Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Since they had already apologised, Gao Peng decided not to hold it against them.
After taking Goldie’s coat back from Chai Guangming, he patted the duck’s head.
“Let’s go. I’ll put this on for you.”
“Quack.” Goldie looked at Gao Peng with its head tilted to one side, then lifted its wings up, letting Gao Peng slide its coat back on. Gao Peng stood up and brushed a bit of dirt off of it.
“You know, no one will ever marry a duck who can’t even dress itself,” said Gao Peng.
“Nonsense!” Goldie retorted. “I have a two-storey duck shed near a lake. Every day, I get to eat all kinds of fish and drink the tastiest mountain spring water. I’m the richest duck in the city! I’m even richer than the ducks I see on your television programs,” said Goldie haughtily.
“Where did you even get these ideas?” said Gao Peng, rapping his knuckles on Goldie’s head.
“Stop hitting my head! I’m going to become even more stupid, and it’ll be all your fault!” said Goldie, glaring at its master.
Chai Guangming was surprised to see this gentle side of Gao Peng, who was fussing about his duck like a mother.
Gao Peng only had one class that morning. When class was over, he started packing his books into his bag.
“The student association just discovered a new type of monster. Do you want to come and take a look at it?” Jun Moyi suddenly said to him.
“A new type of monster?” Gao Peng said. “I wouldn’t mind taking a peek, but would it be all right to do so? I’m not really a member of the student association.”
“We’re allowed to invite our friends to help out. The student who made the discovery was one of the seniors at our university,” replied Jun Moyi.
“All right then. I’ll go.”
…
This was the story of Li Yu, who lived in Yuzhou.
On the eve of the cataclysm, his old house had been completely destroyed by an earthquake. He had been forced to move to a new place.
His new home had been fully paid for by the New World Allied Government.
After losing both his parents as a child, he had lived in an orphanage for as long as he could remember. He managed to finish university with the help of the orphanage’s matron and some of its more generous donors, and he was even still able to keep in touch with one of his childhood friends from the orphanage.
Recently, Li Yu had been troubled by the constant bickering of a married couple that lived above him. They would always be at each other’s throats over the most trivial things in the middle of the night.
He knew that it was normal for married couples to fight sometimes, and he could still handle the amount of fighting these people were doing upstairs every night.
However, the problem was that his place was on the highest floor!
Li Yu was sitting anxiously on his bed. His curtains had been pulled aside to let the silver moonlight shine through. He shook out a cigarette from his pack and lit it with a lighter, then took a deep draw from it and slowly puffed smoke rings out into the air.
Like clockwork, from the ceiling came the voices of a man and woman arguing about something.
“I told you, it has nothing to do with him!”
“Why don’t you believe me?”
“Don’t give me that crap. Someone saw you two going to a hotel after dinner…” The voices grew fainter. Then there was the sound of a scuffle, followed by tables and chairs being turned over.
“I’m on the top floor. Who the hell is up there watching a family drama?” Li Yu was about to go mad. He had gone up in the morning to see who had been making all that racket. However, there had been nothing upstairs. Aside from the flowers his neighbor had planted, there was no place on the rooftop for anyone to live.
Li Yu got out of his bed.
“That’s it! I can’t take it anymore! It’s been a month since I had a good night’s sleep! I’m going to give whoever’s up there a piece of my mind!”
As Li Yu stood up, a yellow dog leapt to the ground from his bed and began rubbing itself against his legs.
Good thing I have my familiar with me. Li Yu felt even safer having his familiar with him.
He’d had it for almost two years. Though he was always too busy with work to train it properly, his familiar had been able to reach Elite-tier on its own.
Such a fierce-looking dog would give even a ghost a good scare.
He had also recently given his familiar a dose of the Southern Sky Group’s Earth Drug Type One, which had helped it evolve into an Earthen Golden Retriever.
“Hope the drug is as good as they say…” muttered Li Yu.
He opened the door to the stairs and stared into the darkness of the stairwell. A cold breeze blew from it, sending a shiver down Li Yu’s spine.
“Woof!” The Earthen Golden Retriever let out a bark, triggering all the motion sensor lights in the stairwell.
Li Yu stared at the empty stairwell, where the stairs were now illuminated by a pale white light.
After thinking for a while, he went back to his place and brought two chopping knives out from his kitchen.
With his dog by his side and a pair of chopping knives in his hands, he now had nothing to fear!
“Let’s go!” said Li Yu, his elegant face contorted into a snarl.
He hadn’t been able to sleep well for a whole month. That night, he was going to put an end to all his sleeping troubles once and for all.
Seeing its master go up the stairs, the Earthen Golden Retriever quickly ran after him.
The rooftop was just beyond a huge door. Though it wasn’t locked, it was quite heavy. With all his strength, Li Yu was able to push it open.
He could still hear the couple’s fierce fighting from behind the door. When it opened, only an empty rooftop greeted him. Everything before Li Yu was bathed in the silver moonlight at that moment.
The noise had vanished without a trace.
“Woof?” The Earthen Golden Retriever rushed out into the empty rooftop and began prancing about playfully.
Most Earthen Golden Retrievers still retained the playfulness of the golden retrievers that they had evolved from.
Where did… it go? Li Yu cautiously observed his surroundings.
However, he failed to realize that the motion sensor lights in the stairwell had been put out, plunging the stairs back into impenetrable darkness. Suddenly, a pair of withered, blue-black arms reached out from the darkness to hug Li Yu from behind…
“Woof!” The Earthen Golden Retriever sensed that something was wrong. Its eyes widened when it looked back at Li Yu, and it quickly dashed back towards him.
“What’s wrong?” Sensing the panic in his familiar, Li Yu quickly exited the stairwell and stepped out onto the rooftop.
The Earthen Golden Retriever ran around him in circles as Li Yu inspected his body. Then he shivered.
There were two blue-black palm prints on both of his arms! A sudden piercing pain gripped his arms when he touched the affected area.