Roster of Demons

Chen Qi, nicknamed Yuanbao, male, 4 years old,... a half-unicorn?

"...Speaking of which, there are too many kindergarten activities now, and parents are always required to participate. There is a parent-child visit to the kindergarten next week, and both parents are required to go together. Where can I find... Gu Zhen, are you listening?"

"Listen, I'm listening." Gu Zhen bit his chopsticks, "What did you say?"

"It's nothing, it's just trivial matters." Chen Ming sighed, turned around and shouted towards the balcony, "Yuanbao, come back to eat quickly. How can you run away without finishing your meal? Did Dad teach you that?"

Gu Zhen was afraid that Yuan Bao would run to the balcony alone, so he closed the door before dinner.The child was not noisy, so he stuck to the glass and looked out.

"Usually he's not so misbehaving, I don't know what's wrong today." Chen Ming put down the bowl and chopsticks, walked over and patted Yuan Bao's buttocks lightly, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Father." Yuan Bao stretched out a chubby finger and poked it on the glass door.

Chen Ming glanced at the balcony: "It's not Dad, it's the bird."

A row of dumb-headed gray pigeons was parked on the guardrail, with a black crow interspersed abruptly in the middle, not afraid of people, combing its feathers lazily.

Chen Ming took Yuan Bao's hand and returned to the dining table: "Didn't Dad teach you, don't you remember?"

"Bird." Yuan Bao said, "Fei Fei."

"Let's eat." Chen Ming put Yuan Bao on the chair and sat down, and put the special chopsticks into his hands, "You can go to see the birds after eating."

Gu Zhen poked the rice grains again and again, seeing Chen Ming teaching Yuan Bao in a gentle voice, he felt mixed feelings.

Little Crow's words kept turning in his mind.

——"Kirin is a very gentle monster, and it is very gentle towards people who treat it well. If it is raised by humans since childhood, in order to make the raiser happy, it will subconsciously think that it is a human, and even suppress the nature of transformation, If it takes a long time, it will be life-threatening. This little fat man is a half-demon, and it will only be worse than a real Qilin."

"Can you eat well?" Chen Ming said to Gu Zhen, "Yuanbao is going to be spoiled by you."

He picked up a chopstick of carrots and put them in the Yuanbao bowl, and turned to teach Yuanbao: "Don't act like a baby, it's useless to pout, the carrots must be eaten clean."

"Godfather doesn't even need carrots!" Yuan Bao protested.

Chen Ming picked up another chopsticks carrot and put it in Gu Zhen's bowl: "Godfather will eat with you."

Gu Zhen: "..."

After the meal, Gu Zhen asked to wash the dishes. He gathered the dishes together and stuffed them into the dishwasher one by one.

"Is this the 'hard aftermath work'?" Chen Ming folded his arms beside him, seeing how carefully he was afraid of breaking the dishes, he couldn't laugh or cry.

"It's the first time I use it, who knows if it will explode?" Gu Zhen closed the door and stared at the operation panel to find the button.

Chen Ming raised his hand and pressed the start button for him: "What will you do in the future? Do you eat takeaway every day?"

"Find someone who can cook?" A dark shadow flashed in Gu Zhen's mind, and he added, "It doesn't matter if you can't cook, it's good to eat takeaway."

Chen Ming smiled and shook his head.

"What about you, what kind of wife will you find?" Gu Zhen asked.

He is particularly curious about who Yuan Bao's mother is, and this emotion is stronger than ever.

Why did she leave a half-demon son for Chen Ming, and why did she run away regardless of herself? Doesn't she know the habits of Qilin?

Now the timing is right, Gu Zhen raised the topic without thinking.

"Me?" Chen Ming looked at Gu Zhen in surprise.There was a flash of unnaturalness in his eyes, "It's fine now."

"Aren't you tired of carrying ingots by yourself?" Gu Zhen asked again.

"No one would be willing to follow a single father." Chen Ming said, "I'm used to bringing my own."

"Actually, I wanted to ask you a long time ago," Gu Zhen paused, "Who is Yuan Bao's mother? You... can't be together again? It would be better for children to have a complete family."

"His mother—" Chen Ming turned to look at Yuan Bao.

Gu Zhen also turned around.

After Yuan Bao finished his meal, he ran to lean on the glass door again, muttering in his mouth some kind of indigenous alien language.

The gray pigeons were jumping up and down on the balcony, teasing him through the glass.

"There are birds on such a high floor?" Chen Ming said.

"I have wings on my body, so I can't go anywhere. ——Hey, don't change the subject." Gu Zhen said, "What's wrong with his mother?"

"I don't know who his mother is." Chen Ming said softly.

"???" Gu Zhen's mind was stuffed with a lot of yellow waste, and he said in surprise, "I can't tell, Chen Ming, you are quite open?"

"What are you thinking about?" Chen Ming said, "Yuanbao...is not my own. A friend entrusted it to me four years ago, and I have been raising it."

"Why didn't you say it before?" Gu Zhen said.

"It's just that you didn't ask." Chen Ming said, "I didn't intend to hide it either."

Gu Zhen never expected such a development, he was silent for a while, and said, "Then you fell out with your family because of Yuanbao."

"They don't let me raise a child of unknown origin." Chen Ming smiled, "I probably came late in the rebellious period. The more things are not allowed at home, the more I will do it."

"At the beginning, I was angry, and I insisted on raising him with all my strength. After raising him, I developed feelings." He paused, and said, "No matter what others think, Yuan Bao is my son."

Chen Ming is such a person, he has no temper on the surface, and he is more stubborn than anyone else when he is stubborn.

Gu Zhen understood, nodded and said, "That's right, Yuan Bao is also my godson."

"You didn't keep the door open with your mouth, so don't let it slip in front of Yuan Bao in the future." Chen Ming said half-threateningly and half-jokingly.

He wanted to say something, but his pocket trembled.

He took out his phone and looked at it, and said to Gu Zhen while replying: "A short notice from the hospital, I will bring Yuan Bao there tomorrow morning. The case book is still at home, so I won't be staying at your place tonight."

"So suddenly?" Gu Zhen asked.

"Didn't Yuanbao keep having a fever for no reason? When the fever subsided a week ago, he took another blood test and was waiting for the test results. This time the efficiency is quite fast, earlier than the expected time." Chen Ming smiled helplessly, "I won't rub you We live in a new house. Show us around. ——Yuanbao, come here, let godfather take you to the Grand View Garden*.”

"Father!" Yuan Bao stuck to the glass door and refused to leave.When Chen Ming picked him up, the gray pigeons all flew away with a whimper.

Yuan Bao still struggled for a while, and after he couldn't see the gray pigeon, he slowly calmed down, hugged Chen Ming's neck, and leaned into his arms obediently: "Dad."

"What's going on today, you call me daddy when you see everything?" Chen Ming stroked the little curly hair on Yuan Bao's head, then lowered his head and kissed his forehead, and pouted at Gu Zhen, "Girl, show me the way?"

"The kitchen is here, the bedroom is there, the bathroom is on the left, and you can see the distant mountain lake from the balcony. Hey, I'm too lazy to move. You can help yourself..." Gu Zhen nodded perfunctorily, letting the father and son go shopping by themselves.

Chen Ming walked around the room with Yuan Bao in his arms, swaying slowly and rhythmically, Yuan Bao soon became sleepy and yawned while wiping his eyes.

"We're going back first. Come play next time." Chen Ming patted Yuan Bao's back, "Yuan Bao, say goodbye to godfather."

Yuan Bao Xiaopang scratched his hands and said goodbye to Gu Zhen.

"This little fat man is so cute." Gu Zhen couldn't hold back, and shook Yuan Bao's hand back and forth.

"You bring it if you cry." Chen Ming said.

Gu Zhen let go of the little fat man's hand decisively.

When Gu Zhen sent Chen's father and son downstairs, the little crow opened the balcony door and went home.

Chen Ming made a few lunch boxes for Gu Zhen to heat up when he was hungry.The first thing Little Crow did when he got home was to open the refrigerator, take out all the bento boxes and throw them into the microwave for a few minutes.

When Gu Zhen returned to the room, he was already carrying a lunch box, sitting on a chair and moving his chopsticks.

"The action is quite fast." Gu Zhen opened the chair and sat across from him, watching him eat with his head blank, "Is it delicious?"

The little crow was noncommittal: "Say what you have to say, what are you doing watching me eat?" He swallowed the food in his mouth, patted his chest to let it go.

"Yuan Bao, it's that little fat man just now, tell me again?" Gu Zhen opened a can of drink, put the tube in and put it by the little crow's hand, "Why is it dangerous?"

"Have you heard of Qilin?" The little crow lowered his head and took a sip of the juice.

"I have heard." Gu Zhen nodded, "I understand that the dragon has nine sons."

"What do you know?" The little crow laughed angrily, "A unicorn is a unicorn, and a dragon is a dragon. They are two different things."

"Kirin, with a lion's head, antlers, tiger eyes, elk body, and dragon scales, is a kind of auspicious animal with a very gentle personality. It has always been regarded as an auspicious god, and adult unicorns can ensure longevity and health, and protect against evil spirits and disasters.

"However, the young unicorn is very fragile. If there is no guidance from the elders, it will continue to be sick if it does not return to its original shape, and it won't last long."

"Does a fever with no cause be considered sick?" Gu Zhen asked.

In connection with Yuan Bao's physical condition that Chen Ming had often mentioned to him during this period, he had a bad premonition.

"What do you think?" The little crow quickly finished the meal and put the lunch box aside, "For the sake of his father's good cooking, I can remind you that it is useless to rely on your human methods, you have to find an adult unicorn to teach he."

"Where can I find an adult unicorn?" Gu Zhen asked.

"You want to find it?" The little crow looked him up and down, and changed the question, "What do you care about a half-demon?"

"Whether it's a human or a demon, it's my godson. Of course I care about it." Gu Zhen said, "Just tell me where you can find it."

The little crow shook his head: "I don't know. This kid is the first unicorn I met, and he's just a half-demon. Qilins are very rare, and there may not be another one in the city."

"Then go find Yuan Bao's mother?" Gu Zhen touched his chin and said to himself, "It's hard to say, maybe Yuan Bao's father is Qilin."

"It's up to you? How to find it?" The little crow said.

"Of course I—of course I can't." Gu Zhen had a flash of inspiration, "But I have a cousin!" At this moment, he finally remembered Fu Xiaozi, "Isn't my cousin in that ladyboy club? I can Go to her for help!"

"This is also a way." The little crow thought thoughtfully, "If you can find someone to help you, I have a suggestion."

"Say it!" Gu Zhen was a little excited at the moment, completely forgetting the fear of being dominated by her cousin back then.

"The unicorn is hard to find. But besides the adult unicorn, there is also a kind of monster that can heal monsters." The little crow said, "I met one before, but there was no news about it, and I haven't found it after searching for a long time. If If the spiritual successor can find her, she should be able to save this half-unicorn."

"What monster are you talking about?" Gu Zhen asked.

"Jingwei, the descendant of Shennong's Emperor Yan, can heal what people can't." The little crow said, "If you can find her whereabouts, I owe you one."

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*Note: The stalk comes from Grandma Liu's entry into the Grand View Garden "A Dream of Red Mansions"