I have a life simulator.

"Well, the last assignment was really tough."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo shook his head helplessly:

"After all, both classes do have students who want their classmates to drop out, and there are more than just one or two of them."

Leaving aside Class 2-B, ever since he transferred, the conflict between boys and girls in the class has never stopped. In addition, when Sakayanagi Arisu and Horikita Suzune were competing for class leadership, he deliberately pushed things along, and now it's hard to get back to the way it was.

Class 2-C's problem stemmed entirely from a significant information gap between Katsuragi Kohei and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. The former knew that the class had at least two spies, including Kushida Kikyo, while the latter was fully aware of Hirata Yosuke's true identity and Kamuro Masumi's betrayal.

Logically speaking, this should have been a good opportunity to throw the person out and take away 100 class points, but Ayanokouji Kiyotaka has now reached an unspoken understanding with Kitagawa Ryo and is unlikely to target his people. As a result, Katsuragi Kohei is caught in the middle, making him look like the treacherous minister who jumped out on his own initiative.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo and Asahina Nazuna finished their drinks and started ordering food to make do with lunch, around 12:30, good news finally came from the second year: Class 2-B and Class 2-C both passed the special unanimous exam.

Thus, all twelve classes across the three grades successfully passed this special exam. However, Class 2B and Class 2C ultimately did not choose to support Topic 5, even at the cost of dropping out one student from their class, in order to obtain the reward of one hundred class points.

As for the specific process, it's a long story that's hard to explain in a few words.

On the other hand, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, who was in Class 2-C and simply felt that the class was doomed if they continued like this, took the initiative to say, "There are no traitors, only loyal subjects," almost adding a couple of lines like "Clouds in the blue sky, water in the bottle" and "The Yangtze River is clear, the Yellow River is muddy," thus forcibly ending the topic of the mole that had been brought up again.

And Class 2B was even more outrageous.

Horikita Suzune was at her wits' end, unable to mediate the conflict between the two sides. In the end, Sakayanagi Arisu and Amasawa Ichika dragged Kitagawa Ryo into the fray, fabricating a story that he was preparing to return without Kitagawa Ryo's knowledge.

"But my next transfer destination will definitely be Class D."

"It's fine. We can just go back and explain to everyone what changes Class D made that made you agree to this. It'll be a win-win situation, right?"

"Moreover, I think Class D's approach is actually quite good. If Class B is still like this, there's no point in Liang coming back."

I had just finished chatting with Arisu Sakayanagi when a message from Hiyori Shiina flashed in the notification bar at the top of the screen.

While Kitagawa Ryo was busy replying to various messages in the quiet afternoon, the school administration of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School also compiled all the data from this special unanimous exam.

"Therefore, I hereby declare that Tokyo has been successfully selected as the examination venue for this summer special exam with ten votes."

Chairman Sakayanagi Shigemori made the announcement with a smile:

"Please begin your preparations."

"For the most special summer exam since the school was founded."

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: The summer special exam is the last major storyline. With all the characters appearing, we will try our best to fill in all the unfinished romantic storylines. If we really can't fill them in, we'll have to wait for the side stories.

PS3: I have a new book in preparation. It's still a youth slice-of-life romance harem novel, but it's an original work that I've wanted to write for a long time. You can look forward to it.

Chapter 63: Hiyori Chronicles, a Grand Serialized Novel

Nothing noteworthy happened at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School in mid-June, not even the recently concluded special exam, which was unanimously passed by all twelve classes across three grades, with no students dropping out. The only thing worth discussing was that the location for this summer's special exam was chosen to be Tokyo.

Along with the location being determined, it was also confirmed that all students from all three grades would participate in this special exam.

In terms of forum activity, the announcement of this event had a significant effect. After all, before the first, second, and third years, due to the different special exams they faced, discussions on the forum were basically one-sided, with each person talking about their own thing. Apart from topics like clubs or someone's love gossip that everyone could chat about happily, there was basically no communication between different grades.

But now that the school has announced that the next summer special exam will be held for all three grades at the same time, it is natural that people on the forum can talk about it together. However, since the summer special exams experienced by the second and third year students were all held on deserted islands, and it was the first time for everyone, it was basically a state of rampant fake medicine flying everywhere.

Just as students at Dongyu were speculating on the campus forum yesterday about whether this time they would go out for inter-club exchanges like last time, today about whether the school would send them out to work illegally, and tomorrow about the school actually letting everyone go home to see their families after a long time, a sudden news item quickly grabbed the headlines on the forum.

Upon closer inspection, it was none other than Kitagawa Ryo.

In this respect, he can be considered the reverse of Wang Feng; he's the only one who can steal other people's headlines, and no one else can steal his.

Upon clicking on the post title, the news that Kitagawa Ryo had transferred to another class immediately came into view.

Speaking of last year when the second-year students of Kitagawa Ryo enrolled, the homeroom teacher had to add a sentence when introducing the rule of transferring classes with 20 million personal points: "No student in the history of Dongyu School has ever accumulated 20 million personal points to transfer classes."

As a result, when the first-year students enrolled this year and the homeroom teachers told them about this rule, it had to be updated to reflect the times, stating that since the school's founding, only Kitagawa Ryo had successfully transferred classes through this rule.

At this rate, the story will probably have to be told twice, or even more, when a new class of students enrolls next year.

In short, since they had already seen it once, the students of Dongyu were still quite concerned about Kitagawa Ryo's transfer to another class. However, compared to the shock and horror they felt the first time, this time they were more focused on gossip.

After all, Kitagawa Ryo's last class transfer had already sparked the fervent enthusiasm of countless literary figures on campus, especially after Ichinose Honami also transferred. The love triangle surrounding her, Kitagawa Ryo, and Karuizawa Kei had become a topic that had been discussed to death on the forums. In fact, it seemed that some people had genuinely taken sides. A large portion of the posts related to Kitagawa Ryo that Nanase Tsubasa collected on the campus forum when she enrolled included their comments.

Following this line of thought, it is no surprise that the arrow is now pointing to Shiina Hiyori from Class 2-D. Although she had already made a big appearance at the Valentine's Day celebration, everyone was still quite curious about how she was able to push this matter through against all odds in front of Ryuen Sho, who had a bad reputation among second-year students and even the entire school.

Of course, a very small group of people, with their true intentions revealed, shifted the topic to the fact that this whole thing was actually initiated by Ryuen Sho himself, who was trying to lead everyone into a new world. I won't go into details about that. All I can say is that Kitagawa Ryo really wanted to cut off Ryuen's long, flowing hair.

Unlike the Karuizawa class, which transferred classes at the end of the second semester and the beginning of winter break, Class 2-D didn't hold a big welcome party for Kitagawa Ryo because of the upcoming final exams. After more than a semester of training, most of the students in Class 2-D had at least developed a good habit of studying proactively. After all, if you don't learn from Ryuen Sho, you'll really get a beating. It's like shattering a delinquent's soul with three blows and saying, "Sir, I'm a good student now."

That is why Kitagawa Ryo's transfer to another class can be described as completely silent. After saying goodbye to the students in Class A, he took his schoolbag and school supplies and went to Class 2-D on Monday after the following weekend.

Including the time Karuizawa Megumi simulated, this is Kitagawa Ryo's second time coming to the Ryuen class.

To be honest, although he led Class C to almost Class A in that simulation, but now Class C has fallen to Class D, in terms of everyone's appearance, Kitagawa Ryo still prefers the current Ryuen Class.

After all, that simulation was basically a two-man carry game between him and Ryuen Sho. The special exam on the deserted island was turned into a mode where everyone else had a great time and went back to the cruise ship, leaving only him and Ryuen Sho to survive on the deserted island... Although it seems that only Ryuen actually survived on the deserted island that time.

Long Yuanxiang had no idea what Kitagawa Ryo was thinking. After he walked into the classroom with his schoolbag, he warmly led him to his seat and thoughtfully told him before leaving that Shiina Hiyori would be sitting next to him.

I remember that time, Hiyori was sitting in front of me...

While greeting the other D-class students nearby, Kitagawa Ryo also glanced at the empty seat next to her. Shiina Hiyori hadn't arrived yet, but the seat was very much in her own style, with the desk drawer stuffed full of all kinds of books, from mystery to traditional literature. Kitagawa Ryo had no doubt that this girl was probably the student in the entire Dongyu who spent the most personal points on books.

"Sorry—I'm late."

Watching the silver-haired girl trot from the classroom door to his seat, Kitagawa Ryo feigned ignorance and pointed to the clock on the wall:

"Actually, there are still a full twenty minutes before class starts."

"I wasn't talking about class, you idiot."

Shiina Hiyori put down her schoolbag with a slight regret, sat in her seat, and began to flaunt her relationship with Kitagawa Ryo early in the morning, seemingly oblivious to everyone else:

"Today is Ryo's first day in this class. I was thinking of bringing Ryo here myself."

"I've already done that—"

From the front row came Ryuuen Sho's voice from afar. Shiina Hiyori glared at the class leader without giving him any face, signaling him to shut up, before turning her gaze back to Kitagawa Ryo's face:

"I feel like I can understand how Hui felt back then."

Although I really want to complain that what Shiina Hiyori said sounds a bit strange, when I think about how she and Karuizawa Megumi are really good friends who share the same simulated memories, it doesn't seem so hard to understand... What the hell? It's precisely because they're good friends that this sentence feels so strange.

Seeing that Shiina Hiyori practically wanted to move her entire desk over to sit next to his, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't resist reaching out and tapping her forehead.

"Didn't you say you were going to surprise me today? Where is it?"

"Ah, this, this, ta-da—"

Upon hearing this, Shiina Hiyori also took out something from her schoolbag that had never been there before—a beautifully packaged bento box:

"I've been eating cold bento boxes for over half a year, so today I'll have mine instead."

Because Shiina Hiyori returned all the personal points she had stored on her side, and the other party used those personal points to make up the 20 million needed for transferring classes, the feeding relationship between the two officially ended. It just so happened that Shiina Hiyori had been learning to cook with Ibuki Mio all semester, so the situation naturally reversed.

"Although it's definitely not as good as Liang's cooking, it's still palatable, at least that's what Lingyin said."

"So—is it just for today, or every day from now on?"

"If Liang likes it, she can do it every day. Actually, once you get the hang of it, making bento boxes isn't that troublesome. I've also been trying baking recently, thinking of making some simple tea snacks myself?"

"Are you learning from Suzune or Airi? For baking beginners, there are a few recipes I highly recommend. Which ones is Hiyori learning now?"

Instead of answering Kitagawa Ryo's question immediately, Shiina Hiyori playfully winked at him with her left eye and then spoke again, keeping him in suspense:

"Well, Liang will know after school this afternoon, around dinner time, just by checking my room."

"it is good."

After the two finished chatting about these everyday topics, it was time for morning class. The class teacher, Kazuma Sakagami, first welcomed Ryo Kitagawa before officially starting the lesson.

The morning passed in the blink of an eye. This time, Shiina Hiyori didn't need to travel all the way to Class A to freeload lunch. Instead, she put their tables together and gave her own lunchbox to Kitagawa Ryo.

"Speaking of cooking and detectives, has Ryo watched this season's 'Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi'?"

"Not yet, I haven't watched much TV lately, how's it going?"

"Although I've only watched two episodes so far, I personally really like it and would recommend it. Compared to the design of the puzzles and the methods of murder, this work mainly explores and focuses on the motivation, and they are all related to food. After all, the protagonist detective is a gourmet who attaches great importance to his three meals a day."

"After all, modern detective dramas really can't come up with any new methods of crime or puzzle design anymore, so I think this idea is pretty good."

"Yeah, and it's also because I've been learning to cook lately, so I really resonate with some of the storylines."

As she spoke, Shiina Hiyori also picked up a piece of egg roll with her chopsticks:

"For example, in the case in the first episode, the housewife murdered her husband because he had only ever asked her to cook the same monotonous dishes during their ten-year marriage and had never said a word about how delicious they were. However, he later ate a meal cooked by another woman for lunch."

"Although she knew from beginning to end that her husband had not cheated on her, for her personally, this was something even more unbearable than cheating. The different seasonings and spices that clung to her husband's clothes every day when he came home were a purer betrayal than the scent of perfume and lipstick. So, in the end, she used a kitchen knife from the kitchen utensils that she had specially bought when they got married but had never used in the following ten years to kill her husband."

It can only be said that this kind of topic of constantly talking about murder and the killer is indeed a bit exciting for the other students in Class D, but for Kitagawa Ryo and Shiina Hiyori, it is essentially just a topic of conversation during meals, something they are used to.

"There's a line from the first episode that I remember quite well."

Shiina Hiyori, resting her chin on her hand, smiled and extended her chopsticks to offer a small rice ball to Kitagawa Ryo's lips:

"Which one constitutes infidelity for a couple: eating or having sex? Sexual intercourse usually stops as people get older, but eating can continue until the end of a couple's lives. It transcends physical desires and is something that truly belongs to the couple."

"Three meals a day, nothing more."

As Shiina Hiyori's expression grew increasingly ambiguous with a half-smile, Kitagawa Ryo simply opened his mouth to accept the rice ball she fed him.

"Delicious—mmm, especially delicious."

"Will Hiyori be so 'merciful' as to let me go this time?"

Faced with Kitagawa Ryo's exaggerated act of feigning submission and begging for mercy, Shiina Hiyori couldn't help but chuckle, making a slight clinking sound as she flicked her chopsticks in the air.

“I would never do such a thing. This is reality, not a mystery novel or TV series. And one piece of information I didn’t tell Ryo is that another important reason why the murderer in the first episode would have such an extreme mentality is that the victim, namely her husband, was impotent.”

Seemingly feeling that such a topic was even less appropriate to be openly discussed in this place than murder, Shiina Hiyori leaned forward and moved a little closer to Kitagawa Ryo, almost able to feel the other's breath.

“We’re not a couple who have been married for ten years and are experiencing a midlife crisis.”

“I am not the kind of hostess who sees cooking and eating as evidence of infidelity, and Liang is not the kind of host who is completely useless.”

"So, in my opinion, the motivation in the first episode is only applicable to an extreme individual in this case. It makes some sense, but it is not enough to convince me."

"Just like—"

Kitagawa Ryo could see the blush on the girl's cheeks, a blush that could intoxicate even without drinking. This wasn't just a fleeting appearance that could outshine any sweet words, because her sweet words would appear in the next second:

"I still feel that compared to eating and cooking, that aspect is more like something that lovers or even couples would want to do."

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: Now it's time for the Hiyori chapter, which I'm quite familiar with writing. The "Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi" featured in this chapter is a related Japanese drama that aired in 2020. Interested readers can check it out. I think it was after writing about the character Hiyori that I started reading a lot of similar mystery works. I started by following the book lists and authors that she recommended in the original work, and then further expanded into related fields. Sometimes I feel like I have a fellow book lover with me. So I've written two love letters to Hiyori before. Even though it's over now, I can still say with certainty that this character brought me many beautiful and precious memories. If you can also feel a little bit of the charm of this character who doesn't actually have much screen time in the original work from this book, then I would be honored.

Chapter 64: Mystery stories that sell romantic pairings can also be good works.

As it turns out, Hiyori Shiina really couldn't forget her little mystery games. After all, it's already quite rare to find a lover who shares your hobbies, and when your partner is willing and actively participates in those little games and interactions that seem a bit incomprehensible to others, it naturally makes you even more enthusiastic.

It was precisely because of this that Kitagawa Ryo, who was naturally somewhat expectant due to the words Shiina Hiyori had described during lunch break, did not see the scene he had anticipated when he went to Shiina Hiyori's room after finishing his club affairs after school in the afternoon.

Just like in the simulation where he left the German letter "RACHE," meaning revenge, on the mirror in his dorm bathroom on the day of the date, leading him on a detective-novel-like journey of pursuit, Shiina Hiyori also left Kitagawa Ryo with a mystery this time.

During lunch break, Kitagawa Ryo asked Shiina Hiyori, who was recently learning baking, what specific desserts she had tried making. The latter just kept it a secret, and that was the question Shiina Hiyori gave to Kitagawa Ryo.

Kitagawa Ryo is not someone who pays much attention to television or variety shows, and gets more information from books. Shiina Hiyori, on the other hand, has been watching a lot of mystery and cooking shows with Karuizawa Megumi during her free time. The show "Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi" that she mentioned to Kitagawa Ryo during lunch break today is one example, and the inspiration for the question she is asking now comes from another example.

In the popular variety show "Case Kitchen" on the other side of the ocean, the rules of the show are that the guests have to collect clues in a kitchen where a certain dessert has just been made, and reverse the process to deduce and replicate the dessert. The closer they are to the correct answer, the higher their score. If they deduce correctly in all cases, they will have to compete to see who can taste the dessert.

What Kitagawa Ryo needs to do now is, just like the guests on this show, deduce which dessert Shiina Hiyori made in her small kitchen, where a baking process had recently taken place.

Kitagawa Ryo put the cards explaining the rules that Shiina Hiyori had prepared back on the living room table and went straight into the kitchen.

To be honest, for Kitagawa Ryo, who possesses the talents of both a baking master and a super detective, this puzzle is actually not difficult at all. If he went on that variety show, he could probably easily win the championship on the spot, and it would be the undisputed champion with the most accurate and best-tasting deduction.

Although Hiyori Shiina cleverly added many distractions to the set, just like the production team, Ryo Kitagawa was also a baking expert. He decisively eliminated all the ingredients that were obviously beyond Hiyori Shiina's current capabilities and the kitchen utensils that she was unlikely to be able to handle. In the end, only a few key props and clues remained in front of Ryo Kitagawa.

The pie pan was damp and clearly had just been used; there was a peeler with some lime and lemon peel left; the trash can contained whole lemon peels and eggshells; and a little less whipped cream and condensed milk.

Several baking styles that beginners often try, such as American lime pie, lemon chiffon pie, and lemon meringue pie, quickly came to Kitagawa Ryo's mind. The final piece of the puzzle to solve this mystery was hidden in the residue left over from the food processor.

I picked up a small piece with my fingertip and put it in my mouth to taste it. The salty taste came on my tongue. It was a soda cracker.

Having found this place, Kitagawa Ryo also took out his phone and sent his answer to Shiina Hiyori:

"Hiyori makes Atlantic Beach Pie."

This dessert, also known as Mudo Pie, is a classic beginner-friendly baking option. The ingredients and process are incredibly simple: the crust is made from crushed soda crackers, the filling consists of egg yolks, condensed milk, and lemon juice, and finally, a layer of whipped cream is added. It's so easy that anyone can make it.

Sure enough, just as Kitagawa Ryo sent out the correct answer, Shiina Hiyori, who had been waiting at the other end of the corridor with dessert in her hand, trotted back. When Kitagawa Ryo reopened the door, she placed the dessert, which was on a plate, in front of him. Her smiling face was hidden behind the whipped cream with frosting, but the sweetness seemed to exceed that.