I Am Your Natural Enemy

”It’s not like I’m short on cash, do you really think I need you guys to go get part-time jobs?” Zhang Qihui curled his lip, completely unimpressed.

As a direct member of the Zhang Family and a talented disciple at that, as long as he didn’t get a sudden rush of blood to the head and decide to start a business like some others, how much could he even spend?

Every year, the family gives him more money than he could ever use up—this money is there to keep him from taking any shady paths out of greed.

If he did go astray, the ones losing face would be the Zhang Family.

Zhang Qihui didn’t worry about this at all, but as soon as he said it, a few of the girls exchanged glances, the light in their eyes sparkling.

A girl with straight bangs and a sweet, innocent face spoke up carefully.

”But, boss, you got in trouble this time, and you dragged in some regular people too.”

”Yeah, boss, you’re definitely going to get lectured. To stop you from spending money on yachting and fishing at sea, they’ll probably freeze your card for sure.”

”By then, you won’t even be able to afford a decent fishing rod.”

”And when you feed the fish, you’ll be scared to throw enough bait, and those fish won’t even bother hanging up sacrificial offerings for you anymore.”

Zhang Qihui listened quietly, thinking it all sounded pretty reasonable—this time, he really might get punished, even if no one actually got hurt.

If anyone had been injured or killed, those elders who already looked at him sideways would most likely drag him home right away to give him a good thrashing.

He was mulling this over when he heard what the girl said next, and suddenly he got anxious.

”That’s skill! How is that fish-feeding? That’s just an internet meme—no fish would actually go put up a sacrifice like that!”

He had just finished this sentence when another girl pulled up a forum post and shoved it right in his face.

”Look for yourself.”

The post said there was some Baiting Immortal who used a sack for baiting, and single-handedly brought the nearly-extinct fish population in a whole area back to normal levels.

Then a certain fish in the group, which had some spirituality and was about to become a demon, would wait for the Baiting Immortal to finish feeding, and then pick a fish out from the group and put it on the hook as a sacrifice.

The post had people debating whether this was some kind of primitive religious prototype.

Others discussed whether it actually made sense for that fish to do this.

Some were just there for the laughs.

In the end, someone asked, who even discovered this? And reported it to the Scorching Sun Department?

Someone replied, the Baiting Immortal figured it out himself, felt deeply humiliated, and went to the authorities himself...

Zhang Qihui stared at the post for a bit—it was probably true.

He couldn’t even argue, and just went back to stressing—if his card really did get frozen, what the hell was he supposed to do?

Was he really going to rely on those eight Pink Taoist Soldiers to get jobs and support him?

If the family ever found out, they’d probably erase his name from the genealogy book overnight, just to avoid embarrassment.

Zhang Qihui was wracking his brain, worrying over what line of work he could actually make money from...

Being a Zhang Family member, he actually wasn’t that great at ghost-hunting or exorcism-type stuff.

At that point a few of the girls nearby started trying to cheer him up again.

Nanwu County’s got a ton of people and plenty of opportunities. If it really comes to it, even opening a maid café would give you a better chance at making money.

Meanwhile, out on the deck, Wen Yan had pretty much finished his call with Feng Yao—everything that needed to be said was done.

He wasn’t planning to go charging into deep sea today to tussle with some guy whose background he didn’t know anything about.

He might not drown, but fighting at the bottom of the sea is just completely disadvantageous for him—it’s a full home-court advantage for the other guy. Better to play it safe first.

He also remembered his other purpose for this trip—someone’s been steering the conversation against him online, and even paid to boost it.

That person was right here on Zhang Qihui’s boat. Feng Yao’s other skills, Wen Yan wasn’t so sure about, but when it comes to cyber warfare, she’s seriously good—and with the Scorching Sun Department’s authority and resources, nothing’s likely to go wrong.

He’d originally wondered if it was connected to Zhang Qihui somehow.

But once he actually met Zhang Qihui, he knew for sure—Zhang Qihui definitely had nothing to do with it.

Anyone who can cruise out to sea with eight hot chicks and eight Pink Taoist Soldiers just to go fishing is absolutely not the type to mess around online stirring up shit.

And that yacht was just chased down by a Water Ghost piloting an ancient wreck—there’s no way the person he’s looking for would be dumb enough to jump into the sea.

There were only so many people on the yacht—finding the target wasn’t going to be tough.

Wen Yan didn’t rush anything. He waited until the yacht docked and everyone got off, then all crew members were taken away.

Standard Q&A, sign a non-disclosure agreement—it’s all normal procedure.

Wen Yan didn’t bother with the crew. Less than half an hour later, he got word.

Turns out, one of the crew members checked out as suspicious and was detained under suspicion of telecom fraud.

The other crew members were fine—once they finished the process, they were let go.

Wen Yan stayed out of it. The Scorching Sun Department people were much better at interrogations and investigations, especially when it came to these not-so-tough types.

By the time Wen Yan was at a restaurant eating with Zhang Qihui, he’d already received the new report.

That crew member actually did used to be a telecom scammer, and then accidentally got into a forum for non-ordinary people, where he learned a ton of stuff regular people don’t know about.

Eventually, he spotted a business opportunity—turns out, in the supernatural world, there were no paid shills!

So he started doing that. Too bad his ”career” had barely started before he got slammed by a big crackdown.

The laws enforced by the Scorching Sun Department are not the same as the ones outside.

The Department cracks down on stuff before it even happens. Even when a case is closed and rewards are given, the payment is based on the estimated potential harm and losses that could have happened.