Chapter 90

Chapter 90: A Job Came In

Yu Sheng thought it over and decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to haul every towel, basin, soda bottle, and other piece of junk from home to the Special Operations Bureau for appraisal. Even if he ignored whether the bureau wanted to deal with it, dumping a mountain of trash into the oddity collectibles market would look like he was trying to wreck it. It was a tiny niche to begin with, and if he casually cleaned out a few drawers, he might crash the entire year’s trading volume.

But that little burst of reason didn’t cool his restless imagination. If anything, it made him think harder.

Irene tilted her head and eyed him. The little doll’s face was full of suspicion. “You’re still planning to flip junk and sell it?”

Yu Sheng waved a hand. “Little Red Riding Hood said we should at least sell something that looks mysterious and has an ‘aura.’ A lot of collectors are well-informed ordinary people who know a bit about the supernatural world. They buy this stuff mostly because they like occult things—and because it gives them something to brag about.”

Irene sighed. “Sometimes I really can’t understand humans. So many of you have no skills at all, yet you love to flirt with death. Why not just be an ordinary person who can’t even see the otherworld or the entities in it? At least you’d live peacefully. But no—you have to be interested in the ‘other side’ and think learning a couple of safety tricks makes you fine. Even setting aside whether those half-baked tricks work, some of the stuff brought back from the otherworld can be dangerous.”

Yu Sheng shrugged. “Even the Special Operations Bureau doesn’t ban it. Anything they appraise and allow into the market is basically safe. The truly weird stuff gets locked up in the bureau’s containment warehouse—that’s what the Border Comms Encyclopedia says.”

No sooner had he finished than his phone vibrated again. A new message from Little Red Riding Hood popped up.

“If you want to make a little extra cash, I have a job. Want to help?”

Yu Sheng froze, then typed back immediately. “What kind of job?”

“A commission from the Curiosities Association. I turned it down before because it’s risky and the payoff isn’t guaranteed. More importantly, I’m short-handed. But if you can help—bring that fox who can really fight—then it’s perfect. You’ll get to learn how real spirit realm detectives work, you’ll get half the fee, and most importantly: if we run into something we can’t beat, you can grab me and run.”

Another message followed right away.

“The job is to go into the ‘museum’ and find something. If you can bring it out smoothly, that counts as success.

“If you’re interested, I’ll send you the information on the ‘museum,’ along with the exact pay.”

Yu Sheng instinctively exchanged a look with Irene. The fox beside them was still busy gnawing a drumstick, blissfully unaware. But Yu Sheng and Irene both saw the same spark of excitement in each other’s eyes.

A job came in.

And it wasn’t just the words “commission” and “pay” that hooked him. This was a chance to enter another otherworld, learn more about the supernatural realm, and build up real knowledge.

To Yu Sheng, that mattered more than any reward. Any scrap of information about the otherworld might help him find the door that led back to his hometown.

“Send it over. Let me see,” he replied.

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t waste words. A long string of information arrived, ending with the payout number.

Yu Sheng’s mind went blank the instant he saw it.

“That much?”

“We split it fifty-fifty,” Little Red Riding Hood explained. “Going into the otherworld is dangerous, so the pay has to be higher. But our costs aren’t low either. Forget equipment wear and tear—the sanity blocking agent, nebulizer, inducer, and other meds we restock every time are expensive. We pay out of pocket, so after you subtract costs, what you actually take home isn’t that much.”

Yu Sheng stared at the messages, stunned. After holding it in for a moment, he finally asked, “What are the sanity blocking agent, nebulizer, and that inducer you mentioned?”

Little Red Riding Hood went silent.

He waited a long time before her reply finally popped up, starting with an absurd string of exclamation marks.

“!!!!! You hit another bug again! I’m so jealous of you!!”

Yu Sheng stared at the screen, then looked down at Irene. “What does she mean?”

“I don’t know.” Irene scratched her head. “Maybe she’s jealous that you’re so chill?”

“I don’t think so…”

Another message arrived.

“I just contacted the Curiosities Association’s client. They agreed to send the job over again, but the timing is tight. Latest is tomorrow night at twelve. If you have time, it’s best to leave tonight.”

Yu Sheng considered it. There wasn’t much to do at home anyway, and Foxy had eaten so much she probably needed to walk it off. He replied quickly, “Okay. Tonight.”

“I’ll send you the address. Get here as soon as you can.”

Yu Sheng put his phone away and let out a soft breath. Then he looked at the fox young lady, who had chewed the chicken bones to bits, swallowed them, and was now carefully licking her fingers.

He reached out and patted her tail. “Foxy, go change. We’re heading out.”

Foxy blinked, blank for a beat. “Huh? Benefactor, what are we going to do?”

Yu Sheng grinned, already itching to move. “The Hotel has a job. We’re going adventuring.”

“Okay!”

A moment later, Yu Sheng stepped out of the house. Foxy followed close behind, carrying Irene, whose eyes had lost their shine again.

The three of them—sort of—stood on the open ground in front of No. 66 on Wu Tong Road, facing the night wind and the city under a dark sky.

After a while, Irene suddenly blurted, “How are we getting there?”

“I’ll take you,” Foxy offered at once, looking at Yu Sheng with bright, excited eyes. She’d been confused when they left, but now she seemed thrilled. “Benefactor, just point me the way.”

A vivid mental image flashed through Yu Sheng’s mind. He shook his head hard. “No. Absolutely not. A rocket-boosted fox streaking across the city at subsonic speed in the middle of the night—do you have any idea how Boundary City’s news would write that up tomorrow? We’re calling a car.”

Irene twitched. “…An impressive supernatural organization, and our first mission is three people squeezing into a rideshare?”

Yu Sheng felt a little awkward too. “We’re still in the startup phase. We’ll get a car later, when we have money. Besides, we’re not even that cramped. You don’t take up any space.”

Irene cursed him out with impressive creativity.

They didn’t call the car right at the door, though. After the last locksmith incident, none of them wanted a stranger stopping at No. 66 again.

Foxy watched Yu Sheng’s hands with open curiosity. After a moment, she pointed at his phone and sighed in admiration. “Benefactor’s magic tool is really convenient. It can do anything.”

Yu Sheng blinked. “Don’t you have something like this where you’re from? Something similar?”

Foxy’s hometown sounded so advanced it was hard to believe they didn’t have personal devices.

“We do,” Foxy said with a nod, then added seriously, “but kids aren’t allowed to play with it because it might affect cultivation. My mother is generous and lets me use it for half a shichen each day, but I still can’t access more than half the functions…”

Yu Sheng fell silent.

What the hell—so even a cyber-cultivation fox had to deal with underage anti-addiction controls?

He sighed and said casually, “I’ll reset the old phone I replaced and give it to you. It might not be as advanced as your magic tool, but it’ll keep you entertained. You can use it to learn about this world, too.”

Foxy’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Benefactor!”

“Hey! Only her?” Irene immediately looked offended. “I want one too…”

Yu Sheng gave her a look. “With your size, can you even handle a phone? It’d be hard enough just to take a call. How are you supposed to get your mouth and ear to the mic and speaker at the same time?”

“Why not?” Irene argued, indignant. “I can even use your laptop! I just grab it with both hands!”

Yu Sheng’s forehead twitched. “You still dare to bring up my computer? I haven’t forgotten the account thing.”

Irene’s voice softened instantly. “Didn’t you already hang me on the clothesline for half an hour? That makes us even. And it was only a twelve-hour ban…”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth to retort, but a beam of light from the distant intersection cut him off.

The car he ordered had arrived.

He and Foxy looked toward it at the same time.

A shuddering little car rolled into view.

Irene stared. “This car… isn’t it a little too shabby? It looks like it’s about to be scrapped.”

Yu Sheng watched it bump over the speed hump. Every clunk made him worry the bumper would fall off. He checked the plate number again. It really was the one he’d ordered, but he still couldn’t keep a straight face. “It’s old, sure, but it’s not that close to being scrapped, is it?”

The little car—looking like it had changed owners seven times—creaked to a stop in front of them.

For one tense second, Yu Sheng honestly couldn’t tell whether it had braked or simply died.

Then the driver’s window rolled down.

A familiar face appeared.

Xu Jiali.

“It’s you?” The nearly two-meter brute wedged behind the wheel looked genuinely surprised.