I endured the humiliation and humiliation while being besieged by the ghost story elder sister.

However, Nozomi no longer cared about the game; he was just curious why Honoka-nee had suddenly come over.

"Fanxia-jie? Have you finished talking with your friend?"

he asked curiously.

"Hmm~ We've finished talking. Now it's our turn to talk about things between the two of us."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing Fanxia's words, Ximiao couldn't help but ask a question. She didn't seem to understand what Fanxia meant by what she was saying about the two of them.

All that could be heard was Sister Fanxia speaking softly.

"While I was on the phone just now, Mio, you thought of some very rude things, didn't you..."

"...You have no evidence!"

Do you think it's necessary to have evidence if a girl gets angry?

Fanxia couldn't help but chuckle at Ximiao's naive idea, and then her icy little hands suddenly reached inside his clothes.

The chilly feeling made Ximiao shiver. She tried to struggle away, but was held tightly by Fanxia and allowed to ravage her.

That night.

In the kitchen, Ximiao stood facing the empty refrigerator, looking somewhat worried.

Before heading to Hokkaido, they had already emptied the refrigerator of all the food to avoid any waste.

In addition, they went out for hot pot with Arisa and the others last night and didn't cook, which made Himo forget about it.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing the boy come out of the kitchen with a worried look on his face, Fanxia was a little puzzled as to what had happened.

Seeing that there was no food left for dinner, Ximiao had no choice but to tell Fanxia the truth about it.

"I forgot to buy groceries..."

"I thought it was something serious~ If we don't have the ingredients, we can just buy them tomorrow~ How about we order pizza delivery tonight?"

"Okay! Let's have pizza tonight!"

Now that she had nothing else to do, Nozomi sat down next to Honoka and quietly waited for the pizza to be delivered.

Looking at Fanxia's fair thighs, Ximiao couldn't help but recall what had happened in her room earlier that day.

Although he kept a calm facade and didn't let Fanxia discover that he was very concerned about the strange relationship between the two of them.

But he always felt that things couldn't continue like this.

Why don't we take advantage of tomorrow's grocery shopping trip to the school and visit his cunning advisor?

Nozomi couldn't help but think this way.

And the other side.

Downstairs, Arisa and the others were sitting around the table eating dinner. After Mio and the others left, the room became somewhat quiet.

Asa was doing her own thing in the living room, while Arisa was idly doing her winter break homework in her room, looking quite depressed.

It's as if the mother and daughter only have common topics to talk about when they're with Nozomi and the others.

After dinner, the two of them sat together on the sofa, watching the evening news, neither of them willing to speak first.

After an unknown amount of time, Ami's beautiful wine-red eyes secretly glanced at the girl beside her, and upon seeing her somewhat depressed expression, she couldn't help but ask.

"Arisa, did you enjoy your trip to Hokkaido with Nozomi and the others?"

"Huh? Of course, of course I'm happy~ But, Mom, why did you ask that?"

Looking at her mother beside her, she couldn't help but tilt her head. Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time her mother had taken her on a long trip together...

If she hadn't secretly done a paternity test beforehand, she would have doubted whether she was Ashi's biological daughter.

Although she didn't dare tell her mother about it.

Unaware of what strange things Arisa was thinking, Ami continued speaking.

"So when do you plan to resolve the issues between the two of you?"

"Problem? Haven't the issues between Mio and me already been resolved?"

Arisa, not quite understanding what her mother was talking about, asked this question.

"You should understand, that's not what I meant..."

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Mastermind

The next morning, after having a simple breakfast with Honoka, Nozomi went out and took the train alone towards school.

Tong Fanxia explained that he wanted to go to several supermarkets to compare the prices of ingredients, and she didn't suspect anything and went back to the apartment.

On the street leading to the school, because it was holiday time and still quite early, Nozomi didn't see a single passerby along the way.

If he hadn't known that he was going to meet a "ghost," he probably would have been a little scared, wondering if he had wandered onto the wrong set.

In his hand, Nozomi was also carrying a bag of small cakes and some local specialties he had bought from Hokkaido, which he planned to take to Hanako.

Not long after exchanging a few pleasantries with the security guard at the school gate, he walked into the empty school.

After changing into his indoor shoes downstairs in the teaching building, he went up to the restrooms on the floor where the classrooms were located.

The entire school was deathly silent. I imagine that turning the school into a haunted house during the holidays would be a huge hit.

Nozomi couldn't help but think that.

Then, he walked into the third toilet stall and entered Hanako's room without any hindrance.

however.

Nozomi, who was in the entryway, did not see Hanako's figure in front of the screen.

This obviously puzzled him. Where had Hanako gone? Before he could leave to look for Miss Hanako in the teaching building, he heard the door behind him open.

Himo turned around abruptly and saw Hanako-san, wrapped in a thin bath towel, walking in from outside.

When she saw that Xi Ling was also there, she was stunned for a moment, and then she let out a sharp, piercing explosion.

At least, Nozomi couldn't take it anymore. She quickly put down what she was holding, stepped forward, and covered Hanako's mouth, trying to calm her down.

What he didn't know was that what he was doing was practically pushing the boundaries of what Hanako-san could do, dancing back and forth on the edge of her bottom line.

As expected, Mio suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Then, the scene before her eyes changed abruptly. When she came to her senses, she was already lying on the tatami mat, staring blankly at the monotonous ceiling.

He didn't understand why he had to suffer like this...

After struggling for a moment, Nozomi completely collapsed from the pain and lost consciousness.

a long time.

When Nozomi regained consciousness and opened her eyes, she found that her shirt had been taken off.

If he hadn't been indoors with the heating on, the cold he caught in Hokkaido might have relapsed.

Just as he was about to sit up, without moving much, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen that made him grimace.

"Don't move, I don't know if I broke your ribs just now..."

It was Hanako who was speaking. Nozomi tried hard to look in the direction of the voice and saw that she was sitting on a cushion watching an anime.

However, after hearing what she said, Ximiao couldn't remain calm at all.

"My ribs...are broken?"

"I don't know, I'm just saying it's possible."

Seemingly aware that she was in the wrong, she reluctantly shifted her attention away from the screen, picked up a mirror, and showed Himiko's abdomen to herself.

There was a large bruise on it, which must have been Hanako's handiwork just now. He wondered if he could claim compensation from "Ghost," as his living expenses were running low.

After having this idea, Nozomi immediately came up with a plan. After coughing a few times, she muttered in a low voice, just loud enough for Hanako to hear.

"I bought you little cakes and Hokkaido specialties to visit you... and then, just because I happened to run into you coming back from the shower, still wrapped in a towel, my ribs became like Schrödinger's ribs. What bad luck..."

"..."

Hanako, who had already changed into a loose and comfortable set of pajamas, clearly noticed the two bags on the table after hearing what Nozomi said.

For a moment, she felt a little guilty about what she had just done, and the expression on her pretty face was also seen by Ximiao.

He knew his plan had succeeded; now it was up to him to see what he could extort from Miss Hanako.

Then, Hanako sighed silently, sat down next to Nozomi with a helpless expression, and asked.

"Come on, you never come to see me unless there's something wrong, let alone during winter break. You even brought a gift, so you must have some trouble you want to discuss with me, right?"

Hanako immediately guessed the purpose of Nozomi's visit and decided to stop pretending and make the matter quick.

but……

"Could you take a look at my ribs first...? I feel like this is a bit more important, right?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Miss Hanako suddenly stood up, walked to the cabinet next to her, and took out a small jar of unknown ointment.

She didn't explain to Himiko what it was, but simply applied the ointment, which had a strong minty smell, to the bruises on Himiko's abdomen.

According to Ximiao, at first she felt a refreshing minty sensation, and then she felt that the bruises that were still aching were much better. The effect was immediate.

After applying the ointment, Ms. Hanako said quietly.

"Just lie here for fifteen minutes. Even if you break a rib, you'll be fine. Also... thank you for the little cake and the local specialty."

"You're welcome~"

"Since you're going to be lying down anyway, why don't you tell me, is it because there's a problem with Arisa that you came here this time?"

Hanako sat back down on her cushion and asked Nozomi why she had come here.

The boy shook his head, indicating that he had not come here because of Arisa.