Chapter 55

Knit a sweater with your Red String of Fate

One rice cooker for dozens of people. There was barely enough porridge for everyone, but at least they all got to have a taste of the wheatgrass juice.

And yet, after the porridge and the wheatgrass juice, all the staff and volunteers were on their knees.

“Director! There’s no future in the zoo! Let’s open a restaurant instead!” Xiao Su said with tears.

It is so much easier to make money with a restaurant. Much easier to operate than a zoo, too.

“You think I don’t want to do that instead?” Duan Jiaze said ghostly, “I want to go into real estate, too.”

A Golden Finger[1] of such power, and yet he was stuck operating a zoo. Any money he made had to go towards hiring staff and taking care of the animals. The injustice!

Duan Jiaze finished eating in a hurry and went back to the kitchen to cook more food for Luya and friends. The moment he stepped in the kitchen, he was greeted by the sight of a host of sparrows pecking away at the grain bag. The bag already had a small rip and several grains of rice had fallen out, while sparrows were fighting over them.

“STOP-” Duan Jiaze yelled, startled.

The sparrows had been behaving ever since the zoo opened. They were unable to continue stealing food since the renovation, but they never flew far away and always hung around the empty plot near the entrance.

Little did he expect these thieves to seize this opportunity and go after the Farmer God’s Five Grains.

The sparrows didn’t even react after Duan Jiaze yelled at them. He walked up waving the broom, yet the sparrows persistently pecked away at the grains with tear-jerking bravery. They knew this was good stuff.

Duan Jiaze was speechless. When you’re such a doormat, not even the sparrows care about your feelings.

Watching the birds’ raucous behavior, an idea occurred to Duan Jiaze. He shouted, “leave now or I will get Luya here!”

A silence came over the sparrows. Then they spread their wings and flew out the door.

Duan Jiaze: “…”

Looks like there’s yet another utility for Dào Jūn.

…

Duan Jiaze got new bags for the rice, secured them nicely then put them in a locked cabinet. This time the sparrows wouldn’t get to the rice so easily.

Just then, his phone rang. He looked at the caller then picked it up. “Ying-jiě?”

The caller was Sun Aiping’s daughter Sun Ying. They basically went through hell and back together. Originally, Sun Aiping was the one Duan Jiaze was friendly with, but after the incident with the robber, he got close to Sun Ying as well, and saw each other way more often.

Sun Ying said merrily, “are you in the zoo? I’m going to Lingyou in the afternoon. My mom made some pumpkin pies. I also got you a shirt when I went shopping the other day.”

Duan Jiaze: “I’m here. Thank you so much Ying-jiě, and thank your mom for me too. You are not going out of your way to bring me all of these, are you?”

“No…” Sun Ying suddenly sounded awkward, “actually, my colleague introduced a friend of theirs to me, and we are seeing each other. He learned about the things I ran into at the zoo, so asked me to hang out there.”

Oooh, it’s a date. Duan Jiaze grinned, “Of course! Come on over and let’s have dinner together. I’ll make sure your date isn’t sketchy or anything.”

Sun Ying scolded him goodnaturedly and hung up.

Duan Jiaze took a noon nap and met Sun Ying and her boyfriend in training in the afternoon. As Duan Jiaze welcomed them, wearing his pink uniform and rubbing the sleepiness away from his eyes, Sun Ying couldn’t help but ruffled his curly hair. “Your hair really does feel nice. No wonder your Luya likes to rest there so often.”

Duan Jiaze: “…”

Despite knowing that Sun Ying meant Luya’s bird form, Duan Jiaze thought of Luya’s face and shuddered.

Sun Ying said, “this is my friend, Bai Haibo. He was in the same program as you. He works for the Department of Environmental Protection and was recently transferred to Donghai City[2].”

Bai Haibo was fair looking and neatly dressed. He shook his hand with Duan Jiaze and said, “heh, nice to meet you. I was several years above you. My focus was on water resources. What about you?”

“Same here! What a coincidence. But I am not working in any related fields.” Duan Jiaze felt a kinship with a senior from the same program, and went on saying, “most of my classmates didn’t end up in careers in related fields either. They work all kinds of jobs now.”

Bai Haibo shook his head and sighed.

Seems like it is a story as old as time.

“Alright, aren’t you both doing just fine now?” Sun Ying handed the pumpkin pies and the shirt to Duan Jiaze, and told him to try it on first.

Duan Jiaze saw that the brand of the shirt was the same as the one Bai Haibo was wearing. They were likely bought on the same shopping trip. Looks like Sun Ying took a liking to Bai Haibo already. Sun Ying was also good at estimating the size as it suited him very well.

“Thank you so much Ying-jiě,” Duan Jiaze expressed his gratitude again and said with a grin, “sooo, shall I take you on a tour, or would you like to walk around by yourselves?”

Sun Ying felt embarrassed and glared at him, “well, how could I trouble The Director himself. We will find you after we are done.”

Then she dragged Bai Haibo away.

Duan Jiaze watched them walking away, and, as if infected by Bai Haibo’s melancholy, also sighed.

Duan Jiaze grew up in Donghai City. As the city developed, pollution worsened, too. The East Sea was not as clear as before. He had a vague memory of his parents – who passed too soon – being passionate about environmental protection, which was why he chose the program of Environmental Engineering for university.

He spent so long looking for a job and had no luck. It wasn’t just because of a struggling employment situation, but also his overly high expectations.

Who could’ve known that he went straight from environmental engineering to being the director of a zoo.

Duan Jiaze shook his head at these strange circumstances and went back to his tasks.

…

Halfway through his tasks, Duan Jiaoze got another call from Sun Ying, who sounded in a panic: “Jiaze, Haibo got burnt and I have no idea how. We are in the tourist service center now.”

“He what? I’m going there right now.” Duan Jiaze rushed to the tourist service center, and saw that Lingyou staff was trying to apply medicine to Bai Haibo, but Bai Haibo refused to be treated, his face twisted in pain.

Sun Ying was persuading Bai Haibo, “stop covering up your wound! If you refuse to go to the hospital, at least let someone treat it? What is going on?”

She had no idea what happened. He was fine one second and the next, his hand was over his shoulder while a burnt smell was coming from it. The wound seemed very bad, but Bai Haibo still refused to be treated.

Fire? A burn wound? Bai Haibo’s attitude?

Duan Jiaze assessed that something abnormal, perhaps supernatural, was going on here. He took the first aid box and said to others in the room, “let me do it. Ying-jiě and everyone else, can you step out? The wound can be very gory and I don’t want to disturb you.”

Sun Ying and staff left in confusion. But it might be fine to let Duan Jiaze handle it. Perhaps he was trying to treat him with force and didn’t want to scare them, they reasoned.

Duan Jiaze removed Bai Haibo’s hand and saw that a deep wound was forming on his arm. A small flame was still burning brightly, and even left a deep burnt mark on his palm.

There was a faint blue light around the wound, pulsing as if fighting against the flame, but it was losing ground slowly. No wonder he didn’t want to show it to anyone.

Duan Jiaze breathed in sharply. There was only one kind of fire he’d seen that cannot be put out, and that is True Fire of Sun[3]. As for the creepy blue light, he’d best get his answer from Bai Haibo himself. “Who ARE you? Why are you hitting on Ying-jiě?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Bai Haibo said in a pained voice, “Keeping a fox spirit[4] in the zoo, and even befriending Xiao Ying’s father. Not me, not all the Eminent Monks could see through your Xiuwei[5]. What are you approaching her family for?”

“…” Duan Jiaze was at a loss for words. “Of course you cannot see through my Xiuwei. Because I’m a fucking human!”

Bai Haibo: “…”

Wait. Did he, Bai Haibo, make a mistake?

Internally, Duan Jiaze grumbled that Bai Haibo was such an overthinker; he only met the Sun Family by chance and befriended them genuinely. But judging by what he just said, this guy truly cared about Sun Ying.

Duan Jiaze gave up and got Luya to contain the True Fire of the Sun. Water rippled over Bai Haibo’s wound and the bleeding stopped. The wound still hadn’t completely healed and looked truly ghastly.

Duan Jiaze bandaged his wound while Bai Haibo sat in a state of utter disbelief. Duan Jiaze really just summoned a big shot that could manipulate the True Fire of the Sun at will.

Bai Haibo: “are you actually a normal human?”

“What’s the problem?” Duan Jiaze left and told Sun Ying not to worry as Bai Haibo’s wound had been treated already. There was no need for them to go to the hospital; he just needed to rest a bit. He asked some staff to take her to get some food before returning to the tourist center.

“Now spill. What are you?” Duan Jiaze asked.

Luya said with disdain, “a bighead carp.”

Complicated emotions flashed across Bai Haibo’s fair-featured face. His head is NOT big. Humans even nicknamed them “Goddess of the Yangtze.” But Bai Haibo dared not speak his mind.

“I am a Baiji spirit, age a thousand and three hundred. I was born upstream of the Yangtze River. Currently as a human… Xiao Ying already told you my identity. I am serious about this relationship…”

He saw Duan Jiaze’s puzzled expression and explained, “lots of spirits and demons[6] are assimilating into human society and are in some forms of union with humans. Not all of us are out to get you.”

Judging by Bai Haibo’s age, he was actually one of the older demons in the human world. No wonder he had no qualms about working in Donghai City.

Since he was brought in by Duan Jiaze, the True Fire of the Sun hidden by Luya was not triggered. But he tried to go after Hu Dawei while in the zoo, and Hu Dawei was under the protection. He was lucky to not be burnt to a crisp. And it was only the tiniest taste of the True Fire.

“I thought something was wrong when I saw the fox spirit. Why would there be spirits and demons if the news said this place works with the Dao organization? I grabbed him, wanting to ask for a clarification, but was hurt by the True Fire. I thought you set it,” Bai Haibo looked from Duan Jiaze to Luya, “but you’re a human, and he was the one who set the fire.”

Luya raised his hand. “You know, this fish person is kind of annoying, let’s kill him.”

Duan Jiaze stopped Luya. “Wait.”

Luya was impatient. “You are always so indecisive.”

Duan Jiaze lashed out. “Do you fucking know how RARE Baiji is? A WILD Baiji dolphin!!”

Luya: “…”

Bai Haibo: “……”

Baiji Dolphin is known as the panda of the sea and has been critically endangered. Theoretically speaking, there should be only a handful of them left. Before Bai Haibo revealed himself, Duan Jiaze was more surprised about his original form than the human-demon relationship.

Now that he knew Bai Haibo’s true identity, Duan Jiaze was immediately gentler. He even turned to Bai Haibo and said, “Be not afraid.”

But the gentler he sounded, the more scared Bai Haibo got. “You… you are thinking of showing me off in the aquarium, aren’t you? I tell you, the country will not permit this…”

Duan Jiaze: “…”

Duan Jiaze: “why didn’t you think of the country when you were trying to snatch our fox? What is even going through your head. Don’t worry. If I caught you, what would I tell Ying-jiě?”

Duan Jiaze had no say in this relationship, and not even Bai Haibo himself could decide. It was up to Sun Ying. Duan Jiaze was thinking about something else.

Bai Haibo sneaked a look of terror at Luya. “Then, will you just let me go…”

Duan Jiaze rubbed his hands together in relative embarrassment. “Actually, we are not very liquid right now… hold on, put your card back, I am not asking for a donation. To be honest, we’ve got so many new projects that I was thinking of asking for a loan from the bank. But now that I’ve met you, I really want to ask, will you, ah, introduce some aquatic beings to work for us?”

Bai Haibo, in a daze, thought he heard wrong. “Work?”

Duan Jiaze: “right. Work. Actually, that fox spirit is working for us. We treat our non-human staff extremely well. We don’t bother you with that human currency nonsense. If a demon’s got any Xiuwei, it will increase tenfold after a shift. Anyone without any Xiuwei will awake immediately. If you don’t believe me, just ask that fox spirit.

“Your tasks will be simple too. Just stay in the aquarium and show people how you go about your day underwater. Basically, nothing.”

Luya stole a glance at Duan Jiaze. The Nine-tailed Fox was truly a bad influence. He had even learned the art of finessing.

He couldn’t even afford paying in human currency. And the so-called great treatment is just food with spiritual energy, which was distributed by Hope Project as rewards for completing quests. For free.

As for Xiuwei increasing tenfold and immediate awakening… that’s just an exaggeration. Else, all animals in Lingyou would’ve had a spiritual awakening already. Truth be told, it was infinitely better than cultivating normally. It could save them many years of hard work.

Bai Haibo stared at Duan Jiaze in disbelief. With the ability of a big shot such as Luya, he could be easily overpowered, and catching mere fish should prove no challenge. Why was he talking about work with him?

— Of course, that was because they were both land animals and they knew absolutely nothing about aquatic animals. They might as well go to Huang Qi instead. Catching fish might be easy, but catching the right fish would be a lot of effort for Duan Jiaze.

And yet, there they were, with a decent looking Baiji dolphin. Not only could he understand aquatic creatures, he could communicate with them as well. Very fitting to be forced into the role of a middleman…

Bai Haibo said incredulously, “will Linshui Temple allow this?”

And then he thought, well, they have such a big shot here. Why wouldn’t they allow this.

Duan Jiaze: “why wouldn’t they? I promised them that I am not doing anything bad. And I’m not recruiting anyone with Xiuwei. Normal fish are fine. If you don’t have any, won’t your friends have any descendents? Ask around, see if anyone is interested.”

It would be too much effort to deal with a group of demons. Certainly, not all of them would be as easily intimidated as Hu Dawei. Better to accept normal fish and seal Bai Haibo’s lips.

Duan Jiaze grabbed Bai Haibo and launched into details about the compensations. “You’ll have a better understanding once we have dinner together. Let me recruit you externally as our hiring manager and you will get benefits as well.”

Bai Haibo: “ah…”

…

Evening came. His arm still bandaged, Bai Haibo and Sun Ying had a meal together at Lingyou. Purple bamboo shoot and beef stir fry, five-grain porridge, wheatgrass juice… To Sun Ying, these dishes were extra delicious, but she didn’t know exactly why. Perhaps Lingyou just cooked them differently. To Bai Haibo, however, it was a completely different case.

He was questioning every decision he’d made that led to this point in his life. He almost fainted when he heard that Duan Jiaze was opening a restaurant. Food with such spiritual energy and he would serve them to normal tourists? Unbelievably wasteful!

Though, the real question was, how come Duan Jiaze was content opening a zoo when he was this OP? Did he just want to educate the masses?

But now Bai Haibo was utterly convinced why the fox spirit would stay here, why Linshui temple sold combined tickets (because they had no other choices), and why that big shot that played with True Fire existed. The director claimed to be a normal human, but Bai Haibo thought there must be more to his background.

Anyway, Bai Haibo would be dumb to not agree to the deal. If he didn’t have a dream for water pollution control, and Duan Jiaze was accepting fish with Xiuwei, he’d come work here himself!

Just think about the depressing situation the aquatic races have been in lately. Humans’ overfishing, their numbers rapidly decreasing, and fewer and fewer of them were able to transform… There was no mortal danger in the zoo and an abundance of resources. Might not be a bad idea to introduce some outstanding juvenile fish here.

——–

Duan Jiaze moved a few more clothes from his room to Luya’s room. It would still be some time before the construction of the residential buildings finishes. The construction team wasn’t sent by the system, and it was taking a while even with the blessing of the Encampment.

Duan Jiaze saw a suitcase in the bottom of the wardrobe when he was putting away his clothes. Luya brought the suitcase with him when he arrived. Duan Jiaze almost forgot about it completely.

Until now, when he saw it again because they had to live in the same room due to unforeseen circumstances. He was deep in thought.

Dào Jūn never changed his clothes. Aside from playing video games, watching TV, and scolding the director, he didn’t really have other hobbies. Never saw him having any sorts of items with him either. All the equipment he was using was from the human world. So what exactly was in this suitcase?

“What are you looking at?” Luya asked coldly behind Duan Jiaze.

Duan Jiaze jumped. “Oh, nothing. Just spacing out.”

He closed the wardrobe doors and watched Luya walk smugly towards his bed. He sat down and said, “if this deity did not agree to take you in, you’d be sleeping on the floor in the exhibition hall. Serve me quickly.”

Duan Jiaze was used to Luya’s outrageous claims and poured some hot water. “Of course, of course. Have some water, Dào Jūn.”

Luya took the tea cup with hot water and glared at him.

“So, Dào Jūn, that Baiji dolphin said there are a lot of romantic relationships between humans and demons in human society today. Is that true?” Duan Jiaze was not worried that Bai Haibo was a bad person. Frankly, he could not be worse than the group already in the zoo. And he was not capable of harming Ying-jiě.

But he had to keep an eye out on how their relationship would develop. Collaboration in a business setting was one thing, and being in a relationship with Ying-jiě was quite another.

Is it really so common for humans and demons to be in love now? Then it was so unfair for Bai-jiě!

“How am I supposed to know?” Luya was used to denying aggressively first. Then he added coldly, “might be true. Magic is running out from the human world. There are no spiritual beings or gods, and technology was the only thing everyone cared about. Humans, demons and cultivators are becoming indistinguishable.”

And for this reason, the gap between the human world and the heavenly court was becoming unfathomable.

Duan Jiaze: “true that. Not sure if Ying-jiě can accept that. He had to tell Ying-jiě himself.”

Luya: “If she wants to live her life immersed in fishy smell and cleaning fish scales off the bed daily, tell her to say yes.”

“… don’t be gross. And Baiji dolphins don’t have scales, thank you very much.” Duan Jiaze thought of the suitcase and asked, “By the way, Dào Jūn, can I ask what your suitcase has?”

Luya shot at glance at him. “None of your business.”

Duan Jiaze: “I’m just curious. What if it is something really powerful? I am very uneducated.”

Luya was silent for a long while. Eventually, Duan Jiaze thought he wouldn’t answer when he pulled out the suitcase and opened it. There was a red sweater that was half finished and a bunch of red strings.

Duan Jiaze: ???

Luya declared with anger and pride, “Before I left, the Matchmaking God[7] disrespected me with no reason. So this deity took away hundreds of years worth of Red String of Fate. He can have fun remaking them!”

Duan Jiaze: “…”

However he looked at it, there was no logic to anything Luya said. What was the Matchmaking God thinking disrespecting him? And for no good reason? And Luya not only took his Red Strings of Fate but was also making a sweater. What the heck.

Duan Jiaze: “So you made this sweater?”

Luya: “… I was bored. And I wanted to annoy the Matchmaking God even more.”

Duan Jiaze complimented reluctantly, “how adoring of you. Who are you making it for?” Dào Jūn was full of feathers and of fire attribute. He couldn’t be needing the sweater himself. Even if the Matchmaking God were to be annoyed, he’d have to see the sweater first.

Luya got mad all of a sudden. “Go away! I’m not telling you!”

And closed the suitcase with a loud bang.

Dian Jiaze walked away sulkily. What was Dào Jūn so mad for? There was nothing to be embarrassed about. Even if Luya didn’t reveal anything, Dian Jiaze could guess that the sweater was for a bird of his dreams. He thought for a moment, grabbed his phone, found a song and started playing it. “woo~ woo~ woo~ you’re even knitting a sweater for that dumbass~”

Duan Jiaze: “…”

Footnote:

[1] Golden Finger (金手指): a phrase normally referred to hacks or cheats in video games; has been used to refer the software Ling Xiao Hope Project repeatedly

[2] Donghai = East Sea

[3] True Fire of the Sun(太阳真火), the flame of the golden crow

[4] spirit (妖 yāo)

[5] Xiuwei (修为): concept from Buddhism. Denotes the levels of enlightenment one reaches by cultivating

[6] spirits and demons (妖怪 yāo guài)

[7] the Matchmaking God (月老 yuè lǎo)

Translation by 车厘子

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