It was only long after the young man had gone that Fang Qiu finally came back to herself.
She recovered her composure quickly.
Small fry. She was, after all, a woman who had chatted and laughed with the Tianquan, Ningguang herself.
And that young man — whatever else he might be — was almost certainly one of the Liyue Qixing. If he wanted to find out who she was, it would be the simplest thing in the world. Ningguang had tracked her down easily enough, after all. Even if this young man lacked Ningguang's reach, looking up her identity would still be well within his means.
People of that caliber didn't sweat the small stuff.
No need to worry.
Besides — judging by his reaction, this had clearly been a chance encounter. And he'd seemed genuinely excited about her new book.
Nothing to be afraid of.
"Hah."
Fang Qiu let out a soft breath, smiled faintly to herself, and made short work of both the cake and the Gift of the Anemo Archon.
Then she headed straight home, flopped down on top of Jumpy Dumpty, and picked up a light novel from Inazuma to read.
The title: Reborn as the Kamisato Clan's Dog.
When she'd first bought the book, Fang Qiu had assumed it was going to be some strange, niche sort of thing. To her surprise, it turned out to be unexpectedly wholesome and action-packed.
It followed the protagonist, who was reborn as one of the Kamisato family's ninja hounds — and who, driven by an unwavering determination to protect the clan's honor, threw himself into a grueling regimen of self-cultivation.
In the end, he mastered the Two-Blade Style.
That is to say: one blade clenched between his teeth, and another coiled in his tail — offense and defense unified in perfect harmony.
The protagonist also learned the Blade Vortex technique. According to the author's description, the move bore a resemblance to the Captain's Ape-Slicing Spin from Attack on the Hilichurl Titan in her previous life — the one where he spun in circles and cut everything down.
Hidden weapons concealed within his fur would fly outward as his body rotated, striking down enemies without a trace.
He was, in every sense of the word, a king among dogs.
In the canine world, he carried a title that rang like thunder.
The Blade Hound.
According to the synopsis, the protagonist would eventually come face to face with the pinnacle of the Raiden Shogun's swordsmanship — the legendary Strike of Musou. Fang Qiu was very much looking forward to that.
…
In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.
Liyue Harbor glittered in the morning light. The brilliant sunrise cast its glow across a sea of shimmering, rippling waves.
It was early morning.
Outside Wanwen Bookhouse, a large crowd of novel enthusiasts had already gathered, the air alive with the buzz of voices.
"Proprietress, one copy of 5 Centimeters Per Second, please."
"Proprietress, one copy of 5 Centimeters Per Second, one copy of Your Name, and one copy of My Name is Knocking Ghost."
"Proprietress, one 5 Centimeters Per Second and one Legend of the Demon Sword."
Proprietress Jifang bustled about behind the counter, all the while turning over a rather important matter in her mind.
Just the previous evening, the tavern proprietress downstairs had proposed a partnership.
The idea was to launch a joint membership program. Anyone who signed up for a membership card would earn privileges on book release days — access to a dedicated members-only queue — and could also use the card for a ten percent discount at the tavern downstairs.
It would mean profit from book sales, a monthly membership fee on top of that, and a boost to the downstairs tavern's business all at once.
She had to hand it to her — the tavern proprietress truly was a born businesswoman. Who else would have come up with something like this?
While Jifang was still lost in thought, the novel enthusiasts further back in the queue were chattering away.
"Old Thief Fang Qiu is pumping out books way too fast. I only came to have a look and see if there was anything new — and here she is with another release already."
"5 Centimeters Per Second? From the cover, it looks like it's set in the same world as Your Name — both Inazuma stories. Are you guys buying?"
"Obviously! Why wouldn't I? Old Thief Fang Qiu has turned over a new leaf, after all. After I finished Your Name, I was rolling around in bed for ages — squirming like a maggot."
"Ugh, don't say 'maggot' — I'm about to be sick. This morning's breakfast had... ugh, never mind, let's not go there. Water under the bridge. Life's already full of enough hardship. I'm buying Old Thief Fang Qiu's new book too."
"I'm so annoyed. I was originally going to use her books to toughen my heart and build mental fortitude. Then Old Thief Fang Qiu goes and has a change of heart halfway through and stops writing misery lit. Who could have seen that coming? Sigh... the road to inner strength is long and winding."
"Speaking of which — have you heard the latest rumor? Apparently Fang Qiu is actually the Second Young Master of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, Young Master Xingqiu, in disguise."
"Fang Qiu... Xingqiu... hiss, now that you mention it — actually, yeah, I can totally see it. How did I never think of that? I always said that theory about Fang Qiu being a Hilichurl spy embedded in Liyue was nonsense — deciding it based purely on the fact that the 'qiu' in the pen name shares a reading with the 'qiu' in Hilichurl was way too much of a stretch."
"First, let me be clear: I have absolutely no interest in men dressed as women. Second, I think Young Master Xingqiu is incredibly good-looking — beautiful face, slender figure."
The crowd chattered on.
Meanwhile, near the front of the queue, two figures stood holding large burlap sacks.
"B-Big Bro, are we really doing this again? Last time we almost got caught..." The fatty of the two swallowed nervously, looking decidedly spineless.
"What's there to be scared of? We're Sister Bao'er's people. One setback doesn't mean anything — this time we'll definitely earn back everything we lost!" The lean young man let out a cold snort.
"But what if we run into Yanfei again?" the fatty said, his face creased with worry.
"Hmph. You really have no eye for people, do you? Out of the entire crowd, you somehow managed to pick the one legal expert in all of Liyue — give yourself a pat on the back for that. This time I'll handle the selling myself. Let me show you what a real professional looks like. You just keep your eyes on the Millelith for me."
The lean young man shot the fatty a look of pure contempt.
"Yes, yes! Big Bro, you truly are Sister Bao'er's most capable right-hand man." The fatty beamed, and the look he gave the lean young man carried more than a little admiration.
"We're up — hurry it up." The lean young man said.
"Right, right." The fatty nodded and passed his burlap sack over to proprietress Jifang. "Proprietress, we'd like a hundred copies of Your Name, please."
"Huh?"
Jifang blinked, caught off guard — and before she could even react, the lean young man had already smacked the fatty upside the head.
"Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?! It's 5 Centimeters Per Second!" the lean young man snarled.
"Oh, right, right — 5 Centimeters Per Second." The fatty quickly corrected himself.
Staring at the fatty's utterly blank expression, the lean young man pressed a hand to his forehead with a pained grimace.
How in the world had Sister Bao'er saddled him with this absolute dunce…
Last time, with a queue that long, this genius had somehow managed to pick the single worst possible person to approach — and the result was several thousand Mora down the drain, couldn't even offload the books at half price.
Well, at ten Mora a copy, who was going to pay twenty for one from him?
Those books were still sitting at his place. He was still debating whether to just give them away to his fellow Treasure Hoarders.
That whole batch of Your Name copies still hadn't been dealt with — and this idiot had nearly gone and bought a hundred more.
What kind of person was this, honestly…
Books purchased, the fatty hefted the burlap sack and trailed along behind him as they headed downstairs.
The lean young man swept his gaze across the crowd and quickly zeroed in on a target.
"This one — clearly not short on money." He gave a cold smile, pulled a book from the sack, and said: "Watch carefully. I'll only demonstrate this once."
____
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