People in Tokyo, the world is clear

Then he sighed:

"You're right. Indeed, we need to have a good talk and come to a clear conclusion. No one can stand it if it goes on like this."

Then, he sprang into action, stood up, said goodbye, and ran out of the store.

Tsk tsk tsk...

As I felt a pang in my heart, the arms that were hugging me tightened even more.

"It feels like the senior's words are trying to persuade us to separate."

"Who says it isn't?"

Lin Sen turned his head and stared at the girl who was looking at him.

"See, this is the end of falling in love. Take this as a warning, take this as a warning, Ito!"

It seems to be a proverb.

The girl blinked and seemed to be listening, but actually she didn't comment.

"Come to think of it..." she suddenly said, "Is the relationship between me and Senior the ideal one in other people's eyes?"

"I guess so. Maybe in the eyes of others. But in reality, we all know it's fake."

"Fake..."

The girl laughed at this, squinted her eyes and glared at the person who was speaking with certainty.

"So, it seems like it's not bad to just keep pretending like this?"

"Of course. The essence is friendship, and it preserves a certain kind of beauty to the greatest extent possible."

Someone was responding to himself, without realizing the unconscious implication.

[Afterwards, every time I think about it when we wake up together, I laugh at him for a long time.]

[Written by Ito Nishika in June of a certain year.]

Chapter 43: Bold Hypothesis

“Will it be a bit crowded?”

"Fortunately."

The conversation took place at night on the top of Mount Hakodate, just before the cable car leaning against the building was about to depart.

This high-rise facility truly gives off a newly constructed feel. The glass exterior windows, including the cable car itself, are all painted white, a vibrant, still-wet color.

A sweet announcement voice came from the roof of the car, announcing that it was about to depart.

Then, the car body vibrated slowly.

As a feeling of being pulled in the air swayed and passed from my feet up, the sound of light conversation and laughter could be heard in the carriage.

Then, as the altitude rises, the night view unfolds like a picture scroll.

Lin Sen admitted that he had spoken a little loudly earlier—in fact, he had only ever seen this kind of bird's-eye view of the nightscape through similar media like videos. At first, he was somewhat disdainful.

But after actual experience, I found that as the human body's built-in ultra-high-definition camera, the details and light and shadow that can be captured by the naked eye, and the shocking effects directly transmitted to the mind, far exceed any top-level equipment and have been reprinted a second time.

Despite the fog reducing visibility, the beautiful atmosphere was still preserved to some extent.

Lights flickered outside the window, adding a touch of romantic life to the cold steel and stone buildings.

Crouching on the shore, a giant, glittering beast in the darkness, seemed to burst into flames. From time to time, a single light would go out, only to be replaced by another in the darkness, like the slow breathing of the giant city.

The beauty of the night scene is not the alternating radiance of white, orange, and pink, but the meaning of life represented by the interplay of light and darkness.

Some people who work hard to live their lives turn off the lights and go to bed on this ordinary foggy night. Others do the same, light up the lights in their houses and think about what they should do tonight.

Go to the fragrant restaurant downstairs to have dinner, and go to the windowsill to water the potted plants.

Holding the hands of noisy children, we can catch up on the new episode of a prime-time special drama, or we can go for a walk with our wife or an old friend and talk about our wildest dreams.

I'm scratching my head and worrying about the extra work this week, and I'm worried about my personal future which is being pushed forward by the times.

Worrying about some daily interpersonal relationships, I sit by the half-open window, enjoying the evening breeze and pondering the value of life.

Under the same night sky, tiny expectations and happiness are entangled with distress and confusion, converging into rivers and seas, rushing towards unreachable dreams and uncontrollable love and hate, weaving the present and the future bit by bit.

What is packed into this splendid and luxurious city is actually nothing more than the vulgar daily life of eating, drinking, defecating and urinating. It is everyone's survival, life and life.

Perhaps this is why there is a vague sense of reality that is visible and tangible.

So, Lin Sen couldn't help but tighten his arms, moved closer to someone's right hand, and unconsciously protected the entity in front of him tighter.

In his arms, there was a girl with short hair leaning against the window.

The glass reflected her figure and her expression.

The night market reappeared in her eyes. A subtle light flickered in her black pupils, as if the city and the starry sky had taken up residence in her eyes.

Then, the girl gave up everything she saw and closed her eyes.

She kept her head down, clasped her fists together, and raised them to the tip of her nose. She followed the instructions on the poster seriously, obeying the instructions on what to do when riding a cable car, and made a wish that only she knew.

Then he put his hand down, held onto the glass railing, and turned to look over.

Someone was protecting her well. Behind her were other passengers trying out new attractions, but their noisy, low conversation and breathing were blocked by his arms and back.

Under the light and shadow cast by the suspended cable car, the figures of those people turned into dim shadows. Only his face, close by, reflected the sharp angles and colors.

Then, he looked back, and what was projected in his eyes was her own faint smile.

The two of them behaved like typical lovers - the boyfriend protected the girlfriend and created their own little world isolated from others.

But perhaps something is missing. Like, whispers.

Ito Xiguo took another glance at the pale figures in the city that never sleeps.

Many of the passengers were interested and raised their cameras.

The fog reduces the visibility in the city and casts a veil over its magnificence, but it still cannot stop tourists from being enthusiastic about recording it.

Amid the worldly whispers in the room, the girl reached out and took the camera hanging around the young man's neck.

"Senior, why don't you take a few more photos like others?" asked Ito Xiguo.

"We can't let the camera see everything. Besides, memory is the best video review." Lin Sen answered confidently.

He rarely takes landscape photos.

For him, wasting the opportunity to open his eyes and look at the small viewfinder of the camera was putting the cart before the horse.

Lin Sen believed that the purpose of a photograph was simply to activate memories. Therefore, as long as the image was clear and vivid, there was no need to be picky.

Spending a lot of time capturing the beauty of the scenery is a photographer's professional job, not a burden that tourists should impose on themselves.

However, Ms. Ito was right in reminding me of one thing.

Indeed, at least one.

So, after some stubborn talk, Lin Sen finally accepted the suggestion and held the camera steadily with both hands.

"Isn't it a little too close?" Miss Ito asked.

"Sure, it doesn't matter." Lin Sen didn't care about this at first.

But the next second, he found that the tip of his nose was swirled with the air of hair emitting a faint fragrance - the body half-protected in his arms turned around.

Then, I felt a pair of hands passing through my waist and caressing my back.

She clasped her hands together and fell backward.

It led the two people to take two steps forward together.

The girl leaned her back against the railing and then buried her head against his chest.

Ms. Ito is indeed a clever child. This way, the camera can be brought closer to the window, allowing for a more comprehensive and clear photo.

It seemed like she did it just for that reason - which was strange.

Lin Sen would not have such mental retardation.

So, he held the square device steady, clicked the shutter a few times, filled the blank film a little, and then threw the camera behind him.

He lowered his head and glanced at the smiling girl.

"Your heart is beating so fast."

She narrowed her eyes and said teasingly, "Is it because of a physiological reaction?"

"affim."

This is crap.

It would definitely be exciting to be hugged by such a cute girl.

Biological science shows that this behavior leads to hormone secretion, which is unavoidable unless there is something wrong with the human physiological system.

Lin Sen was somewhat curious about Miss Ito's sudden action. But judging from her expression of enjoyment, it might be driven by a child's natural craving for comfort.

Or, there are other reasons.

Lin Sen waited for her next sentence.

"Actually, there have always been some things I wanted to do..." The girl carefully considered her tone.

"Ask." The gradually deepening tacit understanding made Lin Sen understand the hidden meaning of her words.

So Miss Ito let go of her hands, turned her hands over, pressed on her chest and pushed a little further.

He tilted his head back, a look of cautious curiosity on his face.

"I feel like seniors are always a little...stressed when it comes to topics related to love."

"That's true."

There are two reasons. First, there's genuine lack of interest. Experience has shown that so-called love, in the end, most likely devolves into constant demands on each other.

Then, quarrels, dissatisfaction, and the gradual deterioration of the originally good impression... Lin Sen admits that he has some prejudice against love between men and women, but he is happy to maintain this stereotype.

And the other one is not shameful to say.

QQ: 8 1 4 9 0 3 7 9 8

That is, there are too many people of the opposite sex around who are considered excellent from their own perspective. If you don't constantly reflect on your own biases, you are likely to follow your instincts and cause trouble.

In particular, the few people he is currently close to all have somewhat strange personalities, and sometimes they have no sense of boundaries when dealing with him, and he has to keep reminding and correcting them.

If he were still in his teens or early twenties, Lin Sen might have simply followed his instincts without thinking twice. But in his previous life, he was already in his late twenties before crossing over, and he had the twenty-four years of experience of this life added to that.

You will be able to calm down more.

Although his body is still young, he is equipped with terrifyingly strong self-control.

"To me, rushing into something that I don't think has a good outcome could be detrimental to both parties."

Lin Sen's words were drowned out by the low and heated conversations around him, and were only heard by the girl who was standing nearby.

She blinked, thoughtfully.

A few moments.

"My seniors feel that when love develops to the end, it is very likely to become like the couple we saw this morning. They will quarrel because of some incompatible personalities and views, and the quarrel will be so intense that they will be exhausted both physically and mentally." She concluded.

"Yes. In my experience, that one is pretty good." Lin Sen nodded in agreement.

However, he was speechless when he heard the next question.

"Have you ever experienced something worse? Is it because of your own experience that you are... very resistant to love?"

Looking closely, I saw Miss Ito lowering her head and hiding her expression.

——This is the first time that the girl has taken the initiative to ask about someone’s experience.

Even on that rainy night when she got to know Lin Sen, she was just a listener.

However, what he heard was just the "pain" in Lin Sen's inherited memory - for him now, it was not something so painful that he needed to hide it.

So, I can speak out frankly and respond to her rare sudden behavior:

"I guess so. It's probably like thinking your sincerity and kindness will earn you even a little bit of affection and feedback, but in the end, you find that from beginning to end, you're just an insignificant plaything in other people's eyes. Or, perhaps, a tool to be exploited."

"..."