Stellar Train: I Open a Small Shop on the Train-Chapter 161

Topaz chatted with Barbara, Ayaka, and Nilou for a while, then took the three of them to the dance studio.

In the dance studio, there was a robot.

This robot had been purchased by Ye Yun from the system.

Its function was to choreograph dances and teach dance moves.

According to the system, the chip in this dance robot contained over a billion types of dances.

The three girls began learning dance moves from the robot.

Topaz planned to first have the three girls master a few song-and-dance numbers, and then let them participate in some competitions to make their debut.

Seeing the Teyvat girl group trio making good progress, Ye Yun left the treehouse and returned to the store.

Just as he came back, he saw Kiana who had been bored in the shop—sometimes going to the small bar to play with water, sometimes lying in the lounge area watching TV.

"Kiana, are you that free?"

Kiana saw Ye Yun and shrugged.

"Can't help it. Mei is busy, Stelle went exploring again, and Hu Tao and the others are doing their own thing.

No one to play with me."

Just then, the door to the reception room opened, and Jashin-chan poked her head out.

"I can play with you, but it'll cost you~ 50 star coins an hour. How about it? How about it?"

Ye Yun immediately rolled his eyes at Jashin-chan.

"Jam-chan, cut the nonsense."

Jashin-chan immediately became disgruntled.

"Come on, my time is valuable too, okay?"

Ye Yun said helplessly.

"Isn't Kiana your good friend? You're still charging her?"

Whether it was because she thought Ye Yun made sense or not, Jashin-chan froze for a moment.

Just as Ye Yun thought Jashin-chan realized her mistake...

"Oh right! Kiana is my good friend, and I haven't charged her the friend fee yet.

Let me think, how much did Medusa give back then? Oh~ 2 million yen."

Ye Yun gave Jashin-chan a solid knock on the head.

"You're hopeless!"

Jashin-chan winced in pain.

"Ahhh!!! Ye Yun! Don't hit my head! Getting hit on the head makes you dumb!"

Ye Yun rolled his eyes again.

"Go to the kitchen and prep the food."

Jashin-chan pouted.

"No! You just hit me, so I'm not helping you."

Ye Yun chuckled.

"Fine, I'll do it myself. But don't expect to bring any food back later.

If I'm not mistaken, the allowance Yukarin gave you has already been used on pachinko or gacha again, hasn't it?"

The more Jashin-chan heard, the more she started sweating—Masaka! How did Ye Yun know? Could this be the legendary fortune-telling?

No! If she went back without any food, Yukarin would definitely flip out!!!

Jashin-chan dashed into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and began chopping cabbage at lightning speed.

Ye Yun raised an eyebrow at the sight.

Just this? And you think I can't handle a little cauliflowery snake like you?

Kiana was amazed. Ye Yun was just too strong—Jashin-chan couldn't stand up to him at all.

Just then, the shop door opened and Qingque walked in.

Humming a little tune, she entered the bar area and got ready to start her shift.

Her vacation was over, and Jing Yuan had indeed honored the leave he had promised her.

Qingque leisurely sat on a high stool and began transcribing product information.

She had just copied one item when she suddenly stopped, went into the bar, and poured herself a glass of juice.

Taking a sip, she picked the pen back up and continued working.

In that moment, Qingque felt her life was perfect.

This job was so comfy—no boss constantly watching her, light workload,

And from time to time, she could chat with her friends on the train and maybe play a round of Celestial Jade.

Kiana saw Qingque and walked over.

"Qingque, what are you doing?"

Qingque replied, "I'm working. What about you?"

Kiana spread her hands."I'm just wandering around. I'm bored. No one wants to play with me."

Qingque waved her hand.

"No problem~ Just wait a bit. I'll teach you something fun."

Kiana perked up.

"Oh? What is it? Have I played it before?"

Qingque put on a mysterious air.

"This thing... guaranteed to be fun~"

Kiana gave her a knowing, intrigued smile.

"Ohoho? Then hurry up. I'll wait over there."

Qingque gave an OK gesture and continued transcribing the product data.

Kiana went to sit in one of the booth seats, waiting for Qingque to finish work.

Over ten minutes later...

Qingque completed her work. As a master of slacking, she definitely wouldn't send it off right away.

If she submitted it too early, the boss might say, "Wow! You've got free time? Go do something else."

And if she waited too close to the end of her shift, it would look too obvious. Do it too often, and the boss would catch on.

Through experience, Qingque had concluded that the ideal time to submit work was about 30 minutes before the end of the shift.

That way, it looked like she finished perfectly, and no suspicions were raised.

Qingque packed up her things and walked over to Kiana.

"Come on, I'll take you to do something fun."

Kiana jumped up with a "woohoo" and followed Qingque into the reception room.

Once inside, Kiana looked around curiously.

"Qingque, what are we doing here? Watching a movie?"

Qingque wagged her finger.

"Nope~ Just wait a moment."

She touched her storage ring, pulled out a Celestial Jade set, then a card table and four chairs.

Kiana stood beside her, fascinated by the setup.

"What is this? How do you play?"

Qingque pulled out a chair, patted it, and gestured for Kiana to sit.

"Here, sit first. I'll go call two more people."

Kiana sat down.

"Alright, hurry up."

Qingque ran out of the room and called Guinaifen.

"Hello? Guinaifen, want to play a round of Celestial Jade?

You're streaming for rent money? Come quick! We have a newbie!"

After securing Guinaifen, Qingque went to the kitchen.

"Jam-chan, how much longer?"

Jashin-chan thought for a moment and replied.

"Not many people eating today—ten more minutes."

Qingque nodded.

"You want to play Celestial Jade later?"

Jashin-chan looked confused.

"Huh? Celestial Jade? What's that?"

Qingque thought a bit, then explained in simpler terms.

"It's mahjong. You know that, right?"

Jashin-chan's eyes lit up.

"Oh, that I know! Count me in! I want to play!"

Just hearing it was mahjong got her hyped.

"How high are the stakes?"

Qingque replied.

"Small stakes—base of 1,000 credit points."

Jashin-chan agreed instantly, ignoring her empty wallet.

Qingque got all her players together and returned to the reception room to wait.

Jashin-chan cheered herself on and sped up her chopping, moving so fast her hands left afterimages.

***

Guinaifen stepped through the portal into Ye Yun's shop. She looked around and saw only Ye Yun lying on the sofa playing with his phone, and the seven little ones playing with LEGO blocks in the lounge area.

"Ye Yun, long time no see."

Ye Yun looked up and saw Guinaifen.

"Oh, it's you. Long time no see, little Guizi. How have you been lately?"

Guinaifen gave a proud thumbs-up.

"Pretty great! After that livestream at Suiyuan, my fan count shot up like crazy.

By the way, where's Qingque? She told me to come play Diyuan Qiongyu—said there's a newbie and I can make some living expenses!"

Ye Yun raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Didn't your livestream take off already? Why are you still short on living expenses?"

When Guinaifen heard that, she recalled her recent troubles.

"Don't ask. I just bought a house in Changle Heaven and used up all my savings. The donations from my livestream are still under review—I can't withdraw them until they're approved."

Ye Yun clicked his tongue.

"Tsk tsk, impressive. You bought a house already."

Guinaifen chuckled and stood with her hands on her hips.

"Of course! Now I finally have a place to call home.

Alright, alright, enough chatting. Where's Qingque? She called me here to make money."

Ye Yun pointed toward the reception room.

"Over there. You're the last one we were waiting on. Go on in."

Guinaifen thanked him and entered the reception room.

Inside, she found Kiana, Qingque, and Jashin-sama (Little Evil God) already waiting, with Qingque looking a bit impatient.

Qingque brightened up when she saw Guinaifen.

"Guizi, you're finally here! Quick, take a seat. Let's start a round already!"

Once Guinaifen sat down, Qingque began teaching Kiana how to play Mahjong, explaining the rules as they went.

Kiana listened with wide-eyed confusion, asking nonstop questions like a curious baby to try and understand.

Seeing this, Qingque and Guinaifen decided to jump straight into actual games—first three rounds wouldn't count, just for Kiana to get familiar.

In the first round, Kiana awkwardly arranged her tiles.

Qingque played an 8-dot tile.

"Eight-dot. Kiana, it's your turn to draw and discard. Every turn, you draw one tile and discard one."

Kiana, excited, drew a tile and discarded a five-character tile.

Qingque explained every action she took, including moves like "Pong" and "Kong."

Kiana learned quickly. After three rounds, she pretty much had the hang of the game.

With fire in her eyes, Kiana clenched her fists.

"Hmph! I get it now! Watch me—I'm gonna win so hard you'll be crying to your moms!"

Then the real game began.

For the first hour, Qingque, Jahy-sama, and Guinaifen used their experience to take turns winning.

But after that, things changed—Kiana's insane luck kicked in. She started winning hand after hand with self-drawn tiles, racking up over ten consecutive wins.

Jahy-sama looked at the last 10,000 credits in her coin pouch. No way! She couldn't walk away empty-handed!

"Ahhh~ Um, I have to go make dinner for Yuririn. You guys keep playing, I'm heading out~"

She tried to sneak off with her last 10,000 credits, but Kiana grabbed her before she could escape.

"Dinner for Yurine? Easy. Have her come eat at Ye Yun's place. Just one more pair of chopsticks!"

Qingque chimed in too.

"Exactly! Food's food, doesn't matter where you eat it. Have her come here.

You sit tight—I'll go tell Yurine myself."

Without giving Jashin-sama a chance to say no, Qingque dashed out of the room and shut the door behind her with a sly smile.

Heh~ I know your type. Win a little and try to run? Not on my watch!

Qingque had seen plenty of people like that—no way was she letting anyone pull that on her table.

She dove into a portal and arrived at Yurine's apartment.

Yurine was working on her homework—yes, she was still a student.

Hearing the noise, Yurine thought Jashin-sama was back.

"Jami-chan, did you buy the groceries? Huh? Oh, Qingque-chan, it's you. What brings you here?"

Qingque looked around and explained,

"Jami-chan's with us playing Mahjong. Why not come to Ye Yun's shop for lunch? We're having sweet-and-sour cabbage and braised fish."

Yurine nodded.

"Alright. Thanks for coming all the way."

Qingque waved a hand.

"No problem~ I'll head back now. See you later."

She jumped back through the portal and hurried back to continue the game of Celestial Jade.

Yurine watched her leave, then returned to her homework. By the time she finished, it would be just about lunchtime.

On Amphoreus:

Stelle and Dan Heng met with Aglaea.

At the Hero's Bath, Aglaea made them promise not to reveal their identities as people from beyond this world.

Stelle and Dan Heng agreed.

Aglaea then prepared to take them to see the Vortex of Genesis, the place where the Flame is kept.

Just then, Stelle said,

"Hold on a sec~ I wanna place something down."

Stelle pulled out a Pathfinder Beacon and placed it down. Dan Heng explained.

"That's a beacon. It's part of our mission as Trailblazers."

Aglaea examined the space beacon.

"A beacon? No problem."

Stelle then tossed down a portal on the ground. Aglaea asked,

"What's this?"

Dan Heng replied,

"That's a portal. It leads back to our base—the Astral Express."

Aglaea became interested.

"You mean through this portal, we can go to your world?"

Xing checked her phone and nodded.

"Yep. Perfect timing too—dinnertime is about to start on the train. Wanna come with us?

We've got four chefs on board: Ye Yun, Xiangling, Mei, and Jami-chan."

Aglaea thought for a moment and agreed. She was curious to see what the outside world looked like.

"Alright. Thank you for the offer."

Stelle waved it off casually.

"No biggie~ Oh! Let's call Phainon, Mydei, and the Tribbie triplets too. It'll be fun with everyone."

Aglaea agreed and had someone go call them.

Tribbie, Trinnon, and Trianne flew over and landed in front of Aglaea.

"Woohoo~ Tribbie landing complete!" Trianne held her arms out and did a little skid stop in front of Aglaea.

Trianne scolded her.

"Tribbie! How many times have I told you—be careful! Don't fly so fast!"

Tribbie just giggled.

"I won't, I won't! I'm a top-tier flyer!"