NHWSG chapter 27

“To be honest, Zhang Jian looks like someone who’s not good at dealing with demons,” Sheng Zhao said as he opened the refrigerator, inspecting its contents. “You let Hu Huanyang go with him to investigate the case. What if Hu Huanyang upsets him and gets taken by him?”

Xing Yingzhu had already showered and changed his clothes. At this moment, he was lying on the sofa bonelessly, pressing the TV remote control half-heartedly.

It’s strange to say that he, a big demon who treated human laws as nothing, seemed to have a special fondness for news programs and legal education programs. It’s unknown where his weird interests lie.

Xing Yingzhu lazily hummed and said, “Do you think capturing demons is as easy as it is in TV dramas, draw a talisman, take out a magic weapon, and done?”

“Then what?” Sheng Zhao asked confidently.

“Watch fewer TV dramas,” Xing Yingzhu said.

“Boss,” Sheng Zhao calmly tried to reason with him, “You need to understand one thing—this kind of matter is not within the common knowledge of the general public, so your tone is problematic.”

“What’s the problem?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

It’s the tone of ‘I don’t know, therefore it doesn’t exist,” Sheng Zhao closed the refrigerator door, confidently explaining, “Let me put it this way, everyone has their own expertise. You’re a demon, of course, you know more about demons than I do, and I’m a human, so I know more about human knowledge than you do—like, you see, even though you’re my boss, if I ask you about the main content of cost management in the company, you wouldn’t know.”

“Cost accounting, cost analysis, cost control,” Xing Yingzhu said calmly.

Sheng Zhao: “…Forget what I said.”

Sheng Zhao’s momentum was instantly extinguished by a wave of fire. He silently took out a box of yogurt from the refrigerator, moved over dejectedly, and sat down on the sofa.

Xing Yingzhu couldn’t help but think that Sheng Zhao was just a human after all. If he were some kind of little beast demon, his tail would probably be tucked between his legs by now.

“Sheng Zhao,” Xing Yingzhu said with a serious tone, “If you want to test me, you better practice for another few hundred years.”

Sheng Zhao forcefully plunged the straw into the yogurt box, not wanting to engage with him.

After a while, Xing Yingzhu finally found a replay of a news program in the corner of the channel lineup and satisfactorily put down the remote control.

“Zhang Jian won’t do anything to Hu Huanyang,” Xing Yingzhu said after finishing his retorts, feeling good enough to say a few more words, “Do you know Hu Huanyang’s original form?”

Sheng Zhao, sensing an explanation coming, quickly turned his body with the straw in his mouth, staring at him attentively, shaking his head.

“It’s a fox,” Xing Yingzhu said.

“Wait a moment—” Sheng Zhao raised his hand to stop him and said, “So their surname is their species?”

Xing Yingzhu nodded.

Diao Leyu was originally a ferret, Hu Huanyang was a fox, Sheng Zhao thought it was quite convenient, like having a business card, they could exchange names to know each other’s race.

Sheng Zhao thought for a moment about the names of the other people in the building and suddenly stopped, looking at Xing Yingzhu strangely.

“And the one on the third floor with the surname Ji—”

“He’s a chick,” Xing Yingzhu said coldly.

“Pfft—” Sheng Zhao almost sprayed yogurt on the coffee table, choking and coughing, his face turning red.

Xing Yingzhu gave him a disdainful look, moved his finger, and pulled out a tissue from the coffee table for him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sheng Zhao waved his hand, trying to hold back his laughter, and said, “You continue, a fox, and then?”

“Longhushan doesn’t capture fox demons,” Xing Yingzhu said, “Even when they used to kill demons indiscriminately centuries ago, they didn’t kill fox demons. In their eyes, demons are divided into two categories, fox demons and others.”

“So it’s double standards?” Sheng Zhao asked strangely, “Why?”

“Because they have a connection,” Xing Yingzhu said, “Centuries ago, a fox fairy saved their family’s head, so they have always respected foxes, and even once set up a temple for fox spirits—don’t just wine yourself, there’s the coffee table too.”

“Oh…oh!” Sheng Zhao suddenly realized, hurriedly leaning over to wipe the yogurt stains on the coffee table.

No wonder Zhang Jian treated Hu Huanyang so well, Sheng Zhao thought, it turns out Hu Huanyang is a well-connected person.

But looking at Hu Huanyang’s resentful look when he left with Zhang Jian, it’s likely that he himself didn’t know about this.

Sheng Zhao might have been influenced by Xing Yingzhu after being with him for so long, feeling both malicious delight and sympathy at the same time, unable to tell which one was stronger.

Better not tell Hu Huanyang, Sheng Zhao thought, let him enjoy the pleasure of life for a while.

“But, the guy underground in Shanghai seems quite formidable. Can they handle him?” Sheng Zhao asked.

Actually, at this point, Sheng Zhao still cared a bit about Zhang Kaisheng. Sometimes human psychology is quite interesting. If you simply see an unfortunate event, you might just sympathize for a while and move on. But once this event intersects with yourself, then it’s a different story.

Sheng Zhao did regret Zhang Kaisheng getting into trouble, Although he managed to escape unharmed, he couldn’t help but remember this incident now that he was safe.

“Who knows,” Xing Yingzhu casually said, “It depends on their cultivation.”

Sheng Zhao was silent for a moment. With his impoverished human experience, he couldn’t estimate what level of measurement this “cultivation” was.

But it was Xing Yingzhu who looked at him for a while, adjusted the volume of the TV down by two notches, and then turned to ask, “Do you care a lot?”

Xing Yingzhu said this in a very plain tone, without any fluctuations. Sheng Zhao, who was used to his sarcasm, was a bit alarmed by this ordinary tone, afraid that he was dissatisfied with something.

“Not really,” Sheng Zhao stammered, quickly explaining, “…I just remembered something just now.”

Xing Yingzhu made a puzzled sound, indicating that he was listening.

“The person my mom is marrying is the construction contractor for that building site in Changning District,” Sheng Zhao said, “He’s the one who dug up the underground river there.”

The previous terrifying experience of the night was too thrilling, so Sheng Zhao had been in a daze for over a day, and not to mention Li Liangfu, he almost couldn’t remember his own life.

It wasn’t until he returned to the apartment building, back to the place where he felt completely safe, that his CPU slowly began to reboot.

He told Xing Yingzhu what he had heard from Mrs. Zhao, and frowned, expressing his concern, “Boss, do you think I should send a WeChat message to Hu Huanyang later and tell him about this?”

“Speak.” Xing Yingzhu said indifferently, as if it didn’t matter to him.

Sheng Zhao received his nod, feeling somewhat relieved.

“It’s actually a bit tricky,” Sheng Zhao sighed, “If my stepfather hadn’t dug up this road, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It has nothing to do with him,” Xing Yingzhu said, “He’s just a mortal. Even with all his abilities, he couldn’t break the Dragon-Binding Chain. The fact that he was able to break it indicates that there’s a problem with the dragon vein that suppresses demons underground. If the spiritual energy can’t supply the Dragon-Binding Chain, then that thing becomes just a piece of ordinary metal, no different from iron or gold.”

Xing Yingzhu paused for a moment and added, “But since this chain has been broken, other things are probably going to stir as well.”

“What do you mean?” Sheng Zhao looked at him in shock, “Are you saying there’s more than one?”

“Surprised?” Xing Yingzhu raised the corner of his lips slightly, conjuring a soul-stirring smile on his beautiful face, “Did you think all demons in this world look like the little ones in this building?”

Sheng Zhao looked at him, shivering inexplicably, feeling a cold breeze run down his spine.

Sheng Zhao swallowed hard, tremblingly saying, “So the monster under Shanghai is just average?”

This time, Xing Yingzhu didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, “The world is much bigger than you imagine—so, don’t wander around unnecessarily.”

Sheng Zhao regretted the last time he “wandered around” almost cost him his life. He dared not disobey Xing Yingzhu’s words. He nodded vigorously, sincerely treating Xing Yingzhu’s words as divine decree.

However, as he nodded, he suddenly remembered a question he had forgotten.

He had wanted to ask Xing Yingzhu this question back at the edge of Lake Poyang, but unfortunately, at that time, Xing Yingzhu always had a threatening remark in every three sentences, so he didn’t dare to ask. So he endured and forgot about it until he just remembered it now.

“Boss,” Sheng Zhao looked at him cautiously, quietly approaching, raised a finger in front of him, and said softly, “I have one more question.”

Unfortunately, Xing Yingzhu’s Q&A session for the day had ended. He impatiently furrowed his brow, pushing Sheng Zhao aside with the remote control against his shoulder.

“Are you the ‘Why Guy’?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

“Just one!” Sheng Zhao persisted, blocking Xing Yingzhu’s view of the TV again, trying, “Just one last question!”

Xing Yingzhu’s patience was clearly nearing its dangerous limit. He said impatiently, “Hurry up and ask, then go to sleep.”

“It’s, actually, very simple.” Sheng Zhao looked at him puzzled, saying, “I don’t understand, you can easily go out freely, fetch things remotely, so why do you need an ordinary person like me to guard your door?”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Before asking this question, Sheng Zhao had already prepared himself to be ridiculed by him. After all, compared to other educational questions, this question seemed quite obvious.

However, to Sheng Zhao’s surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, Xing Yingzhu suddenly fell silent.

He furrowed his brows, but the impatience on his face inexplicably diminished a lot, as if he had something on his mind.

After a moment, he emerged from that reminiscent state and said, “I’m waiting for someone.”

“Who…?” Various strange and melodramatic love scenarios flashed through Sheng Zhao’s mind in an instant. He looked at Xing Yingzhu with a subtle expression, hesitantly asking, “Is it someone like your destined love from a past life?”

The moment of melancholy that had just appeared on Xing Yingzhu’s face was dispelled by his words. Xing Yingzhu calmly remained silent for a moment, then made a surprisingly accurate assessment of his guess.

“Watch fewer TV dramas.”