Uneasy daily life

Yukino Yukinoshita pondered for a moment, then casually made up a story: "With her sister's help, the family problems were finally resolved. After persuading her mother, and considering that the family's financial difficulties had been resolved and the relationships between relatives were slowly being repaired, rather than evolving into a result filled with feelings of guilt, indebtedness, or self-centeredness, Mai Sakurajima felt that she no longer needed to be a star, so she retired from the entertainment industry."

"She was preparing to take the entrance exams seriously. After being freed from her mother's control, she felt lost and confused, unable to find any direction. To solve this problem, Mai Sakurajima transferred from Minegahara High School to Sobu High School to study for the entrance exams. Her determination to get into university gave her tremendous strength and courage, allowing her to struggle out of the quagmire of confusion and find a new path that belonged to her."

Since we're going to mend things anyway, we might as well patch up our own things and make do with them.

Unfortunately, as a story, there wasn't time to delve into foreshadowing, plot twists, and conflicts; I could only provide a standard, conventional description.

"Next person."

Yukino Yukinoshita shifted the narrative.

"Hmm... Sakurajima Mai..."

Sakuta Azusagawa glanced at Mai Sakurajima, who was sitting next to the white figure and seemed indifferent to the situation, and then at Yukino Yukinoshita.

I understand.

Haku wanted to test whether Yukino Yukinoshita could remember Mai Sakurajima. Before that, he needed to correct Yukinoshita's cognitive errors. Haku was really fearless; no matter how big the original pile of firewood was, he insisted on pouring in several more buckets of oil and then setting it on fire.

After carefully considering his words, he said, "Through studying, reading, and striving for improvement, Mai Sakurajima worked diligently at Soubu High School and achieved remarkable results, attracting even more praise from others. Her spirit, which could not be crushed by difficulties and hardships, was easily melted by superficial flattery and praise. Mai Sakurajima's personality became arrogant and conceited. However, this good fortune did not last long. After a while, the teachers and classmates around her began to praise another person—her older sister."

"People thought that although Sakurajima Mai was excellent, she could not compare to her sister's achievements. Sakurajima Mai was quite dissatisfied with this, so she asked her teacher about it."

Faced with the student's unconvinced question, I said earnestly: "Your sister is indeed more outstanding than you. For example, she does not waste her time on the gossip of others. If you think you are more outstanding but have not received praise, and come to ask for my opinion and ask what I think, this already proves that you are not as outstanding as you think."

"After being rejected by her teacher, Mai Sakurajima did not realize her mistake; instead, she became even more persistent. She carefully observed her older sister's every move and word, trying to imitate her in order to gain praise and evaluation from others."

“She imitated it very well.”

"Sakurajima Mai's reputation gradually rose, and amidst the praise from everyone, Sakurajima Mai gradually assumed that all the praise was for her. Later, she realized that the praise was simply for her resemblance to her older sister—people praised her for being worthy of being her sister's younger sister."

Sakurajima Mai realized she had misunderstood.

Sakuta Azusagawa gestured, "Next, it's Shoko's turn."

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at the white figure—"You told others about my family's affairs?"

Bai Ying returned a seemingly serious gaze. Yukino Yukinoshita slightly turned her head to look at Makinohara Shoko. Given Bai Jun's personality... not only is it impossible, he might even use it as creative material to write a play, which would be sung everywhere, giving people a sense of social death.

"Uh-huh……"

As a primary school student, Makinohara Shoko racked her brains, recalling some story scenes she had read. After a moment of preparation, she said in her childish voice, "One day, Sakurajima Mai confided her troubles to her older sister. Since the two looked very similar in appearance and age, her older sister suggested that they switch identities and pretend to experience each other's lives."

"Sakurajima Mai realized that her older sister's life was not easy. Others only saw her glamorous side and could not understand her sister's pain and hardship. As the younger sister, she should have understood this, but instead of envying and being jealous of other people's praise, she did not encourage her sister, praise her sister, or make her sister happy."

"I should have been family, but I didn't do that, which made Mai Sakurajima feel very guilty. Later, the two confided in each other and their relationship was restored."

Shoko Makinohara brought a childlike ending to the story.

Yukino Yukinoshita sensed that the other person was referring to her, but looking at the innocent and pure gaze of this elementary school student, she felt that she had been thinking too darkly...

"Wow, the story you guys made up is so boring! It's too peaceful, it's like a hero's tale..."

His gaze was sharp and piercing!

"He was as calm and collected as a hero."

Bai Ying couldn't help but point and criticize: "Rio Futaba, after adding a few settings, she didn't come up with anything. She completely gave up! The others are the same. They wrote a mediocre story that praises love and justice, but it lacks conflict, contradiction, strong tension, and a connection to the previous text. It lacks a central theme!"

"How would Bai Jun make this up?"

Yukino Yukinoshita chimed in, probably because Haku-kun's creative impulse couldn't be contained.

"If it were me..."

Bai Ying described it vividly.

……

……

It was the height of summer, and the weather was hot.

Ten years later, he returned to Kanagawa.

With her long, black hair cascading down her back and without any other adornments, the mature and beautiful woman gazed at the unfamiliar streets around her, from which she could still vaguely discern some familiar traces—which streets she had walked on, which restaurants she had once frequented.

I don't know if life moves too fast or time moves too slowly, but the same stone can leave different marks in my heart.

"Mom, are you hot?"

The little girl the woman was leading was dressed like a princess. Her delicate, pretty face was serious, and a little rabbit hair clip adorned her long, black hair. Her bright, watery eyes blinked mischievously, her gaze drifting meaningfully toward the ice cream shop on the street.

Mai Sakurajima snapped out of her daze and chuckled, "It's not hot."

"Huh?" the little girl muttered. "Mommy, feel it carefully, it's really hot."

Such a cunning and eccentric personality is just like that irresponsible fellow.

A pang of indescribable sorrow and melancholy rose in Mai Sakurajima's heart. She skillfully suppressed her emotions, ruffled her daughter's hair, and said, "Today we need to find your grandmother, your mother's mother. This is a very important matter."

The little girl nodded obediently upon hearing this, ceasing her whining, but asked somewhat curiously, "Then what about Mommy's dad? Does Mommy not have a dad like me?"

"Yes, Mom doesn't have a dad either, just like you."

Mai Sakurajima sighed with mixed feelings. Seeing this, the little girl gripped her mother's hand a little tighter.

“Let’s go, to where Grandma lives.” Mai Sakurajima chuckled, leading the little girl deeper into the street. “I grew up in Kanagawa, but I was always on the go, auditioning, looking for opportunities, meeting all sorts of different adults…”

"Huh? Same as me?"

"She worked a little harder than you, and she was more famous than you. Although Mom didn't become a star later, she still shone brightly."

"Being a celebrity is so tiring. When will I be able to stop being a celebrity?"

"Everything is tiring, but that's not a reason to give up... The premise for not wanting to be someone else is finding something you like."

"Oh--"

The conversation between the mother and daughter was drowned out by the bustling crowds on the street.

Guilt, understanding, relief, hesitation, and urgency—the emotions were so complex and chaotic that they all mixed together into a simple impulse, completely destroying reason. I didn't think about what to do, what I should do, what the consequences of my actions would be, or whether I was qualified to do it... I just wanted to find my mother, see my mother, and that was all.

Mai Sakurajima knocked on the door nervously, somewhat regretting her impulsive decision to cut off all contact with Kan in the past, but she quickly suppressed her regret.

Regret tends to romanticize the past, suggesting that one's thoughts back then weren't wrong, but rather that one went to extremes in their actions.

My palms were sweating nervously, and I could feel my daughter carefully trying to wipe the sweat from my palms, injecting a warm current into the complicated and chaotic emotions in my heart.

Footsteps came from behind the door, and Mai Sakurajima couldn't help but smile.

The man who opened the door was captivated by the fleeting beauty.

Mai Sakurajima finally found her mother in a corner of the cemetery. An illness, a misfortune, a deathly silence, a tombstone, a wisp of ashes, and the dust of a person finally settled.

All emotions remain unreleased, all thoughts go unanswered, and all questions remain unresolved. All these remnants from the past pile up in my heart, forming a tombstone called regret.

"Mom, is Grandma missing?"

"Grandma is still alive, but she doesn't want to see me."

Mai Sakurajima answered her daughter's question softly, gazing intently at the photograph on the tombstone—a young woman who was both strange and familiar. "When I experienced the heartbreak of giving my all in love, when I poured everything into my daughter's affections, and when I struggled to find solace in my shattered life, I finally made up my mind to come find you."

I followed your trail and finally found a cemetery.

Whether life changes too quickly or time flows too slowly, that stone is nowhere to be found.

……

……

"Life's reflections on each other, the cycle of regrets, the abrupt end of right and wrong..."

The white figure exclaimed passionately, "This is truly the remarkable life of Mai Sakurajima!"

Within the field of vision of Rio Futaba and Sakuta Azusagawa, Mai Sakurajima was attempting to physically attack the white shadow, but unfortunately, they were separated by the distance of a puberty syndrome, so they switched to verbal communication.

Sakurajima Mai's temple veins bulged: "You bastard! You've been saving the ending of that life dissection game for me until now?!"

"This is a story that I have thought about and revised several times—the reincarnation of mothers and daughters, the regrets of life, isn't it a wonderful story?" Bai Ying said disdainfully, "What you have written is all worthless."

Azusagawa Kaede succinctly stated: "Bad guy!"

"You are too young to understand the beauty of tragedy."

Bai Ying placed her hands on her knees: "Since you ministers are not very motivated, then let me add some conflict to the story. You can think of my story as an 'if' scenario, and the official history will still follow what you say—Sakurajima Mai has broken free from her mother's control, gained an older sister, and reconciled with her sister. But from now on, Sakurajima Mai only has three days to live, and you will create a story for her last three days."

Shoko Makinohara was slightly taken aback, while Kaede Azusagawa seemed a little distracted.

Sakurajima Mai is certain that this guy is cursing her!

"Now we begin the final round. Based on the character stories compiled in the previous round, present the final ending for Mai Sakurajima. All contestants, please share your opinions."

Bai Ying gestured to Futaba Rio: "If you only had three days to live, what kind of story would you write?"

“Well…” Rio Futaba pondered, “Since the preconditions have been determined, Mai Sakurajima can only relax and get through the three days, since the outcome will be the same anyway.”

“Very good, very realistic, little girl, it’s your turn.”

Chapter 83 Be More Positive

What if Mai Sakurajima only had three days left to live...

Holding the cat, Azusagawa Kaede focused intently on her thoughts, lost in her own contemplation, and didn't seem nervous or anxious at all because the others were waiting for her answer.

If you only have three days to live...

Kaede Azusagawa couldn't help but think seriously, trying to weave an answer, but the thoughts in her mind were like a bunch of broken lines, and she could never piece together a fluent sentence.

"Hey, why is the download progress at 99.9% again?"

Bai Ying shrugged and said, "Is it so hard to make up a story? Making up a story is essentially lying. Is lying so hard?"

"I'm a good kid!" Azusagawa Kaede immediately denied. "I would never lie!"

“Isn’t Haku-kun’s statement problematic?” Yukino Yukinoshita said, quite concerned. “A lie is a lie…”

"First, let's define what a lie is... Oh dear, don't glare at me, I'm having a serious academic discussion," Bai Ying said earnestly. "Human beings' study of lying began as soon as they became social beings. You could say that lies themselves have accompanied human society, and from this have arisen all sorts of techniques—there's the 'calling a deer a horse' type of lying, the 'making it seem natural' type of lying, the 'playing up one's strengths and downplaying one's weaknesses' type of lying, and the 'using the truth to lead to the truth' type of lying..."

"Beauty and ugliness, good and bad, truth and falsehood, kindness and evil, nation, ethnicity, economy, politics, courage, justice, honesty and so on—all these human-related terms are created by humans and depend on humans for their existence. When the human element is removed, everything built upon it will collapse."

“When I was in the theater troupe, I had a colleague who believed that lies were the greatest art of mankind. Therefore, she pursued lies as her own aesthetic and believed that true beauty must be born from lies, from one lie to another, and eventually become unique.”

Yukino Yukinoshita snorted softly: "Haku-kun, don't use a bunch of philosophical theories to cover up your lying."

"Um, that..." Azusagawa Kaede said, somewhat troubled, "So how should I make up the story?"

"That's easy. Just answer a few more questions," Bai Ying asked. "If you had to choose between knowing you only have three days to live and not knowing you only have three days to live, which would you choose? Whether it's true or false isn't important. What's important is having a direction and a point of view so that it's easy to make up a story."

Azusagawa Kaede pondered for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "Compared to not knowing how many days I have left to live, knowing how many days I have left to live seems like a better thing, doesn't it?"

Bai Ying nodded in deep agreement and said, "It would be a real loss if you died unexpectedly. Knowing when you would die would give you time to do things and prevent you from being flustered or having regrets later. So, if Sakurajima Mai knew she only had three days to live, what would she choose to do to avoid having any regrets?"

"Um……"

As Azusagawa Kaede pondered, she gradually came up with an idea and began to tell the story she had just made up: "On the first day, Sakurajima Mai said goodbye to her older sister... On the second day..."

Recalling the story Bai Ying had just told, Azusagawa Kaede continued, "The next day, Sakurajima Mai made up with her mother... Shouldn't she say sorry?"

Sakuta Azusagawa glanced at his younger sister, then fell silent and began to think.

"On the third day, um..."

Azusagawa Kaede didn't notice, and frowned as she rubbed the cat: "On the last day, Sakurajima Mai will do those things she's wanted to do but hasn't done before."

Mai Sakurajima glanced at her slightly. This young child had rather unique ideas and ways of thinking. In her experience, being too unique often didn't mean anything good.

"Once everything is done, there's nothing to worry about..."

And things that might cause worry.

Azusagawa Kaede subconsciously cut off half of her sentence and said energetically, "Sakurajima Mai can leave in peace now."

Sakurajima Mai: "..."

"What a bland and boring story. I've said before that stories as calm and collected as those of heroes are really uninteresting. I can only give your story one point as a sarcastic remark, out of ten." Bai Ying gave a judge-like comment. "Contestant Azusagawa Kaede, you should try to think more about the unhappy things in life, such as me running away with your brother. If you think too much about unhappy things, you will become unhappy, negative, and have cool thoughts like 'Let the world just end already.'"

"Brother won't run away!" Azusagawa Kaede moved a little closer to Azusagawa Sakuta, raising the bio-weapon in her hand. "Negative thoughts are not good at all. If you keep talking nonsense, I'll send out Nasuno!"

"I see this cat is being sold for its best price, but you should calm down for now."

Bai Ying raised his hand to stop him, saying, "Negative thoughts are certainly not good, but negativity can bounce back. For example, if you sleep negatively, you will wake up full of energy and very optimistic. In the midst of strong, fluctuating emotions, you will generate the positive and enterprising idea of ​​'I want to destroy the world'! It is with this kind of emotion that you can create interesting stories!"