My love index is at its maximum.

Yui Kichikawa looked up and gazed at her.

"Ah, I'm so sorry." Kurisu clasped her hands together in apology before continuing, "So? Did you listen to your mother's advice and try to get Tsukasa back?"

Qichuan Wei lowered her head: "Go and bring him back as your husband, I won't object."

"Oh...you're willing to call him Dad?"

"willing."

Kurisu shrank her neck and patted her daughter's shoulder: "Congratulations, you've grown a little more."

The neatly tidied room was filled with an atmosphere of barely contained disappointment.

At midnight, Yui Kikawa stopped writing, drank a whole glass of water, and then got into bed.

After reading a few pages, with my eyes scanning the printed text, drowsiness naturally creeps in.

I turned off the bedside lamp, closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, it was already the next morning.

I got up around 6 a.m. and made myself a simple breakfast.

I ate pork floss bread, fried eggs, fried ham, and milk. After breakfast, I spent half an hour washing and ironing clothes and making the bed.

Despite living a life of plenty since childhood and being surrounded by a large number of servants, she always maintained the habit of doing things herself.

At eight o'clock in the morning, I went for a run along the Imperial Palace. An hour later, I started reviewing my school lessons. Lunch consisted mainly of vegetable salad and fruit. After lunch, I read for a while and then took a nap.

Additional training sessions will begin at 2 PM.

It could be kendo, tea ceremony, equestrianism, or golf; the specifics depend on the butler's arrangements.

She wouldn't feel any resistance to it.

She wasn't particularly sociable to begin with, and not meeting or speaking to anyone for extended periods didn't make her uncomfortable. Being confined to one place, living a monotonous and lonely life every day, wasn't painful for her either.

As evening approached, today's training session came to an end.

As the sun began to set, Yui Kikawa suddenly remembered a scene in the script where the male protagonist was running in the sunset. So she had the driver take her to the outer garden of the shrine, where she bought a bag of fried potatoes along the way.

A lap around Jingu Gaien is 1,325 meters, and there are markers carved on the road every 100 meters, making it very convenient to run. As a result, many Japanese track and field athletes choose this place as their daily training ground.

She carried a camera and filmed the track and field athletes sweating under the setting sun, capturing their rigorous training, hopes, dreams, and plans on the screen.

This is the meaning of life.

People are born with hope, which they then use as fuel and as a goal to continue their lives.

The blonde girl sat on the lawn and began eating her still-warm fried potatoes. If she didn't eat them soon, they would become soft and lose their crispy texture.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and the world went dark, she suddenly realized: everything is like a fried potato; no one can preserve its original appearance.

Chapter 137 Please let the tiger fill up your car with gas (1)

Tsukasa Tazaki spent a boring Sunday.

Or perhaps it's a very decadent Sunday.

I stayed in bed too long.

Not only that, but I also accidentally broke a bowl while cooking lunch.

While ironing, I was listening to music and got distracted, so I ironed a hole in my school uniform shirt.

I didn't go out all day; I just lay in bed reading.

June sunlight streamed through the window onto the floor, and dust particles could be vaguely seen in the beams of light. Below the beams, slippers lay there lazily, like two little dogs lying on the ground.

It's so hot in the summer, it's okay to be lazy once in a while, right?

Anyway, I'm not Superman.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The electric fan spun rapidly, turning the pages of the book in my hand one by one.

Like clouds slowly drifting across the sky, they disappeared through the window on June 13th.

I woke up around 1 a.m.

Tsukasa Tazaki went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, then returned to bed and closed his eyes, but sleepiness lingered.

Pulling back the curtains, the silvery moon floated silently in the night sky like a sensible orphan.

It seems I won't be able to fall asleep no matter what... Tsukasa Tazaki made himself a strong coffee, moved his chair to the window, ate a few soda crackers with cheese, and then read a book while waiting for dawn.

Even late at night, the Tokyo sky remained inexplicably bright, with red aviation warning lights atop buildings flashing incessantly like luminous jellyfish floating in the dark depths of the sea.

As dawn approached, he tilted his head to the side and fell asleep in the chair.

In a hazy dream, I had another one.

Winter, at Ueno Station amidst heavy snowfall.

They were dressed in heavy, clumsy clothes that were unfamiliar to each other. Shiori Ninomiya's hair, the power lines weighed down by snow, and the bare tree branches all danced in the strong wind.

She smiled through her tears and said to herself.

I don't like Kiki at all, but thank you for always being there for me.

Open your eyelids again; the clock hand points to 8 o'clock.

The sunlight on a summer morning streamed in through the window, tracing a slightly skewed quadrilateral on the floor.

Tazaki Tsukasa brushed his teeth with his eyes half-closed, while also thinking to himself whether he should get a louder alarm clock.

After changing my clothes, I went out and entered Shinjuku Station at 8:30.

We're already late.

On the yellow Chuo Line tram heading to Yotsuya, Tsukasa Tazaki yawned with every sway of the carriage. Through the glass door, he could see the clear sky outside—a rare sunny day amidst the rainy season.

However, the weather agency announced that a new round of rainfall will begin tonight and last for a week.

So tired that he was afraid he would fall asleep while swaying, Tsukasa Tazaki took out his phone, checked the few numbers in his contacts repeatedly, and after a moment's thought, dialed Kana Shimamoto's number.

The phone rang a few times.

Inside the staff office of the main building, Kana Shimamoto straightened up in her seat, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

Bright sunlight streamed through the windows, filling the courtyard and making the leaves of the tall oak trees shimmer both dazzlingly and gently.

"Ah~!"

A lazy yawn escaped her lips as Kana Shimamoto rubbed the marks left by her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Just as she put them back on, her phone rang.

Upon seeing the name displayed at the top of the screen, a warm, helpless smile appeared on her face, and her finger swiped across the answer icon.

“It’s class time now, you…” Hearing the sound of a train coming from the other end of the phone, Shimamoto Kana adjusted her glasses: “Tazaki-san, you’re not going to be late today, are you?”

“Let’s not talk about that now,” Tsukasa Tazaki asked. “Does Shimamoto-sensei’s work include psychological counseling?”

"You have ten minutes to tell me."

The sweet and gentle voice echoed in his ears, and Tazaki Tsukasa could imagine Shimamoto Kana sitting steadily in a chair on the other end of the phone, perhaps even with her legs crossed in stockings.

So he asked, "What color stockings are you wearing today, teacher?"

"You're always having inappropriate thoughts about your teacher. Is this a psychological problem for you? It's quite serious."

A knowing smile appeared on Shimamoto Kana's lips as she touched her glasses frame with her index finger: "Why don't you imagine what the teacher is doing right now?"

"What else can you do at school? It must be work-related."

“Then let me tell you…” Shimamoto Kana said in a low voice with a playful smile, “I’m in bed, I just took a shower, and I’m still naked.”

"Wouldn't that turn into a pornographic video?"

"Have you seen it?"

“I haven’t seen it.” Tsukasa Tazaki’s face instantly turned serious, and his tone became earnest: “Therefore, please, Professor Shimamoto, turn on the video mode now so that the students can learn more.”

“Tasaki-san is really a pervert…” Shimamoto Kana’s smile didn’t diminish in the slightest. She brushed her bangs aside and looked through her glasses at the neatly sharpened yellow pencils on the table.

"Teacher, do you think it's better to wear stockings or pantyhose? Which is sexier, black or flesh-colored?"

"It doesn't matter which way you choose, teacher. Is it better to be naked, or to wear something? I have everything in my closet, from black lace camisoles to thin white stockings that tear easily. You can wear whatever you want, or I'll be naked if you don't want me to. Oh, sorry, I'm not in the mood to talk about this on the phone, I'll hang up now, we can talk more when you come to my room..."

"Wait... 10 minutes will do." Tsukasa Tazaki quickly stopped her from hanging up. "Wasting 10 minutes for me won't cause any real harm to your life, will it?"

"The phone is only suitable for business, so I'll wait for you in the office to finish the rest of the conversation."

"Liar!" Tsukasa Tazaki protested. "Didn't you say you were at home?"

When did I say I was at home?

"Didn't you just finish showering?"

"Can't I take a shower in the office?"

Kana Shimamoto asked him a question in return, then hung up the phone with a smile.

She then stood up from her office chair and paced back and forth in the office as if stretching her body. The swaying of her waist and the clatter of her high heels made all her movements appear incredibly natural and elegant.

How to take a shower in the office... Tazaki Tsukasa yawned as he imagined her carrying a bucket of water to wash her body, gazing at the clear sky outside the car window in a half-asleep state.

Arrived at the station, got off the train.

Walking up the slope leading to the school gate, scorched by the sun, it felt as if he could hear the sound of his skin burning. Suddenly, Tsukasa Tazaki realized that a week of continuous rain was actually acceptable.

It's morning assembly time, and the school building is quiet.

As he passed the vending machine on the school path, "Sardine," who was sunbathing, meowed at him.

Tsukasa Tazaki stopped, grabbed the fat cat by the scruff of its neck, and gave it a good rub.

Meow~!

The fat cat's struggling cries sounded particularly mournful in the empty campus.

Satisfied, Tsukasa Tazaki released his grip, and the chubby orange cat, tail between its legs, darted up to the oak tree by the school gate, barking menacingly at him through the gaps in the branches.

As he walked to the front of the teaching building, Tsukasa Tazaki stopped in front of the bulletin board and carefully read through the school magazine that had been posted that morning.

Things like which class won the soccer match, the physics teacher fell down the stairs and was hospitalized, or the latest evidence that Tsukasa Tazaki from Class 1F is a scumbag—these are all incredibly boring things.

A short poem was also printed on the title page.