As the daylight gradually receded and the evening glow painted the sky, the couple finally packed up their tea set and brought everything inside.
The human and the spirit lingered in the courtyard, mainly because the house hadn't been fully tidied up recently, and plants naturally yearned for sunlight.
Their new home was now mostly furnished, with daily necessities purchased and even fruits stored in the refrigerator. Only the kitchen area remained somewhat bare. Chu Zhishui rarely ate meals here, and Xin Yunmao didn't need to eat at all, so the kitchen saw little use.
After putting the tea set back in the cabinet, Xin Yunmao wandered around the kitchen, turning on the gas stove to examine it. "I want to go back to where we bought the furniture," he said.
He loved to touch and fiddle with everything when idle, and had already figured out how the kitchen worked, though he hadn't found a chance to try it out.
"No playing with fire," Chu Zhishui warned as she watched him examine the flame. "I won't take you there, and I won't buy anything for you."
She knew exactly what he was planning - he wanted to buy kitchen equipment to experiment at home.
The Bamboo City experience had given Xin Yunmao enormous confidence. He felt like a culinary god descended from heaven who could outdo Michelin-starred chefs, but upon questioning, it turned out he had only watched humans cook and had never actually tried it himself. If he cooked something, he would definitely want her to eat it - wasn't that just asking for trouble?
Chu Zhishui had concluded that Xin Yunmao wasn't very good at hands-on tasks. Like the claw machines in arcades, he was only good at things involving probability and luck, such as gambling wheels and scratch-off lottery tickets.
Xin Yunmao crossed his arms stubbornly. "Then I'll go by myself and buy things myself."
"Where would you get the money?" Chu Zhishui teased. "You gave me your dragon bone umbrella."
The spirit lord truly owned nothing now, having given away even his only paper umbrella to her.
"How could I not have money?" Xin Yunmao's lips curled into a smile as he pulled out a bank card. "I knew you'd say that. I've already received my back pay."
He had always felt something wasn't quite right, as if she was trying to be his sugar mommy.
Chu Zhishui froze. "Back pay?"
"Yes, Hu Chenrui gave it to me the other day."
"Wait, do you even have an official position at the Bureau?" Chu Zhishui stepped forward, staring intently at the bank card. "They won't go to jail for making illegal payments, will they?"
"With their lifespan, jail time doesn't matter," he said methodically. "Although you can't use money to control me anymore, you can rest assured that since I've promised you, I'll keep my word and won't resist being played with."
Chu Zhishui: "?"
She was momentarily speechless. "I just want to date you normally, but you're always thinking of strange things."
Chu Zhishui examined the bank card back and forth, noting that it looked brand new, probably just recently issued. Seeing her careful inspection, Xin Yunmao casually put his hands in his pockets and said nonchalantly, "You keep it. The PIN is your birthday."
"The PIN is my birthday?" Chu Zhishui looked at him in surprise, muttering, "Who taught you all this? How do you know all these moves?"
He didn't even have a phone, yet he knew how to set PINs? This didn't make sense.
"I heard handing over one's salary is one of the pleasures of human males," he smiled. "Now I've experienced that too."
Chu Zhishui thought for a few seconds before accepting the card and saying softly, "Thank you, Spirit Lord. You're so responsible, truly the pillar of our home - no, the bamboo pillar."
Hearing this, Xin Yunmao's smile grew wider, impossible to suppress.
She said with a grin, "Well, now that you have no money again, I still won't take you shopping or buy anything for you."
"??"
Xin Yunmao couldn't believe it. He reached out to her: "Then I'll give it to you after I buy things."
"Too late for that now," Chu Zhishui said leisurely. "Arguing over small amounts of shopping money - that's another pleasure of human males, and now you've experienced that too."
"..."
After all, once human males hand over their salary cards, they enter a new phase of having to submit requests for money and discuss every expenditure in detail.
Xin Yunmao stared at her resentfully.
"If you really want to go, make a proper list first. You can't just experiment randomly in the kitchen like last time. Think about what you actually want to buy," Chu Zhishui said irritably. "Who tries to make both Chinese and Western cuisine when they can't even cook? You'll end up with more kitchen equipment than actual meals."
"It's not that difficult."
"Last time you hadn't even seen a microwave before."
"Hmph."
After the human and spirit agreed to go shopping for kitchen supplies another day, Chu Zhishui prepared to head back home. Before leaving, she wondered aloud: "But why are you so obsessed with cooking? I never knew you liked cooking before."
Xin Yunmao blinked and said frankly, "If we can cook here, then you won't need to go home for dinner. You can stay here all the time."
Chu Zhishui: "?"
Her face heated up. "Dream on! I'm going home for dinner!"
Not understanding why she was annoyed, he asked puzzled, "Isn't this your home? This is where you should come home to eat."
"..."
Right, she had bought this house - the purchase contract was in her name.
"Alright, I'll download some movies for you sometime, or bring over the gaming console to set up in the living room," Chu Zhishui placated him. "After all, secretly playing games is another pleasure of human males."
His entertainment options were really too limited; it felt like he had no hobbies.
"Movies?" He frowned slightly, pointedly asking, "More of those indecent human films?"
She gave him a sidelong glance and said through gritted teeth, "Have you considered that it's not our movies that are indecent, but rather your interpretations that are? You see flowers and think of pollination - plant spirits' imagination only seems to excel in that particular direction."
"..."
Having thoroughly embarrassed him, Chu Zhishui said goodbye with satisfaction.
At home, Chu Zhishui greeted her parents briefly after entering. She didn't need to explain much anymore, just freshened up before darting back to her room, genuinely curious about how much salary Hu Chenrui had given Xin Yunmao.
As soon as her door closed, Xie Yan and Chu Xiaohe exchanged glances.
Xie Yan sighed, "She's coming home later and later."
"It's been going on for a while now. We should mention to her about bringing them home sometime," Chu Xiaohe said while scrolling through his phone. "I can't even go over there now."
Every weekend, Chu Zhishui would use decorating the new house as an excuse to be out all day. They weren't sure if she was actually at the new house or using it as an excuse to go on dates, so they generally avoided going near her new place, afraid of accidentally running into something awkward and embarrassing their daughter.
Whether she was seeing someone and whether she wanted to introduce them to the family were two separate matters.
While Chu Zhishui and Xin Yunmao had only started discussing flowering after returning from Qi Wu, in Chu Xiaohe and Xie Yan's eyes, she had been frequently going out for a long time, so they naturally assumed she had been dating for a while and was ready to move to the next stage.
In her room, Chu Zhishui hadn't heard her parents' whispered conversation. She studied the bank card, tried her birthday combination twice, and successfully logged into the account to check the balance on her computer.
The amount in the salary card was enormous, more than she had earned since joining the Bureau, and she had no idea how it had been calculated.
She suspiciously searched for a salary calculator, feeling that interest must have been included - could this be a one-time payment for all his past service? Even calculating based on his time with the Observation Bureau, this wasn't the income level of the Economic Development Department; the pay grade seemed off.
Currently, the highest-paid people at the Bureau were Hu Chenrui and Chu Zhishui - the former because he was the Bureau Chief, the latter because of her high performance coefficient, which was part of the conditions she had negotiated when agreeing to stay.
But Xin Yunmao's salary seemed to combine the Bureau Chief's pay grade with a high performance coefficient - it was like a cheat code salary level.
Damn, was this the power of the Spirit Lord's connections?
Holding the salary card, Chu Zhishui strongly suspected that Director Hu had been threatened, otherwise this amount of money made no sense.
Inside the Huaijiang Observation Bureau, after countless renovations by the Aokong Observation Department, the tense construction and decoration process had resulted in the new office building being completed first with ventilation installed, while facilities like the library were still in progress.
Chu Zhishui was no longer surprised by the supernatural beings' rapid infrastructure development. Hu Chenrui and other supernatural creatures took advantage of the Huaijiang Bureau's remote location and sparse population, unlike the Yinhai Bureau which attracted more attention, to extensively construct various new buildings. Even on the rare occasions when passersby came through, a spray of memory-erasing bubble water would make them overlook the numerous details within the bureau and stop questioning these matters.
Now, the bureau-wide meetings were no longer held in the cafeteria but had moved to the bright new conference room. Although the projector and other equipment hadn't been installed yet, the spacious environment and excellent lighting greatly enhanced everyone's enthusiasm for meetings, making them feel more formal and ceremonious.
Hu Chenrui smiled and said, "Today's bureau-wide meeting has three main agenda items: first, we've recently recruited new talent through special channels; second, we'll discuss our upcoming development and construction plans; and third, Director Ye from Yinhai will be leading a team here for an exchange visit soon, so we need to hurry and get things in order to ensure our brother organization won't be disappointed with what they see in Huaijiang."
"First, let me introduce the new member of the Economic Development Department, this is..." Hu Chenrui gestured toward Xin Yunmao, but the name circled around in his mouth before he finally lost the courage to say it, choosing to skip it entirely, "a new talent recruited through special channels. He's made appearances before, so some of you might have already met him."
Xin Yunmao sat expressionlessly below, showing no intention of introducing himself, as if he wasn't the one who had been recruited by Hu Chenrui with a generous offer.
The other supernatural beings also showed peculiar expressions, clearly not understanding how a divine lord who had wandered for thousands of years suddenly decided to join their ranks.
It seemed the economy must really be struggling if even deified supernatural beings were choosing to settle down for stable employment.
Hong Ximing, however, was very supportive, enthusiastically leading the applause to welcome Xin Yunmao's addition to the team.
Once someone took the lead, the conference room erupted in applause. Those who had initially feared displeasing the divine lord now joined in clapping vigorously.
Hong Ximing smiled at Chu Zhishui and explained meaningfully, "Little Chu, don't worry, our bureau doesn't have rules requiring job transfers for couples working in the same office. Your work won't be affected!"
Chu Zhishui was startled: "Sister Hong..."
Miao Li glanced at Chu Zhishui, then at Xin Yunmao, and clicked his tongue, "How times have changed. Our leadership's resolve is weakening, taking the lead in skirting the bureau's regulations."
"Ah, it's not that serious," He Shougui, in defense of their money tree, rarely spoke up to stop Director Miao, and consoled gently, "Director Chu, nobody's perfect. You're already outstanding enough, and as long as it's not a matter of principle, we can understand some minor flaws in conduct."
"When water is too clear..." he caught Xin Yunmao's cold expression and promptly modified the latter half of the saying, "it cannot nurture bamboo."
"..."
Chu Zhishui was at a loss for words. Faced with the teasing looks from her supernatural colleagues, she hadn't expected that Xin Yunmao's sudden change in status would confirm their office romance rumors.
While it was clearly Hu Chenrui who had openly bent the rules for him, somehow she ended up being the one taking the blame.
