I Am Your Natural Enemy

After flying out for some distance, it finally managed to steady itself in the air, flapping its wings with effort as it flew back.

”Don’t you know you can’t do intense exercise right after eating?”

”Throwing you out like that, for me, that’s just a warm-up!”

”I meant me!”

”You count as a warm-up too!”

”No I don’t, flying is exhausting.”

”Not gonna work, things are getting more and more complicated these days, and now you can’t even fly fast. Sooner or later someone’s gonna throw you into a Dragon and Phoenix Hotpot!”

”I’m not a cat, what am I supposed to be afraid of.”

”Fine, then Dragon and Phoenix Soup it is!”

”I’m not a bird either... ah...”

Before it could finish, Wen Yan flung the Sparrow Cat out with even more force.

This time, Wen Yan used even more strength than before—he’d been worried earlier about flinging the Sparrow Cat too hard and hurting it.

But seeing that the little guy didn’t react at all, what was there to worry about?

As Feng Yao’s car stopped in front of the Wenyan Family’s house, he saw a black shadow whoosh past and fly straight out of the villa district.

He greeted the Little Zombie like he always did, said hi to the Steward, then walked to the backyard.

”What was that just now? It vanished with a whoosh.”

”Sparrow Cat. Helping it lose weight. Can you believe a bird weighs forty pounds?”

Feng Yao looked up and saw the Sparrow Cat wobbling as it flew over from the distance.

”Why are you here so early in the morning?”

”Came to hide out at your place for some peace and quiet.”

”Huh? What are you hiding from?”

”There’s no new Minister for Nanwu County yet. I used to be Minister Cai’s first secretary, and I know the details of a lot of the Department’s decisions.

So now, it’s business as usual. With no Minister, lots of things—people are afraid of screwing up, so they all come ask me.

But I’m not the Minister, so decisions that need a Minister, I can only report further up.

But from higher up... I noticed something weird today too.

There’s a Director who, I heard, is sick—and already admitted to the Scorching Sun Department’s hospital.

There’s no more specific info.

And I only saw that Director a couple days ago. He was in better shape than me, and his spirit was way better too.

Plus, the Chief Secretary at Headquarters specifically told me before.

If there’s anything in Nanwu County that’s undecidable, don’t bother with the procedures, just report directly to him.”

”What do you mean?” Wen Yan couldn’t be bothered to think that hard; he needed to save his energy for training today.

”Back when Nanwu County did its internal clean-up, anything important that needed reporting went straight to me, and then I passed it to Minister Cai.”

”Huh?” Wen Yan was startled. Damn, even Headquarters is getting brutal, and now they’re sending a Director away ’on medical leave’?

Feng Yao lowered his voice, looking troubled.

”Don’t ’huh’—it’s just like you’re thinking.”

Feng Yao could tell from Wen Yan’s expression what he was thinking.

”And don’t think they’re being gentle about this—it’s just that things are pretty turbulent recently.

Minister Cai already died in battle, and if they strip another Director in the open, it’ll panic everyone.

So, for stability, to avoid chaos, they handle it this more ’normal’ way, letting someone step down quietly.

After everything’s transitioned and stable again, the rest of them will find out what really happened.

That’s at least half a year, maybe a year down the line.

The deed’s done—they just don’t say it out loud.”

”But you know, so doesn’t everyone know?”

”Not necessarily—if it’s not said officially, it’s up in the air. Plus, this time, they haven’t totally banned people from visiting. Some went, and he really did look unwell, looked like he suddenly got very sick.”

”Got it, so it’s all about what you can do but can’t say. Once you say it out loud, it becomes a different story, huh?”

”Something like that.”

”So why are you hiding out at my place?”

”With the Minister gone, I’m realizing just how much stuff the Scorching Sun Department needs to handle.

Tons of incidents, so many we’re totally understaffed, can’t even get through it all.

And the internal competition from earlier—since there were accidents, no one decided how to deal with it.”

At that, Wen Yan finally started to pick up on something, shooting Feng Yao a sideways glance.

”Because I was the first to get out that day, and I messed up the chaos at the road entrance, then got shot at after I came out.

So for this competition, if I don’t say something, whatever result they give, there will always be people who aren’t satisfied, right?”

”Ahem, pretty much. Huang Zhiji from Mount Mao is here in Nanwu County; looks like he moved in with a bunch of stuff, found himself a place, probably plans to stay here a while. So, when people ask, there has to be an answer.”

”Didn’t you say you have so many events you can’t finish handling them? Give them missions, grade each one, whoever has the highest total wins first place. Don’t look at me; I said I’m not entering that competition anymore, and I won’t suddenly jump in the line.”

”I discussed it with some of the other people in Nanwu County. We wanted to ask you to oversee it, since a lot of these events really aren’t suited to being handled by just brute force. Afterwards, you could go to the warehouse and pick out anything you want.”

”That list you gave me—did you finish with it?”

”The ghosts on that list—by the time I came just now, I’d already tracked down six, and they’re all under control.”

”That fast?!” Wen Yan was a little shocked—the ghosts who came out with Tong Si weren’t the weak kind that would vanish after a hit of Yang Energy.

”They didn’t even know what a security camera was.”

”...”

Wen Yan couldn’t help feeling speechless. This was a bit unexpected, but at the same time, totally not surprising.

He could almost picture it—a ghost trying everything, dodging nimbly, sensing people and danger from afar, avoiding them carefully.

Then, full operation ’ferocious tiger’ mode, but with a special security camera pointed right at its head, recording everything.

”I already returned your IDs, didn’t you guys cancel them? Don’t come crying to me about this.”

”This is me asking you separately, and you’ll get paid. Of course, if you don’t want cash, Nanwu County just found a new Warm Jade Mine. Besides normal Warm Jade, it’s also got Blood Warm Jade and similar stones. We can pay you at whatever price it comes out of the mine.”

Feng Yao didn’t even blink as he put the offer on the table.

As for those IDs and stuff, please, spare me—Headquarters’ General Director just muttered, ”Young folks talk back,” handed the certificates straight to Feng Yao, and even said, ”Upgrade Wen Yan’s clearance so he doesn’t have to fuss with basic checks.”