morning

After Kuen got up, he went downstairs to open the door of the first floor as usual. As soon as he got downstairs, he saw Oda Sakunosuke looking at the door with an embarrassed look on his face, even though he had just come.

At the door stood a professional in a suit, carrying a heavy briefcase in one hand, which looked like it was carrying a lot of information. In addition, he looked heavy-backed, as if he would bow at any moment.

[System: Master, he has been waiting here for a long time, right? His shoulders are still wet, it rained this morning...]

"Not necessarily." Jiuyuan glanced at the half-dry ground. "The rain was light, and it's been almost forty minutes. The weather will dry up soon. Maybe they're just pretending to be wet for me."

When that person saw Jiuyuan, he smiled politely.

The trained smile was very measured, but even so, Jiuyuan could sense a hint of suppressed panic in it. Was he afraid of coming to the monster house?

"Hello, Mr. Huang Quanchuan." He took out his business card. He was a talent scout working for an entertainment company.

"In fact, our president admires Mr. Huang Quanchuan very much and hopes that you can become an artist under our company."

[System: ...Is this the right time to do this? Their president is being too unrestrained.]

Jiuyuan took the business card and pretended to look at it carefully.

Jiuyuan said to the system: "Not necessarily."

He had heard of this company before - in the scattered intelligence that Xue Nan and his team had collected, it was mentioned that this entertainment company was also related to a certain political figure, and that its smooth development was due to the efforts of the person behind the scenes.

"These guys started with my life, trying to find a way to ease our relationship without losing face. They promised me to go to the entertainment company, and they must have offered me treatment that I couldn't refuse. They put soft food in my mouth and waited for me to eat it. Moreover, on the surface, I had no contact with the people behind them, and all transactions were circulated through this entertainment company. Next, they would start promising me benefits--"

The young man frowned. Seeing that he did not refute immediately, the scout continued, "We will naturally sign a contract with you according to the highest level of artist treatment, and we will also send the matter of your previous awards being shady for investigation. This is a little sincerity from our president..."

"No thanks." Jiuyuan glanced outside the door calmly, "Are those souvenirs yours too?"

The man was stunned and immediately said, "No, no."

"I'm not interested in these things right now." Jiuyuan handed the business card back, but the man didn't dare to accept it.

Jiuyuan glanced at the pile of things on the table in the courtyard, then looked at him again, "...are these souvenirs really not yours?"

He shook his head hastily.

He was also given the task in a time of crisis, and was called to the office by the president to give him a lecture and ask him to be more attentive to Huangquanchuan.

"In any case, we need to stabilize him first, and the salary will be fine. We must establish good relationships and sign him in." These were his original words, rude and straightforward. In order to make the employee understand the seriousness of the matter, he also said in a snort, "This is what the person above wants."

He suffered even more.

The people above wanted to win over this young man, but they couldn't find the direction, let alone go to the young man in person, so they came up with such a roundabout way. As long as they signed the person into the company, the so-called remuneration would be determined, and how much would be given. The people above would always find a way to benefit Huang Quanchuan.

But Jiuyuan's refusal was very clear, and he even asked him to return the gift, which showed that he was stubborn.

He tried to persuade for a long time, until his lips were worn out, but the boy just smiled and said nothing. His meaning was very clear - go away.

After the man walked away dejectedly, Oda Sakunosuke, who had been sweeping the yard for a long time, put down the broom.

"Someone came before you woke up, but they didn't dare to wake you up, so they just put their things down and left."

Jiuyuan didn't have the time to figure out each of these people's feelings.

Odasaku: “What should we do with the gifts that people gave us?”

Jiuyuan: “…”

"Send it to a nearby welfare home."

After saying that, the boy went back into the house.

…

…

Special Forces Division

"Aren't we going to have any contact with Yomikawa Kyuen now?"

The insider also knew some of the movements of other people. After realizing that more and more people were sticking to Jiuyuan and that each of them had something hidden in their mind, he also asked questions.

"There are already enough people surrounding him to test him." Sakaguchi Ango said rationally, "Even if we go to his house now, we will only get into trouble. It would be better to contact him in a more formal way after all those wrong demonstrations are rejected by Yomikawa."

"…It feels like a bidding war. It feels weird."

"No matter what, he is indeed a key figure in this matter. It is necessary to find out what his current attitude is... Let's not talk about this. Didn't we look for his personal information before?"

"But, his information is very ordinary..." The man waved the stack of papers in his hand and muttered, "He earns money to support himself alone, and his grades are excellent. Apart from that, there is nothing special about him. The only extraordinary thing he has done in his life is to sign up for a talent show, and that was for the prize. By the way, this talent show was shady and his ranking was changed, and he ultimately missed the prize..."

"In addition, his classmates seemed to want to introduce him to modeling jobs, but he refused."

"The reason is that there was a candidate in the show who was not on good terms with him. She used her family background to make it impossible for Huang Quanchuan to stay in this industry... Even if he became a model, he would only be a burden to his classmates."

Sakaguchi Ango also took it and took a look. He found that there were no questions that could be explored about Yomigawa Kuen's life trajectory.

Considering the situation of Jiuyuan, it is not so much that there is no problem, but rather... this is the biggest problem.

The life of a young man seems to be entangled by bad luck. In addition to the inevitable hardship, there are also big and small misfortunes.

However, even though he has been living such a difficult life, he still has an innocent yearning for beautiful and simple ideals in his heart.

What is he thinking now?

…

…

On the big table in the house was placed the breakfast prepared by Bashi: buttered toast and bacon and fried eggs. The steam was rising and the alluring aroma was floating in the room.

Jiuyuan sat down slowly.

The children of Odasaku woke up earlier than him and had already gone to class with Morobushi Kagemitsu. Their voices could still be heard across the room.

Jiuyuan thought while biting a piece of toast - in such a big house, he is the only real living person in it. It is truly a haunted house.

Oda Saku is in charge of looking after the used bookstore, Morofushi Kagemitsu and the children study, and Kagome Takeshi works part-time for Hanako.

He is the most boring person in the whole family.

Oda Sakunosuke had already watered the plants in the yard. Seeing Kuen dressed neatly and sitting at the dining table, he asked, "Are you going out now?"

Jiuyuan gave a tired smile in return, nodded, and then shook his head.

It was obvious that he was hesitant. Oda Saku wanted to tell him to be careful when going out, but the boy put down the teacup in his hand and asked in a weak tone, "...Mr. Oda."

"Um?"

“Are there really many people here this morning?”

"They come one after another, and there are quite a few of them." He answered after carefully choosing his words.

[System: Master, they are all trying to please you, right? ]

Jiuyuan shook his head.

He didn't really think that those people were trying to please him. They were just using him as the most suitable entry point to try to figure out the other forces around him. It was also a way to insure themselves.

"Yoquanchuan can have a say in front of monsters, so we should have a good relationship with him and not repeat the mistakes of those people. And if we want to negotiate with monsters, we can also say some good things through him. Everyone's performance is too naked." He smiled in his heart, "Oh, after listening to 'Yoquanchuan Jiuyuan', the blackening value +5."

【System: ……】

He simply made a black progress bar and hung a sign with the blackening value to cooperate with Jiuyuan.

The story still needs to continue here.

"Did I... do something wrong?" Jiu Yuan looked at the tea in his cup hesitantly, with a confused expression, but in fact he continued to give the script to the people outside the venue, "Yesterday when A Yin left, he said to me--"

He opened his lips and then closed them again, as if Yin's words made him doubt himself infinitely.

Oda Sakunosuke: "But you do have important ideals that you want to achieve, right?"

"Yeah... yes, but..." Jiuyuan said, "A lot has happened recently. I think maybe I should relax, go out for a walk, and change my mood."

Oda Sakunosuke nodded in agreement: "Maybe this will give me some new ideas, but if I go out, I have to consider safety issues."

He looked at Jiuyuan, "There are a lot of people watching you right now."

Hearing that Odasaku was concerned about Kuen's safety, Hachisha stepped forward and put his arms around Kuen's neck, whispering softly beside him: "No matter where you go, I will be by your side... I won't let those dirty things get close to you at all."

Kuen smiled bitterly and pushed away Hachisha's arm. Odasaku said matter-of-factly, "Indeed, there is no safety issue when you are with Hachisha-sama."

Odasaku: "Have you decided where to go?"

"Yeah." Kuen said, "Yahara."

"Yahara?"

"I heard there's a boy who lives with monsters there," Kuen said. "The relationship between humans and monsters, the future of humans and monsters, how he lives with monsters... I want to ask him about all these things. Maybe I can get some different answers from that magical boy."

The light in the boy's blue eyes was dim.

"I have always been confined to this small world. If I keep on being shackled like this, I will definitely miss a lot of beautiful scenery, right?"

At this moment, no one realized what he meant by "tying oneself in a cocoon".

…

…

"Please help...save those children..."

Next to a shrine, the land god, who was only as tall as a human arm, was folding his sleeves and begging the two men in front of him, one black and one white.

The Snow Man and the Cleft-Mouth Man encountered a small land god, who was very weak, obviously due to lack of faith. At this moment, he seemed to have grasped the last straw and begged the two people in front of him to listen to his request.

He said that he had inquired about it and that there have always been cases of human trafficking in Ikebukuro. This kind of thing had happened before, but it had subsided a little after being rectified. However, recently those guys who used to be engaged in human trafficking have lost their business, so they have simply started to take risks and look for buyers elsewhere.

"I know I shouldn't bother you two with human matters, but that child was once my believer. Even though I'm a little god with little power, I also want to save her."

He leaned forward again and said, "Please, both of you."

A few meters away, Yamada held his computer and wondered if they would agree. Maybe Yukio would agree?

However--

"Let's go." Xuenan turned around without saying a word and ordered Yamada to leave with him.

His cold attitude made Yamada feel his enthusiasm cool down all of a sudden, and his beautiful fantasy was completely crushed. He was still thinking about this matter until dinner in the evening -

In the gap between reporting work, he still plucked up the courage to ask Xue Nan: "... today's matter of the land god."

"Do you care a lot?" Axue asked with a smile.

Didn't you save Lin Qiaomei before but now you're just watching her die without helping her? The words were on the tip of his tongue but he didn't dare to ask.

"Your expression is written all over your face, Yamada-kun. To be frank, seeing the local god declining due to lack of faith makes me feel very disgusted with those humans, especially since he still protects those believers who have abandoned him. Just asking for this information has almost exhausted his remaining strength, right?"

“…Oh.” Yamada lowered his head.

From a non-human perspective, it seems to make sense - no, no, isn't this just brainwashing?!

"But there is another reason——"

Ah Xue said helplessly: "There is a guy here who is more kind-hearted than me."

Only then did Yamada notice that the man with the slit, who usually sat on the sofa next to him, was not there.