Skadi, My Wife

Chen An gave it some thought...

Chen An thought for a moment...

Chen An decided to change his original plan.

The rich lady had been the one to make the first move outside the rules, getting someone to draw a doujin of Huil. As Huil's friend, wasn't it only natural for him to help her get even?

That's right, exactly!

The old man just wanted to help Huil get even. It had nothing to do with her offering more money—more than the original price, even. He swore on his integrity that there was absolutely no connection!

After making that thunderous declaration in his heart, Chen An nodded and bowed eagerly, smiling like a sleazy merchant. "No problem, no problem. This is how I make my living. Huil, tell me what kind of diorama figure you want. As long as the money... cough, cough, as long as it's suitable, whatever kind of diorama figure you want, I can make it."

He had nearly blurted out the honest truth—so long as the money was enough. Chen An coughed dryly and hastily corrected himself.

Ch'en shot him a sidelong glance and snorted, saying nothing.

Not far away.

Exusiai and the other two were sitting beneath a tree, enjoying chilled watermelon.

She had been happily eating watermelon, only to accidentally witness the entire process of a shady deal being struck. Miss Exusiai, champion of justice, could not help looking down on him. "Selling out your friend for a little money? No integrity! Shameless!"

Skadi quietly ate her watermelon.

As Texas quietly ate her watermelon, she suddenly thought of Croissant, who was far away in Chernobog. She felt that if Croissant were here, she and Chen An would definitely have plenty to talk about.

Hearing Exusiai's contemptuous remarks, Chen An, who had just sent Ch'en away, looked over. Exusiai bared her teeth at him, looking utterly fierce. "What are you looking at? I still haven't settled the score with you for dismantling my halo and beating me up yesterday! Keep looking, and I'll throw watermelon rinds at you!"

"Tiger mom."

Chen An curled his lip and muttered under his breath, too lazy to pay Exusiai any attention—he had no time for that now.

He looked up at the sky and felt the timing was about right. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed Swire's number.

"Hello, rich lady."

"What is it? I'm on my lunch break."

"Nothing, nothing. I just suddenly felt like chatting with you."

"Huh?"

As if he truly wanted to chat with Swire, Chen An began rambling on with her. Throughout the conversation, his mouth seemed coated in honey as he kept praising Swire, praising her until she was delighted and occasionally let out smug little hums from the other end of the call.

After chatting for a while, he suddenly said in an offhand tone, "Oh, right. Rich lady, have you decided what figure you want this time? Huil just came to ask me to make her one, and she even offered extra money. If you've already made up your mind, you can tell me. Making one or two is the same, so I can make them together."

"That Street Dragon!?"

Swire immediately became alert.

As old rivals who started fighting at the slightest disagreement, and childhood friends who had known each other since they were young, Swire had always kept an eye on Ch'en and understood her very well.

She knew Ch'en had no hobby of collecting figures—actually, she did not either. The only reason she had asked Chen An to buy figures before was to find an excuse to get close to him, so she could become friends with him.

That was not the important part. The important part was that Street Dragon clearly did not collect figures, and she was already very familiar with Chen An. She had no need to use this excuse to get close to him, so why was she asking Chen An to make a figure?

Feeling that something was off, Swire connected it to the incident two days ago when Ch'en had vanished with Chen An for an entire day. Feeling that it was even more suspicious, she snapped, "What figure did she ask you to make? Tell me, now!"

"Well... that's client confidentiality. It wouldn't be appropriate to say."

"What client confidentiality? She's a client, but am I not one too? I'm even a major client! Tell me already, you blockhead!"

Blockhead?

That strange yet oddly intimate form of address made Chen An feel a little weird. She had always called him by name before, so why had she suddenly changed what she called him?

But he did not think much about it, because he had more important business to handle.

Chen An pretended to hesitate in silence for a while before saying hypocritically, "Fine. Huil plans to put it in her office after it's finished anyway, so you'll see it then. Since you want to know first, I'll tell you. It's not really a big deal. She said you drawing a doujin of her was too much, and she decided to return the favor. So she asked me to make a diorama figure of her scolding you as your superior."

"—What?!"

Swire's fur stood on end in fury. Her enraged roar came through the phone, nearly rupturing Chen An's eardrums.

"How dare she? How dare she! How dare that stupid Street Dragon!?"

Chen An moved the phone farther away. Only after Swire finished roaring did he bring it back to his ear. With a feigned sigh, he hypocritically advised, "Don't be angry. What if you hurt your health? It's just a figure that anyone can have."

His voice paused, and his sinister intentions suddenly revealed themselves. "By the way, rich lady, have you decided what figure you want this time? Do you want one like before, or a diorama figure like Huil's?"

Swire was burning with rage and answered without hesitation, "Shut up! I want one like hers, but make it me scolding her, understand?"

"And the price...?"

"Whatever she's paying, I'll pay double!"

Swire's voice was incredibly loud. "I only have one requirement: I have to look imposing, with the same kind of presence you had when you scolded me and Skadi last time! That Street Dragon has to look like a miserable punching bag too, got it!?"

By last time, she meant when they had accidentally blown up the kitchen.

Chen An said he understood.

I'm getting rich~

Covering the phone's microphone, he chuckled twice. Then he uncovered it and called out to Exusiai, "A-Neng, I've worked things out with the rich lady. We can make the new figures soon. Last time, you said you wanted three identical ones, one for each room. I think two would be enough, since there are only two rooms. What do you think?"

"???"

Exusiai's head was full of question marks. When had she ever told Chen An she wanted three identical figures? Whenever she bought figures, she only ever wanted one of each kind.

Just as Exusiai was wondering about that, she suddenly heard Swire's rage-meter-exploding voice coming from Chen An's phone. "This time, I want ten! Ten identical figures! I'm putting one in every room in my home, and I'll give one each to Hoshiguma, Uncle Wei, and the others!"

Suddenly understanding something, Exusiai stared wide-eyed.

What, what the hell!? You could do business like this?

She was so shocked that she did not even notice the half-eaten watermelon slipping from her hand.

Texas's ears twitched as she changed her mind.

If Croissant were here, she would not have plenty to talk about with Chen An. She would drop to her knees and beg him to teach her how to do business!

Unaware of what Exusiai and Texas were thinking, Chen An happily put down his phone after securing the huge order.

As for Swire and Ch'en likely getting into another argument over this, Chen An did not care.

After all, if they started arguing now, it would just be an argument. But if Swire did not learn the truth now and prepare herself mentally, then when she suddenly saw the figure later, she would probably explode on the spot and fight Ch'en. Not to mention, if Chen An had refused to take Ch'en's order from the start, judging from Ch'en's reaction, she would most likely have gone to someone else or found another way to get even.

Rather than let things develop in an uncontrollable direction, he might as well agree directly, keep the consequences within an acceptable range, and make some money.

It was a win-win situation. Why not do it?

Come to think of it, with all the money he was making this time, he could buy Skadi some more clothes later... Mm, he could turn the rest into supplies and send them to the Lower District in the names of those two suckers... Mm, the rich lady was paying a lot, but Huil was paying little. Why not call Huil later, tell her about the rich lady, and talk her into buying a few more?

Hey, he was actually so good at business. The old man really was a damn genius!

As he thought about it, Chen An could not help chuckling again.

He smiled like a sleazy merchant, making people want to punch him hard in the face.

Rope's Great Ambition

Croissant suddenly felt her nose itch and could not help rubbing it, wondering at the same time whether someone was thinking about her.

Rope, who was helping her pack up her stall, could not help complaining when she saw that. "What are you dawdling for? This stall is yours, not mine. I only set up with you every day because we know each other, okay? But you order me around when setting up, order me around when packing up, and sometimes even make me do the shouting. If you keep doing this, I'm going to start asking you for payment."

The moment she heard the word payment, Croissant immediately snapped back to attention.

No longer daring to waste time daydreaming, she quickly packed up while complaining, "We've been selling for two hours, and we still barely sold anything. This business really can't go on, can it?"

Rope rolled her eyes. "Tch. I told you to sell something else ages ago, but you wouldn't listen. What's the use of complaining now?"

"Don't make it sound like I don't want to sell something else."

Croissant was frustrated. "If I could sell all this stuff, I would've switched to something else long ago. But it hasn't sold out. You can't expect me to keep all this inventory on hand and let it gather dust, can you?"

"I think letting it gather dust would be better than this."

Rope muttered quietly, "It's been days and you've barely sold anything. At this rate, selling all this stuff will take you until your next life."

No.

Rope suddenly changed her mind. She felt that Croissant might not be able to sell all this stuff even in her next life.

Croissant: "..."

She did not want to talk now. She only wanted to pack up quickly, then move somewhere else and continue doing business.

Rope added, "Speaking of which, Super Strength Girl Number Two, when do you think Dawn will develop medicine that can completely cure Oripathy?"

"How would I know? I'm not one of the Infected, so I don't care about that. The only things I care about are whether my business is doing well and when I can finally buy the new equipment I like."

As she spoke, she had already packed up all the goods and stuffed them into her huge backpack.

Slipping the incredibly heavy backpack onto her back, Croissant glared at Rope unhappily. "Also, I have a name. It's Croissant. Don't call me Super Strength Girl, and don't add Number Two to it either!"

Rope's ears twitched, and she pretended not to hear.

As she followed Croissant toward their next location for setting up a stall, she looked worried and dejected. "We've been here for so long, but there's still no sign of a cure for Oripathy. If this keeps up, when will I ever get back to Lungmen and become Chen An's concubine?"

Croissant had heard Rope explain many times why she wanted to cure Oripathy, but hearing it again still made her forehead fill with black lines.

"All you ever think about is going back to become someone's concubine. Miss Rope, can't you have a little ambition? Don't you know that being someone's concubine makes it easy to get bullied?"

Rope did not care, and even retorted, "I'm just a country bumpkin anyway. What's unambitious about becoming the concubine of someone I like?"

Croissant was even more speechless, but she could not really say anything. She could only complain, "I really don't know what's so great about him. You all know he already has someone, yet you still like him. I seriously don't understand you."

Croissant knew Chen An, but because she lived far away and often went out on missions to earn money, she had only interacted with him a few times.

Her impression of Chen An was roughly, "He's a pretty nice guy." She did have a favorable impression of him, but that was all.

So she had never understood it. Forget Rope, who had supposedly not seen much of the world, why did Texas and Exusiai like Chen An too? They had even turned down missions that would have raised their pay for him, despite clearly knowing he already had Skadi.

"That's because you have no eye for people. I'm not telling you, or what if you start competing with me too?"

Rope glanced at Croissant. Orange hair, blue eyes, bursting with energy. Her chest was not as big as Skadi's, but she was undoubtedly a beautiful girl.

Rope could tell at a glance that if someone like her fell for a person, she would definitely launch an attack without hesitation and refuse to stop until she got what she wanted.

When she already had plenty of rivals, Rope was not stupid enough to recommend the man she liked to someone else. She would never do something like that!

Croissant snorted and proudly raised her chin. "Do you think I'm Texas or Exusiai? If you want me to like someone, being a good person isn't enough. A necessary condition is that even if he doesn't have money, he still has to know how to make money, okay?"

Chen An was not just a good person. He was also very handsome.

Rope muttered that inwardly but said nothing.

Though she did not want to admit it, Chen An indeed was not wealthy. What wealthy person lived in that kind of tiny apartment? He did not seem to make much money either. After all, he had no job, and his income seemed to come only from selling wooden carvings and figures.

His friend, that cop named Swire, on the other hand, seemed to be some super-rich young lady.

But so what? The one with money was that cop, not Chen An. It was not something she could count in his favor.

The two chatted and bickered as they walked, and before they knew it, they were halfway there.

Then—

"Lappland?"

Croissant suddenly stopped. Looking at the person who had appeared ahead on the road, she showed a stunned expression.

Because she had run into a dangerous person she did not want to deal with, Croissant temporarily changed their route.

Rope did not quite understand. "You look like you know that Lupo pretty well. She's a friend, right? Why aren't you going over to say hello? Why are you avoiding her?"

"I only know Lappland. We're not close."

Croissant curled her lip. "She's dangerous. Even Texas, who seems pretty close to her, avoids her. Why would I go say hello?"

"Dangerous?"

Rope froze for a moment, seemingly recalling something. She clicked her tongue and nodded in deep agreement. "You're right. That Lupo really is dangerous."

"?"

Now Croissant did not understand. "What, you know her too?"

"I don't know her, but I've seen her. It was a few days ago when I passed by the Human Resources Department."