Uneasy daily life

Saying you're taking leave doesn't mean you're still writing, but the mindset is different—if you're not taking leave, you're writing for tomorrow's update; if you're taking leave, you're writing for the day after tomorrow's update!

Furthermore, something quite absurd is that while my whole family has recovered from COVID-19, I haven't. It's really stressful, as I'm constantly worried about potential long-term effects like memory loss or other brain fog. I've basically decided not to go back to my hometown for the Lunar New Year; I'll just stay home and relax.

The following is a piece of dark history that was barely unearthed; please bear witness.

[It must have been in junior high, since the game *The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4* was released in 2007, around that time. Even though I was in junior high, I was still really interested in a girl from elementary school. I had her QQ account. Around that time, I accidentally played *The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4*, and suddenly became very sentimental (perhaps a bit childish?). One day, in a moment of emotional turmoil, I started chatting with her on QQ like a madman… I don't know what I was thinking back then. Maybe my aesthetic sense and logical abilities were terrible as a junior high student. I thought Murong Ziying liked Liu Mengli, and that they were a couple (did handsome men and beautiful women bewitch my brain? Or maybe I just liked the elegant type?)]

I can't quite recall the specifics of the chat, but it was roughly about an overly enthusiastic and self-important teenager abruptly expressing his feelings to a completely bewildered female classmate on QQ. I still remember saying something utterly outrageous...

I identified myself as Murong Ziying, and she as Liu Mengli.

Ahhhhh, tutoring fees determine the winner and property tax!

I traveled in a time machine and killed myself!

I'm devastated! I need to take leave! Goodbye!

Chapter One: Praising Mai Sakurajima

The atmosphere was unusually strange.

I want to speak out loud, to curse and rebuke that traitor, to advise the little goddess to wake up, to list his crimes, to point fingers and condemn him, to nail his name to the pillar of shame, so that in the future, anyone who thinks of that name will feel both amusement and disgust!

Yukinoshita's father had a lot to say, but he couldn't bring himself to say it, because he was just lounging around in the living room waiting for dinner. He dared to barge into the kitchen and chatter on and on, and the goddess dared to make him cook and then make him eat what she made.

knight: "Meow~"

Yukinoshita's father glanced at the little white cat on the sofa, his gaze unusually cold, his mindset completely different now.

The little goddess loves cats, and I love cats too. This is the little goddess's cat; it's adorable. (×)

The witness, the facilitator, and even a sentinel left behind by the "big threat plus" (a term used to describe someone who is deeply troubled by another relationship) to living together with the "little goddess" (another term used to describe someone who is deeply troubled by another relationship)! How hateful! (√)

Every time I see a cat, I think of you, right?

The person left, but the cat stayed; it must be trying to manipulate the little goddess!

Ha! This kind of scheming might fool the little goddess, but it might fool me!

The more Yukinoshita's father thought about it, the angrier he became, and he reached out his evil hand towards the little white cat.

In the kitchen, Yukino Yukinoshita was preparing dinner with her mother, her mind racing with thoughts, only to be quickly dismissed. She felt a strong urge to say something, yet didn't know what to say… It wasn't about how many people knew about her living with Shirokage, but rather how many didn't!

Let's wait for my mother to bring up the topic before speaking up.

Under the snow, the mother rolled up her sleeves, tied them tightly, put on her apron, and skillfully prepared dinner.

She didn't think too much about it.

After a while, the meal was almost ready. Yukino Yukinoshita left the kitchen, a little puzzled. When she saw the scene in the living room, her eyes lit up with a strange look: "Father, what are you doing?"

"Meow~"

The kitten was put in a garbage bag, with only its head sticking out, and rolled around in the snow as its father played with it.

"A cat's future needs to be nurtured from a young age, giving it a head start," Yukinoshita's father said with a gentle smile. "I'm teaching it how to survive in the future."

How can I be thrown out of my house like trash?

Yukino Yukinoshita rubbed her temples and asked gently, "I didn't expect Father to do the same thing as Haku-kun... How old are you this year?"

"Hmm? What do you mean by that, Yukino?"

"Bai Jun usually likes to mess with Knight like this, he's quite afraid of cats."

Yukinoshita's father was taken aback for a moment, then reached out and immediately freed the kitten from the trash bag. He patted the kitten's forehead and praised, "Not bad, not bad at all! You live up to the name of a knight, a truly excellent cat! I'll reward you with some dried fish later!"

Knight unleashed a barrage of slapping punches at this treacherous villain who had been arrogant at first but then obsequious.

"I'll keep cats at home from now on! A hundred of them!" Yukinoshita's father thought with a sinister smile.

"My father is gradually revealing his true nature; he's neither steady nor reliable," Yukino Yukinoshita thought.

"Bring the dishes."

A military order came from the kitchen, and Yukinoshita's father immediately pushed Knight aside, stood up, and strode forward with a powerful stride.

At the dinner table, unlike the quiet and silent family dinners we used to share in our old house, where the focus was solely on replenishing our physical energy, the most anticipated moment wasn't which dish was being served, but rather when dinner would end. Perhaps due to this different mindset, eating with family was no longer a suppressed silence; we could actively savor the flavors of the food, rather than simply eating out of bodily instinct.

My mother's cooking skills are amazing, I feel like she's even better than me?

Yukino Yukinoshita muttered to herself, and seeing that her mother had no intention of speaking, she could only take the initiative to ask, "Mother, you said you knew the reason for the matter on the first day. What exactly happened?"

The middle-aged man, who was praising his wife and daughter's cooking skills, slowly sat up straight.

Yukino's mother put down her chopsticks for a moment and said, "He must have gotten my private phone number from the teacher and pretended to be Yukino's stalker classmate to call me and say that you went upstairs with a boy and haven't come down for a long time."

This is even more outrageous than I imagined! What was the point of all that anxiety, agonizing over it, and internal struggle all those days? That guy must have been laughing at me, right? He must have been secretly gloating over his own misfortune!

Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help but bite her lower molars.

"Absurd!" Yukinoshita's father exclaimed sharply. "A fraudulent act of deception!"

“It was definitely a lie, but now that I think about it…” Yukino’s mother said uncertainly, “Was it perhaps a test of my opinion of Yukino? In a way that made me feel the situation was dangerous.”

Yukinoshita's father: "Insidious! Bad people see everyone as bad!"

Yukino Yukinoshita asked疑惑地, "What happened next? Why didn't Mother talk to me directly that day?"

Yukinoshita's mother said helplessly, "Because when I rushed over, he pretended to be a very steady young man and tricked me into coming over. We talked for a long time before he finally revealed everything using that stalker's voice. In my emotional ups and downs, I didn't care about him lying to me... It's better for my daughter to live with a reliable person temporarily than for her to be targeted by a dangerous stalker. At that time, I was thinking of coming to see you when the cohabitation ended and then talking to you about your inappropriate behavior."

Yukino Yukinoshita remained silent for a few moments before saying, "No wonder my mother has been calling so frequently since we started living together..."

That day, my mother was infected with the white fungus.

Yukinoshita's mother: "Ahem... It's mainly because after thinking about it, I paid more attention to your condition, and there were also some thoughts of giving you a warning and reminder."

“Yukino, I know that for various reasons you value your friends and are willing to help them wholeheartedly,” Yukino’s father said earnestly. “But don’t do that in the future. You need to learn to love yourself and not sacrifice yourself casually. Even if you didn’t dare to tell your mother before, you could have just asked me for help. It wouldn’t have been difficult to find a rental apartment for you.”

Underpasses, dog kennels, houses considered unlucky because someone has died there, and rental houses outside the county—these are all perfect places for your nemesis plus!

"I have reflected on this, in every sense of the word."

Yukino Yukinoshita's tone was complicated. It was the kind of situation where she carefully kept it a secret, but the whole world knew. And the situation where she could talk to anyone and her mind would explode like fireworks... Ultimately, it was because she was too reckless that she gave Haku-kun the opportunity to create an experience that was like a scene from a hellish scroll.

Yukinoshita's mother asked, "So Shirokage has already moved away?"

Yukino Yukinoshita said in a muffled voice, "He probably packed up and took everything with him when he left for the school trip."

Yukino's father snorted, "He's smart enough not to stay here and bother Yukino any longer."

"..."

Yukino Yukinoshita looked down at the empty bowl and said in a weak but clear voice, "If he wants to continue living here, I'm not unwilling to agree."

Silence enveloped the dining table.

The father froze beneath the snow, as if under Medusa's gaze, slowly turning into a stone statue.

This must be a hallucination! I'm having a nightmare! It's fake! It's all fake! Hahahaha—!

"...My experience may not be of much help to you in this regard." Yukino's mother sighed softly, saying with a mixture of relief and helplessness, "Your father's and my experiences probably won't be of much reference value to you... Yukino, do you remember the request I made before?"

Yukino Yukinoshita nodded slightly with her head lowered, unable to make a sound for a moment.

"Don't indulge yourself. Negative emotions or seemingly beautiful ones, any indulgence based on them will rarely lead to the right result," Yukinoshita's mother said slowly. "You can refute, deny, or refuse what I say, but there are some things I still have to tell you, I must tell you... You can take the initiative and act quickly, but you must rationally and calmly confirm that he has the same feelings for you. You must clearly and truly feel that his feelings refer to your feelings and nothing else."

"During my student days, I witnessed the failures of many people. Those who are obsessed with burning passion often end up in silent ashes; those who crave material benefits will inevitably be separated by conflicts of interest; and those who are attracted to outward beauty will always find more beautiful flowers."

Yukinoshita's mother said in a deep voice, "To put it bluntly, as your mother, I will not provide you with any material assistance in this matter, and I might even go against your wishes. And you absolutely cannot say you're living together while secretly thinking you're sharing a bed..."

*Poof!* The father's body cracked open beneath the snow.

"Mother!" Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes widened in shame and indignation. "What are you thinking?!"

Yukinoshita's mother said matter-of-factly, "I'm using my experience to set the bottom line for you."

"I disagree!" Yukinoshita's father broke free from his petrification and retorted loudly, "That boy is treacherous and cunning, definitely not a good person, he looks like a villain!"

"You were much more outrageous when you were young."

Yukino's mother frowned and said, "Do you think that just because you've achieved something now, you can separate your younger self from your present self? Yukino, your father is exactly like I described. When we first got together in college, he was obsessed with those trivial things between men and women, and he went to great lengths to scheme about them. It was ridiculous."

"I beat him up so many times, and it took a lot of effort to get him back on track. Come to think of it, he even secretly..."

Yukinoshita's father abruptly interrupted with a wail: "Ughh ...

Yukino Yukinoshita was startled and also a little curious... What's wrong with her father?

"Oh, now you know how to be embarrassed?"

Yukino's mother pointed to a negative example and said, "Do you understand, Yukino? If you don't want things to get worse, remember to stay calm."

"Ah."

Yukino Yukinoshita had never felt her mother was so reliable and right in her entire life.

After dinner, Yukinoshita's mother prepared to leave with her husband, who was almost completely burned out.

Yukino Yukinoshita delivered it to the door.

Yukino's father, who was on the verge of turning to ashes, stubbornly revived, grabbed his daughter's hand, and said earnestly, "Yukino, you must remember this! Don't calculate gains and losses in your feelings, and don't use yourself or anything else as a bargaining chip to exchange for anything! Otherwise, you're just doing business! Business and feelings can be discussed, but you can't discuss them together!"

Yukino Yukinoshita paused for a moment, then said subtly, "I thought Father would shout that he would perish together with Haku-kun."

"I'm going to die with that kid! Honey! Where's the knife?!"

"Don't embarrass me in public."

"I swear on my life experience! That kid is definitely not normal! He's abnormal in every sense of the word! As parents, we should take the initiative to investigate him! Yukino should also think about this calmly!"

"You weren't exactly normal back then either."

Yukino Yukinoshita breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door.

Father and Mother have come a long way to get to where they are today...

Contact Bai Jun on your phone.

We need to connect in every sense of the word!

[Under the snow: White fungus, emerge.]

[Bai Liang Bai Ying: Busy. Write down what you want to express, what you want to highlight, and what you want to embody in the style of a thesis, and submit it to me. It must be logically sound, at least 3,000 words, and include at least ten key points. Those who don't write well will not be allowed to participate in the defense.]

[Yukinoshita: What are you busy with? Filming? Memorizing lines? The director thinks the script isn't good enough and wants you to revise it again?]

[Bai Liang Bai Ying: Praising Mai Sakurajima.]

[Yukinoshita: ?]

I'm not calm...

Because when facing this guy, it's impossible to stay calm in any sense!

Chapter Two: The Two-Faced Man

Mai Sakurajima Fan Club

[Bai Liang Bai Ying: Today, I used my school trip report to criticize idol worship, but I never expected that Mai Sakurajima would actually fight me to a standstill. What a disgrace!]

[Crow: Prime Minister Dong has won another great victory for our army.]

[Crow: Wait a minute... today's false intelligence reporting segment ended in a draw?]

[Bai Liang and Bai Ying: It's just a strategic 50/50 split.]

[Bai Liang Bai Ying: @Xiao Ma Zi, Mai Sakurajima is quite dissatisfied with some overzealous fans and has her own insights into the relationship between idols and fans.]

[Little Ma Zi: @What do you mean? Putting aside the fact that a crazy person like you can be an administrator, I'm a rational fan! I believe that admiring and praising an outstanding person is perfectly correct and there's nothing wrong with it! Sakurajima-san is exactly that kind of person!]

[Insomnia: I think you're being quite irrational.]

[Little Pockmarked Boy: I'm very rational.]

[Bai Liang Bai Ying: After today's debate, it seems that Sakurajima Mai has some merit.]

[Wooden Fish: Did I join the wrong group?]

[Crow: Has Prime Minister Dong woken up?]