Problem Girls Strategy

"…sorry."

"... "

"The only one who can change yourself is yourself. If you can't, just rot in the darkness." The other personality that left this sentence moved farther and farther away from Matsushima Mitsuru, turned into a point of light and disappeared. In the suffocating dark space, only Matsushima Mitsuru was left.

"Hey, Man, stay with me forever."

The familiar school rooftop, the familiar voice, but the face of the old friend had long been blurred. She was standing by the guardrail in a tattered school uniform and stretched out her hand to Matsushima Man. The spreading black fog turned into tentacles that wrapped around her arms, and no matter how she waved, she could not break free.

"Why are you still struggling? Am I not your best friend?"

"Of course you're my best friend!"

“Then why don’t you choose to be with me forever, so that you won’t have to worry about losing me.” The old friend whispered softly, like a demon in hell that tricks mortals into signing a contract to sell their lives.

"I..." Matsushima Mitsuru didn't know how to start. The words of another personality echoed in her mind.

The only one who can change you is yourself.

"I'm sorry..." The girl's eyes were filled with tears, and she showed the same happy smile she had when she was with her old friend a long time ago: "Because you are no longer from this world, I... want to live."

There were no vicious curses or gentle blessings. The figures of the old friends disappeared without a trace along with the dark fog exuding despair. Under the white indoor shoes on the rooftop were the photos of them taken together.

Matsushima Mitsuru grasped the cold door handle on the rooftop door and pushed it open with all his strength, at the same time pushing open the door that had been blocking his progress.

The cold air and raindrops fell on her cheeks. Matsushima Man had never felt so alive. The raindrops mixed with tears slid into her mouth. The salty taste on the tip of her tongue made her realize that this was not a dream.

Jiang Zao was soaked by the rain. He stood beside the dug pit with a shovel in his hand, motionless like a sculpture. Judging from the traces of mud around him, he had been standing here for a long time, like a knight guarding a sleeping princess.

"Jiang Zao..." Matsushima Man's faint call came from the pit. She climbed out of the coffin with difficulty. Her vision was blocked by her rain-soaked hair and tears in her eyes, making it a little blurry.

A strong hand grasped Matsushima's muddy arm and pulled her out of the pit: "I've only buried you for three days, and you keep saying you want to die, but you're so spineless?"

"Why are you here?" Matsushima thought he had left long ago.

"I knew from the beginning that you didn't want to die. I did this to make you take the step of change. So, no matter how long it takes, I will wait for you to come out."

"What if...I mean, what if I don't come out?"

"Who knows? I haven't thought about the situation where you don't come out. Although it's reckless, it doesn't matter."

"Have you been waiting for me here for the past three days?"

"Yes."

"…Have you got a meal yet?"

"I have no face to eat after burying a young girl in a coffin. It's only been three days, and the rain can sustain life. It can be regarded as a wonderful dating experience. Let's go. If I don't go back for three days, everyone should be worried."

"I'm...really alive now, right?"

"Yes."

Jiang Zao's simple two words made Matsushima Man shed tears of joy. She dragged her weak body and threw herself on Jiang Zao's back, which looked so reassuring: "Thank you, Jiang Zao."

The rain that had lasted for three days finally stopped at this moment. Jiang Zao carried Matsushima Man on his back and walked back to school.

Matsushima's clothes were all wet. She absorbed the warmth coming from Jiang Zao's back and buried her head in his neck. Her wet golden hair penetrated into his collar.

"What if I really die in there?"

"Don't say such nonsense. I made a lot of emergency measures in that coffin. Even the soil I buried you in was just for show."

"I see... Jiang Zao, actually, I feel for you..." Matsushima Man whispered her feelings in Jiang Zao's ear. She didn't need his answer because she already had the answer in her heart on the day they agreed to bury her.

The two returned to school and rested for a few days. After confirming that Matsushima Mitsuru had recovered from her weakness, Jiang Zao drove her to the home of her other personality's parents to meet them in the name of gratitude.

Since then, the other personality seemed to appear more frequently. Of course, what surprised Matsushima the most was the cat Melu brought back by Jiang Zao. The kitten that died that day was just a toy doll he had arranged.

Jiang Zao was mentally prepared to be slapped by Matsushima. After all, he was the one who planned all this. She was not as angry as expected, but just left a bite mark on his neck in revenge, which caused Jiang Zao to be questioned by others in the next few days.

Chapter 29: That Day's Smile Was Horrible and Distorted (Part 2)

"Private bodyguard?" Jiang Zao looked at Sakaki Yumiko with a puzzled look, and all of a sudden, all of the novels he had read before emerged in his mind, about a soldier returning to the city and becoming a beautiful woman's personal bodyguard, and finally winning the heart of a rich and beautiful woman and reaching the peak of his life.

Yumiko Sakaki nodded. She had always felt that someone was watching her during this period of time. She went out alone on the day to buy snacks just to confirm this. Although she didn't know whether it was because of her identity as the daughter of the Sakaki family, it was an indisputable fact that she was being targeted.

Jiang Zao was a mysterious boy from the inside out, and the extraordinary skills he displayed during the attack on him were naturally the reason for him to hire him as his personal bodyguard.

"It's not impossible, but are you going to do something dangerous? Do you still need to hire me as a bodyguard?"

"It's not that I'm going to do anything dangerous, but someone is targeting me."

"Well, I already know that you are beautiful. There is no need to show off in such a roundabout way."

Yumiko Sakaki raised her voice, and said to him with a stern face, "I'm not kidding you!"

"I understand. I will stay with you during this period of time." Jiang Zao raised his hands to show his surrender. Please stop staring at him with cold eyes. He is not a masochist, and such a look will not have any effect.

"I'm glad you understand. Your salary won't be reduced." Yumiko Sakaki stood up from her chair: "I'm going to go out later, you get ready."

"learn."

Jiang Zao took out his cell phone, which contained the message Julia sent him two days ago. Sakaki Michiaki, Yumiko Sakaki's father and the president of Tohama Electric Railway Group, approached their organization and hoped to arrange an attack against his daughter, Yumiko Sakaki.

The purpose was not to kill his own daughter, but to intimidate her so that she would return to her family and make preparations to inherit the huge family business that Sakaki Michiaki had inherited from her father's generation.

In this attack, Jiang Zao was naturally used as an extra insurance to persuade Sakaki Yumiko to return to the main family. Sakaki Michiaki, who did not know his true identity, only regarded Jiang Zao as an undercover agent arranged by the organization for the daughter of the Irisuo family.

After all, no father would allow a person known as the "Son of the Devil" to attend the school he founded for his daughter.

Jiang Zao picked up the phone and made a call: "Hello, it's me. Please prepare the things we agreed on before. Yes, today."

It has been mentioned before that Jiang Zao made a lot of preparations with the help of his few memories to deal with the troubles of the problem girls. The longest time-consuming part was to build connections within the organization so that even if he left the organization, he would not be without any help.

"Let's go." Yumiko Sakaki came out of the bedroom and stuffed the album into her white shoulder bag. It seemed that she was going out to sketch. It was unknown whether she was trying to lure out the person who was secretly monitoring her or just to kill time.

Jiang Zao followed her to a small river not far from the city. The green grass and the gurgling water danced in the wind. The clouds chased each other in the sky, occasionally blocking the hot sunlight, bringing some coolness to this summer.

Yumiko Sakaki sat quietly on the grass and described the scenery she saw.

“You draw very well.”

"How can this level be considered good?"

“Isn’t painting your hobby?”

"I just don't want to talk. I just want to kill time."

"do not want to talk?"

“Because as long as I’m painting, I don’t need to communicate with others.”

"So you're the type who likes to be alone."

"I'm just not good at socializing. I'm a very boring woman, right?" Yumiko Sakaki said this, and the movements of her slender hand holding the colored pen to draw the lines became a lot rougher.

"Let's put the painting aside. People who judge themselves as boring are really unattractive."

Yumiko Sakaki paused in her painting and felt unhappy when she heard Jiang Zao's answer. Although I said this myself, as a boy, can't you compliment a girl at this time? Why are you acting like a wooden man who knows nothing?

If Jiang Zao knew, he would probably just say the classic line: "Drink more hot water."

The weather changed just like Yumiko Sakaki's mood. The white clouds that were chasing each other just now have been ruthlessly replaced by dark clouds, suggesting that a heavy rain is coming.

"Boom!" The sudden thunder was like the terrifying scream in a horror game when you are concentrating on finding the exit. Yumiko Sakaki shivered with fear, and her paintbrush and craft knife fell out of her bag and scattered all over the floor.

Just as Yumiko Sakaki was bending down to pick up something in the rain, three tall men in black suits and sunglasses, who looked like bad guys, formed a triangle and surrounded her and Jiang Zao.

"You're finally here..." Jiang Zao said this and stretched out his hand to protect Yumiko Sakaki behind him.

The leading man in a suit and sunglasses lowered his voice and threatened, "Get lost."

Jiang Zao did not abandon Sakaki Yumiko as planned and fled in a hurry alone, which stunned the other three.

Why doesn't this guy follow the script? Is he trying to raise the price at this critical point and add extra money at the last minute?

As expected, Jiang Zao smiled at them and said, "I'm sorry, this will cost extra."

He rushed forward and punched the leading man in a suit and sunglasses in the nose with a powerful punch. Blood spurted out of his nostril like a fountain.

"You boy!"

"Fuck him, get him!"

The other two rushed towards Jiang Zao cursing the moment he made his move. It must be said that Sakaki Michiaki was quite good at finding people. These three men were all tall and strong with a bandit-like look on their faces. They looked like gangsters in their suits. Ordinary people would probably feel weak in the knees when they saw them.

There might be more than three of them nearby, so Jiang Zao decided to make a quick decision. Silver electric snakes danced on his fingertips, and the moment they touched the two people who were rushing over, they paralyzed their bodies.

Yumiko Sakaki seemed to have not recovered from the shock yet, so Jiang Zao pulled her up from the ground and took her to a nearby bridge to shelter from the rain.

This sudden downpour seemed like it would never stop. Strong winds carried rain and howled across the bridge. The thunder kept exploding like a father getting angry and scolding his child.

"Ahh!" Yumiko Sakaki couldn't remember how many times she had thrown herself into Jiang Zao's arms because she was afraid of the thunder, and she simply refused to leave his reassuring and warm embrace.

The delicate body that was shaking constantly due to the cold and fear gradually calmed down under Jiang Zao's gentle comfort. Yumiko Sakaki couldn't help but ask this boy who seemed to be unshakable no matter what happened: "Why are you so strong?"

"I never thought of myself as very strong." Jiang Zao is now just a human being with special abilities.

"You're very strong. You can survive on your own like this. You're completely different from me." Yumiko Sakaki left the warm embrace that she had been briefly infatuated with and told the story of her past.

"My father married my mother because he wanted her to give birth to a boy to take over the family business, but the one she gave birth to was me. My mother was too weak to give birth to a second child."

"Both her father and her family, who were supported by the Sakaki family, blamed her, and she suffered a double blow physically and mentally, and eventually fell ill."

"My mother, who was sent to the hospital by her respectable grandparents, became all alone, and so did I."

"I'm surrounded by so many eyes and rumors that I can't even make a single decent friend."

"Even so, I visit my mother every day, hoping that she can smile at me like before, until..."

Yumiko Sakaki will never forget that day. As usual, she came to the hospital to visit her mother who was becoming increasingly thin and taciturn. Just as she was about to leave, her mother called her in a weak voice.

"Yumiko..."

My mother turned her head and looked at me with a numb look. I thought she was finally willing to talk to me, but the surprise in my heart didn't have time to turn into a smile on her face.

"It would be nice if you were a boy." A weird and twisted smile appeared on the mother's face, as if she was fantasizing that her daughter was a boy and that she would live happily ever after.

Language turned into the sharpest blade in the world, stabbing into Yumiko Sakaki's heart, leaving a huge bloody hole on it. It also cut her life so far into pieces and threw it into a trash can with the words "Not Recyclable" written on it.

"My father later gave birth to a boy with his lover. My mother, traumatized by this, committed suicide. Even before she died, she was apologizing for not giving birth to a boy."

"But my brother also died of illness. My father took me back and treated me as if nothing had happened. He planned to train me to be his successor."

"That person used me, my mother, and everything else as tools to expand the Dongbin Group!"

"This school was only built to hide me from hurting my classmates. I went from being a bird in a cage to a bird behind a wall. Isn't that ridiculous?"

"Whether they are birds in cages or birds in walls, they all have the ability to fly independently. What they lack is the person who gives them freedom." Jiang Zao saw the man in a suit and sunglasses who was watching them from a distance on the other side of the river, and whispered in Yumiko Sakaki's ear: "Leave the rest to me. Stay normal. Let's go back to the dormitory first."

Jiang Zao walked out of the shelter of the bridge. The rainstorm stopped at some point. Rays of sunlight pierced through the dark clouds and shone on Jiang Zao as he walked out of the shadow of the bridge. At this moment, he looked like a knight in golden armor: "The sky is clearing up, let's go."

Yumiko Sakaki's heartbeat began to speed up quietly. Maybe... this person could really give her the freedom she longed for.

Chapter 30: The smile now is free and cheerful (3rd update!)

"Yes, the man resisted, did not follow the plan, and asked for more money."

"This is not what we agreed on." Sakaki Michiaki, who looked very old-fashioned, sat in the dark car. His eyes flashed with anger and his body trembled slightly like an angry lion.

A phone call was made to the principal's office of Mihama Academy. Sakaki Michiaki suppressed his anger and told Chizuru Tachibana with dignity, "Immediately expel the student named Jiang Zao. I will let Yumiko study in the United States. Your school will also be closed. Go and complete the formalities quickly."

After saying that, Sakaki Michiaki hung up the phone directly. Listening to the beeping sound coming from the receiver, Chizuru Tachibana didn't know what kind of trouble Jiang Zao had caused that made Sakaki Michiaki call personally to close the school.

"How should I explain this to the students?" Chizuru Tachibana put down the phone worriedly. Before she could think of a good way to phrase it, another call came in, from an unfamiliar number. Chizuru Tachibana picked up the phone: "Hello..."

"Don't worry about school. Also, remember to put the dessert on the table." The voice whose gender and age could not be identified said this on the phone and then hung up.

"Dessert? I don't remember buying anything like that?"

Chizuru Tachibana was confused as to why this person's words were so incoherent.

……

Sakaki Michiaki leaned against the window, gazing at the gorgeous neon lights that only lit up at night. Only from such a high place could he appreciate the beautiful scenery from above and indulge in the scenery brought to him by power and status. He suddenly thought of his rebellious daughter, and his good mood suddenly disappeared.

There was a knock on the door outside the office. He stood in front of the window and checked his clothes. After confirming that there was no problem, he sat back in his office chair and said, "Come in."