Persona: Devil Summoner

Jiang Tianwei muttered to himself, regretting why he didn't go to the Children's Palace to learn to play the piano or paint when he was a child.

However, artists sometimes do not need the opinions of ordinary people; they can draw their own conclusions.

"Love... Yes, love..."

Yusuke muttered to himself, seemingly normal.

But Jiang Tianwei's sharp devil ears had already heard the whispers of the people around him... especially the whispers of women...

"Did you see those two men talking about love?"

"Wow, are they... hey hey hey?! I finally saw a genuine forbidden love outside of comics?"

"Hurry up, I want to tell my sisters, come and see, wow, handsome guys hugging each other, I am so impressed..."

The muscles at the corners of Jiang Tianwei's eyes kept twitching. It is said that if the left eye twitches, good luck will come; if the right eye twitches, disaster will come. Now his eyelids are twitching non-stop. He is afraid that something bad will happen soon...

"Let's go, Yusuke, this is not the place to talk..."

Jiang Tianwei stood up and was about to leave. Yusuke instinctively reached out and grabbed his arm: "Wait, wait a minute, my friend, at least, at least pack up the steak..."

"Hey! They're holding hands!"

"Ah, I'm dead"

Jiang Tianwei learned a crucial premise from what happened today: two grown men should never talk about such profound topics in public places! Especially in a place like Japan! Especially when there are gay fans around!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 682: Not only free food, but also free people? !

Yusuke, who was stuck in a bottleneck and didn't know how to modify his painting, finally came up with a great idea.

Since I can't figure out what's missing in my painting, why not just go have a meal with that old man?

So, the previous scene happened. Jiang Tianwei brought Yujie with him to visit Master Liu.

Of course, it was the next day, and it was a rare opportunity to have a free meal, so Yusuke had to go at a time when he hadn’t eaten, otherwise he would be at a disadvantage, right?

This involves Yusuke's shortcomings.

Jiang Tianwei said that the real beauty is love. It was originally a cool line, but Yusuke took it seriously. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it made sense and he could give it a try. But people who know Yusuke know that he is not a guy who understands people's hearts at all.

His understanding of love... I can't say it's very superficial, I can only say it's completely useless!

As long as he could remember, he was with Madarame. Later, Madarame became a big villain. It is understandable that he has never felt the love of family.

As for love… With his mouth, how could he have any experience in love? He and Hanamura Yosuke are of the same type, but different species. They are both the type of beauties who never open their mouths. It’s just that Yosuke makes people feel sorry when he speaks, while Yusuke makes people want to slap him when he opens his mouth.

Therefore, the most reasonable method he could think of was to come over and see the old man again, and personally experience the "love" that the old man contained in the food.

It's like, if you forget how to draw a tiger, it's better to go see a tiger in person than to copy it, especially since there are so many zoos nowadays, isn't it easy to see a tiger? There are even crosstalk actors who imagine what it would be like to fall into a tiger's den, highlighting the absurdity but also the humor.

As for the other person's feelings?

As a beneficiary of the Phantom Thieves, Manager Liu would definitely not refuse. Moreover, they just came to eat a meal, so he had no right to chase them away. After all, it was his father who cooked, not him.

Mr. Liu is a lively person, so of course he wouldn't refuse.

Especially when he saw that classmate who was as thin as a bamboo pole coming again, the old man felt so distressed. He thought that this child must not have a good family and parents, so the child did not have enough to eat and became so thin.

Strictly speaking, this guess is not wrong... Madarame is indeed not a good parent.

The old man's cooking skills are really amazing, and Yusuke feels hungry just by looking at him.

Manager Liu asked everyone to sit down and added bowls and chopsticks for everyone. Master Liu took Jiang Tianwei's hand affectionately and asked him about school matters - after all, according to the old man, Jiang Tianwei lived in the school dormitory!

Jiang Tianwei could only randomly select some embarrassing dormitory stories he saw on the Internet to make the old man happy.

Although the four people at the table have different nationalities and are not all related by blood, the barriers between them have been eliminated at this moment in the Chinese dining culture.

The old man kept picking up food for Yusuke, watching him eat with big mouthfuls of food, and kept persuading him: "[You must not eat well on weekdays. Eat more, eat more.]"

Jiang Tianwei helped Yusuke with a simple translation. Yusuke nodded gratefully and looked at Master Liu with some excitement in his eyes.

He had never seen his biological parents. Although Madarame was nominally his adoptive father, his memories were mostly of the strict painting training and the dirty money transactions. This old man, whom he had only met a few times, was more like a father.

"Excuse me, why are you so nice to me?"

Yusuke asked the strangest question in his heart.

Yes, he noticed that although his paintings always showed the kindness and friendliness of the old man, they were just empty expressions.

It's like, if someone just says, "There's a monster over there, it's very big!" and you ask him, "How big is it exactly?" "I don't know, it's very big anyway." This kind of answer that doesn't touch on the core is hard to resonate with people. On the other hand, if the other person says, "It's taller than a 20-story building, and thicker than a school building!", although it also shows the huge factor, it can make people feel it more intuitively.

This is the [core], which is also the "expression" emphasized in many works of art.

So, he was very curious why this old man was so kind to him.

"【Ask me why I am nice to him? Hey, there is no reason. I just help when I see someone I can help. There is no reason. Besides, the happiest thing for a cook is to see people eating delicious food! As for me, I just like to see people having a full meal.】"

As the old man spoke, his eyes flickered a little, and in an instant, he returned to that poor era.

People who lived through that era all have a fear of hunger that is almost panic-stricken. In those days, it was difficult to eat well. A considerable number of families could only barely make ends meet.

Jiang Tianwei translated it for Yusuke, and the great artist's eyes suddenly became confused.

No reason? Is it just to help others when seeing injustice? Is it just to hope that everyone can have enough food and warm clothes?

For a moment, Yusuke seemed to see the Buddha's light and divinity radiating from behind the old man.

There is a saying that goes, "Those who are brave and righteous are often dog butchers." Although Master Liu does not kill dogs, he does have that flavor.

Just like a doctor who saves everyone, as a chef, his initial and ultimate dream is that everyone can have enough food and eat good meals.

Yusuke suddenly felt his heart beating violently and his vision blurred, probably because of the secretion of body fluid in his eyes.

Through his blurred pupils, he could see Manager Liu's helpless yet proud smile, because he had such a simple yet great father. He also saw Jiang Tianwei's smile without a mask, without any mask on.

Also, the old man's smile came naturally just because everyone around him was eating.

If Sayuri's beauty is a work full of parent-child love, in which a mother with not much time left stares at her child, then Master Liu is a simple cook who shows joy for the simple happiness of those around him.

(I see, I understand... In my previous paintings, I only wanted to emphasize the old man's emotions... But, it's like a red flower needs green leaves, a giant tree needs deep roots. If I don't depict these, and just emphasize the other side, it will be inferior...)

Yusuke already had a plan in mind on how to correct his thoughts.

If it were the Yusuke of the past, he would have immediately thrown himself into artistic creation and made major revisions to the entry.

However, with the experience from the last time, Yusuke also learned a lesson this time. Many people think that Yusuke is unreasonable, which is wrong, because this person is only unreasonable in things [outside of art], and he is very sincere about art.

He had not noticed such a simple thing before because he was blinded by passion... So, he was a little worried. Was he also overwhelmed by emotion this time and failed to grasp the essence of [love]?

(Sure enough, I shouldn’t rush to write. Anyway, there is still time. Before I really start writing, I need to have a deeper understanding of what love is…)

At this moment, Jiang Tianwei was immersed in the feeling of being able to eat authentic Chinese food again, and did not notice the burning look in Yusuke's eyes when he looked at her...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 683 The Internet has memory!

Life is full of uncertainties, ups and downs, happiness turning into sorrow and misfortune turning into happiness.

To paraphrase a line from a famous movie: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." This line seems very philosophical, but... shouldn't the next chocolate taste like chocolate? Why is there such a problem? The next chocolate can't taste like an Italian pineapple pizza, right? !

Let’s not talk about the logical problem for now. Anyway, Miss Yi Er San from Dong Xiang is eating chocolate right now. No, she is tasting all kinds of flavors of life.

Togo Ichiraku's life has been full of ups and downs.

At the beginning, she was a "shogi genius" carefully packaged by her mother.

Then because her mother's heart was changed and she told the truth, the world called her the "Fake Chess Princess".

Originally, Togo Ichiraku had already prepared herself mentally, ready to start from scratch and use her own hard power step by step to get rid of the title of fake chess princess.

but!

One day, when she was studying chess manuals, something outrageous happened - Dongxiang one, two, three, she, she, she, she became an overnight sensation!

Just like a specially prepared prank show (there are quite a lot of such prank shows in Japan), Togo Ichiraku, who was ignored yesterday, had reporters crowding outside his house in the early morning.

Dongxiang Yiersan's mother repeatedly warned Yiersan not to go out, and then went out with a bitter face to deal with the reporters.

Why is there such a big change?

Even if it's a prank show, shouldn't they choose a former female chess player like me?

This is because the Internet has memory.

There are a lot of idle people on the Internet. Moreover, you never know who will remember some trivial things for some reason.

Jiang Tianwei's behavior of claiming to be a phantom thief has become a hot topic on the Internet, so naturally, the entire Internet is looking for information about him, whether it be eyewitness information, or black material or black history, anything.

As a result, a dark history was uncovered...

Do you still remember that Jiang Tianwei, in order to vent his anger on Dongxiang Yi Er San, played chess with a famous chess player, and ended up using ghosts and AI to cheat and defeated the opponent without leaving a single piece of armor?

Although this video and report were suppressed due to the pressure from Kawahara Group, there were many people who witnessed the incident.

Moreover, Jiang Tianwei had never thought that he would one day admit that he was a phantom thief, so he did not disguise his appearance.

So, someone shared this information. And then... We all know that when people convey words, they like to express them "according to their own understanding". It's like creating fan fiction based on the original work...

Then, when people who hear this story repost it on the Internet, they will develop in the direction they "hope" for...

So, after being passed around a few times, it evolved into: The romantic affair between the phantom thief Jiang Tianwei and the beautiful chess player Dongxiang Yiersan.TXT.

Not only did they exaggerate the two people's spiritual emptiness and the Platonic spiritual lovers, but they also arranged that the two people were predestined in their previous lives, saying that they had a shared destiny for thousands of years. They also assumed that the two people were once siblings, but later drifted apart (probably because they both have black hair). Then they used all the love complexes and plots that could be found on the Internet on the two people.

There's the story of a thief holding a piece of bread and bumping into the pretty girl next door on the corner, or there's the story of a thief who transfers back to school and finds out that the person sitting next to him is his sister whom he hasn't seen for years.

There are even claims that Togo Ichi-san is a super ultimate shogi warrior who was brainwashed and transformed by the enemy villain camp, and was born specifically to fight against the Phantom Thieves...

I say to you writers, enough! Stop adding weird settings to the content!

The result is that Togo Ichiraku became extremely popular!

The fans of Phantom Thief said that she was a slut and must have seduced my Jiang Jiang on purpose.

The haters of the Phantom Thieves say that she is a pure saint and that you Phantom Thieves cannot reach her.

Now these two factions are like the dispute over sweet and salty tofu pudding, and have started a large-scale war of words on the Internet. As the popularity of one, two, three increases, the media naturally comes.

It’s no wonder that many people call media workers flies, because they really fly to wherever there’s heat.

(What's going on here?)

Dongxiang Yiersan curiously moved to the window and looked down at the bustling crowd below. As a result, there was a sharp-eyed reporter downstairs who immediately raised his camera to take pictures.

I guess they'll make up some modern Disney princess story, like Rapunzel or the Snow Queen?

However, Dongxiang Yiersan was too lazy to pay attention to such rumors. He sat back in his seat, continued to study his chess moves, picked up the pencil that was still warm from his grip, and continued to draw on the messy notebook.

However, if you look closely, what is drawn on the notebook on her desk is not a chess manual, but a picture of... a demon.

...Yes, if you think about it carefully, this girl showed obvious signs of chuunibyou when playing chess!

For those with Chuunibyou, is there anything more fulfilling and immersive than seeing living demons and commanding them to fight?

Moreover, his ability is auxiliary. Isn't it just like playing chess, where he can freely arrange armies from various mythological eras and capture cities according to his own desires?

It’s a very immersive “game”!

Let me ask you, who among those with Chuunibyou has not had the desire to command an army?

What's more, for people with chuunibyou, they don't care about the pointing and criticizing of these three-dimensional mortals. They have their own kingdom where they live comfortably! ——Well, in the case of Togo Ichi-san, it is truly "a world that only I know".

Imagine the many demons of the mythical era as chess pieces, and arrange appropriate tactical formations according to their abilities and characteristics. In particular, reality is different from chess and cards. If you think about it carefully, this is the case. Chess and card games only emphasize tactical thinking. In fact, from a logical point of view, when a soldier and a car collide, why must the party that moves first win? Can't there be a situation where the first attacking force is overwhelmed because of the huge gap in strength?

This is probably the original intention of the birth of battle flag type games, giving chess pieces different attributes and abilities to make the battlefield closer to the real situation.

In a world like this, who cares about real journalists?

Togo Ichiraku thought so and began to plan a new tactic.

Should we rationally combine multiple attributes? Or should we specialize in a certain attribute and use skills such as [Resistance Offset] to attack when encountering resistance? Should we emphasize firepower or advance speed? Should we pursue high-powered single-point killing or focus on wide range, or should we focus on attack distance...

Many wonderful tactics were whispered in her ears, as if...

It was as if Jiang Tianwei was gently lying on her shoulder, telling her what he needed in her ear.

Togo Ichiraku cheered up and continued to use pen and paper to outline a wonderful tactical advancement map, blocking out all the conflicting voices in reality.

(This is my kingdom. It is my kingdom.)