I'll give my daughter one more second.

"If no one comes in another half hour, let's leave. Wu Yi and the others are still hungry," Wu Shen muttered to himself, looking boredly at the hotel entrance.

On the other hand, Haruno usually travels in luxury cars with drivers. However, to avoid being discovered by Tsukine, she has to use ordinary transportation.

On the way forward, Yueyin looked up at Yangnai, whose face was cold and stern, and said, "Did Mother do this on purpose to make him realize the insurmountable gap and chasm between them? And thus make him give up?"

Whether it was showcasing the hotel or inviting Wu Shen to dinner, it all seemed somewhat deliberate. Yueyin easily saw through the deliberate act.

"It's good that you can see it. This kind of future is not good for either of us." Yang Nai had a straight face, and her usual bright smile was gone. No one could tell what she was thinking or feeling.

"But if that's the case, won't I just have to disappear?" Yueyin lowered her head, her voice sounding extremely fragile and helpless.

"With science and technology so advanced now, you must have plenty of ways to protect yourself, given your intelligence. If you need help, I can provide all the child support until you reach adulthood..." Yang Nai hesitated for a moment, but still couldn't bear to say it.

"Wouldn't that be too heartless?" Yueyin put her hands behind her back, her previous helplessness vanished, replaced by a sly smile.

"Actually, it doesn't matter. It's just that you've misunderstood something, Mother. There is indeed a big gap between you and Father, that's a fact." Yueyin said calmly, instead covering her mouth and chuckling, "But, hehe..."

"So you still think there's a possibility between him and me?" Yang Nai's tone turned somewhat cold, but when facing Yue Yin, she still had that bright, sunny smile, and it was a very sweet smile.

“Of course, because I come from the future.” Tsukine returned the smile, revealing a confident expression.

Author's Note:

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Where could you possibly find money and razor blades? They just fell into my lap without any effort!

Σ(っ°Д °;)っ

Chapter 125 The Blame Game

"And what's happening in that restaurant right now, is that also part of Mother's plan to force Yukino to move?" Tsukine narrowed her eyes.

Although Haruno had compromised due to Tsukine's coercion, she knew that her mother was not one to give up so easily.

"You even know this?" Yang Nai frowned slightly. She disliked the feeling of being seen through.

"Do you really have to wait until you're hopelessly trapped in it before you regret what you did?" Yueyin said calmly, her tone full of accusation.

"..." Yang Nai did not respond further. For the rest of the trip, the mother and daughter remained silent, not saying another word.

The sun had completely sunk below the horizon, night had fallen, and the surrounding streetlights lit up one by one, while the neon lights decorating the hotel began to flash in a riot of colors. It seemed as if the real revelry only began at night.

As night fell, the number and frequency of luxury cars coming in and out of the hotel increased.

"Phew... Although the weather is starting to turn spring-like, it's still a bit chilly at night. I should have worn more layers." Wu Shen shivered and rubbed his hands together.

Wu Shen had been waiting at the hotel entrance for over ten minutes, and the burly security guards there had glared at him more than once. As time went on, he became increasingly suspicious that Yueyin was playing a trick on him.

"Such a sensible little girl, she probably wouldn't," Wu Shen sighed and continued to sit on the stone steps to wait.

He was starting to get restless. A luxury car with a silver emblem on the front sped past and then pulled up on the opposite side of the road. Wu Shen yawned out of boredom.

If no one else came after a while, he would have no choice but to go home, since Mai and the others were waiting for him to cook. However, just as he was having the thought of leaving, he suddenly saw a girl he recognized very well walking out of the hotel exit.

Instead of her usual school uniform, she wore a rose-red dress typically reserved for upscale occasions, and her long, flowing black hair was adorned with a delicately crafted butterfly ornament. Although her attire was quite different from usual, he recognized her at a glance.

For some reason, the other person's expression seemed somewhat depressed and downcast.

"Yukino?" Wu Shen was slightly taken aback. Considering Tsukine's request, he seemed to understand something.

"Wu Shen? What are you doing here?" Xue Nai was even more surprised than Wu Shen; she never dreamed that Wu Shen would appear here.

"Shh! We'll talk about it later. Come with me first." Wu Shen glanced back, then pulled Xue Nai along and ran into the distance until they reached a secluded alley at the corner of the road before stopping.

"Wait, Wu Shen, what are you doing?" Yukino stopped to catch her breath, her chest heaving, and looked at Wu Shen with a puzzled expression. She had too many questions she wanted to ask him.

"I don't know why I did it."

The reason he did this was because of the third and final request Yueyin gave him: after he met that person, no matter what happened, he should immediately take her to a place as far away from the hotel as possible.

Wu Shen let out a sigh of relief, regulated his breathing, and peeked out from around the corner to look back at the hotel entrance. As he looked over there, a car parked across the street drove past the entrance. A middle-aged woman in a kimono and a man in a suit got in, and the car quickly turned onto the main road and drove away.

Did Tsukine ask him to do this so that Yukino would avoid that car? How did she know all this? Wu Shen pondered, feeling somewhat puzzled.

"That's my parents' car." Yukino had recovered and walked over, just in time to see the car drive away.

She had run away from the hotel early because of some things. If Wu Shen hadn't pulled her away, she probably would have ended up encountering her mother who had kicked her out, and then going back with them under pressure from her parents.

They haven't encountered Yukino yet, probably because they assumed she had left first, so they left as well. After all, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl doesn't really need her parents to worry about her anymore.

But this indifference, this lack of even a moment's time spent searching the surroundings, ultimately revealed a hint of coldness to Yukino. Was she truly just a dispensable substitute? Yukino watched the car drive away indifferently.

"As expected of a prominent local family," Wu Shen remarked casually, then turned his head. "Speaking of which, Yukino, why did you come here today?"

"More importantly, why are you here?"

"I'm delivering this to your sister..." Wu Shen originally wanted to blurt out Yueyin's name, but then he suddenly remembered that Yueyin's matter was supposed to be kept secret from Yukino, so he had to swallow his words back.

"Your sister asked me to bring her something. Then she told me to wait here a little longer, saying there was a surprise in store." Wu Shen promptly shifted the blame to Yang Nai.

“It’s definitely something my sister would do. What a busybody.” Yukino sighed and shook her head, then scolded, “And you too. She told you to stay, so you stay? You just listen to my sister like that?”

"I was just a little curious, so I waited a little longer. You still haven't told me why you came here." To avoid Yukino pressing the issue further, Wu Shen quickly changed the subject.

Didn't your sister tell you?

"No. She did invite me in for dinner, but I declined."

"It's a good thing you didn't agree. She probably wanted you to meet my parents on purpose," Yukino said thoughtfully.

"You came to the hotel to see your parents?"

"..." Yukino didn't speak, but slowly walked along the path. Wu Shen didn't urge her either, but followed without saying a word.

Reaching the end of the alley, Yukino stopped and turned around: "It's just a monthly family gathering. My older sister had to leave first, and I'm the second one to come out."

"What happened?" Wu Shen had a feeling that the party at the hotel was not very pleasant, judging from Yukino's expression when she came out.

Moreover, at the end of such a gathering, the family should usually leave together. Yukino had obviously gone ahead and left the hotel earlier.

"..." However, Wu Shen's question went unanswered, and Yukino lowered her head and remained silent.

"Is it a family secret that can't be talked about? Then forget it." Although he couldn't share Yukino's worries, Wu Shen couldn't force her to reveal her feelings since she was unwilling to talk about it.

"But it's actually much better to talk about it than to keep it all inside. Yukino, you just don't have enough friends, you don't have anyone to confide in, and you tend to keep everything bottled up inside, which is why things are getting worse and worse."

"The fact that we need language to confide in each other only means that we haven't truly become friends who understand each other yet," Yukino blurted out unexpectedly.

"You're setting the bar for friendship way too high. You think a single glance is enough for mutual understanding, and a hint is enough for unspoken communication? If that kind of tacit understanding really existed, what would be the point of humans inventing language?" Wu Shen said, somewhat speechless.

"Even if there is communication and exchange, what is the use? The idea that you will understand after being told is arrogant. The self-satisfaction of the speaker, the self-righteousness of the listener, and all sorts of other factors are mixed together, and the two sides may not necessarily understand each other."

"Uh..." Wu Shen scratched his head. When it came to verbal sparring, he felt he couldn't compare to Yukino, who naturally possessed a touch of literary girl charm.

"Mutual tolerance is more important than mutual understanding, isn't it?" After pondering for a long time, Wu Shen finally spoke.

"Everyone has their own preferences. Some people like cats, some like dogs; some like sweet tofu pudding, some like savory tofu pudding; some like Touma, some like Setsuna. These things are inherently difficult to understand. But if you argue about these things every day, how can you live your life?"

Otherwise, according to Yukino's ideal, perhaps only when all of humanity turns into orange juice like in the ending of EVA can they truly understand each other.

"Mutual tolerance? Perhaps you're right." Yukino didn't express her opinion, but simply gave a vague and ambiguous reply.

"So, after all this rambling, aren't you going to tell me what happened at the hotel as a reward?" Wu Shen felt that talking to Yukino today was three times more tiring than usual.

It's like using a skill requires three times the stamina and mana.

"Actually, it has something to do with you." Yukino seemed to have figured something out and finally broke her silence.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"Yes, at the party. My sister told everyone that you live next door to me. She also told them about the rumors about you at school," Yukino said seriously. She emphasized the word "sister."

"Rumors about me..." Wu Shen's lips twitched.

Having witnessed the misunderstandings that Aoyama Nanami had caused, Wu Shen was well aware of just how outrageous the rumors circulating about him were now. He was accused of having multiple relationships simultaneously, cohabiting, being pregnant out of wedlock, and being a wealthy but ruthless man—they spread whatever exaggerated rumors they could think of.

It's as if all the beautiful girls in the school suffered at his hands. Is that really necessary to exaggerate?

If Yukino were to utter such a distorted rumor, even as a joke, it would likely alert Yukino's parents and even create a negative first impression of her.

Wu Shen finally understood Yang Nai's true intentions in calling him in—it was a trap! Luckily, Yue Yin had warned him beforehand; otherwise, if Wu Shen had entered the hotel and met Yukino's parents, who knows how things would have turned out.

Anyway, given his personality, if Yukino's parents made any statement or treated him coldly in front of him because they believed the rumors, Wu Shen definitely wouldn't be so patient as to put on a smiling face and listen to two strangers mocking him.

"And then?" Wu Shen asked.

He felt the situation wasn't too serious; since they were talking about Wu Shen, even if her parents were venting their anger, it should be directed at him.

“Then…” Yukino hesitated for a moment, and her tone became much lower, but her cold voice remained unchanged.

Author's Note:

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Dynasties rise and fall, each dynasty vying for influence for centuries.

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Chapter 126 Look at other people's parents

"And then?" Wu Shen asked curiously.

This was the first time he had ever seen Yukino with such an evasive expression.

"No, it's nothing." Yukino turned away, trying to avoid Wu Shen's questioning. But she had clearly underestimated Wu Shen's wild imagination.

"Nothing? If nothing's wrong, there's no need for such a big reaction, right?" Wu Shen said half-jokingly. "You didn't argue with your parents about this, did you?"

Wu Shen thought such a thing was unlikely and was just saying it casually. But then he noticed that Yukino's body trembled slightly, as if she had reacted to his words.

"Uh... can it really be true? Did I guess right?"

"We didn't argue..." Yukino shook her head in defense, then said somewhat helplessly, "I just couldn't stand my sister spreading rumors and slandering others, so I argued with her a bit."

"Isn't this what you call arguing? What exactly is your definition of arguing?"