27: Please check your mail for Grandpa Namiya's reply.

Lin Que's fingertips hovered over the mouse, motionless for a long time.

The studio was very quiet.

Outside the window were the bright lights of Jiang City's ten thousand homes.

Warm and bright.

But every word in that letter pierced through this false prosperity piece by piece.

Lin Que leaned against the back of his chair and slowly closed his eyes.

His fingertips were cold.

When playing the role of the Hell Dream Weaver, he was like a cold butcher, only caring about swinging the blade and enjoying the screams of fear.

But now, facing this letter,

he felt like a clumsy tailor,

picking up a needle and thread for the first time, yet needing to sew up a wound deep enough to see the bone.

This was ten thousand times harder than creating a hundred fierce ghosts.

After a long time, Lin Que slowly moved the mouse and created a new document.

He didn't start writing immediately.

Instead, he closed his eyes and, in his mind,

outlined the girl named Xiao Duo over and over again.

She might have big eyes,

but they were always filled with cowardice.

She might love to laugh,

but every time she laughed, she would subconsciously look at her father's expression.

She might really want to hug her mother and tell her not to cry,

but she didn't dare, because she was afraid that the man would become even more aggressive.

Only when these images were so clear they seemed to be right before his eyes did Lin Que reopen them.

He took a deep breath, and his fingertips fell onto the keyboard.

This time, the typing sounds were no longer as hurried and violent as when he wrote the human world is like a prison,

but became very light and slow, with a cautious solemnity.

[Brave Xiao Duo, hello.]

[I am Grandpa Namiya. I am very happy that your letter could travel through distant time and space to arrive safely at my general store.]

[This is a very, very special letter. Because it is full of courage.]

[You said you want to take your mother and run away; that is a very remarkable idea.]

[However, running away is not a simple matter.]

[Just like playing hide-and-seek, if you just find any random place to hide, you will be found very quickly. Right?]

[So, before we officially begin the escape plan,]

[we need to do a more important preparatory task first.]

[We need to collect evidence of that villain bullying you and your mother.]

[For example, when does he hit people? What nasty things did he say? Where are the injuries on your mother's body?]

[Secretly record or draw all of these things down.]

[Remember, this is a secret mission and must absolutely not be discovered by him.]

[These records are our weapons. When we have collected enough weapons, Grandpa Namiya will send a messenger of justice,]

[armed with these weapons, to defeat that villain and truly rescue you and your mother]

[from that unhappy home.]

[Xiao Duo, please be sure to remember.]

[You are not fighting alone.]

[From the moment you wrote this letter, the Namiya General Store and all the kind people who read this letter are on your side.]

[Please protect yourself, and please believe that the light will arrive soon.]

[The door of the Namiya General Store is always open for you.]

[Grandpa Namiya]

After finishing the last word, Lin Que checked it over.

Throughout the text, there wasn't a single complex word; it was just using a tone a child could understand,

telling a story about defeating a villain.

He packaged this reply letter together with the original copy of Xiao Duo's plea for help,

and sent it to the New Tide editor, Xu Lan.

At the end of the email, he only attached a sentence belonging to "Jian Shen".

[Editor Xu, hello.]

[Please forward this reply letter on my behalf.]

[Additionally, I feel that the true magic of the general store,]

[might not lie in the letters themselves, but in the hands that pass them along.]

[Jian Shen]

Click, send.

...

The next day, at the New Tide editorial department.

Xu Lan opened her computer with dark circles under her eyes, preparing to handle the mountain of reader letters piled up from the previous day.

The popularity of The Miracles of the Namiya General Store far exceeded everyone's imagination.

It was like a warm current,

bringing immense comfort in this early autumn, which had just been left in a state of panic by the human world is like a prison.

As usual, she first opened the group that contained only one person.

She directly saw the two emails sent from the previous night.

Xu Lan's spirits lifted, and she immediately clicked them open.

She first opened the one titled [Reply to Xiao Duo].

As she read, the twenty-four-year-old girl's eyes turned red.

She seemed to see a kind old man,

under the lamp, word by word,

writing this powerful letter for a child he had never met.

So gentle.

Jian Shen is truly such a gentle person.

Immediately after, she opened the second one.

When she saw the suggestive sentence at the end of the email, she froze.

"The true magic of the general store might not lie in the letters themselves, but in the hands that pass them along..."

She mulled over these words repeatedly.

"The hands that pass them along..."

Xu Lan murmured to herself, her heart suddenly constricting.

Jian Shen means... us?

Why didn't he call the Police himself?

A note struck her:

Because he is "Grandpa Namiya," a fictional, gentle symbol.

And we... we are flesh-and-blood people,

the hands that can dial that emergency number and touch reality!

Xu Lan practically bounced out of her seat instantly,

clutching her laptop, she rushed toward the Editor-in-Chief's office once again.

"Editor-in-Chief Wang! Editor-in-Chief Wang!"

Wang De'an was on the phone with an elderly writer.

Seeing Xu Lan's frantic appearance,

he helplessly said "just a moment" to the other end of the line and then covered the mouthpiece.

"Xiao Xu, what is it now? Is the sky falling?"

"Editor-in-Chief, look quickly!"

Xu Lan turned the computer screen toward him, her voice trembling with excitement.

"It's Jian Shen's reply letter! And... and the message he left for us!"

Wang De'an hurriedly ended the call, adjusted his glasses, and leaned in.

He first quickly finished reading the two letters, his expression turning solemn.

Then, his gaze fell on that sentence about "the hands that pass them along."

Silence fell over the office.

Xu Lan looked at the Editor-in-Chief nervously, waiting for his decision.

She knew that this matter had already exceeded the scope of a literary editor's work.

This involved reality, law, and possibly even danger.

Wang De'an was silent for a full minute.

He wasn't looking at the computer, but at the lights outside the window representing the city's order.

Finally, he turned around, his voice steady and powerful.

"Xiao Xu, I understand."

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the endless stream of traffic below.

"We cannot just publish healing stories."

"We must also become part of the story."

He turned and looked at Xu Lan.

"Use our magazine's legal resources, find a way to confirm the source of this letter, and contact the local Women's Federation and the Police!"

"Find this child named Xiao Duo for me!"