At once, Erin noticed the form before Yu Sheng, and the little puppet excitedly rushed over.
"We’re going to start an organization!" Strangely, this fellow seemed even more thrilled than Yu Sheng himself.
"Have you thought of a name? It should sound powerful and mysterious, one that will bring in business just by its name…"
"A name, huh… I’ve actually thought of a few," Yu Sheng replied, holding his pen and pondering.
"What about you?"
"How about calling it the Erin Vanguard!"
Yu Sheng immediately turned his gaze to the fox girl.
"What do you think it should be called?"
Erin bounced up and down.
"Hey, don’t ignore me! What’s wrong with ‘Vanguard’? Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t use that name!"
Hu Li glanced at the hopping puppet, then looked over at Yu Sheng and the form on the table.
After pondering for a while, she opened her mouth cautiously, "I don’t quite understand this. Can we call it ‘A Family United in Love’...?"
Yu Sheng’s face instantly went blank.
Erin was almost bouncing in his face.
"This name is worse than what I suggested! You should listen to me instead of that silly fox…"
With a sigh, Yu Sheng realized he couldn't rely on these two treasures at home and picked up his pen, writing down the name he had long thought of—
Inn.
Erin immediately craned her neck to see, pausing for a moment at the sight of those two characters. "'Inn'? We’re calling it that? Why? It seems kind of strange…"
Yu Sheng had to gently push the puppet's head aside to regain his view, saying, "It's because of my ‘door.’"
The little puppet was shoved aside, crossing her arms as if she slowly understood Yu Sheng's idea.
The doors leading to distant places, the incredible landscapes, and that far-off “place” Yu Sheng always wanted to find.
"It's about being on the road, right..."
Erin nodded, mumbling softly, but it didn't take long before her chatter returned.
"How about you add my element too? Let’s start with ‘Puppet,’ and then add something to represent the silly fox, like a tail. The full name would then be ‘Puppet Tail Inn’… No? Then don’t glare at me!"
Yu Sheng sighed but, having grown accustomed to this puppet stirring up trouble, chose to ignore her and continued filling out the rest of the form.
In the section for initial team members, he seriously wrote down Erin and Hu Li’s names.
"Leave the ID number blank for now," Ren Wenwen looked up at Yu Sheng's progress and pointed to the portable card machine on the desk.
"The chip card is inside. Once the data comes through in a few minutes, it will activate, so please fill in the basic information for the members below."
Yu Sheng replied with an "Oh," hesitating for a couple of seconds as he looked at Erin and Hu Li.
"What are your educational backgrounds?"
Erin immediately perked up, proudly crossing her arms.
"Puppets don’t need to go to school! Puppets are directly taught ancient knowledge by the Ancestor Puppet during creation, and then they exchange experiences through the connections established by the Garden of Alice!"
Hu Li hesitated for a moment and seemed a bit shy.
"I was… still in elementary school when the incident happened…"
Yu Sheng stood there with his mouth agape for a while, as if suddenly realizing some cold, hard reality.
He felt that the ambitious dreams and expectations he once had were crumbling under this harsh truth.
After half a minute, he finally let out a long sigh and filled in two shocking pieces of information about the inn's founding team members—
One for prenatal education and one for incomplete elementary school.
Seeing this, Ren Wenwen came over to comfort him.
"You don’t need to concern yourself with this. The situations among different races are complex, and the educational systems often don’t align in border areas. Education credentials are not mutually recognized, so this information is mostly for reference..."
"Normally, those registering organizations in border areas should be ‘locals,’ right?" Yu Sheng glanced at the staff member.
"You don’t need to comfort me."
Ren Wenwen paused, seeming to want to say something else, but just then, the portable card machine on the table buzzed with a series of sounds.
"Ah, the ID data has come through."
Moments later, Hu Li and Erin finally received their ID cards—two plastic cards that looked no different from regular ID cards.
"I think this photo is a bit ugly," Erin said, holding the card that was a bit too big for her, flipping it over and over while complaining to Ren Wenwen.
"Don’t you have training for taking ID photos? People who look so good end up with such gloomy faces in the pictures! And you changed the color of my eyes…"
"That’s to make the ID usable in general situations—though you probably won’t use it much," Ren Wenwen replied casually while organizing the form Yu Sheng had filled.
"Just look, Miss Hu Li has no issue."
"Uh-huh, I think it's great," Hu Li nodded repeatedly, then carefully stuffed her ID card into her tail, looking up at Yu Sheng with a bright smile.
"Thank you, benefactor, for helping me~"
Yu Sheng smiled back without saying much, reaching out to ruffle her hair and scratch behind her ear, where her fur was soft.
Hu Li enjoyed this immensely—she squinted her eyes in pleasure.
"Now, the registration process is complete," Ren Wenwen said, tidying everything up as she stood from her chair.
"The license can’t be produced on-site. Someone will bring it to you in a couple of days. There’s also something else for you."
As she spoke, she rummaged through her seemingly bottomless backpack and handed Yu Sheng something.
It turned out to be a brand-new phone.
Yu Sheng stared in surprise at the item handed to him, hesitating to accept it.
"Uh? Why?"
"It’s a special device. It’s pre-installed with an intelligence-sharing and information-exchange platform created by the Special Operations Bureau. It can also activate support nodes set up in various places in the border area and has other auxiliary functions, such as maintaining communication under harsh conditions or finding the nearest contact station in areas far from the border managed by the Bureau. If you’ve interacted with other spirit world detectives before, you might have seen them use this; it’s different from an ordinary phone."
Yu Sheng blinked and suddenly recalled the phone Little Red Riding Hood used.
The style was indeed quite similar to the one Ren Wenwen was holding.
He hesitated, "This is… free?"
"It’s charged, but relatively affordable," Ren Wenwen smiled, "However, you don’t need to worry about this—this is a gift from our Director, given to you personally."
Only then did Yu Sheng extend his hand to take it, still a bit surprised.
"Director Bai Liqing sent this? Is… Is that appropriate?"
"You dealt with the entity lurking in Nightfall Valley and safely brought back two Special Operations officers and a spirit world detective. This gift is just a small token of appreciation," Ren Wenwen said earnestly.
"When I came here, the Director and our Captain specifically told me to inform you that if you need anything in the future, feel free to contact the Bureau directly—especially in daily life. If you encounter difficulties due to some ‘surreal reasons,’ you absolutely must let us know. Don’t worry about being a bother."
Yu Sheng listened, a bit dazed, softly acknowledging with "Oh," but the “care” conveyed by Ren Wenwen felt somewhat strange to him, without him being able to pinpoint what was off.
After a moment more, he noticed that the clerk still showed no intention of leaving, and he couldn’t help but be curious, asking, "Is there anything else?"
Ren Wenwen opened her mouth, looking rather hesitant.
It seemed she truly had something to say, but was nervous about how to approach it.
"If you have something to say, just say it," Yu Sheng chuckled, "If it’s something from the Special Operations Bureau, I’ll do my best to cooperate since you all have helped me a lot."
"It’s not from the Bureau… it’s my own matter," the clerk hesitated for quite a long time, finally mustering her courage, her earlier efficient demeanor now gone.
"I just wanted to confirm, was that article 'The Snowstorm Mystery' written by you?"
Yu Sheng’s expression froze for a moment, and then he quickly pieced it together, looking uncertain at her.
"Uh, yes, that’s my writing. You are…"
The clerk’s face lit up instantly.
"I, I’ve read your work! So many of them! I saw them on my phone!"
Yu Sheng finally confirmed his suspicion, instantly becoming elated and turning to Erin exclaiming, "See! I told you! I am a…"
Before he could finish boasting, Ren Wenwen quickly pulled out a notebook from her backpack, thrusting it toward Yu Sheng with the fervor as if she were going to stab him.
"Can I ask for your autograph?"
Now Yu Sheng was having the time of his life, happily accepting the notebook and pen, repeatedly agreeing.
"No problem, no problem..."
"Great! When I first saw it in the records, I couldn't believe it. I recommended your work to the Captain, and he said he didn't understand it…" Ren Wenwen chirped excitedly, "I have to tell you, I love your character ‘Lin Qi’ the most! I totally ship him and ‘Night Blade’..."
Yu Sheng: "…?"
His hand paused as he was signing, suddenly trembling.
(End of the chapter)