Chapter 22 A New Day, What a Coincidence.

Words : 1280 Updated : Sep 18th, 2025

Get a glimpse of "Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard" Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Chapter 22 A New Day, What a Coincidence.April 2nd, The sky is as clear... Continue the adventure now!

Chapter 22: Chapter 22 A New Day, What a Coincidence.April 2nd, The sky is as clear as it was yesterday. Beep beep... beep beep... Sakura Uesugi opened his eyes from under the covers, picking up the phone from the bedside table. "I'll give you 30 yen, click the link below to claim it." 30 yen... Another scam message... Sakura Uesugi, seeing this, didn't know what to say. Other scams talk about billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions at most, but here it's so little, you can't even buy a potato. Should he say the person is honest or just dumb? "Or... maybe... it's real?" Driven by curiosity, a desire to explore, the urge to make great strides in human society, and the thought of why not take the 30 yen if it's free, Sakura Uesugi clicked on the link. As the circle in the upper left corner spun, a strange website appeared. "Do you confirm to claim?" Sakura Uesugi selected "Confirm." A big pop-up appeared in the middle suddenly. "Alert!! Alert!! Upon your personal confirmation, you have entered into a contract with this website. The monthly package tax is 300,000 yen. Please pay the government today. The contract will be sent to your home, please check it." Sakura Uesugi immediately closed the website upon seeing this. A typical intimidation scam, exploiting people's fear. The follow-up operation would probably involve asking for a "contract termination fee," and then the scammer cancels that non-existent contract. Boring, which fool would believe this? After organizing his clothes and finishing his morning wash, Sakura Uesugi went downstairs. "Good morning." "Hmm." In the living room, Uesugi Kenichi sat on a chair sipping his morning tea, nodding and flipping through the laptop in front of him. He is Sakura Uesugi's father, Uesugi Kenichi. His job is front-end web development, responsible for web pages, HTML, CSS code, etc. Most of the time, you could see him with a laptop, typing at unfamiliar English words. He is no exception; at 36, his hairline showed signs of retreating. A receding hairline is the nightmare of every man nearing middle age, let alone a hair-pulling profession like his. Therefore, in this life, Sakura Uesugi learned the lesson, abandoned science, switched to liberal arts, and considered being a teacher or something, much better than this kind of job with constant overtime. "By the way," Uesugi Kenichi looked at Uesugi Sakura who just sat down on the opposite side of the table, "Recently, there have always been inexplicable messages sent to me. You must have received them too, right?" Sakura Uesugi glanced at his busy mother in the kitchen, took a sip of morning milk, and said: "Yes, I have received them, scam messages. I know." "Well, that's good," Uesugi Kenichi leaned back on the chair. Although in a formal suit, he appeared a bit lazy, "If you see them, it's best not to click. They're all phishing sites. You might unintentionally download some bundled software, and your user information might be read. These things are really annoying, extracting and selling personal data everywhere." When he said this, Uesugi Kenichi sighed: "In this era, traffic is money." "So early in the morning, what are you talking about." Uesugi Nobuko came over with a plate, sitting down next to him. The Uesugi family's breakfast tended to be Western-style: a cup of milk, two fried eggs, and a few slices of bread, emphasizing simplicity. "Nothing much, I just suddenly thought of my job." Uesugi Kenichi shook his head lightly, putting unpleasant things behind him, looked at Sakura Uesugi in front of him, remembered something, and asked: "You boy, you're in your second year of high school now, how are things with that girl Hanabi next door?" "How's it going?" Sakura Uesugi asked casually. "Hmm?" Uesugi Kenichi frowned, "Don't you like that girl Hanabi?" "No." "Then why haven't you two defined your relationship yet?" Images of yesterday at sunset, that dazzling smile, flashed through Sakura Uesugi's mind. Despite being familiar with her face for so long, it inexplicably stirred his emotions. "Before, I thought it was too fast." "Excuse." Uesugi Kenichi paid no heed to Sakura Uesugi's explanation. "Don't you want to confess first? Even so, you can't let a girl confess to you first; that would be too unmanly." "..." It seemed he really was waiting for her to confess. But neither of them had pierced through that thin layer of paper. Sitting across the table, Uesugi Nobuko also chuckled and chimed in: "Yeah, when your father pursued me, he was relentless. I got a bit annoyed and thought might as well agree, and somehow ended up with him for life, regretting it ever since." Uesugi Kenichi recalled with some pride, "Of course. Back then, your mother was a famous beauty at school. I spent all my money changing ways to wait outside her classroom, writing love letters and haikus every day, stuffing them in her shoe cabinet." Uesugi Nobuko joked with a laugh, "Annoying, that's what it was." But Uesugi Kenichi got more enthusiastic as he spoke: "This was your father's winning strategy, and we still have some of those things. How about it? Do you want to learn from this? I guarantee you'll win over that girl Hanabi from next door." "..." Sakura Uesugi was speechless. Is this what they called Showa man spirit in that era? Chasing someone with full energy and persistence, unimaginable in modern times. As someone born in the Heisei era, he thought he should just leave it alone. "Times have changed, Dad. If you try those Showa-era methods now, the girl will only call the police, and you'll get arrested for harassment for ten days to half a month." What he said made some sense, but Uesugi Kenichi was not convinced by Sakura Uesugi's words. He also knew the family next door well. "Hmph, stop making excuses. You and Hanabi grew up together. She follows you around every day. I assure you that if you just say it first, there'll be no problem." ... The morning air always mixed with a bit of freshness, and heading out at this time always made the brain feel light and swift. Of course, that's on the condition of having enough sleep. After finally getting away from his parents' chatter, Sakura Uesugi arrived at the door of Hanabi's house next door. But this time, he hesitated to ring the doorbell. He wondered about his feelings toward Hanabi... Years of companionship made him understand in this life what childhood friendship meant. His feelings toward Hanamaru Hanabi were complicated. The image of that timid little girl always following him lingered in his mind. She always liked to trail behind him, softly calling him Sakura-oniisan. School, after school, playing, shopping. He always regarded her as a sister-like presence. Cute, obedient, gentle, endearing. In his heart, among all the moments with Hanabi, that smile always touched him, making him feel warm and at ease. Click... The door opened; Hanamaru Hanabi, carrying a backpack, saw Sakura Uesugi standing stiff at the door, appearing somewhat surprised. "Sakura-kun?" She showed a puzzled expression, asking with concern: "What's wrong, Sakura-kun? Are you okay?" "It's nothing," Sakura Uesugi tried to force a smile, still somewhat stiff, "I was just surprised you came out when I was about to ring the doorbell." "Mhm," Hanamaru Hanabi fully believed Sakura Uesugi's words, smiling sweetly, "I was just about to go to your house, and Sakura-kun happened to come here. What a coincidence."

Chapter 22 A New Day, What a Coincidence.

Comments (0)