Chapter 117 – Help and Difficulties

Chapter 117 – Help and Difficulties

Song Cheng finally experienced firsthand what Li Lin and Xu Jiali had described in their reports — the phenomenon of things happening when dealing with Yu Sheng that were perfectly logical yet felt completely wrong, but when you thought about it again seemed perfectly reasonable, only to feel absolutely insane upon further reflection — and what exactly that meant.

He glanced sideways at his two subordinates. Xu Jiali was straining to keep a straight face, maintaining her stoic tough-guy composure, while Li Lin was on the verge of losing it.

“…So, um, I’d like to confirm,” Song Cheng finally broke the silence after holding it in for two or three seconds. “You’re saying… delivery services and takeout… door-to-door delivery, right?”

“Yeah, it’s not that hard to understand, is it?” Yu Sheng was a bit bewildered by the other party’s reaction and unconsciously scratched his hair. “You know how special this place is. Forget about finding a specific address — without sufficient spiritual aptitude or advance preparation, ordinary people can’t even come within a hundred meters of the house without involuntarily veering away. It’s even stronger than those nodes of yours. Nobody can get close at all. If I want to order takeout, I have to leave an address for a nearby supermarket. Buying anything large online means I have to figure out how to pick it up myself. It’s really a hassle.”

Song Cheng fell silent.

He remembered they had just been discussing Twilight Angels — how did they jump straight from “invaders from beyond the world” to “deliveries can’t make it within a hundred meters of the front door”? One sentence and he’d been flung to who-knows-where…

But he quickly regained his composure. After all, he was the one who had taken the initiative to say “if you encounter any difficulties, you can report them to the Special Operations Bureau.” He just hadn’t expected this “special entity” living in the Otherworld to so promptly raise a specific problem, and for that problem to be so… down-to-earth. He’d simply been caught off guard for a moment.

But thinking about it carefully, “deliveries and takeout can’t reach No. 66 Wutong Road” was indeed related to both the Otherworld and entities…

“I’ll look into this when I get back and figure out how to solve this problem,” the seasoned, experienced team leader quickly adjusted his expression and said with a serious nod. “If all else fails, we’ll set up a dedicated package receiving point here just for you…”

The moment he said this, Xu Jiali beside him reached over and patted Li Lin on the shoulder — the latter hadn’t yet figured out what was going on and just froze for a moment, looking with some confusion at the colleague who had suddenly patted him.

Yu Sheng immediately felt somewhat uneasy. “Um… is that really appropriate? Wouldn’t that be giving me too much special treatment?”

“Not special at all, not special at all,” Song Cheng waved his hands repeatedly. “Providing convenience for ‘extraordinary individuals’ living in the Borderland is itself one of the Special Operations Bureau’s responsibilities. In fact, ‘combating threats from the Otherworld and entities’ only accounts for a small part of the Bureau’s daily work. The vast majority of the time, we’re more like the property management and butler service for the ‘other side’ of this city. Managing everything is the norm.”

He wasn’t being polite at all with these words. Solving all manner of bizarre problems for the various strange and peculiar “sojourners” hiding among humans in this city was indeed part of the Special Operations Bureau’s daily work. The only thing he didn’t say out loud was that Yu Sheng, as a “friendly entity,” was remarkably peculiar even among all the strange creatures of the Borderland.

However, Bureau Chief Baili Qing’s instructions before his departure were still fresh in his mind, and Song Cheng kept all his retorts buried deep inside.

The Bureau Chief had said —

“As long as he’s not trying to overthrow the Borderland, find a way to agree to whatever he asks. Even if he really does want to overthrow it, try your best to explain to him why he can’t. In short, don’t let him call the complaint line and reach me.”

Even now, recalling the Bureau Chief’s last sentence sent chills down Song Cheng’s spine.

He then looked up at Yu Sheng and asked, “Aside from that, is there anything else?”

Yu Sheng thought carefully. “Nothing for now, I think… Oh right, there is one more thing. I previously asked you to look into Eileen’s situation and Hu Li’s origins. Any progress on those two matters?”

The moment he asked this, the Little Doll on the coffee table and the Fox-Spirit Girl sitting nearby both perked up their ears simultaneously.

“I’m sorry, there’s no news on that yet,” Song Cheng shook his head, though inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief — at least this was business he was more familiar with. “We’ve already sent a message to Alice’s Cottage’s liaison station, but they haven’t responded yet. The on-duty personnel may not be in the Borderland at the moment. As for this fox-spirit young lady…”

Song Cheng hesitated at this point, a look of uncertainty crossing his face.

Yu Sheng leaned forward. “Run into some difficulties?”

“Not exactly difficulties, more like complications — because if we only go by restrictive criteria like ‘fox spirit’ or ‘beast-to-human transformation,’ there are far too many possible results. There might be over a hundred species in this world that bear some resemblance to Miss Hu Li, yet not a single place matching her description of her homeland can be found,” Song Cheng said, glancing at Hu Li before speaking in a consultative tone. “So we were thinking, would it be possible to take some of her fur samples back? If all else fails, we’d do a biological comparison to determine her species first.”

Yu Sheng looked at Hu Li, who immediately nodded.

“She has no objections, so neither do I,” Yu Sheng waved his hand. “Fur samples are all you need, right? No quality requirements?”

As he spoke, he casually ran his hand over the sofa cushion beside him and held it out to Song Cheng. “Will this do?”

Song Cheng: “…Huh?”

“She sheds regularly,” Yu Sheng said expressionlessly. “It’s been getting cooler lately, so she’s been shedding more and more. You actually don’t even need to specifically discuss this with me — just from sitting on the sofa for this short while, you could pick enough off your clothes on the way back.”

Hu Li’s face instantly turned red. Her several large tails curled around to wrap herself into a fur ball, her eyes peeking out through the gaps between her tails at Yu Sheng. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s not a big deal,” Yu Sheng reached out his other hand and patted the Fox-Spirit Girl’s tail (he’d meant to pat her head, but she’d wrapped herself up). “Just stop using your tails to dry the dishes next time. I keep getting a mouthful of fur.”

From within the fluffy ball came Hu Li’s muffled voice: “Okay.”

Song Cheng sat there with a stiff expression for two or three seconds before finally reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sample collection tube. He carefully took the few strands of silver-white down that Yu Sheng held out and placed them into the glass tube with great solemnity.

After that, he led his two Special Operations Bureau agents in bidding farewell and departing.

Only after their figures had disappeared at the Intersection did Yu Sheng, who had gone to see them off at the door, return to the living room and sink into the sofa with a long, drawn-out sigh of relief.

Then he immediately spotted Hu Li still standing next to the sofa in her fluffy state.

She had gone so far as to cover even her eyes, leaving only two little feet poking out at the bottom. An enormous ball of tails stood there like some abstract sculpture.

Yu Sheng found the sight both amusing and helpless. He reached into the mass of tails and rummaged around, trying to “excavate” the Fox-Spirit Girl. “Stop hiding. They’re all gone.”

Only then did Hu Li poke her head out. Her tails bloomed open like a flower unfurling, and she looked at Yu Sheng with a hint of apology. “I… I’ll be in charge of cleaning the house from now on.”

“Just clean up wherever you’ve been, that’ll be enough,” Yu Sheng laughed and leaned back on the sofa. “Also, next time you wash your tails in the bath, don’t forget to take out the drain filter and clean it. I just noticed this morning that the drain was clogged again…”

Hu Li instantly curled herself back into a fur ball.

This time Yu Sheng didn’t force “excavate” the girl from her tails. He just smiled and patted one of her silver-white fox tails, then turned to look at the Eileen (x2) sitting on the coffee table in a daze. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about those Twilight Angels,” Eileen hesitated for a moment, her expression looking quite serious. “Tell me, knowing how dangerous those things are, why would people still actively try to summon them? Although that ‘Song Cheng’ said that more than half of the Angel Cult followers were converted after coming into contact with ‘guidance’ and can no longer be considered human, he also said that a small portion are actively offering themselves to those ‘angels’ in pursuit of so-called knowledge and power… Why would humans do something like that?”

“It’s not necessarily all humans,” Yu Sheng said. “When it comes to courting death, every species probably has its share of those types.”

He paused, then looked at the doll with some curiosity. “But what about you? You normally don’t care much about things like ‘world peace.’ Why the sudden interest in this?”

“…I’m not that heartless, okay!” Eileen immediately widened her eyes. “I’m a doll of Alice’s Cottage! We normally take maintaining world order very seriously, punishing evil, promoting good, and helping others everywhere we go. Don’t have the wrong impression of an honest, kind, gentle, polite, fair, and upright lady…”

Yu Sheng was left blinking in bewilderment by this string of words from the Little Doll, unable for quite some time to match that entire chain of adjectives to the hot-tempered little runt before him.

This one really did have more attitude than stature.

But in the end, he didn’t dare say that out loud.

“I need to go upstairs and catch up on some sleep,” he waved his hand and said to Hu Li and Eileen. “I barely slept at all last night, and I’m about to pass out right now. Wake me up before dinner — I’ll go cook for you.”

Hu Li immediately poked her head out from her tails, beaming brightly. “Yes! Okay, benefactor!”

Yu Sheng: “…”

He gave the two living treasures at home an exasperated look (one of whom had now multiplied into two), then waved his hand and trudged upstairs to the Second Floor, heavy with exhaustion.

(End of Chapter)