Tokyo: Starting with taking on his wife's debts

“You’re not a man!” Ayako grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, pointing at the landline phone. “Give me the phone. In a week, the newspaper will publish a story about a woman who starved to death at home. The police will find a suicide note that says the murderer is Hideaki Yamanaka and that the woman suffered inhuman torture and humiliation at his hands before her death.”

Xiuming handed her the phone, and she slammed it down, along with a bank card, onto the ground.

"There's 200,000 yen inside. The password is my birthday. If you don't know the password, there's nothing I can do."

As Ayako spoke, she flashed her driver's license, then tucked it into her bodice, crossed her arms, and stared at him.

Xiuming picked up the bank card, smiled, and said, "What do you want to eat? I'll make it for you."

"You cook?" Ayako's eyes widened as she looked Hideaki up and down. "You're not planning to drug me and then... steal my driver's license, are you?"

Xiuming ignored her, but her stomach was indeed growling, so she grabbed her keys, went out, and went up to the rooftop.

I prepared a late-night snack for the rooftop in the afternoon, but I forgot about it in my rush downstairs just now. I just remembered it now.

Hamburger patties, curry rice.

Oranges, a bag of embroidery materials, and a pair of wooden clogs that Aya had kicked away were scattered around the fire door on the rooftop.

Hideaki tidied up the things and returned to the room. Riko was already sitting side by side with Ayako on the sofa in the living room. Riko had her head down, her face was flushed, and her wrist was being held by Ayako, so she couldn't break free.

Ayako's expression was not good; she looked shocked, or perhaps incredulous.

"You mean you can't do it at all? That doll, your husband sewed it?"

"Um……"

Riko's inability to hide her feelings was eventually noticed by Ayako, who quickly broke Riko down and made her confess everything with just a few words.

Chapter 24 How about you test me?

"I sewed it myself. Isn't it something anyone with hands can do?"

Xiuming raised an eyebrow and tossed the lunchbox into Ayako's arms. He then placed the oranges in the red plastic bag and the embroidery tools in the canvas package on the coffee table.

Riko tilted her head back, her face full of frustration, looking like she was saying, "I'm so useless."

“Riko-chan, don’t blame yourself. She’s just too cunning,” Hideaki said, taking out an orange and sitting on the single white fabric sofa on the left, peeling the orange. “Don’t think of her as some kind of good friend. Just look at the contracts she wrote. She has no friends in her eyes, only interests. She will take advantage of everyone.”

"I'm listening!"

When Ayako saw Hideaki enter, she panicked. She didn't know what to say to ease the tension, but his words ignited her anger. Slamming her lunchbox, she shouted, "You're being very rude! You liar, Riko-chan, I misjudged you! You're an accomplice! If you feel any guilt, then sign the contract!"

"See? This is the true face of capitalists, turning the tables on each other." Hideaki pulled the still guilty Riko to his side, made her sit on his lap, and fed her a segment of orange.

Riko had just bitten into an orange segment when she shuddered, slurped it into her mouth, covered her mouth, got up, and walked towards the master bedroom, mumbling, "You, you guys talk! I, I have something else to do..."

She couldn't stand Ayako's unwavering gaze.

The master bedroom door closed softly.

"Has Riko always been so weak and easily bullied? It's unbelievable," Ayako muttered, staring at the closed bedroom door. Suddenly, she turned to Hideaki and said, "You don't always abuse her, do you?"

“Mind your own business. I’m not going to abuse you,” Xiuming said dismissively, eating an orange. He glanced at her slightly open shirt, where her driver’s license was tucked tightly, swaying as she opened her lunchbox. “What’s your bank card PIN?”

Ayako's hand holding the lunchbox trembled slightly. She bent down to unpack it, placed the disposable chopsticks on the coffee table, picked up a spoon, scooped up a mouthful of curry, and chewed with her eyes half-closed.

"Riko-chan said she can't cook either. Is this your curry? It's nowhere near as good as mine. Would you like to try some of my cooking?"

It's that awkward "pretending to be deaf to change the subject" tactic again.

“Not interested,” Xiuming tossed a segment of orange into her lunchbox. “Hand over your driver’s license.”

Ayako looked down at her driver's license on her chest; it was completely sunken in.

She scooped out a segment of orange from the lunchbox with a small spoon and put it in her mouth. As she chewed, she turned to face Xiuming, leaned forward slightly, and said with a gleam in her eyes, "Can't you get it yourself?"

"That's exactly what I was waiting for..."

She had barely finished speaking when Xiuming grabbed the disposable chopsticks from the coffee table, quickly broke them apart, and then reached inside.

Of course, although she broke the chopsticks apart quite quickly, the extra movement made Ayako realize what was happening. Just as Hideaki's chopsticks were clamping the driver's license, she quickly pushed her arm forward.

Although Xiuming could continue to take out her driver's license, she was worried that the splinters on the chopsticks might prick or scratch her there, leaving blood marks. After all, it wouldn't look good if such a white, jade-like object was scratched. So she could only let go of the chopsticks and sit back on the sofa.

“You could have taken it,” Ayako said with a smirk, pulling the chopsticks away. “Why did you let go?”

Xiuming said with a sigh, "You have to consider Riko's feelings. Don't bully her."

Her audacious actions exceeded Xiuming's expectations.

Given Ayako's personality, Riko would definitely be under her thumb. The problem is, she seems unable to resist Ayako's flirtatious advances...

If you really have to compare her to Riko, she's just playing around, since taking care of her family is her priority.

"I bullied her?" Ayako's eyes widened. "You're the ones who bullied me, okay? All I wanted was to achieve something great, and you caught me red-handed and now you want to take advantage of me for the rest of my life."

"If you hadn't impersonated someone else, how could we have caught you red-handed?"

"I just wanted to gain some fame, is that wrong? It's all your fault for doing such a good job, winning an award, and even being in the newspaper." Ayako stared straight at Hideaki. "Did you study in China? I heard that the world's most difficult embroidery style is there, what's it called again?"

Ayako thought that since Hideaki had such amazing embroidery skills, he must love embroidery just like her.

If you talk to him about such common topics, he'll definitely talk a lot, right?

If I appropriately express my point of view, will we find ourselves appreciating each other's perspectives?

I'm so excited just thinking about it; he'll definitely be very handsome then.

"What embroidery? I don't know anything about it." Xiuming said, spitting an orange seed into the trash can.

Xiuming doesn't understand any theoretical knowledge at all; all he knows is this "exquisite sewing skill."

"You... Hmph! If you want to eat me for the rest of your life, you'd better teach me first, otherwise you'll only be able to eat farts."

Ayako was taken aback, and said angrily, pushing the white canvas bag containing embroidery tools on the coffee table toward Hideaki, "I'll live here until I learn your embroidery techniques. If you don't teach me, I'll die in your house."

"Doesn't your family sell handmade dolls? How does this relate to embroidery?"

The part-time jobs Riko initially received included not only making plush toys, but also beadwork and various woven products, such as small pendants made of red rope.

Xiuming finished one orange, then picked up another and continued peeling it. It was sweet and sour, very delicious, and must be expensive.

“That belongs to my family, and embroidery is my personal business,” Ayako said, staring intently at Hideaki with anticipation in her eyes. “You’re so talented, you must be very passionate about it, right? Me too.”

"I do not like."

Ayako was stunned for a moment, then said loudly, "I'm thirsty, pour me some tea!"

"How many years have you been married?" Xiuming asked, tossing the peeled orange into her arms.

"Why are you asking that?" Ayako asked as she peeled an orange and ate it. "Do you also want to know how old the child is?"

"One minute you're like a sexually frustrated widow, the next you're like a young girl in love, like someone with a mental illness."

"Cough cough!" Ayako choked, her face flushed red, her eyes turning bloodshot as she glared at Hideaki, saying, "You're the one who's mentally ill...cough cough..."

Xiuming handed her the tissue box on the coffee table. As she reached for a tissue, her driver's license, which had been hidden in front of her chest, fell down. He simply grabbed it and pulled it out.

"You're a year younger than Riko?" Hideaki closed his driver's license, then glanced at her figure. "Maybe it's genetics!" he thought. "From now on, when you talk to Riko, call her 'older sister,' understand?"

Ayako pretended not to hear, patted herself on the back, and said, "I will write down all the evil things you've done to me in my diary, starting with today's events. Your finger brushed against me here, which really annoyed me..."

"You're just being grumpy here!" Xiuming threw the driver's license and the tissue box into her arms, then turned and walked towards the master bedroom. "It's 10:30, time to sleep."

"Hey, are you going to make me sit here all night?" Ayako panicked at Hideaki's apparent unwillingness to continue the conversation. "The sofa's too small..."

Ayako's left foot was fixed to a stainless steel bracket and hung high in order to recover as quickly as possible, so she couldn't even bend her leg.

Given her height, she wouldn't be able to lie flat even on a two-seater sofa.

I'll probably have a sore back and aching waist tomorrow morning, not to mention that I'll have quite a few bruises from rolling down such a high flight of stairs.

Xiuming walked to the bedroom door, about to push it open, when he paused.

There was a faint sound of crying in the room.

After thinking for a moment, she went back to the living room and said, "I'd better take you home! It's really not suitable here."

Ayako paused, glanced around, pointed to the tatami mats in the Japanese-style room, and asked, "Can't I sleep there?"

"Riko is crying secretly. Don't say anything more. I'll go comfort her now and then send you away."

Ayako tilted her head and whispered, "What does her crying have to do with me?"

Xiuming ignored her and went straight into the master bedroom.

Ayako stared blankly at the tightly closed master bedroom door.

The quartz clock in the living room was ticking away, but there was no sound from behind the door; the entire living room felt empty.

Ayako lowered her head expressionlessly, idly adjusted her bodice a couple of times, and then looked around blankly.

"Heh..." He gave a self-deprecating laugh and slumped into the sofa.

As the clock struck eleven, Xiuming pushed open the door to the master bedroom.

"Are you comforted?" Ayako sat up slowly.

"To the hospital?"

Xiuming put on her shoes, went back to the living room to adjust the stainless steel support, slowly put her left foot down, and asked.

“Go home. There’s a housekeeper at home,” Ayako said coldly.

Xiuming was taken aback. "You're a widowed, wealthy woman?"

"What? Do you need me to take care of you?"

Xiuming laughed and said, "I've got your weaknesses in the back!"

Are you serious?

Xiuming put away the support frame and bent down to pick her up. She opened her arms and placed them on Xiuming's shoulders, asking him a question.

Do I look like I'm joking?

“I mean, will you teach me embroidery?” Ayako wrapped her arms around the back of Hideaki’s neck. “And… just teach me. You don’t like it, right? Then don’t let anyone else know.”

“Of course I’m serious,” Xiuming said, carrying her out of the room, locking it, pressing the elevator button, and saying, “After all, if you’re ruined, how can I live off you for the rest of my life?”

"Are you serious?" Ayako added, "It's about living off this for the rest of my life."

"We definitely won't give up easily."

“I’ll give you 50% of the shares! We can sign a contract. You don’t have to worry about anything; I’ll do it all. You just get the money.”