Her heart was pounding doki doki.
Himuro Mio slowly sat up from the bed.
The blanket slipped off her knees, revealing the cuffs of her light blue kimono.
The silk glimmered with a cold snow light under the moonlight.
She stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then let out a soft sigh.
“…Maybe I’ll just take the day off tomorrow.”
The school stuff had long been as simple as child’s play for her.
Whatever the teachers said, whatever her classmates discussed, all felt like through a layer of fog—boring to listen to, empty to touch.
The price of genius was always feeling that the world was half a beat slow.
But now, she had more important things to do.
In her tabi socks, she stepped onto the tatami and walked to the full-length mirror.
The person in the mirror was dressed as a snow woman.
Snow-white skin, a light blue kimono loosely tied at the waist, long light blue hair cascading down, eyelashes lowered—she was cosplaying based on the popular snow woman image trending online recently.
She looked at herself and suddenly found it a bit funny.
Even though that person… already had such a beautiful girlfriend, she still shamelessly used the identity “Yukino” to send him photo after photo.
Snow woman cosplay, shrine maiden in kimono, and even occasionally trying short skirts and stockings.
Actually, she only liked wearing kimonos.
But for Xiaobai, she was willing to challenge other types of clothes.
Deep down, she was thinking: What if he doesn’t actually like seeing them, what if he finds me annoying… but at the same time, she desperately wanted him to see them.
She wanted him to stare blankly at the photos, wanted his heart to skip a beat, wanted him to at least perfunctorily reply, “Your girlfriend is really pretty,” so she could feel that warmth from thousands of kilometers away.
After receiving affirmation, she would usually be in a good mood all day, like the sky after a fresh snowfall.
Pure, cold, yet inexplicably bright.
“Donghai H.M. Parkway Hospital, huh.”
She murmured under her breath, her lips curling into a very slight, cold arc.
“Heh, what a coincidence.”
Donghai H.M. Parkway Hospital happened to be one of the core assets of the Himuro family in Donghai City.
On the surface, it was a Sino-Japanese joint venture led by private capital, but in reality, it was firmly controlled by the Himuro Zaibatsu through layers of cross-shareholding and VIE structures.
Regulators couldn’t find it, media couldn’t touch it, and even the hospital director didn’t know that the true master above him was actually a sixteen-year-old high school girl.
When she was ten years old, she personally made the decision to set up this structure.
At that time, she sat in the hidden snow layer of Marunouchi, with thick documents spread on her lap, giving orders to those adults who were decades older than her.
She said just one thing then.
“This place will be very useful in the future.”
And now it was indeed useful.
On the shareholder register and the board of directors, the name “Himuro Mio” could not be found.
But if someone was careful enough and had enough authority to dig, they would find a clue…
Minazuki Shiro.
When Himuro Mio was six years old, Shiro was brought into the Himuro family and has since become her personal attendant.
Not the kind of servant who only serves tea and water, but a true “right hand.”
Shiro herself was a genius among geniuses—at twenty-two, she graduated from the University of Tokyo, held a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and was also skilled in aikido as well as various cold weapons and firearms.
When she wore her black-and-white maid outfit, she was like a sword sheathed in its scabbard—gentle, sharp, unsheathed only for Mio.
Even when the Yuexue family once tried to poach her with a high salary, they failed.
Himuro Mio looked at herself in the mirror, reached out, and gently touched the glass with her fingertips.
“Shiro.”
Soon, the tall maid appeared.
The maid outfit was modern in cut, form-fitting, with a tight collar and delicate ruffles on the cuffs.
The overall look was both traditional and with a touch of gothic beauty.
“You called, young lady?”
The hem of the black-and-white maid outfit swayed lightly against the door frame, like a patch of congealed ink.
Minazuki Shiro quietly placed a katana beside her, the handle facing Himuro Mio, and sat upright.
“The author I like, and his girlfriend, are in your hospital now…”
“Donghai H.M. Parkway Hospital.”
“I understand.”
“Do you need me to kill his girlfriend?”
A few strands of hair clung to her neck.
Minazuki Shiro was not only academically talented but also proficient in various assassination techniques.
In the Himuro family, there were also male power holders who spoke arrogantly about young women, and even men who arranged political marriages for Himuro Mio.
Later, those men all mysteriously disappeared.
“No, no!”
“At least this time I don’t need you to kill anyone.”
“And besides, he and I are just an author-reader relationship. On the internet, I even pretend to be a guy and have friendly exchanges with him.”
“What I mean is…”
Himuro Mio bit her lip lightly, about to speak, but she was a bit shy and didn’t know how to say it.
“I understand. You need me to retrieve the surveillance footage from Donghai H.M. Parkway Hospital and the information on his girlfriend, right?”
“If necessary, I may also need to gather his information. You just want to monitor them for now, correct?”
“Monitor, such an ugly word. I just want to understand the author a little better… Speaking of which.”
“Xiaobai’s girlfriend even played a trick and used his QQ number to delete herself from his friends list. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Himuro Mio thought that she didn’t need to get angry at a small ant. As long as she could keep the reader-author relationship with Baiye Duxing…”
“Anyway, give me the surveillance footage first.”
“Understood. Then I’ll go prepare the vehicle. We’ll head to the Marunouchi headquarters. I’ll send you the hospital’s local server cloud and the entire hospital’s surveillance footage just now.”
Shiro paused and added another sentence.
“Young lady, let me state beforehand that your actions violate our country’s Personal Information Protection Law and the Nation of Huaxia’s Personal Information Protection Law, Data Security Law, and Cybersecurity Law.”
Himuro Mio stood up and walked out first, her voice as light as falling snow.
“Whatever.”
“If you’re not caught, it’s not a crime.”
Shiro followed closely behind, a slight smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
She had never regretted following Himuro Mio.
Because a blade that doesn’t cut loses its meaning.
Himuro Mio’s code of conduct suited Minazuki Shiro’s taste perfectly.
It wasn’t for money—in fact, the wealth Shiro had accumulated would last her a lifetime.
What she pursued was to serve her lord and to fight as a weapon for her lord.
They got into Minazuki Shiro’s Toyota Century, and she took the wheel herself.
Himuro Mio took out her phone.
She wanted to send a message.
But considering that if she messaged him now, it might disturb the atmosphere between him and his girlfriend, she decided against it…
So she opened the group chat instead.
She found a photo of sushi she had eaten a long time ago in her phone.
[Yukino: Image]
[Yukino: Just went for sushi!]
[Yukino: The waitress who served me the sushi had huge boobs.]
[Yukino: @Baiye Duxing Hey Xiaobai, when are you coming to Tokyo? I’ll treat you to sushi. My heart is pounding doki doki.]
She had no idea what Xiaobai looked like… she was really looking forward to it.
She tucked her side hair behind her ear and deliberately used a frivolous tone in the group chat.
Group chats were such a convenient tool.
If it were a private chat, it wouldn’t work.
Because a private chat was a “one-on-one” space, too intimate, too direct.
If she private messaged him, it would be like she was actively intruding into the “two-person world” of Baiye Duxing and Mi—like a third party stepping in, too obvious.
Group chats were “public,” multi-person spaces.
@-ing him was like shouting “Hey Xiaobai” in the group.
It seemed casual, silly, harmless, like an ordinary reader pressing for updates.
Even if Mi saw it, she would only think, “Oh, it’s that silly reader going crazy in the group again,” and it wouldn’t escalate to the level of “threatening my position.”
[Ttalgi Daegoemul: So jealous~]
[Ttalgi Daegoemul: But not as good as what I ate tonight (¯▽¯)~*]
[Yukino: @Ttalgi Daegoemul What did you eat tonight? At least someone replied. Returning a message is basic courtesy.]
[Ttalgi Daegoemul: Creamy mushroom chicken pasta~ With lots of cheese and heavy cream, hot and sticky. By the end, my mouth was all covered in white cream, and I couldn’t even lick it clean (/w)]
[Ttalgi Daegoemul: My belly is full, so stuffed whimper… He just fed me too much.]
[Ttalgi Daegoemul: (灬ºωº灬)♡ So satisfied I could melt~]
Somewhat incomprehensible.
What’s so good about creamy mushroom chicken pasta?
Maybe, for her, it was a very delicious meal.