Chapter 60 The scapegoat should be cute and free.
“As the name suggests,” Jiu Su said, his gaze sweeping over the white lamb lying on the ground, a hint of pity in his eyes. “Its function is to absorb misfortune, malice, madness… and all negative things, bringing peace and tranquility to those around it, hence the name.”
After he finished speaking, he paused and added, "These kinds of monsters cannot survive on their own unless they are artificially raised."
Shu Qing's sympathy stirred within her, and she didn't even want to think deeply about the purpose of Huiyao Group keeping this thing. She suggested, "Then let's give it a different name. 'Scapegoat' is such a bad name; it sounds like a prop, not a species. Let's give it its own name."
Jiu Su had no objections, but Shu Qing's naming skills... he still calls her "Xiao Hong".
He looked at Shu Qing with a half-smile: "You? You've come to collect it?"
"Who do you think you are!" Shu Qing glared at him angrily. "Just call me...just call me..."
She wanted to suggest "Xiaobai," but knew that if she said it, Jiu Su would definitely laugh at her. Giving him a silencing order over something so trivial would make her seem like a sore loser. She racked her brains for three minutes, but couldn't come up with anything good, so she could only glare at him resentfully again.
Jiu Su laughed again, but this time he restrained himself a little and turned his head away.
Shu Qing gritted her teeth, "Then you come and get it?"
“I don’t know either,” Jiu Su said frankly. “I named Wanli myself. Is it really that nice?”
Shu Qing: "..."
You're quite proud of coming up with such a name?
There's always a way to overcome difficulties. Shu Qing's eyes lit up, she took out her phone, snapped a few photos, and started editing the text.
Jiu Su squatted down next to her and saw that she was repeating the introduction that T had just given her, ending with: "I want to give it a good name. But I don't know how to name things, and Xiao Hong is a snake, so I don't know how to name it either. I'm asking for suggestions!"
She nudged Jiu Su and said, "Go hug it, I'll take a picture."
Jiu Su turned to look at the limp little lamb, its white fur still a bit dusty from not being washed clean, and immediately showed a resistant expression.
"Good boy." Shu Qing pinched his earlobe. "Aren't you the Demon King? Go and show some concern for your subjects?"
Alright, the little demon king reluctantly cast a cleansing spell on his "subjects," then hugged them and let Shu Qing snap two pictures.
In the photo, a snow-white boy holds a fluffy, snow-white lamb with a blank expression, creating a visually pleasing effect. After enjoying the visual feast, a group of netizens, upon seeing Shu Qing's description, felt a surge of pity. Half of them were vehemently criticizing capitalism for its inhumanity, while the other half racked their brains to provide alternative names.
In the evening, Shu Qing opened the platform and found that a string of monster names had been collected. Some were serious, such as "Kaitai" and "Shengyang"; some were cute and adorable, such as "Cotton Candy" and "Cloud"; and some were obviously there to cause trouble, such as "Hengyuanxiang".
After considering it for a while, Shu Qing finally decided to use the name "Cloud," which sounded cute and free.
With the name decided, the next question was how to make the video—Shu Qing was a little scratched up, because with Yun Duo's abilities, no matter how she filmed it, as long as she activated these abilities, she would inevitably be questioned by people.
She considered several options, but none of them seemed suitable, so she simply put them aside for the time being. The next day, she went to the records room of the Supermarket Management Bureau to check the records about scapegoats.
When she arrived at the archives, she ran into Xie Heng, who was about to leave. Shu Qing greeted him with a smile, "Professor Xie."
Xie Heng nodded to her and asked gently, "What are you looking for?"
“Oh, I’m here to look up information about the cloud… I mean, the scapegoat,” Shu Qing said. “It’s that little monster that was sent to me yesterday. I was thinking of designing a video for it, but after thinking of a few ideas, none of them were quite right. They would inevitably show it absorbing bad luck or malice, which would be worse. So I came to the archives to look for inspiration.”
"Don't listen to too many people's opinions. You are the one who writes the document. Follow your own ideas." Xie Heng smiled. It was morning, and the reflection from his glasses made his eyes seem less clear. "By the way, the Qi Group incident caused quite a stir last time, and the outcome was unclear. What exactly happened?"
"Yes, I know." Shu Qing first agreed with the first part of his statement, and then said with emotion, "I find that chatting with Professor Xie makes my mind much clearer. Last time, when I was acting as a supervisor for Xiao Hong, it was all thanks to your guidance. Otherwise, we might have been stuck in a rut for who knows how long."
Xie Heng chuckled.
Shu Qing then began to explain his question in the second sentence. Although the matter of the Qi Group could not be made public, it would be fine to give a brief explanation to the staff of the Supermarket Management Bureau.
She gave a brief description of the situation, then steered the conversation back to the little gecko, "Although Miss... Qi Yun's brother was indeed up to no good, ultimately it was because we didn't understand the situation beforehand that all of this happened, and the little monster suffered so much. We will be more careful in the future and will never let this happen again."
Shu Qing's intention in saying this was to make a statement, so that Xie Heng—or rather, the Super Management Bureau—would not reconsider their cooperative relationship with Youling Studio because of this matter. But after hearing this, Xie Heng remained silent for a while, then shook his head helplessly.
“The former Huiyao Group was completely ruined because of the supernatural beings; now it’s the Qi Group, which almost faced a large-scale public opinion crisis because of the same thing.” Xie Heng sighed. “Both of the major business groups are like this. Although we hope to see humans and supernatural beings get along well, this is a bit too much of a cult.”
Shu Qing was taken aback for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "What?"
"What I mean is, the current focus on, and even adoration for, supernatural beings might not be a good thing," Xie Heng adjusted his glasses. "Speaking of which, you're the one who understands this current trend of people chasing after supernatural beings the most. What do you think?"
Shu Qing chuckled, "Professor Xie, are you telling the truth, or are you testing my attitude?"
Xie Heng smiled gently and said, "Just tell me the truth. I'd also like to hear what you young people think."
“Okay, I think these are two different things,” Shu Qing said frankly. “I can definitely feel that people like little monsters, otherwise my videos wouldn’t be so popular. But this has absolutely nothing to do with the past Huiyao or the present Qi family. This isn’t a matter of favoritism, it’s a matter of right and wrong.”
"Does that mean that if Huiyao wasn't abusing little monsters, but ordinary animals, or ordinary cows... or ordinary human employees, shouldn't it be punished? What if a human customer suddenly fell ill in the Youling Studio, wouldn't there be an explanation? This has absolutely nothing to do with people liking little monsters."
"Hmm," Xie Heng asked thoughtfully, "In your opinion, would it be the same if it were an ordinary animal or an ordinary person who got into trouble?"
Shu Qing said honestly, "Yes, the nature of the events is exactly the same. But it's not entirely without difference. When the protagonist is a monster, the volume of the crowd is indeed a bit louder... well, much louder."
Xie Heng smiled and said, "Well, it's still quite different."
“But this is only one way to achieve ‘right and wrong’,” Shu Qing said. “It cannot turn right into wrong, or wrong into right.”
Xie Heng nodded, offering no further opinion, only giving a vague reply, "Perhaps you have a point."
Shu Qing stepped aside, watching Xie Heng's departing figure, and thought to herself: What do you mean by "maybe"? I'm right! I'm absolutely right!
She pondered for a while, still unable to figure out why Xie Heng had suddenly asked her this question. Finally, she could only conclude that Xie Heng was returning to the headquarters of the Capital Super Management Bureau and, before leaving, wanted to test her attitude towards monsters one last time, just to put her mind at ease. She tossed her hair, putting the matter out of her mind, and turned on her computer to find information about scapegoats.
When I sat down, I realized that I was sitting in the same spot where I had secretly looked up Jiu Su's background information last time.
At this moment, Shu Qing's state of mind was completely different from before. With a slight smile, she took out the chocolate she always carried from her pocket, tore off a piece, and put it in her mouth, preparing to embark on a long battle.
More than an hour later, Jiu Su came over, sat down next to her with practiced ease, and even brought her a cup of milk tea.
Shu Qing smiled at him, her eyes crinkling, and rubbed his face repeatedly, asking, "Does this seat look familiar?"
Jiu Su patiently waited for her to finish massaging before pretending to be nonchalant and saying, "I can't remember. Aren't all the seats in the archives room pretty much the same?"
Shu Qing glared at him.
Jiu Su had no choice but to change her tune and tell the truth: "Okay, you look familiar. I looked at you for a long time that night."
"What were you thinking, just waiting to watch from the sidelines?"
"Can I stop you?" Jiu Su stroked her face. "I might stop you this time, but I can't stop you next time. I can only gamble on whether you can trust me after I hand over complete control to you."
"What if you lose the bet?"
“What else can we do?” Jiu Su glanced at her with those bewitching eyes again. “It’s come to this, so we have to accept the consequences.”
Shu Qing laughed, changing the subject, and turned her attention back to the computer screen.
Jiu Su leaned over and peeked inside. "How is it?"
"It's alright, I've got some ideas." Shu Qing took a sip of her milk tea and said, "I think we can try a different approach this time. We could do some educational stuff about the Super Admin Bureau's spells and gadgets. We could talk about how to protect the clouds from external malice, add some cute everyday scenes, and finally, talk about the disadvantages of artificial breeding... What do you think?"
Jiu Su thought for a moment and said, "It's feasible, but it's not as interesting as your other works."
Her other videos all have plots and twists and turns before finally rising to the level of popular science and the theme. This video, however, only sounds like popular science, which inevitably makes it seem uninteresting.
Shu Qing rested her chin on her hand, looking troubled. "Yes, but I can't showcase Yun Duo's abilities, let alone create a story based on them. Do you have any ideas?"
Jiu Su thought about it seriously for a moment, realizing that she really couldn't offer more reliable advice than Jiu Su in her area of expertise, so she had no choice but to obediently back down, "No. Or, how about I do this popular science explanation?"
He felt that this was the only way he could help her.
"Okay." Shu Qing considered it for a moment, then said with a smile, "For safety reasons, we can only give up some of the fun. Thank you for your hard work."
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