Don’t Discriminate Against Species

Seeing how frightened the Suanyu was, Fu Li patted him on the shoulder. "You can let your heart settle back down. Gong Fu daren is a level-headed auspicious beast, he won't attack immediately even if he sees that you're a fiend."

"He'll attack after saying a few words?" An aggrieved look took over the Suanyu's face.

"Is getting trashed the only thing in your head?" Fu Li was speechless.

"Getting killed too," The Suanyu's greatest weakness was cowardice, but his greatest strength was also his cowardice. Yaoguai with little courage might not have high cultivation, but would live longer on average. He was a fiend that brought terror to humans from birth, not once had he truly interacted properly with humans or other yao cultivators. Only when he joined the management bureau did he finally experience what it was like to have a social life.

"With such little courage, you still have the cheek to call yourself a fiend?" Fu Li sighed. "If Gong Fu daren wants to put you in your place, I'll defend you. That should be fine, right?"

"Many thanks, Boss!" The Suanyu instantly grinned from ear to ear. These were the exact words he had been waiting for. Boss Fu Li definitely got along well with Gong Fu daren, otherwise Gong Fu wouldn't tell outsiders that he was Boss Fu Li's cousin. Even his alternate name in the human world was Fu Kong.

"So, you said so much just so that I would say this," Fu Li suddenly understood. After mingling with the others from the management bureau, even the Suanyu had become sly.

"Boss, aren't you on holiday today?" The Sunayu gazed at the floor above. "If Gong Fu daren and Kunpeng daren are left to their own devices upstairs, won't the two of them get into a fight and even tear the house down eventually?"

"The two of them aren't in the mood to fight now."

They were both gathered in his house eating snacks. Despite being at that age, they still snatched their junior's snacks - there was truly no part of them that was senior-like. The noble, lofty, and untarnished Gong Fu daren in Fu Li's heart had already turned into a puff of smoke.

Distance brought about beauty - this was the best portrayal of Gong Fu in Fu Li's heart.

"If you're afraid, then go settle the campus spirit-summoning incident with Zhang Ke and the rest. Don't stay in the management bureau all day, you're not pregnant or recovering from childbirth." Fu Li had realized a long time ago that the Suanyu usually stayed within the management bureau and wouldn't leave unless something major happened. That being said, he had made quite a bit of money just by livestreaming himself eating.

"Those minor cases have no need for me, what would I be there for?" The Suanyu shook his head repeatedly. "I'd better not go."

Fu Li stared at him for a few seconds. The Suanyu rubbed the corner of his clothes, his gaze evasive.

"Actually, you don't have to be worried about bringing nightmares or terror to humans. Have you brought terror to anyone after joining the management bureau?"

The Suanyu seriously pondered over it before shaking his head.

"Have you brought terror to those netizens who watch your livestreams?"

The Suanyu thought back to the comments left by netizens. The majority of comments were about how the streamer was eating happily and how they were very satisfied just seeing the streamer eating. He had received a huge tip yesterday from a netizen with mild anorexia who developed an interest in food after seeing his livestreams and subsequently recovered from the condition without medication.

Not only did he not bring any terror to humans, he had brought them joy because of his ability to eat.

The humans nowadays were quite difficult to make sense of though, they could even watch someone else eating with such relish. Who knew if they were bored or if they had seen too little of the world?

"When you don't want to bring terror to others, your body will abide by your innermost wishes," Fu Li beamed at the Suanyu. "Do you still not understand that?"

The Suanyu stared dazedly at Fu Li, seeming to have understood something yet not understanding it.

The him of the past had relied on this innate skill to frighten the little yao and humans. Through this, he had received offerings. Therefore, he had never considered not causing psychological terror to these yao and humans. Now that he had joined the management bureau, he might look down on the juniors for their poor cultivation, but would always cheerfully join in on the fun when everyone was gossiping or playing around together.

This was a typical case of 'mouth not admitting anything but body being honest'.

"Take your time to think about it, I'm going to look for your immediate superior."

Wasn't his immediate superior Zhuang Qing?

The Suanyu watched Fu Li from behind as he left in a flurry, a complex expression on his face.

Those rumors online… were they all true? The Suanyu felt that his yao worldview was being challenged.

Fu Li went downstairs and got the three-headed brothers to pluck two fruits for him before leisurely making his way to Zhuang Qing's office.

Zhuang Qing looked up when he arrived. "Something the matter?"

"I'm bored, so I came to chat with you," Fu Li tossed him a Zhuyu fruit and plopped down on a chair. "There's something on my mind that I just can't make sense of. I don't know who to talk to about it."

Zhuang Qing caught the Zhuyu fruit Fu Li had tossed over. One of his hands typed out a 'something came up here, we'll discuss more about this project at the meeting' message to an online work chat. After exiting from the messaging application, Zhuang Qing raised his chin. "What's the matter?"

"It's about Gong Fu daren," Fu Li stole a peek at Zhuang Qing's expression. "I find this matter a bit odd."

"En?" Zhuang Qing put down the Zhuyu fruit and rested his clasped hands on the desk. He looked at Fu Li with gratification. "Continue."

He had finally learnt how to put his brain to work.

"The common people Gong Fu daren saved were all ordinary people with little worldly knowledge. How could they have encountered an expert, and an expert who specially gave them advice at that?" Fu Li said with a solemn expression. "This was about opposing heavenly law. There was no way the person who came up with the idea wasn't aware of it."

"So your conclusion is?" Zhuang Qing asked.

"Do you think this person could have been a friend of Gong Fu daren who deliberately got the leader of the humans to do such a thing?" In the long period of time Fu Li had pondered over this, he had always felt that this wasn't a coincidence but a premeditated incident. Gong Fu daren really had risen from the dead, but the price was the lives of more than two hundred humans.

He only dared to keep this conjecture in his heart and not mention it in front of others for fear that the juniors would let it leak. If Gong Fu were to hear about it, he would be even sadder.

Zhuang Qing sighed. "If it was a friend, how could that person have come up with such a plan?"

Fu Li's upbringing had caused him to be too innocent, unknowing of the many complex situations and circumstances in the world. "If he really was a friend of Gong Fu, he wouldn't have come up with such a malicious plot. As an auspicious beast, Gong Fu is too strong for the world to accept. After his death and the dissipation of his Dao, the best method would be to bury him in the water. Not in the river, but in the great sea. Even more importantly, he should not have been bound by iron chains."

"I once visited the secret imperial archives during the Sui dynasty and read through all the strange, ghostly things that were recorded in the Qin and Han dynasties. An unofficial account spoke of an evil practice of gathering all the resentment in the world to give rise to an evil spirit. Using a body of stone and the bones of a great yao, all evil things under the Heavens can be summoned." Zhuang Qing's tone softened when he noticed the grave look on Fu Li's face. Although he wanted to broaden Fu Li's horizons, he didn't want to scare him silly. Fu Li was already silly enough, so if he scared him even further, his IQ might no longer be salvageable.

"This is just an unofficial account. It's not clear whether it was written by a human or a yao, so there isn't much authenticity to it. It's just that the events that Gong Fu encountered bears some similarity to the descriptions in the unofficial account."

"No, there are still areas where they differ," Fu Li shook his head. "Those common people genuinely wanted Gong Fu to live again and there was still a trace of kindness in Gong Fu's original body, so the one who lived again in the end was still Gong Fu and not an irrational evil spirit."

His complexion was deathly-pale. "But what if the one that awoke was an evil spirit?"

Someone born from the convergence of all grievances in the world - would heavenly law reject it first, or would it manage to harm the common people first?

"Don't think so much, isn't the current situation perfectly fine?" Zhuang Qing handed the Zhuyu fruit back to Fu Li. "Take it."

"What? You're not eating?" Fu Li took the fruit in confusion.

"Give it a rinse," Zhuang Qing said. "I have mysophobia and can't stomach it if it isn't washed."

"Don't we have a dust-prevention barrier here?" Fu Li looked helplessly at Zhuang Qing, reminding himself that this was an underaged yao as well as the savior of his life. He couldn't complain. Therefore, he could only roll his eyes in his heart and get up to wash the fruit in the bathroom.

"Wait, I want a cup of coffee too, thanks."

Drinking coffee with fruits? What kind of sick habit was that? The eyes Fu Li was rolling in his heart was about to reach the sky.

Zhuang Qing nodded in satisfaction. Good. Giving him things to do would prevent him from having reckless thoughts.

When Fu Li reached the entrance of the tearoom, he heard Chao Yun and Xu Yuan giggling inside, a certain barely-suppressed excitement in their giggles as they discussed Gong Fu and whatnot.

Fu Li understood the next instant. Given the current age of masculinity-consumption, it was also quite good that women had the freedom to appreciate men. He knocked on the door to highlight his existence to the two people before taking out a bag of instant coffee from a drawer at the side. He poured the coffee into the cup, threw in a few cubes of sugar, and prepared to add boiling water.

Xu Yuan watched his simple and crude way of making coffee and hurriedly stopped him. "Fu ge, don't you dislike drinking coffee?"

"En, I'm helping Zhuang Qing," Fu Li turned the tap and filled the cup with water in a whoosh.

But the boss didn't like drinking coffee too.

Xu Yuan was about to open her mouth when Chao Yun pulled on her. Her words were swallowed back down.

Chao Yun waited for Fu Li to carry the coffee out before saying in a low voice, "Sometimes, the friendship between men can be very confusing."

"Friendship?" Xu Yuan was extremely doubtful of this term.

"If not that, what do you think it is?" Chao Yun side-eyed her, predicting that she wouldn't dare to say anything else.

"Of course it's the world's purest, most noble friendship," Indeed, Xu Yuan dared not.

Zhuang Qing merely moistened his lips with the coffee Fu Li made before placing it at the side, though he did polish off the Zhuyu fruit. Only after Fu Li watched him finish the fruit did he recall that his mind had been so focused on making coffee that he had forgotten to wash the Zhuyu fruit.

It had already entered Zhuang Qing's stomach, so he… would just not tell him.

"Are you intending to sit in my office the entire afternoon?" Zhuang Qing cleaned his hands as Fu Li lazed around in his office, not leaving. "You're not going out to play with the Kunpeng?"

During the past holidays, when had Fu Li not brought the Kunpeng out to eat and drink? Ever since that rich second generation called Zhou Chang gave him a few million as a thank-you fee, the frequency with which Fu Li went out for meals increased. With a greedy Kunpeng as a companion, Zhuang Qing was genuinely worried that Fu Li would go bankrupt from eating soon after.

"The Kunpeng and Gong Fu are currently arguing with each other," Fu Li lay sprawled on the couch, sighing. "When older yao cultivators quarrel, they aren't reasonable at all. They even snatched my melon seeds."

"The two of them bullied you?" Zhuang Qing furrowed his brows.

Those two old yaoguai ate and drank courtesy of Fu Li, and still bullied him. Could they be any more shameless?!