Chapter 30: Existence is Reasonable

About fifteen minutes later.

Li Jing, after preparing breakfast, put it on the tray and stepped out of the kitchen.

At this moment, in the living room on the sofa.

Ji Qing was lying helplessly on Chen Yuran’s lap, allowing her to run her hands all over her.

But at this moment, she had adapted.

Some things,

Once accepted, they really weren’t that difficult.

How did that saying go?

Life is like being taken advantage of.

If you can’t resist, the only thing left is to enjoy it.

At least Chen Yuran’s hands were very soft and delicate, and being petted by her was quite comforting.

As a cat, what’s the big deal about being petted?

Stinky Tofu, with a sausage in its mouth, followed Li Jing out of the kitchen. Seeing the scene on the sofa, it felt bittersweet but helpless, deciding instead to turn away, to avoid seeing, and ran to a corner of the living room to eat.

Li Jing, seeing Ji Qing appearing to have "given in" to Chen Yuran, was slightly envious.

He approached the table, placed down the tray, and called out.

"Come and have breakfast, it won’t be good once it gets cold."

"Okay."

Chen Yuran responded, holding Ji Qing as she sat at the table, picking up her chopsticks to start eating.

Li Jing saw this and couldn’t help but speak up.

"Um, could you let Ji Qing down first? She hasn’t eaten anything all night, let her eat something?"

Ji Qing was so touched upon hearing these words.

At that moment, Li Jing was like a saving grace to her.

Chen Yuran blinked, not making a sound, and hesitantly let go of Ji Qing onto the table.

Li Jing smiled and sat down, conveniently sliding a tray in front of Ji Qing.

He prepared three portions for breakfast.

"Thank you."

Ji Qing, speaking human words, sniffed the food on the tray before licking the food on plate.

Ji Qing was very polite when eating.

Combined with her plush cat form,

The scene was too endearing.

Especially her conflicted appearance as she wanted to use her little paws, adorned with white gloves, but also worried about getting them dirty. It was heart-melting to see.

Chen Yuran watched from the side, holding back a great deal of effort not to take her into her arms and feed her personally.

Picking up the chopsticks to taste the relatively abundant breakfast, Chen Yuran looked at Li Jing.

"The information last night was crucial. The department gave a reward of 200,000 yuan. I don’t really care about this small amount of money. You provided the information, after I finish eating, I’ll transfer it to you."

Li Jing raised an eyebrow.

There’s a reward for providing information?

The Inspectorate is quite considerate!

"Thank you."

With a smile, he spoke, and then turned to look at Ji Qing.

But before he could speak, Ji Qing raised her eyes.

"You can keep the reward, I don’t care about a mere 200,000. I told you about the information mainly because I want to live peacefully in North City."

Li Jing was taken aback.

In the past few days, he had met quite a few people.

Initially, he hadn’t given it much thought.

But now, he realized in hindsight.

Everyone he met recently seemed quite well-off?

Even Ji Qing, who may have difficulty amassing a fortune as a human-shaped demon, owned a popular internet-famous hotpot restaurant in a busy area of North City and was quite well off.

The joke was on him.

Silently burying the words he was about to speak, Li Jing couldn’t hold back his tears.

In this world,

Being rootless, he was even worse off than a cat demon.

He sighed, deciding to change the topic and asked Chen Yuran.

"Can you tell me about the situation regarding the source of the demon miasma?"

"As for the details, I cannot say much. If you’re interested, there’ll be a news conference at noon where some information will be revealed."

Chen Yuran continued eating and then said.

"What I can tell you is that the scale of the source is quite large. It’s estimated that the decontamination will take about half a month. Later, at ten o’clock, about a thousand inspectors of level two or above from all areas of Jianghai city will come to assist the North City Branch in a thorough cleaning of the coastal areas. The operation will last for twelve hours, aiming to reduce as much as possible the chance of monsters affected by demon miasma causing disturbances to the city."

Hearing that there would be a monster cleaning operation in the near-sea area during the day, Li Jing felt an urge rising inside him.

The Inspectorate was taking it so seriously, even dispatching a thousand inspectors just for cleaning; there would likely be a lot of monsters affected by the demon miasma.

Monsters, they were sources of experience!

However, he knew he could only think about it.

He knew his own weight.

Let alone he was only an Auxiliary, and thus not eligible to get involved,

Monsters in the sea were a different concept from monsters on land.

Killing a monster heavily affected by the demon miasma wasn’t the end, as their bodies had to be disposed of to prevent them from becoming sources of infection.

The cleaning operation of the Inspectorate was quite demanding.

Without giving the matter much thought, Li Jing asked,

"The source of the demon miasma is in the Outer Sea, so logically there would be more monsters there. Why only clean the near-sea?"

Before she could finish, Ji Qing spoke.

"I thought you were sensible, how could you not understand this?"

While speaking, she licked her little paw.

"Existence is reasonable. The Demon Miasma is one of the natural phenomena, and monsters are part of the world’s ecological chain. Forceful human intervention might lead to unpredictable situations."

"Exactly."

Chen Yuran said with a smile.

"As long as it does not affect the safety of the city, any unit within the Patrol Bureau that can avoid intervention would generally not impose it. This policy is not just unique to Hua Country Patrol Bureau; it applies to other countries as well. Let’s take a realistic example. Out of at least three hundred spiritual objects and materials in the world, only those found in places with a concentrated Demon Miasma emerge. Some of them coexist with Demon Miasma, whereas the others come about from the metamorphosis of the corpse of a monster that was severely corroded by Demon Miasma."

After slowly recounting, she glanced casually at Ji Qing.

"By the way, among the spiritual objects and materials related to Demon Miasma, the most expensive and rarest one is a species of mushroom-based spiritual object that only grows on the corpse of human-shaped demons that have reverted to their original form after dying from Demon Miasma. Its growth cycle takes over fifty years to mature, and the older it is, the more valuable it gets - reaching a worth of hundreds of millions at its peak."

Hundreds of millions!

Li Jing gasped.

Ji Qing, having been glanced at by Chen Yuran, was somewhat uncomfortable.

This girl just said it.

So why did she look at me?

Is she trying to scare this kitty?

Restlessly touching her paw, Ji Qing swung her fluffy tail and laid it by Chen Yuran’s hand.

Seeing her reaction, Chen Yuran couldn’t help but stroke her tail.

Watching this scene, Li Jing grinned secretly.

He realized.

Although Chen Yuran seems easy to get along with, she is quite devilish.

She used the opportunity of science communication to freak Ji Qing out and successfully stirred up her survival instincts.

Just as he was speechless, Li Jing’s phone in his pocket vibrated.

He reflexively took out his phone and saw it was a message from Kong Wu on Immortal Message.

He opened it and couldn’t help but frown.

"The Patrol Bureau has identified the source of the Demon Miasma and will begin dealing with it today. The investigation related to seafood will be completed by this evening. The work of Patrol Ninth Group remains unchanged. You and Yi Xiuzhu will continue your shift in the Heavenly King Group’s assigned area as usual. Lu Yangcheng will not be able to join the team for a while. As an assistant member, he will have to stay on the Outer Sea for at least seven days."

Li Jing doesn’t care about the rest of the message.

He is just a small investigator, so why would he worry about these things?

Lu Yangcheng has to stay in Outer Sea for seven days, this is a bit...

Seven days.

How big will his resentment be when Lu Yangcheng comes back?

As he was about to reply, a group suddenly popped up on Immortal Message.

?

Li Jing was slightly startled, opened it, and found it was a Patrol Ninth Group chat group started by Kong Wu.

Kong Wu: This group chat will be used for casual discussions within Patrol Ninth Group in the future. Everybody should update their nicknames, so the rest of the team can recognize them.

Deng Ying (Long Night Group): Received.

Zhao Junfeng (Flying Immortal Group): Received.

Ren Sanqian (Long Night Group): Received.

Long Feixian (Long Night Group): Received.

Yi Xiuzhu (Heavenly King Group): Received.

Jiang Chengxi (Flying Immortal Group): Received.

Shan Xiaoyu (Flying Immortal Group): Received.

Seeing that everyone except Lu Yangcheng, who was "on duty" outside, was present, Li Jing quickly updated his nickname and replied to the message.

Li Jing (Heavenly King Group): Received.

Just as his message bounced up, Lu Yangcheng who had not spoken yet popped up.

Lu Yangcheng (Heavenly King Group): Team Leader Kong, can you come to the Outer Sea to save me? The Sun is blazing out here and I still have to wear a hefty protective suit. This is too much for my small body to bear...

Kong Wu: The Sun is hot, just bear with it. If you can’t even endure this hardship, how can you be an investigator?

Faced with Kong Wu’s inhumane remarks, Lu Yangcheng fell into a long silence.

Including Li Jing, the rest of Patrol Ninth Group also remained silent.

Speak up for Lu Yangcheng?

Nobody’s that naive.

Kong Wu is a wise man.

Who knows if he’ll have a random brainwave and pick someone randomly to replace Lu Yangcheng in the Outer Sea?

A world where only Lu Yangcheng gets hurt is great.

The group fell silent again, then Kong Wu sent another message.

Kong Wu: Your performances on your first night on duty were very good. Especially the Heavenly King Group, where you nearly solved the frequent monster transformation incidents in North City. The Patrol Bureau has allotted an award. Lu Yangcheng, who was instrumental because he carried a private detection device will receive 300,000. The rest of the teams will receive 100,000 each, anyone has any objections?

Deng Ying (Long Night Group): Is our Long Night Group also eligible?

Kong Wu: Patrol Ninth Group is one entity, we look out for each other. We all share in honour and dishonour.

Deng Ying (Long Night Group): Got it, thank you Team Leader Kong, kudos to the Flying Immortal Group and the Heavenly King Group.

Lu Yangcheng (Heavenly King Group): Who’ll swap shifts with me? I’ll give them my 300,000 reward!

The group then returned to silence.

300,000, that’s not a small amount.

But every single person in Patrol Ninth Group is worth millions, who’d be that foolish?

After Lu Yangcheng’s offer, nobody took him seriously.

On one hand, it’s shameful to reveal one’s lack of character. On the other hand, even if Lu Yangcheng really wanted to give, they would feel embarrassed to take it.

The crucial clue was after all found by Lu Yangcheng.

Being able to benefit from it already feels quite good.

Even Li Jing, who’s rather short on cash, felt content with the 100,000 reward. Adding the 200,000 from Chen Yuran, he has now gained 300,000, which leaves hardly any room for dissatisfaction.

Seeing nobody responded to Lu Yangcheng’s offer, leaving him in an awkward position, Li Jing wondered if he should send a message.

But after careful consideration, he decided against it in the end.

It wouldn’t be good if he ended up being dragged down by Lu Yangcheng later. It would be better just to invite him to dinner when he returns and soothe his feelings that way.

...