Don’t Discriminate Against Species

Bang!

The door was pushed open forcefully from the outside and the Kunpeng walked in with a heavy expression. When the usually lazy-looking Kunpeng didn't smile, it was a somber realization for everyone that he wasn't an ordinary yao cultivator but a famous, ancient great yao.

The Baize furrowed his brows slightly. With a wave of his hand, he indicated for the two juniors to stand at the side. "Kunpeng, what do you want to do?"

"What happened that year?!" The Kunpeng arrived in front of the Baize. "Countless great yao vanished without a trace and among the yao cultivators of the ancient era, some slept, some were sealed, and others died. Was it seriously the…"

"Since you already guessed it, why come and ask me?" The Baize pointed at the seat at the side. "Why so aggressive? If you have something to say, sit properly and say it."

The Kunpeng sat down accordingly before returning to his senses. Why did he have to listen to the Baize and sit just because he said so? How embarrassing was that? But since he had already sat down, standing up again would be even more embarrassing.

"All right, you're a great lord, don't be so pretentious in your behavior," The Baize raised his chin. "Sit properly."

Fu Li pulled Zhuang Qing over to the side to take a seat. Taking out a platter of fruits from his Qiankun pouch, he placed it between him and Zhuang Qing. "Let's eat fruits while listening to them talk."

"Here's some nuts too," Fu Li fished out some hickory, peanuts, and whatnot before taking out two bottles of spiritual essence - one each for him and Zhuang Qing.

The Kunpeng's profusely imposing manner vanished the instant he heard the crunching of nuts. He waved a hand at Fu Li in distaste. "Can't you go out to eat? Must you be a bother here?"

"Oh?" Fu Li's mouth was stuffed full of hickory kernels, his face brimming with innocence.

"And you!" The Kunpeng pointed at Zhuang Qing, saying disgruntledly, "Your past maturity and steadiness was all in vain, what have you been learning from Fu Li to end up like this?"

Zhuang Qing looked at him expressionlessly. He silently pinched a hickory kernel and placed it in Fu Li's hands.

"Forget it…" The Kunpeng hung his shoulders in disappointment. "No wonder the humans say that we take on the attributes of whoever we associate with - you've been corrupted by this rabbit."

"What nonsense are you spouting? Our family's Little Li is clever and cute, how could he corrupt anyone?" The Baize aimed a kick at the stool underneath the Kunpeng's buttocks. "Speaking badly of our family's child warrants a beating."

"Already four thousand years old and he's still a child?" The Kunpeng sneered. Suddenly, he asked, "How old is Fu Li this year?"

"What business is it of yours?" The Baize wrinkled his brows.

"Before I was dragged out of the sea, pummeled on the shore by you guys, and then sealed in the sea, I heard the sound of crying that seemed to shake the world…" The Kunpeng's gaze on Fu Li gradually turned dangerous. "I was sleeping perfectly fine at that time. After being awakened by the child, I was just about to go out and see what yaoguai was crying when I was seized by you guys and sealed."

Fu Li shifted towards Zhuang Qing. Zhuang Qing sat a little further up front, coincidentally blocking Fu Li.

The Kunpeng: …

He couldn't stay in this rotten human world any longer.

The Kunpeng stood up in a huff. “Your entire family of yao bullied one of me!”

“You’re aware as well that we’re a family of yao; if we don’t bully you, are you going to bully yourself?” The Baize waved a hand with a wide smile. “You should have left a long time ago. What are you staying here for and delaying our conversation?”

The Kunpeng: …

This yao scum!

The Kunpeng came burning with loftiness but left irate, slamming the door with a bang.

"Compensation has to be paid for damaging public property," Fu Li muttered softly.

"Little rabbit child, I haven't settled this more than four thousand year old debt!" The Kunpeng's livid voice came from the corridor.

The other yao in the management bureau withdrew into their office after hearing how incensed the Kunpeng was, desperately suppressing even the strongest of curiosity.

In the face of one's life, curiosity didn't seem all that important.

"The Kunpeng's personality is such that he's a little more irritable at times. That's his nature, but it's not detestable," The Baize tapped the door and a barrier instantly sprung up in the room. Seeing that he had erected a barrier, Fu Li thought that he had something important to say. But the Baize's first statement upon opening his mouth was, "The eighth of the next month is quite good. All five elements are appropriate; it can't be any more suitable for organizing a Dao Bonding Ceremony."

"Uncle Bai, I forgot to tell you that King Ganglie and Uncle Feng are in the flying palace on a mountain," Fu Li interrupted the Baize. "I'll lead you to them."

There was a hint of emotion on the Baize's face. He stood up. "Are they okay?"

"They're all fine, it's just that they stay in the flying palace most of the time and aren't very fond of stepping out."

"Okay then," The Baize glanced at Zhuang Qing. "I'll seek them out first."

"Okay, I'll bring you over," Fu Li nodded smilingly. He turned towards Zhuang Qing. "Zhuang little dragon…"

"Go back first," Zhuang Qing threw the hickory shells into the rubbish bin. "Send me a message later and tell me what you want to eat, I'll buy it after work."

"Okay," Fu Li nodded obediently and reached out his hands, hugging Zhuang Qing. "Then come back earlier."

Zhuang Qing handed the jacket Fu Li had taken off in his office to him before turning to speak to the Baize, "If Uncle Bai has anything he would like to eat, get Fu Li to call me."

The Baize nodded. "Okay."

Zhuang Qing sent the two people out of his office with his gaze and then sat back down on the chair. He had a faint feeling that there was something off about the Baize.

How could the all-knowing Baize be incapable of divining whether or not Feng Ruizhong and Kang Gu were still alive? He even wanted Fu Li to lead him to them…

If not for the auspicious qi on the Baize being impossible to falsify, Zhuang Qing would even suspect that it was not the real Baize who had been in his office.

Outside the flying palace, the Baize was looking at the tightly closed palace doors. He sighed with emotion. "It's been two thousand years, but the golden flying palace we were planning to do up for you during those years still ended up in use."

Fu Li released the restriction on the palace door and led the Baize in.

As expected, Feng Ruizhong and Kang Gu were immensely excited upon seeing the Baize. Discerning their jubilation from the many years of separation, Fu Li gave them some space.

As Fu Li was leaving through the main door, he vaguely heard Feng Ruizhong ask something. "What happened to you?" He uttered this statement in what seemed like a worried and anxious tone. When Fu Li wanted to listen on, all sound vanished.

What were they talking about that they didn't want him to hear?

Fu Li made his way back and ran into a barrier that kept him outside. Sitting down with his back against the barrier, Fu Li looked up at the sky. The weather wasn't very good; it looked like it was about to snow or rain.

He stared at the sky for who-knows-how-long when his phone suddenly sounded. It was the messaging app that he'd installed a short while back. It enabled video and call conversations as well as the forwarding of all sorts of pictures. Fu Li had a lot of interest in this app recently.

The message was from Zhuang Qing. He'd found a little rabbit cake in the cake shop and snapped a photo of it. The rabbit on the cake was charmingly naïve, an image that others couldn't help but want to poke. After staring at the photo for a while, Fu Li's mood suddenly brightened.

At the cake shop, the shop employee watched the severely-dressed man direct his phone at the cartoon cake on the shelf like a young schoolgirl, and thought inwardly - this was probably what gap moe in reality looked like.

When the man finished snapping his pictures and stood up to face them, the employee had their breath taken away by his looks. This man really had very good looks. On top of that, he looked a little familiar.

"Welcome," The employee hurriedly smiled and welcomed this new customer that came through the door.

"Hello, may I know if there are any freshly made cartoon cakes like the one on the shelf?" When she came to her senses, the good-looking man already walked over to her.

"Yes there are, please wait a moment," The employee retrieved the cartoon cake freshly made in the afternoon and wrapped it nicely in a box. "Thank you for your patronage, that'll be a total of ninety-eight yuan."

The man took out a hundred yuan note, accepted her change, and then pushed open the door and walked out. The employee glanced outside curiously and saw the man walk towards a luxury car parked at the side.

The sight of this luxury car triggered the employee's memory. Wasn't this Chairman Zhuang? Her younger sister had been jabbering into her ears day after day lately about how loving Chairman Zhuang and Little Assistant were. The young girl had made a big fuss after seeing the two children get together, as if a joyous event on earth-shattering levels had happened.

But in her opinion, no matter the gender of a couple, special treatment should not be given in romance. Only then could it be considered true equality in love.

No wonder a successful figure like Chairman Zhuang would do such a childish thing - it turned out that he had taken the photo for his lover to see. He could be considered a good man.

While tidying up the cash register, the employee thought - sometimes money really wasn't the most important thing in the world, what was important was the motive.

Arranging the shelves of goods, she glanced with a smile at the car that was slowly driving off.

Being lovers for eternity - that was pretty good.

It snowed that entire night. When Fu Li woke up the next morning, he lay slumped against the window frame, daydreaming. Zhuang Qing, who lived next door, made his way over to the window upon seeing him like this. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Fu Li leaped up from the window. "Going to work now?"

Zhuang Qing nodded. When they entered the yard, Kang Gu, Feng Ruizhong, and the Baize were sitting at the stone table playing Chinese checkers. They didn't even raise their heads upon seeing them appear.

They had played for an entire night, from last night till now.

"King Ganglie, Uncle Feng, Uncle Bai, we're going to work."

"Go, go," Feng Ruizhong waved a hand casually, resembling a bear parent who couldn't wait to be freed from their bear child.

Fu Li: …

Familial love really was perilous - it couldn't even compare to a box of Chinese checkers.

"Kang Gu, you hopped wrongly again!" Feng Ruizhong pressed down on Kang Gu's hand. "Go back, the hopping rule in the center wasn't correct, you can't go that way."

"I was originally here."

"Nonsense!"

"Get the Recollection Mirror!" Feng Ruizhong told the Baize. "I'm going to expose this shameless liar!"

The Baize fished out the most valuable treasure of the yao world, the Recollection Mirror, though the purpose of doing so was merely to look at one step of checkers lasting thirty seconds. If this was known to the yao cultivators who had desired the Recollection Mirror to death back in those years, their eyes would definitely turn red from anger.

"Sure enough, you faked it," Feng Ruizhong snorted with a sneer after looking at the Recollection Mirror. "I really couldn't tell that your simple and honest appearance hid a shameless heart."

"I just saw wrongly," Kang Gu still refused to admit to it and exchanged a few heated words with Feng Ruizhong.

"I'm too lazy to argue with you," Feng Ruizhong continued with his move. Just as he was about to return the Recollection Mirror to the Baize, he suddenly thought of something. "Seems like Little Li still owes the human from that year karma."

"The death of a person is akin to the extinguishing of a lamp. The karma can be considered resolved," Kang Gu shook his head. "There is no such thing as 'owing'."

"But he had the fate of a monarch," Feng Ruizhong solemnly stated. "It's different from an ordinary human."

Kang Gu furrowed his brows. "It's been two thousand years. We don't know how many times the person in question has reincarnated and where we should go to severe the karma, do you think we're filming the human world's Legend of the White Snake?"

Feng Ruizhong pointed at the Recollection Mirror in his hands. "Let's use this to look at it."