If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

The elevator stopped at the 30th floor of Genji Heavy Industries, which is also the core strategic department of the Snake Eight Families. After the elevator door opened, Ryoma Kaoru, who was standing outside the door in formal attire, had not yet stepped forward to greet him, and several people inside had already hurried out. The hem of the windbreaker brushed against the hem of Ryoma Kaoru's hip skirt, leaving a touch of red that was not too bright against the black, but fresh and pungent.

In the strategic department that was destroyed by some accidents a few years ago and now re-arranged as a typical Japanese-style room with tatami mats, the old people who were drinking tea and whispering to each other all paid attention to the footsteps that were not suppressed.

It should be necessary to take off shoes to enter this floor, but it is obvious that the person who left one dirty footprint after another did not pay attention to this point now, and no one stood up to angrily accuse him of disrespect. Perhaps the reason is not only the identity of the person who left the dirty footprints, but also the seriousness of the current situation and the delayed meeting in the Awakening Temple behind the secret door hidden outside the Strategic Department, so this kind of usurpation and impoliteness can be forgiven.

Ryoma Kaoru caught up with the leader in front, and while keeping up with the pace, he lowered his head and whispered, "The six heads of the family have been waiting in the Awakening Temple for a long time."

"Six heads of the family?" The leader, Yuan Zhisheng, stopped, and the crows, Yasha and Ying who followed closely behind him also stopped immediately, with a little uneven breath. They were also in a mess, with dirt, rain filth, and some blood stains that could not be washed away mixed in the mud on the soles of their shoes, and because of their own weight, the reddish-brown liquid was squeezed into the expensive tatami.

Yuan Zhisheng raised his head slightly, took a breath and asked in a low voice, "Which head of the family has not arrived yet?"

"Head of the Uesugi family." Ryoma Kaoru replied.

Gen Chisheng stood there for a moment and then asked, "Where are the guests?"

"The guests were received by the subordinates of the Inuyama family. They called ten minutes ago and encountered an unexpected situation and had to take a detour. In addition, there was a traffic jam due to the weather, so they will arrive about half an hour late."

"Where is the head of the Uesugi family now?" Gen Chisheng asked.

"In her own room, Mr. Masamune has sent people to urge her, but it seems that they were blocked outside the door. It is possible that the head of the Uesugi family will miss this meeting."

"Are you sure that the people who went were blocked outside the door, rather than the head of the Uesugi family explicitly refusing to attend this meeting?" Gen Chisheng looked at Ryoma Kaoru and asked.

"This." Ryoma Kaoru paused, and it seemed that she didn't quite understand what the difference was. But in the spirit of seeking truth from facts and not making mistakes, she immediately shook her head, "According to the words of the people sent earlier, it was the head of the Uesugi family who took the initiative to lock himself in the room."

After silently calculating the time in his mind, Yuan Zhisheng gave an order, "Crow, Yasha, stay alert outside the Awakening Temple as usual to protect the safety of the six heads of the family inside. Sakura, take a seat for me and inform Mr. Masamune that I have returned to Genji Heavy Industries. I will probably arrive at the Awakening Temple in fifteen minutes to attend the meeting."

After saying that, he turned around and walked back to the elevator he had come up from before. Ryoma Kaoru looked at the back of the departing figure and didn't say a word of extra words, because just as Mr. Masamune said, when the young master came back, he would reveal the situation of the head of the Uesugi family to the other party, and the young master would naturally deal with it, and there was no need for others to worry.

"Please come this way." Ryoma Kaoru didn't think about it anymore, and took Sakura, Crow and Yasha to the secret door of the terrace of the Awakening Temple.

The elevator stopped at the ξth floor of Genji Heavy Industries. After the security magnetic card was swiped again, and the fingerprint and pupil verification were verified, the elevator door opened, revealing a Japanese-style wooden corridor.

Gen Chisheng took off his shoes that were covered in mud and blood, walked out of the elevator and put his shoes in the shoe cabinet, hung his windbreaker on the coat rack, stood in front of the floor-length mirror erected next to the shoe cabinet, and silently examined himself in the mirror for a few seconds in the slightly dim light. He took out a tissue from his pocket and wiped off the excess blood on his chin, side face and neck. He folded up the cuffs of the white lining that was stained red, and after slightly pulling the hair that was stuck together, he probably felt that the image of "Eri's brother" in the mirror was acceptable, and then turned around and walked on the wooden floor to the inner room.

Coming to the tightly closed Japanese sliding door, Yuan Zhisheng grasped the hidden handle and exerted a little force. The resistance from the lock cylinder proved that the door was indeed locked from the inside, so he did not continue to struggle, but sat down on the spot, gently placed his hands on his thighs in front of his knees, lowered his head and looked silently through the shadow under the light behind the shoji paper on the sliding door, and gradually adjusted his slightly unstable breathing and mood due to the "battle" before his return.

After a while, he raised his hand and knocked on the sliding door, and whispered, "Eri? It's me, can you open the door?"

There was no response from inside the door.

Yuan Zhisheng frowned slightly after being silent, because there was no usual majestic "hey ha" sound from behind the door when the characters in "Samurai Shodown II" or "Street Fighter IV" attacked, which meant that the reason why Eri locked herself in the room was not what normal people would associate with: because the meeting was boring, she would rather play games in the room than sit outside for a long time in an uncomfortable kimono.

So Genchisei would naturally think of other reasons. If it were in the past, although Eri would show resistance and dislike for such family meetings, she had never expressed her "resistance" through actual actions like today.

Uesugi Eriya, as the younger sister of Gen Chisei, the head of the Uesugi family, and the adopted daughter of Mr. Masamune, may be evaluated by ignorant people as "a tool without its own personality", "a killing weapon of the Snake Eight Clan", "a beautiful but unconscious executioner", but among the many evaluations, there has never been a label such as "rebellious" or "rebellious".

Even though Uesugi Eriya has reached the level of 19 or 20 years old in terms of physical characteristics, in every year's psychological test, every psychologist's evaluation result for Eriya is that her psychological age is only about 13 to 14 years old, which is an unreasonable stage - so strictly speaking, it is reasonable to evaluate the sudden "resistance" of the head of the Uesugi family at this moment as the rebellious period of adolescence?

Gen Chisei does not agree with this view, and perhaps when this view appeared in his mind, he extinguished this idea.

Eriya has always listened to him because he is Eriya's brother. In Japanese culture, the elder brother is the powerful one, and the second most influential person in the family who is worshipped and respected by the younger sister characters. His prestige is only lower than the pillar of the family, that is, the common father role. Even the mother role will be slightly inferior to the authority of the elder brother.

Especially Gen Chisheng, who claims to play the role of the elder brother, is basically qualified. Whether it is his self-criticism based on the secular standards or the evaluation of others, Gen Chisheng is qualified as the elder brother of Uesugi Eri, and the fact that Eri, the younger sister character, also proves this fact.

The opinion of the head of the Uesugi family, Uesugi Eri, is not important. In various major events involving the main family, there is often a voting process for the head of the family. Generally speaking, the Uesugi family's vote actually belongs to Minamoto Chisei. Whatever Minamoto Chisei wants to do, Eri will always agree. And often what Tachibana Masamune wants to do, Minamoto Chisei will also agree. This leads to the three most important votes of the three major surnames of the Snake Eight Families always being in a unified state. This is also the reason why the main family has never had too much disagreement on the direction of various major decisions over the years.

Today's meeting will also be a key point to determine the future direction of the Snake Eight Families. Eri's attendance is crucial. Mr. Masamune probably also told Eri about this in advance. Most likely, he will persuade Eri to be obedient in the name of Minamoto Chisei as a brother. Just follow Minamoto Chisei to vote as usual. Don't think too much about other things. After voting, you can come back to play her favorite PS game.

But now, Eri did not show up at the meeting as scheduled, but locked herself in the room, which is very strange.

Did I do something wrong? Or was I too busy dealing with the affairs of the Ghost Clan factory recently, so I neglected Eri? Or was it simply because the last meeting discussed whether the leader of the Ghost Clan sent Eri as a "bait" and "poison" to lure and kill people and was dissatisfied?

Yuan Zhisheng sat in front of the sliding door and thought for a long time, but still couldn't get an answer. However, after thinking about it, the question always hovered on the basis of what he did wrong, and in the end, he couldn't get an accurate answer.

Eri inside the door still didn't respond, until Yuan Zhisheng sat outside the door for a long time, so long that he thought the time was almost up, reached out and grabbed the door handle, quietly broke the wooden lock inside, silently opened the wooden door, and saw Eri sitting alone in front of the mirror.

When Yuan Zhisheng saw the girl's appearance, he was slightly stunned, his expression was a little inexplicable, but in the end he sighed silently, got up and walked in.

He sat quietly behind Eri, also in front of the dressing table, and looked silently at the girl in the mirror. Her cheeks were stained strangely by strange cosmetics, and her foundation was so white that it looked like a geisha. In addition, her blush looked like apples even if she tried hard, and the traces left by the overly sharp and rough eyebrow pencil. The whole image was the image of an ugly girl with excessive makeup that would appear in Hong Kong movies at the end of the 20th century.

But it must be said that some people are born with beauty and are the material for the protagonist. Even if they put on such excessive makeup on their faces, they can still distinguish the gem-like beautiful embryo from the foundation - of course, this can also be regarded as a kind of rebuttal and psychological comfort that Gen Chisheng, as a brother, made for his younger sister who didn't know how to put on makeup but insisted on doing so and made a joke.

Gen Chisheng stood behind Eri and lifted her hair. The smooth long hair that should have been dark red now showed a strange yellow color, which looked like the textureless color dyed by irresponsible barbershops in some corner of Shibuya for those bikers who were poor but dreamed of being unique.

Seeing the dye on the ground beside him, Gen Chisheng might have to lower this standard a little, because the palm of his hand that was kneading the long hair was already stained with faded light yellow.

It was obvious that these colors attached to the originally dark red beautiful long hair were not dyed at all, but directly applied like oil paint on white paper, because the hair color base was dark red, a deeper color, so the yellow color now was so strange.

This was very harmful to the hair quality. Even for the head of the Uesugi family with a special bloodline, there was no reason to lower the standard of hair dyeing and apply pigments to the soft long hair.

But this is probably the only way Eri can think of to do it secretly. After all, no one would agree with her extraordinary behavior.

"Why is it like this? I can't attend a meeting like this." Yuan Zhisheng did not blame or complain, but asked the girl sitting in front of him quietly in a comforting manner.

He picked up the tissue on the ground and wiped the dye from Eri's hair.

The girl in the mirror didn't say anything or express any emotion, but through the makeup on her face, her brother, who was familiar with her, still understood her current state.

It's the sadness of being full of joy and wanting to do something big, but in the end you find that you messed up and you're stuck in the same place and don't know what to do.

Sadly.

The mobile phone in his pocket vibrated. Yuan Zhisheng took out the mobile phone with one hand and put it to his ear. After hearing the inquiry from the other side, he said, "Please give me another half hour to tell Mr. Masamune and the remaining family heads and It may take some time for the heads of the Uesugi family to attend those guests. By the way, please ask Sakura to come down and tell her that I need some help from her."

After he finished speaking, he hung up the phone, and the girl in front of him raised her head slightly. Looking in the mirror, the face that was in a state of sinking after screwing up seemed to be glowing because of the brother behind him who took the initiative to stand up and support the scene. Something that made her realize that there might still be some room for improvement in the things she messed up.

"Let's wash your face first, and wash your hair by the way. Don't be too anxious, we still have time." Yuan Zhisheng gently patted Eryi's head.

Eriki nodded silently, stood up quickly, passed by him and ran to the bathroom in the inner room.

There was a splash of water from the faucet behind her. Yuan Zhisheng sat in front of the dressing table, looking at the cosmetics that shouldn't be in this room. He picked them up and checked them one by one. Judging from the packaging, they were all big-name cosmetics. , an expensive item that is coveted by Shibuya-style girls and active JKs in Tokyo but cannot afford it. Perhaps it should appear more on the dressing tables of ladies.

Perhaps Eriki asked the people around her to bring him in? It may also be that they were secretly bought from outside during the past few trips.

In any case, he was unaware of the existence of these things, and this was one of the rare times that Eri did something without telling him.

Even if they secretly skipped home, it was a controllable "rebellion" when the younger sister and older brother were well aware of the existing rules, but this was the first time they had done something completely without him.

Minamoto Chisei didn't think too much about how Eriki's current behavior might further change the family's discipline and supervision of the Uesugi family head in the future. He also didn’t think about what kind of things Eri Yi would do without telling her next time under the social experience that one thing must lead to another, and whether it would have any impact on Eri Yi herself or the family itself.

Because he had already foreseen such a day happening. Maybe he didn't really foresee the details of what would happen, or the specific way it would unfold. But he had foreseen the arrival of this day long ago, so when it actually happened, he was not too surprised or had any other excessive mood swings or reactions.

This is a process that a girl must go through when she grows into a woman.

Even if this is treasonous for the head of the Uesugi family, it will make the family angry and reject it.

The causes sown in the past will surely bear fruit in the future.

Yuan Zhisheng does not believe in Buddhism, nor does he believe in the theory of cause and effect, but he is completely aware of the impact of certain things after the beginning, and the development of that impact. He does not act roughly in the development process of causation. interference, because he knew it would be counterproductive.

He stopped thinking so much and arranged the bottles and cans in front of the dressing table one by one. He got up and walked to the bathroom to help the clumsy sister wash away the color that was crudely dyed in her hair.

For no reason, Yuan Zhisheng remembered that he had asked the guard around him, Yabuki Sakura, a very personal question, that is, how does a woman determine that she likes a man?

At that time, after thinking for a long time, Yabuki Sakura used an ancient Chinese saying to answer Minamoto's question:

A woman should look good to those who please her.

Sakura told Yuan Zhisheng that if a woman really loves a man, then she will definitely spend a lot of time and energy on her makeup when she meets that man, right? It may even happen again in the future, this stupid thing of putting the cart before the horse and actively declining to go out with the man you like because you are worried that putting on makeup will be too troublesome!

So from this point of view, what happened today is also very normal and something that is bound to happen.

Or maybe he had already understood from the bottom of his heart that what happened was actually normal for Eriki.

Gen Zhisheng has no perspective or qualification to be angry about the mess in front of him. The blame for delaying the important family meeting should be shouldered by him alone, because he is Eri's brother.

After all, as a qualified elder brother, he has known for a long time - Eriri, the head of the Uesugi family, as the secret weapon of the Sheqi Hachi family, and as Minamoto's younger sister, has had a secret from a long time ago.

This 19 or 20-year-old girl, of course, also adopts the usual way of thinking of 19 or 20-year-old girls, to be stupid. I don’t know why, just because of a few simple meetings and a few simple good memories, she naturally , hopelessly in love with a man of the right age who is full of charm that she can't resist.

And today happened to be the day she met this man again whom she hadn’t seen for a long time.