See you tomorrow.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka glanced at the sender of the email while driving, and immediately understood the situation.

This was a research project that required multi-party cooperation within the Sikehai Family. His previous visit to the subsidiary of the Inuyama Family was precisely to handle this matter.

However, some details of this project had yet to be finalized.

Among the Toyokawa Group, the most suitable person to step forward was Toyokawa Kiyotaka, who was the son-in-law of the Toyokawa family, so he needed to make another trip.

"I'm sorry, Xiao Xiang. After I drop you off at home, I might have to go back to the company."

"Okay."

"Yeah," Toyokawa Kiyotaka said as he drove.

"This is the latest investment direction decided by the group. It is an investment project targeting research in the pharmaceutical field, with a total investment of 16.8 billion."

"Birth, old age, sickness, and death... If we can develop better medicines and technologies, maybe we can save more people in the future..."

He concealed some details and explained.

"I just went to a company this morning to discuss this matter, but I didn't expect that there would still be some details to communicate with another company this afternoon."

"Thank you for your hard work, Father," Toyokawa Sakiko said softly.

She hugged her shoulder bag in her arms and then looked out the window.

Swish—

The speed of the Maybach increased slightly, and the thoughts of Toyokawa Sakiko and Toyokawa Kiyotaka drifted far away at the same time.

Toyokawa Sakiko thought of her mother who passed away due to "illness." If a new drug could have been developed a little earlier, perhaps her mother would not have passed away.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka thought of how he had said "I will work hard" more than once, respectively to his father-in-law, to his wife, and to his daughter...

Swish!

The Maybach sped along the road.

After turning a street corner, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

Not far away, an elevated highway spanned the air. The traffic on the bridge was sparse, and it looked smooth all the way.

"Taking the elevated highway should save some time."

Toyokawa Kiyotaka thought to himself.

But looking through the rearview mirror inside the car, he saw his daughter still looking at the scenery outside the window, wondering what she was thinking about.

He sighed and decided to take this opportunity to spend more time with his daughter.

"I won't take the elevated highway today. The next time I pick up my daughter and she is in a hurry to get home, I'll take this road."

Toyokawa Kiyotaka glanced at the ramp on the right, gently tilted the steering wheel, and the front of the car steadily returned to the ground lane, continuing forward.

Beep, beep, beep—

A car next to them seemed dissatisfied with the Maybach's indecisive attitude and honked its horn several times in anger.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka ignored it entirely, stepped on the gas pedal, and continued to accelerate forward.

At this moment,

In the back seat, within Toyokawa Sakiko's field of vision, the Tokyo streets outside the window were still bustling with traffic.

The midday sunlight was slightly glaring, and the cherry blossom trees along the street had almost all shed their flowers, leaving only scattered pink and white petals clinging to the branches. Blown by the wind, they fell onto the shoulders of pedestrians and the roofs of cars, only to be swept away by passing vehicles.

Her thoughts were neither on why the car didn't take the elevated highway nor on the scenery along the way. Instead, she inexplicably thought of the new transfer student, Nagumo Ugetsu.

Today, the three of them left the school together. It was he and Wakaba Mutsumi who had invited her.

Toyokawa Sakiko never expected that Nagumo would become so familiar with her childhood friend, Wakaba Mutsumi, less than a few days after coming to Tsukinomori.

Meanwhile,

In the driver's seat ahead, Toyokawa Kiyotaka held the steering wheel steadily with both hands, his expression focused.

There suddenly seemed to be more cars on the roadside. Someone had tried to overtake him defiantly just now, but was thwarted by his counter-maneuver.

He originally wanted to play some music, but then thought that his daughter might not be used to the songs from his era, so he dismissed the idea, leaving only a quiet atmosphere lingering inside the car.

Sakiko wanted to say something, but seeing the slight frown between her father's eyebrows, she guessed he might be thinking about business at the company, so she swallowed her words back into her heart.

Swish—

The car drove all the way through the outer ring expressway and then turned into the Kyu-Furukawa Gardens located in Tokyo.

In front of a Western-style mansion and villa, the Maybach came to a smooth stop, and then the car doors slowly opened.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka turned his head and looked at his daughter:

"Get some rest early when you get home. Your physical condition isn't very good today."

"I already instructed the house to prepare dinner before I came. While you're still growing, remember to eat more."

"Okay," Toyokawa Sakiko nodded.

She picked up her schoolbag and got out of the car.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka rolled down the car window and instructed again:

"I still have to go back to the company. It's indeed very busy lately, remember to take care of yourself."

"If anything comes up, tell the housekeeper at home, and if all else fails, remember to call me."

"I know," Toyokawa Sakiko said softly.

Toyokawa Kiyotaka looked at her for a moment, nodded, and then closed the car door again.

Hum—

The car window rolled up,

And the Maybach steadily drove out of the curve in front of the residence, slowly moving away.

Toyokawa Sakiko stood alone in place, gazing at the direction her father left.

After a while, she turned around and walked toward the gate of her family residence.

The villa was quiet.

A servant politely greeted her, saying that lunch was already prepared in the kitchen.

"I'll eat later,"

Toyokawa Sakiko said.

She took off her shoes, changed into the indoor pair worn at home, and walked toward the second floor.

…………

…………

Meanwhile,

At Nagumo Ugetsu's home,

After dropping Wakaba Mutsumi off at home, he returned the car to the teacher from earlier and took the train back himself.

He simply made some lunch. After eating, Nagumo Ugetsu took out his phone, scrolled to his chat list, and looked at the message Wakaba Mutsumi had just sent:

The first one:

[Thank you.]

"This should be thanking me for driving her home?"

Nagumo Ugetsu thought to himself, then looked further down:

[There's no one at my house]

Huh?

Nagumo Ugetsu pondered slightly before realizing that she meant her parents, Wakaba Tatsubumi and Mori Minami, were currently not at home, so no one was around to care about what happened over the weekend.

"Well, that's good."

"How should I reply though?"

Nagumo Ugetsu thought for a moment, then drafted a message.

Just as he was about to click send, Wakaba Mutsumi's next message came through:

[Minami-chan seems to have another new endorsement]

"Oh?"

Nagumo Ugetsu wasn't too surprised.

As a top-tier actress, Mori Minami would naturally attract some commercial brands to throw olive branches her way.

This was beneficial to both sides, so why not?

Nagumo Ugetsu deleted the contents of the chat box and changed the subject:

[Tomorrow is the Music Festival. By the way, does Tsukinomori release any program schedules in advance?]

After this sentence was sent, Wakaba Mutsumi fell silent.

A few minutes later, she replied with an image:

[Image]

Nagumo Ugetsu clicked on it, and it was indeed the program schedule for this Music Festival.

The schedule was exquisitely made, adorned with the Tsukinomori school emblem.

In the middle were rows of upcoming bands and performance repertoires, where he could spot a few familiar names.

"The brass band is the first act. By the way, isn't Nagasaki Soyo a member of the brass band?"

"And this group... Didn't they seem to be improvising on the playground recently?"

"Hmm... As expected, there are also the senior girls from Band. Probably the most heavyweight program of this Music Festival."

Nagumo Ugetsu scanned through it at a glance, his thoughts shifting.

A few minutes earlier,

In the chat box between Wakaba Mutsumi and Toyokawa Sakiko:

[Wakaba Mutsumi: Sakiko... do you have the performance schedule for the Music Festival?]

[Toyokawa Sakiko: Huh? I really don't, let me ask someone else]

[Toyokawa Sakiko: Found it]

[Toyokawa Sakiko: Image]

[Wakaba Mutsumi: Thank you]

Then, Wakaba Mutsumi exited the chat and clicked on Nagumo Ugetsu's contact.

Nagumo Ugetsu happened to send a reply:

[Thanks a lot]

She stared unblinkingly at the brief chat. The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains and fell on Wakaba Mutsumi, making her look completely quiet.

After another moment, Wakaba Mutsumi replied with a message:

[Good afternoon]

Nagumo Ugetsu had just taken advantage of the gap while waiting for Wakaba Mutsumi's reply to tidy up his futon.

Just as he spread out the quilt on the bed, he saw Wakaba Mutsumi's message.

"Good afternoon,"

Nagumo Ugetsu said softly.

…………

At this moment,

Toyokawa Sakiko was playing the piano at home.

Nagasaki Soyo had just finished organizing the things she needed to bring tomorrow and cleared out some debris around the house.

Wakaba Mutsumi was taking a nap.

And Nagumo Ugetsu was also taking a nap.

Tokyo in the afternoon looked no different from usual.

Time seemed to have its playback speed turned down, and the city dozed off in the sunlight.

Time ticked away, and the daylight slowly turned from golden to orange-red, the horizon beginning to burn.

The shadows of the city grew longer, and the buildings outside the window, like a row of silent giant beasts, hid themselves in the darkness.

Night descended bit by bit.

Nagumo Ugetsu had napped for a long time; it had been a while since he rested like this.

Probably due to staying up all night previously, he didn't wake up from the bed until around 6:30.

Upon waking up, he subconsciously tapped on his phone.

He hadn't exited the chat window with Wakaba Mutsumi during his nap.

At this moment, two new messages were quietly lying there in the chat box:

[16:41]

[See you tomorrow]

……

[18:12]

[See you tomorrow]

……

The sender of the messages seemed to have waited for a long time, and seeing no reply from the other side, even resent it once more.

Nagumo Ugetsu quickly tapped out a few lines:

[Sorry for just seeing the message, I just woke up]

[See you tomorrow, Wakaba-san]