My girlfriend is Saiki Kusunoki

Furthermore, he drew Nanzi in his own painting. What's the difference between that and confessing his feelings?

Right now, Naoto really wants to strangle himself. What should he do if Nanko gets angry?

"What? How do you explain this to me?"

Just as Naoto opened the door, a pink figure suddenly appeared in front of him, startling him.

Naoto was surprised to find that Nanko wasn't home, but rather in his house.

"Nanzi? You, how did you get here?"

"Dad and Mom went out on a date, and I'm home alone."

After saying that, both of them fell silent.

The atmosphere between the two was extremely awkward at this moment, and neither of them knew how to explain what had happened that day.

If you want to say it's a misunderstanding, well, you've already submitted your work, and basically the whole class already knows about it.

Since the entire class knew about it, it was practically the same as their school already knowing.

The whole school knows that the news has spread to roughly half of Tokyo.

While there's some exaggeration involved, Naoto is certain that even if he explained to the whole class that he and Nanako had nothing to do with each other, no one would believe him. Instead, he might be labeled a "scumbag" or something similar.

"Didn't you say you were going to give me an explanation? Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Nanzi crossed her arms and quietly watched Naoto's performance.

The straight man felt extremely embarrassed.

As a single person, how am I supposed to know what to say right now?

Looking at Nanzi now, he couldn't even speak; his mind was a complete mess. Even if Nanzi could read his mind, she could only utter a bunch of "abba aba aba" sounds.

"Um~ well, this is for you."

After thinking for a long time without knowing what to say, Zhi Ren simply stuffed the painting in his arms into Nanzi's hands.

Nanzi removed the cloth covering the painting, revealing the exquisite artwork inside.

Looking at herself in the painting, who resembled a fairy under the moon, Nanko then turned her gaze to Naoto.

"Is this your prize-winning painting? It looks pretty good."

Seeing that Nanzi wasn't angry, Naoto quickly seized the opportunity and said, "Of course, after all, someone offered two million for this painting."

"Then why don't you sell? Two million is very important to you right now, isn't it?"

"But in my eyes, there will always be only one owner of this painting, and its value is something that no amount of money can buy. Nanzi, I'm sorry for sending this painting up without your permission."

"You idiot."

Seeing Naoto's embarrassed expression, Nanko gently placed the painting in her bosom.

Is this what's making me angry?

This guy is really like a block of wood, completely clueless.

Naoto was a little confused when Nanko accepted his painting, which made him even angrier.

As expected, it is said that a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea. He himself does not have the ability to read minds. Even when it comes to Nanzi being angry, he still judges it from experience and intuition.

"I'll keep this for you for now. If you ever need money in the future, you can come to me."

Just as Nanzi was about to turn around and go back to her own home, Zhiren reacted quickly and grabbed Nanzi's hand.

When Naoto suddenly grabbed her, Nanko even forgot how to teleport for a moment.

"Hmm~ Well, I'm still a little embarrassed to say it, Nanzi. Could you read my mind?"

As he spoke, Naoto took off the ring that Nanko was wearing on her hand.

This ring can temporarily seal Nanzi's mind-reading ability. She usually only wears it after returning home and planning to spend a peaceful vacation.

After wearing this ring, her ability to forcibly read all animals and plants within a 200-meter radius will disappear.

When Naoto took off the ring, Nanko's superpowers immediately returned.

"Hey, what exactly do you want me to do?"

Just as Nanko was wondering why Naoto would do such a thing, suddenly, Naoto's inner voice entered Nanko's mind.

"Nanzi, I really like you. In fact, I fell deeply in love with you the first time I saw you when I was a child. So, could you be my girlfriend?"

Although he only said it by reading minds, Naoto still couldn't help but blush.

This was the first time he had ever confessed his feelings in his eighteen years of life.

Upon hearing Naoto's blunt confession, Nanko swiftly withdrew her hand and put the ring back on her finger.

Before Naoto could stop her, Nanko had already disappeared with Naoto's drawing.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Seeing Nanko leave without a word, Naoto immediately panicked. He ran towards the Saiki family's house without stopping.

"Nanzi! I was wrong! I shouldn't have said those things! Open the door!"

Naoto kept banging on the door of the Saiki family's house, afraid that he would anger Nanako because of his words.

However, what Naoto didn't know was that at this moment, Nanko was sitting on the sofa, clutching her chest, lost in thought.

He ignored the banging on the door from the outside.

For Nanzi, who has almost become a god, she can hardly feel the emotions that normal people should have.

But just now, faced with Naoto's sudden confession, Nanko felt her heart was about to jump out of her chest.

"What is this feeling? Why is my heart beating so fast?"

After banging on the door for a long time, Naoto still couldn't get Nanako to open it. Naoto was starting to despair. He decided to wait until Nanako calmed down tomorrow before going to the school to explain.

However, just as Naoto was about to go home, Nanko suddenly opened the door to the house, her face visibly red.

"You idiot, since you want to be my boyfriend, then I'll give you a chance. Next time, if your serialized comic can become number one on the popularity chart, I'll consider it."

As soon as Nanzi finished speaking, while Naoto was still processing the meaning of her words, she suddenly slammed the door shut.

Naoto stared at the closed Saiki house, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

Did I just successfully confess my feelings?

Chapter 18: Chinese Food Shops on the Food Street

After receiving Nanko's reply, Naoto stood there stunned for nearly three minutes.

Once his brain finally understood what Nanko meant, Naoto immediately jumped up from the ground.

"Wuhu! This is fantastic!"

Right now, Naoto (a Japanese person) can't wait to run home and draw the entire vampire series.

"I'm going to take first place on the popularity chart next time!"

But after the excitement came an even more intense hunger.

After letting go of his inner turmoil, Naoto, accompanied by a strong sense of excitement, realized that he was—hungry.

(○△○) Thump!

(○△○) Thump! !

(○△○) Thump! ! !

Having not eaten for two meals, Naoto didn't even want to go home anymore and immediately ran towards the nearby food street.

Of all things under heaven, food is the most important. As our ancestors wisely said, "Man is made of iron, and food is made of steel; you'll get hungry if you skip a meal."

Now that I have nothing to do, it's time to treat myself.

"Where can I get something to eat? Udon? I don't want noodles right now. Grilled meat? My wallet can't handle that. Sukiyaki? I don't want anything sweet. White rice, I want white rice, hot white rice."

Just as Naoto was searching for food around him like a vicious dog, he was suddenly drawn to a red sign.

On this street filled with Japanese restaurants, the red sign looks so out of place.

The unique charm of Chinese patterns made the straight person feel as if they had returned to their hometown.

"Zhuyuelou? A Chinese cuisine restaurant has opened here? Oh well, this is fine."

When I first came here, I also ate Chinese food in this area.

To be fair, the localization was a bit too much. While it's not that it tastes bad, for straight people, it can't be called Chinese cuisine at all.

So Naoto has never thought about eating Chinese food outside; even if he wanted to, he always cooked it himself.

However, today, he was so hungry that he didn't care about anything else. All he wanted to do was shovel mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.

"Muddy Hao, Phantom Guangling."

As soon as they entered, the waitress greeted them in a strange accent that straight people couldn't understand at all.

You say this is Japanese, right? It sounds a bit like it, but please don't make things difficult for Naoto. Naoto simply can't understand this kind of speech, which is accompanied by grammatical errors and accent problems.

"Oh no, what's the next line?"

Just as Naoto was wondering what this person was saying, the waitress suddenly switched to Chinese. It turned out that the waitress wasn't Japanese, but from China. No wonder her accent sounded so strange.

“Um… Miss, if you’re not comfortable with Japanese, you can use Chinese.”

Seeing the waitress reminded him of when he was practicing his spoken English; he couldn't think of a next sentence after thinking of one. So, Naoto quickly spoke to the waitress in standard Mandarin.

"Oh? You speak Chinese, sir? Are you also from China?"

The waitress was stunned when she heard the straight man speak fluent Mandarin.

"Huh? This one, is he considered an overseas Chinese? Never mind, my hometown is Qingqing."

When asked by the young lady, Naoto was stunned for a moment. His current soul was from China, but his body was from Japan, so he should be considered an overseas Chinese.

"Hey, fellow villager! I'm from Chengdu! Sichuan and Chongqing are one family."

When the waitress saw that the guests today were from the same hometown, she became exceptionally enthusiastic, quickly ushering Zhiren to a seat and pouring him a cup of buckwheat tea.

Naoto took a sip of buckwheat tea, savoring the unique aroma lingering in his mouth. While Japanese matcha was alright, the taste of home was definitely the best.