Aunt Xiangzi, how did you manage to live?

Moreover, the girl in front of him looked so much like Aunt Xiangzi, who had died young, from his memory; even twins might not have such a striking resemblance...

Masaka.

A most improbable hypothesis took shape in her mind, and Ruo Yexiao's Adam's apple bobbed slightly as she belatedly realized it.

"The police are on their way. Using force against me now won't do you any good... Tell me why you know Mu?"

Xiangzi clutched her phone and retreated to a corner of the room, but her tone remained calm and composed. She continued to try to use her sharp and cold gaze to overwhelm the intruder in front of her and salvage the passive situation.

This doesn't look like the kind of expression an actor could convincingly portray.

……No way.

If Ye Xiao took a step back and got closer to the window, he could vaguely hear the piercing alarm bells approaching.

If this is also a prank, isn't that going a bit too far?

"Xiangzi? What happened? Why is it so noisy... hiccup."

An untimely male voice came from outside the door; the slightly drunken voice, which sounded a bit hungover, pulled the two away from the tense atmosphere.

"Ah, Father...!"

After Xiangzi responded and called out, Ruo Yexiao also realized that if a third person broke in, he would truly be in deep trouble.

"Although I don't know what's going on here, I hope we meet again, Aunt Xiangzi...!"

"I already told you, who's your aunt?!"

No sooner had Xiangzi's angry voice fallen than Xiao, following his instincts, leaped swiftly from the nearby window. Fortunately, the second floor of the house wasn't very high; he only managed to get a mouthful of mud in the yard before stumbling and tumbling out onto the street.

Ruo Yexiao staggered and looked around. He couldn't deduce the era he was in just from the architectural style, since many areas in Tokyo hadn't been renovated for more than ten or twenty years. But the concert posters on the street corners still confirmed that Ruo Yexiao had indeed appeared in an era before he was born due to some special force majeure.

In 202x, there's still a long time before I'm born.

...No way.

He bypassed the increasingly loud sirens and hid in an open space next to a quiet residential area, gazing at the electronic clock hanging on a towering office building made of reinforced concrete in the distance.

The year column is still glaringly marked as 202x.

Xiao sat down heavily on the open ground. The physical pain and impact of falling from the second floor were nothing compared to the mental shock he had suffered.

The timeline progresses in the opposite direction, with the aunt who died decades ago suddenly coming back to life.

Currently, there seem to be only two explanations for such an outrageous story development.

First, this person is a ghost, or the prank isn't over yet.

Second, this is based on the premise that all of this is true...

"...Did I travel back to more than twenty years ago?"

Ye Xiao gasped for breath on the deserted street, muttering to herself in a voice only she could hear.

That's right, this is the only reasonable explanation.

However, reality didn't give him much time to think. The urgent and piercing alarm rang in his ears again, and Ruo Yexiao quickly slipped out of the open space.

Traveling back to twenty years ago is something most people would find hard to accept, but he had to convince himself to accept it.

That leaves only a few questions to consider.

Why did he travel back twenty years? What "switch" did he trigger? What does he need to do after arriving here? And most importantly—

How can we return to the original time and space?

My mind was a complete mess, and I had very few clues left.

The only information we've gathered so far is that Aunt Xiangzi, who should have died young, is still alive... no, she's still alive.

Xiao pinched her brow, making her furrowed brows relax slightly.

Sigh, it's not good to keep thinking about things that don't help with the current situation.

He rubbed his rumbling stomach and looked up at the clear, cloudless sky.

The sky decades ago was no different from the scenery he had long since become accustomed to.

That’s it for now, let’s eat first.

After letting out a soft sigh, Kazama Akatsuki walked along the road toward the nearest commercial street, knowing that this was the beginning of his new life.

Chapter 3: Your Unmarried Aunt Sends You a Friend Request

The first time Xiaoyao saw Toyokawa Shoko was when her mother, Mutsuka Wakaba, placed her in a black-and-white photograph on a corner table in their home.

The girl's smile in the photo is gentle and serene, as refreshing as the warm spring sun. It's as if she herself didn't know that this expression would be printed in a bleak black and white when the photo was taken.

At the time, he was too young to understand who the girl was or why his mother kept her picture in their home.

"Mu, who is this older sister?"

Calling parents by their names is probably a tradition in the Wakaba family, and young Akatsuki also follows suit and calls her mother that way.

“Xiao, this person… was once a very important person to Mom.”

He remembered that his mother's expression was somewhat complicated at the time, but in the end she only showed him a smile full of tenderness and reminiscence.

Toyokawa Shoko, Wakaba Mutsumi's childhood friend and someone she formed a band with during middle school, died suddenly in a car accident when she was a teenager.

That's what my mom said anyway.

If it was a close friend of the mother when she was young, it would be understandable to display her portrait at home as a memorial.

But if this person suddenly appears in front of you, isn't that a bit abnormal?

The commercial street was still bustling more than 20 years ago, with all kinds of restaurants and eateries lining both sides of the street.

When Ye Xiao walked out of the street corner, a memory that did not originally belong to him flooded into his mind.

Although he didn't actually transmigrate into someone else's body, the uncontrollable force that brought him to this era seemed exceptionally considerate, preparing him with an identity that would allow him to survive more easily in this age.

"Kazama Akatsuki"—this is his name in this time and space. He is a male high school student attending a nearby middle school, and he has his own single room in a student dormitory not far from the school.

Moreover, thanks to the fact that Tokyo's development has remained as slow as ever over the past few decades, he was still able to recall the layout of the shops in the commercial district he was in and which area each road led to.

However, many of the shops that he remembered had been replaced by new—no, "old" shops, so this commercial street that he would often visit in the future still gave him a sense of novelty.

Xiao had been looking at the street scene, which was somewhat familiar but she had never seen it before, but in the end her gaze was fixed on the window of a family restaurant on the left side of the sidewalk.

To be precise, it was focused on a blue-haired girl sitting by the window who looked like she was about to cry.

"…I'm sorry, Anzu."

The boy sitting opposite her gritted his teeth, then grabbed the keys from the table, got up, and rushed out of the store.

"I will do as you said and win Hua Lian back!"

Of course, after saying that, he disappeared outside the store without ever turning around to look at the blue-haired girl who was standing there.

"...Don't apologize, you idiot."

Xiao's mind was filled with the melody of old songs full of regret, such as "I gave you so many years of my youth, but all I got in return was a thank you for your sacrifice."

It seems he inadvertently witnessed a rather bittersweet coming-of-age love story, even though the two teenagers were like uncles and aunts to him.

If love is a competition, then this future aunt is undoubtedly the loser.

Moreover, they lost to a female lead who hasn't even appeared yet.

Without mourning the blue-haired girl for even a minute, just as Xiao was about to look away.

"Um……?"

He discovered that the blue-haired girl, now a "loser," seemed to have found a new "prey."

She wasn't exactly prey; she seemed lost in thought, staring at the drink on the table that the boy hadn't finished and had casually left there, her eyes also showing a hint of restless desire...

Wait, is this guy planning to drink what that guy left behind?

Xiao couldn't help but shiver, but she knew it was definitely not because of the temperature.

The loser in the battle of love, unable to win or obtain the coveted spoils, can only console himself with the leftover drink accidentally spilled by his partner... Isn't that a bit too pathetic?

Another possibility is that this guy was simply craving it.

Just as he subconsciously swallowed and his Adam's apple trembled slightly, the blue-haired girl sitting at the family dining table finally seemed to notice that she had been being watched by a gaze from outside the window.

The moment their eyes met, Xiao realized something.

goo—

The groans from inside her stomach grew ever closer.

He got cravings too, which is terrible.

……

……

Ruoye Xiao—perhaps now he should be called Kazama Xiao—accepted the fact that he had transmigrated.

Similarly, he accepted the fact that he had been caught up in some kind of chaotic situation... well, the kind of melodramatic family drama where a mistress takes advantage of a situation and steals the man's love, the kind of drama that female elders in the family love to see about who the intruder and the mistress are and who should be condemned.

"Hey... since you look so hungry, come in and eat. There's nothing to be shy about. My name is Hachimi Anna, nice to meet you."

"Hello, my name is Ruo... cough, Kazama Akatsuki."

A blue-haired girl named Anna Hachimi invited him in, and Akatsuki, whose stomach was growling with hunger, obeyed his appetite and sat down opposite her.

Normally he wouldn't so presumptuously join a stranger's dinner table, but this unexpected event of time travel happened so suddenly, and he was genuinely starving.

This is definitely not an attempt to make up for a hungry person.

"I know you must be very curious about what just happened, right? Well, let me tell you the whole story..."

The girl's previously lively voice suddenly dropped an octave, and her worried expression resembled that of a middle-aged man facing a midlife crisis, unable to speak out, forced to swallow his anger and bear it all with a self-deprecating smile on his face for solace—it would have been even more fitting if she had a cigarette between her fingers.

Chapter Four: The Loser's Alliance

Xiao, who had just sat down and was very adept at flipping through the menu, tilted her head.

No, did anyone just ask about this?

"Kusuke is my childhood friend..."

Hanami Anzu sat down in front of Akatsuki with her head down, picking up the menu beside her. She seemed lost in her own thoughts and didn't notice his bewildered expression as he tilted his head.

"I know you must be very curious about our relationship, and what we were arguing about..."

Actually, no, who asked you?

Then, while still wearing a gloomy expression, she ordered a serving of fries.

"Sigh, this is actually quite a long story..."

There was also a Coke and a dessert.

No, who asked you that?

“We grew up together, and once he put a ring made of clover on my finger…”

There are 0 people who have asked this question.

"When we were little, we made a promise, he at least promised to marry me..."

At this point, Anna Hanami's eyes began to redden, revealing a pitiful and sad expression, provided that she stopped ordering.

Even while discussing such a somber topic, this woman still kept ordering food; she had developed such a terrifying muscle memory.

The waiter brought the cola and dessert to the table. Hanami Anna, who had been looking sad, opened her "blood-red mouth" as if she had seen a rival she hated most in love—and gulped down half a cup of cola.

"Everything was normal until Karen-chan, until that woman who's like a cat stealing fish appeared! Kusuke... he's not coming to marry me anymore!"

Here it comes, the much-anticipated accusation from the wife who was NTR'd against the other woman, or maybe you should drink more to shut her up... etc.

Xiao managed to snag a small dessert for herself before Banami could finish all the food that had just been served.