Negotiation

[Grand Library].

[Juzi] arrived at the emergency command center with a grim expression.

“City Lord, we’ve discovered more than five hundred book anomalies so far. At present, they aren’t very aggressive. As long as people are willing to read, they won’t attack of their own accord,” a senior scholar reported.

“What’s the casualty count?” [Juzi] waved a hand, stopping him from bowing.

“Not serious for now. The book anomalies seem to have only just been born, and their passive effects haven’t fully manifested yet. However, judging by the trend, the situation is gradually worsening.

“There are about ten particularly dangerous ones.

“In the eastern part of the city, there’s a book called The Final Seven Seconds. Every page depicts the last seven seconds before someone’s death. Anyone who reads it will experience those seven seconds, then become unable to tell whether they’re alive or dead.

“In the south, there’s The Last Desire. After reading it, people lose all their desires—including the desire to go on living.

“In the west, there’s a book called The Book of Darkness. It says that it may only be read during the day, but it’s nighttime now. Anyone who has read it will see mysterious eyes appear in the darkness. Every one of them will stare at the reader, driving them insane.

“In the north, there’s The Tearstain Register, which records the origin of every tear. Anyone who reads it will cry for every person who sheds tears, until their tears run dry and they go blind.”

“That’s enough.” [Juzi] interrupted him. “They’re anomalies, so naturally they come in all shapes and forms. All of that is normal. Do we have any solutions?”

The scholar moved his lips but said nothing.

Wisdom was not omnipotent. Faced with more than five hundred anomalies and a city full of living books, solving the problem would require strength.

Qiu Shizi was also part of the emergency response team.

She was hiding in a corner, secretly eating persimmons.

[Juzi] noticed her. “Persimmon, are you still eating? Tell us what you think.”

Persimmon hurriedly wiped her mouth with her sleeve.

“On my way here, I released my power. From what I observed, the book anomalies have a leader called The Withering Poems. We could try talking to it and see whether there’s a chance of resolving this peacefully.”

The scholar was pessimistic about the idea. “Would negotiating with an anomaly just be a waste of time?”

Persimmon did not deny what the scholar had said.

“We can prepare for both possibilities and act at the same time. If negotiations succeed, all the better. If they fail, we’ll have no choice but to fight.

“However, given the number of book anomalies, our chances of winning aren’t high. The casualties would be terrible.”

[Juzi] made the decision without hesitation, bringing her fist down as she gave the final word.

“Persimmon, you’ll be in charge of negotiations. Everyone else, prepare for battle. Our goal isn’t to destroy the book anomalies. We only need to drive them out of the city. Move out immediately. Persimmon, stay behind for a moment.”

The situation was urgent. Every minute of delay could result in casualties, so everyone immediately got to work.

Soon, only [Juzi] and Persimmon remained in the room.

[Juzi] got straight to the point. “You know [Shopkeeper]? What kind of anomaly is it?”

“I don’t know either. He wraps himself in a yellow robe, and I’ve only seen that his head is made up of points of light. Why?”

“I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but he arrived, and then the book anomalies appeared right after. Could there be some kind of connection? He said you helped him with something before. What did you do?”

“I gave him an idea and helped him open a storybook of his own.”

[Juzi] nodded. “It sounds unrelated to the book anomalies. I hope I’m just overthinking it. [Shopkeeper] is very powerful, and I don’t want to make an enemy of it either.”

“Even Big Sis Orange says he’s strong. He must be amazing.”

“All right. The situation is urgent. Go negotiate with The Withering Poems. Find out what they want, and if possible, try to learn where they came from.”

“Got it. I’m on my way.”

Persimmon left the room.

Chen Miemie floated through the air above the street, holding a storybook of fairy tales in his hands. He wasn’t reading it at all; he was only putting on an act.

At the moment, he was [Huangyi]. His aura was intimidating enough to fool people, and since he appeared to be holding a book, the books generally left him alone.

“Huh? That one up ahead looks familiar.”

Chen Miemie followed it.

They went on for about a thousand meters.

Chen Miemie had yet to reveal himself when someone stopped the book first.

It was Persimmon, blocking the path of The Withering Poems.

“Mr. Book? May I call you that?” Persimmon asked in a gentle voice.

“We books have no gender, so ‘Mr.’ and ‘Ms.’ aren’t particularly appropriate. You can simply call me by my title, The Withering Poems.”

“All right, The Withering Poems. You’re the leader of the book anomalies, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m merely one of the more powerful among them. Since I was the first to be born, the others acknowledge me to some extent, but I can’t command the other books.”

“Fine, then. My name is Qiu Shizi, though I also go by Persimmon.”

“Persimmon, why have you stopped me?”

“This is our city. What are you book anomalies here for?”

The Withering Poems thought for a moment. “We were born here as well. This is the City of Books, and we want to live here.”

“But your passive effects can hurt people.”

“We can’t help that. All we can promise is not to harm anyone intentionally. Once each of us finds a place to settle, we’ll stay there. You can keep your distance and avoid entering the effective range of our passive abilities.”

Persimmon looked troubled. “The city is only so large. There are too many of you; there simply isn’t enough room.”

The Withering Poems was not an unreasonable book.

“How about this? There are certain commonalities among book anomalies. I’ll try to arrange those whose passive effects don’t interfere with one another as close together as possible. That should save quite a bit of space.”

“But even with that, you’d still need most of the city.”

“That should be the case.”

Persimmon sighed softly. “Then this will be difficult. This is a city where witches and humans live. If we give up more than half of it and turn that area into a restricted zone, the only response I can bring back is that we’ll have to fight. I don’t want to fight.”

The Withering Poems shook its little wings, scattering several withered leaves. “I don’t want to fight either. But we’re books by nature, and we can’t live without all the books here. Even if we don’t want to fight, we’ll have no choice.”

Chen Miemie, watching from hiding, also found the situation difficult.

He had already tried on the way here. Outside Chen Miemie’s own domain of time and space, he couldn’t form contracts with anomalies from history. Both sides were fighting for survival, and in the end, conflict would most likely be unavoidable.

Persimmon was a little genius at coming up with solutions.

“Do the book anomalies only need to stay in one place without moving?”

“Yes. Preferably somewhere with lots of books.”

“I have an idea.”

After Persimmon and The Withering Poems whispered together for a while, the two sides went their separate ways.

Persimmon went to find [Juzi] again.

The Withering Poems, meanwhile, went to discuss the matter with the other book anomalies.

Chen Miemie, who had been eavesdropping nearby, was a little astonished. “That works too? Book anomalies really are easy to reason with.”