"Xiangyang Love Story"

After a long moment, Chip Girl cautiously broke the silence, "Excuse me... is this a logic problem or a real-world application question?"

Emiya: "...Real-world application. Well, how to put it, this young lady's situation is that her appearance is very unusual, making it inconvenient for her to go out in public, but she insists I take her shopping. As her butler, I can't exactly refuse her wishes."

"What! No, wait, how can you just go off and become someone else's butler?" Charlotte, who had been in a weird headspace earlier, suddenly jumped back in. "Last time I actively recruited you, you didn't come, and now you pop up claiming to be some young lady's butler—are you picking a fight? Wuwuwu, have you no conscience!"

"Whoa, what kind of live NTR plot is this?"

Chip Girl eagerly started grabbing popcorn. "Can someone fill me in on the backstory? I'm new here and don't really get it."

The Governor of Gaul replied with a conflicted tone, "Sorry, I'm a pure love guy."

Emiya was baffled—why were they suddenly picking sides on couples?

He wanted to end this topic quickly. "...Miss Charlotte, I didn't mean to offend you. At the time, I really had no intention of becoming any family's butler, but this young lady now was introduced by an old partner of mine..."

As Emiya was explaining, the other party suddenly went offline.

Hey, no, Charlotte, where'd you go?

The Governor of Gaul chimed in with a timely jab: "A fairly reliable guess—she was sneaking online during study time and got caught by her grandpa again."

Ah, everyone let out a silent sigh in unison. Poor kid...

But on the bright side, without that someone, the conversation finally steered toward a normal direction—

"In my opinion, a task like shopping doesn't have to be solved with conventional thinking, right?" Chip Girl tried to shift perspectives. "You could just move the shops and goods from the street into the house, so this homebound young lady can enjoy the fun of shopping without ever leaving her door!"

Chip Girl's thinking was unique. In ancient times, the prophet Muhammad had the famous saying, "If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain." Now there was this earth-shattering viewpoint: "I won't go shopping, but shopping comes to me."

"...That sounds like a shut-in's idea." Emiya was speechless. Did Wa Lord really need to be any more of a homebody in this life?

"!" Chip Girl instantly sent an exclamation mark, thinking to herself, Damn, I accidentally revealed my personal hobby.

"That's way too troublesome. Why don't we first set a shopping plan, buy up all the shops, facilities, and buildings along the way, then clear the place out and replace the staff with our own people."

The Governor of Gaul spoke with ease, as if he'd finally hit his familiar territory, and unhesitatingly offered advice: "First, target a few higher-class scenic spots—temples, Taoist shrines, churches, art galleries..."

Emiya interrupted the spellcasting, "Wait, the young lady's own home is the biggest local attraction. I checked, and it's even a top-tier national cultural tourism site. She's probably sick of seeing stuff like that..."

Already tasted too much—take it away.

"No problem, then switch to the 'rebellious young lady experiences a wild society' template," the Governor of Gaul claimed he could handle any type of woman.

"I suggest picking a flashy commercial street or amusement park. As for the final rendezvous spot, emphasize the atmosphere. For example, whispering over candlelight dinner in a high-end restaurant, or bolder options like a private hot spring with relaxation services. The shop can provide tools, letting the dating couple do ambiguous SPA treatments amid the fragrant steam..."

As he read on, Emiya's mouth gradually fell open. "Why has this turned into a date between me and the young lady?"

"Genius! You're a total dating master, you're the one!" Chip Girl followed suit with a "thumbs up" emoji. "If this can't win over that shut-in young lady, I'll eat this bag of chips on the spot!"

This one was even starting to scam for free food.

"Hey, are you guys misunderstanding something?"

"No, not really," said the Governor of Gaul. "Is it possible you haven't realized something yourself? She specifically picked you alone for this. Do you really think she has no feelings for you?"

"Huh?" Emiya was taken aback.

Suddenly, a new chat window started flashing with messages. It was a private message from Chip Girl:

"Hi, ignore that playboy Governor of Gaul's nonsense. We have a professional team here. Interested in learning more? We offer full-location dating services, can arrange a sports car for the whole trip, clear out unrelated personnel, mobilize crowd atmosphere groups, handle makeup and costume design, wedding planning..."

Emiya: "Definitely not the last one!"

So a few days later, Emiya took Wa Lord out in a pre-arranged dark-colored Koenigsegg CCR sports car to their destination. As soon as they got out, they saw a huge fiery red banner propped up in the open-air venue beside them. On the offering table covered in red velvet, incense burned, sending smoke swirling, but they could still make out a few big characters on the central backdrop:

"'Legend of the White Snake' Filming Crew Kickoff Ceremony!"

Next to it was a promotional poster of some movie star playing the lead role of Lady White. A white snake was also drawn as a supporting image to show it was Lady White's true form.

At this moment, as Emiya passed by carrying Wa Lord on his back, it didn't cause any commotion. Wa Lord's snake tail wasn't coiled around him but dragged behind the two of them, and the fans seemed to mistake it for a cosplayer wearing a prop.

Well, well—so there was a solution like this. Emiya felt that Chip Girl's so-called professional team had some moves.

But it wasn't over yet.

A few steps later, they ran into a bustling magazine and bookshop. The owner had boldly placed current issues of "Novel Painting" and "Zhiyin Comic" on shelves by the door. On the exquisitely made book posters, a handsome youth who looked like he'd stepped out of the story gazed deeply at a girl in a white dress. The girl's lower half was a long snake body, and it shamelessly piggybacked on the neighboring film's hype:

"Legend of the White Snake Gets a New Spin! The Forbidden Love Between a Chivalrous Youth and a Half-Human, Half-Snake Young Lady!"

Emiya's scalp tingled at first sight, thinking to himself, They might as well have put our ID numbers on it. But unexpectedly, Wa Lord on his back was so happy she was almost bending over with laughter, patting his head to tell him to buy a copy quickly.

Then they opened it and read: The story was about a genius swordsman youth who aspired to slay demons and vanquish evil, but fell into a demon's lair by mistake and was saved by a half-human, half-snake young lady.

Bound by gratitude, the youth reluctantly served under her to repay the debt, only to learn that the young lady had long been ostracized in her clan for being a half-breed and had been under house arrest for years. After she risked everything to save the youth, she was even subjected to brutal torture by the clan elders. The youth resolved to break through the blockade and rescue her, and the two eloped, gradually developing feelings, but were hunted by both human and demon clans.

They stumbled into a new world and saw a statue of an ancient deity in a temple that was also half-human, half-snake. It turned out that the half-breeds, despised by everyone in their homeland and looked down on by the demon clan, were the objects of ancient divine worship here. The demon clan elders had imprisoned the young lady because they coveted the divine bloodline of this land.

Once discovered, the young lady was immediately enshrined as a goddess by the local ancient deity cult. Just then, the pursuing army from their homeland arrived, and a massive war sparked by the chance encounter of a boy and a girl began...

Emiya flipped to the end of the story and suddenly twitched the corner of his mouth. It ended with "To be continued."

Which damn author cut it off here?

Thanks to @There's an Apple Tree Ahead

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