That serious!
Hearing that she could no longer use her phone, and that even the Ancient Panda was being controlled, Shen Miao was immediately alarmed and handed the device over to Qin Che.
“You can tell I’ve been using demonic power? You know so much—are you a yaoguai too?”
“What kind of animal are you?”
Finally encountering a fellow creature, Shen Miao was somewhat excited and quickly exchanged information with Qin Che in a friendly manner.
It turned out the other party was a golden leopard who had gained sentience before the founding of the nation. He had a legitimate certification from the Demon Management Bureau and even served as the head of the criminal investigation unit at the Public Security Bureau.
As a yaoguai, he’d actually passed the civil service exam and secured a government job? Shen Miao was deeply envious.
“That’s amazing! You actually passed the civil service exam for real.”
“You’re a leopard and you did that well on the exam? Incredible!”
“…Thank you. Actually, as a panda, you don’t need to worry about making a living in human society at all. After all, you’re a first-class protected animal.”
Though there were many species of first-class protected animals, pandas alone stood at the top, receiving treatment no other animal could match. They never had to worry about food or shelter.
Qin Che glanced at Shen Miao, almost unable to resist reaching out to pet her.
After all, she was a panda!
In all these years, this was the first time he’d seen one. If the Demon Management Bureau found out, they’d probably be beside themselves with excitement and place her under heavy protection.
“No way, no way! You absolutely can’t tell anyone about me!”
Shen Miao immediately perked up her ears in alert and slapped a nearby tree in half as a threat:
“We Iron-Eating Beasts will never be enslaved!
Those Two-legged Beasts will never conquer me with their sugar-coated bullets!”
Qin Che turned his head away, covering his mouth and trembling for a long moment before finally suppressing his laughter. He nodded solemnly to indicate he understood.
“Then you can’t do things like that anymore. If you want to make money, you can go up the mountain and dig some ginseng to sell. The ginseng from Changbai Mountain is quite popular.”
That’s right! She now had spiritual power and could directly lock onto century-old wild ginseng!
She could go live and dig it up on the spot—there was no way to fake that, and plenty of people would be happy to buy!
“But be careful. The case hasn’t been solved yet, and the poaching group might still be lurking in these woods.”
Seeing Shen Miao open her mouth in defiance, Qin Che tore open a lollipop and stuffed it into her mouth:
“I know you’re not afraid, but this isn’t like before. They have guns. One shot won’t kill you, but it’ll still hurt, so be careful.
So wait until the case is solved before you go up the mountain, understand?”
“Mmph mmph, I know, I know, I promise!”
Shen Miao put on a well-behaved look and said she’d head down the mountain right away. But the moment she sent Qin Che off, she immediately transformed back into her panda form.
That promise was made by her human form just now—what did that have to do with her as a panda?
She immediately called Xiao Guai and Xiao Bai and headed straight up the mountain, following the scent of century-old wild ginseng.
Xiao Bai, because all the gold it had found was confiscated, lay dejectedly with its tail drooping, utterly miserable.
It’s over, meow!
The gold it found didn’t belong to the young lady. This cat was useless. No one would want it anymore, and it would have to go back to wandering.
The little white cat let out mournful purring sounds, and Shen Miao immediately stroked its fur:
“Don’t be upset. In a bit, you two help me dig ginseng. Once I get rich, I’ll buy you meat!”
Meow meow!
Arf arf!
Xiao Bai and Xiao Guai’s eyes lit up, and they soon started digging with great effort.
Shen Miao was about to start her livestream when, at that moment, her phone suddenly rang repeatedly.
When she picked up, Father Wen’s irate scolding came through the other end.
“Shen Miao, what on earth is wrong with you? Where have you run off to now?
How can you be so much trouble on a simple trip? And why did you hit that Zhou Xingyao?
Do you know you gave him a concussion? Get back here right now and apologize to him!”
Before Shen Miao could even speak, Mother Wen immediately chimed in with criticism:
“How old are you now? Going on a trip and acting like some wild girl from the mountains. Can’t you learn a thing or two from your sister Wen Jiaojiao? Be good and cause less trouble for the family!
You have no sense of upper-class etiquette whatsoever, and you go around hitting people. Does our Wen family have any face left?
Get back here right now! Do you have any idea how much worry your running around causes? Things are already chaotic enough without having to search everywhere for you!”
“Ha, have you ever actually looked for me?”
A panda wouldn’t accept such baseless criticism and manipulation. The nagging on the other end was truly unbearable, so Shen Miao cut them off impatiently:
“Don’t come looking for me. From now on, I won’t be staying at your house!”
Hearing this, Father Wen, who had been scolding, paused for a moment as if stunned, but quickly grew angrier and shouted:
“What are you talking about? You’re a grown adult—are you really pulling the running-away-from-home act?
Get back here right now, or I’ll cut off your allowance and freeze your cards!”
“As if I’ve ever spent your family’s money.”
At that, even as a panda, she couldn’t help but curl her lip and roll her eyes.
She remembered that back when she was human, ever since she returned to the Wen family at eighteen, all the money she’d spent on college had come from her own part-time jobs and work-study programs.
Father Wen and Mother Wen had never given her a single cent of allowance. When they brought her to those high-society banquets, they’d always complain that her clothes were tacky and cheap, that she was stingy and didn’t know how to spend.
But those clothes and jewelry—she had to buy them herself with money she earned from working part-time!
“What do you mean? What do you mean you didn’t spend our money?”
Father Wen wanted to ask more questions, but as a panda, Shen Miao didn’t have that kind of patience. She delivered her ultimatum and hung up immediately.
But the other party was persistent and kept calling back.
These people were so annoying! Pandas could understand human speech, so why couldn’t these humans understand what she was saying?!
Shen Miao immediately blocked both Father Wen and Mother Wen’s phone numbers and deleted their WeChat contacts. Finally, some peace and quiet. She then opened her livestream and started selling ginseng.
But to her surprise, this time the livestream had several thousand viewers, with a flood of comments.
Shen Miao was startled at first, but as a panda, she was already used to this kind of adoration from humans.
So she didn’t feel nervous. Instead, she was thrilled at the thought of making big money soon. The panda was overjoyed and began enthusiastically promoting her wild bamboo shoots and wild ginseng:
“Ginseng for sale! Ginseng for sale! Changbai Mountain wild ginseng! Whatever amount you want to buy, I’ll dig it up on the spot—guaranteed quality and quantity!”
[See, I told you—this is a script they paid to boost traffic with, right? Look, the streamer’s already selling stuff after just one day of streaming?!]
[Too fake, too fake! With the kind of person who buys trending searches for their script, the ginseng is definitely fake too!]
“That’s not true at all! We pandas never lie!”
[Fake-Buster Warrior: Then prove it if you can! How do you prove your ginseng is real wild ginseng?]
Shen Miao tilted her panda head, then immediately pointed the camera at Xiaoguai, who was digging furiously for ginseng:
[See, our ginseng is dug on the spot at Changbai Mountain by my cat—how could that possibly be fake?
Whatever we dig, that’s what we sell—absolutely authentic!]
By then, over ten thousand people had trickled into the livestream. Everyone soon saw, in front of the camera, a massive adult Siberian tiger and a little white cat digging away with all their might.
Before long, the tiger let out a roar, trotted over with a small ginseng root in its mouth, and flopped down in front of Shen Miao like it was presenting a treasure, its tail wagging like a fawning dog.
Everyone: ??