Chapter 122

Chapter 122

There were some things the police couldn’t find, but Qin Ying had her ways.

She climbed out of her grandmother’s bed. The bedding had been freshly changed, but for some reason, the room still carried a scent that was familiar and steeped in nostalgia.

Shuffling in her slippers, she opened the door.

Han Lie had slept in her room last night. Once he took off his clothes, he had become very large again, his tail drooping over the edge of the bed as he slept.

But early that morning, Han Lie was nowhere to be seen. The quilt and everything else on the bed had been folded neatly.

There were signs someone had washed up in the bathroom.

Sounds came from the backyard.

Qin Ying went downstairs to take a look. The first thing she smelled was the apple scent filling the house.

It looked like Fuzhu had already gotten something to eat.

The white-spotted Huodou darted over to Qin Ying with its dog-food bowl in its mouth.

Last night, as promised, Qin Ying had opened a can of dog food for it and fed it puppy kibble.

Huodou had already fallen deeply in love with the things made by those detestable humans.

It still hated humans, but it was not about to make things difficult for its own mouth and stomach.

“I know, I know.”

Yawning, Qin Ying picked it up. When she reached the kitchen connected to the backyard, she saw that everyone was there.

Fuzhu was gnawing on an apple on the island counter, while the Hou were roughhousing around the fruit plate.

A few of them had stretched their necks out to look into the backyard.

Qin Ying stretched her neck out too, and saw Han Lie shuffling around in blue slippers, doing…

Trying to make fire by rubbing sticks together!

He had one foot braced on a dead branch he’d picked up from the backyard, while he gripped another branch in his hands and worked hard at spinning it for fire.

Qin Ying couldn’t help calling out, “Han Lie, what are you doing?”

Han Lie turned back. “Is the Supreme Deity awake? I will have the fire started and the water boiled right away, then go hunting.”

Last night’s midnight snack had made him understand that the Supreme Deity did not, in fact, live on wind and dew.

To him, Qin Ying’s cold, modern kitchen was a completely unfamiliar realm.

Without the owner’s permission, he had not touched a single thing in the kitchen.

But he was good at surviving in the wild. He had already figured out the movements of the bird flocks.

Han Lie refused to be outdone by anyone. As long as he could get a fire going in the earthen stove in the yard, then he would surely be able to offer the Supreme Deity a feast of a hundred birds, just like that delivery guy in the yellow vest.

The thought filled him with even more energy. “Please wait a moment. Once I have the fire burning and the Hou fed, I will set off to hunt. I will definitely be back within an hour!”

Hearing that something was very wrong, Qin Ying hurriedly stopped him.

“You are not allowed to hunt!”

Was he kidding? These days, even sparrows were protected as animals of ecological, scientific, or social value.

Not to mention that the Water Park next door was full of protected animals.

There were also people from the Cultural Preservation Bureau Headquarters over there. Han Lie had better not wander around blindly and get into trouble.

Not allowed to hunt? Han Lie’s stick-rubbing motion paused. In a small voice, he asked, “Then… may I pick wild fruit?”

“There seem to be fruit trees over there.”

Qin Ying glanced in the direction he was pointing and said mercilessly, “There is no such thing as wild fruit here.”

Where would you even find wild fruit these days? Absolutely, definitely, without question, every tree belonged to someone.

After Qin Ying said that, even the hair on Han Lie’s head drooped. “I see.”

“I really am useless…”

He couldn’t even rely on his own abilities to put together an offering for the Supreme Deity.

His face hid nothing. He wilted like a dog that had taken a blow.

Seeing this, Qin Ying comforted him. “Stop rubbing those sticks together. I’ll teach you how to use fire.”

The moment she finished speaking, she paused. Only then did she realize that Han Lie had cleared away all the dead grass and branches in the entire yard.

The weeds he had pulled were stacked in one pile, and the thicker dry branches in another.

They had been piled under the kitchen window. From the look of it, he had been planning to use them as firewood.
There was a hoe in the courtyard, so he had turned over all the soil in the backyard and even built a mud stove on the right side.

Qin Ying’s heart softened for a moment.

People who worked hard to make a life for themselves were likable no matter where they were.

“Wash your hands.” She paused. “Oh, right. You weren’t quite as dumb today, were you?”

Qin Ying had already taught Han Lie how to turn on a faucet yesterday. He was rinsing his hands under the garden tap when he tilted his head at her words. “What did you say?”

Fine. So now he was only half dumb.

Qin Ying beckoned. “Come here.”

Han Lie carefully scraped the mud from the soles of his shoes on the floor mat before stepping onto the tiled kitchen floor.

Once they were in the kitchen, Qin Ying held Huodou in her arms and taught him how to open the refrigerator.

Qin Ying wouldn’t call herself a hoarder, but she wasn’t used to seeing the refrigerator empty after all those years when her grandmother had always kept it packed full.

So she had learned from her grandmother and stuffed the fridge with all kinds of vegetables, drinks, and snacks.

Han Lie cautiously reached in to test the temperature inside the fridge. Looking at how packed it was, he was slightly astonished.

“You can eat anything in here. I taught you how to throw away trash yesterday. Do you still remember?”

Han Lie nodded and pointed at the trash can. “Throw it there. If it’s full, tie it up and put in a new bag.”

Satisfied, Qin Ying closed the refrigerator and then taught him how to use the gas stove.

Finally, Qin Ying brought him to the standing cabinet that held Huodou’s dog food and canned food, and had him add dog food and pour out some pet goat milk for Huodou.

When Huodou saw that no metal can was being opened, it got so anxious that it barked nonstop.

Qin Ying blocked it off with her hand. “You’re still tiny. If you eat that every meal, you’ll end up as round as a gas tank.”

Unwilling to accept this, Huodou bit its own tail.

After feeding Huodou, Qin Ying held Fuzhu, who was still eating an apple, in her palm and taught Han Lie how to feed flames to the group of Hou.

Han Lie did a very good job. While the Hou were eating, he seemed to remember something.

From the pocket of his trench coat, he took out a small packet and handed it to Qin Ying.

Qin Ying opened it and saw many tiny shards of White Jade, each smaller than a grain of millet.

All of them were of excellent quality.

At first, she didn’t react. She stirred them with her finger, and only then remembered what they probably were: the jade dust excreted by the Hou.

“I collected it while cleaning.”

For a Monstrous Beast hunter like Han Lie, anything with even the slightest bit of value would be gathered up.

Qin Ying wiped her fingers on a tissue and didn’t embarrass him by refusing.

The pieces of White Jade looked small, but in the Box, they were probably flawless White Jade worth a fortune.

Han Lie could save them up and buy himself an official post in Great Xia inside the Box one day!

That way, in the World in the Box, he would have a stable territory of his own.

“Then I’ll keep them for now.” Qin Ying wrapped them in the tissue, found a jewelry box in her bedroom, and put them away.

After washing up and going downstairs, Qin Ying had a simple meal, then finally taught Han Lie how to turn on the television and switch channels.

“I’m heading out for a bit. I’ll be back sometime this afternoon. If you get hungry, get something from the fridge yourself.”

“Remember to feed the dog. It’s still little and can’t go hungry for long.”

“If it needs to poop, remember to herd it into the backyard.”

After Qin Ying finished rambling through her instructions, she changed clothes, picked up the bowl Aunt Xu had used to bring over cold dishes yesterday, and left the house.

She left Han Lie at home with a bunch of little creatures who were already addicted to television and were clamoring to watch Tom and Jerry.

Qin Ying had a very clear destination: the mahjong parlor, also known as the local intelligence station.

The people in the mahjong parlor knew what the police knew, and they knew what the police didn’t!

There was no way news about Huang Jun’s family could escape their mouths.