When Jiang Xia arrived home, he found a delivery van parked in front of his house.
He originally thought Shirley had sent him another strange new supplement.
But on closer inspection, this time, the return address on the package had changed. The sender's name was no longer the initial 'S' of Shirley's English name, but a name like 'Hanako', which was on par with Zhang San, Tom, and Tanaka Taro.
Xiaobai observed for a moment, then landed on the tightly wrapped delivery box and phased his head through to look inside.
However, the items inside were pressed very tightly against the box, so he couldn't see the packaging, only the shape of the objects.
Jiang Xia: "..."
...Suspicious, in short, it was very suspicious.
After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Xia chose to sign for it.
He didn't receive many packages, so a sudden one now made him quite curious.
—Thinking positively, perhaps these were dangerous goods randomly mailed by certain criminals, containing things like poison gas bombs, and by tracing them, he could uncover a den of murderous Jiangyang Bandits...
...
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia eagerly brought the package into his house.
He first took it to the basement to pass it through a scanner, which detected no explosives or radioactive materials.
After a moment of disappointment, Jiang Xia placed the package into a sealed compartment.
Afterward, he left the basement and went to the room furthest from the package.
—No explosives or radioactive materials didn't mean there were no other risks.
A mature Spiritual Medium should not open anonymous packages himself; such matters should, of course, be left to a puppet.
...
In the room.
Jiang Xia drew the curtains and turned around.
Several talismans flew out from beneath his feet, landing in the center of the room, gradually forming a clumsy clay figure.
—As Jiang Xia possessed more talismans, the speed of the clay figure's condensation and its solidity also showed subtle improvements.
Jiang Xia walked closer, picked up Xiaobai, and placed him into the puppet's clay.
The clay figure bubbled as if boiling water had been poured on it. Soon, it gradually solidified into a fixed shape.
A few seconds later, a little boy, appearing to be six or seven years old, stood before Jiang Xia.
The puppet's appearance was half from Jiang Xia's soul and half from the Ghost Fetus used for filling. This puppet child was equally cute and handsome.
On the left side of the child's neck, there was a black, ornate 'Z' tattoo, identical in position to the one on Xiaobai.
Jiang Xia admired the puppet for a while. A few seconds later, he gradually felt something was off: "...You're actually a male ghost?"
If he remembered correctly, Xiaobai had whined quite a bit before.
At that time, Jiang Xia had thought it must be a cute little girl... Tsk, the last time he whined, he was too light.
The little boy stood still, not moving, and did not answer him.
Jiang Xia was not surprised.
Although this 'body' was also a product of metaphysics, for a ghost, it was still too heavy.
—After a Ghost Fetus is thrown into 'puppet clay', it can 'support' the clay figure into a proper human body.
But currently, Xiaobai had not yet been strengthened; he could only act as a support, with no spare energy to manipulate the puppet.
The actual actions still had to be performed by Jiang Xia himself.
...
Jiang Xia sat down at his desk and possessed the puppet with his consciousness.
One second later, he opened his eyes inside the puppet.
Jiang Xia moved his limbs, looked around curiously, and first felt "..." for a while at this low Elementary School Student's perspective.
Then he came back to his senses and went to the basement to unbox.
Entering the sealed compartment with the small puppet and picking up the package sent by an unknown person, Jiang Xia showed no fear and neatly tore it open.
Thud.
Two stacks of albums, tightly bound together, fell out of the delivery box. They were all works by Kinoshita Yoko.
On closer inspection, the top one was exactly the one he had just wanted to buy but couldn't find.
Looking at these, even though Xiaobai was still inside the puppet, he couldn't help but let out a surprised murmur.
Jiang Xia: "..."
Could the sender 'Hanako' be Kinoshita Yoko?
Perhaps she had an inexplicable premonition that Xiaobai didn't have new albums to listen to, so she sent them all, including the old ones.
The connection between mother and child is truly wondrous... Jiang Xia sighed and put away the albums.
After unboxing, he dispelled the puppet.
The puppet disintegrated into several flying talismans and a Ghost Fetus.
One second later, the Ghost Fetus and the talismans returned to the tattoo on Jiang Xia's chest, as if returning to a respawn point.
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Note:
In the manga, the one billion yen robbery only happened once, and the robbers were Miyano Akemi and her two wild accomplices.