After successfully solving the problem for Anri Sonohara, Hanako asked if she wanted to work part-time in the store.
"Sonohara, we welcome employees with special circumstances like you. I've received many special guests like you, so I'm quite experienced." Hanako lied without blushing, "I just mentioned it casually. If you feel too burdened... just forget about it."
Anri Sonohara's voice was very soft, and the girl shook her head.
"Someone like me can't do this kind of thing... I'm sorry."
Facing such self-deprecating remarks, Hanako sighed and said, "You're discouraged before it even starts? But I won't force you." He took out a black ticket and handed it to Anri Sonohara, "If you change your mind, use this ticket. We always welcome special people like you to join us."
Although she thought she would never need it, she still asked out of courtesy.
“How do I use this?”
The black ticket feels cool to the touch, which is enough to refresh people on a hot summer day.
(What a magical touch...)
"Well, when you need to use it, you will learn how to use it without any instruction."
Hanako smiled and answered the riddles with riddles.
This is of course a specially processed ticket. Although Kuen wants to recruit talented people, he may not always be able to do so. Whether it is Anri Sonohara or Celty, he only approached them with the idea of "giving it a try".
Therefore, these specially processed tickets are more like backdoor tickets secretly prepared by Jiuyuan, the interviewer behind the scenes, and are only given to the objects of his heart. What happens after that depends on fate.
Although Heiwajima Shizuo is a good person, he is a pure human being, and being too involved in this world may not be a good thing for him.
The human body has its limits after all, and there will be situations that cannot be resolved. He doesn't want this kind of despair and misfortune to befall the people he knows.
Anri Sonohara was a little embarrassed and chose her words carefully: "Excuse me...is there anything else we need to pay attention to?"
Hearing the question in her words about whether she could leave, Hanako was particularly gentle to Anri Sonohara who had "provided useful information". He put on a gentle smile and nodded.
"It's nothing, Sonohara-san, go back and have a good rest, eat some of your favorite food, and then have a good sleep. Everything will be normal again tomorrow."
He didn't sound like a child at all when he said this.
He seems more like the most popular and well-connected senior in school.
Jingxiong nodded. He came here because he was worried. In fact, he knew that there was little he could do to help. Now that the problem was solved, he could just leave.
【Then we also...】
Celty was typing on the PDA when the man with the slit came up to her. He took out his cell phone and asked Celty with his head tilted: "Phone number? Email? Or Line..."
Celty: ...Are you looking for my contact information?
Staring at the other person's innocent and pleading eyes (from Celti's perspective), Celti felt guilty if he refused.
Finally, contact information was exchanged.
In addition, Jingxiong, who originally planned to leave, also left his contact information - because of his brother's wonderful experience, he felt that even if he couldn't use it, there seemed to be no harm in leaving a contact method.
……I guess so.
"Oh, yes, Miss Celty, here's one for you too." Hanako stepped forward briskly and gave Celty the same black ticket with a special mark that she had given to Anri Sonohara.
Celty hesitated whether to accept it.
[Does this mean that you want me to become your store clerk? ]
"Indeed." Controlling Hanako's body, Kuen knew that there was nothing above her head, but he deliberately looked over there and said, "...Or, you can become our client."
Hanako's gaze was too direct, and Celty understood immediately.
[Excuse me, can you find things here? ]
[Ah no, should I say looking for someone...? ]
"You want to find the head, Miss Celty? Theoretically, it's possible—" the boy muttered, "It's better to say that 'finding things' and 'finding people' are my specialties, and other transactions are just side jobs..."
Just when Celty thought that he would find his lost head today, the other party suddenly changed the subject -
"But not today. Our store is being renovated and will officially open in a few days. Miss Celty can come back on that day."
Jiuyuan didn't mean to keep her in suspense. The thing Celti wanted to take was not an ordinary thing, and the energy consumed would definitely be more than usual.
Moreover, Hanako's divination may not be 100% accurate. If she wants to do a precise divination for Celti, she may have to do it more than once.
As a result, he didn't dare to easily estimate the amount of energy consumed.
But what Jiuyuan needs to do next will require a lot of time and effort, so the more time he can save, the better.
——It is precisely because he knew how long Celti had been looking for his head in Japan that he should take it more seriously.
Giving people false hope is equivalent to giving them despair.
Celti thought that it was too difficult to be patient even though hope was right before his eyes.
Celty asked reasonably: […But didn’t you make a deal with Anri today?]
"Well..." Hanako curled her lips and looked at the slit-mouthed man who was playing with his phone nonchalantly next to her, "It was because I felt that it was that idiot who was calling me... I thought there was going to be something interesting, but in the end..." Everyone knows what happened next.
“…I’m not stupid.”
Ignoring the slit-mouthed man's rebuttal, Hanako pressed her temples and explained, "So, this is not normal in-store business. The things I gave to Miss Anri Sonohara were just things I found in my own private storage... This is a private transaction between her and me."
[…I see.]
After all, he had waited for so many years. Celty adjusted his mindset a little and said, "When is it more convenient for me to contact you? I mean, when will the store open? How can I find it?"
"Tickets," Hanako said. "The one given to you and Sonohara-san is a ticket in itself. On the opening day, new patterns will appear on the tickets, and from then on, you just need to use the tickets."
I could see that they were still a little uncomfortable, so I knew I had to give them some time to discuss and think.
Hanako chose to leave on her own initiative. He walked into the compartment and said to the man with the slit mouth before leaving: "... Although I really want to say welcome to play to you, I don't think the snow man will be so optimistic."
"Yeah." The man with the slit nodded seriously, "...Axue will be very busy."
“I think so too.”
After saying that, he disappeared into the compartment.
[Did the child leave...? ]
Celty watched Hanako disappear, and the compartment returned to its original state.
"Yeah." The man with the slit mouth said, "...Hanako-kun, it seems that there is still work."
Celty thought about whether the child was as tall as her waist, and unconsciously typed on her PDA: [Is this considered child labor? ]
"Ah?" The man with the slit shook his head. "No, he's older than me. If I had to say... I think I'm the child laborer."
Celty didn't know how to respond: [I-Is that so? Then he is really busy.]
The man with the slit mouth nodded in agreement.
There’s no other way, I have to rush to the next set!
…
…
Meanwhile, Hanako returns to the Kuen residence after finishing work.
After leaving the empty Xindian mansion, Jiuyuan was slowly making his way home.
He only had to order some simple furniture and have it delivered, and then purchase some daily necessities. The highlight was always the strange goods and information in his hands.
According to his expectation, if they really wanted to open earlier, one or two days would be enough, but there was no need to open that early.
It would be better to let the news spread a little longer.
Today, for the first time ever, some people came to buy used books, and they actually sold a few. But Jiuyuan soon discovered that they were not real passers-by, but just guys who came to try to get in touch with them after the tickets were distributed.
Jiuyuan: ...It seems that the second-hand bookstore option is not worth considering.
He had never been secretive about the ticket matter, and the news spread quickly.
The Snow Man who monitors the flow of information at all times has received a lot of feedback. In addition, the information of those who have handled the tickets will be recorded in the notebook, and it is easy to check the information back and find the correct information.
He upgraded Hanako's ability, and then set the teleportation point after using the ticket in Hanako's folded space, which is equivalent to a real sub-space, in which he will perform "ticket checking".
In name, it is a "ticket check" that can keep illegal ticket holders outside the door, but in reality it is a "security check".
But it would be a waste to let Hanako do this, so Kuen asked the system: "Is there any alternative plan? I don't trust others to do this, but I can't do it myself."
[System: In that case, Master, do you want to try a puppet? Just buy a fully automatic puppet. The puppet has no self-awareness, but the functions can be set up in advance. You can also only allocate a small part of your consciousness to it, which can have the same effect as opening a second account...]
It's just that this trumpet is very mechanical...
Jiuyuan checked the price and found out that this was an item that they often sold.
You can choose to buy it with reputation, or with a portion of reputation and a large portion of money.
The cheapest dolls can only be used as dolls.
Most of them are used for ghosts to possess, but the few dead people here in Jiuyuan are unexpectedly powerful, and they can materialize without much need for dolls as a carrier... To him, these ordinary dolls are indeed cheap, but they are completely useless.
After paying the reputation, the next step is to hand it over to the system for debugging.
Jiuyuan was almost at the door of his house. He adjusted his expression to make himself look "forced to be happy" and then opened the door.
"I'll be back—"
The word "了" was not uttered.
Xue Nan was sitting quietly at the table in the living room.
It seems like I have been waiting for him for a long time.