Xu An gazed at the surrounding scenery with dead-fish eyes.
He felt rather bored.
So he struck up a conversation with Trigger.
"Trigger?" Xu An suddenly spoke, making Trigger, who was watching Belle beside him, pause.
"Hmm? What is it?" Trigger was a little puzzled. Although this guy sometimes said strange things, he was reliable in battle, so her opinion of him wasn't particularly low.
Although she couldn't make out his appearance, he felt like a very good person. After all, anyone who got along so well with Belle had to be a good person, right?
"Nothing, I just wanted to ask, do your eyes hurt?" Xu An sighed as he spoke, feeling that he shouldn't really have asked a question like that.
"Sometimes, there's a stinging pain, and with it come those painful memories.
"But thankfully, I've met lots of wonderful people now. Gentle Belle, hot-tempered Captain Wisp, spacey Orphie, Seed who's always getting into trouble, and the single-minded Soldier 11...
"When we're at camp, they always find something interesting to do.
"Seed grows lots of flowers and plants. Sometimes she even eats the flowers, and she never listens when we tell her not to.
"Orphie always wants to get Captain Wisp some novel new holsters, but Captain Wisp turns her down every time. The two of them never tire of it.
"..."
As though the floodgates had opened, Trigger said quite a lot. Xu An listened quietly without being a nuisance or bringing up things like bulges in leather pants again.
"Sounds like you're doing pretty well now. At least you're very happy.
"You're amazing. You've moved on from the past and become stronger. That's what they would've wanted to see."
Xu An said.
"Thank you," Trigger said, a faint smile at her lips, seemingly thinking of the others still at camp.
The two chatted on and off like that.
Elsewhere, Belle and Ju Fufu watched the two getting along, exchanged a glance, then continued controlling the observation singularities.
Only after finding all the observation singularities did they call the two over, ready to leave.
But when she called them, Ju Fufu saw Trigger gently stroking Xu An's face.
"Huh?! What are they doing?!" Ju Fufu was thoroughly puzzled.
"It's fine, senior sister. Trigger can't see clearly, so this helps her remember what her friends look like. They're getting along really well~" Watching the two 罒ω罒, Belle wore a strange smile.
But she suddenly grew serious again. Wait a minute? Don't I fucking like him too? Why did I suddenly start shipping them? Damn, I need to read fewer novels at night.
So she called out, "What are you two doing? We're done over here. Time to move on."
The two nearby froze, then quickly separated like they'd been caught doing something wrong [・ヘ・?].
Xu An listened to the notifications of attribute points gained in his head. Heh heh, Belle really gave me a nice assist there.
He had already saved up forty thousand, another step closer to a hundred thousand.
They stopped dawdling.
The group swiftly cleared out the Ethereals along the way. Only after clearing all the Ethereals from the nearby area did they begin gathering supplies.
"All right, all threats eliminated! We can safely recover the supplies now. There, those crates." Ju Fufu pointed at a pile of crates stacked nearby.
"Senior sister, won't these things have been corrupted?" Xu An asked, a little puzzled. After all, normally, everything inside a Hollow would end up that way.
"The crates have a special coating that keeps the supplies inside from being easily corrupted. We just need to check them briefly before taking them back." As Ju Fufu spoke, she began inspecting them.
"Hmm~ This one's fine. This one's corrupted, throw it away." After checking them for quite a while, they ultimately left all the supplies and materials to Xu An.
The others strolled leisurely ahead to lead the way, while Xu An walked at the rear with one, two, three, four, five... thirteen crates of materials stacked beside him.
"Senior sister? Aren't you going to carry any?" Xu An asked Ju Fufu.
"Junior brother~ The capable do more work! You get what I mean, right? Here at Yunkui Summit, we give new disciples plenty of opportunities to train! Make the most of this. It's your chance to improve!" Ju Fufu patted Xu An on the shoulder.
Xu An listened in a daze. Why did that sound so familiar, like he'd heard it somewhere before?
His mouth twitched too, but he said nothing. He was lifting everything with his psychic power anyway, so it wasn't much effort.
"Let's go. Time to head back~" Belle led the way, and everyone chatted and laughed on the return trip.
Occasionally, a few stray Ethereals wandered over, but Trigger dealt with them directly without letting them get anywhere close.
"Phew~ We're back!" Ju Fufu stretched, loosening up.
"Having a cable car and a junior brother is so nice. No matter how heavy something is, I don't have to lift a finger~
"It's decided. From now on, all jobs gathering supplies like these go to junior brother~"
Xu An was maneuvering the supplies out of the cable car nearby. Hearing this, he nearly threw them away.
His eyes were filled with shock as he looked at Ju Fufu.
Seriously? (#-.-) If I'd known, I would've pretended they were really hard to carry...
I miscalculated, damn it.
Beside them, Belle and Trigger covered their mouths, snickering.
"You're still laughing?! Belle! Your dear senior brother is being exploited! Trigger! Your new friend is being bullied! Senior Sister Fufu! Your dearest little junior brother is delicate and frail!"
At that, Ju Fufu poked Xu An's rock-hard muscles.
"Delicate and frail? Ask that Bangboo over there. See if the Bangboo believes you." Ju Fufu looked utterly unconvinced.
"Little Bangboo? Don't I look really weak~?" Xu An looked as kindly as he could at Luckyboo a short distance away.
"En-na, en-na!" The Bangboo ran away as she spoke.
"Belle? ( ⌯' '⌯)? What did she mean?" Xu An asked in confusion.
"Uh, ummm, she said, 'Stay away, creepy old man.'" After saying that, Belle couldn't hold it in anymore and clutched her stomach, laughing. "Oh, I can't take it."
Xu An stood motionless, as though struck by lightning.
Then he picked up his longsword and walked toward the Bangboo, muttering, "Evil Ethereal, how dare you disguise yourself as a Bangboo and infiltrate Chenghui Terrace! This Daoist shall destroy you!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Junior brother, there's no need, no need." Belle hurriedly stopped him.
Trigger also hugged Xu An to hold him back.
"It's all right, it's all right. A boo's words don't count," Trigger comforted him.
Seeing that there seemed to be nothing for her to do, Senior Sister Fufu decided to leave first.
"I'll head back to the Summit first. See you later."
"Oh? I was just looking for you at the Summit. From the looks of it, you've already been to the Hollow?" Hongdou said, waving her fan.
"Mm-hmm, the commission's already finished." Fufu was just about to speak when Xu An appeared beside Shiye at some point.
"Impressive! Now that Mount Yunkui is here, it feels like you're going to take on every commission at Yin Tea House!" Hongdou narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled.
"Of course. When I step in, I'm worth three people!" Xu An said provocatively, even raising his eyebrows at Ju Fufu.
"Since you're so capable, junior brother, I'll leave it all to you~" With that, Ju Fufu skipped away.
Leaving Xu An to face Hongdou alone.
"Um, Boss Hongdou, is it too late for me to leave?"
"Heh heh (.-`ω´-), what do you think~? More and more people have been coming to Yin Tea House to post commissions lately. Would you like to take advantage of that and accept a few more?" Hongdou asked.
It sounded like a suggestion, but it was really a request~
After all, with Yunkui Summit's efficiency, they were quite a help to Yin Tea House's earnings. Hehe 罒ω罒.
At worst, she could give the masters a discount when they ate at Yin Tea House later. She certainly wouldn't lose out anyway.
Xu An could only accept. "That's just what I was thinking! We'll keep a closer eye on Yin Tea House's commissions, then. We can gather supplies and expand our connections, and it'll also help revitalize Yunkui Summit."
"But sending someone back and forth to tell you about new commissions every time is quite a hassle, and I can't keep leaving my post to come pass on messages like this..."
"En-nuh! (Leave it to me! I'll pass on the messages!)"
"En-na, en-na! (Run to the tea house! Write it down, pass it on! I'm good at that!)"
Hearing this, Xu An hurriedly covered Shiye's voice unit.
"What are you butting in for? Keep babbling and I'll yank out your voice unit and stick it in your charging port!" Xu An's words reached Shiye's ears like a devil's whisper, frightening the kid stiff.
After whispering that, Xu An stood up again and addressed Hongdou.
"Boss Hongdou, let's add each other on Knock Knock. That'll make things a lot easier (*＾ー＾). I'll have to trouble you to contact me, though, since senior sister left this to me."
Hongdou was happy with that too. "Sure, sure~ Let's add each other, then."
Just then, Belle walked over. Seeing the two adding each other as friends on Knock Knock, she called out, "I want to add Sister Hongdou too!"
"Oh, Belle. Sure, let's all add each other~" Hongdou showed Belle her Knock Knock ID too, letting her search for it.