High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 884: Chapter 232: Fei Rui’s Answer

”As you can see, I am a mouse... a mouse that can think, speak, curse, and even refuse.”

”I come from nowhere, I do what I want to do.”

”I chose to stay at your house simply because, in that area, your home’s smell is relatively clean, bearable, and won’t suffocate me to death. It’s not like I have any designs on your house or anything.”

”Mr. Wu... well, that’s a bit of a complicated issue. You could say I know him; you could also say I don’t know him. It’s like Schrödinger’s cat, uncertain until you open the box.”

Fei Rui, holding his front paws as if he were a philosopher, answered Zheng Qing’s string of questions. But evidently, his answers did not satisfy the inquirer.

”Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, why the evasion?” the young cost student complained with displeasure, ”And about your origins, intentions, still no clarity... None of the crucial questions answered, just a load of nonsense.”

”Didn’t I accurately answer the first question?” Fei Rui looked somewhat aggrieved.

”Because your answer was a bunch of nonsense,” Zheng Qing immediately corrected Fei Rui’s misconception, retorted, ”Even Poseidon here could easily tell that you’re a mouse, not a wizard or some other bizarre creature!”

”Poseidon is smarter than most wizards anyway. With such a good lineage, it’d be embarrassing if he were a fool,” Fei Rui rolled his eyes, his chubby face wearing an amusing expression.

”By that, you seem to know about Poseidon’s background?” Zheng Qing looked at the plump mouse suspiciously, a hint of nervousness rose in his heart.

The young cost student had always kept Little Fox’s background as the utmost secret. He knew very well, if students in the school found out Little Fox was Su Shijun’s child, the uproar and trouble it would cause—this inference could be confirmed by Duke Milton Karen’s recent attack.

”When you brought them mother and child home originally, you didn’t hide it from me, did you?” Fei Rui raised his head with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone, ”Especially on that first night, I was in the bath, humming a tune, soaking in a bath, and suddenly the door opens and - bam! - in comes a big fox, nearly gave me a heart attack... Luckily I had seen Big Fox a few times, so there was no misunderstanding...”

Although very curious about how Fei Rui knew Su Shijun, seeing that his answer was sliding toward a dangerous area and fearing the mouse might really let slip something catastrophic, Zheng Qing quickly interjected, forcibly steering the conversation in another direction.

As for Fei Rui’s identity, Zheng Qing had another line of thought.

Since Fei Rui had met Su Shijun several times, Zheng Qing had reason to believe that Su Daxu must have had a definite impression of this plump, particularly ugly-talking mouse. He could completely verify this matter with Su Daxu afterward.

”You haven’t answered the later questions yet! Don’t digress!” the young cost student rudely interrupted the mouse’s speech, repeating his subsequent questions, ”Do you know about San You Bookstore? And about the Flower Cat in the store? And In Hui Collation, just how much do you know about it?”

Fei Rui did not immediately answer Zheng Qing’s questions.

Clearly, the young wizard’s rude behavior had also slightly upset him.

He hugged his forepaws, his head slightly lifted, gazing at the talismans overhead that flowed and flickered with mad colors. Only after a long look did he cautiously and measuredly reply, ”In Hui Collation is just In Hui Collation, no different from Four Seasons Pavilion.”

”They’re just marketplaces, that’s all.”

”It’s just that compared to the Four Seasons Pavilion, those who open shops in Hui Zi Ji are just some old men and old women who have already lost their fame... Most of their bodies are already buried in the earth, yet they don’t want to just give up or choose to go out more and get in touch with new things. It’s inevitable they carry a musty earthy smell. Whether it’s running a pharmacy, a bookstore, a teahouse, being a doctor, a repairman, or a paperhanger, there’s no difference there.”

”It’s just a small circle going round and round.”

”As for San You Bookstore, it was a somewhat famous bookstore many years ago. But it has been closed for a long time now. It is said that the owner often skipped work for no reason, leading to poor management... In my opinion, you should do what’s expected in whatever position you hold. How could a bookstore not go out of business when the owner wasn’t earnestly running it but was always wandering around?”

Just as Zheng Qing was about to speak, Fei Rui lifted its eyelids, glared at him, and choked off his following words, ”And you, I’ve heard that instead of attending university properly, you went and opened a grocery store on the Pedestrian Street? That’s utterly ridiculous! I’ve never seen such a waste of talent.”

”That’s just a part-time job,” Zheng Qing’s thought process had already been inadvertently led astray by Fei Rui, and he couldn’t help but explain following its accusations, ”Normally the shop is looked after by employees from Greenhill Mansion and the Underground Rat Clan, so it won’t affect my studies.”

”Hmph, that’s what the bookstore owner thought initially too,” Fei Rui sneered a few times.

Zheng Qing finally came back to his senses.

”Isn’t Mr. Wu the owner of San You Bookstore?” he finally realized that Fei Rui’s response had misled him, and he asked somewhat irritably.

”Mr. Wu is just managing it on behalf,” Fei Rui briefly explained and then closed its mouth.

No matter how Zheng Qing tempted it with premium rat feed or threatened it with the explosion charm on top of his head, Fei Rui refused to say another word about Hui Zi Ji.

Having no choice, Zheng Qing had to compromise and take a step back, ”You must at least tell me about that Yellow Flowered Cat!”

”Just a cat, what background could it have!” Fei Rui scoffed.

”A talking cat!” Zheng Qing emphasized.

”I’m also a talking mouse.” Fei Rui seemed quite dissatisfied with the young wizard’s prejudices.

”I’ve seen many talking mice, but talking cats, up to now, I’ve only seen one... no, two.” Zheng Qing remembered the situation after he himself had turned into a cat, hesitated for a second, and stretched out an additional finger to indicate their rarity.

Fei Rui lifted one eyelid and looked at Zheng Qing with a probing gaze.

The gaze made the young wizard feel uneasy.

After a long time, the fat mouse slowly said, ”Talking cats are indeed rare. I haven’t seen many either. But I really don’t know much about that Flower Cat, after all, it’s a cat, I’m a mouse, we aren’t meant to mix...”

At this point, for some reason, Fei Rui suddenly stopped talking, seemingly having no intention of continuing.