Dating sim loading: My girlfriend is a cunning young lady
Chapter 436 - 206. New Year in Iwate Prefecture: Their Differences and Similarities (3)_2

Chapter 436: 206. New Year in Iwate Prefecture: Their Differences and Similarities (3)_2

Jiutiao Meijie glanced at him, "If there’s none, then use yours."

"There is, just wait for me."

Dubian Che left the living room and clomped up to the second floor.

In the living room, Kiyono Lin chuckled and said to Jiutiao Meijie, "At this rate, you might make Mr. Dubian’s parents dislike you."

"So what?" Jiutiao Meijie didn’t care in the slightest, "Should this young lady really accommodate them? The only one I like is Dubian Che. On the other hand, you put on this good girl act, what are you trying to do?"

"It’s just basic manners when you’re a guest, you’re simply too rude, Miss Jiutiao."

"Not wanting to use someone else’s blanket is my life habit, how is that being impolite?"

"In someone else’s house..."

"Are you arguing already?" Dubian Che entered with a blanket and a cushion, "You two must be really close."

Both of them ignored him.

When Mrs. Dubian came in with a tray of fruit and saw the newly-changed bedding and the cushion under Jiutiao Meijie’s bottom, she paused for a moment.

"Sorry, we only have the simplest fruits." She pretended as if nothing had happened and placed the tray in the middle of the table.

The tray only contained grapes, tangerines, and cut apples.

Apples were the usual fruit Mrs. Dubian ate.

She had heard somewhere that eating apples was good for beauty, and sometimes for dieting, she would have just apples for dinner.

Grapes were bought for Dubian Che, who returned home today.

As for the tangerines, there were a few trees on the mountain, casually picked, but very sweet.

"We’ve already imposed enough, thank you," Kiyono Lin bowed slightly.

Jiutiao Meijie nodded her head in agreement with Kiyono Lin’s words.

Dubian Che picked up a tangerine and, while peeling it, said, "Mom, Meijie and Kiyono will stay over for New Year’s, could you prepare their rooms for them?"

After saying this, he suddenly remembered to add,

"Right, Meijie can sleep in my room, she’s so obsessed with cleanliness she’s practically a germaphobe."

Jiutiao Meijie kicked Dubian Che under the table, "The one with the mental problem isn’t me."

She glanced at Kiyono Lin.

Kiyono Lin leisurely ate her apple with a toothpick.

"You two are going to sleep in the same room?" Mrs. Dubian looked back and forth between her son and Jiutiao Meijie with surprise.

"No," Dubian Che swallowed the juicy tangerine in his mouth, "Help me prepare another room."

"Oh, I see." Mrs. Dubian nodded as if relieved, "I’ll go do that now. Little Che, please take good care of Lin and Meijie."

"Thank you, auntie."

"Thanks."

After Mrs. Dubian left, Dubian Che mused, "What should I have you guys do... Want to play games?"

"Do you even have a console or a computer at home?" Jiutiao Meijie asked with a bit of surprise.

"No computer, but we do have a console."

Dubian Che put down the half-eaten tangerine, stood up, and went over to the television stand, rummaging through the cabinet for the Red Fortress and a bunch of game cartridges.

"It’s just a bit old," he said.

"Not just old, but obsolete," Jiutiao Meijie added.

"Classics never go out of style!" Dubian Che spoke with conviction.

He connected the Red Fortress to the TV and plugged in the controllers.

The controller cables were very long, enabling one to play sitting inside the hearth—this was a leftover from Dubian Che’s cold-averse period.

"What to play? How about an exciting round of ’Red Fortress’ or ’Tank Battle’?"

"No, let’s play this." Jiutiao Meijie picked up the ’Squirrel War’ cartridge.

"...Alright."

Dubian Che chose a cooperative game, hoping the two would get on better, but reasoned that as long as they played together, their relationship might improve anyway.

Holding on to this hope, Dubian Che blew onto the game cartridge before inserting it into the slot of the Red Fortress.

The console and cartridge were of great quality; after so many years, they still ran smoothly without any problems.

If there were problems, one would have to resort to a last-ditch effort—lick it.

He handed the controllers to the two beauties sitting in the hearth.

Kiyono Lin had never played before but knew the simplest controls.

As her squirrel took the lead, the deliberately lagging Jiutiao Meijie picked up a box and knocked her unconscious.

That wasn’t all; Jiutiao Meijie’s squirrel ran over, picked up Kiyono Lin, and carried her all the way.

Realizing she was being carried and unable to move, Kiyono Lin frowned slightly.

Once they reached the place with cactuses, Jiutiao Meijie threw her onto one.

Kiyono Lin lost a life but gained her freedom back and, having learned a trick, picked up a box to smash Jiutiao Meijie.

Was Jiutiao Meijie unprepared? She hid inside a box and easily dodged the attack.

Afterward, there was the climbing of telephone poles.

The two of them tossed each other back and forth, trying to throw the other one straight off.

When they couldn’t best each other, they just tried to run faster; if someone fell behind and dropped out of the game screen, they would lose health too.

Throughout the game, there were strategies like borrowing a knife to kill someone, looting a burning house, watching the fire from across the river, retreating to advance, turning from guest to host, removing the ladder after climbing up... It was as if every strategem from the "Thirty-Six Stratagems" had been employed, except for the beauty trap.

After a while, Dubian Zhi returned.

"Lin, I’m sorry, but one of the bedrooms has actually grown moldy. Would you mind sharing Che’s room with Meijie?" she asked.

"It’s even better with mold." Jiutiao Meijie said to Kiyono Lin with a cold sneer.

"What?" Mrs. Dubian was taken aback.

"She’s joking," Dubian Che explained. "Just let Kiyono and Meijie share a room."

"I have no problem with that," Kiyono Lin nodded.

Jiutiao Meijie didn’t say anything; her comment had indeed been just a taunt.

Of course, it would have been best if Kiyono Lin got angry, either stubbornly slept in that room, or went back to Tokyo in a huff.

"I’m going to the town to buy some groceries, Little Che, take good care of the two of them!"

"I know, mom. You’ve said that three times today. Are you underestimating your son’s memory? I am, after all, the top student in the country, the smartest first-year high school student in the whole Island Country."

"You child!" Dubian Zhi tried to scold with a straight face, but couldn’t help smiling.

"Be safe on the road."

"Yeah, I’m off."

After Dubian Zhi left, Dubian Che went to the door to help the two girls carry their suitcases upstairs.

All three stomped heavily on the wooden stairs as they made their way to the second floor and into Dubian Che’s room.

Jiutiao Meijie wasn’t interested in the lower floors, but once here, she looked around carefully.

The space was also quite large, more than enough for two people to sleep.

There was no bed; two futons had already been laid out on the tatami.

There was a kotatsu without an electric heater, and on the table, a cheap alarm clock sat alone.

Against the wall was a handmade bookshelf, crammed with textbooks, workbooks, and notebooks.

Jiutiao Meijie took a closer look and found, in the corners of the shelf, a few cheap bunkobon novels, magazines that were five or six years out of date, and little figurines from plastic capsules, all cheaply made.

The room had one window from which you could look out over the front yard, the terraced fields in the distance, and the mountain range.

Jiutiao Meijie imagined Dubian Che in his elementary school days.

A well-behaved little boy, sitting on the tatami, diligently assembling paper airplanes.

She imagined Dubian Che in junior high school.

A serious teenager, studying hard by the table late into the night, occasionally looking out the window when tired.

Spring warmth, summer heat, autumn days, winter nights; over one year, two years, he grew up slowly in this simple room and then appeared before her.

"Not bad," Jiutiao Meijie said with her arms crossed.

"To receive a ’not bad’ from Meijie is truly an honor for this room," Dubian Che laughed.

In Tokyo, even the exclusive membership restaurants were merely ’lousy places’ in Jiutiao Meijie’s words.

It was unclear whether Jiutiao Meijie meant her words or was just being polite.

Kiyono Lin walked over to the bookshelf, flipping through Dubian Che’s old study materials, filled with notes and summaries of errors.

Although it was only middle school and some high school knowledge, most junior high teachers couldn’t have managed to get into Goda, let alone expect a student to learn it by themselves.

"Which bed is yours?" Jiutiao Meijie asked, looking at the two futons.

"This one," Dubian Che pointed to the one farther from the window.

Jiutiao Meijie nodded.

Having put down their luggage, Dubian Che took the two around the house.

"How is it? A bit disappointed?" Dubian Che asked.

"I think it’s very nice," Kiyono Lin said.

"You actually think it’s nice? Tell me, what’s nice about it?"

Although Dubian Che wasn’t ashamed of his home and would be upset if someone else spoke ill of it, he was well aware of its true condition.

Apart from the fact that the land was cheap enough to be nearly free and quite spacious, there were almost no advantages.

"The windows have beautiful carvings, the sink is scrubbed very clean, the tiles inside are pretty, and the curtains are patched with cherry blossom patterns. I feel the bond between the Dubian family and this house, it is deeply cherished by you all."

If Jiutiao Meijie weren’t there, by now Dubian Che probably would have said, ’Kiyono, is this another one of your tactics to make me fall for you?’

"What do you think, Meijie?" Dubian Che asked his girlfriend.

"Just a rundown house."

"...Indeed, it’s a rundown house."

"But," Jiutiao Meijie’s gaze swept over a pillar with notches that marked Dubian Che’s growth in height over the years, "after all, it’s where you grew up. It’s rundown, but I don’t dislike it."

"...Yeah, I don’t dislike this place either," Dubian Che looked at the old house.