Sharing the Burden
After Ayou returned to the Office, he began searching again with everyone.
In the end, they had searched everywhere, but found no clues at all.
Isadora was wondering if there was any place in the Office that had been overlooked.
She suddenly remembered.
"Why must we only search outside? Can't we go check the back rooms?"
"Oh, right, that makes sense."
Subsequently, Mars and Lulu headed to their own rooms to check.
The rest of the group came to Shan's room.
Just as they were still searching for clues in Shan's room, rummaging through things together,
Mars and Lulu had already returned from their own rooms and arrived at Shan's room.
"Our rooms are exactly the same as in reality; there's no difference."
But when they entered Shan's room, they immediately saw the photo frame hanging on the wall, which contained a group photo of the three of them.
Looking at the photo frame on the wall, Lulu muttered to herself:
"I don't remember this photo frame."
Mars looked at the photo of the three of them; it was one taken when they had completed a request together.
His fists clenched.
"Senior, you…"
Ayou came over and patted Mars on the shoulder.
"Let's go, let's find him first."
Afterwards, the group left Shan's room.
Julia noticed there was still one door they hadn't checked.
"Mars, what is this room used for?"
Mars tried to recall, but it seemed their Office didn't have this room.
"It seems we don't have this room."
Roland looked at the room, noting it was no different from the other two doors.
"Then let's just go in and take a look; perhaps there will be clues."
Roland walked to the door and turned the doorknob.
The room was in complete darkness.
"It's so dark. Is there a light?"
He began fumbling along the wall.
"Let me do it, I'll light the way."
Ayou opened his script, emitting a light that illuminated the room.
Roland discovered that in such a large room, let alone a light switch, there wasn't even a light fixture.
Mars and Lulu looked at the things piled up in the room.
There was a chessboard, some sports equipment, and a brand-new swimsuit placed to the side—the size was clearly the kind Lulu wore—along with some other items and decorations.
There was also a note on the side.
"Oh my… another day of doing nothing! Great, it's about time for some trashy incident to happen, right?"
"If I keep staying like this, I'm going to forget how to walk… If I tell my friends, they'll only say, 'You have so much free time, aren't you satisfied?'"
"Or something like, 'Even if you don't get any requests, you won't starve,' that kind of complaining~"
"Hmm, let me think properly. Only by receiving requests can a Fixer's ranking improve, and the Office grow. That's the only way to earn more money."
"Right now, I can only work with Senior Shan and an idiot who looks like a rice cake ball. But things should improve in the future."
"Ah, I'm not dissatisfied with my current colleagues."
"I mean things like weapons, the Office decor, and so on would be better. Anyway, don't misunderstand."
"Is this my diary?"
These things were the items they liked.
It was just something they had casually complained about to Senior Shan at the time.
(It wasn't written randomly; Mars loves board games, Lulu likes sports—especially swimming—and they had mentioned hoping for better Office decor.)
Everyone searched for a long time, but they didn't even see a shadow.
Roland was complaining when he suddenly felt something was wrong.
"Shadows? That's right, shadows."
"Come, everyone stand together."
"What is this for?"
Subsequently, under Roland's direction, the shadows of the group condensed together in a twisting motion.
Not long after, a match seemed to slowly emerge in the center of the shadows.
Ayou saw it and picked up the match.
"Why is there a match here? It didn't seem to be here just now."
"Could this be Senior?"
"If so, we should just light it. I didn't expect him to be so small inside his own heart."
"Must we light it? Abnormality and Distortion are similar; if we want to stabilize him, we have to kill him."
"But there are emotions involved as well. I believe he wanted to come here."
"Then let's do it."
Ayou handed the match to Mars and Lulu.
Lulu took out her fire stick and struck the match against it.
With the action, the match was lit.
"Yes, if I can burn myself, I can light the way for everyone. Even if it's faint, I would be content."
Shan's voice came out, and the shape of the flame gradually condensed into Shan's figure.
Lulu and Mars held the match tightly, cupping the flame in their hands, afraid that it would go out.
Until the match finally burned out and the flame scorched their hands on the dry stalk, the two of them did not let go.
Walter watched this scene.
He asked Roland and Ayou:
"So, what exactly did you call me here for?"
"To make up the numbers."
"Screw you."
As the match burned out,
the walls of the Book World began to scorch as if they were on fire.
In the end, everything burned to ashes.
After the group left the Book World,
the flame on the book had begun to stabilize, but the scorch marks could not be erased.
Angela looked at the gradually stabilizing book.
"It should be fine now."
"Angela, can you call Senior out?"
"We have something we want to say to him."
"Sure, then I'll go check other books first."
With a snap of her fingers,
Shan's figure gradually began to manifest from the golden light.
But the clothes on his body had been scorched by the flames, leaving wounds.
That short blade also seemed to have been ravaged by the flames, leaving spots on it.
After Shan opened his eyes, he saw Mars and Lulu in front of him.
"Children…"
Before he could finish, Mars and Lulu had already hugged him.
"Senior, you are not alone; we have always been here."
Ayou watched this moving scene.
"The three of them are all gathered together. Hmm, congratulations, congratulations."
"Congratulate my foot. Let's go get a drink."
Roland wrapped his arm around Ayou's neck, and Ayou was forcibly dragged away by Roland.
"Don't you run away."
"Fine, fine, fine, fine, let's go, let's go."
At this moment, Walter heard there was alcohol.
"Hey, Roland, can you include me in that?"
"Sure, the more the merrier. Come on, Shan, do you want to join us too?"
Just a moment ago, Shan had just released them from the hug.
"I'm not much of a drinker, but joining everyone for the fun wouldn't be bad."
Watching them leave, Angela, who was reading, opened her mouth and muttered to herself:
"But who can share the burden for me? No one understands."