Post Training Notice: National First-Class Registered Exorcist

"We also have this!" Chi Xiaoduo said, standing at the entrance of a specialty shigandang store. 

"En." Xiang Cheng nodded, picked up a big shigandang, and glanced at it.

"How much is it?" Chi Xiaoduo asked and carefully looked at the bottom of it. The price was 450,000 yuan.

Chi Xiaoduo: "......”

"This is a guardian spirit," Xiang Cheng explained. "It can protect you temporarily, and its strength depends on how much spiritual power is injected into it."

Chi Xiaoduo said, "There are also jade ones."

"Don't touch it if you’re not going to buy it ya." a girl's voice said gently. "They haven’t recognized an owner yet, and it’ll disturb the flow of their spiritual power."

"Sorry," Xiang Cheng said hurriedly.

"Do you want a small one?" the girl asked, "It’s three thousand each, buy one for your friend ba? Is he a regular person?"

"No... no need," Chi Xiaoduo said, "It's so expensive."

The girl smiled and looked at them without talking.

Knife shops, cinnabar and pigment shops, mahogany shops... They were plentiful and of a rich variety. Xiang Cheng stopped when he saw Chi Xiaoduo was interested in something and helped explain it. There were many Tang dynasty swords hanging in one store, and Xiang Cheng said to Chi Xiaoduo, "I used to really want a legendary blade."

"They’re all regulated under the blade control laws now ba," Chi Xiaoduo said.

"En," Xiang Cheng said, "It's not practical to carry a sword."

Chi Xiaoduo looked up and saw that the most valuable item in the store, hanging in the middle of the wall, was a large glaive with a price tag of 120 million yuan.

"It’s cheaper than one of Van Gogh's paintings," Chi Xiaoduo said.

"Who is Van Gogh?" Xiang Cheng asked.

Chi Xiaoduo laughed and took the initiative to hold Xiang Cheng's hand, with their fingers linked and swinging back and forth. Behind the commercial street, there was a bookstore. "Knowledge is power" was written next to the bookstore.

There was a sign written in bubble letters at the door: the 2015 exorcist exam review materials have arrived.

"Great," said Chi Xiaoduo, "That’s perfect, let’s buy some to take back with us to study."

They strolled around the store, and the price of the books weren’t too exaggerated, but there weren’t many people, and it was not as lively as in other stores. Chi Xiaoduo said, "There are so few people here."

"Many exorcists are illiterate," Xiang Cheng replied. "Intellectuals don't want to do this job."

Chi Xiaoduo thought that was right. Xiang Cheng took up a book of old exams and flipped through it for a bit. He looked at the price, 120 yuan, barely acceptable. Chi Xiaoduo bought a pile of study materials, and Xiang Cheng had a headache as soon as he saw it and said, "You’re buying so many, you can’t read them all."

"I also want to take a look," Chi Xiaoduo replied, "I’m curious."

"Hey?" Keda was in the store, and when he heard their voices, he looked up, glanced over, and greeted them. 

"I'm looking for two unique copies," Keda said. "The unique copies of yao-hunting books now are too expensive."

Xiang Cheng nodded, obviously unwilling to talk to outsiders. Knowing that he was in a bad mood, Keda patted him on the shoulder and said, "Want a drink tonight?" Saying this, he winked at Chi Xiaoduo.

Xiang Cheng shook his head.

Keda took the initiative to say, "I'll send you guys back."

The three of them came out and passed by a dark and mysterious shop. The sign of the shop just said “Seen.”

"What does this shop sell?" Chi Xiaoduo asked Xiang Cheng.

Xiang Cheng: "?”

"Is there a shop here?" Xiang Cheng stopped at the door of the shop.

Chi Xiaoduo: ".....”

Chi Xiaoduo thought, could it be another yaoguai?

Keda said, "What shop? Isn't this a corridor? You...see something?"

Chi Xiaoduo's heart dropped, and he looked at Xiang Cheng. He thought, that was completely out of my control ah, I can’t tell if other people can see the same thing as me. 

"That's Tonggu's shop," said the bookstore owner from across the street, dusting around. "They only receive people they have a fate with. If you don’t have a fate with them, you won’t see it. Since you can see it, go in ba, it’s not a loss."

Chi Xiaoduo looked at Xiang Cheng. Xiang Cheng motioned for them to enter, and Chi Xiaoduo took them into the dark shop.

The store was full of upright coffins, and the light was dim. Chi Xiaoduo immediately said, "Let’s forget it, I changed my mind..."

"Come and sit down ba," a hair-raising voice said from a shadow behind the counter. "I was just about to close up the shop."

All the hairs on Chi Xiaoduo’s back stood on end, and he was afraid that the closed coffins around him would suddenly open and something terrible would appear.

"How is it a regular person?" asked the woman behind the counter. "Come in. What, do you think I’ll eat you?"

"You are..." Keda also hesitated and held onto Chi Xiaoduo's arm in one hand.

"Wah!" Chi Xiaoduo shouted, "Don’t clutch at me!"

"I'm afraid!" Keda shouted.

Xiang Cheng: "......”

"What are you exorcists afraid of?" Chi Xiaoduo screeched, "I'm the one who’s afraid, okay?"

"I'm afraid of coffins!" Keda shouted. "No, I have to leave!"

"All of you sit down!" the woman said angrily. "Did you come in to destroy the shop? Gegentorura Keda!"

As soon as Keda was called by name, he sat up straight and his hands trembled uncontrollably as he clutched Xiang Cheng's arm tightly.

"Who-who-who... Who are you?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"My name is Tonggu." the woman's voice softened a little, and she said, "Come here and let me take a look at you. Strange, I remember that there weren’t any today..."

Chi Xiaoduo went up and tripped over the coffin on the ground. The woman said, "Sit down."

Chi Xiaoduo sat down while trembling, and in his left eye, an extremely weak green light lit up.

"So it’s like this..." Tonggu whispered, "I see, this is also a kind of fate."

“Keda-xiong," Xiang Cheng's voice sounded in the dark and said, "Your grip is too tight."

"I'm sorry." Keda hurriedly loosened his grip on Xiang Cheng's arm.

Tonggu took out a fortune stick container and shook it.

"Wha...What?" Chi Xiaoduo asked, "If I want to go, can I leave? What are you doing?"

Chi Xiaoduo thought to himself, damnit, this shop is so weird. Next time, he definitely wouldn’t just randomly say stuff or randomly enter stores. 

"Draw one ba." Tonggu put the fortune stick container on the table.

Chi Xiaoduo drew one, and Tonggu asked, "What are you so afraid of?"

"Co-co-co...Coffins."

"They’re all empty." Tonggu said mildly, "Fear comes from your own perception, and your eyes are the most deceptive thing. People often just scare themselves."

Chi Xiaoduo: ".......”

Chi Xiaoduo handed the fortune stick to Tonggu. Tonggu said, "Pay first, then I’ll read the fortune."

"How much is it?"

"1,200."

Chi Xiaoduo roared, “Just this is 1,200! That’s a trap!"

Tonggu: ".......”

"Let me, let me." Keda hurriedly said, "Do you take card?"

Tonggu took out a credit card machine from the bottom of the cabinet, asked Keda to enter his pin, tore off the receipt, and said, "Sign."

Chi Xiaoduo: ".......”

Xiang Cheng: ".......”

"What do you want to ask?" said Tonggu. "Since it’s your first time here, I won’t lower myself to argue with you."

"I want to ask..." Chi Xiaoduo wanted to ask about love, but Xiang Cheng was right there ah. If she revealed the truth, that would be embarrassing. 

"Do you guys want to ask something?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"No, no." Keda hurriedly waved his hand and said, "You ask ba. After asking, let’s go quickly..."

"You ask ba."

"It’s still better if you ask ba."

The two of them pushed the matter back and forth, and Xiang Cheng suddenly opened his mouth in the dark and said, "Heart sight."

"What is heart sight?" Chi Xiaoduo asked curiously.

"What you think in your heart, is what I will see in your eyes." Tonggu said faintly, "Come here."

"Don't go ah!" Keda wailed.

Xiang Cheng also sat next to Chi Xiaoduo. Tonggu stretched out a hand and put it on the back of Xiang Cheng's hand. Chi Xiaoduo saw clearly now that it was an aquatic animal's claw, and it even had fins on it. 

"Ask the questions you’ve never asked, say what you’ve never said. The 43rd sign: encounters are in the near future, but it all depends on the hearts of the people. The ocean may have no waves, but an undercurrent flows below." Tonggu thought for a moment, and then said, "What you want to ask is ‘asking about the future’? That doesn't make sense. Since you’ve come here to ask about the future, why did you come to ask about asking about it? Unless you... got into some trouble with a yaoguai that can predict the future?"

Everyone: "!!!"

Chi Xiaoduo’s mouth was wide open, and he looked at Xiang Cheng before turning his head to look at Keda.

"A jixian," Xiang Cheng said in a deep voice.

"En." Tonggu was silent. Chi Xiaoduo had a hunch that this might be the key to solving the case.

"A jixian..." Tonggu said, "Their ghostly powers can go through time and know the past and future."

"How do you beat it?" Xiang Cheng asked.

"The jixian have no fighting power." Tonggu said faintly, "They can only draw on the help of yao to harm people. As long as you can trick them and draw close, their only fate is to be caught by you without putting up a fight. But the jixian are too cunning, and their hiding place is always too hidden. You have to find its hiding place. In this way, you can succeed in one blow."

"How do we find it?" Xiang Cheng asked again.

"The chance lies with you all," said Tonggu. "Just wait by the tree stump for the rabbit to run straight into it. You are destined to make a breakthrough on the case."

Chi Xiaoduo asked, "You can also predict the future, so..."

"It's different," Tonggu said. "When I predict the future, I see pre-ordained fates. It's not the same approach as the jixian."

Xiang Cheng: "And will there be any follow-up work?"

"Yes," Tonggu replied, "According to the sign, this matter has a wide range of implications and cannot be taken lightly."

"Thank you," Xiang Cheng replied.

"You have a fated doom," Tonggu said. "The calamity of the Ba snake has not been answered yet, so you must be careful."

Chi Xiaoduo: "......”

Xiang Cheng said, "No need to tell me."

"Can you take a look at me too?" Keda asked. 

"The Grey Wolf and the White Deer." Tonggu said, "Be carried along by the tide and follow your own inclinations. You don't have to do everything painstakingly."

"Thank you," Keda replied.

"Thank you." Chi Xiaoduo wasn’t so afraid anymore. He thought, this person seems very reliable, at least they could figure out the jixian matter.

When he got up to leave, Tonggu said, "You have something you want to ask, but you don't dare to ask it. You two go out first and leave him."

Chi Xiaoduo sat down, and Tonggu said, "What do you want to ask?"

"Can I ask about love?" Chi Xiaoduo said.

"Let nature take its course." Tonggu said, "There are too many misfortunes, but don’t pay too much attention to them. If soldiers come, create barriers, and if the waters rise, bank the land, that way you can actually resolve things smoothly. If you are too deliberate about matters, it’ll be easier to be possessed by a heart devil."

Chi Xiaoduo nodded and said, “Okay.”

Tonggu laughed in the dark. Chi Xiaoduo couldn't see her, but he felt that she was smiling.

The three of them came out of the commercial street. Xiang Cheng had put a large pile of books in his bag, and after having dinner with Keda, he sent them home. The same day, Xiang Cheng took it easy, and the two of them watched movies on their cellphones at night and came out with study materials during the day to read in a cafe.

Chi Xiaoduo never asked Xiang Cheng what had happened at Wu Mountain and what a Ba snake was. He just treated it as if nothing had happened. What does it have to do with me? As long as I like him, it’s fine. 

Xiang Cheng never went to the exorcist committee again. Everyone stopped mentioning that matter, and Zhou Wanyuan didn't call again. Beijing was getting hotter day by day, and it was as hot as a furnace. Chi Xiaoduo stuck his tongue out and wheezed every day, looking for air-conditioned rooms everywhere.

"Hot." Even Xiang Cheng's expression had grown distorted in the heat. 

"You used to go to so many places." Chi Xiaoduo said, "and you’re still afraid of the heat."

"It's not so hot in the mountains," Xiang Cheng said. "In a big city, every day feels hotter than the last."

Chi Xiaoduo thought that that made sense. Energy consumption was a very important part of building construction, and compared with the countryside and the past, the whole world was much hotter than before. He knew that Xiang Cheng was already very much at odds with the exorcism committee, so he tried not to mention it if he could. After the exam, the two of them would leave Beijing.

"What are the benefits of getting a certificate?" Chi Xiaoduo asked. "Can you get a raise?"

"You can hang it up with the local office," Xiang Cheng said. "That way, if something comes up, they will come to you first, and you can support your family."

"But all the people involved will have their memories erased, won't they?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"Not necessarily." Xiang Cheng replied, "it depends on the actual situation. Some large families have connections with the exorcism committee, and you can't even get a foot in their doors to get them to smell Lihun pollen. There are many things that the top level of the government are alerted about, and we can't erase those people’s memories, right?"

Chi Xiaoduo nodded and asked, "Then can you make money?"

Xiang Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Yes. I’ve looked through their trial stipulations, and as long as I pass, it's not difficult."

Chi Xiaoduo didn’t know whether Xiang Cheng had absorbed all his study materials into his brain or not. According to Xiang Cheng, he was a terrible student, but that didn’t matter; if he didn’t pass this year, then they would just come back next year. On the other hand, it was Xiang Cheng who was surprised that Chi Xiaoduo was actually seriously working on his mock exam and was checking his answers. 

"Are you also testing to be an exorcist?" Xiang Cheng asked in surprise.

"No," said Chi Xiaoduo, "I have a disease where I can’t help but finish mock exams ah."

Xiang Cheng: "......”

This was the first year that Chi Xiaoduo's yao subduing equipment division was holding exams, so the study materials had not yet been issued. They merely gave a general list of possible books and scope, fully relying on accumulated experience to study. Few people had signed up. After all, exorcists who had magic since childhood would not choose this profession; at most, an exorcist’s wife would minor in this.

However, Chi Xiaoduo had secretly asked Keda about it. Most of the exorcists' families did not support this profession, so the number of applicants for the whole exam was less than two hundred people. As for how many would pass, that had to be approved and confirmed by the leaders above. Keda’s guarantee though was that as long as you could test into the top twenty, you would definitely pass. So, Chi Xiaoduo had to study with Xiang Cheng's materials and the list of books the Keda had given him. 

Learning was a happy thing, and Chi Xiaoduo didn’t think that the humanities was a simple matter of rote memorization. Instead, he was very interested in yaoguai, taking notes while reading, and his thoughts shuttled through this lustrous and dazzling world.

He knew many things that he had never encountered before, and he had answers to many questions that he had wondered about when he was a child. This was a polytheistic system, and every nation has its own guardian totem. This totem was gradually formed around the huge collective consciousness of human beings in ancient times. The longer a nation’s history, the stronger its spiritual system. On this point, the Chinese nation was extremely strong. However, because of China’s long history, the suffering throughout the process of it surviving this long was also greater. 

Suffering that gathers and does not dissipate for a long time becomes a "devil", which was also the origin of the word "heart devil."

Chi Xiaoduo couldn’t help but think about whether the formation of "devils" was more powerful now in rapidly developing modern society than during ancient times?

History always repeated itself, with periods of turbulence and stability alternating with each other. After a period of peace and prosperity, there would be a period of a loss of order, and the world would sink into a dark lawless period, until the suffering was redeemed, a new world was established, and everything would return to peace. 

During peacetime, "devils" were in a process of accumulation and breeding, and during a period of social collapse and annihilation of law and discipline, the power of "devils" would be mercilessly unleashed. Therefore, there was a saying in ancient times that "when the world is in chaos, yao and devils abound.”

For thousands of years, the responsibility of exorcists was to control the negative emotions generated by individuals and disperse them before they gathered to an extent that could affect society, so as to delay the unrest.

Xiang Cheng was weary from studying; this way of learning was really too much like bullying. He did a set of questions in the library, and after checking the answer key, he only got 35 points. The passing grade was 60. 

After a long time, Xiang Cheng heaved a sigh, leaned back in his chair, and slung an arm over Chi Xiaoduo's shoulders.

"Take a break." Chi Xiaoduo said, "I'll mark the wrong questions for you, and when we get home, we can analyze them."

"It's not for me," Xiang Cheng said irritably. "‘To be a scholar is to be at the top of society.’ Fuck it all."

Xiang Cheng threw his notebook on the table.

Chi Xiaoduo couldn't help but laugh.

A boy next to them also thought it was very funny.

"What are you guys looking at?" the boy turned his head and glanced at the strange books on their desk.

"Researching things." Chi Xiaoduo said, "We’re writing a paper studying Chinese folklore."

"Exorcist." the boy looked at the cover of Chi Xiaoduo's book and said, "That’s an interesting career."

"Which university are you studying at?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"I’m working now," said the boy, "I’m a writer."

"A writer is also an exorcist." Xiang Cheng said, "You drive out the devils in people's hearts. Every profession exorcises things, so everyone is an exorcist."

"I'm flattered." the boy smiled. "I’ll go first, bye."

The boy picked up his notebook and said bye-bye to them.

In the library, the sunset came in and fell on them.

Xiang Cheng picked up the book that the people next to him had forgotten to take with them. It was The Moon and the Sixpence. 

Chi Xiaoduo said, "Fight on a bit, and work hard for a while. It’ll be just like the college entrance examination, everything will be fine after passing it."

“I never took the college entrance examination,” Xiang Cheng shook his head and said to himself.

Chi Xiaoduo said, “Anyway, after you get the certificate, you can live a new life la.”

“A new life?” Xiang Cheng said, “Really, it’s actually all the same. What kind of life do you want to live? Before we came to Beijing, I actually thought that I could just casually take the exam, and if I didn’t pass, then I would return to Guangzhou and peacefully live out the rest of my days. I would accompany you and not do this job anymore.”

Chi Xiaoduo: “......”

Chi Xiaoduo looked at Xiang Cheng in surprise.

“How can you say that?” Chi Xiaoduo didn’t really understand and asked, “Didn’t you come to Beijing to find your family heirloom? Also world peace is your ideal ah.”

“I can let go of my ideals,” Xiang Cheng said, “Especially when this isn’t any sort of ideal; the more you do this job, the less you want to continue doing it. You’ll want to go back and be a completely normal person. Even being President Wang’s security guard is fine, at least there will be something hot to eat when coming home at least.”

Chi Xiaoduo suddenly felt like he had never really understood Xiang Cheng. Besides liking that he was hot, what else was there? This question deeply stabbed him in the heart while also making him review his own sappiness. If you liked a person, you needed to be their soulmate ah! If you couldn’t achieve that mentality, then you needed to try your best to understand him. 

“Let’s try to deeply understand each other a bit ba,” Chi Xiaoduo said seriously. 

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you,” Xiang Cheng said with a wry smile. “There are a lot of things I don’t want to worry you about.”

“That’s not right ah,” Chi Xiaoduo said, “I feel like you’re a person with a lot of natural gifts. Chen Zhen, Keda, Wanyuan….they all think you’re really good ne.”

“What about you?” Xiang Cheng looked at Chi Xiaoduo and asked, “What is your ideal?”

“To follow you ah,” Chi Xiaoduo said. 

“What’s the point of following me?” Xiang Cheng replied, “I want to follow you ne.” 

Chi Xiaoduo thought in that case, should we just pack up the study materials and go back to Guangzhou ba? But if they gave up at this time and went back, their memories would be wiped. That was a giant trap! No way! They had to pass!

"What kind of life do you want?" Chi Xiaoduo asked. 

Xiang Cheng replied, "I don't know, I am a person without roots. I’m just grumbling, let’s keep studying ba."

Chi Xiaoduo thought about it and said, “I really like the way things are now. Later, I can follow you to go exorcise things together and have adventures. Compared to my previous life, it’s much more wonderful ah."

"Really? Xiang Cheng pondered for a moment, then said, "Adventures, en."

Chi Xiaoduo started laughing and patted Xiang Cheng’s shoulder. Xiang Cheng gazed at the information on the table attentively, raised his eyes, and the dusk of the sun was slowly moving across the table.

"Am I very selfish? Xiang Cheng suddenly asked.

"Ah?" "Chi Xiaoduo asked, “Why?”

Xiang Cheng shook his head. At that moment, Chi Xiaoduo suddenly understood. Xiang Cheng felt slightly guilty; from the time that they had met, in the final analysis, Chi Xiaoduo had been the one paying the entire time. His bestie had also talked to him about this feeling before. 

[If you keep a duck as a sugar baby, the amount the two of you commit won’t be equal ah! When you first fall in love, you’re all dizzy and brainless, and you can go on like that, but what about later?]

Chi Xiaoduo had felt very willing, but why? Because he liked him ah. But his bestie had said, liking someone was always temporary. If like became love, once it was love, it would be okay temporarily, but as the days go by and time dragged on, would he be able to accept this kind of unequal commitment, unequal life? Who cared about that, they weren’t even together, were they? Once they got together, they could talk about it then... Chi Xiaoduo’s mind was a complete mess. He had never been that good at analyzing things, so he just put it out of his mind first, and didn’t care about it anymore. 

Xiang Cheng talked very little today, and Chi Xiaoduo knew that he was thinking about the future. What kind of life he wanted, how to go about it, they were all slowly changing. When Xiang Cheng took a bath in the evening, Chi Xiaoduo laid in bed and gave his bestie a call. With the weather in August and the electric fan blowing, taking a bath was alright; it wasn’t as stuffy as it was in Guangzhou. 

There was a knock at the door. A visitor had come and walked straight to Chi Xiaoduo’s room. 

"Xiang Cheng." Chen Zhen's voice said.

Xiang Cheng let out a sound from the bathroom outside, and Chi Xiaoduo hung up the call and rolled over to get up. Chen Zhen came into the bedroom; the room was only ten square meters, the floor was covered with a jigsaw mat, and there was a small computer table. The two people looked at each other, and Chen Zhen took off his shoes, came in, slipped on the rubber mat, and almost fell down.

Chi Xiaoduo: "..."

"Why did you come live here?" Chen Zhen said.

Chi Xiaoduo scratched his head, laughed, and said, "Beijing housing is expensive, and Xiang Cheng's friend helped us find this."

Chen Zhen asked, "Should I find a bigger house for the two of you?"

Xiang Cheng had finished his bath and came out dripping wet. He said, "No need, we’re leaving after the test anyway. Sit ba."

Chen Zhen looked around and sat on the ground in a corner. Chi Xiaoduo boiled some water for him to drink. 

Xiang Cheng washed their clothes again, Chen Zhen flipped through Chi Xiaoduo's book, and Chi Xiaoduo couldn’t help but wonder why this guy was here. Did he come to apologize for that matter before? It had already been nearly half a month.

"Where's the mink?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"Didn't follow me out." Chen Zhen replied, "How’s the studying going?"

Chi Xiaoduo shushed him and looked outside. Xiang Cheng was washing and hanging clothes, and he hadn’t heard them. Chen Zhen understood and nodded.

"Would you like something to drink?" Chi Xiaoduo made a cup of Tang for Chen Zhen. 

Chen Zhen said, "You didn’t go stay in Keda-xiong’s house?"

Chi Xiaoduo shook his head. Chen Zhen said, "Work a bit harder, Xiang Cheng's exam this year should not be difficult. The practical part and the interview are his strengths, so as long as he passes the written portion, he’ll be fine."

Chi Xiaoduo whispered, "What about mine?"

Chen Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Memorize the scope and do some more extensive reading, and it’ll be no problem. It's similar to the national examination."

Chi Xiaoduo nodded, and Chen Zhen asked, "How many points did Xiang Cheng get on last year's exam?"

Chi Xiaoduo glanced at last year’s exam and replied, "His yaoguai analysis problems aren’t too bad, it’s just that it’s not that easy to tell what the picture is, and he got almost no points in the multiple choice section where you can pick more than one."

"Let me see." Chen Zhen took over the paper. 

The exorcist exam was divided into multiple-choice questions and essay questions. In the multiple choice section, there were both single select and multiple select questions. Xiang Cheng had gotten half of the single select questions wrong, and didn’t get a single one of the multiple select questions right. 

"I don't quite understand it either." Chi Xiaoduo said, "There are really too few questions for the yao support engineer exam, so I have to do the exorcist's exam instead. I’m confused about most of the right answers, can you explain them to me?"

Chen Zhen pointed to one of the questions, and Chi Xiaoduo said, "Like this one, all the traps are in the problem itself. ‘When Xiao Ming was performing an exorcism, he met a nine-tailed heavenly fox disguised as a construction worker in the downtown area. On the premise that the organization hadn’t cleared out the site beforehand, how would Xiao Ming minimize the influence of the nine-tailed fox and deal with the aftermath effectively? Choose one or more ways to deal with the aftermath. 

"A: Follow the nine-tailed fox, mark it, and force it to a place with no people to resolve the matter. B: Ask ordinary people on the scene to cooperate with you and tell them that you are filming. C: Disguise as national security personnel and arrest high-tech criminals. D: Try to negotiate and solve it through polite words."

"En." Chi Xiaoduo had gotten the question right when he did it himself.

"The nine-tailed heavenly fox has a strong anti-tracking ability," Chen Zhen said. "This has to be considered in accordance with the actual abilities of a yaoguai; if it is a pig demon, you can track them, but if it’s a fox or weasel, you can't do it at all."

"Yes." Chi Xiaoduo replied, "it's impossible to force them somewhere else. Help me with this question, I’m right, but I don’t know why."

"Hybrid yaoguai..." Chen Zhen flipped to the bonus questions of last year’s exam. There was a hand-painted cute monster with a cat's head, a pair of wings for ears, a braid that poked up into the sky, and a very long tongue. The yaoguai had two maces in its hands and a clump of auspicious clouds on its feet.

Chi Xiaoduo asked, "Does this count as a control yaoguai?"

"Not necessarily." Chen Zhen took a pen and said, "For this kind of problem, you have to decompose its parts. Look at its nose..."

Chen Zhen deconstructed the yaoguai and said, "This is something that doesn’t exist in the real world. The person making the question wants you to analyze it through your understanding of yaoguai, combined with your experience of capturing yaoguai. It is a yaoguai that the person making the question made up. Look at the auspicious clouds under its feet...that proves that it has the ability to use clouds to hover..."

"Ah! I see!" Chi Xiaoduo said.

The analysis question had three parts: 1. Name the yaoguai. 2: Guess the yaoguai's ability according to the diagram. 3: Design a skill tree for the yao.

Xiang Cheng came in after washing the clothes and stood next to him. Chen Zhen answered the question in detail, and the two of them couldn’t stop nodding. Chen Zhen said, "When comparing the ability of different yaoguai, you should use this formula. Its ability decreases progressively."

Xiang Cheng said indifferently, "I can't memorize the missed questions."

"It’s a bonus question ma," Chen Zhen said, "If you can answer them, then do it, and if you can't, then whatever."

Chi Xiaoduo put away the materials, and Chen Zhen said, "If you don't understand anything, you can ask Zhou Wanyuan. Her dad is the one who marks the exam."

Chi Xiaoduo nodded and said “yes, yes.” They’d organize their questions in a few days and go to Zhou Wanyuan for guidance.

"What's going on?" Xiang Cheng asked.

Chen Zhen was silent for a moment and drank hot Tang, while Xiang Cheng sat down beside Chi Xiaoduo. Chen Zhen didn't say anything, and Xiang Cheng didn't ask, just flipping through the book in his hand as if he didn't exist.

Chi Xiaoduo looked at Chen Zhen and then at Xiang Cheng. He wondered if Chen Zhen wanted to apologize, but was embarrassed to speak. Unexpectedly, Chen Zhen pondered for a long time, put down his cup, and said, "What's the date today?"

“August 17th,” Chi Xiaoduo said. 

"The first-class exam has been delayed by one month," Chen Zhen said.

Xiang Cheng: "I saw."

Everyone stopped talking again. Chen Zhen was silent for a moment, and Xiang Cheng flipped through the book absent-mindedly with a hualahuala sound. 

"Since the case last time was closed," Chen Zhen seemed to think of something and said, "how long has it been?"

"The case has not been closed," Xiang Cheng said coldly. "I have not closed it."

Chen Zhen waved his hand and said, "Don't squabble with me, I also didn’t want that."

Xiang Cheng said, "Go back ba."

Chi Xiaoduo looked at Xiang Cheng uneasily out of fear that the two of them would quarrel again, but Chen Zhen just looked down at his cellphone and scrolled through, finding a memo. 

"Twenty days," Chen Zhen said, "Close enough, you can continue to investigate."

Chi Xiaoduo: "!"

Xiang Cheng: "......”