Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

This guy... really wasn't asleep.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi stared intently at his phone screen, squinting as he continued reading.

The screen first shows a donkey with its leg raised. A gloved person holds the donkey's hoof in place and uses tools to carefully remove the outer layer of dead skin and clean out the dirt and pebbles stuck inside. There is no music in the video, only the rustling sound of the knife scraping across the hoof.

Kuroba Shido watched with unusual seriousness.

He first moved the progress bar forward a little to confirm whether the black thing was mud or the hoof itself, then squinted to observe the depth of the cleaning, occasionally making comments like a professional.

"This area isn't completely clean yet."

There must be another piece inside.

The next second, the hoof trimmer indeed picked out a piece of hard mud from the crack. Kuroba Shido's eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth slowly grinned: "Hehehe... I knew it."

The laughter was soft, but placed in a room late at night, it inexplicably carried a dark, lewd, and sinister feeling, as if the target had finally been caught. Anyone who didn't know the situation would likely think that something inappropriate to be made public was being played in bed.

In reality, he only edited donkey hooves. Once one video was finished, the next one was still editing hooves. Cow hooves, horse hooves, and another donkey that had been treading in the mud for who knows how long, with the soles of its hooves almost unrecognizable of their original color. Kuroba Shido didn't edit any of them. In fact, when he encountered a video that wasn't edited well enough, he would frown and exit, then go to the comments section to look for follow-up videos.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi had only intended to confirm when Kuroba Shido was asleep. Five minutes passed, and he was still reading. Ten minutes passed, and Miyazaki Kiyoshi had turned a page of the book in his hand, but the phone screen was still on, and the donkey's hoof in the screen had finally returned to a relatively clean shape.

Kuroba Shido let out a long breath, as if he had completed a major project that had been accumulating for many years, and a satisfied expression appeared on his face.

"That feels good."

Miyazaki Kiyoshi glanced at the time; it was 11:46 PM. He should be asleep. The next second, Kuroba Shido exited the video app, opened his browser, and typed in the search bar: 【Galagi Guide】

After a pause, it added: [Free]

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

The search results came up quickly. The first webpage was titled "Complete Guide for All Characters." After clicking on it, three "GG" popped up. Shido Kuroba closed the first one, and the second one immediately covered the screen. After closing the second one, the third one popped up from the bottom of the page. Finally, there was even a small "X" that was almost the same color as the close button.

Kuroba Shido kept pointing for a long time, his face gradually becoming ferocious.

"I went for a horse walk, and this designer scanned my QR code!"

"grass!!!"

After finally clearing GG, a prompt popped up in the middle of the page.

[A membership is required for the following content.]

The black-feathered warrior asked, "?"

"What if it's free?"

The webpage did not provide a response.

"It says 'free' in such big letters in the title!"

There was still no answer. Kuroba Shido stared at the pay button for a few seconds, sneered, and exited. He then searched for pirated guides again, and while doing so, he also reported the website he had just visited, citing reasons such as false advertising, deceiving the feelings of a poor teenager, and seriously undermining the spirit of free sharing on the Internet.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi watched him submit the report.

Then, in the fourth search result, he finally found a text guide with messy layout and all the pictures broken, but the order of the options was barely legible.

Kuroba Shido nodded in satisfaction and added the webpage to his bookmarks.

This should be over. Miyazaki Kiyoshi lowered the brightness of his phone screen, preparing to check again for two more minutes. However, two minutes later, Kuroba Shido had already jumped from the corner guide to another page: [Complete Collection of Love Quotes, Modern Version, Free Version]

Familiar keywords, familiar free offers, even the page design has a cheap feel to it. Kuroba Shido lay on his side on the bed, his expression even more serious than when he was watching Xiu Donkey Hoof. He browsed through the pages one by one, and occasionally, when he came across a sentence that seemed useful, he would read it aloud to test its effectiveness.

"Your eyes hold the stars and the sea, and all I want is... to live in them?"

Kuroba Shido was silent for two seconds: "People living in your eyes? What parasites?"

Then continue looking down.

"If longing had a sound, you'd probably think I'm very noisy..."

Kuroba Shido thought for a moment and nodded: "That's a good line; it's suitable for shifting blame."

Save this for later to read the next one.

"There are three kinds of women in the world: beautiful women, not-so-beautiful women, and the kind of woman like you who makes me..."

The content required payment to unlock, and the expectation that had just appeared on Kuroba Shido's face vanished instantly. He exited the page without hesitation: "It's password protected. Even if it's free, it doesn't have to be this tacky. Are they trying to treat me like I'm from Japan?"

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

She found it hard to understand how someone could seamlessly switch between repairing donkey hooves, dating game guides, and free sweet nothings. Even harder to understand was why she was still reading, even though it was past midnight.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi put down his book, preparing to rest immediately.

Just as she was about to close the screen, Kuroba Shido clicked on a short video with an extremely exaggerated title. In the video, a man in a suit had just returned home and found that his long-lost biological mother was working as a nanny for his fiancée. The next second, the entire screen began to flash rapidly with shock, slap in the face, kneeling, and the revelation of his identity.

Kuroba Shido frowned as he looked at the document, not out of disdain, but because he was analyzing it seriously.

"No, we should investigate the parent-child relationship first. You came in calling her 'Mom' right away, so the chain of evidence is incomplete."

The man in the video ignored the advice and started crying. Kuroba Shido shook his head.

"IQ drop".

He kept saying he was being stupid, but his finger didn't swipe away. Three minutes later, the first episode ended, and a message popped up on the screen: "Watch GG to unlock the next episode." Kuroba Shido clicked it without hesitation.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

After watching GG for 30 seconds, the second episode begins. Continue watching GG five minutes later for the third, fourth, and so on...

The man has gone from an ordinary company employee to the heir to a hidden conglomerate, his fiancée has gone from being the daughter of a bullied nanny to the long-lost heiress of another conglomerate, and his biological mother, who initially worked as a nanny, pulls out an ancestral jade pendant at the end, proving that she actually comes from an even more ancient family.

Kuroba Shido's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Hehehe, I knew it... there's a second level!"

Miyazaki Kiyoichi stared at the screen without moving, beginning to suspect that the real effect of the brain-degrading effect might not be in the video, but in the act of watching itself.

At 1 a.m., Kuroba Shido switched to a video of a cat fighting with thin air and laughed for a long time. Then he watched a Shiba Inu being scolded by its owner for stealing food. Finally, he clicked on a compilation of street pranks and saw a passerby being scared into flying on the spot by a dummy. At that moment, a low, evil laugh came from the bed again.

"Hehehe..."

Miyazaki Kiyoshi was already sleepy, but the laughter woke her up. She put her phone on the bedside table, closed her eyes and tried to rest. After a few minutes, she suddenly heard Kuroba Shido gasping for breath on the screen, and Miyazaki Kiyoshi opened her eyes again.

Shido Kuroba was watching a video about a challenge to place an egg on a hundred layers of paper cups. The top egg was teetering on the edge of the floor, but the video ended just before it was about to fall.

He looked incredulous and immediately clicked on the author's homepage to find the next chapter.

No.

"Born!"

Kuroba Shido was so angry that he rolled over on the bed and condemned the author from head to toe, before starting to search for whether anyone else had uploaded the complete version.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

She should go to sleep, and go to sleep now. As for when Kuroba Shido will turn off his phone, it can be confirmed through the records tomorrow. There is no need to observe in real time. Miyazaki Kiyoshi came to this conclusion in her mind, but did not act on it immediately, because Kuroba Shido quickly found the complete version, and the egg had reappeared on top of the hundred-layer paper cup.

The result was just a few seconds away; it didn't matter if I watched it or went to sleep. A few seconds later, the egg fell, smashing the top paper cup, and was caught by the sponge hidden inside. It didn't collapse completely, and it didn't make any difference.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi turned off the sound and put her phone down. Two minutes later, she picked it up again. She just wanted to check if Kuroba Shido had ended this pointless behavior. The answer was no. At two in the morning, Kuroba Shido was still scrolling.

At 2:40 a.m., his phone almost hit his face. Startled awake, he rubbed his nose, changed his position, and continued watching. At 3:10 a.m., the sound of the video on the screen grew fainter and fainter, and Kuroba Shido's eyelids began to droop. His finger swiping speed gradually slowed down, and he couldn't finish watching any of the three videos he had scrolled through.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi leaned against the headboard, her long hair slightly disheveled. Her usually clear eyes were now showing signs of weariness. She was about to fall asleep. As long as Kuroba Shido fell asleep, she could end her observation. This logic was perfectly sound and without any problems.

At 3:47 AM, Kuroba Shido finally placed his phone face down on the pillow, pulled the covers up, closed his eyes, and the room fell silent. Miyazaki Kiyoshi stared at it for half a minute, a minute, two minutes…

Confirming there was no sign of him picking up his phone again, she let out a soft breath and prepared to turn off the screen. However, Kuroba Shido on the bed suddenly opened his eyes. Miyazaki Kiyoshi's fingers stopped, and he stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, as if he had suddenly remembered something extremely important. He abruptly sat up in bed, grabbed his phone, and then sat cross-legged.

"I almost forgot."

Kuroba Shido reopened the guide he had just saved, then found an icon in his mobile game list, his expression gradually becoming serene.

"Since we're already here, let's do a quick run before bed."

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

Four in the morning, before going to sleep? Kuroba Shido didn't feel anything was wrong at all. He skillfully entered the game, skipping the opening animation, quickly skipping the voice lines, and quickly skipping the normal story. He only switched back to the browser when he encountered choices, and checked the order with the free walkthrough.

[Option 1: Send flowers]

Option Two: Go home with her.

Option 3: Share an umbrella on rainy days.

Kuroba Shido tapped the screen rapidly, and occasionally when a character's affection level increased and a close-up of a beautiful female protagonist blushing appeared on the screen, he would reveal a wicked smile of a successful plan.

"Hehehe..."

This time, even Miyazaki Kiyoshi remained completely silent. The strategy guide was written by someone else, the options were summarized by someone else, and the entire plot was skipped. Kuroba Shido simply clicked in a fixed order and watched the character enter the confession screen. Why did he feel a sense of accomplishment in successfully winning over the other person with his own wisdom?

Miyazaki Kiyoshi couldn't understand it, but she watched it. At 4:28 a.m., the game entered its ending. The heroine stood under the cherry blossom tree and said her last confession. Kuroba Shido stared at the screen and nodded in satisfaction.

"Take it down."

The screen popped up with the game completion record, and Kuroba Shido even took a screenshot to prove this great speedrun at dawn. Then he closed the game, turned off the walkthrough, plugged in his phone to charge, and comfortably lay back in bed, pulling the blanket up to his chin.

Goodnight, Makka Pakka.

Ten seconds later, his breathing became even, and he fell asleep. Miyazaki Kiyoshi watched the live feed, making sure that the guy didn't suddenly sprang up again this time, and finally turned off his phone screen and lay down again.

At 4:31 a.m., Shido Kuroba went to sleep, Kiyoshi Miyazaki went to sleep, and the two of them completed an all-night session without any communication, and one of them was completely unaware of the other's existence.

The difference is that this kind of thing is a normal daily routine for Shido Kuroba. He stays up late at night, is late in the morning, and sleeps through a less important class during the day. When he wakes up, he can innocently say that the poor boy is just tired from thinking too much about life.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi was different. She hadn't let her sleep schedule get so out of control for many years, and she had never stayed up until 4:30 in the morning watching someone else watch videos like "Repairing Donkey Hoofs," "Free Guides," "Stupid Short Dramas," and "Gazettes."

For the first time ever, the result was very fair: Shido Kuroba did not rise, nor did Kiyoshi Miyazaki.

Time returns to the present.

Ritsuko Miyazaki's worries still lingered in her ears: "Is it really just oversleeping? Should we call the doctor? Insomnia can be a signal from your body. Kiyoshi, have you been under too much stress lately?"

The drowsiness in Miyazaki Kiyoshi's eyes dissipated slightly. She propped herself up on the bed, her long hair slipping down her shoulders, but her mind was still shrouded in a dull mist that didn't belong to her.

"fine."

She paused for a moment, then offered an explanation that wasn't exactly a lie: "I had some trouble sleeping last night."

She did have insomnia, but not simply because she couldn't fall asleep. It was because she hadn't slept since she saw Kuroba Shido. Miyazaki Ritsuko wanted to ask more, but Miyazaki Kiyoshi had already lifted the covers and gotten out of bed, going into the bathroom to wash up. His movements were still methodical, just a little slower than usual.

In the mirror, his eyes weren't as bloodshot as Kuroba Shido's, but they were noticeably less clear-headed than usual. Miyazaki Kiyoshi washed his face with cold water, closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then allowed his sluggish brain to start working again.

Staying up late can affect concentration, slow down judgment, disrupt memory integration, and increase the burden on the body's recovery. Kiyoshi Miyazaki has always known these things, so he never stays up late. Occasionally, when he has something he has to deal with, he will plan his sleep and time for the next day in advance. He will never overwork his body for meaningless things.

And now... she watched all night repairing donkey hooves, or more precisely, she watched Kuroba Shido watch all night repairing donkey hooves, and other equally meaningless things.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

After washing up, changing into her uniform, and grabbing her backpack, she went downstairs back to the restaurant.

A new breakfast had been prepared for her: rice, salmon, tamagoyaki, vegetables, and warm water, all at the perfect temperature. The maids quietly withdrew after setting out the tableware, and no one dared to stare at their young mistress, who was unusually oversleeping.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi sat down, picked up a small piece of tamagoyaki, ate two bites, paused, and then took a sip of warm water. Normally, her eating speed was fixed, the number of chews was consistent, and the order of each food was based on maintaining her physical condition.

Today, however, I was unusually distracted for a moment. My chopsticks stopped in mid-air and only landed on the spinach two seconds later.

Tired—Miyazaki Kiyoshi rarely felt this word so clearly. Upstairs, Miyazaki Ritsuko was still standing at the door, asking if they should cancel part of today's work and stay home to observe their daughter's condition. In the dining room, Miyazaki Kiyoshi sighed softly.

This can't happen again. At least we can't keep watching him until 4:30 in the morning. The security records can be checked the next day. There's no need to confirm whether Kuroba Shido is really asleep, and there's no need to watch him speedrun a completely illogical dating game.

After reaching a conclusion, Miyazaki Kiyoshi seemed to suddenly remember something, took out his phone, and opened the live feed of the apartment.

She was simply checking if Shido Kuroba had gotten up. It was a school day, and as the club president, making sure the only member wouldn't be late was within the bounds of reasonable management.

The screen lit up. In the bedroom of the luxury apartment, the curtains were tightly closed, the bedside lamp had automatically turned off, the charging cable was connected to the phone, the thin blanket was rolled up in a ball, and Kuroba Shido was fast asleep in the middle, half of his face was sunk into the pillow, his hair was messy as if it had been run over by a lot of luck, and there was even a hint of the satisfied peace of clearing the game on the corner of his mouth.

He didn't wake up, nor did he show any sign of waking up. The tenacious spirit he had shown last night—watching videos about repairing donkey hooves, researching strategies, and challenging mindless short dramas—had completely vanished, leaving only a poor boy undergoing deep system maintenance.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi glanced at the time; it was 7:36. It wasn't long before school officially started, and Kuroba Shido hadn't even set an alarm.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki: "..."

It seems she's not the only one who's having bad luck...

She ate a couple more bites, put down her chopsticks, picked up her phone and backpack, and stood up. There was still more than half of her breakfast left on her plate. This kind of thing wouldn't happen under normal circumstances.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki knew exactly how much food he needed and wouldn't let the chef prepare more than the standard amount, nor would he waste anything already on his plate.

But there wasn't enough time today. It wasn't that she didn't have enough time to go to school, but that someone who was sleeping like they had completely left Tokyo was likely to sleep until lunchtime if she didn't physically turn them on. Miyazaki Kiyoshi walked through the entrance hall, and the driver outside had already parked the car. Seeing her come out, he immediately got out of the car and opened the back door.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi got into the car, glanced down at the live feed, and Kuroba Shido turned over and went back to sleep.

"Don't go to school yet, go to this place. I'll send you the location."

The driver paused for half a second, then quickly lowered his head and said, "Understood."

The car door closed, and the black sedan drove away from the Miyazaki family home, heading towards the upscale apartment building along the early morning road.

A few minutes later, Ritsuko Miyazaki finally came down from the second floor.

She had already contacted her assistant to postpone the confirmation of the first document, and had someone prepare a thermometer and common medicines. She even considered whether to call Shimotsuki Takari. However, when she entered the restaurant, she only saw that most of the breakfast was left on her daughter's seat.

The chair is empty.

My schoolbag is gone.

My phone is gone too.

The person is gone too.

Ritsuko Miyazaki stood beside the dining table, her expression gradually becoming blank: "Where is everyone?"

How could my little Qing, who was so big, be gone?!