Chapter 140
"Tu Tu, why do you look so serious?" Gu Hongying nudged Yu Tu with his elbow, "Relax, it's not difficult to catch the Nian Beast."
Since he knew the bad news that he had to catch the Nian Beast, Yu Tu had done a lot of preparations, but he was still a little worried. As soon as Gu Hongying spoke, he inexplicably felt even more worried:
"Don't set up a flag here. I'm scared."
"Do you think I'm a stickler for what I say?" Gu Hongying tightened the scarf around her neck. "This isn't the first year we've held the Nian Beast catching event, and I haven't heard of any major problems."
Yu Tu: "...For example, being pranked by a special beast?"
"The probability is so small!" Gu Hongying comforted him, "It can't be so unlucky that we run into it, right?"
Yu Tu: “…”
He silently took two steps to the side, leaving obvious footprints on the snow.
Gu Hongying grabbed Yu Tu's scarf and pulled him back: "I'm not a crow mouth, why are you hiding?"
"You are the male protagonist of the comic, if you don't encounter troubles, who will?" These words were swirling on the tip of Yu Tu's tongue, but he was reluctant to say them out loud.
They were now on the rooftop of an abandoned high-rise building. The sky had already turned a little grey and it looked like it would plunge into darkness at any moment.
This time, the Nian Beast was captured based on the number of people, with each person assigned a city. Because Chongming City had experienced many accidents recently, two people were assigned to it.
The darkness between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is quite special. The perception of rookies like them will be infinitely sharp and amplified, so they both carry a lot of teleportation talismans in their pockets. As long as they sense the trace of the Nian Beast, they will use their spiritual power to drive the teleportation talismans to distinguish whether the Nian Beast is good or evil.
When it gets completely dark, standing on a tall building and looking out, you can see the city in the distance is brightly lit and full of joy. Although firecrackers are not allowed in the city, the sound of electronic firecrackers one after another is also a different kind of liveliness.
There are many people busy in the city center - these are the fireworks prepared at the moment when the old year turns to the new year, to announce the arrival of the new year.
After dark, Yu Tu felt as if his consciousness had entered a strange realm. His perception was infinitely extended, and he seemed to be able to "see" the entire city. This wonderful feeling was somewhat familiar, a bit like the omniscient perspective that extended after the Marquis of Buye had summoned the phantom of the tea tree that blocked out the sun and the sky.
Yu Tu saw many red spots of light scattered throughout the city. Some of the spots were off, while others were on - those were the real-time traces of the Nian beast.
Yu Tu heard Gu Hongying's voice: "You on the left, I on the right?"
There are nine towns in Chongming City, and they have a heavy task tonight.
Yu Tu nodded: "Okay."
He took out a teleportation talisman from his pocket. After the infusion of spiritual power, he felt weightless. In the blink of an eye, he was teleported to a street corner without surveillance. In the real-time map in his consciousness, he was already very close to the Nian beast here.
Yu Tu walked from the dimly lit corner to the street, which was a busy food street. The ground had been cleaned long ago, but the green belts and buildings on the roadside were still covered with thick snow. The heat from the food gathered and swirled, and in an instant, mist rose here, a bit like the "Yaochi Wonderland".
Although I don’t understand why people have red frozen hands in the middle of winter, have to eat quickly and eat outdoors, maybe they just want to enjoy the lively atmosphere.
Yu Tu had only walked one-third of the way down the street when he saw his target, a Nian beast about the size of a Samoyed, with glowing white fur.
It was sticking closely to a child at the time. When the child turned his head, its eyes rolled around and one of the takoyaki in the child's paper box disappeared inexplicably.
Yu Tu saw the Nian monster's cheeks bulging and its long whip-like tail swinging into a fan shape. It stuck to the child and ate all the way. After passing five stalls, the boxes were empty.
The child whose takoyaki was stolen raised his box in confusion: "...Where's my Chibi-Makikomo?"
His mother, who was holding him, lowered her head and asked in a surprised tone, "You finished eating so quickly?"
"Mom." The child shook his mother's hand, "I want to buy another box!"
He remembered that he ate all the meatballs by himself, but why did he always feel that he didn't eat any at all?
"If you eat too much, you will have food accumulation." The child's mother rejected him, "You have already eaten a bowl of fried rice, a bag of fried chicken, a box of octopus balls, and a cup of milk tea today."
The more his mother spoke, the more worried she became. She wondered why she had bought so many things for her child today, and her child had eaten them all.
The mother squatted down and touched the child's belly through the down jacket: "You wouldn't know if you didn't tell me, but now that I know you've bought so much, I'm afraid you'll feel sick from eating so much."
The child blinked blankly and whispered, "Mom, I'm still a little hungry."
After eating so much, he still felt hungry. Has he evolved into a glutton?
The puzzled mother and son walked away slowly. The Nian beast, who was eating and drinking for free, chased after them and rubbed their hands. Two small points of light floated from the Nian beast's horn into their bodies.
But as the mother and son walked farther and farther away, the Nian beast stood in the middle of the street with its head tilted, its whip-like tail circling around and around, and then it straightened out and flew to a stall selling roujiamo. Its two furry front paws rested on the edge of the pot, and its eyes were fixed on the luxurious roujiamo that the stall owner was making.
The moment the stall owner was distracted, the luxurious meat bun was caught in the mouth of the Nian beast. The Nian beast's cheeks were bulging like a hamster. If someone could see it, they would probably dub it "chew chew chew".
It just stayed by the stall and secretly ate four of them. The stall owner skillfully cut open the buns and began to talk to himself: "Who did I sell those meat buns to? How come I have no recollection of it? But today's business is so good, and I don't even have much back pain. Hey! That's rare~"
The Nian Beast, who was eating and drinking for free, looked a little guilty at first, but later on he became completely righteous.
Yu Tu and Nian Beast observed it from a distance. They saw it slurping a bowl of potato noodles, gnawing on a plate of fried chicken racks, stealing a burger from a takeaway bag, and showing off half a box of seasoning to others... It was jumping up and down, extremely busy.
This should be a greedy beast.
Because it was the first time seeing the Nian Beast and Yu Tu had no experience, he decided to confirm it from a closer distance. He picked a stall where the Nian Beast was. Yu Tu went there to buy something and saw the Nian Beast put its head next to the roasted chicken leg. If the Nian Beast was not made up of special spiritual energy, one could probably see its drooling.
Yu Tu took the roasted chicken leg from the stall owner. Before he brought it to his mouth, he felt a breeze in his hand. In the blink of an eye, the roasted chicken leg disappeared. Yu Tu suddenly had an illusion that he had finished eating the roasted chicken leg he bought from the stall owner.
With this ability to rationalize things, it’s no wonder that no one realizes that something is wrong.
With the remaining light of Yu Tu's eyes, he saw the Nian beast holding his roasted chicken leg in its mouth and making happy "crunches", with its long whip-like tail curling and wagging, and it looked very happy.
Yu Tu bought the second one, and the second one also went into the mouth of the Nian beast. Its left and right cheeks were bulging with two roasted chicken legs.
When Yu Tu bought the third one, the Nian beast glanced at it again and again, and its claws on the ground opened and closed, as if it was struggling with whether to immorally gnaw on his third roasted chicken leg.
Yu Tu hung the roasted chicken leg and swung it past the nose of the Nian Beast, but made sure not to be bitten by it. In the cold wind, the gluttonous Nian Beast, tempted by the roasted chicken leg, followed him out of the food street in a daze.
The good Nian Beast can actually be broken up, but everyone thinks it is unnecessary. The energy in the world emphasizes conservation, and if the Nian Beast causes them to suffer losses, it will make corresponding compensation. For example, if the Nian Beast steals food purchased by people in the food street, it will give them small blessings in return, such as avoiding a minor cold, being unscathed when falling, and improving physical health in a short period of time... In short, they benefit more.
Yu Tu stuffed the third roasted chicken leg into the Nian Beast's mouth. The Nian Beast's round eyes widened even wider, wondering why this human could actually see it.
Yu Tu touched the horn of the Nian Beast and whispered to it: "Don't just eat on one street. There are many food streets in this city."
Although the blessing of the Nian beast was beneficial, each stall was attacked by the Nian beast every half an hour, which was a considerable loss to the company's finances.
The Nian Beast tilted its head to look at him, shaking its whip-like tail. It shook its snow-white fur and stretched out its paw to pat his leg. Yu Tu saw a pink and white paw print on his black pants, like the Nian Beast's stamp of authentication.
The glowing white Nian beast ran away without any reluctance after chewing the delicious roasted chicken leg and disappeared in the blink of an eye. However, it did not go back to the food street. I guess it went to find a new one.
On the real-time map of the Nian beast in Yu Tu's consciousness, there was a green dot on the far left, indicating that the Nian beast had been inspected.
The first battle was a success. Yu Tu locked onto the next nearby Nian beast. This Nian beast was in a residential building. Yu Tu didn't want to knock on the door and disturb others, so he found an empty corner, changed back to his original form, pasted an invisibility talisman on himself, and began to climb the air conditioner outdoor unit hanging on the wall.
When he climbed onto the windowsill of the living room of this family, Yu Tu saw the Nian beast as soon as he lifted the leaves. This Nian beast was only the size of a fist, but its personality... was more lively than the one in the food court.
Sometimes it plays with a cat toy, sometimes it hits the red dot of the laser pen with the cat, occasionally it takes a nibble of cat food, drinks a sip of goat milk, and even jumps onto the mahjong table to watch them win.
Whoever's shoulder it squats on wins the money, so it squats on the shoulders of four people in order, with the main theme being fairness and justice.
The cat food was finished, the goat milk was finished, the laser pen was bored, and the small toy was chewed over and over again. The Nian Beast had nothing to do. The others couldn't see it, so they concentrated on playing cards. The Nian Beast jumped around the room bored, scratching this and that.
After a while, it took out a few test papers from the bedroom and placed them in the middle of the card table. In the eyes of the people playing cards, it was just a sudden gust of wind that blew the test papers.
Yu Tu did not see this scene, but when he was following the air conditioner's outdoor unit downwards, he heard an angry roar coming from the family where the Nian beast lived—
"You little bastard! How dare you imitate my signature on a failed test paper!!!"
Then the child pleaded guiltily: "It's New Year... it's not allowed to hit children during New Year!"
Nian Beast was perched on a high cat climbing frame, blinking its beautiful big eyes and watching the scene below intently.
Imitating your parents' signature is not a good habit.
Solving bad habits is also part of the responsibility of the Good Year Beast.