Chapter 84: Replenish
In recent days, day and night, Yu Chujin’s schedule was completely reversed and chaotic. She had lost all concept of time.
Waking up, she looked out the window. The sky was bright. She didn’t know what time it was, whether it was morning, noon, or afternoon. She couldn’t tell.
She fumbled for her phone under her pillow, turned it on, and glanced at the time.
3:07 p.m. So it was afternoon.
Normally, Qingli would be lying by the bed, waiting for her to wake up. But today, she was not by the bed. She didn’t know where she had gone.
Yu Chujin propped herself up with her weak body and slowly sat up, looking around.
The room was quiet. The curtains were half open. The light was half bright and half dim.
Yu Chujin was not sleeping on the bed, but on the tatami mat. As for why she was sleeping on the tatami mat, she had no impression.
It was probably that after she had fallen asleep yesterday, Qingli had carried her over. After all, the bed was too messy to sleep in.
The originally messy bedsheet and quilt cover had already been changed to new ones, and even the quilt was folded into a square.
The originally messy clothes on the floor had also been tidied up. The clothes were folded and placed by the pillow.
Yu Chujin’s body was not sticky. It was probably that Qingli had helped her to wipe it clean.
Yu Chujin chuckled in a low voice. Qingli actually had no concept of needing to be considerate and tidy up afterward, but after being taught once, she understood and could do it very well.
Qingli could do other things very well. She would learn after being taught once. The only thing was that she was too unrestrained. And she couldn’t reason with her. She clearly understood, but she just liked to pretend not to.
She would only listen to what she was willing to listen to. If she was unwilling to listen, she wouldn’t understand. She especially loved to do it after she had fallen asleep…
She didn’t know where she had picked up this bad habit. For the nth time, she regretted buying her a phone.
Yu Chujin picked up her phone, went to the calendar, and counted how much longer she had to endure this spring.
It was only half a month until the summer solstice. Half a month was quite fast. If she just endured it a little longer, it would be over. Yu Chujin felt a little comforted in her heart.
She dragged her sore body, got off the tatami mat, put on the clothes Qingli had prepared, put on her slippers, held her waist, and walked out.
“Snake,” Yu Chujin shouted towards the living room, “What are you doing?”
There was no response from the living room, only an empty echo, and Da Huang’s enthusiastic “woof, woof” from outside the yard, plus the sound of scratching at the door.
Yu Chujin held her waist with one hand, walked to the entrance, pressed the doorknob, and opened the door.
Da Huang rushed in excitedly and pounced on her.
“Hey, hey, hey. Stop pouncing. I have no strength at all right now. If you pounce on me, I’ll fall to the ground.”
Comparing the two, Da Huang was more obedient than Qingli. When she was told not to pounce, she immediately stopped.
She bent down, rubbed Da Huang’s head, and then opened a bag of snacks for it. Then she squatted on the ground and watched Da Huang eat.
Da Huang lay on the ground, its paws on the snacks, eating with great relish.
Belatedly, Yu Chujin suddenly remembered that Qingli seemed to have not responded to her call at all.
Yu Chujin held her waist and stood up, “Snake, Qingli?”
She was not in the living room, not in the bathroom, not in the kitchen. She searched the second floor and still couldn’t see her.
She’s not here. How did she sneak out again?
Yu Chujin took out her phone and was about to call that snake. It wasn’t that she wasn’t allowed to go out, but she would cause trouble every time she went out alone.
She pressed the speed dial button, put the phone to her ear, and waited for the call to connect.
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later…”
Her phone was not answered. Yu Chujin called her watch again, but the result was still the same prompt tone.
Yu Chujin’s brow furrowed, “Why isn’t she answering the phone?”
She had specially bought her a phone and a watch to make it easier to contact her. Now, when she needed to contact her, she just didn’t answer the phone.
It was one thing to torment her to death, but now she was playing the disappearing act and not answering the phone. Where on earth had she gone?
Yu Chujin threw her phone on the sofa, with some anger.
As she was getting angry, her gaze inadvertently fell on the dining table, and her gaze was fixed.
Yu Chujin walked over. On the dining table was a bowl of porridge, two small side dishes, and a fried egg and a glass of milk.
It was quite a feast. To make this table of food, that snake probably had to be busy in the kitchen for a long time.
Under the milk cup, there was a piece of paper.
Yu Chujin picked up the paper to look. From the handwriting, it was not difficult to tell that it was written by Qingli, because the words she wrote were very much like a ghost’s drawing. Her unskilled writing made the words not very good-looking.
But although it was not good-looking, it was still possible to tell what she had written.
—Yu Chujin, be good and eat. I’m going out on business (heart).
Yu Chujin smiled. She had even drawn a heart.
There were a total of twelve words on the paper. Except for the three words “Yu Chujin,” which were written exceptionally neatly and beautifully, the other words were all crooked.
The reason “Yu Chujin” was written so neatly was because she had written these three words the most. She had written dozens of practice books, and they were all densely filled with her name.
And those practice books, Yu Chujin had collected them for her, put them in a tin box, and hidden them in the depths of a cabinet, along with the wishing bottle she had brought back from the island.
Perhaps the habit of hiding things was also contagious. Yu Chujin had also been infected and had also learned to hide some things, for fear that they would disappear, for fear of being stolen.
“Still on business? You’re so serious,” Yu Chujin pouted.
“You’re on business, but you didn’t write clearly what business it is. That’s no different from not writing it. And you’re not answering the phone.”
Yu Chujin had originally been angry, but because of the porridge on the table and this note, her anger had dissipated by more than half, and her furrowed brow slowly relaxed.
She folded the note, put it in her pocket, and sat down to drink the porridge.
Qingli would cook porridge every day, treating it as a panacea. Yu Chujin said she was a little tired of it, but she couldn’t bear to spoil Qingli’s fun and would always eat it to be supportive.
After all, she, a snake, had gone through so much trouble to make a bowl of porridge. If she didn’t drink it, it would hurt the snake’s heart so much.
She opened the lid of the bowl and looked at the porridge, which had changed its variety. She was slightly surprised.
Before, she would only cook white porridge. Today, she had actually cooked a bowl of preserved egg and lean meat porridge.
Yu Chujin picked up a spoon, stirred it, scooped up a spoonful, put it in her mouth. The porridge was still warm. Qingli should have just left the house not long ago.
A spoonful of porridge entered her mouth, and her brow slowly furrowed. It was a little fishy and not very delicious.
Qingli’s white porridge was okay, but her preserved egg and lean meat porridge was not so good. Perhaps because white porridge was relatively simple to make, and the steps for preserved egg and lean meat porridge were more complicated, which was too difficult for a snake.
The taste of the porridge was not to her liking. She put down the spoon and was not going to drink it. After thinking for a moment, she picked up the spoon again and continued to drink it spoonful by spoonful.
She had already made it. If she didn’t drink it, it would hurt the snake’s heart so much. Although it was a little fishy and not delicious, it was barely edible.
Yu Chujin was eating and smiling at the same time. She didn’t know what she was smiling about, but anyway, she was quite happy.
She finished a whole bowl of porridge, and also ate the fried egg and drank the milk. She was full.
She had finished her meal. Why hadn’t that snake come back yet? What on earth was her business? She had left a note, but she hadn’t said what she was going to do, nor had she said when she would be back. She was deliberately making her worry.
“Crack.”
Footsteps came from outside the yard.
Hearing the sound, Yu Chujin immediately stood up and ran out, a smile on her face, “Snake, you’re back…”
Her words stopped halfway.
It wasn’t Qingli outside the door at all. As for the footsteps just now, it was the sound of Da Huang running back and forth in the yard.
The smile on her face slowly faded. She walked to the yard gate, poked her head out to look, and looked again and again.
After looking for an unknown number of times, Yu Chujin suddenly came back to her senses. She wasn’t just going out once. Why was she like a wife waiting for her husband?
This behavior of hers seemed a little too much.
Yu Chujin shook her head, feeling that this couldn’t go on. She made up her mind not to wait anymore and to find something of her own to do.
However, just as she had made up her mind for two seconds, she took out her phone again and started to make a call.
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed…” Still no one answered.
Yu Chujin walked back and forth in the yard, looking at the community entrance from time to time.
This snake, when she comes back, let’s see if I’ll talk to her. I’ll definitely give her the cold shoulder. Otherwise, she’ll always be doing this kind of thing.
Half an hour later, her thoughts changed again. Yu Chujin thought, as long as this snake can come back quickly, she won’t give her the cold shoulder, and she won’t be angry with her.
But no matter how her thoughts changed, she just didn’t see that snake come back.
Yu Chujin sat on the ground by the main gate, her head bowed, dejected and gloomy.
Why isn’t she back yet?
As she was waiting, she remembered the matter of her leaving the island without saying goodbye. At that time, was Qingli also waiting like this every day?
Guilt welled up in her heart.
To actually feel the bitterness and discomfort of waiting, she understood even more the feeling of Qingli waiting for so long at that time. Waiting was a very panicked, sad, and helpless thing.
Besides, Yu Chujin’s current waiting and Qingli’s waiting at that time were of different degrees.
Even though Yu Chujin felt that the current waiting was very difficult, she also knew clearly that Qingli would definitely come back. It was just a matter of time, and this time would not exceed a day.
But when Qingli was waiting for her to come back on the island at that time, she had no clear concept. She didn’t know the reason for her leaving, she didn’t know if she would come back, and she didn’t know how long she would have to wait. There was no certainty.
She could only wait and wait, and wait.
Yu Chujin’s heart ached for her. In the future, she had to be a little nicer to her. Yes, that’s right. She had to be a little nicer to her, a little nicer.
Just as she had made this decision, her phone vibrated.
The caller ID showed: Snake.
Yu Chujin hurriedly answered the phone, completely forgetting the decision she had just made. As soon as she answered the phone, she scolded her with a bad temper.
“What were you doing? You didn’t answer the phone. If you’re not going to answer the phone, why did I buy you a phone?!”
The bad-tempered human was shouting at the phone. The good-tempered snake was coaxing her in a soft voice, “Yu Chujin, don’t be angry. Don’t be fierce. You be good. I’ll be back right away.”
Yu Chujin’s irritable emotions slowly calmed down, “How long will it take for you to be back right away?”
Qingli: “Very soon.”
“How soon is very soon?” Yu Chujin’s words paused for a moment, “Forget it. You can come back slowly. You must not run at that bizarre speed and let others see you.”
On the other end of the phone, Qingli’s strange voice came, “I know.”
The phone was hung up.
Yu Chujin’s gloomy mood instantly improved. Just now, she had been sitting at the main gate, dejected. Now, she was sitting at the main gate, humming a song.
By the way, she also petted Da Huang, rubbing its fur, her eyes curving, happy and comfortable.
Half an hour later, before she could see her, she heard her voice first.
“Yu Chujin, I’m back! Yu Chujin, I’m back! Yu Chujin, I’m back!”
She began to shout from a long distance away. Yu Chujin was called out, and at the same time, a group of neighbors on the side were also called out.
It was a little disturbing.
Qingli had no awareness of being a disturbance. She was skipping, and she was also carrying something in her hand.
Qingli had no habit of taking the door. With a nimble jump, she jumped into the yard.
A group of neighbors who were watching the show on the side couldn’t help but sigh. This jumping ability was probably comparable to a professional high jumper. Such a high fence, she had jumped over it so easily.
“Yu Chujin, I’m back.”
“Stop howling. It’s embarrassing.”
“How am I embarrassing? I’m not embarrassing!” Qingli was aggrieved.
“Alright, alright,” Yu Chujin looked at her with a smile, “What did you go out to do?”
Qingli: “Alright.”
Yu Chujin: “…”
Yu Chujin’s gaze fell on the thing she was carrying in her hand. It was a woven bag, and it was stuffed to the brim.
Yu Chujin: “You can’t have gone to pick up trash again, can you?”
After all, she had a criminal record. She had gone out to pick up trash with a woven bag before.
“No, Qingli doesn’t pick up trash anymore,” Qingli was mysterious and placed the woven bag on the ground, “Yu Chujin, you come and see. It’s a good thing.”
Yu Chujin walked forward in confusion and kicked the woven bag.
“Rustle.”
The thing in the woven bag jumped, and Yu Chujin was so scared that she retreated again and again.
“What is that? Why is it still moving!”
“A good thing.”
Yu Chujin looked at her, then at the woven bag, and began to doubt this “good thing.”
Qingli looked at her with an expectant expression, waiting for her to open this good thing.
Left with no choice, Yu Chujin braced herself and went forward again. She cautiously pulled open the zipper of the woven bag.
With the sound of the zipper being pulled open, with a thump, something jumped out of it.
She was so scared that she pulled her hand back.
“Thump, thump.”
The thing that had jumped out landed on the ground and was thrashing back and forth. It was a large carp.
A fish?
Before Yu Chujin could react, Qingli directly picked up the bag, turned it over, and with a clang, she poured everything out.
A pile of fish were thrashing on the ground, and the air was filled with a faint fishy smell.
Qingli’s chin was held high, exceptionally proud, “I’ve caught a lot of fish for Yu Chujin to eat.”
Yu Chujin: “You’ve been out for so long. So you went to catch fish. No, why did you suddenly want to catch fish?”
Qingli picked up a fish from the ground and offered it to Yu Chujin.
Yu Chujin said she didn’t really want to take it. The fish had rolled in the dirt on the ground and was dirty.
Qingli did not notice her disgust at all and insisted on stuffing the fish into her.
“I caught it for Yu Chujin to replenish her. You’re weak. You can’t. You have to eat fish to replenish.”
Yu Chujin’s mouth twitched.
She had said she couldn’t, and the “can’t” that came out of her mouth were very different.
Yu Chujin said irritably and threw the fish back at her, “When I said I couldn’t, I meant that you should… not always be thinking about that. Not that you should go and catch fish to replenish.”
Qingli was puzzled. Why is my mate angry again? Does she not like this fish?
“If you don’t like this one, there are others. I’ll pick a bigger one for you,” saying that, Qingli pulled out the biggest one from the pile of fish and offered it to her as if it were a treasure.
Yu Chujin didn’t want to take it, but she was also afraid that if she didn’t, Qingli would be sad.
Qingli had been catching fish all day. If she didn’t take it, how sad she would be.
Yu Chujin sighed helplessly and could only reach out and take the fish she had offered.
The fish was still thrashing. If she didn’t hold it tightly, it would slip away. Yu Chujin was forced to hold it tightly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“It’s a pity. There’s no salmon. I looked for a long time and couldn’t find any,” Qingli’s face was full of regret.
“You caught these fish in a freshwater lake, right?” Yu Chujin explained to her, “Salmon are only in the sea. There are none in freshwater lakes.”
Speaking of this, she belatedly reacted, “Did you transform when you were catching the fish? You weren’t seen by anyone, were you?”
Qingli was very certain, “No, I wasn’t discovered.”
Yu Chujin was not at ease, “Really? Are you sure no one saw you, and no surveillance camera saw you?”
As for the knowledge of surveillance cameras, Yu Chujin had already popularized it to her early on. She absolutely could not be filmed by that thing.
Qingli nodded, “There are no surveillance cameras. I’ve checked. Yu Chujin, you don’t have to worry. I’m very cautious. It’s impossible for anyone to discover me.”
Hearing her guarantee, her suspended heart relaxed.
“It’s good that you weren’t discovered. I’ve told you before. If we’re discovered, we’ll be separated,” Yu Chujin did not forget to scare her.
Although she shouldn’t use the word “separate” to scare the snake, only this word could make her realize the seriousness of the matter.
“We won’t be separated! I wasn’t discovered!” Qingli became agitated with fear.
Yu Chujin patted her on the head. After scaring her, she didn’t forget to comfort her, “Then you have to keep it up. You can’t be discovered in the future either.”
“Hiss hiss,” Qingli was so comfortable from being patted that she squinted her eyes, “I know.”
After patting her on the head for a while, she pulled her hand back. And then the snake was not happy and nudged her hand with her head.
“Alright, no more patting. Are you endless?”
“I’ve only been patted on the head five times. It’s not been long.”
“…”
Yu Chujin was choked. Who would have thought that she was actually counting? She had even counted clearly how many times she had been patted.
Her thoughts suddenly went astray. She remembered that last night, Qingli had also counted, counting her…
Yu Chujin coughed lightly and forcefully pulled back her stray thoughts.
Yu Chujin looked at this pile of fish and was in a difficult position. She definitely couldn’t finish eating them. It would be too much of a waste. She had to find a proper way to deal with them.
As she was in a difficult position with the pile of fish, she suddenly thought of something. She turned her head back to look at the snake, “The lake where you caught the fish, is it a wild lake or an artificial one? You couldn’t have stolen someone else’s fish, could you?”
Qingli: “No, I caught them myself. I didn’t steal them.”
Qingli had no concept of “stealing.” No matter what kind of lake it was, if she had caught it with her own ability, then it was hers. It was still that robber’s logic.
Yu Chujin was about to ask her which lake she had caught them in when her phone rang with a “ding dong,” interrupting her.
Yu Chujin put the fish aside first, wiped her hands, and took out her phone from her pocket.
She had thought someone had sent her a message, but when she saw the content on her phone, her expression immediately froze.
She abruptly raised her head and shouted at the snake, “Didn’t you say you weren’t filmed! This is called not being filmed? The video has already been leaked.”
Qingli’s face was full of innocence.
Yu Chujin had no time to say more to her. She lowered her head to check the video that had just been pushed to her.
This was not the first time Qingli had been filmed. Before, she had followed the yacht all the way from the island to the port.
Near the port, a video had been filmed of her. That video was not very popular, but it had caused a lot of discussion.
Some people said it was AI, some said she was a dragon, or a snake. In short, there were all kinds of sayings, but in the end, it was left unresolved, and no one went to investigate.
The video had not attracted too much attention, so Yu Chujin had not paid much attention to it. She had just followed it and had specially set it to follow such videos.
Since she was following such videos, she would naturally be pushed related videos.
Qingli had been filmed again this time, which had caused a small amount of popularity. Yu Chujin, who was following her, had received a notification of this video immediately.
She clicked on the video to watch. The video was only a dozen or so seconds long. It was blurry, and the camera was very shaky. She couldn’t see clearly without enlarging it.
But if you looked closely, you could still see a long, snake-like but also dragon-like cyan creature in the center of the lake, thrashing in the water.
Looking at this video, Yu Chujin was both angry and anxious. As she was watching the video, she was glaring at Qingli.
“Am I short of this fish? Do you have to go and catch it? Now, you’ve been filmed again. Although the video is very blurry, what if?”
“What if it’s noticed by someone with ulterior motives? If there really are demon catchers in this world and they see such a big monster like you, what if they really catch you?”
Qingli was scolded into a ball and did not dare to speak, looking aggrieved and pitiful.
“You don’t even realize the seriousness of the matter. Do you know how dangerous the human world is? Why are you always so reckless!”
Qingli came closer and tugged at her clothes, “Yu Chujin, don’t be fierce with me. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I’m a bad snake.”
Yu Chujin slapped away her hand that was tugging at her clothes.
Qingli stood there, at a loss, wanting to get closer, but not daring to.
Yu Chujin’s expression paused for a moment. She temporarily suppressed her anxiety and softened her tone, “Alright, I’m just worried. But it’s useless for me to lose my temper with you. You can put these fish away yourself. I’ll go and study this video first.”
Compared to scolding her irritably, it was better to calm down and think of a way to deal with the problem.
Back in the house, Yu Chujin buried her head in studying this video.
She watched it many times, enlarging it and watching it carefully and non-stop. After watching it, her heart settled a little.
The shore where it was filmed was very far from the center of the lake. The phone’s camera pixels were not good, and the filming technique was very amateurish. Although it could be seen vaguely, it could only be seen vaguely.
It was not even as good as the video that had been filmed by the pier before. That video was a little clearer, and you could see a general idea. This video basically could only see a silhouette.
Although the filming was not clear, a problem had still arisen. Because of the appearance of this new video, the old video from the pier had gained some discussion again.
This was not a good sign. Yu Chujin wished these videos would disappear on the spot, but of course, it was impossible for them to disappear. She just hoped that fewer people would discuss and pay attention to them.
Contrary to her wishes, the comments were very lively. Yu Chujin scrolled through them one by one.
[This thing has a sequel. The blogger’s AI skills have regressed. The previous video could barely be seen clearly. What is this? A black ball.]
[I don’t think so. If it were really AI, it would be made clearer. It wouldn’t be so blurry. This looks like it wasn’t filmed clearly. It feels quite real.]
[It has to be so blurry to be both real and fake. It’s just to fool you. When you’re old, I’ll sell you health products. A bunch of fools. You actually believe it.]
[You guys stop arguing. I just want to know if this thing is delicious. It looks very plump.]
Qingli cautiously came over and poked her head to look at Yu Chujin’s phone screen.
“Still looking?” Yu Chujin was both angry and helpless, “Everyone wants to eat you. They say you’re plump.”
Qingli nuzzled her face fawningly, “I won’t let others eat me.”
Yu Chujin: “You’re saying that. You won’t let others eat you. You’ll let me eat you?”
Qingli was excited, “Yu Chujin wants to eat me? Wow, then you can eat me. I’ll cut a piece of meat for you to eat. My meat tastes quite good. Oh right, I don’t even have to catch fish. My meat is the most nourishing.”
Yu Chujin almost couldn’t breathe. She quickly stopped her terrifying action of preparing to cut her meat.
“Behave yourself. I’m not eating your meat.”
“You’re not eating it? You don’t like me anymore?”
“No,” Yu Chujin explained to her, “I don’t know what you monsters are like. Anyway, we humans don’t eat the meat of our mates.”
Qingli nodded with regret, “Alright, I know.”
She was not eating her meat, and she was even regretful…
Yu Chujin continued to look at the comments. The current comments were still normal. Yu Chujin was afraid that the comments would take a bad turn.
Her finger quickly scrolled through the comments. When she saw one of them, her finger paused, and her brow slowly furrowed.
