Chapter 8: Daily Life of Cohabitation (1/4)

Walking through the main gate, I found the things inside to be strange and unusual.

There were all kinds of people in white coats; I recognized their clothes—they were very similar to the robe I was wearing.

There were also cats that could do backflips, and snow leopards that didn’t speak…

I wondered what they would taste like.

Passing around the corner, I walked straight to the end, where someone in a white coat was already waiting for us.

“Is it this one?”

The other party wore a Monkey Mask, looking at me as they spoke.

“Yeah.”

“So, I’d like you to help me get the silver coin she swallowed out of her stomach…using a gentle method.”

Monkey Mask nodded.

“Little one, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

“No, I’m fine. Just a bit hungry.”

“Haven’t had breakfast?”

“No.”

Watching the two of us start chatting, Lu Xiu tapped his knuckles on the table, “You can eat anytime, but if this gets delayed, it can’t be redone.”

I was displeased at him for interrupting our conversation.

“All right, then, please open your mouth. Ah—”

“Ah—”

I opened my mouth wide, and through the mirror at the side, I could see those saw-like teeth parting, revealing the pink mucous membrane inside my mouth, and an even deeper darkness.

“Mm… No bad odor, no cavities, your teeth are in good shape.”

“Why are you checking her teeth?” Lu Xiu was a bit exasperated.

“Sorry, sorry… force of habit…”

The doctor smiled awkwardly.

For the next while, I just sat there bored with my mouth open, letting the monkey-faced doctor fiddle around.

“Hmm… Based on my initial assessment, regular methods to induce vomiting definitely won’t work. Her body structure is very strange. It looks normal, but still possesses Supernatural Traits.”

“For example, when I use the Handheld Light to shine inside her mouth, at a certain point, all the light is swallowed by the darkness, as if the space is isolated and the light naturally warps.”

“So?”

“So I suspect there may be other structures connected within her body.”

“Wow, doctor, you’re so smart!”

I quickly nodded and pointed at my stomach.

“I have another mouth here.”

As I spoke, I was about to lift up my shirt, but Lu Xiu stopped me.

“Not everyone wants to see that mouth of yours.”

I pouted and reluctantly lowered my hand.

“So, to get the silver coin out, it has to come from the other mouth?” Lu Xiu guessed.

Monkey Mask nodded, “Just a guess, this is the first time I’ve encountered such a situation.”

“What about the method?”

“Well…” Monkey Mask looked at me, “There are two. One is to have her spit it out herself. The other is to use an external force or containment item, but I think a containment item will be needed—like one that connects with space.”

“Ah…how troublesome…” Lu Xiu sighed and poked my forehead hard, “If only you could keep your mouth shut, we wouldn’t have all these problems!”

“Ow…” I covered my head and retorted, “It’s not like I wanted to eat it!”

“Not like you wanted to eat it? So the silver coin jumped into your mouth itself?”

Honestly, I wanted to blame it on the big mouth, but I’d already been wronged once this morning—if I said it again, he probably wouldn’t believe me.

“Ahem, it’s not that troublesome actually. Recently, based on some powers of the Space Demon, we’ve developed some Experiment Products. Maybe we can use them to extract the coin.”

Monkey Mask’s words made Lu Xiu pause, looking doubtful, “Is it safe?”

“Well… It is our latest Experiment Product…”

“Forget it, then.”

He lowered his hand.

“If something goes wrong with her, I’ll be the one stuck dealing with it in the end.”

“In that case, how about this—once the Experiment Product is tested and verified to be relatively safe, I’ll let you know?”

Monkey Mask didn’t insist.

“That’s all we can do.” Lu Xiu shrugged and walked outside.

“So, are we just going back like this?”

Following him out toward the corridor, I spoke up.

“Unless you can spit it out?”

“I can’t.” Worried he wouldn’t believe me, I even added, “It’s already turned into poop.”

His back seemed to hunch a little more.

When we returned to reality, that is, back to the original public restroom, Lu Xiu seemed a little silent.

“Are you hungry too?”

When I’m hungry, I don’t want to move, nor do I want to talk.

“If only it were that simple…” He shook his head. “Come on, I’ll take you to buy some clothes.”

“I’d rather buy food.”

“Do you have any money?”

“I can—”

“You can’t eat.”

He almost instinctively guessed what I was about to say and immediately cut me off.

“…No.”

“Then you listen to me. If you’re good, maybe I’ll buy you something to eat.”

“Okay.”

Then, we got swept up in the bombing incident.

Wearing my tattered new clothes, I sat on a stone pedestal, fanning my mouth.

Beside me was Lu Xiu, face dark in the literal sense—his face had been blackened by the explosion, and his hair, which used to look like a haystack, had become an afro.

“It’s me… Lu Xiu. We just encountered a bombing attack at the Eastern City Department Store…” Hearing the response on the other end, he forced a wry smile.

“If possible, I’d rather stay at the Response Bureau, instead of getting inexplicably involved in a bombing.”

“Preliminary guess is a demon incident, someone tried to perform a sacrifice, but it failed. I found a Sacrificial Array in the fitting room. As for what kind of demon, we’ll need specialists to determine. Okay, I understand…”

He hung up, then sat down beside me on the stone pedestal with no regard for his image, but immediately jumped up, rubbing his backside from the scorching heat.

“Hahaha, you big dummy!”

I stuck out my finger and laughed at him.

Bzzt bzzt

“Eek—!”

Lu Xiu, the dog, zapped me again!

“What are you laughing at? You’re not much better yourself.”

He said irritably.

I lowered my head and looked at myself—I looked like a beggar, and the new clothes I’d just bought were now rags.

I stuck out my tongue, not reacting much—after all, it didn’t matter if I wore them or not.

“By the way, Seaweed Ball, what is a demon?”

I’d heard that little dessert mention the possibility of a demon, and demon contractors. But what exactly is a demon?

“Hiss…how should I explain it to you… It’s like… a thief who always wants to steal things from your home. But instead of sneaking around, they do it openly, like trading you a piece of cake for your oven, or exchanging fruit for a bag of flour.”

“That doesn’t sound bad?”

After all, you can’t eat an oven.

“Heh, that’s how you fall into their trap. An oven can bake a lot of things—it’s a source of production.”

“But they use cheap mass-produced goods to exchange for machines that can endlessly make cakes, then use the oven they got from you to make even more cakes, trading with more people, using short-term benefits to exchange for long-term interests. That’s a demon. A bunch of cunning swindlers.”

I didn’t understand.

But I figured they probably weren’t edible.

“So we’re supposed to eat… eliminate demons?”

He shook his head, “Do you know what it takes to kill a demon?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you.”

His face turned helpless. “To kill a demon, you have to know its True Name. For example… uh…”

He looked around, then pointed at the stone pedestal under me: “For example, the Stone Pedestal Demon.”

“You have to know the Stone Pedestal Demon’s True Name, the one and only name bound to each demon since its birth, to kill it. But do you know what the Stone Pedestal Demon’s name is?”

“Stone Pedestal?”

“That’s just a code name, you dummy.”

“You’re the dummy!”

“Why do you act like an elementary schooler…”

This time, I was unexpectedly silent.

Because upon hearing that word, I suddenly felt uncomfortable.

A kind of indescribable discomfort.

“So usually, when we refer to demons—like War Demon, Net Demon—those are just code names, not their True Names. Only by knowing the True Name can you kill them, otherwise it’s useless.”

His tone softened, continuing the explanation.

“But demons aren’t stupid. The longer a demon lives, the harder it is to find out their True Name. Not to mention the root demons, like the Death Demon, which are even older than human history—how would you know their True Name?”

He sighed and sat down beside me again on the stone pedestal, clasping his hands together between his knees, staring at the ground.

“So, eliminating demons is unrealistic. All we can do is use them, make contracts with demons, gain power from them, and in turn, use that power to maintain social stability… Pretty ironic, huh?”

“But… it’s what we have to do. In this world, there are far more than just demons. To protect those we care about, to protect our homes… we have to devote our will.”

“Build a dam against the world’s dark undercurrents.”

He once again spoke the words I’d heard from the electronic voice.

Strangely, when he said them, they seemed to carry a different weight.

“So, Sui, that’s why you’re my partner.”

He looked at me, the exhaustion gone from his eyes—though they were still a bit bloodshot and clouded, my reflection was clear within them.

“If we want to protect our sheepfold from the wolves, we must dance with the wolves—and be fiercer than them.”

“In this world, there’s never such a thing as free food…”

After he finished, a silence settled between us.

In the distance, the sirens of the fire brigade wailed, mingling with the cries and clamor. The raging fire had burned away the once-bright advertisement banners, leaving only ashes and smoke.

At dusk, our shadows stretched longer and longer.

Until we finally became one with the darkness.