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P.S.: 4,500+ words, combined into one, still 25.75 chapters missing.

Chapter 295 Tacit Understanding

Mai Sakurajima believes she understands Akira Higashino. He is very generous and easygoing in many ways, but he won't easily let go of girls he has had intimate contact with.

With his mysterious and unpredictable abilities, and the support of the behemoth Yunmeng Group.

Kaori, who had swapped bodies with him, could not possibly be outside his calculations.

They escaped unharmed.

From the very beginning, Mai Sakurajima was mentally prepared that Kaori's relationship with Akira Higashino would eventually turn into her own. She even considered that if they could never switch back, she might have to use her sister's body to interact with her boyfriend for the rest of her life.

She wouldn't find it too unacceptable.

That's why I played along with him and teased Kaori, using this method to make everyone's relationship more harmonious and to help Kaori and him get along better.

Unfortunately, when Kaori and he were together, they were more like two children who couldn't stand each other. Kaori was being teased, and the two of them not only didn't seem to have any romantic sparks, but instead competed for her.

She has a younger sister who idolizes her and a boyfriend who likes her but also loves to tease her.

Mai Sakurajima had a bit of a headache.

No matter what, Kaori is a genuine beautiful girl.

Why doesn't someone who's so fickle take this relationship seriously?

Since the locked-in ending is inevitable, if possible, as the older sister, she still hopes that the way Kaori and Higashino Akira are together is that they develop feelings first and naturally come together, rather than like hers, where they are bound together by conditions due to various accidents, and their feelings for each other only gradually increase through habit and subsequent interactions.

The former is obviously better and more easily accepted.

I just hope that as Kaori grows up a bit more, she will develop a longing for romance and then be further attracted to Akira Higashino.

Let's avoid the tragedy of unrequited love and forced, unfulfilled desires.

Breakfast is still in progress.

It’s too late.

The two didn't go too far, and kept teasing Toyohama and Kaori to prevent the child from getting really angry and going berserk.

With the two wicked adults, Akira Higashino and Mai Sakurajima, quieting down, Kazuka Toyohama, who was already feeling uneasy, didn't pursue the matter further.

A sudden silence fell over everyone, and they ate their meals in an orderly fashion.

However, this time Mai Sakurajima didn't just take care of her boyfriend; she also put a lot of food in her sister's bowl as well.

This made Toyohama Kazuka feel increasingly heavy-hearted because of her guilt towards her sister.

Breakfast is over.

Mai Sakurajima is currently on vacation, while Kazuka Toyohama will not be going back to the agency to rehearse with her teammates for a while.

Akira Higashino changed his clothes and prepared to go out alone.

As I was changing my shoes in the entryway, Mai Sakurajima suddenly called out to me.

Looking up, she was already in front of me.

"It's been raining a lot lately, it's been raining outside all the time, so bring an umbrella."

Mai Sakurajima was unaware that her boyfriend's superhuman abilities had reached the point where he was impervious to wind and rain; she was simply expressing her concern for him out of her instinct as his girlfriend.

When I noticed he had forgotten his umbrella, I reminded him.

I handed him the umbrella and put it in his hand.

I casually reached out and straightened his clothes and collar.

"Thank you," Higashino Akira said softly. "As a fan of Mai-san, it's so wonderful to be cared for and appreciated by my idol like this."

Upon hearing this, the girl gave him a playful, reproachful look.

Someone who watches Mai Sakurajima's movies and TV shows, listens to songs by End and Ave Mujica on their phone, follows School Idol and Sumi, and even cares about Sweet Bullet, has no right to say such things.

A womanizer.

Although their relationship initially developed from a mutually agreeable exchange, Mai Sakurajima still occasionally feels subtly unhappy when she thinks about how many idols he has.

She couldn't tell if she had actually fallen for this person.

Even though they had always been apart for long periods of time, and when they did meet, there wasn't much romance, and instead, the waves would splash and soak the sheets, over time, she felt that he was taking up more and more weight in her heart, making her want to rely on him. When she felt lonely and tired, she would involuntarily think of him.

With mixed and hazy feelings, Mai Sakurajima gently pinched the man's cheek, as if venting her emotions or flirting.

"All right."

The girl's soft, fragrant hand pressed against his face. Sensing the obvious care in her heart, Higashino blinked but did not agree.

"Not ready yet."

Under Mai Sakurajima's puzzled gaze, Akira Higashino slowly lowered his head. "There's only one last step left."

Realizing what was happening, Mai Sakurajima blushed slightly and looked directly at him, meeting his gaze.

There was no attempt to dodge; in fact, they subtly tilted their heads up to greet them.

Lips and teeth intertwined, a deep kiss.

In the living room, Feng Binhexiang, the younger sister-in-law, who was lying on the sofa peeking into the entrance hall, saw this scene, bared her teeth, and her little face involuntarily showed an adorable expression of disgust.

Her pretty face flushed slightly.

He thought to himself, "These two are such a mushy couple!"

Shameless! Frivolous! Debauched!

There are other people at home!

How could he kiss her right in front of her!

If it were her, she would at least try to avoid people, hmph~

Feng Bin and Xiang pursed their lips, expressing their dissatisfaction with the two men's complete disregard for her, in a place where no one was paying attention.

However, she didn't speak out at this inopportune moment, thus ruining the loving atmosphere between her sister and that philandering scoundrel.

After quite some time, the two finally finished kissing and watched Higashino Akira leave.

When her sister returned to the living room, she began to complain to her sister about how bad that guy was, still a little upset.

Mai Sakurajima, who had already played a prank on her sister with her boyfriend once, naturally joined in the吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or critical comments) with Kaori, just to be fair.

However, she wasn't entirely without her own little schemes. Her complaints were mostly about her boyfriend's womanizing ways, how many girlfriends he had, and how only one or two of the artist groups signed to the company's entertainment department didn't have any of his girlfriends.

He subtly instilled in his younger sister the idea that Akira Higashino had many girlfriends, most of whom knew about and tacitly accepted this situation.

Unfortunately, among the people she knew, none of the girls in the entertainment department who were also Akira Higashino's girlfriends were sisters.

Otherwise, using it as an example would probably be more effective.

At this moment, Mai Sakurajima was unaware that her younger sister had actually teetered on the brink of making a mistake several times, but out of respect for her and moral obligation, she had restrained herself from going all the way and had never shown any inappropriate tendencies in front of her.

So much so that last night's kiss was the boldest and most thrilling experience that Toyohama Kazuka had ever had in front of her sister.

They were afraid that after the kiss, someone would notice anything amiss.

Even now, I dare not let my guard down, which is why I deliberately spoke ill of that guy Higashino Akira in front of my sister, reinforcing in her mind that I don't get along with him and that I dislike him.

In the misty drizzle of late February in Japan, the two sisters sat on the sofa in the living room of their apartment in Kanagawa Prefecture, chatting vehemently and getting along quite well.

Behind the scenes, a surge of emotions welled up within me.

They were not known to each other.

.........

Meanwhile, at this very moment, Akira Higashino had already returned to the Yunmeng headquarters and the Gensokyo project department building, where he received a group of shrine maidens who had returned from their training at Okumizome.

After this training program concluded, approximately twenty to thirty shrine maidens successfully graduated. Most of them were young women recruited from various regions who possessed a certain level of psychic talent.

She has already mastered the basic knowledge and skills that a priestess should possess.

After the training, based on their personal wishes, those who wanted to stay in Tokyo would be assigned to a local shrine, while those who wanted to return home would choose a shrine closest to their hometown and each take charge of a branch of the Unmu Shrine.

Yunmeng doesn't expect them to be perfect. Although some of them have spiritual talents that may not even work, and their spiritual cultivation is only at the beginner level, they certainly can't be relied on in combat. So, as humans, they only need to do some community service-like care work in the local area, help people find jobs, rent houses, arrange blind dates, provide a certain level of legal aid, and care for the elderly, children, and all those who are in difficulty but want to improve.

In the process, we can subtly spread the teachings and beliefs of Yunmeng that guide people toward goodness.

In terms of combat...

In fact, the Yunmeng pantheon has long accumulated too many subordinate gods who do not have their own shrines, yet possess certain abilities, and are bored and want to get some exercise because the Yunmeng laws prohibit them from acting recklessly.

According to the allocation of a shrine, a formal shrine maiden, and a subordinate deity, one has to wait in line for an unknown amount of time.

The shrine maiden only needs to communicate with and supervise the subordinate deities of Yunmeng to spread the faith among the local residents of the shrine's branch.

Meanwhile, the subordinate gods who had long been restless were responsible for the spiritual fields within Qinglang's former territory, and for provoking others. If they could win, they would fight; if they couldn't, they would ask for reinforcements to fight together. If they won, they would incorporate them into their ranks; and if they refused to submit no matter what, they would simply eliminate them.

For the first time, there was a shrine, and the non-human beings who had infiltrated the ranks of the gods longed to make a name for themselves.

After all, who says that someone who belongs to God cannot be considered God?

It's important to know that in the Yunmeng pantheon, whether or not someone has a permanent position and a job is a major criterion for determining how much they receive in wages.

Temporary workers, who are merely granted an official title and an ID card, and who receive only meager or nonexistent social welfare income on a daily basis, and can only enjoy themselves during large-scale events, cannot compare to permanent employees with established positions and benefits in terms of welfare and treatment.

Having tasted the purity of faith in Yunmeng and experienced that exhilarating feeling, it's hard to go back to being a lazy bum.

Because there were so many unemployed and unemployed subordinate gods, when assigning colleagues, it was actually the priestesses, who didn't have much power, who chose the gods they felt compatible with, while the subordinate gods who wanted to take the job enthusiastically promoted themselves.

"Pick me! Pick me!"

"Hey! Little girl, look over here. I can take on three of them by myself!"

"You fart!"

"Look at me, look at me, priestess! I have a domain ability. No matter how strong someone is, once my domain is deployed and enveloping them, their strength will be suppressed to less than half!"