Crossing over, and then being blocked by a rich JK.

Chapter 482 25% Completion and New Problems

Just as Watanabe Yu had predicted, he received a call from Eda Ikumi the next morning.

Good morning, Watanabe.

On the other end of the phone, Eda Ikumi rubbed the bridge of her nose and let out a long, weary sigh.

If her cousin hadn't been with her, she wouldn't have needed to make that call to Watanabe Yu.

Unfortunately, life has no "what ifs," only consequences and results.

On this one-way train of life that keeps moving forward, no one has the right to regret it. We can only honestly go through the path we have already traveled and keep moving forward.

Good morning, Sister Jiangtian.

Watanabe Yu, who had just finished his morning exercise and taken a shower, was full of energy.

To be fair, after getting used to morning exercise, appropriate exercise in the morning can indeed help people wake up faster.

Of course, the premise is that you must get a good rest that night. If you don't get a good rest, you will not feel refreshed after morning exercise, but will feel more tired instead.

Like that day when they teamed up against him, his condition was far worse than before after his morning exercise.

"Um... I have something I'd like to ask you."

Eda Ikumi closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before uttering these words.

She might have thought it in her mind, but when she actually spoke up, she still felt a little embarrassed.

Theoretically speaking, she shouldn't have troubled Watanabe Yu like this.

Even if he did agree to her request.

But she really had no other choice; she couldn't let Qian eat half-price bento boxes at home every day.

Yes, there's nothing wrong with eating half-price bento boxes, and she's eaten them quite often, but it's one thing for her to eat them, but it's another for her cousin to eat them.

Well, how should I put it? Ever since her cousin confided in her that day, she has inexplicably developed a sense of responsibility.

That is, the responsibility of being the older sister.

"Go ahead and tell me, Jiang Tian, ​​but it has to be within my capabilities."

Watanabe Yu was not surprised at all to pick up the conversation.

Unlike Eda Ikumi, who felt embarrassed and stumbled over her words, he was already thinking of specific ways to bring Eda Akane back to her senses.

Yes, the general tone has indeed been set, which is the so-called gradual exposure and learning. But how to naturally absorb this is a complex subject. You can't be too deliberate, or it will have the opposite effect.

"Well... I'll be quite busy with work lately, so there'll be no one to take care of Qian. I was wondering if you could help me out by taking her out for a meal."

She never imagined that the joke she made would actually come true.

The exact words the commissioner told her were that although important figures were coming down to give public speeches, the police station wouldn't be too busy because their subordinate agencies would come to help.

But the reality is quite the opposite. Right now, the people who said they would help have backed out, and everyone is just passing the buck.

To put it bluntly, they just don't want to take responsibility.

Or perhaps they are unwilling to take responsibility when they have a choice. After all, if something goes wrong, it will be an endless blame game. You know, the first shooting incident happened just two years ago, and there was a subway shooting last year. To be honest, Bunkyo Ward is not as safe as you might imagine.

"Let her come over, it's just a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks."

Watanabe Yu agreed very readily.

"If you don't want to... wait? You agreed!?"

Eda Ikumi was stunned for a full two seconds before she came to her senses.

So, he agreed?!
It seemed much easier than she had imagined. She had even prepared herself for rejection and was ready to shamelessly ask again after being rejected.

But... it seems like all these preparations are useless?

"Hmm."

Watanabe Yu repeated it again.

"Thank you!" Eda Ikumi paused, then added, "I'll transfer the money for her meals later."

"That's unnecessary."

He's not short of that little bit of money.

"That……"

Eda Ikumi seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

"It's just a small matter."

Watanabe Yu then uttered this sentence.

"Okay then, if you ever encounter anything you can't handle in the future, come to me and I'll do my best to help you."

After thinking for a while and hesitating, Eda Ikumi finally said those words.

That was the only way she could make the exchange.

"Let's talk about this later. It's nothing. Don't act like you owe someone a huge favor."

Watanabe Yu shrugged; his reward would be given to him by Tongzi.

As for further developments in social relationships, he does need them, but he's not in a rush.

"Then please."

Eda Ikumi lowered her eyes, feeling incredibly embarrassed for the first time.

"Ah."

This time, Watanabe Yu didn't say anything polite.

He could roughly guess that if he said anything more polite, Eda Ikumi would inevitably feel guilty.

After all, the principle here is not to cause trouble for others. If you do cause trouble, you owe someone a favor, and you have to repay that favor immediately. If you keep delaying, it will make them feel uneasy.

"Then I won't bother you."

Eda Ikumi uttered this sentence.

"Okay, but should we start taking her out to eat today? Or tomorrow?"

Watanabe Yu asked a question.

This is the most important thing, as it directly relates to whether or not we need to go to the supermarket to buy groceries after school today.

"today."

"Okay, leave it to me. But how will she get home after dinner? Should I take her to a taxi, or what?"

While nighttime safety in Japan is passable compared to Western countries, it's not as safe as one might imagine, and it's worlds apart from his homeland.

"As for this... I'll go ask Risa."

After thinking for a moment, Eda Ikumi gave her an answer.

"Row."

Watanabe Yu agreed verbally, but in his mind he was already planning to buy groceries after school.

Others might not know, but he knew all too well Risa's ability to seize an opportunity to strike.

In addition, she repeatedly gave Ryoko's cooking extremely high praise, so if nothing unexpected happens, Eda Ikumi's phone call will bring another freeloader to her house.

But as I said before, it's just a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks; it won't make any difference.

Moreover, the more people there are, the more relaxed Jiang Tianqian will be, given her personality. At least she won't be too nervous, since she will still have people she knows at the table.

"I'll let you know the result via Line."

"Ah."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

After saying goodbye, Watanabe Yu put down his phone and stared thoughtfully at the white wall.

After Jiang Tianqian had dinner that day, Lao Tong reminded him that the task completion progress had reached 25%.

At the time, he didn't think much of it, assuming it was just a fixed increase after completing a storyline, like in a game. But now he suddenly realized that this wasn't an increase from completing a storyline at all; it was simply something they had talked about at the dinner table that day.

Those things happened to touch upon Jiang Tianqian's mind, causing her to change her thoughts.

So which sentence was it? He lowered his head and pondered.

*
At 3:20 PM, Risa Yasuhara led Yuki and Ayana into the car and headed straight for Akane Eda's junior high school.

If she could, she wouldn't want to go through the trouble of picking up Jiang Tianqian, but her best friend had said so, and what she said was indeed true. Today was the first day of eating together, so it would be better to pick up Qian for both personal and practical reasons. So she came anyway.

"Are we going there?"

Sitting in the back row, Ayana Amamiya glanced at the street scene outside the window and asked a question out of curiosity.

Unlike Ryoko, she has a fairly strong sense of direction, and she is already familiar with the way home, so there is no issue of her not knowing the way.

"Go to Akane Eda's junior high school."

Risa Yasuhara, who was driving, gave the answer.

Is it far from here?

Yuki Hayakawa, who was also sitting in the back row, chimed in.

She rested her chin on her right hand, staring blankly at the receding street scene outside the window.

"Theoretically speaking, it's not far. If the road conditions are good, it should only take twenty minutes to get there."

As she spoke, Risa Yasuhara glanced at the navigation app to confirm the direction.

She wasn't actually very familiar with the route to Eda Akane's junior high school; she had only accompanied Yumi there a few times, and each time the latter had driven.

"How will she come over after that? You can't just pick her up every day, can you?"

Ayana Amamiya made a pointed remark.

If you have to pick them up and drop them off every day, it will be really difficult.

Especially since Risa is someone who loves to sleep in, you can imagine how torturous it is for her to go to bed early and get up early.

"It's just today."

Risa Yasuhara placed her hands on the steering wheel, leaned back slightly, and comfortably settled into the driver's seat.

She was just a little confused about the direction at the next intersection, but now that she had figured out which road to take, she wasn't worried at all.

"after……"

"After that, she went to school by herself and came home by herself."

Before Ayana Amamiya could finish speaking, Risa Yasuhara preemptively gave her answer.

"Take the subway?"

"Hmm, there won't be any traffic jams, and it's cool too."

Seriously speaking, if it weren't for the fact that her place wasn't far from the academy, she would have taken the subway here every day. The morning and evening rush hours in Tokyo are inhuman.

Getting stuck in traffic for 20 to 30 minutes over a 500-meter stretch is commonplace.

"Shouldn't we say it's cool in this weather?"

Ayana Amamiya made a comment.

It's already November, and the temperature has completely cooled down. To avoid the temperature getting too high in the subway, the air conditioning is still on. People with weaker constitutions will shiver a little when suddenly hit by the cold wind.

"The meaning is conveyed."

Risa Yasuhara gave a bright smile and cheerfully answered.

"That's okay..."

The young lady nodded slightly.

Since things have already gone this far, what else is there to say?
"So, Risa-neechan, could you tell us about Akane's life at school?"

Hayakawa Yuki suddenly asked this question.

She had indeed heard Eda Ikumi talk about this before, but her sixth sense told her not to limit herself to one person's perspective and to ask other people for their opinions on the same matter.

“My knowledge is rather limited. Basically, what you know is all I know,” Risa Yasuhara said, a thoughtful look appearing on her face. “However, there are some things you don’t know.”

"for example?"

Yuki Hayakawa tilted her head.

“When she first entered junior high school, she had friends.” Risa Yasuhara paused. “But she didn’t cherish them back then. Although she didn’t intentionally hurt anyone, because of her relatively arrogant personality, everyone subconsciously kept their distance from her.”

"Then in the second semester, because she had a conflict with her mother, and because her family was a single-parent family, her thinking changed and she began to have a tendency to 'give up on herself'."

"However, at this time, her inclination was not very obvious."

"Then no one knows what she went through, but in short, when the third semester of the first year started, she was all alone, and at that time, she began to crave friends again."

"But the problem is that starting from junior high school, everyone starts to have their own circle. You are already the one being excluded. If you want to join someone else's circle under such circumstances, you will most likely be ignored."

"Then……"

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was quite clear.

"And then she had no friends."

Hayakawa Yuki pursed her thin lips and uttered these somewhat hurtful words.

Although her experience was different from that of Akane Eda, the result of being isolated was the same, and she could empathize with that feeling.

She hadn't done anything wrong, but she was still slandered and ostracized by everyone.

"Pretty much." Risa Yasuhara nodded. "Then she came up with a plan, which was to 'buy' friends. Coincidentally, there were two hot girls in her class who liked to have fun, and after a while, they started hanging out together."

"The good news is that even when hanging out with those hot girls who don't study well, Qian still sticks to her bottom line."

"The bad news is that over time, no one can predict what might happen."

As a teacher, she personally strongly disapproves of this behavior.

It's not easy to learn well, but it's easy to learn bad things.

"So the actual situation is that she gives them money, and they treat her like one of their own?"

Yuki Hayakawa frowned.

This was not quite what she had imagined.

"Yes."

Risa Yasuhara lightly pressed the brake, pulled up the handbrake, and breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at the traffic lights in front of her.

"So, this kind of relationship..."

Hayakawa Yuki opened her mouth, instinctively wanting to say something, but as the words reached her lips, she couldn't utter a single one.

She wanted to say that such a relationship was unhealthy, and even quite dangerous.

From Jiang Tianqian's perspective, her ultimate goal in spending money was simply to make herself appear 'fit in,' and she did indeed achieve that goal.

but……

"You mean it's not a normal social relationship, right?"

Risa Yasuhara understood what she meant.

"Yes."

This is more than just abnormal; it's practically bartering.

"But at least she has friends—that's how she sees it."

Risa Yasuhara sighed.

This is also the most difficult part of this matter.

Qian is different from others; she has always been clear about what she wants, and such relatively clear-headed people are often the hardest to persuade.

Because their logic is self-consistent and complete.

Therefore, Watanabe will probably have to worry about this.

"That's it..."

Hayakawa Yuki turned her head away, her gaze passing over the car window to the street bathed in the autumn sunlight, and her feelings suddenly became complicated and difficult to understand.

She really wanted to tell Jiang Tianqian what to do, but she also knew that she wasn't qualified.

(End of this chapter)