Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 119: Inoue finally admits that he is a scumbag
"They only provide accommodation?"

“This town was just a village in earlier times.”

Walking across the small bridge across the only river near the town, Amano followed him and walked into the town with him.

The town is dominated by traditional wooden structures, each of varying appearances and specifications, nestled against the hillside. Looking back from the small bridge, you can see a school perched on the hillside—the only remaining brick-and-concrete structure.

Most of the children in the town go to elementary school there, and then pass the entrance exams to key or ordinary middle schools in Tottori City to continue their studies.

Even earlier, when he was not yet born and his father was still a child, this was just a larger village. The primary school consisted of only a few wooden houses, a bare dirt playground, and a simple flagpole made from a long wooden stick.

Because there is a railway passing through here, people from nearby villages gradually gathered here, and it has become such a large scale.

The town has no official town hall building, so all announcements are made over the school's radio. A power plant is also built next to the school, providing electricity for almost all residents.

"In short, don't have any expectations about the facilities here, or you'll likely be disappointed." He gave a brief introduction, trying to lower Amano's expectations. "I wonder if you were hoping for a hot spring hotel deep in the mountains before you set off? Even if you were, I can only apologize."

"A hot spring hotel deep in the mountains..." Amano didn't know how to respond to him.

"That's where the young man Huitian met a pianist who could see other people's colors. By the way, if you want to play the piano, the only way is to go to that elementary school up the mountain. There's an upright piano there."

As he spoke, he realized that he had said too much in a short time, but since Amano did not show any disgust, he was happy with it and continued speaking.

"So, can Amano-san see other people's colors?" he asked.

"I don't know about others', but I can be sure of your color, Inoue-san." Amano looked around, observing the houses in the town, which had an architectural style very different from that of Tokyo.

In underdeveloped places like this, there are no strict or aesthetically pleasing architectural styles. Everything is made with local materials and practicality is paramount.

"Mine?" He was now leading Amano on the way to the hotel closest to Eri's bathhouse.

"You must be colorless," Amano said softly, his chin tilted slightly upwards, looking cheerful. "Besides, the ability to see colors comes at a price, right? Inoue-san really wants me to die soon?"

"How can it be……"

"Oh, so you're hoping to take over my abilities and the price? I was wrong about that, Inoue-san."

"Wait a minute...why have you read every book?"

"When I was little, I had limited access to entertainment, so I could only read books... That's normal, right? So, why don't I ask why you read all that? In a small town like this, there are probably a lot more interesting things to do than reading, right?"

"Is it not okay for me to like reading?" he asked back.

"You like reading?" Amano still looked completely unconvinced.

“…Ah, we’re here.”

They happened to arrive at the door of the hotel, and he took the opportunity to successfully change the subject and walked into the hotel with Amano.

……

The room is an ordinary tatami room with only bedding.

Amano put the suitcase down against the wall and stood in the room looking around.

"Summer isn't hot, winter..."

"There will be a heater in the winter," he said, following her side and seeing her frown.

Amano looked at him and thought for a moment, "...Use coal?"

"There's electricity here!" said the girl outside the door who led them to the visiting room.

Amano was still looking at him.

"Electric heater."

"I see……"

"Isn't the reaction too exaggerated?" He couldn't help it.

"When I saw on the train schedule that there were only three trains going here in the morning, afternoon and evening, I thought this place would be even more remote." Amano was even a little disappointed.

"There's no communication signal, only one or two landlords have televisions, and people use the radio every day to listen to news, music, and do morning exercises?"

"almost."

The hotel girl couldn't stand it any longer, "Where can you find a place like this these days?"

"In visual novel games," he said.

"Visual novel? I thought Inoue-san had actually been to such a place, and that's why he looked down on Tokyoites."

"Unless you're in an isolated valley, there should be some kind of communication signal, right? And where there's a railway, how could we not be able to transport basic appliances like color TVs, air conditioners, and refrigerators?"

"That's right." Now there were people who stood on the same front with him, defending their hometown and sharing the same hatred for the enemy.

"And how do you see that you look down on people from Tokyo?"

"They thought I didn't even know about the stove and said my reaction was exaggerated," Amano listed his crimes.

"Something is wrong..."

"Inoue-kun, in this information age, answers to common-sense questions like these are readily available. I was simply curious about coal-fired stoves."

She explained to him patiently and generously while walking out of the room.

"By the way, compared to the more common floor heating, electric heaters are already a rarity in village hotels."

"Really..." He had only stayed in hotels during school trips and autumn outings, so he didn't know this kind of common sense.

"Hmm..." The hotel girl hesitated for a moment and suddenly changed sides, "Grandma Mengzi's place uses floor heating."

"This room is fine. Do I need to go back to the front desk to register?" Amano glanced at him meaningfully as the hotel girl said that, then looked away and got back to the topic.

"No, no! I brought a registration book and a pen..." The hotel girl handed over the registration book, "Do you need another set of bedding?"

"Add another set?" Amano wondered.

"No." He answered quickly.

"Okay - so you want to book another room too?" the hotel girl said happily.

"Book another room?"

"My home is in town. I won't stay in a hotel like yours that doesn't even have floor heating." He was a little angry.

"You! You'd better not stay here! Otherwise, I'll move ten electric heaters in while you're asleep and heat you to death!"

"It's summer now, so they're all in the warehouse, right? Do you have a key?"

"The innkeeper is my uncle!"

"Really... So you're just being rude to customers? Bullying them?"

The girl was sent here by her parents to be taken care of by the hotel owner during the summer vacation. She only helped out when she had nothing to do. He didn't know about it until the girl went to complain and met the hotel owner in the lobby.

The innkeeper was even a classmate of his father and recognized him at a glance.

"I'm sorry." He apologized sincerely.

"You deserve to die of heat!" The girl hid behind her backrest, her face flushed.

Amano watched him laugh from the side.

"Ah... our hotel is indeed a bit old. We can't afford the cost of renovation, so we can only use electric heaters... But it's summer now, so it's not a big deal." The middle-aged man who is the hotel owner scratched his head and explained a little embarrassedly.

"uncle--"

"For some tourists, electric heaters are more popular than floor heating," Amano said. "Amano-san, whose side are you on?"

"I'm trying to comfort the girl you bullied, not to speak for you. Please don't misunderstand, Inoue-san."

"Dede..." He declared his surrender.

"Anyway... this... young lady is a classmate of the Inoue kid, right?"

"Yes."

"This is my sister's daughter. She came here to play during the summer vacation and helped me with a part-time job. I hope you don't mind..."

"It's okay." Amano shook his head.

The girl was still staring at him.

"I told you, I don't live here." He patiently explained to her.

"Then don't let me see you in Sister Amano's room!"

"When did she become your sister? Should she also call me Inoue brother?"

"Dream on, pighead! Slightly—" The girl made a face at him.

"Saiko..."

"What! He bullied me first."

The uncle dragged Shazi away and promised her to go to Hushan Pond to watch the fireworks on the day of the Ullambana Festival.

Amano walked out of the hotel with him and left his luggage at the hotel. He only took with him a small messenger bag that could hold items such as a mobile phone, and put on an extra sweater.

"Is it like this all summer?" Amano asked him as he walked down the street and looked around.

"It's like this all year round. You can hardly see anyone walking on the street. The bustling period is only in the evening."

"It's about the temperature."

"Isn't this just common sense that can be answered by just looking at your phone?"

"Since you invited me here, there must be some purpose, Inoue-san," Amano said slowly. "If everything is handled with a phone or the internet, what else do we need you for?"

"..." He fell silent amidst the girl's sophistry, and thought for a moment, "Even at the hottest time, it won't kill you."

"You don't want me to come? Do you regret it?" Amano tried to guess his thoughts. "You even invited other girls. Are you afraid I'll run into them?"

"How is it possible..." He said confidently, not worrying about the second half of the question at all.

"I met Takeda-san coming to the cattery to see the cats." Amano said suddenly.

"Yesterday?" He paused.

"Two days ago." Amano stopped and waited for him. "Did you move out of the boarding house together?"

"Almost." He couldn't see any special meaning on Amano's face, so he started walking again.

"Shared apartment?"

“Save money.”

"Save money? It's unbelievable that such words would come out of your mouth..." Amano exclaimed.

"Born in a town where hotels don't even have heated floors and bathing requires going to a bathhouse, is it strange to want to save money?"

"The private room you rented at the boarding house, at double the cost, is already more expensive than the rent in that haunted house. You're willing to give up the former, but not the latter?"

"I had no choice," he continued to argue. "And how did you know I occupied a whole room in the boarding house, Amano-san?"

"I know," Amano chuckled, took out his phone, and pulled out a photo, "Is this person you?"

The photo was taken at an offline book signing event for "Waste of Valor". He and Kuroki were sitting behind a table with piles of new volumes of novels.

I remember that I asked him to sign nearly a hundred more books than Kuroki.

"It's scary... It turns out Amano-san is a otaku who likes to read this kind of light novel. Is she my fan? A sasaeng? No wonder she's following me..." He looked at the photo and shuddered.

"Now is the information age. Common sense questions like these can be found on the Internet with just a few clicks." Amano searched for the keyword 'Inoue' on his mobile phone and showed him the search results. He could see his photo less than a page down.

"Can this be considered common sense? Would normal people really search for other people's names on Google?" He couldn't help but regret it - if he had known this would happen, he should have chosen a separate pen name, such as Saotome Otome, and put all his works that made money by drawing light novel illustrations under this pen name.

"No?" She changed the keyword to her own name, and the search results immediately showed various content such as "Beautiful pianist Amano Kanade".

Related search recommendations include keywords such as "xxx dating", "xxx scandal", "xxx boyfriend", "xxx school", etc.

He withdrew his gaze and fell silent.

He didn't know when Amano started living in the spotlight, but judging from the number of web pages that came up when searching for the keyword, his life was probably harder than that of ordinary people.

"So, where's Takeda-san? Didn't he come?" Amano put away his phone.

"Takeda's father has returned from a business trip and doesn't know that her mother was hospitalized after a car accident," he said.

Amano had been to the hospital and met Takeda's mother, so he believed what he said.

"So you invited me to come here to escape the summer heat without telling her?" Amano raised the corner of his mouth and chuckled.

"No... no, ah—what so? What's the connection between these two?"

"No...?" Amano tried to feign surprise that her boyfriend wasn't hiding the fact that she was dating another girl, but her tone was flat, her expression was stiff, and her acting was poor. Even in an animation production crew with extremely limited funds, she wouldn't have made it past the preliminary round.

"Please don't be narcissistic, Amano-san."

"Oh, so the devoted Inoue-san is actually devoted to Takeda-san all along," Amano said with a half-smile. "Did you invite me here just out of courtesy between friends, a symbolic inquiry?"

"Symbol... am I that hypocritical?"

"At least rarely tells the truth."

"Then I can still be devoted to one person wholeheartedly?"

"Inoue-san finally admitted that he's a scumbag? Unbelievable..."

"...My mother is making candied pears, and they should be almost done by now." He was tired and didn't want to argue with a high school girl about this matter. "Would you like to try it?"

"Candied pears?"

"This is often—never mind… white wine, lemon, sugar, poached pears," he said. "It's also a cake topping. Amano-san knows how to make desserts, doesn't he know this?"

"Dessert? You mean cookies?"

"...only cookies?"

"I just learned that the day before I went to the orphanage," she said, shaking her head. "I haven't learned much about baking, let alone making cookies."

"..." Is this talent? He still remembers the chocolate and lemon cookies he ate at that time. They tasted better than those sold in many dessert shops.

"In that case, please accompany me back to the hotel first." Amano thought for a moment, raised his hand to lift his hair, and said to him.

"Back to the hotel?" He stopped.

"I brought some souvenirs."

"dessert?"

“Salty cheese cookies.”

(End of this chapter)