Tokyo Soft Rice King.

After all, it was already past 2 a.m. when Kuroba Akira entered her room, and they chatted for quite a while afterward, so it was almost morning by then.

It's because in October the days are short and the nights are long, and it's still dark outside, so it feels like nighttime.

Kuroba Akira couldn't really sleep in her room, so he told Takanashi Mirai that they should stop here for today and continue their conversation tomorrow. He then told her to go to bed and left the room himself.

Stepping out of the room, Kuroba Akira felt a great sense of fulfillment.

The trip was very rewarding and worthwhile.

It happened to be Saturday, and Kuroba Akira wasn't in a hurry to flirt with Aunt Akiko. Instead, he planned to catch up on some sleep. After all, he had played games all day and then thoroughly enjoyed the future. After the excitement in his brain wore off, he was feeling a bit tired.

Akiko Takanashi is very sensitive to sound, and when she heard Akira Kuroba walking up the stairs, she came out to greet him.

Although she was very concerned about what he and her daughter talked about in the room and whether they did anything they shouldn't have, she still chose to first care about Kuroba Akira's physical condition and advised him to rest early.

"Kuroba-kun, your room is over here. I've made up the bedding for you. You must be very tired, so please get some rest."

"Oh, thank you..."

"No need to be so polite with Auntie. After all, it's all thanks to you that she was willing to come out of her room in the future... So, how is that child now?"

Kuroba Akira feigned regret, shrugged, and shook his head, indicating that he was helpless as well.

This was something we had planned beforehand. In order to keep Aunt Akiko in a state of 'devoting herself to her daughter,' it was necessary to make her think that the persuasion work on Takanashi's future was difficult to make.

This way, she would subconsciously believe that he was on her side, using the pretext of helping her daughter to get her to cooperate.

Kuroba Akira became the middleman between the mother and daughter. As the messenger of information, he could manipulate their emotions at will by exploiting information gaps.

As expected, Akiko Takanashi fell for it. Because she knew her daughter well and knew that Mirai Takanashi was stubborn and not easily persuaded, she felt it was normal that things were not progressing. Instead, she comforted Akira Kuroba gently.

"I see... It's alright, Kuroba-kun, you've done very well."

"Well, it wasn't all for naught. I do have some good news. I'll report back to you after I take a nap."

"Ah... um!"

Akiko Takanashi was overjoyed to hear this. She was happy that Akira Kuroba cared so much about her daughter; perhaps he could even become her future son-in-law…

After all, if he weren't interested in his own daughter, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths.

It can only be said that the mother and daughter in the Takanashi family are very much in sync in terms of their thought processes.

The mother and daughter were on the same page; they both felt that Kuroba Akira had taken a liking to the other and that he could become their family.

The only difference is that the daughter thinks of her father, while the mother thinks of her son-in-law; their identities are completely different.

Arriving at his room for the day, Kuroba Akira lay down on the brand-new bedding.

Before going to bed, Kuroba Akira checked his phone and found many unread text messages and several missed calls, all from Sister Hong.

The text messages were all asking when Kuroba Akira would be home.

The text message that Kuroba Akira sent to Kurenai earlier only contained simple words like "I'll be back later, please tell Shion for me." So these messages were most likely sent by Shion after she borrowed Tashiro Kurenai's phone, wanting to confirm what time "later" meant.

Could she still be waiting for me, not asleep yet?

Although he thought it was unlikely, just to be on the safe side, Kuroba Akira still sent a text message to Hong Jie, saying that he would go back tomorrow night.

Because I'm going to have an in-depth conversation with Aunt Qiuzi tomorrow during the day.

Then, just as Kuroba Akira was about to turn off his phone and go to sleep, he saw a notification that he had received a reply.

The text message was very brief, simply saying "I understand, goodnight," followed by a red lip emoji, presumably representing a goodnight kiss.

Incidentally, Kuroba Akira hasn't taken away Shion's lips yet; at most, he's kissed her forehead and cheeks, as well as her neck and collarbone, and he hasn't even kissed Shion yet.

As for why they didn't kiss?

The main concern was that Kuroba Akira might go too far, since contact with the oral mucosa would also stimulate the secretion of a large amount of dopamine, which could very well lead to the next step or even the final step.

After all, most of the time, foreplay begins with oral sex.

Then came another buzzing vibration, and the next message read, 'Can we talk now? I want to hear your voice to fall asleep.'

Kuroba Akira felt like he had a very possessive girlfriend.

Is this all it took for her to stay out all night...? It seems I should try to specify the time in advance so she doesn't have to wait around.

Kuroba Akira replied with a "yes" and immediately dialed the number.

"A wise ruler..."

"Yes, I'm here. Ziyin, are you still awake? Get some rest. Don't stay up late waiting for me anymore."

"Um……"

Ziyin's voice came from the other end of the phone, very soft, but full of deep affection.

She didn't say anything more, only calling out Kuroba Akira's name every now and then, followed by hot, labored breathing.

Kuroba Akira placed his phone next to his pillow and fell asleep listening to Shion's voice, spending the night at Takanashi's house.

……

Rewind a little earlier, when Akira Kuroba had just arrived at Takanashi's house and started playing games with the mother and daughter, another mother and daughter from Anri's family were about to begin their long-awaited face-to-face conversation.

In Anri's family, the whole family must sit down to eat together; this is considered a family rule.

However, Anri Hitomi's father is very busy and often travels all over the country on business, which means she rarely sees him at home.

Usually, the mother is the one in charge at home, so even if the mother and daughter have a bad relationship, they will still sit together for dinner.

However, because of her presence, the atmosphere wasn't particularly awkward.

As she walked through the garden and into the main house, before she could even change her shoes, Anri Hitomi heard hurried footsteps, followed by voices welcoming her home.

"Sister! Welcome back!"

The child's voice was cute and innocent, with a touch of babyishness that hadn't completely faded away.

She is Anri Akira, the youngest member of the Anri family and Anri Hitomi's younger sister, who just started elementary school this year.

Anri Hitomi replied with her most natural smile.

"Yes, I'm back, Xiaojing."

It's worth mentioning that the name Crystal is pronounced akira.

The other person's name also has this pronunciation, which is the "Ming" in Kuroba Akira.

If Mingjun knew that he and his sister shared the same name, I wonder how he would react... But Anri Hitomi could guess that Mingjun would probably not care.

He'd probably just say something like, "What a coincidence," and then not care, because it's not worth paying attention to.

However, it feels very strange that I have to call her 'akira-chan' at home and 'akira-kun' at school.

Furthermore, because she was the supervisor of the light novel about a younger sister written by Akira Kuroba, her views on her younger sister have changed somewhat.

I used to think of my sister as just an important family member, nothing more. But lately, I've come to realize that she's my safe haven.

If Kuroba Akira had such a cute little sister, he would definitely become the ultimate siscon, and all women other than his sister would have to step aside, right?

Anri Akira immediately pounced on her older sister and acted coquettishly towards her.

"Sister, sister, let's play games together after dinner?"

"It might not be possible today."

"Hey~ why?"

Anri Akira pouted, revealing an unhappy expression.

"Because my sister has something to talk to Mother about today."

"what……"

Although Anri Akira is still young, she is already very good at reading people because she was born into the Anri family. So she had already figured out that her older sister and mother did not get along.

After all, even when these two sit together to eat, they don't say a word; they're always talking to themselves.

This puts a lot of pressure on Xiaojing, who has to talk to both her mother and sister at the same time, and sometimes she even forgets to eat.

But today, her older sister actually took the initiative to say she wanted to talk to her mother, which surprised her greatly.

"Oh, welcome back, Hitomi."

At this moment, Anri, the mother of the family, also came out to welcome her daughter home, something that had never happened before.

The main reason is that she knows her daughter already dislikes her, so she won't try to win her over.

"Yes, I'm back, Mother."

"Hmm~ Dinner is ready. Let's eat first. Should we talk during dinner, or after dinner?"

Let's talk after dinner.

Anri Hitomi didn't really want to talk about her troubles in front of Akira, so she decided to have a private talk with her mother after dinner.

Therefore, the atmosphere at Anri's family dinner was much more harmonious than usual. With the father absent, the relationship between the mother and the eldest daughter improved, which was truly rare.

After the meal, the mother and daughter went to the tea room, where Anri Megumi brewed tea while listening to Anri Hitomi recount her inner turmoil.

Hitomi Anri spoke very cleverly, without mentioning Akira Kuroba or using "I have a friend" as an excuse, but rather describing her own feelings more.

They treat their friends as their own, but because the friends don't truly belong to them, they feel pain whenever they see them interacting with other people.

Anri's response was unusually simple and blunt.

"In that case, why don't you just make the other person your own, Hitomi?"

Anri Hitomi frowned and replied subconsciously.

"If it could be done..."

Then Anri interrupted him.

“Why can’t we do it? Our Anri family is not short of money. You can easily buy them out.”

"..."

Buying a wise ruler?

Anri Hitomi had considered this possibility; in fact, she knew that Kuroba Akira was only interested in money.

Therefore, bribing him with money might actually be the right solution.

But... is that really the case?