Chapter 92

Chapter 92

By the time Qin Ying returned home reeking of smoke, the sun was already sinking in the west.

Along the narrow streets of the Old City, every household had begun preparing dinner.

Qin Ying opened the courtyard gate and first saw two perfectly packaged refrigerators.

Only then did she remember. She took out her phone and saw several missed calls from unfamiliar numbers.

They had all been from the appliance store, but Qin Ying’s phone had been on silent, so she hadn’t picked up.

She called back, only to be told they had already gotten off work and could only send someone over again at nine tomorrow morning.

Since the fault was hers, Qin Ying had no room to complain and apologized repeatedly over the phone.

Once that was done, she went back inside, detoured around the paper effigies and joss paper filling the living room, and headed up to the second floor.

First, she checked on Han Lie in the pot.

Han Lie had curled himself into a tiny ball, clutching the Dragon Bone Qin Ying had given him as he slept in the wad of cotton.

He had gnawed off a section of that Dragon Bone.

Qin Ying had no idea why he was eating Dragon Bone. She could only guess that perhaps it was beneficial to his recovery. Otherwise, it couldn’t be because he was craving that dry old bone, right?

She turned and took a shower, then came out of the bathroom while drying her hair.

After a whole night of running around without eating, Qin Ying reheated the pot of braised ribs she had made.

She sat at the table hugging her knees as she flipped through the copy of Classic of Mountains and Seas that Old Miao had given her, but her mind kept wandering.

The eye inside the Box’s Divine Shrine. Cuiping Area 9…

The more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. The soup in her hand had gone cold, and she had barely taken a few sips.

She was lying on the table, staring blankly at the Wooden Puppet Han Lie had risked his life to sacrifice out from the magma of Golden Saddle Mountain, when she suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the Pressure Cooker beside her.

It sounded like the rumbling in a puppy’s throat.

Curious, Qin Ying looked over and saw that Han Lie had woken up and was sitting in the bowl, gnawing on the Dragon Bone.

One hand was pressed over his stomach.

Qin Ying scratched her cheek. Only then did it hit her that, aside from giving him one dry old bone, she hadn’t given him any water or food all day.

She had also forgotten to prepare something like a litter box for him.

Qin Ying’s gaze couldn’t help drifting away for a second before she tentatively asked, “Do you want something to eat?”

Seeing that she had finally turned her attention to him, Han Lie’s tail swished back and forth happily.

He instinctively nodded hard, then immediately shook his head.

Qin Ying stared at the top of his head. “Be honest. Do you want it or not?”

There were already enough mysteries. She didn’t have the time to guess.

Sensing what she meant, Han Lie-whose brain probably wasn’t working very well right now-hesitated, then nodded. Covering his lower abdomen with the cotton, he let out a hoarse cry.

The smoke had damaged his throat, and his cry sounded like an ox.

The moment the sound rang out, a chorus of barking erupted up and down the street.

The rats that usually hid in the sewers fell into chaos and fled as fast as they could along the base of the walls.

For a time, the other streets were suddenly overrun with rats.

Qin Ying heard the waves of barking too. On instinct, she raised a finger to her lips and shushed Han Lie. “Don’t make noise.”

As she said that, thoughts were already racing through her mind. She remembered Han Lie saying he had eaten Qilin Meat. The Qilin was the king of beasts, an Auspicious Beast of good fortune.

This kid’s background was definitely not simple.

Qin Ying got up and went downstairs to fetch a clean little sauce dish.

She picked a rib from the pot, tore it into shreds, and placed it on the desk. Then she said to Han Lie, “Come out and eat.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a tiny shadow sprang out of the Pressure Cooker.

It landed steadily on Qin Ying’s desk.

He must have wanted to come out for ages. It was just that Qin Ying had previously ordered him to stay put, and without another instruction, he hadn’t dared to leave.

Qin Ying poured a drop of water from the nearby cup onto the table and said to Han Lie, “Come wash your hands.”

Han Lie shuffled over in small steps and reached his hands toward the drop of water.

While he washed his hands, Qin Ying leaned down to observe him up close.
In terms of form alone, Han Lie looked very much like Zhang Lang in his half-armadillo state.

But anyone with eyes could tell that Han Lie’s beast transformation was more complete, more perfected.

He did not have Zhang Lang’s bizarre, malformed look.

There was another difference between them, however. Zhang Lang was clearly far more intelligent and could maintain his reason, while Han Lie could not.

Qin Ying figured that Han Lie, before his beast transformation, would probably know the reason why.

With her long hair spilling down her back, she could not help murmuring, “How am I supposed to get your IQ back?”

If Han Lie stayed like this forever, it would be far too troublesome.

Han Lie had no idea what she was saying. After cupping that drop of water and scrubbing his claws clean, he tipped his head up to look at Qin Ying, waiting only for her to say he could eat.

“Go on, go on.” Qin Ying waved helplessly. “Worst case, I’ll just keep raising you.”

Han Lie had no idea what Qin Ying was planning. He ran over to the little sauce dish and began tearing into the rib meat inside.

His teeth were excellent-he could even gnaw on Dragon Bone-so ripping up a bit of meat was naturally nothing to him.

Before long, he had stuffed a piece of meat as large as himself into his stomach, then lowered his head to lap up the remaining broth.

Watching the way his tail wagged, Qin Ying felt a tiny pang of guilt. Why hadn’t she thought to feed him something earlier?

Unable to resist, she reached out as if petting a dog and lightly touched the top of Han Lie’s head. “Eat slowly.”

While Han Lie ate, she sent messages to Old Miao, Zong Li, and Dean Tan.

She invited them to have a meal tomorrow.

Her hope was that she could find out something from Zhang Lang and help Han Lie return to normal as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, Zong Li was the first to reply, sending back an OK gesture.

Dean Tan, however, declined, saying only that he still had matters to attend to.

Old Miao and the others from the Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute sounded quite pleased when they heard Qin Ying was treating them to a meal. They agreed to meet at the Cultural Preservation Institute the next afternoon.

Han Lie’s face and claws were covered in grease. He stood at the side with his hands raised, not daring to touch anything.

Qin Ying leaned in to take a look and saw that the burn marks on his face had scabbed over.

After thinking for a moment, she took out a small tasting cup, filled it with half a cup of warm water, and poured in the remaining dregs of the Immortal Grass and Yao Grass.

Then she placed the little tasting cup on a heated coaster. The cup was just the right size for Han Lie to sit in, almost like he was taking a medicinal bath.

The moment his feet entered the water, Qin Ying saw the scales on Han Lie’s back flare up for an instant.

Seeing that he was still clutching a wad of cotton and covering his crotch for dear life, Qin Ying could not help laughing. “Stop covering up. I can’t see anything.”

Han Lie went rigid. Even his wagging tail drooped as he looked down in disbelief.

Qin Ying hastily tried to amend her words. “I didn’t mean you were small.”

Even after shrinking from the beast transformation, his figure was still very well-proportioned. He had abs and those V-lines where he should.

It was just that there truly was no need to cover anything.

There were scales between his legs. Whatever was there was probably hidden beneath the armor-like scales, so there was nothing to see. What was he even covering?

Han Lie silently sat down in the Cup, turning the back of his head toward Qin Ying.

She could not tell whether he was embarrassed or angry.

At three o’clock the next afternoon, when Qin Ying left, Han Lie stayed pressed against the glass, watching her until she disappeared into the distance.

Only then did he lower his head in dejection and sit back down in his little bowl.

Qin Ying walked all the way toward the Cultural Preservation Institute. When she passed the Cultural Center, she happened to run into a group of children there for a visit.

The elementary school students, wearing little yellow caps, were led by their teacher into the Cultural Center for a tour.

Qin Ying was not in such a hurry that a few minutes mattered, so she stopped and let them go in first.

As three or four children brushed past her, she heard a round-faced little boy say to his companions with utter certainty, “It’s true. I really saw a hellhound, right at my front door.”

Qin Ying looked toward him when she heard that-and caught the faint scent of sulfur lingering on the boy.