A heretical cultivator in Bureau 749, I'm the fiercest at pulling out tendons and skinning peop

Zhang Yucheng straightened his trench coat collar, a familiar, refined, and gentle smile on his face, and walked over unhurriedly.

When a powerful dragon passes through and enters his own territory, it's only right and proper for him, as the host, to go over and greet it.

"Senior." The usual gentle smile on his face faded slightly, replaced by a touch of equal respect, but only a little. He casually cupped his hands in a respectful gesture. "A rare guest. I'm sorry for not welcoming you properly."

The fox spirit was watching with great interest as Ji Zuodao haggled with the gambling den owner over a few coins. Hearing this, she turned her head, her peach blossom eyes sweeping over him, and her red lips curled into a smile:

"Hey, Zhang Sanye, you're doing pretty well, huh? You've got quite the airs of an official."

Her tone was casual, with a hint of teasing from an elder towards a younger person, but without any anger.

Zhang Yucheng didn't mind and smiled, "Just trying to make a living. I can't compare to my seniors who retired to the mountains and lived a carefree life."

"What carefree life?" The Empress waved her hand.

The two of them started chatting casually.

We talked about everything from the weather in Jinghai to the studies of the fox cubs in the back mountains, from the delicate balance of international supernatural forces to the recent inhumane price hikes of certain elixir raw materials...

On the surface, all is calm, but beneath lies a turbulent undercurrent.

Deputy Director Liu, who was eavesdropping nearby, couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Good grief, this isn't chatting at all.

This is a battle of wits between experts, an exchange of information.

Every word could be a trap, and every sentence could contain a hidden meaning.

As they chatted, the topic naturally veered towards Ji Zuodao.

After all, this was the only "link" that could connect these two seemingly unrelated figures.

"This kid..."

Zhang Yucheng glanced at Ji Zuodao, who was still haggling with the shopkeeper over three yuan and fifty-two cents, and gave a helpless smile, though his tone was quite sincere.

"He has the ability, but he's a bit wild and has a lot of ideas about how to do things."

Zhang Yucheng put it very tactfully and politely.

In layman's terms: He can cause trouble, and he can cause big trouble, but his methods are too wild, often scaring people so much that their hearts stop.

The Empress was delighted upon hearing this.

She immediately picked up the conversation:

"Oh my, don't let his current appearance fool you, he was such a lovable child! So chubby, always smiling at everyone, oh my, his smile melted our hearts!"

The Empress seemed lost in beautiful memories, her voice softening eight octaves:

"You wouldn't believe it, when he was just learning to crawl, he loved to sneak into my cave, and I couldn't stop him."

"Back then, his masters were busy and would often go into seclusion for months at a time. No one took care of the child, so he would cry when he was hungry, and then crawl over to his aunt."

The empress gestured, her expression vivid:

"I was young back then and had never taken care of a child before, so I was always flustered. When making formula, I could never get the water temperature right; it was either too hot or too cold. Changing diapers was an even bigger disaster; that little guy was kicking his legs like a little calf..."

She shook her head, looking as if she "couldn't bear to look back":

"You could say that I raised this little rascal from scratch, cough cough... I fed him and gave him water, and it took a lot of effort to get him to run and jump."

"Later, when he got a little older, he became even more outrageous. He would climb on the roof, tear off tiles, fish in the river, chase chickens and dogs—there was nothing he wouldn't dare to do. Once, he even mistook my ginseng, which I had nurtured for many years, for a radish and ate it. I was so angry..."

The Empress couldn't help but laugh again as she said this.

"Thinking about it now, it's quite interesting. That reckless and wicked nature of that kid, and his fearless attitude, probably came from that wild time."

"It's fortunate that his three masters laid a good foundation, otherwise, with this kind of upheaval, it would have fallen apart long ago."

She concluded, her tone gratified:

"Now that he's working under Director Zhang, he's finally on the right track. I can finally feel a little more at ease."

His words were sincere and heartfelt, full of details, with a clear timeline and well-defined relationships between the characters.

The character of a great elder who "endured hardships, acted as both mother and father, raised a naughty child into a successful person, and finally sent him to shine in the system" is vividly and movingly portrayed.

Ji Zuodao, who was counting money nearby, looked completely bewildered.

A handful of poop and a handful of pee?

No... When I was a baby, didn't my father-in-law carry my diapers to the river to wash them?

The baby formula was also mixed by Dog using his paws to dig through hot water.

I did steal some of the ginseng... I think my aunt chased me over several hills back then?

Ji Zuodao was very clever, and suddenly he understood.

It turns out that when big shots chat, they emphasize artistic embellishment.

The facts don't matter.

The key is to have a touching plot, create the right atmosphere, and elevate each other's roles.

Ji Zuodao is the most useful "tool" in this mutual flattery.

She was responsible for being praised, for bearing the kindness and appreciation of the two bigwigs, and for making this seemingly ordinary greeting a joyful and meaningful one for both host and guest.

Finally, Zhang Yucheng felt he had laid enough groundwork, and subtly changed the subject, his face still bearing that gentle smile, but his tone carrying just the right amount of concern:

"By the way, Your Majesty, I wonder... has your anger subsided a bit?"

He didn't say it explicitly, but both sides knew perfectly well that he was asking whose anger was being vented and what kind of anger was being appeased.

Naturally, it was the little fox lying in the VIP ward of Bureau 749.

Zhang Yucheng is neither blind nor stupid.

Ji Zuodao's attentiveness to that little fox, combined with the identity of the lady before him...

If he still can't guess that the little fox is the empress's child, he might as well quit his job as director of Bureau 749 and go set up a fortune-telling stall at the docks; he might be more skilled at that.

"Look, the culprit is lying right there. If you're still not satisfied..."

Zhang Yucheng smiled slightly, his tone as relaxed as if he were discussing adding a dish to dinner:

"Zhang can decide whether to hand the body over to you for disposal."

"Flog the corpse, crush the bones, scatter the ashes...anything goes. It'll give the child some closure."

As the fox spirit listened, her slender, jade-like fingers gently twirled a strand of hair around her chest, her peach-blossom eyes blinking as if she were seriously considering the suggestion.

She hadn't said anything yet.

"Wait! Director Zhang! Please wait a moment! At least let me take the body back."

Edward suddenly appeared, tumbling and crawling towards them.

That face, which had been quite presentable, was now deathly pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead, and his glasses were askew, but he didn't even bother to straighten them.

He was so anxious he almost knelt down before the two of them.

God have mercy!

Edward, a high-ranking diplomat, was sent to ransom people, but what was the result?

The money was paid, a hundred million US dollars, real cash, without batting an eye—well, I blinked a lot, my heart was bleeding.

Not a single person was caught; they all perished here.

De Layle, it's been sent.

Thor is done for.

Even Wolf, who came with him, died.

He had only one thought in his mind: no matter what, he had to bring those three bodies back!

We demand to see him alive or dead!

If even corpses are used for "corpse whipping for entertainment" or "as entertainment"...

Edward's vision went black.

It's as if I can already see my tragic future: returning home, being torn to pieces by the Wolf family, and having my ashes scattered into the torch of the Statue of Liberty.