Tokyo: Starting with taking on his wife's debts

"Let's get ready to leave work!"

As Hideaki passed the cashier, he waved to Chieko and continued toward Riko, who was dozing off.

“Hideaki-kun…” Chieko suddenly reached out and grabbed Hideaki’s sleeve, her head lowered, her slightly thin oval face flushed pink, her eyes darting around, “I, I can… repay you tonight?”

"You should calm down!" Xiuming tapped her on the forehead impatiently. "I'm providing you with a job and paying you a salary because I value your abilities, diligence, and loyalty. Don't try anything underhanded; this approach won't work on me."

“It’s not like that…it’s just…” Chieko said, covering her blushing face with her hands, “I…I think…it’s just that…I, I couldn’t find the right words…”

Xiuming paused, then gently lifted her fair chin with the pad of his index finger.

She pursed her bright red lips and slowly tilted her face up as Xiu Ming guided her fingers. Then, her trembling eyelashes lowered and slowly lifted, her evasive eyes filled with shyness.

She seems a bit off... Xiuming leaned closer, noticing her evasive eyes, and whispered, "Didn't you just arrive last night?"

"Okay..." Chieko closed her eyes, unable to contain her shame.

Xiuming asked, "Is something on your mind?"

"No...no..." Chieko stammered, "I...I was just too excited...I...I really wanted to repay you, it's just...that, I,I..."

"Then hurry up and pack up, let's go home!"

Hideaki still had to go to Ayako's villa to lock in the futures index, and didn't have time to linger here. As he spoke, he walked toward Riko, who was still dozing off.

However, Chieko's condition seems abnormal...

She was completely exhausted last night, and she still came? Is she out of her mind?

With such a weak body, once every three days is the limit. Any more than that, and the woman will suffer from kidney deficiency and gynecological diseases.

She must have some kind of mental illness, and she's probably hiding it because she's afraid of being fired. If we still have time later, we'll catch her red-handed; if not, we'll do it tomorrow.

Riko was really sleepy. When Hideaki picked her up, she was still half asleep, her arms wrapped around Hideaki's neck as she murmured, "Husband...husband..."

Riko is very particular about her bed and doesn't sleep well here. I saw her yawning several times.

After instructing Chieko to check the circuits and appliances one more time, Hideaki carried Riko back to apartment 403 in the apartment building.

Riko's "Management Manual," compiled in her notebook, is quite organized, comprehensive, and very much in line with service etiquette.

Xiuming added a few more entries to the notebook, such as the language employees use to greet customers, their usual posture and greeting etiquette, how to handle and respond when they "catch" or "encounter" customers who steal, as well as customers who "maliciously" complain, "maliciously" beg, and "maliciously" claim compensation.

The retail industry is most likely to encounter all sorts of eccentric individuals, and it's impossible to be perfect in every aspect. The only way is to learn from experience in business operations and from the mistakes of others in the industry, and to patch up the loopholes.

With over thirty years of prophetic experience, Xiuming sat under the lamp next to his bedside table and wrote five pages of dense, detailed writing.

Finally, he wrote a "label" for Riko to tell her where he was going.

The gist is: I managed to get into your bed tonight, but you were sleeping too soundly. Other women needed me. See you tomorrow...

It was one in the morning, and the streets, illuminated by the dim streetlights, were not as busy as during the day, but there were still taxis and private cars speeding by.

On the pedestrian street, you can see groups of two or three office workers, mostly middle-aged men in their thirties or forties, with their arms around each other and drunk.

This was one of their few moments of free time. After get off work, they would meet up with colleagues for drinks to release the pressure from all sides. They completely forgot that their wives were at home, having prepared dinner and kneeling at the door waiting for them.

The surrounding office buildings were still brightly lit.

Now that he had some money, Xiuming didn't mind indulging a little more and took a taxi.

After getting into the car, the taxi driver, who was in his forties, would always glance at his face through the rearview mirror.

His work ID was displayed under the windshield: Ichiro Shiraishi.

Hideaki remembered him; the first time he took Riko to Ayako's house, they rode in his taxi.

Taxi drivers are usually talkative, right? But he didn't say a word, and there was a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

I guess she's curious about my current love life!

He had overheard her brainwashing attempts during the ride in his taxi.

The driver remained silent until they reached their destination. Just before getting out of the car, Hideaki couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Shiraishi, is there anything you're wondering about?"

The driver snorted and sped away.

It's utterly baffling.

In Ayako's villa, only the window of her small room was still lit.

Xiuming swiped open the door and had just changed his shoes.

From the second floor came Ayako's laughter: "Wow~ I never thought I had such charm. Is Riko crying at home?"

Ayako was wearing only a thin, semi-transparent white silk nightgown. The straps, which should have been long, appeared somewhat short due to the voluptuous curves under her collarbone, and the hem only covered half of her fair thighs.

Her hair was loose, her smooth arms were draped over the wooden railing on the second floor, and her upper body was leaning on the railing.

When Xiuming looked up, she didn't care at all whether she would expose herself. She even stuck one bare foot out of the railing and pointed at Xiuming with her toe.

She wasn't using a cane.

"Is your ankle better?"

"It's all done~" Ayako put her left leg on the armrest and did a split. She was wearing the same style of underwear as Ezaki. "Want to touch it?"

Xiuming glanced back without saying anything, then walked to the stock index display and locked onto the Nikkei 225 futures index.

[The Nikkei 225 index is expected to fall to its lowest point of the day, 24550, sometime between today and noon tomorrow.]

[The Nikkei 225 index is expected to rise to its highest level of 25660 points sometime between now and noon tomorrow.]

[Around noon tomorrow, senior officials at the Bank of Japan will again engage in heated discussions regarding whether to cut interest rates, with those currently holding a wait-and-see attitude in the majority.]

Tomorrow there will be a profit of 1100 points. If there is another profit of 4.5 million yen, it will be too arrogant. If the Ministry of Finance takes notice and bans him from entering the financial market, he will fall into a financial predicament. After all, his real business needs money in all aspects.

Then let's earn a little less. Let's earn 1.5 million tomorrow, and transfer the rest to an international account to earn US dollars.

Although the Nikkei 225 index on the local OSE exchange and the Singapore SGX exchange is highly synchronized, they are not completely identical due to geographical differences, trading rules, market sentiment, and exchange rate relationships, resulting in a "price difference".

These subtle differences are crucial for investors who engage in precise arbitrage trading.

The futures trading on both sides needs to be carried out alternately, making it easier to conceal.

Tomorrow I'll ask Ezaki to transfer the funds to an overseas account, and then at noon I'll lock in the Nikkei 225 futures index on the SGX international market.

"Hey, I'm going to an embroidery exhibition first thing tomorrow morning, so you won't see me for two weeks!" Ayako stood at the edge of the second-floor staircase, shaking her semi-transparent nightgown as she spoke. "Ugh~ It's so hot~ Is there anything you need to tell me?"

"Once you win the trophy at the embroidery exhibition, I'll immediately expose your plagiarism and ruin your reputation," Xiuming said as he walked up the stairs.

“Anyway, we signed a contract. If you ruin my reputation, I’ll make you bankrupt,” Ayako said, jumping onto Hideaki, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing her head close to his ear, sticking out her pink tongue, and touching his earlobe with the tip of her tongue. “How’s your little white flower doing? Has she mentioned me?”

"She said she hates you because you're keeping her man as a mistress."

"You're so shameless, you're getting me all excited..." Ayako chuckled. "Quick, carry me back to my room... I'm not sleeping tonight, I'll sleep in the car tomorrow..."

.

Early in the morning, warm sunlight shone through the semi-transparent white curtains onto the mattress in Ayako's room.

On the mattress, Hideaki and Ayako were fast asleep, each holding onto the other's leg.

The alarm clock set by the bedside rang precisely at six o'clock.

Xiuming tilted his head, squinted, and swatted the phone away. Then he sat up, grabbed Ayako's leg, and said, "Hey! Get up quickly, it's six o'clock. Aren't you supposed to catch the train?"

“It’s not too late to go in the afternoon…” Ayako hugged Hideaki’s leg tightly, rubbing her nose and face against the soles of his feet. “I’ll sleep a little longer…”

Ha! What a noob...

Xiuming ignored her and set his alarm for eight o'clock. He then got dressed, went downstairs to the kitchen, and made two sushi breakfasts. He ate one himself and covered the other with a net on the table before leaving.

It was another sunny day. The tram was too crowded, so I walked forty minutes back to the supermarket.

Office workers are the most likely to buy comics and bread for breakfast.

The five female employees who just joined the company yesterday have not yet arrived.

Riko was busy at the cashier.

When Xiuming walked in, Riko's bright eyes shone with excitement and admiration. She took the notebook out of the cashier's drawer and said, "Honey, you were amazing last night! I finished the 'Business Manual.' Do you need it bound?"

“Okay,” Hideaki took the notebook. After Riko’s sorting, the clauses he had added last night, whatever came to mind, were all very clear. “When those five new employees arrive, just find anyone and have them go to the print shop to get them. They can get reimbursed with the invoices… What about Chieko?”

It's normal that Eri isn't on the shelves; she's definitely sleeping in at this time.

"Um, the toilet's clogged... Chieko's trying to unclog it..."

"I'll go take a look."

Xiuming glanced at the food shelves and was slightly surprised. The shelves, which were full of ham, tofu skin sushi, fried squid rings, daifuku, cream buns, glutinous rice balls and other fast food items last night, were all half gone.

These ready-to-eat foods are mainly popular at night, attracting female office workers who rush out of the building across the street.

I didn't expect to see people buying so early in the morning; it's time to activate the membership card service.

On the east side of the supermarket was a partitioned-off workspace for Ayako, which has now been "occupied" as the supermarket's warehouse. The restroom is located in the southeast corner of the warehouse.

Xiuming passed the shelves, and before he even reached the restroom, the sound of vomiting came from behind the small white wooden door of the restroom.

Xiuming opened the small white wooden door. Chieko was facing away from the door, gagging and shoving a stick into the toilet.

There was some cream and bits of undigested food floating in the toilet bowl; it was vomit.

"Can you handle it?" Xiuming asked.

Chieko's shoulders trembled, and seemingly instinctively, she blocked the toilet with her body. When she turned around, her face was pale and her eyes were filled with panic. "Hideaki-kun... yes, yes... I can do it myself. You, you can go out first, it stinks here..."

"It doesn't smell bad!" Xiuming walked over, took the wooden stick from her hand, picked up a piece of seaweed from the murky toilet water, and said in a relaxed tone, "No wonder you're so thin, do you have 'overeating and vomiting syndrome'?"

This overeating and vomiting disorder has become a common social and psychological phenomenon in Japan today.

Among women, some are bound by the societal value of "thin is beautiful," some have developed obsessive-compulsive perfectionism, and others face pressure from their families of origin, social life, and disharmonious marital relationships.

They would eat voraciously until they were stuffed in their throats, then rush to the toilet or shove their hands over a bucket and try to vomit all the food out.

Vomiting until exhaustion, convulsions, and acid reflux, with tears and snot streaming down her face, until nothing can be vomited up anymore.

During this suffocating process of vomiting, they forget all the troubles weighing on them. It is a very short-lived and highly addictive way to release stress and fill emptiness in a "morbid" manner.

I often think that as long as I repeat this process, I can spend the whole day without any pressure.

I heard that Princess Diana of the United Kingdom had this problem.

"I'm sorry..." Chieko said softly, her head bowed. "I... I can handle it... The night before last, it just... it didn't happen..."

Chieko knew very well why she hadn't done anything the night before last: because it was very fulfilling.