Chapter 83: The Certificate Office Has Arrived
Morning sunlight spilled through a clear sky. The air was fresh, clouds drifting lazily overhead.
In the living room, the television played a bland urban variety show. Irene hugged the remote, watching with great interest. Meanwhile, Foxy licked her bowl clean in the dining area, multitasking with her many tails to gather up the used dishes and utensils from the table.
Yu Sheng placed his laptop on the dining table, eyes locked onto the screen since breakfast, completely absorbed.
Foxy was quite curious what her Benefactor was doing, but seeing how focused Yu Sheng was, she didn’t dare interrupt. Occasionally, as she passed by cleaning, she’d tilt her head to sneak a peek, only to turn back around with a look of confusion when she couldn’t make sense of it.
Even after Foxy finished washing the dishes in the kitchen, Yu Sheng remained fixated on the screen. Irene, on the other hand, strolled over from the living room—unlike Foxy, she wasn’t so polite. The moment she saw Yu Sheng glued to the laptop, she dashed over with eager steps and grabbed his pants, climbing up.
“Hey hey! What’re you doing? Can I see?”
Yu Sheng casually lifted Irene by the collar and placed her on the table. “Don’t mess around. I need to write.”
“…Write?” Irene blinked, confused. “Why?”
“It’s my job. I’m a writer,” Yu Sheng replied, not even glancing up. He just gave the little doll a sideways glance. “You didn’t think I was some idle drifter, did you? I have a legitimate profession.”
Irene listened in stunned silence, the expression on her little doll face slowly shifting to one of awe—as if the complexities of income and work had never crossed her mind. She now looked as if a Door to a New World had just creaked open.
Yu Sheng didn’t care about her reaction and continued, “Expenses have been piling up lately. We’ve gotten a lot of new stuff for the house, and I owe two manuscripts that are more than two weeks overdue. I need to catch up—so go watch TV and don’t bother me.”
Irene gaped for a while before scooting over to peek under Yu Sheng’s arm at the screen. “But you’re clearly just watching videos…”
Yu Sheng stiffened. “…That’s a necessary warm-up process to get my mind flowing.”
The little doll pointed. “But you also have a forum page open behind the video.”
Yu Sheng strained to keep a straight face, though his eyes looked a bit awkward. “Reading others’ posts can be helpful too. These forums often have creative ideas. They help spark inspiration, okay?”
Irene looked up. “But you don’t even have a document open…”
“So much chatter!” Yu Sheng finally snapped, picking her up and placing her on the floor. “Have you ever written anything before? This stuff takes expertise! The thinking and planning before writing is the real workload…”
Irene stood beside the table, hands on her hips, looking up with defiance. “Then when exactly are you going to start writing?”
Yu Sheng glared. “As soon as you stop bothering me.”
The Doll Lady pouted, turned, and stomped back to the living room, grumbling all the way. “Tch, so many excuses for a procrastinator…”
Yu Sheng thought about it and realized the little one had a point. He then turned back to the screen, eyes vacant.
He was a writer—though that was a fancy way of putting it. In truth, just a second-rate author scraping by.
It was one of the few constants between his past life in that tranquil Coastal City and his current one in the massive, unfamiliar Boundary City. Despite all the changes, writing remained his livelihood, and that was something he considered a rare stroke of fortune.
But lately, too many unexpected things had happened. He couldn’t calm his mind enough to write. Not for lack of ideas—he had too many. The problem was deciding which ones were safe for fiction, and which might actually lead to the Otherworld… and invite dangerous things.
Now that he’d had real encounters with the supernatural, this writer of eerie fantasy found himself utterly adrift.
He sat there zoning out before his laptop for who knows how long. Eventually, he drew a deep breath and quickly closed both the video and forum tabs.
[Come on, Yu Sheng, pull yourself together. Think of how much Foxy eats. Think of Foxy’s new clothes. Think of the materials needed to craft a body for Irene—and her dream of a brand new TV.]
[A broke Spirit Realm Detective like me can’t afford to slack off. If I don’t start writing, we’ll be eating dirt soon! Forget detective work—first, I need to figure out how to feed this household!]
Yu Sheng slapped his own face a couple of times, grabbed the mouse, and launched the game.
Gathering his thoughts was too exhausting, so he figured a quick bot match might help him relax.
But just as he was about to start, something bumped into his calf—Irene had somehow sneaked in from the living room again and was now headbutting his leg. “Yu Sheng, you’re gaming again!”
“Why are you always in my business!” Yu Sheng said, clearly flustered. He bent down, ready to shoo the Doll Lady away, but before he could raise his hand, his pocket vibrated and his phone rang.
He pulled it out to find an unfamiliar number on the screen.
After a brief hesitation, he answered, holding the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
On the other end, a young woman’s voice came through, a bit nervous and flustered. “H-Hello! Is this Mr. Yu? I was sent by Director Bai Li Qing! I’m here to deliver your registration forms.”
Yu Sheng blinked, then remembered—he had mentioned this to the Director earlier and nearly forgotten about it.
“Yes, yes, that’s right,” Yu Sheng replied quickly, rising to his feet and setting Irene aside for the moment. Still on the phone, he glanced out the window. “I’m home right now. Where are you?”
“I think I’m right by your place, but I can’t see the house,” the woman sounded anxious. “The Director told me to call you before coming, but I forgot—only remembered once I got here.”
“Hang on, I’ll open the Door for you.”
As Yu Sheng walked toward the Door, Irene called from behind, “Who is it? Should I use a disguise?”
Foxy stepped out nervously too. “Should I transform?”
“No need,” Yu Sheng waved a hand. “She’s here to handle your identity cards.”
He reached the Door and peered through the Cat Eye. Outside, a young woman in a crisp black suit with short hair stood scanning the open space, clutching a phone.
She looked like a freshly recruited temp, tossed out by her superior to handle a last-minute errand.
Yu Sheng casually opened the Door.
The young woman jumped, startled, then turned to gape at the suddenly-appearing Door and Yu Sheng standing in its frame.
“Mr. Yu!” she exclaimed and rushed over in a few quick steps, holding a document envelope. “Hello, I’m with the Second Mobilization Squad of the Special Affairs Bureau. Just call me Ren Wen Wen. May I come in? I need to take photos for the registration later… Oh, here’s my ID, please take a look.”
She fumbled out a black booklet and flipped it open for him.
Yu Sheng glanced at it and saw it resembled the IDs shown by Li Lin and Xu Jiali before.
Honestly, he didn’t need to check whether it was fake—after all, the only ones who knew both his phone number and the location of Wutong Road No. 66 were the Special Affairs Bureau and Little Red Riding Hood.
Oh, and those three locksmith masters.
“Come in,” Yu Sheng stepped aside and let her enter, though something still felt off. This Ren Wen Wen was clearly nervous, but not in the same way Li Lin and Xu Jiali had been when they first entered Wutong Road No. 66. It was… different.
He couldn’t quite put a finger on it.
Once Ren Wen Wen was inside, Yu Sheng peeked out again, saw nothing unusual in the area around the Door, and closed it.
Irene and Foxy watched the new arrival with open curiosity.
Ren Wen Wen returned the gaze, equally intrigued by the little doll and the Demon Fox Maiden.
Yu Sheng stepped forward. “So, what’s the procedure? Register them first or me?”
“L-Let’s handle their legal identities first,” Ren Wen Wen replied, snapping back to focus. She pulled out some forms from her envelope and retrieved a portable device from her bag. “You’re registering an independent team, right? We need to confirm the identities of all members first. Please fill out these two forms. I’ll take their pictures and prepare their cards. I brought everything with me, and the office is ready to process and upload on the spot.”
Yu Sheng watched her swiftly set up equipment and papers on the table, then hand over two pens, glancing up at the little doll (66.6 cm tall) and the Demon Fox Maiden.
“Can you fill these out yourselves?”
Foxy blinked at the forms, then looked helplessly at Yu Sheng.
She couldn’t read the writing…
Yu Sheng sighed and stepped forward, taking a pen. “I’ll fill them out for her.”