Chapter 271

Chapter 271: The Pickup Point by the Front Door

Foxy carried her bowl into the living room, squatted beside Yu Sheng, and picked at her food while watching Irene. The doll’s three bodies were huddled together, knees hugged tight, sitting in a miserable little “depression circle.”

After a while, Foxy couldn’t help asking, “Benefactor, what’s wrong with Irene?”

“She took a hard hit,” Yu Sheng sighed. “She just found out there’s a kind of rock in the world that’s completely useless, and its only function is dealing with her. Now she thinks she has terrible luck.”

“Oh.” Foxy didn’t look sure she understood, but she nodded anyway. With her bowl in hand, she leaned over and patted one Irene’s shoulder with her tail. “My teacher at school said capable people are always envied by heaven…”

The Irene in the circle looked up. All three bodies spoke at once. “What does that even mean?”

Foxy answered honestly, “I don’t know. But the teacher said when someone is especially unlucky, you comfort them like this—even if after you comfort them, they might still be unlucky.”

All three Irenes let out a long, empty sigh. Two flopped onto the sofa, still dead inside. The remaining one scrambled up and ran to Yu Sheng. “Ahh! Yu Sheng, I think this world is targeting me!”

Yu Sheng nodded. “Yeah. It shows.”

“And you’re agreeing?!” Irene looked like she might cry. “No—why?! That thing knocked me flat back then. I thought it detected some crazy property… and it blocks nothing but me?! I didn’t offend Anka Aila, did I?”

“Who are you asking? Who am I supposed to ask?” Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. Then, after a beat, he decided he should at least try to comfort her. “But look on the bright side. What if the crystals are actually targeting the ‘Alice doll’? When we finally get in touch with Alice little house, have your sisters try it too.”

He had no basis for that whatsoever.

Irene believed it instantly.

Her face visibly brightened. “Hey, that makes sense! It must be because dolls like us are too strong. We naturally suppress dark angels as outsiders, so even after Anka Aila is gone, it still wants to target us…”

If nothing else, her optimism was impressive.

While they were talking, a noisy commotion rose outside the window, cutting them off.

Foxy’s ears perked up immediately.

Yu Sheng turned toward the living room window, surprised. Wu Tong Road 66 was always unnaturally quiet. Aside from Special Operations Bureau and Fairy Tale people, ordinary folks could barely get within dozens of meters of the house. Where was this noise coming from?

He got up and went to the window. Irene followed, squeezing under his arm and clinging to his clothes as she climbed onto the sill. Foxy joined them too, still holding her bowl. Two big heads and one small head peered out together.

At the nearest intersection to Wu Tong Road 66, a group of people bustled around.

That spot was basically the edge of the “no-man’s land” outside Yu Sheng’s front door. A few storefronts with FOR RENT signs and some empty houses had sat there for years. Yu Sheng had even wondered if the empties were part of Wu Tong Road 66’s anomaly zone, but when he asked the neighborhood office, they told him they were just too remote to rent out.

But now one storefront was clearly leased. A delivery truck was stopped at the corner. Several strong young men were unloading at speed, carrying shelves, counters, computers, and more inside.

Yu Sheng clicked his tongue. “…No way. Is our dead zone finally getting prosperous?”

“How is that possible?” Irene pressed her face to the glass, mumbling. “This place is so empty even birds don’t poop here. Dogs detour around it.”

“That’s true,” Yu Sheng said, “but the way you say it makes me want to hit you.”

“Benefactor, should we go say hello?” Foxy asked casually, wiping her mouth with her tail. “It’s a bit far, but they’re kind of new… neighbors, right?”

“Not really neighbors,” Yu Sheng said, “but we can go see what they’re doing.”

“I’m coming with you!” Foxy immediately stuffed her bowl into her tail.

Right after that, Irene hopped off the windowsill straight into Foxy’s arms. “Me too! I’m going to play dead now!”

Before she even finished the sentence, her limbs went limp and her eyes went blank—professional-level.

Foxy casually removed her ears, and with a soft pop her tail pulled in, fast as a blink.

Yu Sheng looked at his two clingy followers and sighed. “Fine. We’ll go together.”

After changing into something suitable for going out, Yu Sheng led Foxy—and the “dead” Irene—to the shop. They reached it in no time. He had barely started looking around when a symbol on the side of the truck caught his eye.

Black background. Red lines. A diamond-shaped mark, like a warning One-Eye standing upright.

The Special Operations Bureau emblem.

While he was staring, a familiar voice called out, “Teacher Yu!”

He looked up.

Ren Wen Wen stood by the doorway, dressed in a black skirt suit like a polished office professional, smiling brightly at him.

Several young men carrying shelves also glanced over. Two of them were clearly Special Operations Bureau agents Yu Sheng recognized from the Valley.

Yu Sheng stared. “…?”

Seeing familiar faces, Irene instantly stopped playing dead and lifted her head out of Foxy’s arms. “What? It’s you guys? What are you doing here?!”

Ren Wen Wen smiled and pointed to a signboard by the door that hadn’t been hung yet.

“Stellar Express Wu Tong Road Pickup Point.”

Yu Sheng’s expression shifted. “…A delivery station?”

Ren Wen Wen’s smile widened. “Didn’t you tell the Special Operations Bureau before that it’s inconvenient because Wu Tong Road 66 can’t receive deliveries or takeout? So we decided to set up a pickup point as close to your home as possible.

“Don’t let the storefront fool you. From the site selection to staffing, the bureau evaluated and tested everything over and over.

“This location is the edge of the shielding zone near your house. It’s also the maximum distance an ordinary-person type can approach Wu Tong Road 66 without their cognition being disrupted. It’s the golden spot for a pickup point.

“From now on, two Special Operations Bureau agents will be stationed here permanently. It’s basically a special station for the bureau. I’ll be directly responsible for liaison work here. You can also list this as the reception address for Hotel. In the future, it’ll be easier for you to take detective commissions too—otherwise clients not being able to find your home would be a hassle…”

Ren Wen Wen explained everything seriously, point by point. Yu Sheng listened with an expression that kept cycling through, “Huh? Oh. Huh?”

It wasn’t even sudden. He’d mentioned it to Bai Li Qing a long time ago. He’d just been so busy lately that he’d forgotten about it completely.

Ren Wen Wen seemed to notice the look on his face. When she finished, she lowered her head apologetically. “Sorry we kept you waiting so long. Even for a small station like this, it involves quite a few departments. And considering what we might need in the future, we also connected the Stellar Express channel. That meant we had to go through the councilor council approval process again. Even with every step expedited, it still takes a lot of work.”

Yu Sheng snapped out of it. He waved both hands quickly. “No, no, it’s fine. I just—I’ve been so busy I forgot about it, so I’m surprised. Wait. What do you mean by Stellar Express channel? I wanted to ask the moment I saw the sign…”

“Oh, it’s a shopping and delivery platform directly invested in and controlled by the borderland councilor council,” Ren Wen Wen said, pulling out a QR code. “Scan this to download the app…”

For a second, Yu Sheng felt like she didn’t look like a Special Operations Bureau agent anymore. She looked like the kind of salesperson who chased you down in a mall insisting you follow a public account, register, join the membership program, and load money onto a stored-value card.

Ren Wen Wen didn’t seem to notice his expression change at all. She kept introducing it enthusiastically.

“Normal people can’t register. It’s a whitelist system, mostly because a lot of items on it are restricted in the borderland or require strict purchasing qualifications. But you don’t need to worry—you’ve been on the whitelist for a long time. Our Director personally signed you in. You can register directly.

“Of course, if it’s truly a restricted item, you still won’t be able to buy it. A warning will pop up when you place the order.

“And if you don’t need the app, that’s fine too. Stellar Express also handles normal shipping and deliveries within the borderland. It’s very convenient…”

Yu Sheng barely heard the end. After he downloaded the app, he opened it, looked once, then quietly closed it. Then he opened it again, stared a little longer, and quietly closed it again.

He understood exactly what kind of platform this was.

The homepage was recommending “Bargomo Gourmet Aberrant Canned Food.” The first line of the product details taught you several “practical fighting techniques” to use immediately after opening the weird can.

He decided he probably didn’t need something that hardcore right now.

Then he heard Ren Wen Wen brighten as she switched topics. “Oh, right—Teacher Yu, I saw your newly published novel!”

Yu Sheng jerked.

Mostly because the intensity of this young lady’s shipping habits had left him with permanent psychological scarring.

But then he remembered he’d already changed the male lead’s mount to a llama last time, and he relaxed.

He exhaled and smiled. “How was it?”

“It was… kind of thrilling,” Ren Wen Wen said after thinking, serious in a way that almost felt like a mission. “Honestly, it’s pretty challenging, but I’m trying…”

Yu Sheng stared blankly.

His brain creaked, turned the corner, and then immediately wished it hadn’t.

Young lady, what exactly are you trying at?