Chapter 14

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It was the dead of night. Every household lay cloaked in darkness, and the corridors that had been noisy by day had fallen completely silent.

Yet this was the hour when another group of residents came alive.

Rustling and squeaking, scratching and scuffling—pairs of eyes peered out from the corners. After making sure no one was outside, furtive figures crept out, cautious yet swift.

They scurried beneath the sofa and under the table, ignoring the food scattered across the living-room floor as they headed straight for the kitchen. Following the table upward, they climbed onto the cabinets.

There was little inside the cabinets that day, only a few seasonings. The figures had no interest in those. After pawing them aside, they squeezed out of the cabinet and turned their eyes toward the old refrigerator, which radiated an enticing aroma.

There was food inside. A great deal of food.

They had seen the humans putting many things into it during the day.

But the enormous appliance was too heavy, and their tiny bodies could not pull the door open.

After another failed attempt, one of the small figures leaped onto the top of the refrigerator and cried out into the room.

The sound was a signal. Before long, its companions, who had been moving about in hiding, abandoned whatever they were doing and hurried to gather below the refrigerator.

The figures came in all sizes. The largest, not counting its tail, was over twenty centimeters long, its fat body shaped like a small mountain.

“Squeak, squeak.”

The rat atop the refrigerator tapped its claws against the casing. The rats below answered with cries of their own, their voices growing louder and more brazen by the moment.

The rats did not care whether their owner was home. That human was too weak and too old. They felt that, if they joined forces, they could probably knock the human flat.

Unfortunately, the human was not home that night, so they had no chance to put the idea into practice.

At the rat on top’s command, the strongest rat gripped the refrigerator’s outer shell and began to climb. The ancient appliance let out a deep, droning hum. The rats were accustomed to the noise and took it for musical accompaniment, climbing with even greater vigor.

Soon they passed the freezer compartment and began their advance toward the refrigerator section.

The height was already too great, and the surface was too smooth. The less sturdy rats could no longer hold on and began to fall. Only the strongest continued to lead the way, already trying to pry the refrigerator door open with its claws.

The rat above directed those that had fallen to circle around from the countertop.

One rat after another leaped onto the top of the refrigerator. Countless claws began scratching at the door from above.

The heavy door creaked. A narrow gap slowly opened, and the food hidden within finally revealed itself.

The rats cried out in excitement. So much food—fresh food, not the leftover dishes that reeked of sourness.

The thinnest rat squeezed through the crack. As it entered, the refrigerator door was pulled wider and wider, the resistance steadily diminishing. At last, once it had opened to a certain angle, the door swung back on its own. With a rush, all the rats leaped inside and pounced directly upon the vegetables and sacks of rice.

Just as the rats were happily feasting, two shadows entered the apartment without a sound.

The moment Hu Yuanfei stepped inside, he heard the crunching of teeth. Most of the noise came from the same place.

He and Lang Xiao looked toward the kitchen at the same time. In the dark kitchen, the only source of light was the upper section of the refrigerator, packed with rats. Every one of them was absorbed in gnawing whatever lay before it; some were even on the verge of fighting over the food. Beneath the refrigerator, a sack of vegetables had been dragged onto the floor, where several smaller rats were hugging it and eating merrily. In the corner, four or five tiny pups whose fur had not yet darkened huddled in a circle, sharing the food their mother had brought them.

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The last time Hu Yuanfei had seen a scene like this was over a century ago, during a plague of rats in some distant place. Back then, however, he had possessed ample food and had not been particularly fond of eating rats.

Hu Yuanfei and Lang Xiao exchanged a glance and made a hand signal. Though this was their first time hunting together, the two demons had already developed a rudimentary understanding. Lang Xiao nodded, then appeared soundlessly in front of the refrigerator.

Her demonic power spread like a vast net, and rat after rat swiftly fell into it.

Caught by the sudden attack, the rats shrieked violently. The young ones, sensing danger, immediately tried to flee, but Hu Yuanfei had been watching them closely. He rushed forward and swallowed them one by one, dispatching them all in moments.

These young rats had been raised plump and fat. Their flesh was tender, and their bones soft enough to crunch easily. Compared with adult rats, they were even more delicious.

Hu Yuanfei’s eyes shone as he ate, his tail swaying in intoxicated delight. By then, Lang Xiao had already tied every rat within sight into a single mass. A long string of rats hung suspended in the air, forming a spectacular rat tree.

“What are you standing around for? Get to work,” Lang Xiao shouted when she saw Hu Yuanfei still savoring the taste.

Hu Yuanfei came to his senses at once. He hurriedly shrank his body and began burrowing into every corner. Some rats that had not been in the kitchen earlier had heard the commotion and already retreated into their holes.

Hu Yuanfei knocked open the wardrobe in the bedroom and dug two rats out from behind it. He unearthed two more from behind the shoe cabinet. In the bathroom ceiling, he managed to catch only one; the others had crawled away through the ventilation ducts toward other apartments.

Half of the fox’s head emerged from the ceiling. He said resentfully, “They got away. They ran to the other apartments.”

With that passage open, rats would continue pouring down endlessly.

Lang Xiao pushed him aside and leaned in to take a look herself. After a moment’s thought, she licked her fur, plucked out the damp tuft, and tossed it into the mouth of the duct.

“My scent is up there now. The rats won’t dare come over.”

If they had been in a forest, Hu Yuanfei would have praised the idea to the skies. But they were in a city, and they were dealing with rats.

“Do rats even care about scent? Humans are so terrifying, yet the rats aren’t afraid of them.”

Lang Xiao fell silent.

She turned and glared at him. “Then what do you suggest?”

“I’ll crawl through and wipe them all out.”

“This building is so tall, and there are so many apartments. When would you finish catching them? Besides”—Lang Xiao said with perfect composure—“if you catch them all in one go, who will come to us to deal with their rats?”

Hu Yuanfei froze. Then realization dawned, followed by an expression of deep regret. “I shouldn’t have eaten all those pups just now. We should have let them go.”

Lang Xiao shook her head. “Forget it. Keep working.”

The two demons’ ears were exceptionally sharp. No matter where the rats hid, they could locate them with perfect accuracy. After more than an hour of work, the rat tree hanging in the air grew larger and larger. When they had finally caught them all, even the two demons were stunned by the sheer number.

“There are really this many.” Hu Yuanfei could not help exclaiming. Then he looked toward the upper floors, his eyes lighting up. “If one household has this many rats, won’t the others have even more? We can make money and eat our fill at the same time! Wonderful!”

The thought of earning so much money cheered Lang Xiao as well.

“All right. We’re done.”

At dawn the following day, Lang Xiao called the old woman.

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Thinking they had worked through the entire night, the old woman hurried back. Her old friend, curious about the outcome, came along with her.

The moment the two women opened the door, they saw dozens of rat carcasses laid out in neat rows across the floor. The spectacular sight frightened them so badly that they nearly leaped into the air.

“My heavens, how can there be so many rats? Did you really catch them all in this apartment? You didn’t bring them in from somewhere else and put them here, did you?”

As she spoke, the old woman inspected every corner of the apartment. She soon discovered the rice and vegetables in the refrigerator, which had been thoroughly ravaged.

“When we came in last night, all the rats were gathered around the refrigerator eating,” Lang Xiao explained. “We took the opportunity to catch them all at once. They’ve gnawed a great many holes in the walls. You should patch them up when you have time. Some of the rats also crawled through the ceiling into other apartments. If you don’t seal the openings, they’ll come back.”

The two demons led the women around, showing them the various holes and the objects that had been gnawed through. Only then did the old woman truly believe that all the rats had been hiding in her own home.

“Thank you so much. At last I’ll be able to sleep soundly tonight.” The old woman smiled until her face was a mass of wrinkles. “I’ll pay you now, but I need to hold back two hundred and pay that part three days from now. I have to make sure there aren’t still any rats you failed to catch.”

Though they were not particularly pleased, the two demons agreed.

And so, the first payment they had ever earned through their own labor was deposited into their hands.

Seeing how effective they were, the old woman’s friend placed an order on the spot. There were plenty of rats in her building as well.

Lang Xiao and Hu Yuanfei exchanged a glance, both so excited that they could barely suppress their smiles.

This business really was worth pursuing.

Because the two demons worked efficiently and charged little, word spread quickly. Within a month, nearly all the rats in Golden Splendor Gardens had been caught.

Their reputation as rat catchers soon reached the residential complex where they lived, and the pair grew even busier. Their appointments were booked a month in advance.

Hu Yuanfei no longer coveted rats. In fact, whenever he saw one now, he felt a little sick. He had simply eaten too many. Even tender rat pups no longer tempted him.

Before they knew it, the savings in the two demons’ hands had surpassed twenty thousand.

With money came confidence. At last, they had begun to feel that they could truly live well in the human world.

Since they both contributed to the rat-catching work, they divided the earnings equally. Lang Xiao spent her share on Qing Yao—new clothes, new toys, fresh formula, and chewable treats.

Hu Yuanfei spent all of his on food. At last he could eat fresh chicken, and he sampled every delicacy in the neighborhood. It was all far more delicious than rats.

In little more than a month, the once-gaunt fox had put on a noticeable amount of weight. Even his face had become round and full.

Only then did Hu Yuanfei understand why demons liked coming to the human world. It was not to find humans and drain their vital energy, but to indulge themselves.

Humans were extraordinarily skilled at pleasure. Food alone came in more varieties than he could count. He wished he could grow eight mouths and taste everything he had ever seen. During the day, whenever he was not sleeping, he was eating. The snacks in the apartment had piled up into a small mountain. At this rate, their money would soon be gone.

But Hu Yuanfei was confident that he could earn more—much more—in the future. Waving his paws, he began boasting grandly.

“Look, we’ve spent an entire month catching rats in just one neighboring residential complex, and we still haven’t finished. There are countless complexes like it in this city, and who knows how many cities like this exist among humans? We couldn’t count them all. Once there’s no more money to make here, we can simply move somewhere else. In other words”—the fox stood on the balcony and lifted his head high—“in other words, there is an enormous amount of money waiting for us to earn. We’ll never be short of money again!”

Lang Xiao stared at him speechlessly. The idea seemed somewhat naive. Could things really be that simple? Besides, she felt that the fox was on the verge of being completely corrupted and spoiled by the human world.

“Don’t forget that you’re a demon. The purpose of your life isn’t to catch rats for money.”