Xu Qichen nervously reached out to knock on the door of the bar.
The rectangular peephole slid open to reveal a pair of dark amber eyes.
Xu Qichen stared at the eyes while the eyes stared back at him.
Finally a gentle and charming voice asked, “Little boy, do you have the wrong address?”
Xu Qichen shook his head.
The other party seems to have lost their patience. Just as the peephole was about to be slid closed, Xu Qichen said, “Mu Yao told me to come here.”
There was a trace of doubt in the pair of enchanting eyes. After some hesitation, the wooden door opened.
Xu Qichen observed the person at the door. It was a strange woman in a miniskirt and a white fur coat on a hot day.
Was she a white fox? Xu Qichen wondered.
“You know Mu Yao?”
Xu Qichen nodded, “And I know you’re not human.”
The corner of the woman’s mouth twitched, “Where did Mu Yao find such a straightforward kid.”
Xu Qichen looked around. It looked like an ordinary old-fashioned bar.
Dim lights, low jazz, and a bartender standing at the bar wiping the glasses carefully.
It looked like it was nothing more than that.
But Xu Qichen was the author.
“I want to go downstairs.”
The white fox froze, then laughed, “Down where?”
Expressionlessly, Xu Qichen walked up to the fox and pointed at the floor beneath her feet, “There.”
The fox frowned, “Did Mu Yao tell you about this?”
Xu Qichen nodded.
Habit was such a terrifying thing. Xu Qichen could now easily lie to strangers without his heartbeat faltering.
Still, the white fox was very cautious. She gave Mu Yao a call, “Hello, Mu Yao, a human came looking for you… A fair and neat boy… Ai, I’m telling you, don’t sell us all out ah… Okay, okay.”
She hung up. Xu Qichen met her eyes calmly.
“Don’t be frightened when you go down.” The white fox took two steps back and placed her palm on the wall behind her. A small wood carved bird popped out of the old pendulum clock hanging there. A slender hand sporting bright red fingernails then twisted the little bird around.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The floorboard beneath Xu Qichen’s feet thud opened.
Lf revvfcis ibra tlr obbalcu jcv ofii lcab j cjggbk klcvlcu qjrrjuf. Pa kjr rb vjgx atja tf mbeiv cba rff jcsatlcu, bcis offi tlwrfio rilvlcu vbkc ojrafg jcv ojrafg.
C kjnf bo ofjg kjrtfv bnfg tlw.
Ktfc tlr fjgr yfujc ab qlmx eq atf ojlca rbecvr bo werlm.
Olxf atf iluta ja atf fcv bo j aeccfi.
Was he almost there?
His body continued to gain speed until he shot out of the passage into the air.
While midair, in an instant Xu Qichen saw the true heart of the bar. Dark purple lights, deafening beats of the music, and humanoid demons of all shapes and sizes.
Everything passed by shockingly quickly.
In this confused state, he saw a black shape dart through the crowd, so quickly that it felt like an illusion.
He thought he would hit the floor, but once again, he fell into a strong and warm embrace.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Mu Yao’s wide smile.
“Senior, you’re here.”
His anxious heart finally calmed down at the sight of this smile.
After catching Xu Qichen midair, Mu Yao landed lightly.
Xu Qichen lowered his head and took a deep breath, then realised that the way he was being carried was…
“Yo! Mu Yao, who’s the special person? Being princess-carried by you the moment he appears.”
“Hahaha!”
“I think it’s a human!”
“Really!?”
The people around them started making all kinds of noises.
Xu Qichen struggled to be let down. When his feet finally touched the ground again, he asked curiously, “How did you show up with such great timing?”
“Because I smelled you.” His sharp tooth was extremely eye-catching. “My nose is never wrong.”
Xu Qichen blinked. “What do I smell like?”
“Not telling you.”
Xu Qichen didn’t ask further. He looked around. To him, this entire place could only be described as bizarre.
Unlike when they were carefully avoiding detection in the human world, here they could flaunt their natural selves without worry of being discovered by a hostile party, so everyone’s animalistic characteristics could be seen, giving the whole place a mystical feel.
Like a fantasy movie.
“Come with me.”
Walking beside Mu Yao, Xu Qichen’s eyes continued to stray to their surroundings.
They passed by a woman with a charming profile. The other party seemed to sense the presence of a human and turned around. To Xu Qichen’s surprise, the other side of her face was that of a snow-white Persian cat’s.
She smiled gently at him, making Xu Qichen look away. On the other side was a large swimming pool which had quite a few people in it. At the moment when they passed by, the water splashed everywhere, as several beautiful girls emerged from it. They stretched out their arms and swam to the shore. They lay on the side of the pool and looked at Xu Qichen curiously. The fish tails in the pool swayed briskly, causing ripples.
Were they originally fish?
He wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking and bumped into someone. Xu Qichen quickly apologised to the middle-aged man who gave him a very gentlemanly smile. Just as he was wondering why this man, like Mu Yao, didn’t let out his animal characteristics, he realised that his legs were in fact the muscular legs of a horse.
In a daze, Xu Qichen rushed to catch up with Mu Yao and nearly tripped. Luckily, Mu Yao caught him.
Mu Yao turned towards the bar seats irritably, “Please keep your tail to yourself. If you leave it out here, I might break it accidentally.”
Xu Qichen looked down and saw a dark scaled snake tail of a boy sitting at the bar. Xu Qichen, who had always been afraid of snakes, shivered and pressed closer to Mu Yao.
“Senior, are you afraid?”
Xu Qichen shook his head and explained, “I just get goosebumps when I see snakes.”
Mu Yao nodded understandingly, “He’s one of those who scare humans the most. Usually, he can’t let any of his characteristics show at all. It’s only here that he can relax.”
That sounded quite pitiful. Xu Qichen glanced at the boy and realised he was really quite cute.
“We’re here.”
Mu Yao brought Xu Qichen to a booth. A boy and a girl were already inside.
The girl was wearing a pink cheongsam. She had chin-length black hair and a pair of long rabbit ears. Beside her was a boy with round eyes and a round face. Interestingly, both of them had large front teeth, making the scene very cute.
Xu Qichen easily matched their appearances to the settings and quickly identified them.
“Ah Yao, you’re back!” The girl was full of energy. After catching sight of Xu Qichen, she immediately jumped up from her seat and bounced up to grab his hand as she asked Mu Yao, “Ah Yao, did you leave just to fetch him?” Overly familiarly, she pinched Xu Qichen’s cheeks, “So cute~”
Mu Yao pulled her away with a displeased expression, “Don’t be so familiar, you’ll scare him.”
The rabbit girl pouted, “No I won’t, not everyone is Xiao Cang.”
The boy in the booth protested quietly while shivering.
“Hi, I’m Qi Meng.” The rabbit girl offered Xu Qichen her hand and tilted her head.
Xu Qichen was just about to shake her hand when Mu Yao grabbed his hand to stop him, “Don’t be a stranger.” Then he dragged him to sit down.
Qi Meng stuck out her tongue at Mu Yao before bouncing back to her seat.
The boy who had been addressed as Xiao Cang refused to look at Xu Qichen. He sounded like he had something to say but kept stuttering.
Mu Yao eventually got tired of watching and spoke for him, “This is Yu Cang, his original form is a hamster, so he’s always frightened when meeting strangers. He’ll be fine in a while.” Then he pointed at Qi Meng with his chin, “This annoying one is a rabbit, don’t mind her.”
“You’re annoying!” Qi Meng glared at Mu Yao, then she turned around and smiled at Xu Qichen. When she smiled, her dimples and rabbit teeth were revealed, making her smile very sweet, “Hi Senior Ye Han~ I’ve heard all about you from that dumb dog lah~ By the way, you’re also my senior~”
Mu Yao immediately became anxious, “Who’s your senior? Don’t be so familiar!”
Xu Qichen held Mu Yao back by the forearm, then he smiled at Qi Meng, “Hi, are you also from Ximing? You’re so cute.”
He suddenly heard the person beside him make a weird noise.
Like an angry dog growling.
“Yup, yup, I study art. You’re in computing like Mu Yao ba.”
Xu Qichen nodded. Sensing Mu Yao’s displeasure, he thought for a moment and decided to imitate how dog owners dealt with upset dogs. He sneaked his hand behind Mu Yao’s back and lightly stroked his back twice, before retracting his hand.
Stunned, Mu Yao instantly forgot to be angry.
Instead, he felt very happy.
So happy that he wanted to let his tail out to wag it.
“Ah, Senior, what would you like to drink?” Qi Meng asked with a smile.
Xu Qichen was about to speak when Mu Yao interjected, “He can’t drink most things here.”
“True,” Qi Meng glanced at her orange-red drink, “Ai, how about my carrot juice?”
“Keep that disgusting thing to yourself ba, I’ll order a fruit juice for him.” Mu Yao waved his hand at a winged boy with a tailcoat, who flew over.
“Good evening, may I take your order?”
Mu Yao: “One mixed fruit juice. That’s all.”
The waiter was about to fly away when he heard a very tiny voice call, “Wait a moment,” and turned back around and landed.
“Is there something else?”
Yu Cang replied very softly, “Please, please let me see the menu.”
“Very well.”
After getting the menu, Yu Cang quickly drew a tick on a spot and returned it to the waiter with his head lowered, “Th-thank you.”
He really lacked guts, thought Xu Qichen.
they are all so adorable! I love this arc so far!
thanks for the chapter <3
Awwww I wanna seeeeee them cry. Imagine being in that situation ❤️.
Thanks for the chapter! 🥰
reads the comment
close eyes
open and read it again
…….I see….have a nice day
…I think I was high off another story when I wrote that comment 😅
thanks for the chapter ♡
Thank you for the chapter ☺️💕
haha yu cang lacks guts for talking to the waiter??? I get so anxious when in restaurants I wouldnt even be able to call the waiter over, hell even if I got a completely wrong order id just eat it quietly lol I dont wanna bother people