Uneasy daily life

……

Living together can present many problems, but the biggest one is probably taking a shower.

Mai Sakurajima confirmed that the white shadow was in seclusion in the guest room, with occasional keyboard sounds. She pretended to be calm but was actually quite agitated. After taking a shower and changing into her pajamas, she could still see the guest room lights and hear the occasional keyboard sounds.

They're not children anymore, why should they care about these things?

Mai Sakurajima returned to her bedroom, checked the time and saw that it was still quite early. She turned off the light and went to bed, but she couldn't fall asleep no matter what she did.

Mom... no matter what choice she makes, she faces different difficulties.

Mai Sakurajima rolled over.

Puberty syndrome—why did this inexplicable thing happen to me? No, thinking about this is useless. If it really is related to mindset, then I have to face it and solve it.

Mai Sakurajima rolled over.

Can it be solved? There are too many unsolvable things in the world, and what I'm facing might just be one of them... Will I disappear? Will the world forget me? What will I be like after I disappear, after I'm forgotten?

The surroundings quieted down, but sorrow remained a constant source of noise.

No!

Mai Sakurajima turned on the light, sat up in bed, and rubbed her forehead.

She thought about it for a moment, then picked up her pillow, left the bedroom, and turned the light off again.

Bang bang bang.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: God Rolls the Dice

crunch.

The door opened a crack, and a white figure with slightly disheveled hair peeked out, asking warily, "Hero Plus, what brings you here?!"

Feeling a bit down and want to chat? Worried about puberty syndrome and want some reassurance? Discussing your choices in handling family matters and trying to get some firm opinions? Taking advantage of being the owner of the property, wanting to go wherever I want?

Sakurajima Mai hugged her pillow and filtered through the possible answers, then, a little too lazy to think, she went straight to the point: "Open the door, I want to come in."

Make the gap in the door smaller.

A white figure pressed against the crack in the door and said in a low voice, "Seriously? It's only the first day, and you're already in a hurry to collect rent? When other people do something bad, they at least come up with some nonsense to excuse themselves, putting on an act to fool as many people as they can. You don't even want to put on an act!"

Mai Sakurajima didn't answer; she wasn't in the mood for small talk. She simply hugged her pillow and squeezed through the door.

Not moving.

"It's late, young lady, please leave." The white figure said seriously, "It's pitch black, a man and a woman alone in a room, it's inappropriate. You and I are just landlord and tenant—or are you perhaps the cockroach I saved when I was a child who has come to life?"

“Cockroaches…” Mai Sakurajima’s eyes twitched slightly. “In a normal story, shouldn’t it be some kind of spirit, like a fox, a crane, or a snake?”

"Everything has a spirit, so can't cockroaches, rats, earthworms, flies, and mosquitoes become spirits?"

Sakurajima Mai forced a smile: "Then what kind of spirit are you?"

"Hold on."

Bai Ying controlled the door with one hand and tapped her phone with the other, confirming, "According to the current mainstream of biological research, if I go back millions of years, I should be an ape that has become a spirit. If we go back even further to when the Earth was in a super-large ocean environment, I would be a fish that has become a spirit—or rather, a placoderm."

"You could be a flea that has become a spirit." Mai Sakurajima pushed open the door and urged, "Let me in."

"Want to come in? Answer a few questions first!"

Bai Ying adjusted her voice with "uh-huhs" and "ah-ahs": "What is it that you can't see completely with your eyes open, can't see clearly with your eyes closed, and that others can't see..."

With one foot wedged through the crack in the door, Mai Sakurajima opted for a swift and forceful solution, smiling faintly, "Hater, are you sure you can keep wasting your time here with me? Is your job really okay?"

The answer is yourself.

Bai Ying stepped aside, returned to her desk, and continued staring at the blank screen. She casually remarked, "There's a bed over there. Don't leave your body odor on it. Don't worry when you close your eyes; I certainly won't draw a turtle on your smooth face with a pen..."

Mai Sakurajima simply rolled her eyes at his heartfelt advice. She casually closed the door, hugged her pillow, lay down on the bed, slowly closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then remained motionless. She could faintly hear various sounds around her, like a piece of music.

The keyboard was being violently pounded, the short, tight sounds like raindrops hitting banana leaves, followed by heavy, even long notes. It was as if you could see the index finger pressing the backspace key repeatedly, numbly deleting, scratching its head and occasionally letting out a strange, cackling laugh, fingers digging into its hair and occasionally emitting a mournful cry as if it were being squeezed in its throat...

The surroundings became lively, so lively it was almost hysterical, yet also reassuring; a sense of tranquility emerged from the hustle and bustle.

Mai Sakurajima rolled over and lay on her back on the bed. Looking at the ceiling, she ordered, "Black Fan, tell me something cheerful."

Beside the bed, a white figure on a chair faced the computer screen and laughed loudly in a monotone tone, "Hahahaha! I've finished writing my lyrics!"

"That's a good joke."

Sakurajima Mai smiled and made a comment. She shifted her position on the bed and stuck her toes out to tap the back of the chair: "Let's talk about something happier."

The person sitting in the chair leaned to one side, propped his face up, and sighed softly, "Nine out of ten sentences I wrote were wasted."

"It would be great if you could finish the work once you wrote a thousand sentences."

Mai Sakurajima calmly retorted, pushing the wheelchair forward slightly with her toes.

"Stop bothering me!" Bai Ying stomped her foot and pushed the chair back, annoyed. "Don't disturb me when I'm working, playing games, or sleeping!"

“Ha—” Sakurajima Mai sighed and focused intently on 'finding fault', “Then shall I disturb you? It’s an honor for you, junior, to be found fault with by your senior.”

I feel like I'm behaving like a primary school student right now...

Mai Sakurajima internally criticized herself.

The wheelchair spun back and forth as the two struggled. Suddenly, the white figure stood up from the chair and moved aside. Sakurajima Mai pushed the wheelchair with her toe, and it slid under the desk.

The white figure's tense face was shrouded in shadow as he slowly turned and looked down at Sakurajima Mai on the bed.

"……cough."

Mai Sakurajima pulled her foot back from the edge of the bed and coughed lightly to cover her embarrassment.

"Since you're so empty, lonely, and cold, let me give you a good boost of motivation!"

Bai Ying angrily rolled up her sleeves, frowning as she stared at her bare feet: "Where are your stockings?"

"Who sleeps wearing socks?" Mai Sakurajima asked curiously. "Why are you asking that?"

"We'll put a stocking over your head and take you hostage to rob a bank!"

"That must be a piece of clothing over your head!"

Bai Ying gasped in shock, exclaiming, "You have such a heavy taste!"

puff--!

A pillow flew over and smeared on the white figure's face.

Mai Sakurajima gave a light hum: "Is your way of comforting people also so flavorful?"

Bai Ying frowned: "You have a smell?"

"..." Sakurajima Mai took a deep breath. "Speak seriously!"

How to get back up after life's beatings—the answer is to let life beat you up again!

Bai Ying shook her head and sighed, "Hero Plus, it's not just your acting skills, your mental fortitude is also this weak? If you keep going like this, you'll only be called Hero Rare..."

"My acting skills should be pretty good, right?"

Mai Sakurajima propped herself up and sat up, resting her left knee against her chin.

"Oh? Then let's have a real training session!"

Bai Ying turned the chair around and sat down with an air of authority: "Same old rules as before, this time there are only two characters, a poet and a farmer. The setting doesn't matter, and you can improvise the plot!"

“That’s good.” Mai Sakurajima nodded, speaking first with a pointed remark, “I’m enjoying the shade under the tree, feeling relaxed and comfortable. You’re also enjoying the shade under the tree, so why are you looking so gloomy?”

……

……

On a summer day at noon, the ancient trees cast a shady glow.

"I'm thinking of poetry," the poet Gu said confidently, shaking his head. "I'm going to create a masterpiece that will last for a thousand years."

“I once attended a private school for half a day, and the teacher praised me for being very bright.” The farmer, resting in the shade, shook his head upon hearing this and said, “I don’t think you can do it.”

The poet scoffed, "How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? How can a skinny donkey travel a thousand miles?"

"All talk and no action is useless." The farmer got excited and said, "You pedantic scholar, tell me your poems. If you want them to be masterpieces for all time, you're not afraid to let me taste them, are you?"

"Then listen carefully... This sentence describes the battlefield and the ambition to serve one's country."

The poet shook his head and said, "A silver spear drives away bandits, and the nation's prestige rises with each passing day."

Have you ever been to the battlefield?

"No."

Have you ever served your country?

"No chance."

The poet argued, "But I can imagine! Whether I've experienced it or not is unimportant; as long as the emotions and imagination are there, the poem will come out!"

"It's fake and pretentious, laced with sourness and stench," the farmer sneered. "Your method of composing poetry by thinking about emotions is completely unacceptable."

"Don't rush! I have more! Yes, I'm being sentimental, I'm using sorrow and sadness to express my feelings..."

The poet, somewhat anxious, coughed and recited with a sorrowful expression: "Two red leaves drift away in the autumn wind, a pool of hidden resentment arises in my heart."

The farmer waved his hand, saying, "It's sour, unbearably sour!"

"You scoundrel—cough cough! I mean you old...old bastard! I have more! This line describes using an object to express feelings, describing longing!"

The poet rose, paced back and forth, sighed, and recited: "Every river flows to the vast sea, every inch of longing is engraved to my mother."

What is Qi Mu?

"The Waiting-for-Husband Stone is an ancient myth about Yu the Great's wife, Tushan, who gave birth to Qi and turned into stone. You don't even know this? How vulgar."

The farmer nodded and asked, "So, do you have a wife?"

"not yet."

"Then you must have someone you like, right?"

"..."

The farmer pointed and said, "This poetry sounds like a lie."

The poet blushed, veins bulging on his forehead, and argued, "Writing poetry cannot be considered lying... Writing poetry!... How can the affairs of a scholar be considered lying?"

Then came a string of incomprehensible words, such as "tone and rhyme" and "poetic sentiment," which made the farmers burst into laughter: the air under the ancient tree was filled with joy.

"I don't know much about writing poetry, but it seems that you, who do know a lot about writing poetry, don't know much either."

The farmer, seizing the opportunity, continued his eloquent speech: "Your emotions, which you create by imagining and then burying your head in them, are utterly meaningless. They're just wishful thinking, nothing poetic, nothing but affectation."

"Empathy is also a form of emotion; people are inherently emotional. The fact that you're pointing fingers at me here, unlike before when you were only concerned with shielding yourself from the sun, isn't that also a change in your emotions?"

The poet seemed to be struck by inspiration, and calmly recited a line of poetry.

"When old and young chat about trivial matters in the shade, it is a poem without words in the human world."

……

……

"I feel much better now. The hater is really good at making people happy."

Sakurajima Mai picked up her pillow, feeling relaxed, and left the room.

Bai Ying shouted arrogantly, "If you don't make a comeback with your acting skills, you'll only be able to act with your face!"

"understood."

A perfunctory reply drifted down the corridor.

Hmph, you don't have time to feel empty, lonely, or cold anymore, do you?

Hmm? I think I forgot something?

Bai Ying put the pillow back in its original place. As she pondered, she noticed a pinkish-purple aura emanating from her body.

Killer Queen peeked out from the side, her head shattered, a pair of cat eyes with cracks staring silently.