The Life Science Department Director of Universe Company in Yunlong City, Fu Ling, appeared to be a person of grace and propriety, but she was certainly not a simple character.
Or to say that anyone who held a high position in the company was no ordinary individual.
Words can be honed and embellished, but the eyes never lie. Duan Mingyuan noticed that when talking about evil spirits and monsters, Fu Ling's eyes revealed an indescribable fervor, and it was not difficult to see from her interactions with the crow that she was a woman who was very good at using sugar-coated bullets.
She appeared like a Savior when the crow met with disaster, but in reality, in less than half a night, she had extracted everything the crow knew and had also locked on to the two who were in a coma.
The olive branch thrown to him was definitely not out of pure kindness, and although Fu Ling never mentioned it during their conversation, she must have known about his resignation beforehand and proposed a hard-to-refuse invitation just when he was at the lowest point in his life.
To work at Universe Company was an opportunity countless office workers dreamed of.
However, Duan Mingyuan had long since ceased to be the fresh college graduate who foolishly believed in unprovoked kindness or that pies fall from the sky.
"Fu Ling is very interested in you," he reminded Jiuyue, who was looking around in puzzlement, "Me?"
"To be precise, your tail. After entering the door, she sneaked a peek at your tail at least seven times."
"Hiss."
This startling news made Jiuyue gasp in shock; she shivered and protectively hugged her fluffy tail in her arms.
For a fox, the tail was of utmost importance, and every day before going to sleep, she meticulously groomed it to keep the fur fluffy and smooth. She did not want some mysterious woman touching her tail, as the feeling would be no different than encountering a pervert on the subway.
But if Mr. Mingyuan sincerely requested, then it wasn't that she couldn't consider it...
"Before deciding, I want to first understand what kind of person your supervisor is," Duan Mingyuan interrupted her thoughts.
Alright, it seemed Mr. Mingyuan had no interest in playing with her tail.
"The liaison, hmm, you will surely be disappointed. He's just an ordinary person who has been in the industry for a long time and knows a bit more than others," she responded.
"What matters is what kind of person he is."
Since meeting Jiuyue, Duan Mingyuan had repeatedly lowered his standards.
His original definition of a colleague was someone who could fight alongside him, collaborate on the same project, and compensate for each other's shortcomings. But reality dealt him a heavy blow—such colleagues did not exist. The term "Baobao Bus" seemed tailor-made for his colleagues.
So he completely cast aside the criterion of professional ability, leaving only one last requirement.
What was the character of this liaison?
As long as the character was passable, business issues could be slowly resolved.
After all, he was used to dealing with problems alone since high school. On the bright side, he had much more free time now than back then.
"He may not be very capable, but he's a good person who has helped me a lot."
"Where does he live?" asked Duan Mingyuan.
"In a civilian house in the old residential district," replied Jiuyue.
Finally, she answered a question correctly.
Duan Mingyuan checked the address on his phone's map app; the old residential district was quite far from them, requiring a trip across most of the city on the subway.
"You're going out like this?" he asked, glancing at Jiuyue's somewhat baggy pajamas designed for humans. The drawback was that the pants weren't tailored for tails, and just by looking, he could tell that Jiuyue was uncomfortable.
This realization made his scalp tingle, and he thought about offering to tailor Jiuyue's pants several times, but he didn't want to come off as a creepy uncle and refrained.
With the body structure of a fox, the tail is connected to a rather private area.
Jiuyue only had two outfits in total; besides the pajamas she had mooched off him, there was only the cultivator's robe left, which would surely make her be mistaken for a cosplay enthusiast if worn on the street.
The monster's blinding spell could make their ears and tail invisible to people, but it wouldn't hide their clothes; otherwise, situations would arise that children simply couldn't withstand.
"I still have the cultivator's robe; it's brand new from before I came to Yunlong City," he said.
This was naturally hard to persuade Duan Mingyuan.
After much thought, he decided to take a cab.
The app showed the fare to be an estimated 107 Bei, which was undoubtedly a distressing expense for someone who had just quit their job.
Duan Mingyuan could only console himself that this was an investment in the future.
All the way, he pondered the topics he wanted to discuss with the contact person; apart from verifying the person's character, he also needed to discuss issues related to the professional hierarchy in the industry, systematization, and scale. The urgent task at hand was to first integrate the limited manpower and resources of Yunlong City.
This was a dangerous profession, and he was very worried that if he rested for just a few days, he would be the only one left in the trade.
The first step was to teach his colleagues some methods of dealing with the "interns" among the malicious spirits.
When the taxi stopped below the old residential building, his phone's notepad was already prepared with a thousand-word list of discussion points.
He paid the fare and followed Jiuyue up the stairs.
The financial straits of the organization were evident from the contact person's living environment. The building had no elevator, and each floor's hallway was so narrow it was hard for two people to walk side by side. The corridors, covered with hanging laundry and bed sheets, only exacerbated the already cramped space.
The air was thick with the smell of rotting garbage and sour water, and as the two of them reached the sixth floor without a break, the stench became more pronounced.
It was as if someone's meals had not been cleaned up for several days and were starting to decompose.
The source of the odor, strikingly, was the room at the very end of the hallway.
As he stood at the door, Duan Mingyuan also caught a discordant scent mixed with the smell of rotting food.
A clear scent of blood mingled with the sour smell of food, enough to make one retch.
Jiuyue, who had stopped at the door, seemed to have also imagined the scene behind it, her face somber, and a glint of ferocity flashed through her beautiful amber eyes.
"Step back, Jiuyue," he said.
Duan Mingyuan motioned for her to stand behind him, shielding her with his body as he knocked on the tightly closed door.
"Dong dong dong, dong dong dong—"
Of course, there was no answer.
The door was locked tight.
In Duan Mingyuan's mind, the music of a crime scene seemed to play, an inexplicable voice defining their current predicament.
This was a locked-room murder.
"Stay behind me, don't come out," he instructed.
After leaving that instruction, the doorknob he held twisted along with the lock, and with a gentle push, the door opened.
This room was smaller than he had imagined. With a two-room and one-living-room layout, the dining table faced the entrance, with moldy takeout food in a fast-food box. The stench hit them much harder once they were inside the door.
The smell of blood was coming from the bedroom; the bloodstains seeping out from under the door told the whole story.
"Jiuyue," he called out.
Though it seemed inappropriate at the time, Duan Mingyuan couldn't help but ask, "Does the company not have any living people?"