Tokyo: Starting with a fake boyfriend

The best dish to restore energy is eel; we must find a way to replenish Shiratori-kun's energy.

"This……"

Upon receiving the invitation, Shiratori Osamu did not immediately reply, but instead looked at the old man again.

According to the original plan, he was only supposed to make a brief appearance and then leave.

But a minor conflict just happened, and if he insists on leaving, it might cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

"Dad, can Shiratori-kun have dinner with us?"

Sensing his hesitation, Hojo Yuki immediately looked at her father.

"Grandpa."

Having previously clashed with her father, Minami Yamabuki had gained some experience in observing opportunities and decisively joined the tour.

"of course can."

Faced with their eager gazes, Hojo Ryoma looked at Shiratori Osamu and, after receiving a slight nod from the latter, agreed.

After the conflict, his thoughts were still in disarray, and he couldn't sort them out. To be on the safe side, he decided to follow Shiratori Osamu's arrangements for now.

"Then I'll take my leave."

After obtaining the consent of the head of the household, Shiratori Osamu agreed.

Finally, they managed to get him to agree. Yamabuki Minami and Hokujo Yuki exchanged a glance, and smiles involuntarily appeared on their faces. They were very happy.

"No problem, no problem. Please have a seat and I'll go prepare dinner."

A sumptuous dinner requires thorough preparation. Having finally managed to get him to stay for dinner, Hojo Yuki, who had been eager to reward him with a big meal, left with just a few words and couldn't wait to leave.

As she walked toward the kitchen, she took out her phone and started making calls to the apartment manager, requesting to buy eels.

"Xiujun, there's still some time before dinner. You look so tired, why don't you take a nap?"

Seeing her mother walk away, Yamabuki Minami glanced at her grandfather, then wiggled her little bottom closer to Shiratori Osamu, looking at him with her beautiful big eyes and asking with a little expectation.

Because his grandfather was at home, it was impossible for Xiujun to stay overnight, but he was so tired that he could take a short nap, which was a very suitable reason.

Once she's in the room, where her grandfather can't see her, she can ask Xiu Jun for desensitization exercises—holding hands, touching hands, and if she's brave enough, maybe even a hug.

She still remembered that Monday morning when she wanted to hug him a little longer under the pretext of desensitization practice. Xiu Jun's response to the hug was, "I don't mind, but if we linger here for too long and someone sees us, it could cause unnecessary changes to our plans."

"I will continue to study and I plan to get a good score on the final exam."

Even without fully concentrating, Shiratori Osamu could see through her little scheme, and shook his head as he spoke.

Clearly, Xiao Nan wanted to be alone with him, perhaps to whisper secrets, or perhaps as part of a desensitization exercise.

The worst-case scenario is that he actually falls asleep. Xiao Nan seizes this hard-won opportunity and snuggles up next to him to sleep.

"But you're already so tired. When you're physically exhausted, your learning efficiency is very low."

Upon discovering that he still wanted to study, Minami Yamabuki couldn't help but offer him some advice.

Although she said this partly out of personal motives, it was also based on her experience.

Studying when you're tired is a very bad choice. It makes it hard to concentrate, reduces learning efficiency, and can easily lead to headaches.

"It's okay, I've rested enough after sitting for a while, and look at me, I feel pretty good now."

That's the logic, but Shiratori Osamu has a cheat that ignores fatigue, so it can't be viewed using common sense.

Moreover, time is tight and the task is heavy. The math exam is the day after tomorrow morning. How could he possibly have time to sleep? He has to study.

"Let's go upstairs to study then."

Minami Yamabuki carefully examined his complexion and found that he was indeed very energetic, so she had to give up the idea of ​​persuading him to go to sleep and settle for second best.

"Why go upstairs specifically? Wasn't the table there perfectly fine before?"

Upon realizing that she simply wanted to lure him away to a place where they could be alone, Shiratori Osamu had no choice but to politely decline.

"Because my schoolbag is upstairs...you don't want me to make a special trip upstairs to get it, do you?"

Seeing that he still refused, Yamabuki Minami glanced at her grandfather, feeling very unwilling.

"?"

Upon hearing this, Hojo Ryoma, who was sorting out his thoughts, suddenly raised his head, his deep-set eagle eyes looking at him as if they were automatically aimed.

No, is this still his adorable granddaughter? The formula of 'you didn't want this either' has even come out.

Chapter 132 is finally finished.

After a heated argument, Shiratori Osamu and Yamabuki Minami sat down at the long table in the living room.

Sitting on a single sofa, Hojo Ryoma watched his granddaughter's farcical attempt to trick Shiratori Osamu into spending time alone with him without saying a word, and he felt a headache coming on.

That being said, what's giving him the biggest headache right now isn't his granddaughter, but his daughter.

Whenever Xiaoxue sees Shiratori Xiu, she is visibly happy.

It's not that he doesn't want to see his daughter happy, but she's a little too happy.

Just looking at what happened after school, the way my daughter sat on the sofa, eagerly waiting, would probably make an uninformed person think she was a newlywed wife waiting for her husband to come home.

Xiao Nan seems to have inherited her mother's romantic nature. Plus, at eighteen, she's at the age where girls are in the throes of first love, so it's normal for her to develop feelings for a young and handsome guy like Shiratori Osamu.

However, Xiaoxue's behavior was a bit off. Although she wasn't as crazy as Xiaonan, she still had a high level of affection for Shiratori Osamu.

This situation made him think of a possibility: that Xiaoxue also liked Bai Niao Xiu.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

As this thought surfaced in his mind, Hojo Ryoma decisively shook his head, forcefully banishing this terrifying conjecture from his mind.

As we all know, as people get older, both men and women tend to lose their fascination with love and shed their illusions.

Xiaoxue is already this age, and she has experienced the tragedy of her husband's infidelity and betrayal. How could she still believe in love? She should be completely disappointed.

"Not all feelings are love; there is also friendship and family affection... Xiaoxue is probably happy because she loves Xiaonan and her daughter, Shiratori Osamu. After all, Xiaonan likes Shiratori Osamu, and she is happy to see her daughter happy."

After vehemently denying it, Hojo Ryoma, feeling a chill run down his spine, quickly came up with a plausible explanation.

That's right, that's it.

Friendship and love are nothing compared to family.

However, once the seed of doubt is planted, it will take root and sprout.

Although he desperately wanted to deny this possibility, he couldn't completely extinguish it.

"That won't do."

Upon considering this possibility, Hojo Ryoma's expression darkened.

There may be a saying that grandparents have a special bond with their granddaughter, but his granddaughter spent most of her time in Tokyo and he didn't watch her grow up in his own eyes, so even if their bond was deep, it was still limited.

For him, his daughter is still the most important person.

He could accept that his granddaughter's husband was a philanderer, as long as Shiratori Osamu could keep it a secret from Konan, even if he had to set up his own household and keep a mistress.

Why is this? It's because Xiao Nan got married and started a family. Under normal circumstances, Xiao Xue wouldn't live with her daughter and son-in-law, so she would naturally go back to Kyoto with him.

He can accept his daughter remarrying, as long as the other person is a good man who will marry into the family and make Xiaoxue happy, living with him in Kyoto.

He could accept his daughter liking an eighteen-year-old boy. After all, men and women are the same; they both like younger men. As long as his daughter is happy, that's all that matters. But this person can't be Shiratori Osamu.

As a man, Shiratori Osamu is indeed very good overall, and is a talent among talents, but he has two fatal flaws.

First, he refused to marry into the family, which meant that Shiratori Osamu would not be able to bring Yuki back to Kyoto to live with him after the marriage.

Secondly, he is a womanizer. Xiaoxue suffered betrayal in her marriage with Yamabuki Tomoya, so she is absolutely intolerant of any infidelity. Even if she remarries, she can only find a devoted and good man. He doesn't want his daughter to suffer betrayal again, to be heartbroken and sad.

Thinking of this, Hojo Ryoma raised his head and looked towards the kitchen:

"Should we just tell Xiaoxue that Shiratori Xiu is actually a womanizer, and that before I invited him over on Saturday, he was trying to woo the twin sisters?"

Xiaoxue was preparing dinner, and to be honest, he hated it.

Although Xiaoxue's cooking skills are very high and he has been eating very comfortably these past few days, Xiaoxue is the daughter of the Hojo family, so there is no way she would personally cook for him.

Household chores and cooking were all done by servants.

"Let's not cause any more trouble. Anyway, Shiratori Osamu will just disappear under the pretext of going back to his hometown during summer vacation. All I need to do is take Yuki and Minami back to Kyoto for summer vacation, and then have Minami change her university application. That will be the end of it."

After much deliberation, Hojo Ryoma suppressed his impulse and decided to wait and see.

Time passed slowly, and night soon fell.

The four of them gathered around the table. The dishes were plentiful, with grilled eel as the main course, accompanied by eel tempura, steamed egg custard, steamed clams in sake, seasonal vegetable salad, and miso soup.

To Hojo Ryoma's relief, Shiratori Osamu stayed for dinner, and the atmosphere at the table was similar to the previous two days.

If Shiratori Osamu stays for dinner and his daughter and granddaughter are overjoyed, then he really can't stand it anymore.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

On Tuesday afternoon, during the third period, Shiratori Osamu, who had been engrossed in his studies since arriving at school, suddenly stopped writing.

Because when he finished reading another page, he subconsciously closed the textbook as he turned the page.

When Shiratori Osamu, who was swimming in the ocean of knowledge, encountered this turning point, his thoughts paused for a moment.

"Finished learning?"

Instinctively, Shiratori Osamu flipped the textbook over; the cover clearly read "Mathematics C".

"Finally finished learning!"

Upon confirming this situation, Shiratori Osamu was pleasantly surprised and even felt a sense of relief.

Although in this dual state, he can ignore fatigue and pain, and his mind can be highly focused, completely immersed in the world of the textbook, forgetting about time.

However, the long period of study still cast a deep shadow over his mind.

Because option ① of the turning point in fate, "Mizuki Shinonome's Revenge," is too difficult; it's practically a marathon of will and soul, so long it seems endless.

Since taking on this task, aside from necessary travel, he has been studying almost constantly.

He had to finish studying six high school math books before the final exams, a subject that science students aiming for top universities would spend three years learning.

He had to learn three years' worth of knowledge in just half a month, and he also had many other things to take care of, such as registering at school, eating, taking a bath, and hanging up his clothes.

Fortunately, on Saturday, he racked his brains and reached a consensus with Hojo Ryomata, temporarily making up with Minami and borrowing her study notes, which further improved his study efficiency.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have finished studying yet and would have to force a counterattack by studying all night in order to complete the first requirement before the final math exam tomorrow morning.

Although he breathed a sigh of relief, Shiratori Osamu had not completely relaxed. His chaotic brain, filled with mathematical formulas and problems, turned his attention to another requirement.

"The next thing to do is to get a score of over 135 on tomorrow's final math exam and make a name for myself."

He wasn't quite sure how difficult the requirement was, and he wouldn't know the result until the test papers were handed out tomorrow morning.

But it's only the second semester of senior year now. According to the teaching schedule in math class, if everyone doesn't attend tutoring classes and study on their own, they won't have finished learning "Mathematics III" yet.

Logically speaking, this matter should be a sure thing.

With this in mind, Shiratori Xiu's mind stirred, and he summoned the system panel.

(Rewards: Character design - genius, Shinonome Mizuki's dedicated summer tutoring, Shinonome Mizuki's admiration and favor, Shinonome Chisei's curiosity, extremely high probability of winning the heart of a beauty, extremely low probability of enjoying the blessings of two women, Hojo Ryoma's approval.)

"Although it's difficult to give it your all, it's all worth it."

This wasn't the first time Shiratori had checked the rewards; whenever he was physically and mentally exhausted and almost numb, he would call it out to take a look.

But no matter how many times he watches it, it always reignites his passion for striving.

His enthusiasm for striving soared even higher after he discovered that Shinonome Mizuki and Shinonome Chisei were twin sisters.

"Just to be on the safe side, let's go to the bookstore after school and buy a few sets of test papers to practice some questions."

Because the reward for option ① was too generous, Shiratori carefully read the options and, to be on the safe side, decided to make several backup plans.

Having made this decision, he stopped reading and instead leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and began to meditate, reviewing what he had learned over the past few days.

Mathematics I: Numbers and Expressions, Quadratic Functions, Graphing and Measurement, Data Analysis...

Mathematics II covers higher-order equations, exponential/logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions, and introductory calculus...

Limits, differential calculus, integral calculus, complex plane... (from Mathematics III)

The contents of various chapters of "Mathematics A", "Mathematics B" and "Mathematics C", as well as a large number of examples and problems, kept appearing before his eyes as he recalled them.