Tokyo: They say it's just dating, but they're serious about it.

Katsuhiko had only watched Dragon Ball, One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto. He knew nothing about the others, and had even finished watching only Naruto out of the four anime. As for the author... was it Yamagishi? Kishiyama? Yamamoto? Yamafumi...? He couldn't remember for a moment.

I think you'd instantly remember someone just by seeing the original author's name!

As for novels, he simply couldn't get into them.

Among the female celebrities in the entertainment industry, I only remember a few that left a deep impression, such as the currently popular Ai Iijima and the pitiful Akina Nakamori. Of course, there are definitely other female celebrities, but I can only remember them after seeing their names and faces.

"Sister Yingdai really loves that novel, she'll definitely love the movie adaptation too..."

Kotoha tried her best to teach Katsuhiko how to date, but Katsuhiko only gave her perfunctory replies.

He had saved up five 100-yuan coins in his pocket, one of which had fine gold threads on its surface.

It wasn't that Katsuhiko was particularly observant, but rather that the moment it appeared in his palm, its function automatically came to mind.

When you directly touch the locked target, gold will be generated. After an hour, you will receive one gold coin.

The items that can be exchanged with gold coins are all artistic works such as comics, novels, songs, and movie scripts that will appear in the future but have not yet appeared and are not copyrighted. However, they are all random and do not yet have the original author's name credited.

The newly discovered gold-threaded coin is considered scrap.

You can no longer exchange for [Focus Potion] and [Recovery Potion]; you can only exchange for half a page of the Naruto manga artwork.

The reason I could only exchange for half a card was because the time I spent touching Kotoha's fingers was too short.

Katsuhiko didn't care about the wasted coins, since once he got a new person, the gold coins would keep coming.

"Kotoha-chan, please pass my clothes in..."

After taking a shower, Yingdai put on her work clothes from the food processing plant.

The work clothes had a zipper, and she pulled the zipper up to the collar, which covered half of her fair neck.

With each step she took, leaning on her cane, the hem of her high-rising dress seemed to be struck by something inside.

After Eiyo came out, Katsuhiko also washed up in the bathroom and changed into his work clothes from Watanabe Food Processing Factory.

"Wow~ It's like matching outfits, you two look so well-matched." Qinye exclaimed playfully.

Yingdai glanced at Qinye, frowned slightly as if warning, then turned her flushed face to the window and said, "It's time to go home."

In the past, food factories would have workers working overtime to produce food, even during holidays, and would also have customer service personnel to answer after-sales calls.

But now there's no need for that anymore. The reason the two of them are still staying in the factory is mostly because they are unwilling to give up.

It's almost seven o'clock, and the sky is getting dusky.

The western sun outside the window had sunk more than halfway behind the mountains, and the dark clouds with their golden edges stretched out in the shape of a dragon.

To avoid being harassed by debt collectors, Eiyo, Kotoha, and Kenta didn't live at home. Instead, they secretly rented the cheapest guesthouse in the suburbs, far from the city center.

I've already sold my car and don't dare take the company shuttle bus anymore. I commute by bicycle, which takes more than an hour each way.

The three of them went down the stairs. Qinye walked in front, holding a cane in her hand, with an aunt-like smile on her face.

Katsuhiko continued to hold Eiyo.

Eiyo wrapped her arms around Katsuhiko's neck, no longer tilting her head away, but when she occasionally looked at Katsuhiko, there was a hint of hesitation in her eyes, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

Katsuhiko said, "Speak your mind."

“Qinye is wrong. She, she doesn’t understand me,” Yingdai seemed to grit her teeth, then whispered, “My ex-husband is not gay. That was something I told my mother.”

"and then?"

"I have no children and I have three million yen in debt."

"continue."

"You, you still want me to go to the movies with you?" Eiyo said, looking up at Katsuhiko with a slightly dazed expression.

"We need to finish our meal first, and then we can help heal our leg injury."

Eiyo pursed her lips, still looking at Katsuhiko, and said, "Aren't you going to ask me why I got a divorce?"

"What's there to ask? It's always about how your ex-husband is a jerk, cheated, committed crimes, involved in prostitution, gambling, drugs, neglected you, didn't love you, abused you, was unambitious, his family made things difficult for you, he was drowning in debt, you were incompatible, your values ​​clashed—in short, whether it's your ex-husband or ex-boyfriend, it's all their fault. Do you expect me to hear you listing your own mistakes? Even if you cheated, it was because he was always away on business trips and never came home, and you had no choice. I've seen many divorce cases; judges are very understanding of women."

Yingdai stared in disbelief, then said hesitantly, "It was because of his crime that I divorced him."

"See, I wasn't wrong, was I? And what about you?"

"I did nothing wrong."

"I was right again."

Yingdai looked annoyed and said, "I'm having a serious conversation with you, but the way you're acting makes me feel like you're very casual."

"Dating isn't like marriage, so it's more relaxed to be casual. Keep talking, I'm listening."

Eiyo gritted her teeth and said, "Sato Hiroji suspects I have evidence of his crimes and forbids me from associating with other people..."

Katsuhiko was taken aback and asked, "Who?"

Eiyo was stunned for a moment, then said, "My ex-husband, Sato Hiroji."

Do you have any evidence of his crimes?

"No." Yingdai seemed a little annoyed, then tilted her head and asked, "Do you know him?"

If there were evidence of his crimes, it would have been possible to blackmail him for a large sum of compensation, and his bank loans could also be used to blackmail him into postponing the repayment deadline.

“There’s a bit of a grudge between us,” Katsuhiko lifted Eiyo, whom he was holding horizontally, up a little higher, and then asked, “What did he do?”

"He embezzled customer savings, misappropriated bank assets, colluded with a gang of thugs, and caused the death of a customer..."

Yingdai couldn't remember clearly either, after all, more than three years had passed.

Katsuhiko was not surprised by Sato Hiroji's criminal activities. No banker is immune to some form of financial crime.

As for the issue of colluding with yakuza groups, at that time, many of the bank's senior executives were actually yakuza members working part-time.

When we went down to the first floor, the seven people who had been tied to the machine had already run away.

The police officer who said he would "arrive on time in two hours" did not come.

Qinye pushed in two bicycles: a blue women's bicycle with a curved frame and a black men's bicycle with a crossbar.

Katsuhiko tied a long plank to the back of the black bicycle and had Eiyo sit across it with her legs outstretched.

Kotoha was going to ride her bicycle home alone, and she secretly winked at Katsuhiko, signaling him to keep going.

Yingdai noticed all her little actions.

Yingdai glanced at her sideways, pretended not to see her, and turned her head away.

It wasn't because she was shy; it was mainly because, as the older sister, she had always been the one ordering her around, and now that she was being asked to worry about her own marriage, she felt embarrassed.

Katsuhiko didn't let Kotoha go back alone. It was already dark, and the rented house was quite far from the factory. They had to cross a deserted farmland area, and several of the streetlights were broken, so it wasn't safe at all.

So, Kotoha sent a notification message to Kenta's pager, and then the three of them headed to the nearest shopping street.

Katsuhiko got on the bicycle, and Eiyo sat across the wooden board on the back seat, with one arm around Katsuhiko's waist.

Katsuhiko freed his right hand, patted Eiya's hand, and asked, "Now can you tell me where Kenta went?"

Eiyo didn't dodge, but tightened her grip on Katsuhiko's stomach, saying, "I went to see the president of the First Industrial Bank..."

Because the bank was pressing for repayment, Kenta had no choice but to visit them in person to request an extension...

Twenty minutes later, we chose a small private room at an affordable izakaya and took our seats.

Katsuhiko and Eiyo sat side by side, with Kotoha across the low table.

While pouring water, Sheng Yan secretly exchanged for a bottle of [Recovery Potion] and poured half of it into a 1L water bottle.

The ratio is approximately 5 ml to 1 liter of water. Try it on a leg injury treated with Yingdai. If it doesn't produce any incredible results and is still effective, then we can proceed with the energy drink plan.

Before the food was served, Katsuhiko held up a white porcelain water glass to Eiyo's face.

Yingdai paused for a moment, then took the water cup from her hands.

Qin Ye, sitting opposite, smiled and looked as if to say, "I didn't see it."

“I’m quite familiar with the owner of a convenience store; we’re good friends. I saw that there are a lot of miso soup packets and oden sets in the factory warehouse over there. Should I send them to the store to sell?”

"Of course!" Kotoha, still wearing a motherly smile, suddenly turned to look at Katsuhiko, her eyes filled with surprise and delight. "Was the bill paid on time?"

Those inventories were originally intended for convenience stores, but unfortunately, orders have plummeted. Now we're selling as much as we can, and we've been eating meager meals lately.

“With me here, it will definitely be on time,” Katsuhiko turned his head and saw Eiyo holding her water glass in a daze. He held the bottom of her glass and touched her lips to it, then said, “If Eiyo-chan has the chance, she can get to know the owner of that restaurant.”

Eiyo tilted her head back and drank the water. Katsuhiko placed his hand on her knee and asked, "Does your leg still hurt?"

Yingdai looked down in bewilderment, her lips twitching. She removed his hand and said, "It doesn't hurt."

Katsuhiko switched his other hand, patted her knee, and squeezed it slightly, asking, "Does it hurt now?"

"Hiss—!" Eiyo gasped, then yanked Katsuhiko's hand away, giving him a look as if he were an "idiot," and said, "You, do you have some kind of perverted fetish?"

"Just kidding," Sheng Yan said dismissively, and poured her another drink. "Have another one."

"This isn't fun at all!" Yingdai said, lifting her skirt to look at her knee, where the white gauze was already stained red with blood. "If you keep acting like this, I'll have to think about it..."

Qin Ye burst out laughing.

The meal lasted for half an hour, and no alcohol was consumed.

When Katsuhiko left the izakaya, he had more than ten coins in his pocket, which jingled as he walked.

If this continues, I'll need to prepare a bag.

Katsuhiko put Eiyo on the back of the bicycle again, and Eiyo seemed completely at ease with it.

"I wonder how Kenta would feel if he knew..."

Katsuhiko said, "From now on, Kenta will definitely bow to me first when he sees me."

Yingdai seemed to have thought of something funny, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly, but she pursed them again.

Qinye was covering her mouth and laughing when her pager beeped. She picked it up with a smile, her face stiffening slightly. She looked up and asked, "Kenta said 'I'm sorry' to me. What does that mean?"

The pager on the British side also beeped, with the same "sorry" message.

"Holy crap!" Katsuhiko's expression changed. "Quickly, find Kenta!"

Chapter 32 died; his head was rotten.