People in Mygo are emotional firefighters.

He stepped forward, first supporting the swaying Toyokawa Kiyotaka, then nodded slightly to the disgruntled young man, saying calmly, "I'm sorry, he's had too much to drink. I know him, I'll take him home."

The young man glanced at Ishikawa Mayu's Haneoka school uniform, then at the unconscious drunkard who was only kept going by the boy, muttered "Keep an eye on your own parents," and left, resigning himself to his fate.

Ishikawa Mayu half-supported and half-carried Seigo, letting him sit on a bench outside the convenience store.

A strong smell of alcohol hit him. Toyokawa Kiyoshi had lost consciousness, his head drooping, mumbling incoherent words.

"Ugh……"

He sighed silently, resignedly took out his phone, skillfully operated the ride-hailing app, and entered the address of the old apartment area.

During the few minutes of waiting for the ride-hailing car, a cool night breeze blew. Toyokawa Kiyotaka seemed to be slightly awakened by the cold wind. He opened his eyes slightly and looked at the blurry figure beside him with a dazed expression.

"I'm...I'm so sorry...Mayu..." he mumbled, his voice hoarse, "I've embarrassed myself again..."

Ishikawa Mayu didn't respond, but silently opened a bottle of mineral water she had bought at a convenience store and handed it to him.

Qinggao didn't answer; instead, as if a nerve had been touched, she began to mutter to herself intermittently, her voice trembling with sobs:

"I'm useless... I'm really useless..."

"Xiangzi... Dad is sorry..."

Ishikawa Mayu didn't take it to heart; he had heard similar things from Uncle Toyokawa many times before.

A confession made under the influence of alcohol may sound sincere, but once the sun rises, everything often returns to normal. Like Xiangzi, he had long since given up any unrealistic expectations of it.

The ride-hailing car arrived quickly.

The driver was a kind-looking middle-aged man. When he saw the drunk man who needed help, he was somewhat surprised by the destination—the area was known for its old buildings and low rents.

However, they still got out of the car to help, and together with Ishikawa Mayu, settled the almost completely drunk Toyokawa Kiyotaka in the back seat.

"Thank you for your help. Please wait a moment when we arrive, and I will assist him upstairs," Ishikawa Mayu said to the driver calmly.

The driver nodded, said nothing more, and started the car.

Ishikawa Mayu watched the taxi slowly drive into the traffic before getting back on his motorcycle. The two motorcycles, one in front of the other, passed through the brightly lit main road and gradually entered an area where the light was getting dimmer and the buildings were obviously old.

Finally, the taxi stopped in front of an old-looking apartment building. The mottled exterior walls and rusted railings looked particularly desolate under the dim streetlights.

Ishikawa Mayu paid the fare and then laboriously helped Toyokawa Kiyoshi, who was almost completely unconscious, out of the back seat.

The middle-aged man carried most of his weight on his slightly thin shoulders, making each step up the stairs particularly difficult. The stairwell of the old apartment building was narrow and dimly lit, with motion-activated lights flickering on and off with their footsteps, and the air was filled with a damp and dusty smell.

Having finally reached the floor he remembered, Ishikawa Mayu, slightly out of breath, leaned Kiyoko against the weathered wall for support. Just as he was about to reach into Kiyoko's pocket to search for the key—

A soft yet clear sound of footsteps came from downstairs, gradually approaching.

Ishikawa Mayu subconsciously turned her head to look at the stairwell.

The footsteps paused for a moment at the corner, and then a familiar figure appeared in the dim light.

It's Toyokawa Shoko.

She was still wearing her school uniform from Haneoka, with a slightly thin coat over it. Her face showed signs of fatigue from a long day, and she was carrying something that looked like a convenience store plastic bag, which seemed to contain some cooked food.

When she looked up and saw the scene at her doorstep, she froze in place.

Her amber eyes suddenly narrowed in the dim light, clearly reflecting her unconscious, drunken father leaning against the wall, and Ishikawa Maho, who was supporting him and was also somewhat stunned by her appearance.

Shock, embarrassment, and a hint of barely perceptible panic were quickly replaced by a layer of icy indifference. Her fingers, holding the plastic bag, unconsciously tightened, her knuckles turning slightly white.

The faulty light bulb in the hallway was still making a faint buzzing sound.

As Ishikawa Mayu watched the fleeting changes in her expression, his throat tightened. He wanted to say something, such as "I just happened to run into him" or "He was passed out drunk on the roadside," but any explanation seemed pale and superfluous at this moment, only highlighting the suffocating embarrassment before him.

In the end, it was Xiangzi who first looked away. She didn't look at him, nor at her father; her gaze was lowered, fixed on the dirty cement steps beneath her feet. Silently, she walked up the remaining steps, her footsteps sounding particularly heavy in the quiet stairwell.

She walked to the door, took out her key from her pocket, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.

"Click".

The door opened, and a sour, rancid smell that was familiar to Shinba wafted out from inside.

Xiangzi didn't go in immediately, nor did he turn around. He simply stood with his back to them, his voice low and hoarse, devoid of any emotion, as if he were merely stating a fact unrelated to himself:

"...Come in."

Chapter Sixty-Eight Of course I remember

Ishikawa Mayu helped Toyokawa Kiyoko into the apartment.

The door closed behind me, shutting out the faint light from the hallway.

The air inside was even heavier than in the hallway, and a sour smell mixed with cheap alcohol and rotten food hit you.

Compared to the last time he remembered coming here, the scene before him was chaotic and desolate, with the items arranged out of order, as if the owner was no longer able to maintain even the most basic dignity.

The faint warmth of "home" that he and Xiangzi had worked so hard to maintain seemed to have completely dissipated, replaced by the mess before him and the atmosphere of despair permeating the air.

Xiangzi didn't turn on the main lights, but only turned on a dim wall lamp in the entryway.

She silently walked to the sofa, quickly folded the few coats and blankets scattered on it, and placed them on the chair next to her. Her movements were swift but lifeless, as if she were completing a tedious task.

Ishikawa Mayu understood and carefully placed Toyokawa Kiyotaka, who was leaning almost entirely against him, on the vacated sofa.

As soon as Toyokawa Kiyotaka touched the soft cushion, he uttered a muffled murmur before quickly falling back into a deep sleep.

After doing all this, the two stood by the sofa, silent for a moment. The dim light outlined Xiangzi's tense profile; she lowered her eyes, refusing to meet his gaze.

This guy is as awkward as ever.

Ishikawa Mayu sighed. He didn't say anything more, nor did he look at Xiangzi's expression. He simply turned around naturally, walked to the window, rolled up the sleeves of his school uniform shirt, and pushed the tightly closed window open a crack.

A cool night breeze carried the faint sounds of the outside world into the room, slightly stirring the stagnant and stuffy air.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he turned his head and asked in an extremely ordinary tone, "Where did you put the big garbage bag?"

“Under the kitchen sink…” Toyokawa Shoko answered instinctively.

However, before the words had even finished, Ishikawa Mayu had already walked towards the kitchen, precisely opened the cabinet door, took out a rolled-up large black garbage bag, and skillfully unwrapped it.

Even without Xiangzi answering, he knew where he was.

Shoko Toyokawa stood there, watching his busy figure in the dim light, her lips pressed even tighter.

She seemed to want to say something, perhaps "It's none of your business" or "Get out," but those sharp words lingered in her throat, and in the end, she couldn't bring herself to say them.

Ishikawa Mayu had already begun efficiently tidying up the empty cans and miscellaneous items on the coffee table, her movements swift and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

When he finished tidying up and reached Xiangzi's vicinity, he saw her still standing frozen in place, so he naturally nudged her lightly with his elbow, his tone carrying a familiar, unquestionable urging:

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and help me pack up."

Xiangzi was taken aback by his matter-of-fact attitude and instinctively wanted to retort, his voice hardening: "...Who asked you to give orders?"

Even so, her body seemed to have its own memory, and she automatically walked to the dining table, picked up another trash bag, and began to clean up the convenience store packaging and empty beverage bottles scattered on it.

The movements were a little stiff at first, but they quickly became smooth.

The two stood a few steps apart, no longer speaking, but tacitly dividing up the areas—Zhenyu took care of the area around the sofa and coffee table, while Xiangzi was in charge of the dining table and the kitchen entrance. He emptied an ashtray, and she handed him a damp cloth; she finished wiping the dining table, and he conveniently piled the sorted empty bottles by the door.

In the dim light, only the faint sounds of tidying up and each other's breathing could be heard.

The habits formed from struggling to make a living together in this cramped space have quietly revived at this moment. Without words, a single action or glance is enough to understand what the other is going to do next.

When the last empty bottle was put into the trash bag, Ishikawa Mayu skillfully tied a knot at the top of the bag and placed it by the door.

He straightened up and looked around.

Although the furniture is still old and the space is still small, the suffocating sense of mess and decay has dissipated, replaced by an atmosphere that, while poor, is at least clean and orderly.

The night wind outside the window kept pouring in, carrying away the last trace of the stale smell.

Ishikawa Mayu raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, then looked back at Shoko.

She was facing away from him, wringing out the rag by the sink and hanging it up.

His back remained straight, but it was no longer as stiff as a fully drawn bowstring as before.

A soft rumbling sound was particularly clear in the quiet room. Xiangzi's face flushed slightly, but fortunately, she was facing away from Ishikawa Mayu and couldn't see her expression.

Have you had dinner yet?

Shoko Toyokawa didn't really want to answer his self-righteous concern, but her gaze still quickly swept over a corner of the dining table—the transparent plastic bag with the convenience store logo that she had casually placed there when she got home.

Ishikawa Mayu followed her gaze and saw the bag.

"Is it the half-price prepared food that the convenience store only offers on Tuesdays?"

Xiangzi abruptly looked up at him, his pale amber eyes clearly reflecting his image, filled with undisguised surprise, even forgetting to maintain his previous indifference. "...You remember?"

"Of course I remember." His tone was matter-of-fact, even with a hint of surprise at her. "Didn't you put on a stern face and specifically mark it on the household budget, repeatedly telling me, 'You must go after 8 pm on Tuesday nights, it will save you a lot of money'?"

He imitated Xiangzi's serious and stubborn tone, like that of a little teacher, though he didn't quite get it right.

Toyokawa Shoko stared intently at Ishikawa Mayu, taking a small step forward and uttering each word with a sharp, resonant force in the quiet air:

"Then tell me, Ishikawa Mayu."

"Since you remember everything..."

"—Why did you say 'we don't need this' back then?"

Her voice trembled slightly, not with grievance, but more like a question that she had long been unable to understand or let go of.

The household account book, which she once treasured and which contained all the wisdom they had gained in their struggles, was so easily dismissed by him, as if it were an old object that was no longer needed.

The feeling at that moment was far more painful for her than the later estrangement and moving away.

The slight relief on Ishikawa Mayu's face vanished instantly, leaving her momentarily bewildered.

He vaguely remembered saying something similar, but the specific context and reason were now blurred in his memory.

"Because...at that time...my situation was a little better, and I had some income from live streaming...I thought, at least...at least I don't have to let you save that little bit of money for me anymore."

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Getting Back on Track

He paused, his gaze shifting slightly, as if recalling the scene. "I always see you looking tired... You have to work, worry about the family, and... take care of me. I think if I could manage on my own, you might have an easier time."

—That way, we might run into each other a few more times in the hallway.

The thought flashed through my naive mind at the time, but now, looking back, it only brings a faint bitterness.

At that time, he did not understand that once some distances are created, they cannot be shortened by deliberately creating chance encounters.

But at the time, he did indeed harbor such clumsy expectations.

After he finished speaking, looking at Xiangzi's still tense face and those eyes staring intently at him, a belated thought, like a bubble slowly rising to the surface of water, made him somewhat dazed.

He belatedly and uncertainly added in a low voice, as if asking himself:

"...Was that why you were angry?"

These words were like a fine needle, gently piercing the thorny shell that Xiangzi had been forcing himself to maintain.

Her usually taut shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. She abruptly turned her face away, not wanting him to see her momentarily out of control, her voice strained as if squeezed from her throat, tinged with suppressed sobs:

"Otherwise what...!"

"I wrote down... I wrote down everything I could think of that could help you... I even... I even added new content because I was afraid you might encounter difficulties in the future..."

Her voice grew softer and softer, thick with a nasal tone. Those deliberately forgotten, clumsy yet sincere feelings surged up at this moment, mixed with the grievance of being slighted and the loneliness she had long endured.

"But you...you didn't even look at it...and you said it's not needed..."

Ishikawa Mayu stared blankly at her slightly trembling back, listening to her tearful accusations, his heart felt as if it had been clenched tightly by something. He had always thought that she was angry because of his estrangement and his departure, but he never thought that the initial rift stemmed from his unintentional denial of the most genuine care she had carefully offered.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that any words seemed inadequate at this moment.

He walked forward silently, without trying to touch her. He simply picked up the plastic bag with the convenience store logo on it from the table, went to the kitchen, found a small plate, carefully unwrapped the somewhat shriveled Tuesday special rice ball, and placed it on the plate.

Then, he picked up the electric kettle, filled it with water, and pressed the switch. The familiar humming sound filled the quiet room.

He carried the plate to Xiangzi, who was still facing away from him, and gently placed the plate on the dining table beside her.

"Eat something first." His voice was soft, with a rare, almost clumsy tenderness.

Xiangzi neither turned around nor moved.

The electric kettle stopped humming and made a soft "click" sound.

Ishikawa Mayu walked over, poured a glass of warm water, walked back, and placed it next to the saucer.