SBTW 2

Shuttle Between Two Worlds: The Chief Minister’s E-Commerce Minion

Chapter 2: Freaking Out the Court of Judicial Review in the Morgue

Modern Time: 11:50 AM

Down in a basement warehouse somewhere in New Taipei City, upbeat music thumped so hard it made the stacked cardboard boxes faintly vibrate.

Tian Qiqi wove back and forth between the shelving units to the rhythm, packing tape ripping across cardboard with a crisp shhh-shhh sound as she sealed boxes, slapped shipping labels on, and sorted items. Her movements were so fluid and practiced they had long since become muscle memory.

All around her sat towering stacks of boxes primed for fulfillment.

Self-defense pepper spray, camping gear, hardware parts, stun guns, entrenching tools, and even a whole row of heavy-duty degreaser cleaning solutions were piled into the corner of the warehouse in an organized sort of chaos.

Having run an e-commerce business for a few years now, she sold pretty much everything under the sun.

Replying to customers by day and managing inventory and heavy lifting by night, she often ended up squatting on the floor just to wolf down a quick meal when things got hectic. But Qiqi never found it exhausting; if anything, she completely thrived on this kind of gritty, bustling hustle-and-bustle lifestyle.

"Whew... finally got everything sorted out." She raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow, casually glancing up at the wall clock.

Eleven-fifty-nine. Perfect timing.

Looking down at the thick Crayon Shin-chan winter pajamas she still had on, Qiqi gave it a brief thought and decided not to bother changing.

Besides, nobody over on the ancient side knew who Crayon Shin-chan was anyway.

She casually scooped up a bag of customer-returned defective goods, shoved a freshly packed giant bottle of heavy-duty degreaser into her backpack, and waited.

Hum—

[Countdown: 00:00:00]

A familiar wave of weightlessness violently slammed into her.

The basement warehouse air, thick with the scent of cardboard and adhesive tape, was instantly replaced by a heavy, oppressive atmosphere.

Camphorwood, sandalwood, and a strange, unidentifiable damp, moldy chill.

Qiqi’s vision blurred for a split second, and her whole body dropped heavily downward. "Ugh..."

Whatever she was sitting on felt ice-cold and rock-hard, faintly radiating a weird, creepy odor.

She scrunched up her nose. "Where did I drop this time?"

The surroundings were pitch-dark, and the air carried a damp, ghastly chill that was enough to send shivers running straight down anyone's spine.

Yet Qiqi wasn't scared in the slightest. Instead, she eagerly dug into her backpack, getting ready to pull out the high-powered LED tactical flashlight she'd recently stocked.

Outside, a sharp, synchronized sequence of heavy footsteps suddenly echoed down the hall.

Bang!

The heavy wooden door was violently shoved open from the outside, and blinding sunlight flooded right in.

Trailing right behind it was a low, icy man's voice. "Step aside. I'll examine the body myself."

Blinded by the harsh glare, Qiqi squinted and instinctively raised a hand to block it. Once her vision cleared up, she finally got a good look at the person standing in the doorway.

The young man leading the pack possessed a tall, commanding stature. Dressed in an ink-black official robe that accentuated his fiercely sharp aura, a dark iron token at his waist clinked softly with every stride, radiating an unapproachable pressure from head to toe.

His facial features were strikingly handsome—a high bridge of the nose, thin lips pressed into a tight line, and dark, obsidian eyes as cold as a fresh layer of frost.

Just by standing there, he dragged the atmospheric pressure of the entire morgue down by several degrees.

Qiqi blinked.

Whoa! Since when did ancient civil servants come with such top-tier visuals?

Meanwhile, on the other end.

As Huangfu Ye stepped into the morgue, his stride ground to an abrupt halt.

Right on the mortuary slab where a female corpse was supposed to be lying, a living, breathing stranger of a young woman was currently sitting cross-legged.

The girl wore an utterly bizarre set of pink loungewear plastered with strange green cartoon patterns he had never laid eyes on in his life, fuzzy rabbit-eared slippers on her feet, and she was even hugging a large white bowl.

The entire visual was so absurd that for a split second, it was hard to tell who was actually dealing with a haunting.

The several Court of Judicial Review constables trailing behind him instantly turned pale.

"Y-Your Highness, Prince Consort!" "The corpse has risen!" "Wait, no! Yesterday's female corpse definitely wasn't wearing that outfit!"

Scared out of their minds, the men nearly drew their sabers backward.

Huangfu Ye’s gaze darkened sharply, his right hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of his longsword. "Who goes there?"

His voice was as cold as ice. "How dare you trespass into the Court of Judicial Review's morgue."

Lowering her gaze, Qiqi glanced down at the stone slab beneath her bottom, then silently shifted her eyes to the wooden tag hanging at the foot of the bed.

Unidentified female corpse.

"...Well." She didn't even know what to say to that.

Fantastic. This time her spawn point was straight inside a morgue.

Patting down her pajamas, Qiqi hopped right off the mortuary slab. Not a shred of embarrassment crossed her face; instead, she flashed Huangfu Ye a dazzling, cheerful smile.

"Hey there, handsome! The vibe in your morgue here is seriously lacking—smells a bit heavy, don't you think?"

The entire morgue plunged into dead silence, while the pupils of the constables in the back underwent a severe earthquake.

Handsome? Did this chick seriously just address their Chief Minister like that?

Huangfu Ye was clearly taken aback as well. In all his years, nobody had ever dared speak to him in such a tone—especially someone decked out in such ridiculously bizarre sleepwear.

"Unbridled nonsense." A flash of cold steel cut through the air as his longsword leaped from its scabbard, pointing straight at Qiqi's throat.

"This is vital imperial territory. Speak—where are your accomplices?"

The air inside the morgue crackled with tension, and the constables held their breath.

Yet Qiqi wasn't fazed in the least. Looking down at the razor-sharp tip resting right against her neck, she found it mildly fascinating instead. So ancient investigators got straight to the point, huh? "You're Lord Huangfu, right?"

With eagle-eyed precision, she spotted the name engraved on his waist token. "That evidence you were just talking about—is it those black specks found under the victim's fingernails?"

Huangfu Ye’s expression shifted violently, the tip of his sword ticking an infinitesimal fraction closer. "How could you possibly know that?"

Those microscopic particles were so fine that even the veteran coroner hadn't detected them yet.

Instead of cowering under his intense pressure, Qiqi casually started rummaging through her backpack. "Because I've got secret weapons, obviously."

She swiftly whipped out a black tactical flashlight, a hint of smug triumph coloring her tone. "Here, let me give you a quick masterclass in modern forensics."

The constables in the back had zero clue what "modern" meant.

All they knew was that the black iron tube didn't look like any normal weapon. The moment Qiqi clicked the switch, a brilliant violet beam burst to life.

A collective gasp echoed sharply through the morgue.

Invisibles stains invisible to the naked eye began to gradually fluoresce under the ultraviolet illumination.

Across the dead woman's hands, her collar, the edges of the mortuary slab, and even sprawling across the stone floor, massive glowing green patterns slowly came into view.

Those glowing traces stretched all the way toward the window, clear enough to make anyone's scalp crawl.

The constables' legs gave out on the spot.

"It—it's a haunting!" "Your Lordship! She really does know sorcery!"

One guy looked like he was already ready to drop to his knees, but Huangfu Ye stood frozen in place.

Only, within those customarily calm obsidian eyes, a profound and unmistakable shock finally surfaced for the very first time.

Staring fixedly at the crystal-clear evidence glowing across the floor, his fingers slowly tightened around the hilt.

A case the Court of Judicial Review had spent three full days investigating with zero headway had just been illuminated by her with a flick of her wrist.

This kind of feat completely defied all logic.

Flipping the flashlight around in her palm with casual flair, Qiqi clicked it off, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.

"Well?" She beamed up at Huangfu Ye.

"Does the Court of Judicial Review need a forensic consultant? I'm super easy to work with—flexible hours, and compensation is totally negotiable."

Huangfu Ye's gaze remained locked onto her.

This woman’s origins were an absolute mystery, her attire was absurd, and she kept tossing around words that made zero sense.

Yet she carried herself with an infuriatingly natural composure—nowhere close to a charlatan playing parlor tricks, and definitely nothing like an assassin.

The morgue remained dead silent for a long stretch.

Finally, Huangfu Ye slowly lowered his sword. "Just what on earth are you?"

Stuffing the flashlight back into her backpack, Qiqi patted her chest, her grin practically radiant enough to blind someone.

"Me? Just an ordinary e-commerce shop owner who spends her days packing orders and clocks in for her side gig in ancient times right at noon!"

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