Gensokyo Population Revitalization Plan

As the hot oil sizzled as it was poured, the mouthwatering aroma instantly filled the entire kitchen.

Upon hearing the sound of oil being splashed, Marisa turned her gaze to Mu Huai, then frowned in confusion: "I clearly heard the sound of stir-frying, so why didn't I smell any aroma?"

Unconvinced, she took a deep sniff, almost to the point of facial cramps, but still couldn't detect any food-related smells in the air.

"That's strange. Could it be that Brother Mu Huai is making a special dish that is colorless and odorless?"

Muttering to herself, Marisa quickly walked into the kitchen. As soon as she stepped across the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, the mouthwatering spicy aroma of boiled fish fillets immediately filled her nostrils.

"Cough cough! It smells pungent, but it smells so good. Why can't I smell it in the living room?"

“Reimu was going to sleep, so I used a little trick to keep the smell out of the kitchen.”

"Tsk tsk tsk, although she doesn't treat you as her fiancé, you really do treat her like your fiancée and cherish her."

Marie felt indignant for Mu Huai, believing he had been wronged, and this was the moment for her, as Reimu's friend, to step in.

While Mu Huai turned around to get the vegetables, Marisa crouched down and slipped half her body inside her apron, skillfully untying the waistband that was right next to her.

"Hey, hey..." Mu Huai's lips twitched, and he quickly grabbed her increasingly audacious little hand: "What are you doing? I still need to cook!"

"Don't worry, Reimu is sleeping soundly."

But the other party completely ignored this mere resistance and did whatever they wanted.

......

Reimu enjoyed her dinner. She had expected the boiled fish fillets to make her mouth swell with spiciness, but in reality, it wasn't very spicy; it was mostly the aroma of chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns.

The fish fillet tempura and fried pork cutlet brought her endless surprises, and the three of them ate until they were drenched in sweat.

Marisa fanned herself with her hand while complaining, "Why is there a light bulb and a computer, but no fan or air conditioner?"

"Then you should pay for it for me!" Reimu had no morals whatsoever and directly reached out for money.

"Aren't you rich?"

"That money can't be spent carelessly."

"I think you're just obsessed with money. I can't be bothered arguing with you about this. I'm leaving now, Brother Mu Huai."

"OK Bye Bye."

Watching Marisa ride her magic broom and disappear into the night, Mu Huai turned his gaze to Reimu: "Actually, I'm also curious about Marisa's problem. Why don't you put more modern furniture in your house?"

"There's no faucet, we still use the stove to cook, and the light bulbs are only installed in the living room. Don't you find that inconvenient?"

Reimu sighed, released her index finger that was hooking around her collar to fan herself, and sat up straight before answering him, "You may not believe what I'm saying, but I am still a shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine."

"The technological facilities you provide can indeed improve our living standards, but they will also create a distance between me and the villagers living in the village, a gap that I may not even be aware of."

"In order to maintain the balance between humans and yokai, I, as a shrine maiden, cannot favor either side, so I need to avoid this possibility as much as possible."

Mu Huai looked at her in confusion: "It's just adding some things to make life easier at home, it's not as exaggerated as you say."

"You think about it, when the villagers of the human village find that I no longer go to the village to buy daily necessities, nor do I chat with them, but instead use the same items as the monsters and enjoy a comfortable life that only magic can provide."

"Will they still think of me as the Hakurei Shrine priestess who exorcises monsters and treats humans and monsters equally?"

Lingmeng, unlike her usual carefree and lazy self, spoke earnestly about her thoughts. Mu Huai did not give an answer, but instead smiled and walked to her side, gently stroking her soft black hair.

"W-What are you doing? Don't touch the shrine maiden's hair like that!"

She only gave a verbal warning with a blush, without swatting away the large hand that was patting her head. A hint of shyness flashed in her eyes, but deep down she also enjoyed the feeling of being patted on the head.

"It's nothing, I just think... you still have a cute and responsible side, which I really like."

"If you didn't have a girlfriend, saying this to me might have some effect, but unfortunately I know you're a harem guy with a ton of girlfriends. I bet you say this to your other girlfriends too, right?"

"No, no, I haven't said that to anyone else."

Mu Huai half-squatted down to be at eye level with Ling Meng, trying his best to convey the sincerity in his eyes.

"Really? I don't believe it!"

She responded to this onslaught with dead fish eyes, then realized that the two of them were so close that it was somewhat ambiguous, and that she had been sweating a lot while eating, so she immediately pushed Mu Huai away and ran to the bathroom.

"Don't follow me, I need to take a shower!!"

"It's a pity Reimu isn't a tsundere, otherwise I could understand that statement in reverse."

With a regretful sigh, Mu Huai quickly cleaned up the dishes and washed them. Then, before Ling Meng finished her bath and came out, he went home to wash up and slipped into her bedroom in his pajamas.

When Reimu entered the bedroom, she saw Mu Huai waiting for her for a long time, and she shouted the four words "Dream Seal" very loudly.

Volume 4, "Anything Can Happen in Gensokyo": Chapter 28 Reimu's Frustration

The first rays of sunlight in Gensokyo streamed into the room through the paper windows. Reimu's simple boudoir had a figure pasted on the walls with many talismans. After a couple of movements in the only quilt in the room, Mu Huai sat up, rubbing his eyes that were still a little hard to open.

"Uuuuuuuuuuu!!"

Seeing that he had woken up, Reimu frantically shook her body, but she couldn't open the talisman she had made without external help.

Although Reimu is the emperor who overwhelms all demons as long as she is in the Hakurei Barrier, and her Dream Seal is basically invincible, if she can't even beat Dream Seal, then she can use Dream Innate to cheat.

But she was up against Mu Huai, who not only possessed the powerful weapon that could render enemies powerless, but also the ability to accelerate time. However, he only needed one move to truly defeat her.

That's like taking off your pants and acting like a hooligan.

No matter who it is, they will enter a state of high concentration during the battle. Reimu was ambushed by his shameless underhanded tricks and instantly saw the size and shape of Komugi clearly.

Upon realizing what she had seen, her brain went blank, and the seal of dreams in her hand gradually went out like a flickering light bulb.

Mu Huai seized the opportunity, using the talismans he had collected in the room to firmly stick her to the wall and gag her, then happily lay down in the quilt that smelled of a beautiful young girl and took a nap.

He shamelessly said to Reimu, whose eyes were blazing with anger, "Don't be angry, don't be angry. It's just one night of being a wallhacker. It's a rare and valuable experience."

"Ughhhhhh!!!"

Reimu struggled even more fiercely, the back of her head slamming against the fragile wall. Mu Huai had no doubt that if he didn't get her down soon, she would soon smash a hole in the fragile wooden wall.

"This is my first time staying at your house. Even though we are engaged, I'm still a little worried and scared about sleeping in an unfamiliar place. If you force me, I won't dare to resist."

"Huh???"

"Why are you so confused? Although it sounds a bit like I'm bragging, I'm not bad looking, and I'm young and rich. It's normal for guys to be more careful about protecting themselves when they're out and about, right?"

The seal on her mouth was finally torn off. Reimu, not even bothering to catch her breath, retorted angrily with a face full of black lines, "Was that even human? Would I, a dignified shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, lust after your body?"

Mu Huai silently lifted his pajamas, revealing his perfect V-line.

"Don't joke... joke... gulp!" Before she could finish speaking, she couldn't help but swallow, then guiltily turned her head to stare at the scenery outside the window: "I admit you do have a good figure, but that's no excuse for your lewd behavior yesterday!"

Being handsome does indeed allow one to do whatever one wants. Even someone as shameless as Lingmeng, when faced with Mu Huai's charm, lost much of her aggressive aura and even began to reflect on whether she had been bewitched and had attempted to ambush Mu Huai the previous night.

"I just changed my clothes and haven't even fastened my belt yet. You were the one who suddenly rushed into the room, how can you blame me?" Mu Huai said as he freed Lingmeng from the talisman, then casually patted her head: "Go brush your teeth and wash your face, I'll make breakfast first."

"Oh..."

Whether it was because she didn't sleep well last night or because seeing Xiao Muhuai hadn't restored her intelligence, Lingmeng inexplicably accepted Muhuai's explanation and blankly walked out of the bedroom to wash up.

With her mouth full of toothbrush foam, it suddenly dawned on her: "Oh no, did that guy deliberately send me away and then run away?!"

Before she could even rinse the foam from her mouth, Reimu ran back to her bedroom with a toothbrush in her mouth.

When I opened the door, it was indeed empty; there wasn't a soul in sight.

The scattered pieces of talisman paper seemed like a silent mockery left by Mu Huai, which angered her so much that she bit off the toothbrush in her mouth.

"Damn Mu Huai, I'm going to arrest you as soon as I finish breakfast! This time, no amount of explanation will help!"

After feeling sorry for her toothbrush for a second, Reimu hurriedly washed up, opened her wardrobe, grabbed a shrine maiden outfit from her ever-present revealing shrine maiden clothes, changed into it, and walked listlessly to the kitchen.

"Splash—"

"Hey?"

"Oh, you're finally here. What were you yelling about in the back just now?"

Mu Huai put down the newspaper in his hand and looked at Ling Meng, who was standing there dumbfounded. A steaming breakfast was placed to his right.

"You...didn't take the opportunity to escape?"

"Why would I run away for no reason? Didn't I tell you I was coming to make breakfast?"

His calm yet questioning tone struck like sharp arrows at Reimu's remaining conscience. She lowered her head like a child who had done something wrong, remaining silent throughout and finishing her breakfast.

"I'm full, thank you for the treat."

"Put the dishes and chopsticks on the table, I'll wash them together later. I need to take care of some work first."

"Oh..."

Seeing Mu Huai working on his laptop, Ling Meng, already feeling guilty and in the wrong, obediently left, picked up a broom, and began sweeping the fallen leaves in the front yard.

As the sun climbed higher, cicadas, hidden somewhere, began to chirp, their shrill sounds irritating the increasingly hot air.

Sweat trickled down Reimu's temples to the tip of her chin, then fell, only to evaporate in the intense heat before it even touched the ground.

"It's so hot...this awful weather."

She muttered a complaint under her breath, then raised her hand to wipe away the fine beads of sweat from her forehead. She pressed her left hand against her lower back, straightened her chest, and relaxed her body. Then, looking at the piles of fallen leaves that had been swept up, she pinched a talisman between her two fingers, intending to turn them into ashes.

Mu Huai's voice suddenly came from afar: "Wait! Don't burn those leaves, I need them!"

"Hmm? What can you do with these leaves?"

"Of course, it's steamed sweet potatoes! When I was a kid, the rice was already dried in the sun at this time of year. Then we used a winnowing fan to husk it into rice. We would put sweet potatoes into the leftover rice husks, light a fire, and slowly steam them until they were cooked. They smelled amazing!"

Reimu pointed helplessly at the pile of leaves: "Look carefully, these are leaves, not rice husks."

"I didn't say you have to use rice husks to steam sweet potatoes. You can dig a hole in the ground, put the sweet potatoes in and bury them, then use leaves and firewood to make a fire on top and burn them for more than an hour. That will work just fine."

"That sounds good. You can handle this pile of leaves then."

"Hey, why are you in such a hurry?" Mu Huai grabbed Ling Meng and handed her the iced towel he had prepared beforehand, looking at her with a puzzled expression. "It's so hot. Use the towel to wipe your sweat first, then go sit in the corridor for a while to cool down, and then drink the iced tea I prepared."

Reimu had clearly never received such thoughtful care from a boy before. She stood there stunned for a while before taking the ice towel and gently wiping her slightly flushed face.

"Thanks..."

"What did you say?" Mu Huai squatted down in front of the pile of leaves, intending to dig a hole nearby, and didn't hear her whispered thanks at all.

"N-nothing, it's just that if the braised sweet potatoes aren't good, I'll be in for it!"

"Don't worry, it'll be delicious!"

Volume 4, "Anything Can Happen in Gensokyo": Chapter 29, An Unusual Summer

Perhaps it was because the braised sweet potatoes were delicious, or for some other reason, Reimu attributed everything that happened last night to an accident.

After cleaning the front yard and enjoying a delicious meal of braised sweet potatoes, she idly lay on her personal small wooden table, her face turned to the side as she stared intently at Mu Huai as he worked.

At this moment, his face lacked rich expressions and the faint smirk at the corner of his mouth. His lips were pursed into a straight line, his eyes were focused and serious, and his fingers kept tapping the keyboard, making a crisp clattering sound.

Occasionally, she would stop, furrow her brow, and fall into deep thought, exuding a completely different charm.

Reimu had never seen him like this before, and her impression of him was entirely based on Marisa's evaluation and her few interactions with Mu Huai.

If she had to put it into words, before today, she thought Mu Huai was a harem man who liked to play pranks but was very good at taking care of girls.

But now, she felt that Mu Huai was simply an exceptionally good man who exuded the aura of "I'm super good at making money".

(I really want to know who could have nurtured him to be so outstanding.)

......

Achoo!!!

Kaguya, puzzled, rubbed her suddenly itchy nose: "Why did I suddenly sneeze? Could it be that that idiot Kondo is talking bad about me behind my back?"

After casually making a few disparaging remarks about Mu Huai, she continued to dominate in "Gensokyo Rumble." As a veteran gamer with more experience than any other youkai, Kaguya is currently the most mysterious and strongest player in the game.

She is ranked first in the newly opened ranking leaderboard, and has even repeatedly defeated members of the champion and runner-up teams of the Dream Cup.

"Hehe, by the time the next Dream Cup starts, I'll probably have my character made too. I'll get a wedding dress champion skin to play with then."

......

"It's so hot... I feel like I'm melting..."

Cirno sat listlessly under the shade of a tree by the Misty Lake, with the equally listless Great Fairy and Rumia beside her.

For some reason, summer in Gensokyo this year is much hotter than in previous years, and the temperature seems to be rising.

Even near the cool Lake of Mist, sweltering heat waves begin to rise around 10 a.m.

Seeing that Cirno's ice crystal wings were about to melt completely, the Great Fairy quickly suggested, "Let's go to Pelican Town. It's autumn there, so it's quite cool. We can also help out at Anzu's tavern to get milk tea and snacks!"