What do you mean you also want to return to the world?

Chapter 36: Working with the Sword-Wielding Bureau is such a lucrative career path!

"Hey, Fei-ge." Now that he'd noticed the problem, Shi Yan immediately handed over the photo. "Take a look at this."

Qi Fei took the photo but didn't look at it immediately. Instead, he said with considerable displeasure, "Don't call me Brother Fei. Don't you think it sounds sleazy?"

"What should I call you then?"

Call me the top streamer!

Shi Yan: "..."

"Haha, just kidding." Qi Fei started looking at the photos, then frowned slightly. "This one..."

"You've noticed the problem too?"

"This is a big problem," Qi Fei said quite seriously. "Shi Yan, you might not understand the rules yet. In our live stream, we generally don't allow high school students to push the boundaries..."

"Who said it was borderline!" Shi Yanren was speechless. "I wanted to ask if you felt anything was 'off'! Something 'off' that's related to monsters!"

"Oh, you mean monsters? I thought you were talking about something else." Hearing about monsters, Qi Fei became a little more serious. He carefully examined the photo, then frowned slightly. "You think this girl is being haunted by a monster? How did you figure that out?"

"It's just a feeling," Shi Yan said. "Especially this mirror, it gave me a very uncomfortable feeling."

That was true; even before Scarlet reminded him, Shi Yan had already sensed something was wrong with the mirror.

"You can sense it even from a photo?" Qi Fei stroked his chin. "No wonder you're from the priestly department."

Shi Yan was taken aback: "Didn't you notice?"

"no."

Shi Yan was even more puzzled: "Then how come you can't even tell? How do you usually use live streaming to find monsters?"

"It's just that you can't tell from the photos," Qi Fei said. "Once you connect with them via video call, you can tell. People affected by monsters speak differently than normal people. So only when I discover this do I talk to them privately and start an investigation. Only a very small number of people who have been deeply affected can be identified directly from photos, such as those with dark circles under their eyes."

Is everyone's face turning dark...?

Shi Yan suppressed the urge to complain and asked, "So what should we do now? Arrange for her to appear in your live stream tonight, and then you can show her?"

"No way." Qi Fei shook his head and said firmly, "Didn't I say I won't let high school students cross the line in my live stream? I'm a streamer with principles."

"Then why don't you just prevent her from touching the edge?"

"Then what's the point of my live stream?"

Shi Yan opened his mouth wide, and for a moment he didn't know how to refute it.

"Just kidding, just kidding," Qi Fei said with a smile. "Actually, it's unnecessary. My live stream is about finding antiques that might be problematic. Now that you've already realized there's something wrong with her, there's no need to have her on the live stream."

"So what should we do now?" Shi Yan was already exasperated by Qi Fei's cheesy joke. "Are you going to contact her privately?"

"I'm not really interested in girls like that... okay, okay, actually it's not a good thing." Qi Fei shrugged. "Think about it, I'm a big streamer, after all. If I were to be caught meeting with a girl who's still in school, what would happen to my reputation? So usually it's Tang Shi who investigates these kinds of situations."

"I understand." Shi Yan sighed. "Then I'll go tell Sister Shi directly."

From now on, we should just tell Tang Shi about these things directly, so as to save ourselves from listening to Qi Fei's nonsense.

But Qi Fei stopped him: "Why don't you handle it yourself?"

Shi Yan was taken aback: "I'll handle it?"

"Yes, don't forget you're an official Swordholder now," Qi Fei said. "This is your job. Besides, you're a student, and judging by your clothes, you're even an alumnus, so no one will think anything of it."

Shi Yan thought about it and realized that it seemed to be true.

Sigh, it's all because he's had nothing to do all week, he almost forgot he's a demon hunter.

"Then what should I do?" Having figured this out, Shi Yan naturally followed up, "Should I just exorcise the demon directly?"

"No, no, no, this time is different from the one a week ago." Qi Fei shook his head. "Before, the Archaeological Bureau invited us. All we had to do was get rid of the demon, and we didn't have to worry about anything else. But this time our target is ordinary citizens, so it's a bit different."

Shi Yan asked, puzzled, "What's the difference? Aren't they both about exorcising demons?"

"The most direct thing to do is, what about this mirror?" Qi Fei pointed to the mirror in the photo. "This is her private property, and you're just going to disregard it and carry out an exorcism?"

Shi Yan was taken aback: "Oh, right?"

He really hadn't expected this.

"What should we do then?"

"Normally, we would choose to buy it," Qi Fei said. "Then we'd clean it up."

"Buy it back?" Shi Yan was even more surprised. "Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"

Why do I have to pay out of my own pocket to exorcise a demon?

"How could this be a loss? Use your brain, will you?" Qi Fei said irritably. "Things infested by monsters are definitely genuine antiques. Have you ever seen a monster living in a 'microwave-safe' plate?"

Hmm... thinking about it that way, it does seem to make sense.

Shi Yan instantly felt his thoughts complete a closed loop, then turned to look at the room full of antiques: "Could it be that all of these you have now are also...?"

"Pretty much, all collected from others," Qi Fei said smugly. "You really think I do live streams just to watch suggestive content? Don't underestimate me."

Goodness, using monsters to distinguish the authenticity of antiques, and then taking away the real antiques by exorcising monsters, what a brilliant idea!

Shi Yan couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Then who paid for this?"

"Some are mine, some are from the Sword-Holding Bureau," Qi Fei said. "If I paid for them myself, the antiques are mine. If the Sword-Holding Bureau paid for them, they might take them back later. Of course, it's just a possibility; generally speaking, they don't bother to specifically inquire, as long as it's not too outrageous. For example, if you want to buy back a small bracelet for a hundred million, that's treating people like fools. But as long as it's not that excessive..."

Qi Fei winked at Shi Yan, and Shi Yan immediately understood what he meant.

As long as it's not too outrageous, the Sword-wielding Bureau will pretend they didn't see it.

"In short, this is the amount I can offer." Qi Fei quickly wrote down a line of numbers. "See if you can negotiate it down. Of course, I don't mean you have to negotiate the entire amount. You can try to bargain with her. You don't need to refund the difference; consider it an advance on your salary."

Shi Yan stared at the row of zeros on the paper, and only one thought remained in his mind.

Working with the Sword-Wielding Bureau is incredibly lucrative.