Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"They seem like a newlywed couple~" Ai Yin's lips pursed into a W shape similar to Miao Meng's. "Little Master and Chu Hua Hua have such a good relationship."

How did everyone become Chu Huahua? Being overly familiar is terrifying.

"Go away, go away." Xiangzi waved his hand, his face flushed, shooing Aine away like a fly.

What newlywed couple? Stop talking nonsense. She and Chu Hua aren't in that kind of relationship...

"Oh dear, are you shy?" Aine smiled and leaned closer. "It's not bad to just admit it openly."

"Go! Go! Go."

Xiangzi tapped her forehead with his bent knuckles.

Two loud, crisp clanging sounds were heard, and the inside was empty.

"Ouch!" Ai Yin clutched her empty head.

"No big or small desuwa."

Xiangzi snorted, tilted his head back, and pushed the handcart forward.

Are there any dietary restrictions?

"Forget about the meat."

Ai Yin looked troubled. She remembered seeing the still-pulsating beef on the freezer earlier and felt a wave of nausea in her stomach.

"Give me a few days to adjust."

"Would you like to eat fish?"

"Okay, as long as it doesn't have pork or beef..."

"Saury or mackerel?"

"It's all right."

"Saury, I'll take it."

"Ah."

"Would you like something else?"

"They sell baby potatoes here, they look so cute."

"also."

"Speaking of which, the two of us shopping like this while Chu Huahua is at work, doesn't it look a bit like... you know..."

Boom-!

Xiangzi clenched his fists, and the veins on his forehead bulged.

"What are you thinking? I've already told you we're not in that kind of relationship."

"Your opinion doesn't count! You two are clearly living together!" Aine exclaimed, clutching her head. "That's living with a big star—"

"Shh—!" Xiangzi lunged forward and covered her lips with his, hissing softly in her ear, "(Don't speak so loudly!)"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Even buying groceries can't be done in peace.

Xiangzi felt he had taken on an extraordinary apprentice.

======

In the evening, after a satisfying meal and drinks, we enjoyed ourselves.

Xiangzi took the plates and bowls to wash the dishes, leaving Aiyin temporarily outside to dry.

Sitting on the living room floor, Aine took out her school homework and was about to start writing. Just as she was about to put pen to paper, she noticed a metal box casually placed on the table...

"What's this......"

Aiyin reached out and took the "iron box".

It wasn't a real metal box; the metallic exterior was just paint, and only a small section on the surface was actually made of metal. Even so, it was still quite heavy, feeling substantial in your hand.

Aiyin turned the metal box upside down.

She had never seen anything like it before.

What is this?

These look like electronic products from the last century. Does the young master have a hobby of collecting electronic waste?

"Hey, Aine, is it really okay for you to just take other people's things and play with them, and then seriously comment on them?" A voice inside Aine said.

Ugh... But the little master just casually put it on the coffee table, it shouldn't be a problem, right? — Is this the play button?

Aiyin saw a triangle icon on the side of the box, along with fast forward, rewind, and stop.

With her finger touching the play button marked with a raised symbol, Ai Yin pressed it as if possessed.

We stand on either side of the stairway to heaven, reflecting on our lives, discussing the past years and events...

Bang!

The kitchen door suddenly flew open.

Xiangzi clung to the doorframe, his eyes fixed on Aiyin and the cassette player in her hand.

"Little Master, this thing makes a sound." Ai Yin looked at Xiangzi innocently.

The Lost Tale: The Lost Child: Chapter 311 Fairy Tale Town, Initiated!

Xiangzi is washing the dishes. Although Chuhua had bought a dishwasher long before Xiangzi moved in, and all he had to do was rinse the dishes and put them in, leaving the rest to the machine, Xiangzi still had to tidy up the kitchen stove and take out the trash, so the time he spent was only slightly less than if he included washing the dishes.

Just as she was almost finished and ready to call it a day, a familiar song drifted from the direction of the living room.

We stand on either side of the stairway to heaven, reflecting on our lives, discussing the past years and events...

......

This... isn't this her cassette recorder?!

Xiangzi's body hair stood on end like a frightened cat.

She often listened to the Walkman left by O'Blivionis. Besides the cassette tape with "The Deceitful Man" on the front and her own recording on the back, she later had some of her favorite songs recorded. She would usually listen to it when she was resting on the sofa at night.

Ai Yin can listen to it without any problem, but... what she put in yesterday was the cassette tape that contained a secret known only to her!

What if she hears this by accident!

Xiangzi, disregarding his still-wet hands, pushed open the kitchen door with a thud, poked his head out, and glared angrily at Aiyin.

Ai-yin seemed startled by the loud noise, and stood there dumbfounded, saying to herself, "This thing makes a sound..."

Hey, hey my foot!

Xiangzi walked up to her and opened his hands.

"give me back."

"But little master, your hands are still all oily..."

"......" You're quite thoughtful.

"......" So what should we do?

We are face to face, and opposite you is the one who deceived the world.

The singing echoed in the awkward atmosphere, leaving Xiangzi in a dilemma: whether to take it or not.

She was genuinely worried that her unwashed hands would dirty her Walkman, so she hadn't even taken off her apron.

"Do you know what this is?" Xiangzi asked.

Ai Yin shook her head like a Border Collie.

"I've never seen this kind of electronic...antique." I almost misspoke as electronic waste.

"Pressing the key with the square symbol will pause the game," Xiangzi added.

Aiyin did as instructed.

With a click, the play button reset, and the tape stopped spinning.

"This is a portable cassette player. Just put the cassette in and you can listen to music."

"What is a magnetic tape?"

I'm a Gen Z! How can there be people who don't know this?! Oh, I'm Gen Z myself, and even a few months younger than her, so it's okay.

Xiangzi slumped his shoulders dejectedly.

It's all her bastard father's fault for instilling so much "old-fashioned romance" in her, that's why she knows about these things that should have been forgotten by the times.

"It's that spinning thing inside the box," Xiangzi pointed to the transparent window of the Walkman, "the thing used to record sound."

“Oh…” Ai Yin tried pressing the power button.

We are facing each other...

Click.

She pressed pause before Xiangzi's face turned dark, and then said with emotion.

"It actually spins! I didn't even notice before."

"See that shelf next to the coffee table? If you want to listen, just pick one, but don't pick this one." Xiangzi pointed to the small shelf next to her, which was full of cassette tapes that she had commissioned to be made.

"why?"

"Because this tape contains my personal information," Xiangzi said, hands on his hips. "The rest is none of your business."

Just kidding, even Chu Hua doesn't know the contents of this cassette tape.

“Okay.” Ai Yin obediently put the Walkman back in its place. “I was just curious. I’d better finish my homework before playing games.”

Yes, she still has homework to do... She only started yesterday's homework this morning when she got to school.

Xiangzi sighed and went back to the kitchen to finish up the rest of the mess.

She then took another shower—she lent Aine a set of her pajamas; the two were about the same size, so any differences weren't her fault.

After taking a shower, the two fragrant and beautiful girls sat on the living room floor, finished their schoolwork, and then took out their phones to start playing games, just like staying overnight at a friend's house.

"Little Master, have you ever played this game?" Ai Yin had already logged into the game and sat down next to Xiangzi.

“I remember saying that, didn’t I?” Xiangzi shook his head. “No.”

"Huh, really...?"

"I don't usually have time to play games." Xiangzi opened the app store, entered the game's name, and clicked download.

Ding.

It downloaded in almost a few seconds, much faster than Xiangzi had imagined.

"Hey, is this game that small?"

“Fairy Tale Town is a cloud game, so it’s normal that it looks small,” Ai Yin said with a smile. “This is the first online game that is completely processed in the cloud, so you can play it on your phone and get the same level of graphics as on a computer.”

"What is cloud gaming?" Xiangzi blinked.

“Don’t you know…” Ai looked at Xiangzi as if she were looking at someone who had traveled from the last century. “You used to be able to talk a lot about games.”

"I...I haven't actually played any of them," Xiangzi said, turning his head away. "I've only heard other people talk about them, like League of Legends, Varot, APX, and stuff like that..."

How can I play games if the network is unstable? Do you know that my network went down during the final raid? If it weren't for your crappy network, I wouldn't be using mobile data to go online every day... Most of Xiangzi's internet-related knowledge was crammed in order to understand what the customer was saying.

"Oh, a casual gamer, huh?" Ai Yin nodded seriously.

Xiangzi is indeed a complete novice gamer, or rather, someone who doesn't even really understand what he's learning.

"It feels like you're insulting me," Xiangzi said, wiping his nose.

"No, no, how could I dare?" Ai Yin took out her phone and quickly changed the subject. "Cloud gaming is when we play games on our phones, but the actual program runs on a large server. Do you understand, Master?"

"Aren't all online games hosted on large servers?"

“The data is transmitted to the server, but the program needs to run locally,” Ai Yin said. “But the program runs on the server, you know. Actually, the mobile phone is just a controllable display screen. The host is hundreds of kilometers away—it shouldn’t be that far. The nearest host in Fairy Tale Town is in Reed Plains City.”

Xiangzi nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.