I have a life simulator.

"Wash your hands!"

Kitagawa Ryo patted Hotaru's paws with a smile, and then, facing Hotaru who was startled and trembling all over, continued seriously:

"It's not a bad thing to have someone in charge; you'll see later."

Hotaru looked at Kitagawa Ryo with a look of utter despair, as if to say, "What's wrong with you?"

However, thanks to these two witty remarks, the three of them, who originally seemed to be in a low mood, managed to force a smile, but then suddenly realized that it seemed that Kitagawa Ryo was the one who always lightened the mood.

I just hadn't paid special attention to this detail before.

Although Mr. Izaki only said a few things, it was enough for the three of them to piece them together little by little.

That was a different framework than the current Kitagawa Ryo.

The framework built from just a few words already looks battered and bruised, so what about all the specific, minute details that are filled in bit by bit, day by day, month by month, year by year?

A faint, incense-like fragrance lingered in the hotel room. This subtle, herbal scent tantalized Kitagawa Ryo's nose and heart. Oblivious to everyone else, he refilled Mr. Izaki's empty teacup with hot water, then picked up his own cup.

"Here, it's Ying's phone."

Mr. Izaki's cell phone rang, breaking the silence. He glanced at the caller's name and handed the phone to Kitagawa Ryo.

"Since it's Mr. Izaki's phone, I won't feel bad about spending money on international communications."

Kitagawa Ryo took the phone and swiped to make a call.

The conversation between the brother and sister lasted for about five minutes. It seemed that it was time for Hotaru's check-up, and Kitagawa Ryo reluctantly hung up the phone.

"Ying is very happy today and asked me to send her greetings to you all."

"Rehearsals start tomorrow. If we don't win an award in the competition, we might not be able to participate in future events. Let's all work hard together!"

Kitagawa Ryo's lack of confusion reassured everyone, and his smile remained unchanged.

Like being forged through countless trials.

I haven't been feeling well these past couple of days, updates will resume as usual tomorrow.

The temperature difference between day and night is too big, so I caught a cold. My throat hurts terribly, and swallowing feels like swallowing a knife. I'm not feeling very well, and I'm not very satisfied with what I've written these past two days. There haven't been any posts or comments lately, so updates have been pretty low. I'll start updating normally again on the 28th. Sorry.

I hope every reader takes good care of their health.

Thank you all for your continued support. This book is almost a million words long. Thank you to every reader who has followed it all the way.

Chapter 59: A Gift for Ichinose Honami

“I heard that Beichuan came, so I’m looking for him.”

Around nine o'clock in the evening, Mr. Izaki's door was knocked on by a man in a smart suit. Although the man was quite muscular, Izaki quickly judged his age to be at most a high school student.

Because the other person's eyes were filled, even overflowing, with the youthful arrogance of someone who had never experienced any setbacks or failures. Their gaze toward everyone was filled with pride and an unbridled condescension, firmly believing that they were the chosen one favored by fate and could accomplish anything, even pluck the moon from the sky.

"Is this from the Koenji family? Please come in."

Izaki's gaze lingered for a few seconds on a pattern embroidered in gold thread near the lapel of the other man's suit. He then opened the door slightly, and Koenji Rokusuke smoothed his flowing blond hair and strode into the room.

Kitagawa Ryo was sitting on the living room sofa, propping his head up in the dim light as he flipped through a script, his legs casually crossed, his entire body buried in the soft cushions. When he heard the door open, he only slightly raised his head.

"Your news comes very quickly."

"I just paid a little more attention."

Koenji Rokusuke sat down in front of Kitagawa Ryo. His broad back made the man look like a bear or some other beast. Unlike the image he displayed at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, Koenji Rokusuke now looked more like the only son of a zaibatsu.

"Actually, I'm a very competitive person, so these past few days I've often thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't dropped out of school?"

He poured himself a cup of tea, which was already cold and was even more bitter, but Koenji Rokusuke drank it all down without a care. He leaned forward slightly, a move that exuded a strong sense of pressure.

"That school can't handle your competitive spirit. After all, for someone like you, Koenji, class points and individual points are both pretty boring things, aren't they?"

"Sometimes I don't understand why you chose to waste the most precious three years of your life to go to school and play house with other kids your age."

Do you really think you can learn anything from there that will benefit your future?

“If anyone else spoke to me in this tone, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Koenji Rokusuke tapped the coffee table lightly with his thick fingers. He stared at Kitagawa Ryo for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.

"Indeed, I don't want to get involved in your affairs with the White Room."

"Even if I don't drop out of school on my own this time, one day you and Ayanokouji will send me out of that school, right?"

"Who knows?"

Kitagawa Ryo put down his crossed legs, leaned forward slightly to close the distance with Koenji Rokusuke, and spoke softly:

"Of course, if you're not satisfied, then wait until three years from now."

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how much personal wealth you’ll post on the official forum of the Koenji Zaibatsu at that time.”

-------------------------------------

It started raining outside around 10 o'clock.

First came a light drizzle, like a crack in the wall, then it gradually intensified, pattering against the glass window. The neon lights along the roadside and the headlights of passing vehicles blurred and shimmered on the wet window, creating a dazzling scene.

After a while, the rainfall began to decrease again. Although it was not yet summer, this sudden rain made people feel the breath of summer ahead of time.

Kitagawa Ryo pushed open the door to his room, took the elevator down to the first floor, borrowed an umbrella from the front desk, and slowly walked out of the hotel.

The central courtyard was planted with large swathes of green plants. The grass, made even greener by the rain, seemed to have grown taller all of a sudden. The air was filled with the scent of rain, mixed with a not-too-unpleasant earthy smell and the aroma of grass and trees. The fine rain was denser than expected. Even with an umbrella, Kitagawa Ryo's cheeks were soon dampened by the breeze carrying the drizzle, with a slight chill in them.

Kitagawa Ryo was strolling along the path around the courtyard when he suddenly remembered a plan that Ryuen Sho had mentioned during Karuizawa Megumi's second simulation.

At that time, the two were discussing the possibility of promoting Class C to Class A. Long Yuanxiang proposed a plan to collect 800 million points. It would take 20 million points for one person to transfer to another class. If everyone transferred, that would be 40 people with 20 million points each, totaling 800 million points.

This is a plan that sounds impossible at first glance, and in reality, it is indeed impossible to complete.

However, Ryuen Sho really treated it as a backup plan, and even seriously planned out certain specific steps in his notebook.

Although the two ultimately rejected the plan, Kitagawa Ryo seriously considered the possibility, or rather the benefits, of transferring 20 million points to another class.

Regardless of its form, Tokyo Advanced Educational High School remains at its core a high school, an excellent platform and springboard.

Even if everything promised by Tokyo Advanced Educational High School can only be obtained by graduating from Class A, just think about it from another perspective: graduating from Class A—isn't that enough?

Kitagawa Ryo had a deep impression of Ichinose Honami's mother because she had planned out Ichinose Honami's entire life path: elementary school, junior high school, high school, university, and work. All the previous steps were just stepping stones to the last one. This kind of thinking was so deeply ingrained that when Ichinose Honami was in the most pain, she wanted to fold all the previous steps into three days and jump directly to the last one.

The reason why modern society values ​​education is that many parents, like Honami Ichinose's mother, aspire to help their children advance to a higher level than themselves through education.

The core of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School is the same.

The process of moving from Class B, Class C, and Class D to Class A is a leap forward.

Then, with the school's help, the students in Class A achieved another leap forward, namely, a 100% college admission rate and employment rate.

Actually, a long time ago, when Ryuen Sho proposed the "800 Million Points Operation", Kitagawa Ryo had already thought about why Tokyo Advanced Educational High School set up such a rule that "20 million points can be used to transfer classes".

Later, after learning about Koenji Rokusuke's identity and actions, Kitagawa Ryo understood some things.

No matter how the school tries to cover it up with the term "points," points are still money in essence.

Graduating from Class A allows students to benefit from the school's resources and recommendations, making good use of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School as an excellent platform and springboard to achieve a leap forward in their education.

Twenty million can get you directly into Class A.

Combining the two rules, only the most basic rule remains:

If you have 20 million yen (approximately one million RMB, depending on the exchange rate), and you invest it all in Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, investing in education, you can achieve a 100% chance of a leap forward in education.

At the same time, 20 million is also the amount that exempts one expulsion penalty.

Therefore, it is both a rope ladder for climbing upwards and a safety net to catch those who fall.

However, since its establishment, no one at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School has ever achieved the goal of accumulating 20 million points. It is said that the person who accumulated the most points in history did so by using fraudulent methods to obtain 12 million points.

However, Kitagawa Ryo knew very well that Koenji Rokusuke could do it. He would buy personal points from upperclassmen at a premium, and if he wanted, Koenji Rokusuke would be the first student to collect 20 million points on his own.

But in fact, the figure he himself recorded on the official website of the Koenji Zaibatsu had already exceeded 20 million.

Kitagawa Ryo slightly raised the umbrella, his dark eyes appearing even more deep and unfathomable in the rainy night.

He only needed one sentence to persuade Lung Yuan-hsiang to give up the "800 Million Points Battle":

Are you sure you can earn 800 million yen in three years?

At Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, there are only two types of people who would think of using the rule of "transferring classes with 20 million points".

Perhaps it can be described as a type of person.

Those are students who have absolutely no concept of the number 20 million or even 800 million.

-------------------------------------

Honami Ichinose walked towards the hotel in the rain, holding a large black umbrella. She had just returned from the rehearsal venue. Compared to the other three members of the drama club, she was probably the weakest link, so she had gone to familiarize herself with the venue and facilities in advance to avoid delaying the others' time during tomorrow's rehearsal.

As she recalled the details, she yawned wearily. The streetlights cast long shadows of Ichinose Honami, and the fine rain pattered on the umbrella, but the large, thick black umbrella covered her completely, giving her a sense of absolute security.

Honami Ichinose's slender fingers traced the engravings on the umbrella handle.

Perhaps out of nostalgia, she has engraved the symbols "I & K" on the handle of her umbrella since she was a child. Whenever her fingers touch these two letters, a sense of familiarity and déjà vu washes over her, as if gently plucking a delicate string in her memory.

However, this is Honami Ichinose's own secret and exclusive memory, which she feels she has hidden very well.

As she stepped into the hotel's atrium, Honami Ichinose spotted a figure in the distance by the roadside. She felt her heart clench as if someone were squeezing it, and she hurriedly ran over.

"...Fonami."

After realizing that the rain pouring down from his hairline to his heels had been stopped, Kitagawa Ryo wiped the rain off his face, which was perhaps mixed with sweat and even tears. He turned his head and whispered something.

"Would you believe me if I said I was practicing King Lear?"

His rain-soaked hair clung tightly to his forehead, and Kitagawa smiled coolly, revealing his white teeth.

King Lear, one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies, tells the story of King Lear, who, upon abdicating, requests that his kingdom be distributed according to the degree to which his children love him. He is deceived by his eldest and second daughters and banished to the wilderness. Instead, his youngest daughter, who tells the truth, tries to lead an army to rescue her father but is killed. King Lear eventually dies in grief and anger beside her.

The most famous passage is King Lear's soliloquy during a storm after he is banished to the wilderness.

"No matter what... it shouldn't be like this, and Ryo is lying to me."

Honami Ichinose didn't believe Kitagawa Ryo's excuses. Although she didn't know why he would come downstairs in the rain late at night, she couldn't help but instinctively hold up an umbrella for him when she saw him standing in front of her, all soaking wet.

The umbrella was so large that it completely covered both of them.

“I am really practicing King Lear.”

Kitagawa Ryo looked intently into Ichinose Honami's eyes as she spoke; her azure pupils shimmered in the dim light of the streetlamp.

As if to enhance his persuasiveness, Kitagawa Ryo even lowered his head and recited a line from the play:

"Ah! I never thought of such a thing. You who enjoy wealth and luxury, open your eyes, go out and experience the suffering of the poor, share some of the blessings you cannot enjoy with them, and let Heaven know that you are not heartless!"

Even though she hadn't acted in a drama for two years, her performance was completely natural and effortless. Her natural vocal delivery and powerful emotions almost convinced Honami Ichinose.

"The play we're rehearsing tomorrow isn't King Lear."

However, Honami Ichinose quickly regained her senses and pushed Ryo Kitagawa by the back, leading him into the hotel:

"Go back quickly to take a shower and change your clothes, or you'll catch a cold."

"I do not want it."

Perhaps it was because Ichinose Honami's tone was too gentle, almost like coaxing a child, that Kitagawa Ryo readily shook his head.

If Ichinose Honami hadn't been keeping an eye on Kitagawa Ryo all night, she would have suspected that Ryo had been secretly drinking at the banquet.

“Unfortunate people who are poorly clothed, wherever you are, you have to endure the onslaught of such a merciless storm. You have no roof over your heads, your bellies are churning with hunger, and your clothes are riddled with holes. How can you withstand such weather?”

Kitagawa Ryo was still reciting his lines intermittently.

Honami Ichinose watched as the smile on his face slowly disappeared, and then, starting from the corners of his eyes, his eyes gradually reddened, and tears slowly began to well up in his dark, abyss-like pupils.

This should be the first time Kitagawa Ryo has shown such an expression in front of Ichinose Honami.

Even faster than her thoughts were her body; before Ichinose Honami could react, she had already naturally pulled Kitagawa Ryo into her arms.

The umbrella handle was stuck between their chests, which was a little uncomfortable, but the two of them still hugged each other very tightly.

"I feel so sad."

Kitagawa Ryo whispered in Ichinose Honami's ear:

"I worked hard for two years to raise all the money for Ying's surgery, but some people are born with much more assets than that."