Conan: I've been linked to the tech tree system.

He brewed this with new tea bags, and the flavor was exceptionally strong, with even a hint of mellow floral and fruity aroma.

"The villa is very nice, and the decoration is very sophisticated."

"Compared to Miss Yitiao's family, they're probably not even worth mentioning, right?"

“My house doesn’t have such lavish decor,” Misaki Ichijo said with a laugh. “Are inventors that rich? One person could afford a house like that.”

"This house doesn't belong to me; it was just a friendly gift from a friend."

This is a lie. As soon as he received the "research and development funding" from the Black Organization, he bought the house from a wealthy woman in Kyoto.

Considering that she wouldn't be living in Tokyo, the wealthy woman gave her a friendly price, barely managing to empty Tohru Tono's savings.

Although I spent a lot of money out of thin air and my quality of life didn't improve immediately, I'm still very happy overall—it's not so comfortable to live in a house owned by someone else.

"What kind of friend is so generous?"

“A client from Kyoto.” Toru Tohno changed the subject. “Speaking of which, a company as big as yours should have a dedicated legal team, right? It seems you also have a collaboration with Attorney Kisaki?”

"If we could hire a 'Queen of the Legal World' like Attorney Fei as our full-time legal advisor, then of course we wouldn't need to hire any other lawyers. Unfortunately, isn't this the exact opposite?"

Misaki Ichijo said casually, but her gaze was firmly drawn to the little creatures scurrying around on the ground.

“I wanted to ask this as soon as I came in—what is that?” Her slender finger pointed to a disc-like object on the floor, which was moving rhythmically across the ground.

“Oh, that’s the robot vacuum cleaner,” Toru Tono replied, glancing at the target she was pointing to.

"A robot vacuum cleaner?"

"It's a robot that can automatically clean the floor. I usually turn it on after I leave home, which saves me the trouble of hiring a cleaning service every day."

Misaki raised one of her pretty eyebrows and opened her cherry-like mouth, looking very surprised: "Why not produce it and launch it to seize the market? Something this convenient will definitely ignite a new wave of home appliances."

"It looks convenient, but it's still quite immature. Let me improve it first."

"Ah, please cooperate with us after the improvements are completed!" Misaki Ichijo clasped her hands together and spoke to Toru Tono with a pleading look and tone.

"If Miss Yitiao is interested, cooperation is certainly a no-brainer."

“Just call me Misaki.” Misaki Ichijo glanced happily at Tohru Tohno, then reached into her pants pocket, seemingly to take out a business card.

"Oh dear, I forgot to bring it when I went out." Misaki Ichijo slapped her forehead, looking regretful. "How about I leave you my contact information?"

Tohno Toru stood up, took a pen and paper from the coffee table that Tachibana Mayoki used for her recipes, and handed it over.

He himself doesn't have the habit of using paper and pen. If Tachibana Maya didn't also live here, his family probably wouldn't even have any white paper for writing things down.

After receiving another sheet of paper with a string of phone numbers, Tohru Tono glanced at it and put it in the drawer.

The font is elegant and clean, with a slight upward stroke at the end of the numbers, giving it a somewhat cute look.

And it seems like a private phone number was left behind?

"Any other inventions? I want to see them." Misaki Ichijo suddenly became very interested, stood up with her hands behind her back, and looked around.

"That's all. I never work on two inventions at once. The robot vacuum cleaner is the result of my brainstorming over the past two months."

"My gut feeling tells me you're lying to me."

Misaki Ichijo didn't listen to Toru Tono's words and wandered around the living room before finally stopping in front of an iron gate.

"The laboratory?" she said to Tono with a smile, pointing to the iron gate.

"Storage room".

"I'll go in and take a look at the high-tech brooms inside."

"...It's a laboratory."

"Let's go in and take a look."

Misaki Ichijo waved and beckoned Tohru Tono to open the door.

Tohno sighed, looking like he had no choice but to give up, and walked over to put his fingerprint on the fingerprint scanner.

With his back to the sunlight streaming in from outside, he frowned.

......

The laboratory of Toru Tono and the classic screen image that has gradually become stereotypical in various film and television works are completely different.

There were no test tubes containing alternating red and green liquids, no heavy wooden lab benches or futuristic robotic arms, and certainly no taboo things like human organs preserved in formaldehyde in the jars.

The laboratory is small, with a long metal table in the center.

It displays ultra-thin laptops, microscopes, wrenches, hammers, and other tools, as well as all sorts of strange and wonderful inventions.

One corner of the laboratory is piled with various material samples, including metals, plastics, and circuit boards.

In addition, all four walls are lined with bookshelves, which are filled with books.

From "Relativity" to "Feynman's Lectures on Physics", to Thomas Morgan's "The Gene Theory", and even "Selected Works of Marie Curie", it has everything, a whole hodgepodge of the broad scientific field.

"Your lab looks more like a library with an experiment table in the middle."

"Uh......"

Chapter 60 Hiding in the Shadows

With the support of a system, the laboratory itself is not that important.

Tohru Tono would never say those words aloud.

So he simply said in a "no big deal" tone: "I like books, and a tidy place can inspire my creative inspiration."

"Oh." Misaki Ichijo nodded, it was unclear whether she believed her or not.

Curious, she walked over to the lab table, picked up a long, rectangular mechanical device with a green screen embedded in the center, which looked very high-tech.

"It's an external sensor controller... Also, I suggest you don't mess with my invention."

"Hmm?" Misaki Ichijo looked at Toru Tono, thinking he was angry.

But there was no sign of anger in his eyes or brows?

“It will explode,” Toru Tohno added, looking into her eyes.

"Ah!" Misaki Ichijo turned around abruptly and, sure enough, found that the long controller was flashing a red self-destruct warning light.

It was flashing, like a C4 bomb about to explode.

"I suggest you throw it away quickly..."

"You don't have to say that!"

With a flick of her wrist, Misaki threw the "bomb" onto the floor, her high-heeled legs leaping a great distance.

"bang"

The controller crashed to the floor with a loud bang, almost like a firecracker exploding. The touchscreen was flashing with static and electric light, clearly indicating that its internal structure had been damaged.

"That scared me to death." Misaki Ichijo patted her chest, looking still shaken.

Although the casing didn't shatter or fly off, it looks like it's leaking electricity...

"Maekei 50 yen."

"Hey, don't be so petty. You're partly to blame for not warning me I'd explode!"

"It's not proper etiquette for a young lady to touch other people's things without permission."

“Give me your bank card account number,” Misaki Ichijo said irritably.

I'll text you tonight.

"You really want it?"

"I'm a very honest person, and I never joke around."

Misaki Ichijo couldn't catch her breath and almost choked to death.

She wasn't trying to renege on her debt, so why can't she even be polite?

After calming myself down, I walked back to the lab table.

Why would you equip an invention with a self-destruct mechanism?

"I'm afraid that it might be misused by unscrupulous people and used to disrupt the harmony and stability of Japanese society."

"I believe you... If you can't move, could you explain these things to me?"

"No."

Has anyone ever told you that you're very straightforward?

"Thank you for the compliment."

......

They argued with Misaki for a long time until the sunlight shone directly on Beika Town's head.

After returning from grocery shopping, Tachibana Maya and Ichijo Misaki got to know each other briefly and then started cooking.

Preparing meals for three people is much more difficult than preparing meals for two people—fortunately, the extra person is just a girl with a small appetite, so it's easy to make some Japanese-style tofu dishes to get by.

After having lunch at Toru Tono's villa, Misaki Ichijo finally left.

......

After the other person left, Tohno Toru sat on the sofa with a frown, staring blankly at the teacup that still had a little bit of dark red lipstick on it.

"Judging from your expression, your blind date didn't go well?" Tachibana Maya, wearing a white lace apron around her neck, was washing dishes in the open kitchen. Her hair was tied up in a bun on top of her head for convenience while cooking, giving her a somewhat housewife-like appearance.

"No, it went very smoothly. Everyone was just putting on a show for the overly concerned elders."

"Isn't that exactly what you wanted? What's there to be unhappy about?"

"It feels a bit out of place."

"Feeling of disobedience?"

“I always feel that person…” Toru Tono pointed to the coffee cup in front of him, “is thinking something and doing something that are not quite the same.”

"Isn't that normal? Every woman is an actress, especially in a place like Japan, where every move must follow social etiquette... It's common for people to say one thing and mean another."

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Tohno carefully chose his words, trying to express his strange feelings. “Even if a woman pretends to feel something completely opposite to what she feels, I can always see through her true emotions from her body language, the emotions in her eyes, or the intensity of her words.”