[After discovering the conflict between Ibuki Yuko and your daughter, you sent Mayuri to your parents’ home. Ibuki Yuko was already prepared to be reprimanded by you and had prepared herself to pretend to be a good mother. She was moved by your understanding in sending your daughter away.]
[When Mayuri was in the second grade, you thought Ibuki Yuko should have calmed down by then, realizing that her daughter was not an enemy or an outsider intruding on your relationship. You asked Honoka to talk to Yuko, while you went back to your parents’ home to console your daughter, who was upset from not receiving your love.]
[Ibuki Yuko finally agreed to live with her daughter. After spending time together, the proud but naive Mayuri was quickly manipulated by Ibuki Yuko. This reassured Ibuki Yuko completely; such a simple-minded daughter could not be her opponent and could not steal your affection.]
[When Mayuri was in the fourth grade, you moved back to Misaki City and bought a single-family home not far from the Nakajima house.]
[Today is an ordinary summer day. Mayuri is 15 years old. She has inherited the intelligence of both you and Yuko but does not enjoy studying or socializing. She often visits the Asano family to play games with Aunt Kazumi and Aunt Nao. Ibuki Yuko works at a school and has many holidays. In her free time, she either takes care of you or bullies Mayuri. You are on the verge of a promotion at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and are busy networking.]
The simulated text stops, and a pop-up appears.
[Free simulation is about to begin. Please lie down in a safe place. This simulation will take 30 minutes of real time (24 hours of simulated time).]
Minami Yuuki gets up and opens the window wider to let the cool morning breeze blow away the stuffiness of the night.
Lying down in the bed, he clicks [Confirm.]
[Free simulation begins.]The bedroom was shrouded in darkness, with blackout curtains tightly drawn and security measures in place. Only a few rays of light managed to sneak in through the edges, creating narrow patches of light on the floor.
At the head of the bed, two wooden desks were placed side by side. One was neat and tidy, while the other was piled high with documents, which even spilled over the gap between the desks, encroaching on the corner of the other desk.
On the beige double bed, Minami Yuuki opened his eyes. He sat up and looked around. The sensation of his joints and muscles moving was vividly clear, and he could distinctly feel the difference in temperature inside and outside the blanket. The air conditioner in the opposite corner emitted a faint hum.
Even though it was his second time using the free simulation, it still felt novel to him. The realism and freedom of it made him feel as if he had been transported to a real world.
He felt a bit disappointed that Ibuki Yuko was not sleeping beside him; otherwise, he could have started with the most important thing.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard footsteps outside the door. He quickly lay back down and squinted his eyes.
The bedroom door gently opened, and Ibuki Yuko peeked her head in to check on her husband in bed.
Is he still sleeping? The sun is already high in the sky. What a lazy child. Such a child needs to be severely punished!
She stepped into the bedroom, slowly closed the door, and quietly walked over to Minami Yuuki.
She took off her slippers, then removed her socks, and slipped into Minami Yuuki’s bed.
The blanket, warm with her husband’s body heat, made her body hot and her heart race.
She stared at Minami Yuuki’s face for a while, kissed his lips, sat on top of him, and pulled up his pajamas.
Minami Yuuki had intended to pretend to sleep and make unreasonable demands on his wife, but he hadn’t expected Yuko to be so proactive.
He opened his eyes and looked directly at his wife.
“This is the punishment for sleeping in,” Ibuki Yuko explained softly, guiltily letting go of his pajamas.
“A truly good mother wouldn’t punish a child just for sleeping in,” Minami Yuuki said, grasping his wife’s slender waist and pushing her down onto the bed. “A bad mother like you deserves a good punishment!”
The passage of time had left little trace on his wife. Even though she was the mother of a teenage girl, she still looked like a charming middle schooler, with a petite figure, smooth skin, a tender voice, and adorable expressions.
The patches of light by the curtains grew narrower as the sun climbed higher in the sky.
Mayuri, sitting in the downstairs living room, had waited a long time for her parents to come down. She went upstairs and knocked on the door.
“Wake up, you lazy pigs!”
No one responded to her; the two people inside were very busy.
It wasn’t until noon that Minami Yuuki and Yuko finally came out to shower and headed downstairs.
“I’m supposed to go play with Nao-san and Kazumi-san today! You should have gotten up earlier!” Mayuri complained as she walked into the kitchen.
She turned on the stove and poured in some cooking oil. “How can you both sleep in like kids? Especially you, Mom. You got up and then went back to sleep! That’s worse than a child!”
“It’s because we’re not kids anymore that we stay in bed in the morning,” Yuko said, sitting on the bench at the dining table.
Having a bench at the dining table was unusual, but it was Yuko’s preference. Individual chairs couldn’t let her sit close to Minami Yuuki, but a bench could.
“That makes no sense!” Mayuri retorted.
“A child like you wouldn’t understand,” Yuko said with a slight, smug smile.
Mayuri, at an age where she longed for maturity, puffed out her cheeks at these words.
“I’m taller than you now!” she said.
“If height was the measure of maturity, then giraffes would be the most mature beings.”
Unable to come up with a retort, the young girl sulked, cracking an egg with unnecessary force.
Minami Yuuki stepped in to change the subject. “Why is Mayuri making breakfast today?”
The girl, busy with breakfast, turned her head away, not wanting to discuss the topic.
Yuko wrapped her arm around Minami Yuuki’s, a hint of pride on her otherwise expressionless face. “Because she lost a game last night. Not just breakfast, she’s doing all the chores today.”
“She lost a game?” Minami Yuuki was surprised.
Yuko wasn’t fond of games, while Mayuri was almost obsessed with them. Even if Yuko was sharper, she shouldn’t have been able to beat her daughter in something she excelled at.
“Mom cheated!” Mayuri glared angrily at her petite mother. “We were racing to clear levels, and she used a bug to fly from the start to the end. This game doesn’t even have a flying feature!”
Yuko felt no shame at her daughter’s accusation. She simply flashed a peace sign. “Before the race, we agreed that anything in the game could be used.”
“I thought you meant using items to skip levels, not bugs!”
“Hmph, losers always make excuses.”
Seeing Mayuri’s hand trembling with anger as she held the spatula, Minami Yuuki quickly tried to change the subject again. “What’s for breakfast? Have your cooking skills improved, Mayuri?”
“Of course they have! I make breakfast half the time!”
This topic shift wasn’t successful.
Remembering how her mother constantly tricked her and how she had been doing chores since elementary school, Mayuri’s eyes welled up with tears. It wasn’t the chores that upset her; it was the humiliation of always losing to her mother in every little competition.
Being a strong-willed child, Mayuri didn’t like talking about her failures. But this time, she couldn’t hold back her emotions and revealed something she had kept hidden for a long time.
“Dad, did you know? When we first moved to Misaki, Mom tricked me into thinking I wasn’t your biological child and that I was adopted from an orphanage! I felt guilty for so long and didn’t dare to refuse when she made me do chores!”
Minami Yuuki sifted through his memories.
Mayuri had indeed been exceptionally obedient back then; he had thought she was becoming a model child.
He turned to his wife.
Yuko averted her eyes guiltily. “I wasn’t lying. I just thought the adoption papers were fun, so I filled in Mayuri’s name and left them on the table where she accidentally saw them.”
That definitely sounded premeditated!
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