To Get Married - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A few months ago, Lu Yudong was still hospitalized in Yuanchuan City Third People’s Hospital. During that time, Manzhu lived in a cheap short-term rental.

The rental Manzhu chose was very close to the hospital, a round trip taking less than half an hour on foot. This was so she could spend more time with Lu Yudong every day.

Having lived in the deep mountains for centuries, she knew virtually nothing about the world’s transformations over the last millennium.

She had interacted with human customs a thousand years ago, but those were long obsolete. If her old friend, who hadn’t seen her in a thousand years, hadn’t been patient enough to help, she would have hit countless walls in this place where “iron boxes drove all over the streets” and everything revolved around money.

Although she worked hard to integrate into the modern human world after receiving help, becoming a good parent was certainly not something achieved overnight.

Manzhu worried that her lack of social experience might cause her to overlook the child’s true feelings. The words she spoke most often were: “If you need anything or if you’re unhappy about something, remember to tell me. I will help you.”

Lu Yudong was a well-behaved and sensible child. She hid many things in her heart. Not only did she never ask for anything, but she wouldn’t even cry out when she was in pain.

Yet, Manzhu was connected to Lu Yudong by a soul bond. She could feel most of the pain the car accident inflicted on Lu Yudong. How could she not know how much the child was truly enduring?

The less Lu Yudong asked for, the more Manzhu doubled her concern every day. After countless days of repeating the same concerned words, the child finally lowered her head, clutched the bedsheets, and quietly mumbled: “It’s very noisy at night in the hospital…”

She said that late at night, people in the hospital would always be crying loudly, which was grating. It woke her up several times, but no one ever came to stop it.

Manzhu knew immediately that something was wrong. If people were genuinely crying loudly in a hospital at night, why would no one intervene?

That night, she waited patiently by the hospital room door until past two in the morning. Sure enough, she saw something unclean.

The entity had become a Chained Earth Spirit of that location. It wouldn’t randomly harm people. It would only repeat the pain and despair it experienced before death, over and over, until someone helped it fulfill its unfinished wish. Only then could it break the endless cycle of suffering, leave the place, and find release.

Manzhu was not a yāo of great compassion. When faced with such a troublesome entity, she usually adopted a stance of “not my business.”

Later, she used her spiritual power to examine Lu Yudong’s spiritual channels while the child slept.

It turned out that this originally ordinary child, after the accidental soul-bond with her, had her spiritual channels cleared by yāo power.

Ordinary human spiritual channels are mostly blocked. Having them opened meant a person now possessed the ability to cultivate. This ability would allow her to sense things ordinary humans cannot.

However, these very things were undoubtedly terrifying for a human girl who lacked any self-defense capabilities.

Manzhu did not want Lu Yudong to practice magic, because people with spiritual power are far more attractive to certain entities than ordinary humans. After all, those things like to gravitate towards places where spiritual energy converges, seeking so-called kinship.

Because of this, Manzhu used her yāo power to protect Lu Yudong’s Spiritual Platform, sealing her perception of some non-human entities.

Yet, she hadn’t realized that the yāo spell she had placed on Lu Yudong’s Spiritual Platform had been absorbed by Lu Yudong’s spiritual channels without her noticing. If Lu Yudong hadn’t brought it up today, she might not have discovered it at all.

Speaking of which, Lu Yudong rarely asked her for anything, but tonight she finally did…

Manzhu seemed to remember something. She got up and found Lu Yudong’s ID card to check it.

December 29th. The little girl’s birthday was approaching.

In the dim room, Manzhu quietly gazed at the sleeping Lu Yudong, her thoughts drifting to an unknown place.

December 28th, Wednesday, 4:30 PM.

Manzhu pushed open the door of Not Old Acquaintance, which was locked from the inside, with a sudden force that startled the un-shifted yāo inside into clumsily transforming into half-human forms.

When the yāo realized who had burst in, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Huanxi the little cat demon leaped to the door, checked the broken lock and doorframe, and exclaimed, “Elder Sister Manzhu, you didn’t have to do that, did you? You could have called ahead, and we would have opened the door for you.”

“Exactly, there was no need!” Xiao Zhi the dragonfly yāo nodded repeatedly nearby.

Mu Chensan rushed over, pointed at the cracks on the doorframe, and shouted, “Man Shan Hong! Am I paying you a salary to come here and cause destruction?”

“Yell that again?” Manzhu glared at Mu Chensan.

Mu Chensan briefly choked, then changed his approach: “Fixing the door costs money! You don’t know the price of things until you have to buy them!”

Manzhu closed the door with a backhand motion. A flash of spiritual power swept over it, and the broken lock was repaired.

Mu Chensan took a deep breath. “The Eighth Rule, Twenty-first Clause of the Yāo Code: ‘A yāo must not conjure something out of nothing using magic. A yāo must not use magic to repair objects made by humans. A yāo must not…'”

“We’re all family here. If no one talks, who will know?” Manzhu walked to the bar counter, pulled out a stool, and sat down. She scanned every little yāo present who dared not speak, then said, “There is a very serious problem right now. My Lu Yudong saw your yāo forms last night.”

“Ah?” The yāo‘s first reaction was disbelief.

Mu Chensan frowned. “How is that possible? I set the barrier! Are you looking down on my skills?”

Manzhu said, “I’m not looking down on your skills. After she soul-bonded with me, her spiritual channels opened. I was afraid she’d be scared by strange things, so I temporarily sealed her Spiritual Platform. If she hadn’t mentioned seeing your ears and tails yesterday, I wouldn’t have realized that the seal was absorbed by her.”

“This…” Huanxi tilted her head. “Well, what should we do? The child wasn’t frightened by us, was she?”

“She thought they were little decorations. She told me last night that she wanted one, and I promised,” Manzhu said, looking at Huanxi. “The thing is, I spent all day today scouring every place around here that might sell things like that, and every single one was faker than the last… Huanxi, my Yudong likes realistic ones like yours. What do you suggest?”

Everyone’s attention turned to Huanxi’s ears and tail.

Huanxi instinctively covered her ears with her hands. A few seconds later, she pressed her ears back into her head, but her sharp cat fangs unconsciously protruded from her mouth.

These low-cultivation yāo always fixed one part while another came undone.

The others couldn’t help but chuckle.

Manzhu shook her head and sighed. “Don’t do that. I don’t want your ears.”

Hearing this, Huanxi quickly hid her sharp teeth and let her small ears pop back out. She thought for a moment, held up a finger, and said, “Elder Sister Manzhu, a gift is a gift. Doesn’t Little Sister Yudong just like fuzzy things? Er Gouzi had a serious shedding problem a while ago, and Xiao Zhi used that fur to make a little white dog. She pets it every night. Make her turn it over!”

“My, my fur?” Gou Hongjie, the bar’s only cook, looked at Xiao Zhi in shock.

Xiao Zhi’s face flushed slightly. She conjured a little white dog the size of two palms, quickly ran to the bar counter, shoved it into Manzhu’s hands, and loudly said, “Elder Sister Manzhu, this, this thing, I made it for fun. It’s worthless. You can take it and give it to your sister!”

Manzhu asked, “Is it clean?”

“Elder Sister Manzhu, that’s too much. Are you disgusted with me?” Gou Hongjie complained.

“I washed it thoroughly!” Xiao Zhi insisted.

Manzhu nodded, accepting the little dog. “The next time Lu Yudong comes, I don’t care who you get to help, but make sure all your yāo forms are completely hidden.”

Seeing that the bar’s business hours were about to begin, the staff, who had been loudly agreeing a second ago, quickly scattered to their tasks.

“Hmph, someone acts more like the boss than I do,” Mu Chensan muttered softly, turning to leave.

“Wait a moment,” Manzhu called out to him.

“What is it?” Mu Chensan looked back at Manzhu.

Manzhu smiled, her eyebrows curving, and said seductively, “I’d like to ask for next month’s salary in advance, Boss.”