"I know, this isn’t important," Fushimi Roku had already been interrupted twice by Kujo Yua, naturally aware of the situation: "How do we wake up?"
"No rush, I still have some things unfinished..."
Minamoto Tamako had just entered the second layer of Heart Acupoint and hadn’t figured out the situation, temporarily unwilling to give up halfway.
Fushimi Roku frowned, suddenly realizing that Minamoto Tamako might see something she shouldn’t in his dream... She might be about to see it, which is why she doesn’t want to wake up.
He was silent for a moment and reminded, "We’re not safe now; it’s not the time for daydreaming."
"Okay, did you see me in the dream?" Minamoto Tamako asked.
Fushimi Roku glanced at the little Tamako doing homework, nodded, and said, "I saw you when you were young."
"Is there a mood bar above your head? Like a rectangular strip, resembling a health bar in a game." Minamoto Tamako pursued the question.
Fushimi Roku thought as expected, that thing indeed was the key: "I saw it, and then?"
"Fill it up, turn the mood bar green, and you’ll wake up," Minamoto Tamako said.
"Huh?" Fushimi Roku scratched his head.
"Huh what? What’s wrong?" Minamoto Tamako noticed his tone was off.
"Nothing, good idea, I was thinking the same." Fushimi Roku bluffed.
"Alright, I’m about to enter the second layer where time flows differently, I’m hanging up..."
As Fushimi Roku finished speaking, he heard a beep from the receiver; Minamoto Tamako hung up the call, leaving him with only a busy signal.
Fushimi Roku had a bad premonition; he was slightly anxious and uneasy about what kind of tricks Minamoto Tamako might be doing in his subconscious.
He urgently needed a way to wake up!
Wondering if those two little ones were taking good care of the house...
Fushimi Roku shook off the distracting thoughts, rolled back to little Tamako’s room, and promptly began his strategy for reconciliation: "Tamako-chan, do you have any wishes?"
Little Tamako didn’t lift her head and casually said, "I don’t want to do homework."
Fushimi Roku couldn’t help little Tamako with her homework; it was like alien language to him, indecipherable. Last time he randomly scribbled, and the result was Kujo Yua breaking his limbs.
"Besides that?" He asked with a wry smile.
"I also want to play with Naoko." Little Tamako said.
Naoko was her newly made good friend today; the two had compatible brain waves. This friendship was likely to last for a while.
Fushimi Roku couldn’t let her go out to play; if the homework wasn’t done tonight, Kujo Yua would tear him apart alive.
"Nothing else." Little Tamako lifted her head: "Why are you asking this?"
Fushimi Roku showed a guilty expression, an air of ’I’m a sinner, I repent’: "Earlier was my fault, I feel uneasy inside, so I want to compensate you..."
"How to compensate?" Little Tamako was intrigued.
"Granting your wish," Fushimi Roku said solemnly, "Whatever you want me to do, just ask!"
...Once you grow up, you’ll know how rare such opportunities to command me are.
Little Tamako pursed her lips, hesitant to speak; she thought Teacher Fushimi wasn’t very useful, even unable to help her with such a small thing as homework... frankly, she didn’t know how Teacher Fushimi managed to stand in society.
These thoughts were best kept in mind; saying them would be hurtful. Little Tamako had enough emotional intelligence to understand what’s good or bad to say.
She was silent for a moment, then patted Teacher Fushimi’s shoulder, saying, "I’m already very happy that you have the thought."
Fushimi Roku felt the words were a bit off; he glanced at the mood bar, unchanged, still gray, just slightly better than yesterday... yesterday little Tamako’s mood bar was red.
Looks like she wasn’t happy enough; probably just saying it.
"Don’t you have anything special you want? Or something special you’d like to do?" Fushimi Roku persuaded patiently.
"Whatever I want, mom buys it for me, so I have everything special I want." Little Tamako paused, repeating, "The special thing I’d like to do is probably want to go out and play."
"Besides that?" Fushimi Roku couldn’t make the decision.
"Nothing else." Fresh chapters posted on novel·fire.net
"Really nothing else? Think carefully!" Fushimi Roku thought, when you grow up, it’s not ; once you grow up, you’ll want this and that, demanding all day to the point of annoyance.
No doubt, being a child is good, simple-minded, easy to satisfy, happiness is simple and pure.
Little Tamako hesitated and softly said, "If I have to say, I... I want dad and mom not to fight."
Fushimi Roku looked at his legs and estimated whether he might die trying to mediate. After weighing a few times, he felt there was a chance of success and agreed: "Okay, no problem."
Little Tamako’s eyes brightened: "Really? Can you really make dad and mom reconcile?"
Fushimi Roku smiled confidently, though he was unsure inside, he looked poised as promised: "Of course! Didn’t I say? Outside, I’m the king of popularity!"
"I thought Teacher Fushimi was bragging!" Little Tamako said innocently.
"How could it be! Isn’t your friendship guide effective? See, you have good friends now, shouldn’t you be a bit happier?" Fushimi Roku emphasized his credit while coaxing little Tamako.
Little Tamako thought carefully and felt it was indeed the case; her first practice failed, probably her own fault, blaming her stuttering, unrelated to Teacher Fushimi. Now she had made a good friend, life had hope, indeed a bit happier.
Fushimi Roku noticed her mood bar slightly going up and thought this method might work; as long as Kujo Yua reconciled with her husband, little Tamako’s mood bar would rise, and he could smoothly wake up.
But the problem was, how to make Kujo Yua reconcile with her husband?
In the earlier eight hours, Fushimi Roku experienced four days—little Tamako did two hours of homework each day, considered a cycle, probably because, in her childhood impression, only during those two hours in the evening while doing homework would the tutor appear—in these four days, Kujo Yua and Genichiro didn’t have a day without fighting.
Their quarrels were like the Battle of Stalingrad, with fierce contention in every corner; Fushimi Roku didn’t dare to peek, fearing getting instantly struck.
Oh, so this is the main mission, no wonder he’s been stuck in the room unable to go out...
Fushimi Roku stroked his chin, pondering deeply; little Tamako asked what he planned to do, and he could only say don’t rush, wise people have clever plans.
Ten minutes later, Kujo Yua returned home on time, habitually roaring like a demon, asking if little Tamako had finished her homework. The latter dutifully handed over the work for mom to check; Kujo Yua found no problems and turned to leave.
"Mrs. Kujo, please stay!" Fushimi Roku extended his hand.
Kujo Yua turned ninety degrees and sinisterly stared at Fushimi Roku, her eyeballs full of blood vessels, seemingly about to radiate red light.
Fushimi Roku coughed lightly, although he had no good plan beforehand, he felt calm when it came to do business, seriously bluffing: "Here’s the thing, lately the education field has research aimed at improving children’s learning efficiency and shaping good character habits... Is Mrs. Kujo interested in participating?"
Matters concerning her daughter, Kujo the ghost calmed down.
"The Ministry of Education’s pilot study on ’Gradient Correlation Measurement of Parental Emotion Synchronization Index on School-age Children Academic Performance,’" Fushimi Roku spoke rapidly, spitting out a string of words, then added: "This is internal research specializing in elite education, only people in education-related industries are aware, please keep it confidential for me, Mrs. Kujo."
Kujo the ghost seemed not as sharp as Kujo Yua herself; after silent contemplation, she unexpectedly fell for it, hoarsely inquiring:
"How to participate?"