Tokyo: There's something wrong with this counterattack system

Chapter 78 This is our home
At 5:30 in the evening, as the first drops of rain fell on the street, the sky quickly became dark.

The sudden rain caused the neon lights in the Sukiyaki restaurant to flicker for a moment, and Qianchuan felt as if her heart skipped a beat. She tilted her head to look at the boy's face, and it seemed that he was just talking about something trivial.

The glass window reflected Qianchuan's small face. The 3D holographic advertisement on the Ikebukuro Tower was branding the slogan "Luxury Single Apartment" on her profile. The shyness in her eyes was hidden in the gradually falling rain.

"Um"

The voice was so soft that it could not be heard, but this was the girl's best effort. In this noisy Sukiyaki restaurant, Qianchuan tightened the small bag in her hand, wondering what would happen tonight.

"I'm going to live there often for a while. Could you please help me take care of the apartment?" Kitahara's voice was as cool as mint candy. He pushed the warm milk. Qianchuan reached out to take it and looked at the label. It was a bottle of 700 yen. A look of heartache flashed in his eyes.

She had only been drinking boiled water while working part-time, which was free and healthy. She didn't expect that going out would cost so much money. She also found out the average cost per person at this sukiyaki restaurant, which was about 4,000 yen, enough for her to work for five hours.

"Take care of it? How do you take care of it?"

Qianchuan came back to his senses, with a hint of curiosity in his eyes, "Do you mean doing housework? Of course, I'm very diligent and very skilled at housework. If you have any trouble, you can come to me! It doesn't cost money."

"Thank you very much. How about we go to the movies after you're done? There's a new road movie coming out recently, I think it's called Frielian's Funeral." Kitahara casually took the thick soup brought by the waiter and poured it into the Sukiyaki pot.

Sukiyaki is actually a big pot of stew with eggs, shrimp, tofu, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and some thick soup. It will be very delicious when eaten in spring. Watching the steam bubbling up and the fragrant smell will make you salivate.

Qianchuan swallowed his saliva, not caring what movie to watch next. His mind was full of delicious food: "Anything is fine. I can watch anything. But don't watch it too late. I still need to take a shower and go to bed when I get to the hotel."

"Is your family okay?" Kitahara finally confirmed.

He wanted to buy an apartment for Qianchuan to live in, and the biggest problem was his family.

The plum rain had turned the asphalt road into a mirrored surface. Qianchuan fiddled with the steaming Sukiyaki pot idly. "Dad's in the hospital and doesn't usually come home. I don't know where Mom is. Even if she knew I moved away, she probably wouldn't say anything."

"It's okay. It's okay even if I don't go home. No one will care."

She paused here, with a hint of sadness still in her eyes. Qianchuan thought that there seemed to be few people in this world who cared about her. Her life seemed a little sad.

There's a line in a movie called "Léon: The Professional": "Is life always this painful? Or is it only like this when you're a kid?"

'It's always like this.'

The sound of rain gradually grew louder. Qianchuan glanced at the glass window. Her reflection was being pieced together and reassembled by the advertisements outside the window. Her dark eyes gradually spread in the humid weather. However, at this time, the sound of light music interrupted her thoughts.

She heard Kitahara humming "Lemon". The harmonious chorus mixed with the sound of dripping rain created a sense of artistic conception. She listened for a while until she heard the line "To this day, you are still my light", and was suddenly stunned.

Light.
She tilted her head slightly and saw Kitahara's gentle profile in the bright light. Although it was the same face she had seen countless times in the past two years, there was something indescribable about it.

"Yang Xi."

Sunshine, hope.

This might be the origin of his name, Senkawa Ryoka muttered to herself, tightening her hands, an inexplicable feeling spreading in her heart.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to see Dad."

Beiyuan came back to his senses and said, "What time is it? Do I need to prepare anything?"

"Let's go in the morning, as soon as you get up. Don't bring anything with you. Just think of it." Qianchuan said with his face lowered.

"So, should we go to bed early tonight?" Kitahara's voice was soft and fluffy, with a hint of minty raindrops in it. "Let's skip the movie. Let's go straight to the apartment after dinner. Do you have a change of clothes?"

"."

Qianchuan lowered his head and said nothing. There was some soup on the cuffs of his knitted jacket, and his face turned into a light pink cloud under the warm light.

She opened the milk bottle and swallowed a mouthful of the milky white liquid. She wiped the corners of her mouth and then whispered, "I have a change of underwear, but I only have this one coat. Can you please not get it dirty?"

"Dirty?"

Kitahara looked at the girl's sweater in confusion. Why did she want to dirty it?

He glanced at Xiao Qianchuan who was stammering with his head down, and thought that the two of them were probably not on the same wavelength in their conversation. At this time, an experienced scumbag would talk to himself. Anyway, he would just do what he had to do when he got there.

"Wipe your clothes first." Kitahara handed over a tissue and pointed at the soup on Qianchuan's clothes. The girlfriend realized it later and looked down with some distress.

"Well, now it's going to be stained with smell, it will be troublesome to wash it off."

"Just send it to the dry cleaners."

The rain was falling even harder. Beiyuan picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks and suddenly paused. He noticed that this silly girl had only focused on eating vegetables from the beginning, as if she was thinking of saving money. He turned his chopsticks and dropped them into her plate.

Qianchuan first thanked him, then swallowed his saliva while looking at the beef. After swallowing it in one gulp with satisfaction, he replied, "Dry cleaning is too expensive. It's better to wash it by hand."

Kitahara agreed with this. It was not worth it to send ordinary sweaters to a dry cleaner. The charges there were comparable to those of Japanese taxi drivers. The meter started jumping as soon as you got in the car, and within a few blocks you could see meters jumping like disco girls on the dance floor.

"Then let's go buy another one. There's a store nearby."

"no, I'm fine."

Qianchuan quickly raised her head and waved. There was still a grain of rice on the corner of her mouth. Beiyuan reached out to wipe it off for her and said casually, "Why, don't you want to go on a date with me? You act so resistant."

When Qianchuan realized what was happening, the tips of his ears turned the same red as the tangerines. "I didn't think so. I just thought it was a bit expensive."

"But I'm your boyfriend. Is there anything wrong with spending money on you?"

Qianchuan looked away and didn't know what to say. He just kept muttering, "How cunning, so cunning, how could he say such a thing."

The girl didn't even dare to raise her head by the end of her story. She lowered her head to count the plums in the side dishes. Only then could Kitahara's teasing voice be heard: "If you lower your head any lower, you'll crawl under the table."

"Humph."

Qianchuan raised his head, not caring about anything else. The most important thing now was to eat. Beiyuan stopped eating after finishing his first bowl of rice, picked up his phone and glanced at the reply message. Whale Sauce was trying to chat with him again, but he was busy, so he sent a message saying he was taking a shower and would talk later before turning off his phone.

The female teacher on the other side patted the bed in dissatisfaction. Her small white feet gently stepped on the sheets, as if stepping on breast milk. "What do you mean by taking a bath? Are you trying to put me off?"

The more Asuka Kousaka looked at this scene, the more familiar it seemed. Ten minutes ago, she was the one who had answered her colleague with the same reason. She didn't expect the revenge to come so quickly, and she was responded to with the same excuse.

"What's wrong? Why are you so angry?" Sayuri Sato pushed the door open from the living room and glanced at her best friend lying on the bed.

The second young lady was only wearing a simple nightgown, and her jet-black hair was tied into a ponytail with a dark blue ribbon. Her hair, still damp from taking a shower, stuck to her ears, like the gradual shift of indifference on rice paper.

Her nose is straight and straight, rising and falling with her soft humming, giving her a girlish beauty.

"I heard you complaining before I even entered the house."

"I'm so angry. A certain student is not obedient at all."

Asuka Kousaka pursed her lips. "Sayuri, if you encounter a student who tells lies so many times, is there any way to deal with him?"

"what"

Sayuri Sato was stunned for a moment. The raindrops and the bright light in the room outlined her figure. At this moment, a trace of hesitation appeared on Sayuri Sato's face: "I don't know either."

"I have no idea what to do with this kind of student."

The hazy mist unique to the plum rain season dyed the female teacher's slightly red cheeks.

It was already six o'clock in the evening when the two came out of the Sukiyaki restaurant. Colorful fireworks were floating on the streets. Qianchuan leaned over to look at the rain, reached out and touched it, and felt cold and continuous water droplets. He shrank back and looked at Kitahara.

"It's so cold. Want to sit for a while?"

"It's getting late and there's nowhere to stay. Let's go sign the contract first."

"Well, wait for me."

Without waiting for Kitahara to answer, Qianchuan rushed into the rain with her little head covered. Kitahara was about to call her, but his girlfriend ran away in an instant. She ran so fast that she disappeared in the rain in just a few seconds.

When she came back, her sweater was soaked with moisture, and her soaked pleated skirt swept across her calves, like dragging a dark crimson wave.

Qianchuan held two umbrellas in his hands and smiled:
"Luckily there's a convenience store nearby, it's not too far away."

"Cold?"

Kitahara looked at her clothes. The cuffs of her tweed jacket, which cost only a few hundred yen, were already frayed, revealing the goose yellow knitted lining inside. This was probably knitted with her grandmother's leftover wool, and it would give off a faint scent of mothballs during the rainy season.

"It's okay, I'm not cold at all, but my clothes are soaked and I don't know if they can be dried in this weather." Qianchuan stretched out his hand to show him.

The clean little hands are white with a hint of pink.

"It doesn't matter if it's not dried yet. We have to go shopping for clothes anyway. Let's go sign the contract first and then go shopping around."

Beiyuan took her little hand. It was cold and a little wet, but he didn't mind it that much. When he noticed some signs of resistance, he interlocked their fingers.

Qianchuan stiffened for a moment, raised his head slightly to look at him, felt his palms were a little hot, lowered his head and stammered: "Yeah."

The streets here are also very busy at night, unlike the rental house where Qianchuan lives, which is crowded with college students or office workers.

Qianchuan was led by Beiyuan, one in front and one behind, as if they were pulling something.

She exhaled lightly with a puff of white air. The white sneakers on her feet had turned yellow, and the foam she slowly exhaled seemed a bit out of place.

It's like the ugly duckling sneaking into the swans' party.

She is more accustomed to places like factories and hotel kitchens.
"Sign your name later."

"Ok?"

"I don't necessarily live in the apartment all the time. I'll go somewhere else occasionally."

"Oh"

In just a few words, the matter of discussion was confirmed. Qianchuan thought about it and felt that he didn't seem to ask whether he agreed or not. Was he agreeing too quickly?

The two returned to the original apartment and the saleswoman was still there.

"Lease it for two years."

"It takes longer, so we don't have to move houses, it saves trouble."

"Is there a girl living next door?"

"Oh, a female college graduate, that's fine. Wait a minute, does she have a normal temper? Does she change boyfriends frequently?"

While Kitahara was chatting with Sato Yuuka, Senkawa was sitting alone on the sofa, looking at the scenery, swinging his legs, and thinking it was quite interesting to be alone.

Until Kitahara called her over.

"Sign here."

“Okay.”

Qianchuan wiped the sweat off her hands and looked down to see that it was a contract or something. She didn't understand it either, so she just wrote it down. It wasn't until the saleswoman handed her the key with a smile that she looked at Beiyuan in a daze: "Can I live here in the future?"

"This is our home."

(End of this chapter)