After dinner, Tu Jian and Qibao brought the two "Beastmen" to the study on the second floor for psychological testing.
Tu Jian inserted the USB drive into his wristband and enlarged the document containing the 100 test questions hastily compiled by several experts.
Song Chao and Yin Mo each sat on a single sofa—the former looking intrigued and eager to try, the latter wearing a sullen expression as if expecting to have his intelligence insulted by humans.
Qibao reminded Tu Jian, "They've already lived among human settlements for a long time and are quite familiar with human habits and emotions. So even if they score high on the test, it doesn't mean the questions are too easy or that this testing method is useless. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
Seeing how seriously Tu Jian was taking the "Beastmen," Qibao began to regret her decision. She feared that her harmless lie would waste too much of her and the experts' energy. But confessing openly that she and the seven Great Demons were who they were would risk causing unnecessary panic, greed, or even hostility among the humans here.
Tu Jian nodded and began having Song Chao and Yin Mo answer the questions.
The first question was an image comprehension. The picture showed a gentle mother smiling while holding a baby. Question: Why is the woman smiling so happily?
A: She's hungry, and that plump, tender-looking baby would definitely taste good.
B: No particular reason—she's in a good mood and just feels like smiling.
Song Chao: "…The correct answer should be that she loves her child, and she's happy because the child is happy?"
Yin Mo: "A. Because the woman is a transformed demonic beast, and I'm also a demonic beast. Like her, I enjoy eating people."
Tu Jian's gaze turned cold.
Qibao walked behind Yin Mo and tugged his ear. "Answer seriously. If you deliberately mess around again, I'll hit you with the pagoda."
Tu Jian knew nothing about Yin Mo, and only now did a thought occur to him. He asked Qibao, "What was he doing when you imprisoned him?"
Qibao: "…He was fighting an A-class Mutated Eagle, and his Ability attacks nearly hit a small base of a few hundred people nearby."
Tu Jian understood and continued the test.
These questions weren't purely psychological—they also included poems, slang, songs, and even anecdotes about famous figures widely known among the local human population. Since the apocalypse had only arrived eight years ago, aside from some minors, the vast majority of adults could answer them.
But these types of questions were all deduction points for Song Chao, Yin Mo, and Qibao—who was secretly answering in her own mind. Ironically, the more they got wrong, the lighter the pressure on Tu Jian's shoulders.
Soon they reached question 75, a short video comprehension.
In the video, a girl with a ponytail blushed as she tried to offer a bottle of water to a basketball-playing boy, but he declined. Just then, a pretty girl holding two ice cream cones walked past them. The basketball boy suddenly chased after her, bent down, and took a bite of the ice cream in her left hand. The video froze on the ponytail girl's frowning, frustrated expression.
Question: Why is this girl unhappy?
A: The ice cream looks delicious, and she wants some too.
B: She wanted to sell her water to the boy, but he didn't buy it, so she couldn't earn Credits.
Song Chao rubbed his chin. "It's definitely not A. B seems a bit odd too, but if I have to pick one, I'll go with B."
Yin Mo snorted, turned to look at Qibao with a provocative gaze, and asked, "Which one would you pick?"
Qibao: "You go first."
Yin Mo: "I pick C—the boy isn't interested in her. Anyone who picks A or B would be judged as a Beastman."
Meeting Tu Jian's complicated gaze, Song Chao: "…"
Yin Mo had completely lost patience with tonight's test. He stood up and said, "You two continue. I'm already under special supervision—no need for me to play along with this boring charade."
Qibao gave Tu Jian a helpless smile and followed Yin Mo out—the difference between a demonic beast and an ordinary wild animal was that the former had awakened Spiritual Intelligence and could cultivate. At the level of a Millennial Great Demon, someone as simple-minded as Song Chao was truly rare. Most were like Yin Mo, whose cunning was more than enough to navigate the human world with ease.
.
Back in the room, it was only 7 PM. Qibao had dried her hair but wasn't sleepy, so she leaned against the headboard and browsed through The Complete Collection of Essential Ancient Poems for Primary and Secondary Students.
Yin Mo came out of the shower and saw her frowning at something that didn't look like an entertaining movie. He walked over to the side of her bed while drying his short hair, glanced down, and laughed. "Are you afraid they'll think you're a Beastman too?"
Qibao said flatly, "I'm not afraid of anything. I just want to avoid unnecessary trouble. You're flicking water droplets on me."
Having been dismissed, Yin Mo paused mid-motion, then suddenly sat down on the edge of the bed and shoved his head in front of Qibao, shaking it wildly.
Qibao got sprayed with water droplets all over her face. By her usual habit, she would have directly summoned her pagoda to smash the troublesome Snake Demon. The pagoda had already appeared in her palm—but then, unbidden, her mind flashed to the two snake scales that had fallen from Yin Mo, to Tu Jian's faint disapproval of her being too harsh with Song Chao, and to the image of Yin Mo obediently cooperating with the test simply because he'd listened to her.
Qibao retracted the pagoda, took out a large towel, and draped it over the dark head in front of her.
Just as she put it on, the towel that Yin Mo had propped up high suddenly fell down. At the same time, a cool snake body as thick as an arm began to visibly slither beneath the towel against her skin. Qibao looked down in surprise and happened to catch a glimpse of Yin Mo's tail, which had been resting on the edge of the bed, also retreating under the towel.
Before Qibao could act, the black snake's head emerged from her right shoulder, speaking directly into her ear: "No need to memorize all that. We can download this material into a computer. If the major bases really adopt a similar test in the future, I'll hide in your tower before entering the city and tell you the correct answers through Telepathy."
Qibao, who absolutely hated rote memorization, brightened at this. In a good mood, she decided to overlook Yin Mo's little stunt this time, simply grabbing the black snake beside her and tossing him to the floor: "Don't let it happen again."
Yin Mo coiled his body, his snake head facing the person on the bed: "Are you referring to splashing water on you, or climbing onto you?"
Qibao: "Neither."
Yin Mo: "This morning during the injection, you let me climb on."
Qibao: "That was a special circumstance."
Yin Mo: "Want to try that heart-shaped fried egg?"
Qibao: "…What's the difference? Isn't it still the same fried egg flavor?"
Yin Mo: "I can't stand that stupid carp showing off. Our status is higher than theirs, so we should eat more refined food than they do."
Qibao: "…Fine, do whatever you want."
Better to let the Snake Demon focus his energy on perfecting a more refined fried egg than on causing mischief.
Ignoring Yin Mo from then on, Qibao queued up another romance movie. These kinds of films always made her drowsy, perfect for helping her sleep.
Yin Mo washed the clothes first, then produced a table, an induction cooker, a frying pan, along with eggs, ham sausages, oil, salt, and seasonings.
After skillfully using his Water Ability to create several "heart-shaped water eggs," Yin Mo arranged the ham sausage mold, plugged in the cooker, and got to work.
The sizzling sound of frying and the aroma of eggs caught Qibao's attention. She turned her head to see Yin Mo in a black shirt standing by the window with his back to her, one hand on the pan handle and the other holding a spatula.
Qibao: "I already brushed my teeth. What are you making now?"
Yin Mo: "You don't have to eat it."
Qibao shot him a glare. She'd only had this body for a little over a month, and she was at the stage where she couldn't resist any kind of delicious food. As long as she wasn't completely full, even a plain fried egg could stir up her appetite.
Soon, Yin Mo turned off the heat, scooped a fried egg onto a plate, and glanced back. Seeing that Qibao wasn't hiding her appetite, he smiled, carried the plate over, and sat sideways on the edge of her bed.
Qibao looked at the plate and was surprised to find that Yin Mo's fried egg was actually quite well-made: "Have you cooked for yourself before?"
Yin Mo: "No, but I'm smart enough to learn anything quickly."
With that, he picked up a new pair of chopsticks, picked up a piece of the fried egg, and fed it to Qibao.
Qibao ate it bite by bite before explaining for Song Chao: "He wasn't showing off to you. He was using the heart-shaped fried egg to express his love for Tu Jian."
Yin Mo frowned: "Does expressing that kind of feeling require a heart-shaped fried egg?"
Qibao: "Because a heart represents love. There are even heart-shaped balloons in movies—it's a special invention of the local humans."
Yin Mo's frown deepened as he stared at her: "You clearly knew the heart-shaped fried egg was special, yet you still ate mine. Are you deliberately taking advantage of me?"
Qibao: "You didn't mean it that way."
Yin Mo scoffed: "Good that you know. Tomorrow morning I'll make a different shape."
The next day, Qibao slept in and came downstairs naturally. After chatting with Tu Jian for a bit, Song Chao and Yin Mo came out one after another carrying breakfast.
When Yin Mo set a plate in front of her, Qibao saw a carp-shaped fried egg inside…
Qibao looked at Song Chao.
Song Chao, thinking of the snake-shaped fried egg he'd thrown into the trash, silently mouthed an insult at Yin Mo: one long strip—what the hell was that!
Yin Mo sat down beside Qibao and elegantly enjoyed his breakfast.
.
Three more days passed. In the evening, Tu Jian brought back a large fish tank large enough to contain an A-level Aberrant Beast fish.
To prove his obedience, Song Chao voluntarily jumped in, even filling the water himself.
Qibao led Tu Jian to the window and said to her privately: "Actually, there's no need for this extra precaution. If you were willing to imprison him for life, you wouldn't have objected to me taking him away."
Tu Jian: "…If he breaks the law, I won't be soft-hearted."
Qibao: "I believe you."
Beyond trusting Tu Jian's sense of justice, Qibao also trusted Song Chao's character. A Carp Demon who, after being wronged by a high-level Ability User, only wanted to leave Jiangcheng and start over elsewhere—a Carp Demon with no grand ambitions, who only thought about cooking for the person he loved and waiting for her to come home—shouldn't maliciously target ordinary people again.
Of course, just in case, Qibao would also come back to check in from time to time.
After one final night in the villa, when dawn broke, Qibao and Yin Mo were ready to leave.
As Tu Jian and Qibao said their goodbyes, Song Chao sent Yin Mo a telepathic message: "Are you really content being under her supervision all the time? We were suppressed together for three thousand years, after all. Let me point you down a path—you've got no hope in Jiangcheng. Once you reach the next major city, all you need to do is fix that foul temper of yours. With your looks, you could easily go seduce an S-Rank female general. As for me, free love is fine and all, but with Qibao watching over you, you don't have time for a slow-burn romance."
Yin Mo: "Do you know why she's comfortable leaving you in Jiangcheng?"
Song Chao obviously knew, casting a gaze full of affection toward Tu Jian a few steps away.
Yin Mo: "…Because you're an idiot. So much of an idiot that you pose no threat to the local humans."
Hearing this, Song Chao immediately released a water arrow at Yin Mo.
Yin Mo waved his hand and dispersed the arrow with ease.
Seeing that the two Great Demons were about to start fighting again, Qibao quickly said her farewell to Tu Jian, grabbed Yin Mo by the arm, and shoved him into the driver's seat of the black Cullinan. She then circled around to the passenger side, sat down, buckled her seatbelt—all in one smooth motion.
"Let's go, we're off!"
Her voice was light and cheerful. Yin Mo glanced at the Carp Demon growing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror, and his mood turned bright as well.