Chapter 148: Draft ⑤

[Landlord: It’s the end of the year, time to renew and pay next year’s rent.]

At 8 PM, Wen Chu had just arrived home from the subway. Before he could even put down his backpack, he received a message from his landlord.

It was deep winter, and he rented the top floor, so it was even colder inside than outside.

Wen Chu shivered as he turned on the heater, sat on the floor, and slowly typed with stiff fingers.

[Wen: Sorry, my salary won’t be paid until the middle of next month. Can I pay you in the middle of next month?]

The landlord didn’t reply.

Wen Chu silently put down his phone, took out a bundle of alfalfa hay from a box next to the small dining table in his studio apartment, and carefully nibbled on it stalk by stalk.

Sob, it’s so hard for a rabbit to survive.

As a lop-eared rabbit who had gained sentience, to maintain the most basic dignity of a human form—having a place to live and clothes to wear—Wen Chu had to enter the most prosperous city for demons, Haishi, to work.

He gained sentience too late. To improve his education, he had to take the vocational exam for demons, then upgrade from vocational to bachelor’s, and then take the postgraduate exam.

And all these steps required money.

Wen Chu, who had nothing but two rabbit ears, felt like the sky was falling when he saw the exorbitant tuition fees.

But for a sentient demon to return to the mountains was shameful, so Wen Chu could only grit his teeth and persevere, taking any job available.

After much difficulty, he finally got his bachelor’s degree, only to be heavily in debt from student loans because he couldn’t afford the tuition.

How can a rabbit’s spine bear such a heavy debt T^T

Wen Chu looked at the alfalfa hay he bought on a group-buy special offer in his hand. Because it was too cheap, it was all broken, substandard scraps. He couldn’t help but feel sorrowful.

Why did he have to be so gifted and gain sentience?

Wen Chu sadly opened his phone, found the local demon group chat, and typed a message with his warming hands.

[Wen: Are there any daily-wage part-time jobs for demons?]

His fellow demons were very enthusiastic.

[A Whale: There are gigs to fill up space at nightclubs and bars. They check looks and age (adult). Usually 50, 100 if good-looking. From 9 PM to 5 AM the next day.]

[Minnie: Come to the Delta and hang with Big Sister! Earning over ten thousand a day is easy! Just need to be able to fight!]

[Professional Matchmaker: What’s wrong, Little Wen? Can’t work at that convenience store anymore?]

[Wen: The shop owner said business is bad and will pay me next month, but I can’t afford the rent.]

The group fell silent for a moment, then everyone started condemning the shop owner for delaying wages at the end of the year.

Everyone was enthusiastic, but it was too difficult for demons without degrees to find proper jobs. Wen Chu searched for a long time, and in the end, only Grandma Whale’s lead was relatively reliable.

Sighing, he contacted Grandma Whale.

[Wen: Grandma, about that gig filling space at the nightclub, when is it needed?]

[A Whale: The time isn’t fixed. Recruiting once for tomorrow night. You come first, and I’ll call you when there’s more later.]

[Wen: Okay.]

[Wen: Grandma, do you have any other part-time jobs? I can do anything. The rent is eight hundred yuan; I’m afraid it won’t be in time.]

Grandma Whale was silent for a while, then sent a voice message.

“Little Wen, why don’t you try livestreaming? It’s New Year’s Eve tonight; traffic should be good. I’ll ask the bar’s operations team to promote you. Just show those ears of yours and perform eating alfalfa hay.”

Wen Chu was shocked.

[Wen: Will people really watch that?]

[A Whale: You have to believe in everyone’s boredom level. Besides, livestreaming isn’t much trouble. If someone tips, it’s profit.]

Wen Chu thought about it. It seemed to make sense, so he agreed.

Under Grandma Whale’s professional guidance, Wen Chu quickly propped up his phone on the dining table using books, turned on the main light in the room, and spread a thick layer of alfalfa hay on the table.

Wen Chu tried a few beauty filters, but under the filter parameters, he looked like a monster, so he simply brightened and whitened the image a little.

Preparation complete. Following Grandma’s instructions, Wen Chu clicked the red dot.

“Can I start now?” Wen Chu asked uncertainly.

The boy had long white hair flowing down, exquisite features, and two soft, fluffy rabbit ears by his face. His azure eyes looked into the camera.

Like a beautiful porcelain doll.

The number “0” in the upper right corner suddenly jumped to “20,” and comments floated across the screen.

[You’re already live, streamer.]

Wen Chu was startled, his ears perking up. The number of people in the livestream room soared again, reaching two hundred this time.

[The ears are actually real? Little rabbit demon?]

[A lop-eared rabbit! Is he going to perform eating grass?]

[Such a beautiful baby… Baby, move a little, you’re not a 3D model, right QAQ]

Seeing the comments, Wen Chu raised his hand and poked his face. His cheek, which didn’t have much flesh to begin with, indented slightly and then bounced back.

“It’s real, not a model,” Wen Chu explained seriously.

A large swath of “Cute” flooded the screen, and Wen Chu also received quite a few small hearts and roses.

Seeing the gifts, Wen Chu remembered the purpose of his livestream and said to the screen, “I’m here to eat grass.”

Another wave of comments flooded the screen, and the number of viewers jumped directly to two thousand.

Wen Chu suspected Grandma Whale had promoted him.

He couldn’t waste the traffic Grandma sent.

Wen Chu seriously searched through the hay on the table, found a long, intact stalk of alfalfa, and nibbled on it with small bites while reading the comments.

“What’s the texture? Just crunchy and gritty, the texture of grass.”

“I’m an adult, eighteen years old, still in college.”

“Usually, I work part-time after class because I need to save money in advance to pay back my student loans.”

Wen Chu’s voice wasn’t loud, and the chewing sounds were subtle, just a slight rustling. The atmosphere in the livestream room was exceptionally peaceful.

[Why did the streamer suddenly think of livestreaming eating grass? Is it too lonely spending New Year’s Eve alone?]

Seeing this comment, Wen Chu thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth. “Because I won’t get paid until next month, and I can’t afford rent. Someone suggested I try livestreaming.”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but feel sad again. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have become sentient. I want to go home and be a rabbit.”

Shock and sympathy flooded the comments. Immediately after, Wen Chu saw fireworks explode on the lower half of the screen in front of him.

[A Whale sent Romantic Fireworks x1]

[A Whale: Don’t be sad. You’re already doing great. Happy New Year.]

Wen Chu was stunned. Before he could realize why Grandma Whale was spending money on gifts for him only for the platform to take a cut, he saw another gift effect appear.

This time it was a Porsche occupying the entire screen.

[Minnie sent Porsche x1]

[Minnie: No big deal. If you can’t survive in the city, come to the Delta and hang with Big Sister!]

[Little Ai sent Heart-Finger Rabbit x1]

[James…]

The comments chattered away. Wen Chu suddenly realized that nearly half of the people in the livestream room were his acquaintances.

Grandma Whale who ran the bar, the maverick Minnie, James who repaired clocks, Alice who just inherited the family business…

They said to let him livestream, but it turned out everyone pooled together his rent in this euphemistic way.

Wen Chu suddenly felt so aggrieved, his nose tingling.

He lowered his head and whispered, “Thank you.”

[Don’t cry, streamer. Why cry when receiving tips? Hurry up and thank the big brothers and sisters and say something nice!]

[Sister Whale is domineering! Sister Moon is mighty! Boss is generous!]

[A Porsche right at the start? That’s a dream start for many streamers!]

Wen Chu looked up with teary eyes, seeing the gift effects, feeling both heartache for the money and touched.

He sniffled. “Don’t tip anymore. Half gets taken by the platform; it’s really a loss.”

Haishi Administration Bureau.

A blond man wearing thin black-framed glasses frowned as he graded the year-end reports, his brow furrowing deeper the more he corrected.

…Why on earth did he agree to be this special-appointment director back then?

Was being a great demon too idle, so he looked for some suffering for himself?

The Administration Bureau mainly managed human-demon conflicts. The ratio of humans to demons employed here was 1:1, which led to constant internal conflicts within the Bureau.

The matters handled were incredibly trivial. Today someone was scared by a demon’s true form; tomorrow a sparrow spirit came to complain about being treated as a toy by a cat demon; the day after, a company complained that a rabbit spirit employee took twelve months of maternity leave a year and couldn’t be fired.

Xiu looked at the pile of unprocessed items on the year-end report, endured it again and again, and finally closed the report, sending a resignation letter to the mayor.

The content was just six short words.

[I quit. Resigning.]

As for the mayor’s earnest plea back then that only he, with his high education and formidable strength, could suppress those young demons and guarantee the safety of humans and the harmonious coexistence of humans and demons—let that mayor try doing it himself?

Thinking of this messy job gave Xiu a headache. He simply opened his phone, wanting to order takeout.

Before the takeout app could open, it redirected to a short video app.

Xiu: “…”

He felt that compared to human-demon harmonious coexistence, regulating ad placements was currently the most urgent matter.

Just as Xiu was about to switch back to takeout, the short video app began to scroll automatically, recommending a local livestream to him.

Xiu’s finger paused.

In the livestream room, a boy with long white hair was shocking holding a stalk of alfalfa in his mouth, looking at the gift effects in front of him, the two fluffy rabbit ears by his face bristling slightly from fright.

Little rabbit spirit?

Quite beautiful. Are newly-adult little demons starting to livestream now?

Xiu observed Wen Chu with interest for a while. Just as he was about to go in and send a gift, he saw this little rabbit staring at the screen with red-rimmed eyes, sniffing and telling the livestream room to stop tipping.

The reason was actually heartache over the platform’s cut.

Where did this silly rabbit come from?

Xiu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Watching the little rabbit spirit clumsily wipe away tears with his rabbit ears and finally get coaxed by the comments, a mischievous thought arose.

He tapped into the livestream room.

[x entered the livestream room]

[x sent Carnival x1]

[x: Heart hurts that much? Cry again for me to see.]