Chapter 50: One Must Take in Both Nourishment and Poison

“What’s wrong? Are you being kept under school surveillance because of what happened the other day?”
Sakamoto Kazuya, his close friend, looked at Qiao Qiao’s troubled expression with concern.
“No, it’s not that.”
Qiao Qiao put away his phone.
Two days had passed since the shoe cabinet explosion, and the incident had mostly subsided.
To be fair, President Masaharu Ii’s methods were indeed clever.
He issued a notice, telling the students that it was merely a drill.
Qiao Qiao, a student with some experience, participated in the exercise to demonstrate how to handle unknown dangerous objects.
As for the shoe cabinet, a new one was delivered by noon that day.
Made of cypress, infused with spiritual power, it could suppress evil influences.
Even ordinary dirty shoes, after spending a day inside, seemed much cleaner when taken out.
Qiao Qiao had no idea how President Ii handled things with the teachers.
But at least he was spared any punishment.
Still, Qiao Qiao felt guilty and volunteered to help the custodians on Sunday.
Honestly, given the choice, Qiao Qiao would have preferred milder, less drastic methods for dealing with explosives—such as moving the cabinet to an empty, deserted area or simply submerging it in water.
But time was pressing, so he had to resort to brute force.
Once again, he silently thanked President Masaharu Ii.
Qiao Qiao and Sakamoto Kazuya headed to the cafeteria.
The reason for Qiao Qiao’s troubled look was related to his part-time work.
As mentioned earlier,
In the past two weeks, commissions had dwindled.
Usually, within a month, Qiao Qiao could take on six or seven commissions.
But since Golden Week, there had been only one.
Though fewer vengeful spirits was a good thing,
This situation still made Qiao Qiao feel something was amiss.
On Line, most exorcists were idly chatting.
The Shinjuku branch had three ways to accept commissions.
First, you could go directly to the reception hall and find a receptionist like Miss Sakura.
They’d use the computer system to check the latest commissions, finding work for exorcists like Qiao Qiao who specialized in eliminating vengeful spirits.
Some professional exorcists waited at the hall, but those were few.
Second, there were targeted commissions.
For instance, Mr. Shinshuke Arai’s company had a haunting and specifically requested Qiao Qiao.
This kind of commission was reserved for famous exorcists, whose schedules were packed and even required appointments.
Ordinary exorcists could only take random jobs.
The third method was rather primitive.
Receptionists like Miss Sakura would post brief information in the Line group.
Exorcists who saw it would message privately to snatch the job.
Of course, since Qiao Qiao had classes, he couldn’t always be glued to his phone, so he rarely used this method.
Anyway, most vengeful spirit commissions tended to remain unclaimed.
But lately,
Even those were quickly taken.
Every day during lunch break or after school,
Qiao Qiao would open his phone and scroll through the chat.
The commissions were gone.
Especially after returning home, seeing Suzuka’s daily streams making quite a bit of money, and even offering to buy household items,
Qiao Qiao couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed.
There had once been talk of developing an exorcist association mobile app.
But every time Qiao Qiao asked, Miss Sakura always answered, “We’re working on it.”
So he didn’t press her further.
“Why are there so many people in the cafeteria today?”

As they walked toward the cafeteria, Sakamoto Kazuya suddenly remarked.
Qiao Qiao looked up.
The cafeteria was crowded with students, not a single seat left.
That shouldn’t be the case.
Upon asking around, he learned that the boiler had malfunctioned, delaying lunch service.
This caused a temporary bottleneck.
Early arrivals couldn’t finish eating in time to free up seats for others.
“What a hassle,”
Sakamoto Kazuya complained, eyeing the long queue.
“How about we just buy some bread?”
Qiao Qiao pointed to a nearby bread kiosk.
Usually, it wasn’t very popular—after all, who would choose cold bread over steaming ramen or rice?
But in times like these, bread proved its worth.
Come to think of it,
The variety of bread in Japan was far richer than in China.
There were not only pineapple buns, baguettes, and red bean buns,
But also curry bread, yakisoba bread, croquette bread,
And lately, thanks to the bubble tea craze, even bubble bread.
Qiao Qiao picked the cheapest baguette, and bought a carton of milk.
He and Sakamoto Kazuya headed to the courtyard to eat.
But he failed to notice
That the cafeteria uncle, when handing him the bread,
Had a strangely vacant expression.
...
Perfect!
A man hid in the shadows.
Watching Qiao Qiao take the bread.
After Qiao Qiao saw through his landmine trap,
He hadn’t given up.
Instead, he conducted thorough, meticulous research.
He learned Qiao Qiao’s behavioral patterns.
For example,
Qiao Qiao was a price-sensitive consumer, always choosing the cheapest options when possible.
This made the plan feasible.
For instance,
He usually had lunch in the cafeteria, and today, the Thursday morning teacher had a habit of running five minutes overtime.
This provided the crucial “five minutes of fate” for the plan to unfold.
Moreover,
The bread at Mine Castle University High School was imported from outside factories, and rarely bought, so it attracted little attention.
This allowed the plan to proceed smoothly.
Even Qiao Qiao,
Wouldn’t inspect every item of food he ate in most cases.
Thus,
The man devised a flawless plan.
He first commissioned a poison-specialist demon to create a deadly bread.
The poison was a fusion of demonic power and modern science.
The moment Qiao Qiao bit into it, the toxin and malice would instantly invade his body, causing a momentary vulnerability.
In that instant,
The man could strike, easily eliminating Qiao Qiao.
He then used psychological suggestion and hypnosis to make the cafeteria uncle pick the poisoned bread for Qiao Qiao.
Finally, to ensure absolute certainty,
He produced several such breads.

If Qiao Qiao didn’t get the critical one,
He would swap it unnoticed.
“Ha! Exorcist, tremble before the combined might of human technology and demon arts.”
The man chuckled inwardly,
Watching Qiao Qiao.
The two had reached the courtyard.
There were many student couples.
On one side, “Hey, this is my homemade octopus sausage, try it!”
On the other, “Your bento looks delicious, let’s swap some dishes.”
Sweet nothings everywhere.
Blinding all the single dogs.
Qiao Qiao and Sakamoto Kazuya, two boys,
Joked and laughed as they found an empty bench.
Sakamoto Kazuya had chosen yakisoba bread and orange juice.
In the man’s sight, Qiao Qiao unwrapped the baguette.
From appearance, aroma, and flavor,
It seemed perfectly ordinary.
The poison was so well concealed that only a careful inspection or lab test could reveal it.
Now, die!
The man watched as Qiao Qiao raised the bread to his mouth.
Then—
“Huh, today’s yakisoba bread has green peppers in it.”
Sakamoto Kazuya glanced at his wrapper, and remarked.
“What’s up?”
Qiao Qiao paused his motion.
“Nope, I still can’t handle green peppers.”
Sakamoto Kazuya set down his yakisoba bread, looked at Qiao Qiao’s baguette.
“How about we swap?”
Seeing his friend stuck in distress,
Qiao Qiao naturally offered help.
He handed his baguette to Sakamoto Kazuya.
?
The man in the shadows was baffled.
Was this even possible?
Before he could intervene to stop the swap,
Sakamoto Kazuya had already taken a big bite of the baguette.
Chew, chew, chew.
He finished it in two or three bites.
“The taste is a bit odd, but better than green peppers,”
Sakamoto Kazuya concluded.
Nothing happened.
No poisoning, no malice.
None at all.
???
The man watched the scene,
Utterly confused.
Was the poison fake?
He opened one of his backups,
Tasted a bit.
Immediately lost consciousness.