Chapter 112: Everyone in Huaxia Has a Thing for White Hair

Although Qiao Qiao was an expert, training a shrine maiden who had never touched a weapon and was terrified of vengeful spirits to become an exorcist like himself in such a short time was truly difficult.

After returning the armor remnants possessed by the vengeful spirit to the kappa, Qiao Qiao received a reward of 100,000 yen. He was a man of principle; for a vengeful spirit of that level, 100,000 yen was sufficient.

By evening, the group returned to Shimogamo Shrine. After having lunch, Qiao Qiao first assigned some exorcism-related homework to the five shrine maidens, including Maki Araki. Then, after taking a bath, he sat in the corridor to enjoy the breeze.

The rainy season had not yet ended, but today was a rare sunny day. The setting sun cast golden hues over Tadasu no Mori, creating a beautiful scene.

“Qiao-san, I’m back!” Suzuka arrived at the shrine at that moment. She seemed to have had a great time, carrying several paper bags filled with clothes.

Looking at the brand names, these were all luxury goods that Qiao Qiao couldn’t afford.

Is the life of the wealthy truly so lacking in ambition?

Even just once, Qiao Qiao longed to experience the feeling of spending a whole day shopping and returning home with bags full of weapons.

“Have you eaten dinner yet?” Qiao Qiao lifted his head from his phone and looked at Suzuka.

“I already ate. The grilled eel in Kyoto is really good; Qiao-san should definitely try it sometime, okay?” Suzuka said as she came closer and noticed he was watching a video.

“Qiao-san, you’ve changed,” she said with a surprised expression.

“I thought you wouldn’t watch these kinds of things,” she added.

Qiao Qiao was watching a popular cover song video on YouTube, which happened to be a song Suzuka wasn’t familiar with.

“Has Qiao-san finally become one of those people who sends money to virtual girls, becoming a fan of a single character everyone likes?”

“No, I just watch occasionally,” Qiao Qiao replied, closing the video as it neared its end.

“This cover singer is Chinese, and their pronunciation is quite good. The song just now was a Chinese song,” he said with a somewhat nostalgic look.

After all, whether communicating with people or with vengeful spirits, he usually used the Chinese language.

Hearing a familiar language in a foreign land always brought a sense of comfort.

“I stumbled upon it by chance before. Since it didn’t have many views, I left a few encouraging comments and even got a reply. They seem like a sincere kid.”

“Qiao-san, that kind of comment is risky,” Suzuka said, eyeing Qiao Qiao up and down before continuing.

“But Chinese seems difficult. If Qiao-san praises it, it must be pretty good.”

After learning about Qiao Qiao’s status as an exchange student, Suzuka had tried to learn some Chinese herself but only managed to pick up words like “good,” “xiaolongbao,” and “mapo tofu.”

The only phrase she could probably say was, “I’m cute, please give me money,” which sounded disastrous from any angle.

Of course, compared to Ariko Asano, who still couldn’t pronounce “dandan noodles” correctly, Suzuka’s language talent was practically genius level.

“If you have time, Qiao-san, you should teach me too. Maybe I could even stream in Chinese someday. Recently, I’ve had viewers from China sending money, but compared to me, they seem to prefer white-haired VTubers,” Suzuka mused.

“The VTuber I played with today has a white-haired character design and is surprisingly popular among Chinese viewers. I heard they’re preparing to do exclusive live streams on a Chinese video platform.”

If she could speak some Chinese, those wealthy Chinese fans would surely send even more money, Suzuka added.

“What do you think of white hair, Qiao-san?”

“White hair? I’d think that’s an old person,” Qiao Qiao answered seriously.

“Tsk tsk, sometimes I really wonder if Qiao-san is truly Chinese,” Suzuka joked before chatting a bit more and then heading off to take a bath while the water was still warm.

Not long after she left, Qiao Qiao’s phone vibrated. It was a message from his boss on Line.

[Boss]: I can help get those pieces of equipment you mentioned, but they’re all beginner gear, so I can’t guarantee their power.

[Qiao Qiao]: That’s enough. Thanks for your hard work.

[Qiao Qiao]: Please ship them to this address: XXXXXXXX.

[Boss]: Got it.

Five minutes later, Qiao Qiao’s phone vibrated again.

[Boss]: That delivery address… isn’t it Shimogamo Shrine?

By then, Qiao Qiao had already returned to his room, put down the phone, and focused on studying.

He didn’t carry many bullets, just enough for three days’ worth of daily practice.

Therefore, he planned to allocate some time each day for making training plans.

He believed he could teach the shrine maidens to use firearms, but that would only make them tools capable of handling guns, not true warriors who could face vengeful spirits, evil spirits, and yokai directly.

To change their status, he had to change their hearts first.

Although the shrine maidens now had the will to change, will alone was not enough; it had to be put into action.

Moreover, each of the four had different reasons for staying at the shrine, so a one-size-fits-all approach would not work.

There was a Chinese saying: “Teach according to one’s aptitude and adapt to circumstances.”

Qiao Qiao decided to provide different guidance tailored to each of the four shrine maidens.

First, he decided to focus on Hashimoto Kotone.

Since she was already a part of the shrine, her subjective initiative in exorcism should be the strongest. However, her natural timidity had prevented her from successfully exorcising spirits.

Qiao Qiao took out his phone, saw the message from his boss, replied with a line, then opened the chat window with Ms. Sakura to look over some materials she had sent.

Before dinner, he had asked Ms. Sakura to introduce him to some friends from the Kyoto Exorcist Association.

Although Qiao Qiao was a Tokyo exorcist and technically shouldn’t handle strange cases in Kyoto, he had accepted a few commissions under the name of Shimogamo Shrine.

The first commission was scheduled for the next morning.

The client was the head of a video production studio. While filming last month near Mount Hiei, they stumbled upon a corpse that had been murdered and abandoned.

That area was usually deserted, and the video studio had gone there only for filming purposes.

Later, the police investigation revealed that the corpse belonged to a female office worker living nearby, who had been accidentally killed during an argument with her boyfriend. The boyfriend had dumped the body in the mountains.

It was a straightforward, unsuspicious case.

However, a few days ago, while filming, the studio kept capturing the figure of a woman on camera. After several checks, they realized it was the same deceased woman.

For some unknown reason, her vengeful spirit had latched onto the video studio, unsettling everyone there.

After reviewing the case, Qiao Qiao guessed that the woman’s resentment was so warped that she targeted the unrelated video studio.

Judging by the intensity of her attachment, it wasn’t a troublesome spirit and could be resolved easily.

All that was needed was to locate the vengeful spirit and put it down with a single bullet.

Simple and direct.

Therefore, Qiao Qiao chose to assign this commission to Hashimoto Kotone and personally teach her step by step.

This choice was also influenced by his observation that Kotone seemed interested in low-budget B-movies.

After all, interest was the best teacher.

If Kotone could overcome her fear of vengeful spirits through this commission, Qiao Qiao could use her as a breakthrough point to proceed with his guidance.

To begin his teaching.