Mu Lin listened to the little one’s words, feeling as if he had become an accomplice specializing in deception and trickery. He could only imagine how, in the little creature’s mind, he was just a naïve little lamb being conned. He had thought his own words were pretty wicked and impressive, but compared to this little rascal, he was clearly still a novice.
It seemed his original assessment of the creature was spot on—he would need to be extra cautious with this little thing. Otherwise, he might inadvertently become the executor of its wicked ideas. But upon reflection, a pet should naturally look out for its master, even if this one had yet to prove itself.
With their hearts open, the two—human and pet—began chatting freely. The room was occasionally filled with their sinister chuckles. It was downright chilling!
After chatting for a while, Mu Lin suddenly remembered the purpose of his visit. He turned serious and asked,
“By the way, Xiao Laipi (Little Rascal)! Since you once protected the Maquels, I suppose there shouldn’t be any problem with me purchasing their patent for simulated digital mobile communications, right? Oh, that’s right! I also remember you mentioned revealing a huge secret to them—what was that?”
“Damn it! Don’t remind me! Thinking about it just makes me furious!” Once the chatterbox Laipi got started, it was like the Yangtze River during flood season—impossible to stop.
Mu Lin’s head throbbed as he listened. He should have known better than to bring this up tonight—he would have preferred to wait until the morning. Still, he forced himself to be patient and finally managed to grasp the gist of the story.
It turned out that after fleeing westward, the little creature’s original master had died of severe injuries, but Eastern cultivators still wanted to wipe out the creature. During another pursuit, the little one was wounded and, in desperation, dove into its own storage space. When it finally emerged, the Eastern cultivators had already given up, assuming it had perished somewhere, and had returned home.
Exhausted and needing to treat its wounds, the little creature was discovered by an ancestor of the Maquels, who took it home, gave it careful treatment, and intended to keep it as a pet. Out of gratitude, the little one decided to stay for a while—partly to repay the kindness and protect the Maquel family, and partly to use them as a temporary refuge.
It had grown deeply disillusioned with the Central Plains, the place of its birth, where its master’s entire bloodline had been wiped out to protect it. Although the Eastern cultivators had withdrawn, the Central Plains’ cultivation world likely still had a bounty on its head. Thus, the creature resided with the Maquels for centuries, using talismans left by its master to set up formations that saved the family from several extermination attempts.
The Maquels came to regard it as a guardian angel bestowed by God, passing down the story that their ancestor had saved its life. Each generation’s leader would send someone to recite incantations before it, hoping it would remember their kindness and continue protecting the family. Eventually, the creature grew tired of the family’s antics and stopped paying them much attention, eventually moving here after a series of relocations.
At the beginning of this century, it saw them struggling with circuit design, spending large sums of money and time with no results. Seeing their clumsy attempts, it couldn’t help but offer some guidance—essentially applying the arrangement of talismans, placing circuits in a specific order across different layers.
Only after speaking did it realize it had revealed a secret of the Chinese cultivation world to these foreigners, and that they had discovered its ability to speak.
After receiving the creature’s guidance, printed circuit boards became their patent, bringing them great fame and fortune.
From that point on, the creature never had peace again. If it hadn’t threatened to leave, the family might have displayed it worldwide for profit.
Thinking about it still made the little creature furious. At first, they asked it to help find floating stones, and after decades, they only gave it some old jewelry as a reward. Even worse, in their office building, it sensed that Mu Lin might be a cultivator from the Central Plains and instructed them to treat him well so it could observe him up close. But the Maquels ignored its request and even insulted Mu Lin. Didn’t they know its master was from the Central Plains? That was why it finally stormed out of the Maquel family.
Printed circuit boards first appeared around 1903 and quickly became essential components in all kinds of electrical devices and the main elements of the electronics industry, accelerating the pace of modern industrial development.
When Mu Lin was researching printed circuit boards, he had already sensed a similarity to Daoist talisman techniques. He never imagined that the printed circuit board, which propelled modern industrial civilization—especially the electronics industry—was actually the work of Xiao Laipi. Now that things had gone this far, scolding the little creature was pointless. He just felt heartache that such a treasure from the Central Plains had ended up benefiting these foreigners.
Seeing Mu Lin shaking his head, the little creature thought he was implying it was incapable. It got anxious and jumped up:
“You don’t even need to help! This is such a small matter—I can handle it alone! Let’s go right now!” And with that, it headed toward the door.
Mu Lin hadn’t expected the little creature to be so impulsive. He quickly blocked its path, pointing to the slightly lightening sky outside the window:
“Xiao Laipi! Don’t you even check the time? Can’t we wait until morning to deal with this?”
Only then did the little creature notice it was almost dawn. A bit embarrassed, it stopped and looked up at Mu Lin, seemingly waiting for further instructions.
“Alright, we’ve been chatting all night. Let’s take a short break now.”
Mu Lin pointed to the inner room and said,
“I’ll rest in there. You’ll have to make do outside for a while. After all, you don’t need such a big bed.”
Without waiting for the creature’s reaction, Mu Lin walked into the inner room and locked the door behind him.
Sure enough, a muffled grumble came from outside:
“What? I’m a girl! How can you make me sleep out here? No sense of chivalry at all! Cheap jerk!”
Mu Lin smiled. That was exactly the little creature’s personality.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains, spilling onto Mu Lin’s pillow. He opened his eyes, jumped out of bed, and began his morning exercise routine. After a brief meditation, the signs of a sleepless night vanished, and he was once again a bright and energetic young man.
Changing into workout clothes, he opened the door. The little creature was lying on the sofa outside, its large white tail curled around its body, deeply asleep. Even the sound of the door opening didn’t wake it—it must have been utterly exhausted.
“Hey, wake up! Xiao Laipi! It’s time for our morning exercise!” Mu Lin gently shook the little creature.
“Who!” Immediately alert, the creature jumped off the sofa, baring its teeth in a fierce expression. Only after realizing it was Mu Lin did it sheepishly return to normal.
“Poor child,” Mu Lin muttered softly.
Then he said loudly,
“Come on! Let’s go! Don’t worry, from now on no one will dare to mess with you!” With that, he walked toward the front door first.
The little creature followed closely behind, grumbling as it went:
“Who’s the poor child? You’re the poor child! Who dares to bully me…”
After breakfast, Mu Lin received a call from Maquel’s secretary, informing him that Mr. Maquel had submitted Mu Lin’s acquisition proposal to the board for discussion and asking him to wait patiently.
Thinking back to Maquel’s behavior after he left the previous night, Mu Lin found the call strange and began to have some doubts about Maquel’s intentions.
But the little creature, upon hearing the call, began boasting again, claiming that Maquel must have realized it was angry because Mu Lin hadn’t been properly received, and now Maquel was trying to make amends, hoping to impress the creature into returning.
Seeing the little creature’s animated expression, Mu Lin knew that, despite everything, it still had some affection for the Maquel family after living with them for so long. He decided not to dwell too deeply on it.
In the late afternoon, just before dinner, another call came from Maquel’s secretary. This time, the board had basically approved Mu Lin’s acquisition plan. Since it was already getting late, they hoped Mu Lin could come to Maquel’s home in the evening to discuss the details.
Both calls came through the secretary—Maquel himself hadn’t offered any explanation. This only deepened Mu Lin’s suspicions about Maquel’s intentions.
That night, Mu Lin once again arrived at the same place he had visited the previous evening.
It was the same tall, thin servant, the same Brazilian Santos coffee, and the same message from the host asking the guest to wait patiently. Then the servant excused himself, leaving Mu Lin alone in the reception room once again.
“Mr. Daniel, we’re very sorry to invite you here again. However, we hope you can stay quietly in this room and not come out until we finish our business. Naturally, we will let you go once we’re done. If you refuse to cooperate, the gun currently pointed at your head might accidentally misfire. It would just be an unfortunate incident involving an Asian intruder. Please think carefully.”
A voice came through the intercom system mounted on the wall.
Indeed, a trap had been set here, waiting for both Mu Lin and Xiao Laipi.
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