Jiu Su picked out the prettiest one and took it down for her, reminding her, "The power of the Dream Weaver Butterfly is overflowing, which may cause hallucinations."
Shu Qing wrinkled her nose at him and simply refused to take it. Instead, she used Jiu Su's hand to gently touch the transparent glass wall. The butterfly inside flew over curiously and landed on her finger through the glass, its wings fluttering, showing no fear of people at all.
Shu Qing glanced at the label on the glass jar: Level 1.0. It was almost just an ordinary butterfly.
She decisively picked up the jar as well, and then adopted a fairy snail that Jiu Su had mentioned. After registering, there was nothing more for her to do at the Super Management Bureau. She took the three newly adopted little monsters home.
Pushing open the door and walking through the courtyard, Shu Qing took a deep breath of the air filled with the fragrance of flowers. These past few days, she had been going in and out with Jiu Su, and she had been in a vacation mood. The joy of "changing houses" was overshadowed by the joy of vacation, and she didn't have any particular thoughts.
Today, as she returned alone from the supermarket management office, she was suddenly reminded of her days working at Huiyao Group. After work, returning to her rented studio apartment, all she could see were rows upon rows of tiny cubicles lining the long corridor. Separated by a thin wall, a simple phone call or hair dryer could be heard by all the neighbors.
No matter how exquisitely she tidied her house or how much she improved her standard of living, her life remained narrow and cramped.
Back then, how was she any different from these pitiful little monsters we see today?
We all live in tangible or intangible cages, and we know neither the sun nor freedom.
"Now we have a big house to live in and a yard to play in, things are getting better," Shu Qing thought ambitiously. "There will be even better things to come!"
She put the three little monsters down. Even though their energy levels were only slightly above level 1, their intelligence was much higher than that of ordinary animals. They knew that this was where they would live from now on, and they cautiously peeked out and looked around.
"Let's get familiar with the surroundings," Shu Qing said with a smile as she bent down. "It's not a mansion, but it's pretty good. Little Red came from living with me in a cubicle."
The little monsters immediately went off to frolic. The unfamiliar sunlight and land were so captivating that they overwhelmed their fear of the new environment. It seems they all agreed with Shuqing's comment that "it's already pretty good."
Shu Qing locked the door, stretched, went back inside, quickly washed herself, and prepared to take a good afternoon nap.
The dream descended in a dark and gloomy atmosphere.
"What do you mean?" Shu Qing looked around in surprise. "I just said two days ago that I wasn't having nightmares anymore, so why are they happening again?"
But she immediately realized that this was different from the dreams she had before, because when she looked down at herself, she found that her arms and legs were short and her body was less than a meter long, belonging to the category of cubs.
Not only that, but upon closer inspection of her surroundings, she realized that she was no longer in that blood-red world, but in a dark and gloomy prison.
"..."
Okay, right? She had just finished feeling relieved to have escaped her cage, and this dream immediately sent her to a veritable prison. Today's nightmare was purely out to mess with her.
Shu Qing wanted to look around some more, but suddenly the sound of chains and footsteps came from not far away. Without her having to think about it, her body naturally curled up in a corner, and she then realized that she was also wearing shackles on her hands and feet.
I don't know if the laws protecting minors in this place have expired or haven't been created yet, but in any case, we can't count on them.
She hid in the corner and watched as the cell door was pushed open. With a forceful push from the guard, a dirty lump was shoved in and rolled all the way to her feet.
Shu Qing instinctively tried to dodge the attack of the hidden weapon, but her body had its own will. She squatted down and caught the object. It was soft and cool to the touch, and seemed somewhat familiar.
She looked up at the steward. He was not very tall, with a small head and narrow shoulders, but somehow he had made himself very fat, forming an equilateral triangle, looking just like a rice dumpling with legs.
The long-legged rice dumpling snorted from its nose, "The same as always."
Shu Qingxin said: What is "old"?
Immediately, she felt another thought pop into her head, a thought filled with malice: "You damned zombie, you're going to be the one to suffer soon!"
Shu Qing chuckled, feeling a sense of familiarity with the original owner of this body—it seemed their thought processes were quite similar.
In each of her previous nightmares, she experienced the desolation and loneliness of near-death. While she wasn't entirely unable to empathize, the repetition of these nightmares was quite bothersome. This time, although she was also in dire straits, the "original owner" was quite lively and positive, which made her feel much better.
But... she wondered, what did this dream mean?
She had once fantasized that this was her past life, but Jiu Su had told her that the concept of reincarnation was false. So why was she being asked to observe another person's life in her dream?
The cell door slammed shut again, the sound of the key turning faded, and the lump at her feet grabbed her hand.
The man's hands were covered in blood and dirt. As his palms overlapped, he slipped a small, hard object into her hand.
“Ashu, the last thing you wanted,” he said in a hoarse voice, his tone extremely low, pausing after every few words, “I got it… tonight?”
As if he had finally mustered enough strength to tilt his head back, he finished speaking and then raised his face. His long hair was messy and covered most of his face, revealing only a pair of crimson eyes with bloodshot vertical pupils and slightly upturned corners with a familiar hook.
Shu Qing was startled, "Xiao Hong?"
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