Chapter 80

"Hmm? You even brought food. You really are a housekeeper."

Looking at the neatly arranged rice balls in the bento box, Zi could tell at a glance that Shirou's cooking skills must be quite excellent.

He himself often studies cooking techniques, so he can roughly tell.

After all, rice balls are something that will be crooked and twisted if not shaped properly, while Shirou's rice balls are neat and uniform. However, you'll only know the actual taste after you've tried them.

"This has nothing to do with the housekeeper, right? Take one first, and eat it quickly while there are no guests around."

Shirou didn't expect that something he said a long time ago would be remembered by Jie and even brought up to tease him, but he didn't mind. He told Jie to grab something to fill his stomach first, so that he wouldn't be left without food when things got busy later.

After all, many customers came while the two were talking, and now that it's almost noon, there will be another wave of people coming.

"Then I won't be polite."

He wiped his hands and picked up a rice ball. Although it was a little cold, the aroma of rice was still there, and he could also faintly smell the aroma of the fried Scale Beast.

Shirou, who was standing next to him, also took a rice ball to eat. After all, he hadn't eaten breakfast, and the bento box contained exactly the amount of his brunch.

"Hmm... that's pretty good. If you opened a shop, you could probably become one of the recommended restaurants in Lungmen's Top 100 Local Delicacies Guide!"

Jie took a bite of the rice ball and said, "The rice ball that Shirou made is actually just rice, salt, and fried bits of scaled Scale Beast meat, but for some reason it tastes pretty good."

Although his words were somewhat exaggerated, it is indeed difficult to make such a dish with simple ingredients.

What is that?

Shirou, who wasn't online, said he didn't understand what that thing was.

"A popular food ranking list on the Lungmen website."

Jie didn't pay much attention to Shirou's doubts, assuming that the other party basically didn't eat out and therefore hadn't investigated.

Just as the two were eating rice balls and chatting, they heard a hurried footstep.

The two turned their heads and saw the purple-clad Casters's Ansuo rushing towards them.

"I'm here!"

Ansuo stopped in front of the stall, looking at Jie and Shirou beside him.

When she saw Shirou, she was taken aback at first, feeling that he looked somewhat familiar.

"Hi."

Shirou greeted him.

"Ah, it's the guy who broke my hook!"

Ansuo is very sensitive to sound. As soon as she heard Shirou's voice, she remembered that he was the one who broke her grappling hook a couple of days ago.

The other party originally intended to compensate her, but she was worried that the other party had ill intentions and did not accept it. Later, after receiving the money from Jie and saying some words, she realized that she had misunderstood the other party.

"Haha... It's me, no doubt."

Shirou hadn't expected that Ansuo's first words would be this, which made him somewhat embarrassed.

"I'm really sorry about last time."

Ansuo sincerely apologized to Shirou. Although it was troublesome that the grappling hook was broken, Shirou gave her so much money afterward that she had a lot more money to eat after the hook was repaired. She had a very happy time these past two days.

"Sit down. Do you remember what I just told you?"

After finishing one rice ball with satisfaction, Jie took a second one and gave her seat to Ansuo, gesturing for her to sit down and chat with Shirou.

"Of course, it's a job with room and board included, right? The job you recommended, Brother Jie, is definitely no problem, right?"

Ansuo naturally remembered what she came here for. For her, a job was hard to find, and she didn't know how many days she could mooch off this time.

She didn't doubt whether Jie was lying to her, after all, she had nothing left to be fooled. If she couldn't even trust people she knew, she really wouldn't be able to live her life.

Leave of absence request for September 28th (reader group here)

Hmm, I was originally thinking of not taking leave in September and seeing if I could still post an update, but now it seems I might as well just take it.

A novel without interludes is soulless.

Those who know, know. I originally planned to have a more relaxed October and write more, but now... the next step is to stabilize my stockpile of chapters and see how I perform in November.

We also have a reader group here.

QQ group number: 256531006

Answer: Housekeeper

Inside, you can see the author's daily state of madness and insanity.

We can also discuss things related to the plot.

I will explain the reward when I post on October 1st. It has stabilized quite a bit now, and I estimate that the total will not exceed 100!

Stable!

The bounty is in full swing! Remember to throw your recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and sword blades before they expire!

98. Don't speak, feel with your heart.

Ansuo sat down in the chair. He was indeed a little tired after running such a long distance at full speed. The main reason was that the job benefits that Jie mentioned sounded really good. Free meals and accommodation, even if there was no money, it would still be great.

You should know that the Knights of the Round Table prison also provides food and lodging; the only thing to do is to undergo ideological education. If there were no ideological education involved, she could definitely stay there every day!

"The boss is right in front of you, you can talk to him yourself."

Seeing that guests had arrived, Jie simply handed the Ansuo over to Shirou to deal with.

He wasn't worried that Ansuo would run away. With such a generous salary, as long as the job wasn't too dangerous, Ansuo would definitely take it.

"Hmm? Boss?"

He glanced at Shirou beside him Ansuo for a moment.

"I'm not in a rush, it's fine to wait until I'm done... By the way, have you had lunch yet?"

Seeing Ansuo expression, Shirou assumed that Ansuo was not used to talking to strangers like this, so he planned to wait for Jie to return before continuing the discussion.

It's normal for infected children to distrust others, and Shirou doesn't care.

There were still some rice balls left in the bento box, so Shirou pushed the bento box towards Ansuo, attempting to make friendly communication.

"Then let's wait for him... I haven't eaten yet."

Ansuo shook her head and said that the other party's suggestion to wait for Jie to return was naturally in her interest, so she would not refuse.

As for the bento box... she just saw that Zi was eating it quite heartily, so it should be fine, right?

"Don't be shy, Jie and I have already eaten."

Shirou pushed the bento box forward and poured a cup of tea for Ansuo as well.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

In the end, appetite prevailed over reason, Ansuo picked up a rice ball and took a bite.

"Delicious!" That was Ansuo's first thought after taking a bite. Forgive her for being uncultured; she couldn't think of any other adjective besides "delicious."

She finished the rice ball in a few bites, almost choking. She picked up the tea that Shirou had poured and gulped it down before feeling much better.

"Eat slowly, no one will take it from you."

Seeing how eagerly Ansuo was eating, Shirou found it somewhat amusing and casually poured him another cup of tea.

"Phew... did you... make this?"

After drinking the second cup of tea, Ansuo felt much better. He usually only eats one meal a day, but he never expected to get such a delicious lunch for free today.

Ansuo originally just wanted to find something to talk about to make the situation less awkward, but then he suddenly realized that he didn't seem to know the other person's name.

This is very awkward.

"Just call me Shirou. As for the rice balls, I did make them."

After realizing the awkwardness of the Ansuo, Shirou gave a brief self-introduction.

This is a good start. Thinking back, it seems that very few of the people I met after arriving in Lungmen were people I got to know through normal conversations like this.

He was found, encountered in a fire, met during an arrest... it seems that only Zi is someone he knows normally. This kind of social interaction makes Shirou feel somewhat speechless.

However, even though they only became acquainted after the other party helped inform Hoshiguma, it was because of this that they became familiar with each other.

"Just call me Ansuo. Is it true that you provide three meals a day and accommodation?"

With the help of delicious food, Ansuo felt that Shirou wasn't so scary after all, and started trying to talk to Shirou.

"Yes."

Seeing that Ansuo was willing to talk to him, Shirou finally felt relieved.

There are just too many things to be careful about when talking to someone who is wary. Shirou was worried that he might say something wrong and offend them.

However, it seems there are no problems now, which makes Shirou marvel at the power of food.

"What are your job duties? Where do you live? Do you cook all three meals?"

Ansuo asked all his questions in one breath. Although the first two were quite important, Ansuo focused on the last one.

After all, she had tried all sorts of dirty and tiring jobs, and she had lived in very dilapidated houses, so she could accept these two things no matter how bad they were.

Her only request was to be able to eat something good.

"Um, let me explain slowly. The job duties are..."

Faced with the three questions raised by the excited Ansuo, Shirou gestured for him to calm down and began to explain the general direction of their work.

It's just an idea, but the job content shouldn't be too different.

Just as Shirou was telling Ansuo about his job duties and benefits, Ziya, who had already finished his work, picked up his phone to send a message.

The object was Hoshiguma.

After all, if the Hoshiguma asked him to keep an eye on was going to operate in the Slums, he would definitely have to let him know.

Furthermore, if Shirou were to do something like this, he would still have to face threats from gangs in the Slums, since this would already affect the interests of some of those gangs.

He really didn't know much about gang matters. Although he had many strange nicknames, one of which was the leader of the Lungmen Gang, he was really just an ordinary person.

After briefly outlining what Shirou planned to do, Jie sent the message to Hoshiguma, then put away his phone and walked towards Shirou.

He wanted to get another rice ball, but it seemed he arrived just as Shirou finished explaining his thoughts, while Ansuo was criticizing Shirou.

Are you an idiot?

This was the first thought that popped into Ansuo after hearing what Shirou said.

In her mind, only a fool would do something so thankless and exhausting.

"It should be possible, maybe... right?"

Shirou was well aware that his behavior seemed Ansuo to others, but he still felt a little embarrassed to say it so directly.

"But you don't dislike someone like that, right, Little Ansuo?"

Seeing Ansuo making fun of Shirou, Jie picked up a rice ball with his already washed hands and said something.

"Hmm... I don't dislike it at all."

An awkwardly said Ansuo exposed by Jie.

She had just made a habitual complaint; having lived in the Slums for so long, she was still a little unaccustomed to this sudden kindness.

But as Zisuo said, she actually doesn't dislike this kind of person.

"So Ansuo you... planning to take this job?"

Looking at Ansuo's expression, Shirou asked.

He won't force the other party if they are unwilling.

"Take it! There's no reason for me to turn down such a great job! Nobody can take it from me!"

Ansuo slammed his hand on the table and stood up, saying...

This job was arguably the one with the best benefits she had ever seen; Shirou had even said he would give her an extra thousand yen as pocket money every month!

That's a thousand Lungmen Dollars! She probably couldn't even scrape together a thousand of all her assets!