Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 540 - 118: The Life of a Black-haired Rat is Also a Life

Wang Yunxiao felt that the sensational news he had dug up today would definitely give Ito Hidemi and Yan Yu’an a huge surprise.

However, when he saw the tense policemen behind them, he realized that these two guys might be playing a game that was no smaller than his own.

After a whole morning of busyness, the brothers were so hungry their stomachs were sticking to their backs, so they simply decided to have a meeting in the cafeteria, especially since Ito Hidemi was footing the bill—The Seaside District’s cafeteria even had seafood, which was truly corrupt!

Braised belt fish, shrimps stir-fried with tofu, all dishes perfect with a bowl of rice.

"I’ll start by reporting the information I’ve gathered; you can eat while you listen."

Ito Hidemi, still reeking of smoke and fire, had guzzled a bellyful of tap water at the cafeteria’s spigot, and now he couldn’t eat a bite of food.

"Behind the Black-Haired Rat Clan is a huge industry chain of interests."

"These black-haired rats seem to be a disorganized bunch on the surface, willing to work for whoever gives them benefits, but in reality, someone is deliberately breeding them, providing them with incense offerings and food to promote the proliferation of their clan."

"The Canal Gang?"

Yan Yu’an asked offhandedly.

Only the Canal Gang would like to offer such things.

The old Tianmen could be described as a city that developed relying on the Canal Gang’s docks, but with the changes of the times over the past few decades, the once colossal Canal Gang has gradually vanished from people’s sight.

"Right, the Canal Gang, and their purpose in worshiping the Rat Clan isn’t so innocent..."

"With the presence of the Rat Clan, they can blatantly embezzle grain. When investigated from above, just killing a bunch of rats to cover it up would do, which isn’t exactly news. Last year Black-Fur Ancestor was caught and executed by firing squad for this reason."

Yan Yu’an shrugged his shoulders, not taking it seriously.

"The embezzlement by the Canal Gang is only part of it."

Ito Hidemi explained, "Another part you might not have heard of, they plan to officially register the Rat Clan for household registration."

Yan Yu’an was stunned for a moment, "Even those who haven’t transformed get household registration?"

"Yes."

"That’s impossible, there’s no such rule."

Yan Yu’an shook his head, "The tradition of humans and demons living together in the country has been passed down for a long time, with records dating back to the Yanhuang Era. There’s a clear standard for Demon Clan to enter human registry: that is to take on human form and be acculturated."

"But the history of the Black-Haired Rat Clan is as ancient as Tianmen."

"What ancient history of Tianmen! If you count from the founding of the former dynasty, when it was named Tianmen, it’s only been five hundred years. Of course, for foreigners, this might indeed seem like a very long time scale."

Yan Yu’an sneered, "And after they enter human registry? Fight for legitimate rights? Life is hard enough for humans, and now we provide residency for rats to settle down?"

"I know the answer to this one!"

Wang Yunxiao interjected, "The very process of fighting for legitimate rights for the rats is essentially a business. Just now, when Ito mentioned about the authorities conducting a crackdown, they would drag some rats out to be decapitated. In the future, if the rats can be registered as human citizens, as a vulnerable group wouldn’t they need some economic subsidies and such? And wouldn’t factories employing the Rat Clan get tax reductions or something... As for whether this is by the book or not, isn’t the Imperial Jade Seal currently in their hands?"

Yan Yu’an was momentarily stunned.

Ito Hidemi coughed and continued, "Speaking of transforming into human form, this isn’t particularly difficult. According to the results of my interrogation, within these last one to two years, there has been a sect of the Dark Mother Goddess spreading secretly—that is, what’s known publicly as the Black Granny Temple."

"The leader of this sect is a Fox Demon of considerable cultivation achievement, said to hail from beyond the border. Her doctrine involves leading the Demon Clan away from their current conservative oppression and exploitation towards the land bestowed upon them by the divine—the black earth in the North."

Yan Yu’an looked at Wang Yunxiao.

Wang Yunxiao briefly relayed the information obtained from Principal Zhou about the Ma Family, "If what you’re saying is true, then that Fox Demon should be the remnants of the treacherous Demon Clan who fled in the past, now being pushed forward to play the role of... hmm, a life coach? Or maybe a thought leader?"

Yan Yu’an nodded, "That ties everything together. The Ma Family came to Tianmen to clean house, previously engaged in a conflict with that Fox Demon, with neither side gaining much from it. Afterwards, the Fox Demon instigated those from the Rat Clan to attack the girl visiting the Ma Family, intending to kidnap her to force the Ma Family into another confrontation. But when the plan failed, they had no choice but to hand it over to the National Salvation Warriors who faked a death with any available body... What’s the deal with the witch?"

Ito Hidemi spread his hands, "I didn’t finish what I was saying earlier. Besides the Fox Demon, there’s also a witch family involved in the Dark Mother Goddess Sect—allegedly from the Honey Sweet School on the West Coast of the Federation. These witches are adept at using fairy tales for witchcraft, creating various enchanting potions. One such potion allows rats to drink it and take on the appearance of human children."

"Cinderella?"

"Right, just like the servants driving the pumpkin carriage in the story of Cinderella. Though there are time limits, there’s no great difficulty in changing into humans, so they can be registered as human citizens. Conversely, it also allows for turning humans into rats—I’ve finally figured out where they’ve been hiding those National Salvation Warriors."

"The Honey Sweet School? Interesting."

Yan Yu’an acknowledged with a nod, "Becoming rats to smuggle in is indeed hard to detect... It looks like many of the issues on my end might have found their answers. But let’s first discuss the findings from my investigation. You might not be familiar with Dwarf Hut—it’s basically a den specially arranged for foreign sailors to smoke, drink, visit prostitutes, and gamble excessively."

"There are still places like that now?"

"Can’t be helped. No matter how strict our regulations are, we can’t change those Western Sailors’ habits. And we must also respect the fact that those Foreigners, lacking any moral baseline, are bursting at the seams after long voyages. If you don’t allow them an outlet, they’ll cause other problems. So, the compromise was to carve out an area for them to indulge."

Yan Yu’an explained, "We’ve been closely monitoring Dwarf Hut, letting them entertain themselves as long as nothing from inside spills out. But inevitably something slips through, and this time, it’s the overseas immigrants that come with the fleets."

"Can’t overseas immigrants use the normal channels for entry?"

"There’s no issue with the normal channels, but there’s a range in the personal quality of overseas immigrants."

Yan Yu’an spread his hands, "Most Foreigners migrating from Europe and the Federation have at least received a modern education and possess the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They can find jobs quickly and adapt. However, there are also some who were uneducated Rogues unable to survive in their homeland and were forced to embark on a ship seeking a new life."

"These people, even if they come here, remain worthless. They can’t find jobs, or if they do, they can’t hold them for long and eventually end up in places like Dwarf Hut, enjoying the comforts of home."

"We hadn’t paid special attention to this type of person before, but during this investigation, we found someone recruiting these jobless Nomads in Dwarf Hut with extremely low wages."

"But you just said they couldn’t find jobs."

"It’s true they can’t find jobs, but that doesn’t mean they have no remaining value. For instance, take a suspicious little pill to turn into a rat and sneak out of Dwarf Hut..."