Chapter 26: Prenatal Care for the Orb-Beast

At 7:00 PM, Fu Lan walked down the street carrying a dark gray briefcase, wearing an old black baseball cap. Ever since Shi Ningyu had mentioned it, he had become quite self-conscious about his hair loss and felt the need to wear a hat whenever he went out.

He walked into the old residential compound to the sound of the evening news broadcast. By this time, most families were seated around their dinner tables; those who had finished early were either washing dishes or watching television, leaving the paths largely deserted.

It was unclear what method Shi Ningyu had used to drive away the debt collectors. One might even doubt they had ever been there in the first place, given how quickly they had vanished. According to Shi Ningyu, she had paid a hefty sum to have someone handle it. As for who this savior was, she refused to say, and since Fu Lan had reaped the benefits without spending a dime, he didn't push for answers.

Fu Lan had no desire to dig deeper, not just because he believed in letting professionals handle professional matters, but because of his lingering guilt—he was the one carrying the greatest risk. If Shi Ningyu ever found out that the entire city’s Magic Affairs Bureau was hunting him, he couldn't imagine her reaction. By comparison, both the debt at Shi Ningyu’s home and her methods of dealing with it were minor issues that had little impact on their business.

Currently, Fu Lan had become the sole "collector" for this area. If he drew suspicion while entering or leaving, he would simply walk upstairs, pretending he was there to hound Shi Ningyu for money. His cheap suit and large briefcase fit the persona perfectly; whenever he encountered other residents, they would quickly steer clear of him.

Only once had he run into an elderly woman who collected scrap metal. She had stood in front of the bike shed, lecturing him endlessly about how his debt collecting was disturbing the peace. Fu Lan couldn't muster the necessary malice for the role, and his calm demeanor only fueled the old woman’s tirade. Fortunately, her son heard the commotion and came over to lead her away.

With the area now empty, Fu Lan glanced up at the dim lights filtering through the windows of the old tenants, pulled his hat brim lower, and seized the moment to slip into the bike shed. He locked the door, checked the light-blocking tape on the door frame, and turned on the light to check on the "ball beasts."

If it were Shi Ningyu, she could use simple illusion magic to conceal her tracks, but he had to do things the hard way.

All five ball beasts had entered the incubation stupor—a term he found easier to use than "pregnancy," given their reproductive method. In two days, the first would likely spit out its young. Fortunately, that would be Sunday, so he should be able to be there. He wasn't sure what to do about the ones that followed.

Many illegal breeders struggled with the synchronization issue. Calculating the food intake to get a batch to start incubating at the same time was easy, but getting them to birth simultaneously was difficult and essentially uncontrollable. If the ones that finished incubating first weren't removed, they might, in a fit of temper, accidentally devour their still-slumbering counterparts. Similar outbursts of rage often occurred when the beasts fought over food, tried to escape, became over-stimulated, or were simply bored.

Therefore, suppliers spent a great deal of effort on isolation management to ensure they could immediately suppress the creatures if they went berserk.

The Newton's cradle continued to operate, emitting a monotonous clacking sound. With that running, the ball beasts should remain calm after giving birth, provided he remembered to move them to separate pens—after all, one chicken coop couldn't hold ten ball beasts. But the ones still incubating couldn't be moved, so this couldn't be done in advance. They had been inexperienced; they should have separated them before incubation began.

The ball beasts had their faces buried between their two short claws, curled into balls, their bodies rising and falling slowly with each breath. Fu Lan sat opposite them, scrolling through the comment sections of social news on his phone, while the beasts emitted satisfied, dreamlike mumbles.

Even in their stupor, they needed to be fed negative energy, or the incubation might be interrupted. The debt collectors' frequent visits had previously provided plenty of agitation from the neighbors, but that had died down, so Fu Lan and Shi Ningyu had to take turns coming over to "feed" them.

Usually, a single day at work was enough for Fu Lan to accumulate sufficient irritability. Surprisingly, since he had stopped hiding his resentment at the office, the annoyances had decreased—perhaps his boss was afraid he might cough himself into a crisis and had stopped bothering him. He was forced to scroll through these online comments just to raise his own blood pressure.

In truth, he had plenty of his own troubles—Lily, Black Coral, and He Yue. He Yue had already sent him the appointment for the Civil Affairs Bureau for next Monday. Even though he had decided to accept the outcome, he felt increasingly resistant as the date approached. He even wanted to use the delivery of these ball beasts as an escape, though his reason told him that was impossible.

Calculated this way, irritation was easy for Fu Lan to come by, but he wouldn't use his genuine, heavy emotions to feed the creatures; it wasn't worth it. They would be fed, but he would remain mired in his own misery, and his problems would go unsolved. It was better to just skim the outrageous comments online; he didn't need to take them seriously, and modern society provided an endless supply of such mental sustenance.

Once the ball beasts turned from pure black back to a deep purple-black, Fu Lan finished the feeding. Before leaving, he checked the traps at the entrance as usual.

The refining room next door had been cleaned and cages placed; both garages had been turned into small-scale breeding farms. Just as the production and sale of Magic Ember were kept separate, they wouldn't combine breeding and refining in the same location. It was too dangerous; if exposed, they would be wiped out in one fell swoop.

Fu Lan’s philosophy was to have no one stationed at the farm, no surveillance, and no protective magic, as these could become clues for the Magic Affairs Bureau. He only used fishing line to rig a simple trap on the door. If someone opened it without following the correct procedure, the cages would open, and the Newton's cradle would be pulled down. The ensuing chaos of the rampaging beasts would make it look as though they had nested in this abandoned shed on their own, rather than being kept by human hands.

As for the red electric Newton's cradle looking out of place, that wasn't a major issue. He only used it because it was a piece of teaching equipment left over from his days as a teacher. Besides that, he had clocks, metronomes, and automatic cat teasers to choose from. By placing other miscellaneous items in the room, these things wouldn't look so strange.

Moreover, if they stopped moving, the beasts would chew them up; once a ball beast went wild, it would bite anything it caught.

This method certainly carried risks. A faulty pendulum or a dead battery could lead to a whole nest of beasts escaping, and if things escalated, it could affect the surrounding residents... Fu Lan forced himself to cut these thoughts short. If he dwelled on them, he would never find a perfect solution, and destroying the evidence was better than letting the Bureau follow the trail. Still, he needed to refine his "cleanup" process when he had the time.

After his check, Fu Lan peeled back the tape covering the peephole and looked outside. Leaving was always the most nerve-wracking part, as the peephole’s view was limited, and he could easily miss a witness. Shi Ningyu had been lazy when leaving once and had been caught red-handed by him. But she had been a resident, so she could always explain it away; for Fu Lan, it was much harder.

However, the moment he opened the door and stepped out, he saw a figure next door and his heart sank!

It was exactly what he feared... It was too late to close the door, and the person was looking straight at him; there was no way to hide. He pulled the door shut behind him and fought to overcome his guilt, meeting the old woman’s gaze.

His luck was truly abysmal—it was the same old woman from before. She seemed to be moving cardboard boxes into another bike shed nearby, hidden in the blind spot of the peephole.

Fu Lan summoned the skill he had honed over a decade of giving people the cold shoulder during family disputes, hoping to make her back down. Instead, the old woman shuffled toward him, cursing, and actually reached out to grab him.

"What are you doing? Stay back!" Fu Lan threatened, feigning anger.

He dodged her hand, and she stumbled. Panicked that she might fall, Fu Lan instinctively reached out to steady her. That was his undoing; the old woman grabbed his arm and refused to let go.