Tokyo: Starting with taking on his wife's debts

Then, Hideaki treated Chieko as Riko and started yelling at her.

The gist is: How could you distrust me like this? Didn't I say before? Everyone else is just playing around with me...blah blah blah...

A barrage of angry shouts left Chieko terrified.

From what Hideaki said, it means that Riko is the only person in the whole world he cares about.

She herself didn't mind too much, after all, the initial conditions were set, as long as she clung to Riko's coattails, she would get the lion's share while she got the scraps, which wasn't bad...

"Hideaki-kun, if you shout too loudly, Misako-neechan won't be able to handle it..."

Chieko cried out in her heart: You're being too biased! Misako is great too. You're her first love, and she'd give you her heart.

However, knowing a little about Hideaki's character, Keiko made a tactful remark.

"I'm speaking to Riko, why are you interrupting! I have my own plans for Misako's situation, I need to take care of Riko first."

"I... okay..."

Chieko was speechless and muttered to herself: "Hideaki-kun really cares about Riko-chan. He's almost driven crazy by Riko-chan's distrust of him... Should I really do what Hideaki-kun did and yell at Riko-chan? My lung capacity isn't enough. I'll probably faint from oxygen deprivation before I finish yelling."

I can't yell like that anyway. I need to revise it to show my appreciation to Misako-neechan, since I still need to learn marketing planning from her...

After Xiuming finished yelling, his tone suddenly softened, and he said, "Call the people on the 28th floor and tell them to study on their own, or do whatever they want! You go upstairs and go to sleep."

"Huh?" Chieko's hand trembled as she held the phone.

"Didn't you stay up all night too? You must have gone to a lot of trouble comforting Riko and Misako. If they trusted me as much as you do, I would have a lot less to worry about. You're really great, I like you."

"No...nothing really..." Chieko instinctively covered her face, a feeling of betraying Riko suddenly welling up inside her.

Inwardly, I wailed: Please don't care about me like this... I'm already so grateful...

"How much debt do you still owe?" Xiuming asked, ignoring her modesty.

“Five million three hundred thousand yen…” Chieko responded instinctively, then suddenly realized what she was doing and immediately said, “Hideaki-kun, I can pay it back with my salary. You’ve already taken good enough care of me, I can’t…”

"Comforting Riko is the reward you earned. You're a good woman, and I like you a lot. It's decided then."

Hideaki had previously transferred a bonus to Chieko's bank account; he only needed to call the bank again to transfer more money.

“Hideaki-kun…I…”

Chieko was at a loss for words to express her gratitude; nothing she said seemed adequate. She felt an urge to rush over to him through the phone line… Before she could stop herself from crying, she quickly changed the subject, saying, “Um, this morning a lot of new employees came to your game development company. Shota brought a Mr. Tajiri Satoshi to see you… saying they need funding for game development…”

Xiuming had visited Game Freak's game development studio once before, which basically paved the way for the future.

Especially after Shota was "tempted" by Hideaki's executive position, he was filled with excitement and energy.

Thinking of Game Freak, the game development studio that Hideaki had always wanted to acquire, he temporarily worked overtime and last night bought a trunk full of high-end gifts at his own expense to visit Satoshi Tajiri's house.

Satoshi Tajiri initially said he would think about it some more, but Shota immediately knelt down at his doorstep and kowtowed repeatedly until his head was almost broken.

This put Satoshi Tajiri, who already had communication difficulties, in a very awkward position.

However, he was also overwhelmed by the studio's financial pressure, and the conditions offered by Xiuming were quite good. His main concern was whether Xiuming would abide by the contract, or whether there were any hidden traps in the contract that he hadn't discovered.

After all, he knew nothing about Hideaki. Nintendo is a big company with a good reputation.

But Shota shamelessly kowtowed and begged, disturbing the neighbors to the point of wanting to file a complaint.

He had no other choice, so he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, stamped his foot, and said, "Get up! I'll sign it."

After agreeing, I felt much more relaxed. My only concern was to personally verify the funds.

Shota was worried that Satoshi Tajiri might change his mind, so he stayed at his house for the night. The next morning, he arranged for a moving company to rent a luxury bus and bring over the entire Game Freak studio and all its employees.

They even asked Chieko to have the female employees training on the 28th floor temporarily form a cheerleading squad, holding banners and flowers to welcome them, creating quite a spectacle.

The programmers, who were experiencing "technical stress," were both embarrassed and excited. Some of the handsome ones even got hugged by female employees, making their hearts flutter.

Shota continued to introduce the company's strength to Satoshi Tajiri, citing the "Miyamoto 100 Yen Supermarket" in front of them as an example. He explained that it had opened fifteen chain stores in prime locations throughout Tokyo at the same time, and that the owners had bought the stores outright. One could imagine how wealthy the owner was.

Although the supermarket has absolutely no connection to game development, they are indeed part of the same company, essentially a conglomerate… The boss also plans to expand his girlfriend's "embroidery business," his ex-girlfriend's "comic book business," and the "AV entertainment film and television business" of some women who have a crush on him…

Shota basically knows all about Hideaki's relationships with various women... Hideaki makes so much money from the stock market, he can't even spend it all, what does he do with it? He definitely uses it to woo women!

What he had to do was to profit from the boss's attempts to woo women and demonstrate his own value so as not to be fired by Xiuming.

"Mr. Tajiri, you can imagine that such a philandering man never gave up on his original wife, yet he took such good care of the other women, ensuring they lived in harmony. Especially when he continued to seek other women, he even had the tacit approval of his original wife and all the other women. This demonstrates not only the boss's immense wealth, but also his sense of responsibility and extraordinary abilities. He is not to be underestimated and is worth following."

Satoshi Tajiri was deeply impressed upon hearing this. For someone with social anxiety, all she could do was nod in agreement, "That's amazing."

Of course, Satoshi Tajiri hadn't forgotten about the Pokémon game development, especially since the development funds were almost depleted. He wanted to meet with Hideaki to inquire when the development funds would arrive.

In fact, the 4.5 million yen in the company's account could have been used, and Hideaki gave Shota a lot of autonomy.

However, Shota felt it wasn't right to use it without prior notice, so he took Tajiri Satoshi to the supermarket.

He wanted to consult with Hideaki and, incidentally, show Hideaki his work ability: Look! I've brought Mr. Tajiri and his entire studio here. Aren't I amazing!

Unfortunately, Hideaki is not here.

After Chieko finished speaking, Hideaki made a phone call to the landline on the 28th floor.

Shota answered the call.

Hideaki first highly praised Shota's work ability... Of course, regarding his unauthorized overtime work, he first offered some personal suggestions and made minor criticisms, as a way of showing concern and sympathy...

It was mostly just polite talk, but Shota seemed very excited and had endless things to say.

Xiuming got annoyed; it had been almost an hour... so he quickly stopped the conversation and hung up the phone hastily.

Outside the wooden door of the convenience store, it was still drizzling.

Mr. Nagata, the shop owner, was yawning while leaning on the counter, his mouth agape.

"Boss, where's my cup noodles?" Xiuming asked.

"Do you have many women?" Mr. Nagata asked.

Hideaki's current identity is what Hideaki told him last night: that when Masataka Oki was dying, he entrusted his wife, whom he had never touched, to him.

They signed a marriage agreement, making him essentially Funakawa Yoshiko's husband.

He wasn't interested at first, but now he is.

The daughter of Koichi Funakawa from the next village is going to be someone's mistress.

"What's it to you?" Xiuming took the cup noodles himself and brewed them.

Nagata chuckled a few times, then fell silent, plotting how to annoy Funakawa Koichi.

An alcoholic who sold his daughter is now living such a good life, even driving a Mercedes. I can't stand it; it's outrageous.

While Hideaki was eating instant noodles, his wife, Funakawa Yoshiko, was also getting ready to get dressed and get up, despite feeling dizzy.

Today we are burying Masataka Okitama. The neighbors will be here soon, so I can't continue my rest.

As soon as she lifted the covers, a sudden, sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen, causing her to gasp and break out in a cold sweat.

I only realized then that I had started my period.

I instinctively looked down and saw a piece of cloth that looked like a loincloth, with a sanitary napkin wrapped around it. It didn't fit properly and was leaking from the side...

Funakawa Yoshiko froze for a moment, enduring the cramping pain in her lower abdomen, she covered her face with her hands, and squeezed out a mosquito-like voice from her throat: "So embarrassing..."

But now is not the time to dwell on shame. I need to change my sanitary napkins. I subconsciously looked around the room and found two sanitary napkins of different sizes in the bag containing the brightly colored women's kimono.

Funakawa Yoshiko hesitated alone in her room for a long time before finally taking it with trembling hands.

However, after comparing them, he found that none of them fit, and couldn't help but pound his leg: "This idiot... ouch~"

Funakawa Yoshiko cried out in pain and almost rolled on the ground in agony.

The force of the blows on his legs seemed to be magnified a hundredfold, and then the blows landed on his lower abdomen.

The fever symptoms hadn't even subsided yet, and now it was causing trouble, making me dizzy and lightheaded, and I just wanted to pass out.

We really can't afford to waste any more time...

The black kimono that had been hung out to dry wasn't dry yet, but the bright red kimono was completely unwearable.

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

Funakawa Yoshiko, with tears in her eyes, cursed as she stood up, wrapped in her blanket. Suddenly, everything went black, and she staggered a couple of steps before grabbing the doorframe.

The high fever hasn't subsided, and she can barely walk...

Funakawa Yoshiko closed her eyes and rested for a while before taking off her wet black kimono. Luckily, she could change into a dry inner lining. She put on a wet black coat over the four layers of inner lining. It should be fine, right?

The burial is just a formality; we'll be back before noon. Just bear with it...

What sins did I commit in my past life to deserve this torment in this one?

I couldn't even drink the warm rice porridge in the lunchbox; I felt nauseous and uncomfortable.

"Idiot... idiot..." Funakawa Yoshiko left the bedroom and returned to the mourning hall. Looking at the body in the coffin, she couldn't help but cry, "Idiot, where did you go... I'm so scared..."

She was worried that she would faint here and then be stuffed into a coffin and buried with the villagers who hated her.

Soon after, the villagers who wanted to help arrived.

Funakawa Yoshiko was still crying beside the coffin, and for a moment, the seven or eight villagers who came to help were stunned.

At first, they were surprised and confused, but soon their reaction turned to sympathy and pity, and some of the older women even wiped away tears.

Now no one despises or mocks her anymore. Of course, because they are too embarrassed to say anything, they can only silently lift the coffin onto the flatbed cart, and then two middle-aged women help Funakawa Yoshiko leave the courtyard.

Funakawa Yoshiko was experiencing severe abdominal pain and dizziness, her legs almost giving way beneath her. Two burly women supported her on either side of her arms as she hoarsely cried out, "Where are you... I'm so scared... Don't go..."

"In the coffin, in the coffin..." The old woman didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only respond with the facts, "Don't cry anymore, don't be afraid...it will pass soon...what a poor child...dying so young—"

The woman seemed to realize she had said something wrong and immediately covered her mouth.

Funakawa Yoshiko trembled and cried even harder.

Chapter 160 Three Good Deeds

"Boss, can you hear crying?"

Xiuming was slurping his noodles, and because the slurping was so loud, the crying could only be faintly heard. When you listened more closely, you couldn't hear it anymore.

"Isn't there a dead man being buried today?"

Mr. Nagata, puffing on his cigarette, scoffed, "You kid, you can't remember who's who because you have so many women, can you? Do I have to remind you again?"