Tokyo: Starting with taking on his wife's debts

"Do you even need to think about this? Just say: I'll leave everything to my husband."

"Yes, yes, I'll do whatever my husband says!"

Riko breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, she didn't have to think about it herself; it was so relaxing. "But what should I do? If customers try to negotiate the price, I..."

"These are all cheap and practical items. I only sell two for 100 yen and 200 yen. Customers who come into the store basically don't bargain anymore. They just take the items and leave. You just need to collect the money."

As Xiuming spoke, he applied slight pressure to the acupoint on her scapular muscle with his left thumb.

"Hiss~ Ouch~~ Ouch~ Good~ Good~..."

Riko's shoulders, which were already sore from staying up all night, seemed to burst out when Hideaki pressed on them, causing her to gasp in pain.

But this pain also had a bittersweet quality, making you want to run away immediately yet also want to continue experiencing the sensation, leaving you unable to even say "okay".

"I'll take Ayako out to get the money later, and then we'll choose a suitable place to open the shop. If we find a good location, we'll go directly to the wholesale market to buy some small commodities. If all goes well, we can open for business tomorrow."

As Xiuming was speaking, he felt that the skirt was really in the way, so he lifted the blue suspenders and gently patted her shoulder, signaling her to lift her shoulder.

"Hmm..." Riko nodded, her face flushed, biting her lower lip and slightly raising her shoulders.

"Now close your eyes, clear your mind, and try to fall asleep!" Xiuming threw the skirt on the ground, continued to let her lie face down, and then pressed the acupoints on her back with her fingers.

Riko glanced cautiously at Hideaki and saw that he looked very serious. It seemed that he was serious, so she followed his instructions, closed her eyes, and slowly cleared her mind.

A moment later, Riko began to breathe evenly. Hideaki pulled the sheet over her smooth back and hips, then slowly walked out of the room and gently closed the door.

"Is the contract ready?"

To avoid waking Riko from their conversation, Hideaki closed the door to the room.

Ayako was sitting on the white mattress, her uninjured, bare right foot on the floor, her left foot removed from the metal brace and stretched out diagonally on the floor.

She held the single metal cane that Xiuming had bought for her, examining it over and over.

“There it is, take a look!” Ayako put away her cane, tilted her head, and gestured with her lips towards the bedside table.

This contract is quite unique.

The gist of the agreement is: Hideaki Yamanaka promises never again to use the unique embroidery technique invented by Ayako Sugita in front of outsiders. In return, Ayako Sugita will pay Hideaki Yamanaka 100 million yen. If Hideaki Yamanaka breaches this promise, he will pay Ayako Sugita a penalty of 10 trillion yen. Both parties have signed the agreement.

"Is this a contract?" Xiuming almost burst out laughing as he held the contract. "Is this some kind of children's game?"

"Just treat this like kids playing house, are you going to sign or not?"

Xiuming was too lazy to waste any more words with her; it was all pointless. He quickly wrote her name on it and tossed it to her.

She chuckled as she held the contract: "Just you wait! I'll use every trick in the book to make you use me in front of others. Then I'll be eating you alive for the rest of my life."

“Whatever you want,” Xiuming said, walking to the workbench and pulling out a large blue cotton cloth. She packed the twelve zodiac animal dolls she had sewn together with the Pikachu doll. “Change your clothes, and after we get the money from the bank, I’ll put you on a busy commercial street to sell the dolls.”

Now that she's received 100 million yen, there's no need to lose money licensing Pikachu. Given Ayako's circumstances, that amount of money would probably be deposited into her bank account on the spot, considering she also owns this multi-million yen villa.

"I'm fine with withdrawing money, but I'm not going to sell plush toys; it's too embarrassing."

As Ayako untied her sash, her legs froze as they fell beneath the hem of her black kimono. She then placed her hand on her pale thigh, rubbing off a layer of dirt. With an incredulous look on her face, she raised her hand and said, "I need to take a bath first."

“You have a cane now, so you can go downstairs by yourself. Go ahead! I’ll use this time to work out a plan.”

Xiuming sat on the white mattress and took out several blank A4 sheets of paper from the bedside table.

"Go and run me some hot water." Ayako put her right foot on Hideaki's back and shook him. "Hurry up."

Xiuming turned around and said, "You've exposed yourself."

Ayako froze, her ears turning bright red. She lowered her legs and tugged at her hem, but it still couldn't cover her up. She glanced at him sideways and said, "Didn't you expose yourself there too? Even with the cloth covering you... you have no sense of romance at all... hurry up and run some hot water."

"Sign this agreement and I'll go run the hot water."

The gist of the agreement: Ayako Sugita promised that if Hideaki Yamanaka provided her with hot water, she would sell plush toys in the shopping district and sell them all before nightfall. If she breached the agreement, she would pay Yamanaka 20 trillion yen in compensation. Both parties signed the agreement.

"Do you play house too?" Ayako chuckled, took the pen, added "Hideaki Yamanaka promises to scrub Ayako Sugita's back" to the agreement, and then quickly wrote her name. "How about that? Here's your perk."

"You'll be in for a world of hurt!" Xiuming casually tossed the contract onto the bedside table.

The bathroom on the first floor is quite large, with a large bathtub that can accommodate two people. There is a rectangular wooden board placed across the bathtub for resting your arms and placing drinks. Next to the bathtub, there is a long bed with a silver sponge cushion, presumably for scrubbing.

"How about a soap park?"

As Hideaki filled the bathtub with hot water, Ayako, leaning on a metal cane with her left hand and holding a bottle of bath soap that produced lots of foam in her right, smiled at Hideaki, revealing eight white upper teeth between her curved, bright red lips.

Is this what they mean by "homegrown flowers don't smell as good as wild ones"?

"Riko's at home, don't go too far," Hideaki said dismissively.

I don't have much time today, how can I waste it like this? After withdrawing money from the bank, I need to find a shop to rent. If I can rent it, I need to find a decoration company, buy some goods, and check my stock account... There's too much to do.

Besides, what if her injured ankle gets hurt again? Would you carry her around all day?

"Why bring her up?" Ayako's face stiffened, and she said in a joking tone, "Do you know how much psychological pressure I'm under? If you keep treating me like this, I... I'll lose confidence..."

Although she was joking, her eyes showed a very serious expression.

Xiuming turned around and moved closer to her, looking directly into her eyes.

Ayako's eyes darted around, she turned her face away, and tilted her chin slightly. "W-what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"The hot water is ready, let's begin!"

Xiuming lifted her left arm, propped the metal cane against the corner of the wall, then pinched the back of her kimono collar, gently lifted her up, and then let go, causing her to slide to the ground.

She has such a great figure and face, and she's clearly a bold and open person, yet I saw inferiority in her eyes? She looked like she was completely doubting her own charm.

"Hiss~" Ayako gasped, instinctively crossing her right arm across her chest, which was already overflowing, and instead covering her right forearm.

"Was your deceased husband not good to you?"

Xiuming used a bath towel to scrub her back and asked.

Her injured left foot rested on a wooden board lying across the bathtub, but she was sitting in the tub, her left knee resting against her smooth shoulder, which was slightly red from the water temperature.

"He's a despicable liar."

As Ayako spoke, her face, flushed red from the water's temperature, contorted slightly.

"I'm quite interested, would you like to share it?"

"We're already in this kind of relationship, and you're still interested in him? Are you a perverted turtle?"

"Isn't he already dead? I'm quite interested in his scams."

"You want to learn from him?" Ayako tilted her head, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You can't possibly learn it."

"Tell me, what if you can learn it?" Xiuming said, taking the red plastic bottle that was bubbling with lots of foam. "After all, it takes a skill to turn a woman like you, who is excellent in every way, in terms of figure and appearance, into someone who is insecure and lacks confidence."

"He is gay."

Splash! Xiuming stood up from the bathtub.

Ayako's ex-husband is a gay man who endures a heterosexual marriage and has a secret boyfriend.

He got married to hide his sexual orientation, not only from his family but also from Ayako.

However, when engaging in marital relations, his own psychological issues would eventually lead to physical reactions, causing him to develop aversion towards Ayako, often resulting in the relationship ending halfway through.

This behavior caused great pain to a heterosexual wife. Ayako initially thought he was having an affair, but after learning the truth through a private investigator, she was in a daze for several days.

When she threw the photos taken by the private investigator in her ex-husband's face, he was so frightened that he knelt down and begged her to agree to a secret divorce and give her a house if she kept the photos secret.

That's roughly the situation.

But Ayako didn't want to tell Hideaki that her ex-husband was still alive. She felt that if Hideaki found out, he might stop hanging out with her because he found it troublesome.

Her current ex-husband is the owner of the doll factory, and the secretary is her boyfriend.

Moreover, we have to have dinner at his house every week, and his father is gay too.

Is it hereditary?

I feel disgusted just looking at his whole family.

Chapter 47 Financing-type Variable Insurance

The sound of splashing water rang out, and Xiuming stood up from the bathtub. Ayako also subconsciously turned around, only to feel a shadow sweep across her face. When she looked up and saw clearly, she felt dizzy and her heart started pounding wildly.

She couldn't hear what Xiuming said after that... afterwards, she felt like her brain was about to be shaken out.

It took some time; we didn't finish packing until nine o'clock.

Riko was still catching up on sleep on the second floor when the two of them tiptoed out of the door.

Xiuming walked ahead, carrying a package containing dolls in his left hand and a briefcase in his right, while casually tugging at his navy blue shirt, which had already been buttoned up.

Ayako can also make clothes, and with such amazing embroidery skills, if she becomes famous, she can go three years without opening a business, and then live off her earnings for three years.

"Why don't you open a high-end clothing store, specializing in luxury bespoke clothing? From now on, I'll order all my clothes from you, and one order will sustain me for three years. What do you think?"

Although the economy is currently sluggish, this is just the general environment.

The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor means that the rich could accumulate enough money to last ten lifetimes. However, they don't want others to take advantage of them, so they try to find ways to squander their money within their limited lifespan.

Unimaginable luxury, such as: buying a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) and only eating the meat, not the bun.

"I don't want to open a tailor shop, I want to start my own business... Hiss!"

Ayako lagged behind, wearing a pair of black low-heeled women's leather shoes. Her long black hair was still styled in a woman's bun on top of her head, adorned with a silver hairpin with a silver pendant. She wore a long, black, belted trench coat with a tightly tied neckline, revealing only a small section of her fair neck. The belt was tightly fastened at her waist. If her chest wasn't so exaggerated, she could easily walk the runway as a long-legged model.

She had a metal crutch tucked under her left armpit, a black fabric handbag in her left hand, and her right hand kneading her oval chin. Before she could finish speaking, she frowned, gasped, and slapped Xiuming on the shoulder with her right hand. "Don't you appreciate things just because they're not yours? You won't even give me a massage, you beast!"

“Time is of the essence, there’s no time for a massage.” Xiuming pointed to the Pine Leaf Bank across the street, whose logo was a pine tree shape made up of three dark green triangles. “Is that the one?”

"How about you give me a massage when you're done? My whole body aches." Ayako said casually as she walked towards the zebra crossing, which was the Matsuba Bank that Hideaki had pointed to, taking advantage of the green light.

When Xiuming massaged Riko's back in the morning, she secretly glanced at her a few times. Riko was sleeping with her mouth almost crooked from smiling. She must have been enjoying it very much, which made her very envious.

"Everyone except Riko has to pay for the massage."

"Why do you keep mentioning her in front of me?" Ayako walked to the middle of the road, threw her metal cane on the ground, and stood on one leg. "I'm tired!"

The green light at the intersection was about to turn green, and rows of cars outside the zebra crossing honked their horns.

Xiuming quickly picked up the metal cane, lifted Ayako up around the waist, and ran across the intersection as fast as he could.

“I knew you would save me.” Ayako smiled, wrapped her arms around Hideaki’s neck, tilted her head back, and whispered in his ear, flicking her tongue against his earlobe.

Xiuming immediately got goosebumps, glared at her expressionlessly, walked to the glass door of the bank, put her down, quickly rubbed his ears, shoved the metal cane into her hand, and said irritably, "Go get the money!"