"Ladies and gentlen, we have landed at Kansai Airport. Please do not unfasten your seatbelts until the seatbelt sign has been turned off."
"The plane will soon arrive at Gate 21. Thank you for flying with ANA, a mber of the Star Alliance, today. We look forward to seeing you again."
"Mhm..."
Hearing the familiar language of her hotown, the soundly sleeping Sakuramiya Hitomi pursed her lips and let out a comfortable, aningless sound.
Then, she slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the president, whose eyes were also closed as if he had fallen asleep.
She was leaning against the president's shoulder, and he was resting his head lightly against hers.
'Eh?'
Seeing this situation, the groggy Sakuramiya Hitomi couldn't react for a mont, simply blinking in a dazed and adorable manner.
'Did I marry the president?'
'Why didn't anyone notify ?'
"Ugh! My butt hurts from sitting so long!"
"We're finally here."
However, as the plane ca to a complete stop, the relieved voices of her classmates behind her—after sitting for seven hours—made her instantly snap awake and realize what was happening.
"Eep!"
Sakuramiya Hitomi's face instantly flushed red. She hastily pulled her head back, causing the still-drowsy Yan Huan to sway and imdiately wake up.
He rubbed the space between his eyebrows and turned to look beside him, only to see Sakuramiya Hitomi, who was already sitting upright but had her head turned away.
The ends of her hair, which faded from black to pink, now matched the color of her earlobes—a lovely cherry blossom pink.
"What a truly long journey, President."
"Ah."
It seed she had turned away to prepare herself for a long ti before finally turning back with a slightly red face, trying to speak calmly.
But the mont she turned her head and saw Yan Huan, the pink hue on her face deepened, and her eyes darted away once more.
"About just now..."
Hearing this, Yan Huan inevitably recalled leaning against her beautiful hair in his drowsy state.
"Um, Sakuramiya..."
He was about to speak when he caught sight of Sakuramiya Lily behind Sakuramiya Hitomi out of the corner of his eye. She was holding a folding fan and secretly watching them with a look of thoroughly enjoying the gossip.
In the next second, realizing that Yan Huan was looking her way, Sakuramiya Lily hastily closed her folding fan and leaned against her seat, pretending to be a delicate flower still sleeping soundly.
"..."
Seeing her shalessly pretend to sleep even though she knew he had caught her watching, Yan Huan was at a loss for words.
In front of him, Sakuramiya Hitomi realized sothing was off when Yan Huan didn't reply for a long ti, and she hurriedly turned around.
"Mama!"
"W-What is it? Oh my, I woke up and we're already in the country."
Sakuramiya Lily stretched lazily as she sat up, yawning with feigned ignorance, which made Sakuramiya Hitomi's face flush red with anger again.
"You were clearly awake the whole ti!"
"Teehee."
Regardless, the awkward atmosphere that had arisen from Sakuramiya Hitomi suddenly pulling her head away silently dissipated thanks to Sakuramiya Lily's little antics.
More importantly, the others around them were also getting up one after another, leaving them no further chance to converse.
"Awoo... Are we there?"
This was Spencer, rubbing her eyes and looking a bit lethargic.
"Yes, little Spencer, we can go on the school trip with your classmates now."
On the other side, Bai Yi hurriedly stood up, grabbing her belongings and distancing herself from Ye Shiyu.
It seed to be because of certain things Ye Shiyu had just said.
Ye Shiyu, on the other hand, began packing her things without any rush, though her gaze constantly wandered between Sakuramiya Hitomi, Spencer, and Bai Yi, as if she were pondering sothing.
"It's already six o'clock. It seems there's no other itinerary for tonight; we're just going to the hotel to rest."
At the entrance of Kansai Airport, several buses were parked in the parking lot. The students of Far Moon Academy were lining up by class to stow their luggage in the compartnts.
Yabashi Ki said this as he looked at the updated ti on his mobile phone.
Sakura Country was one ti zone ahead of Linn, so the ti was one hour faster.
A flight leaving Linn a little after ten in the morning and taking nearly seven hours ant arriving in Sakura Country at six o'clock local ti.
Yan Huan took out his mobile phone's SIM card tray and inserted a data card he had purchased for Sakura Country.
Turning the phone back on and enabling roaming, he no longer had to worry about network issues in Sakura Country.
"Let's sit together, Student Council. I rember we're heading to a standard hotel tonight, and there's an arrival celebration banquet for dinner."
After confirming his signal was fine, Yan Huan put down his mobile phone and suggested this to Yabashi Ki.
By convention, the Student Council mbers could travel together. A single bus couldn't be completely filled by one class anyway, so there were plenty of empty seats.
"OK, I'll go tell the class."
Watching Yabashi Ki leave, Yan Huan thought for a mont and decided to go find the rest of the Study Group first.
The Study Group activities were mainly scheduled after they reached Kobe. For the first few days, everyone would be participating in activities with their own respective classes.
Sakuramiya Lily wouldn't be bored enough to follow high school students to play around everywhere for the next few days, so she was heading back to her main family estate in Kyoto now. Yan Huan planned to see her off.
Who knew that by the ti he found Sakuramiya Lily, the four lesbians... ahem, the Four Heavenly Kings were actually all present.
Sakuramiya Lily was standing in front of a black sedan car. Standing close in front of her were Sakuramiya Hitomi, Ye Shiyu, and Bai Yi, while a yawning Spencer stood on the other side.
"Haha, how cute. Oh my, President Yan, over here, over here."
As soon as she saw Yan Huan approaching, Sakuramiya Lily waved her hand at him.
It wasn't until Yan Huan drew near and stood between Spencer and the other three that the group of five finally looked completely seamless.
"Auntie Sakuramiya."
"Yes."
Sakuramiya Lily smilingly glanced at Yan Huan, who had subconsciously stood closer to Spencer. She surveyed the group and teased,
"Just now, when I was chatting with student Ye here, I said that you children are just like the pilgrimage team from Dragon Country's 'Journey to the West'."
After saying that, she reached out, pointed at Yan Huan, and declared,
"Student Yan would be Tang Sanzang, the only girl in the team."
"..."
Hearing this, Yan Huan was a bit confused at first, but then he instantly rembered sothing.
'No, Auntie, is this the damn Sakura Country exclusive version of Journey to the West?!'
Then, she pointed at Spencer.
"Little Spencer is just like Sun Wukong."
"...What is that?"
But Sakuramiya Lily didn't pause at all, pointing instead at her own daughter.
"As for Hitomi, she would be Zhu Bajie."
"Mama!!"
Finally, Sakuramiya Lily looked at Ye Shiyu with a smile.
"Student Ye, you are the most reticent Sha Wujing."
"..."
Ye Shiyu didn't want to speak, simply giving Sakuramiya Lily—the old woman in her eyes—a look to figure it out herself.
Yan Huan cast a sympathetic glance at Ye Shiyu. If she knew that all the Sha Wujings in Sakura Country were depicted as kappas, he wondered if she would launch a zero-fra activation attack.
"So..."
As she spoke, Sakuramiya Lily's peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of Bai Yi pointing a finger at herself, finally rembering that there was still one more person.
"Oh my, there's also Student Bai. You..."
But the problem was, Tang Sanzang and his three disciples had already been handed out. What was left?
Sakuramiya Lily opened her mouth with a smile, blanking out for a long ti before rembering sothing and saying to Bai Yi,
"Right, I rember now. There's also a white dragon that turned into a..."
"Alright, alright! Mama, what exactly are you trying to say?!"
Seeing Bai Yi's face growing redder and redder, Sakuramiya Hitomi hastily clenched her fists and interrupted Sakuramiya Lily.
Sakuramiya Lily opened her folding fan and covered her mouth with a smile.
"What I an is, although the Study Group's tutoring won't begin until you visit my ho in a few days, building a good relationship these next few days is also very important."
As she spoke, she added with profound significance,
"Everyone should try to spend as much ti together as possible. By all ans, do not go off alone or act in pairs."
She was hinting at Sakuramiya Hitomi.
It seed that after witnessing Sakuramiya Hitomi's foolish moves on the plane, even though she hit the mark by a fluke, Sakuramiya Lily had given up all hope regarding her daughter's maneuvers.
"I know, I know."
"Then I'll be off now."
With that said, Sakuramiya Lily turned, opened the car door, and got in.
Just as she closed the car door and was about to leave, Sakuramiya Lily rolled down the window as if she had just rembered sothing.
"By the way..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi leaned in closer, and Sakuramiya Lily, hiding behind her folding fan, whispered into her ear.
"Your older brothers also know that you and Yan Huan are coming back."
"Ah? Then Mama, can you not let my older brothers co back for now?"
"Oh my, you really forget your family once you have a lover. Besides, your older brothers haven't seen you in a long ti."
"No... It's mainly that if they et the president, they'll definitely clash again. During my last birthday... And besides, the president is going to our house for several days this ti, not just one night."
Sakuramiya Lily smiled slightly, then sighed and said,
"Fine, I'll go back and see what I can do. If it doesn't work out, you'll just have to be careful on your own."
"Mhm. Thank you, Mama."
Glancing at the hesitant look on Sakuramiya Hitomi's face, Sakuramiya Lily finally rolled the window back up. The car drove off, disappearing from Sakuramiya Hitomi's field of vision.
Turning back around, she saw that the students' luggage had already been completely stowed away by the buses, and most of them had boarded.
A leading teacher was standing by the bus, shouting in their direction.
"You students over there! Hurry up and get on! Everyone is waiting for you!!"
"Coming, coming!"
Sowhere in Osaka, Sakura Country.
"Clack!"
"Squeak, squeak!"
A rat was crawling through a filthy corridor, but in the next second, it was startled by a fla that suddenly flared up nearby and hastily scuttled into hiding.
This was an old, two-story apartnt building next to a parking lot. At the end of the corridor, a red-haired woman holding a lighter lit her cigarette.
"Rumble..."
Not far away, a roaring electric car swept past with a faint red glow, kicking up the dispersing smoke and blowing a strand of red hair at her temples, blurring her beautiful features and sharp gaze.
It was exactly Tong Yingying.
As she puffed smoke, her surroundings gradually beca clear.
Behind her, the door of the rental apartnt was wide open, revealing an incredibly ssy space inside.
A man and a woman with wing tattoos on their bodies were rummaging inside for clues, cursing as they searched.
"Damn it, that bastard knew we were looking for him! He disappeared ages ago!"
"If you ask , we should have split up to block him. He hasn't been gone for long. If we flanked him, we might have bumped into him."
"You absolutely must not split up from ."
Hearing this, the smoking Tong Yingying sighed. She crossed her arms, turned her head, and said earnestly,
"Although I bla Sakayori Mina for not protecting Mother Bai well enough, allowing that murderer to succeed... you know Sakayori Mina's skills. If she couldn't stop that man, you definitely can't either."
"..."
The two people in the room beca even more annoyed upon hearing this.
But they also knew just how thorny that murderer was.
If he weren't a master, there was absolutely no way Tong Yingying and Sakayori Mina could have chased him for so many years without finding him.
"Keep searching. There's bound to be a clue in the room."
"Yes, Sister Tong."
Outside the door, Tong Yingying dragged on her cigarette. Her eyes, usually habitually listless, were currently surging with racing thoughts.
'No rush...'
'If that man has no other way to break this deadlock and continues playing this ga of cat and mouse, he's dead for sure.'
"Ding."
Right at that mont, the ringing tone of a mobile phone chid softly from her embrace.
Tong Yingying paused in surprise, taking out her mobile phone to check.
It was actually a ssage on Plane.
My High School Boy: "Sister Tong, are you there?"
My High School Boy: [Cat Emoji]
As soon as she saw the sender's na, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She quickly typed with one hand,
"What's up?"
"I also ca to Sakura Country for a school trip. I'll be in the Kansai area for the next few days. Where are you, Sister Tong? Let's see if our schedules overlap."
Seeing this, Tong Yingying blinked. She pondered for a mont before typing,
"I have important business here. I might not be able to see you."
"Alright then. I just thought we could et up in a foreign land."
Seeing this ssage, Tong Yingying couldn't help but feel a warmth in her heart.
'This brat really is still thinking of .'
Lately, she had been busy hunting down the enemy who murdered her adoptive mother. She was pressing him hard and couldn't just recklessly drop everything to go see him.
However, it was precisely because of this intense chase that she was utterly exhausted.
Seeing his ssage now brought her so comfort, causing her body to subconsciously relax a little.
After a second of silence, she resigned herself to typing back,
"We'll see. Once things here are wrapped up, if there's an opportunity, I can co find you.
"If it really doesn't work out, I'll bring so gifts back for you."
Over there, Yan Huan paused for quite a while before sending another ssage,
"Sounds good, Sister Tong."
Unknowingly, the cigarette in her hand had completely burned out.
Tong Yingying gazed at the chat log with a smile. Without averting her gaze, she simply flicked the cigarette butt, accurately striking a rat that had peeked its head out several ters away.
"Squeak!"
The strike made the rat's body sway. It hastily tucked its tail between its legs and squealed as it scrambled madly toward an unknown direction.
"Sister Tong! I found sothing!"
Just as Tong Yingying held her mobile phone, hesitating over whether to send an ambiguous ssage like 'Did you miss ?', her companion's voice rang out from the rental apartnt in front of her.
"Hmm?"
Tong Yingying had no choice but to lock her mobile phone and walk into the cramped rental apartnt.
"What did you find?"
She saw the accompanying woman pull open a wardrobe drawer, retrieving a transparent plastic bag from beneath an assortnt of blades and tools.
Tong Yingying noticed that the plastic bag contained so docunts.
Frowning, she strode quickly over and took the docunts.
The mont she laid eyes on them, her pupils violently shrank.
Because she suddenly saw that a student ID photo of a handso youth was clearly printed at the top of the docunt.
Na: Yan Huan.
The instant she saw the docunt, Tong Yingying ripped the plastic bag open with a tearing sound and scrutinized it.
Beneath this docunt were actually the details of Tian Li and Guan Rong, the two part-ti workers from the "Ballad" tavern, but a cross had been drawn in the top right corner of their files.
Only the top right corner of Yan Huan's file had a circle drawn on it.
"..."
Tong Yingying rapidly flipped through the docunt. The more she flipped, the heavier her breathing beca.
Because she saw that attached to the very last page was a docunt titled: 'Far Moon Academy 47th Annual School Trip - First-Year Itinerary'.
On it, not only were the ti and location of the Far Moon students' arrival in Sakura Country clearly written, but all their subsequent schedules were also detailed.
What was most terrifying was that beside the docunt, a small line of text was written in Sakura Country's characters:
"The path to salvation lies within."
"..."
In the next second, Tong Yingying violently slamd the docunt shut. Her eyes took on the sa crimson hue as her hair.
"Motherfucker, you dare play 'besiege Wei to rescue Zhao' with ?!"
"Sister Tong, w-what is it?"
Tong Yingying didn't reply. Instead, she quickly ran through the Far Moon Academy school trip itinerary in her mind, then imdiately pulled out her mobile phone and sent a ssage to Yan Huan,
"Yan Huan, wait for . I'm coming to the downtown area of Osaka to find you tomorrow!!"
However, there was no reply from his end for a long ti.
"Ding."
On the tour bus, the people from Far Moon Academy were traveling from Kansai Airport toward the city.
Yan Huan, having learned that he couldn't et Tong Yingying, let out a sigh and looked out the window.
He vaguely knew that Tong Yingying wasn't as simple as she appeared on the surface, so naturally, the important business she was doing probably wasn't simple either.
Just now, it was the first ti Yan Huan felt that the tone of her ssage lacked even a trace of lethargy.
'It really makes one curious...'
"Ding."
At this mont, the mobile phone in his embrace rang again.
Yan Huan paused. Just as he was about to pick up his phone, his peripheral vision caught a reflection in the window of the space behind him...
An Le was smoothing down her dress as she slowly took a seat.
Reviews
All reviews (0)