CH 17

Ichiyo realized that he needed to change his way of thinking. He needed to be gentle to his friends and cruel to enemies because if there really was a technology that could shake the world's order and even grant eternal life, the Sakuraba family was likely to be wiped out in the world's turbulent waves.

He needed to have a little bit of his own exclusive power!

Ichiyo was never a rough-minded idiot. He preferred to consider everything, no matter how big or small, and be prepared for anything. As he was thinking about how to deal with the future development, his phone rang. When he looked at the caller ID, he answered the call with a helpless expression.

"Scumbag!" Someone exclaimed.

The phone was answered and only a mournful reprimand came from the other side, followed by silence. It was a female voice, very nice to listen to, but it gave Ichiyo a headache.

"Mom, if I said that this was my father and grandpa's idea, do you believe it?" he asked.

"I'm on the first floor," she replied.

Hearing this, Ichiyo hung up the phone and ran downstairs quickly. He saw the woman sitting opposite the counter, her mouth pouting with a very mournful expression.

After a moment of silence, Ichiyo didn't speak right away, but instead took out a seven-flavored fruit daifuku, which he had made all night with his sister-in-law, from the display cabinet and placed it on the table in front of his mom. He then sat down opposite her.

"Grandpa was hospitalized that day, so I had to come here to take his shift," he explained.

After marrying into the Sakuraba household and taking the Sakuraba surname, the young wife looked at the boy who had been with her for over a decade and had always been by her side, with a hint of stubbornness in her expression.

"Your grandfather went out drinking with some people yesterday, and even though he was hospitalized, he only took medicine for a couple of days before going home. Your father is always busy with corporate affairs and doesn't even come home a few times a week, let alone when you're not around. I'm just a lonely old woman, stuck at home watching TV, and you have such a heartless attitude!"

Ichiyo unconsciously twitched his eye, sensing that something was off. The old man went out drinking with people yesterday?

He was left speechless.

Despite the subtle emotions that laced Mother's words, Ichiyo could sense her love and reluctance. Mrs. Sakuraba may be naive by nature, but she is far from foolish. She can't help but feel heartache at the thought of her son marrying a girl he has never even met. Though her own marriage is quite harmonious, she has seen too many examples of unhappy marriages within large families, such as her younger sister, who married only to have her husband absent for nearly a year, leaving her and their daughter to live in their lavish mansion with only the servants for company.

This is just one of the mild cases of arranged marriage within a large family. There are even crazier situations, where the couple is completely mismatched and ignores each other, leaving the children to be raised by the household staff. Mrs. Sakuraba doesn't want her son to be a passive participant in this, betting on the chance that he and his fiance will fall in love after they are wed.

As for Ichiyo, he looks at his mother, who has been with him every step of the way. Though he has had to care for her more as she has gotten older, he knows that she loves him deeply. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to indulge in her love of Korean dramas and go shopping with her in his spare time.

People's hearts are contagious, and Mrs. Sakuraba, despite her naivety and sometimes chaotic mindset, has a way of making those around her feel her love and goodwill. As the saying goes, a mother's love is like water: it surrounds and supports us, even when it feels overwhelming at times.

After a long silence, Ichiyo pointed to the seven-flavor fruit daifuku on the table and said, "Mother, won't you try some? I made it myself."

The Sakuraba family's private car was parked at the doorstep, and Sakuraba suspiciously looked at her son. She knew that for some reason, the boy had almost never personally touched the ancestral craftsmanship when he was young.

She had already thought of it. If worst comes to worst, she would take her son back to her mother's house and let him interact with the girls from the other families. A group of young people playing together for two or three years could always cultivate feelings when they get along with each other, right? After all, her son is so excellent.

Then, why let the son inherit the family business and do something as risky and tiring as the food industry? Isn't it better to be a local landlord collecting rent in the hometown, Kansai? Looking at her son's firm gaze, Mother reluctantly picked up the chopsticks and tasted it.

When she saw the familiar appearance of the Daifuku, her eyes were slightly surprised, but she didn't say anything. Then, the fruit Daifuku entered her mouth and the endless delicious tide flowed with her, rejuvenating her spirit and showing her the a food illusion.

Embarrassing female panting and whispering sounded, Mother's body twisted and her thighs rubbed against each other. Ichiyo sat across from her, looking a little embarrassed.

This is a Mom, a birth mother, an airhead mother. It's not good to think too much.

Unable to calm down, Ichiyo stood up and approached his mother from behind, trying not to disturb her posture as he gently massaged her shoulders. The soothing sensation of "kneading" flowed through his hands, making her feel comfortable and humming a little tune.

"Mom, no matter what, I am a Sakuraba and now I am also a chef. As the only descendant of this generation of our family, it is impossible for our ancestral craftsmanship to disappear in this generation. And now I find that I seem to have a real interest in cooking," Ichiyo said.

"Really?" Mrs. Sakuraba asked, closing her eyes and enjoying her son's affection. Since her son hasn't come home for a while, Mrs. Sakuraba hasn't absorbed Ichiyo energy for several days! Without his son, she found herself getting more and more annoyed with her husband as a result.

"Really!" Ichiyo nodded and pinched his mother's face.

Mrs. Sakuraba grabbed Ichiyo's arm and held it up to her mouth as if she were about to bite it. "Be honest!"

Ichiyo sighed, looking at his mother's threat with no fear. "Alright, I'll be honest. A few days ago, I saw my fiancee and I suddenly found myself a little fond of her."

Ichiyo shrugged. He couldn't possibly admit that he had discovered a system that gave him access to new abilities and that he had been shocked to find out that being a chef has a high upper limit.

Mrs. Sakuraba bit her son's arm in frustration, tears welling up in her eyes. "Ichiyo, you scumbag! You said you would always love mom!"

Sakura: "..."

Who is the mother here?!

Ichiyo and his mother stared at each other for a long time before Mrs. Sakuraba spoke. "If you don't come home, I'll stay here. There's no one at home to watch TV with me or go shopping and play games with me."

Without hesitation, Ichiyo shook his head. In addition to the occasional weird things and noise that he gets from his system, and the visits from his sister-in-law and fiancee, he couldn't bear the thought of his easily jealous mother staying with him all the time.

"Mother, I'm not a little kid anymore. I need some space to do my own things," Ichiyo said.

"Scumbag!" Mrs. Sakuraba exclaimed.

"This word is not appropriate between mother and son," Ichiyo pointed out.

"Rotten egg!" Mrs. Sakuraba said.

"I promise to come home and visit you whenever I have time," Ichiyo said, trying to placate his mother.

Mrs. Sakuraba looked at her son with a small, angry expression, feeling extremely sad. "I finally gave birth to such a son, and now he's grown up and doesn't want to watch movies or go shopping with me anymore. He's already disgusted with me for being an old woman who can't keep up with the trend."

Hearing her mom's mumbling, Ichiyo had a helpless expression. "I can hear you talking, but there's nothing I can do about it. That's what my father thinks too."

After hesitating for a moment, Ichiyo suggested, "How about you and Dad try to have another baby to keep you company?"

"I refuse!" Mom said firmly. "Having a child is very tiring and extremely painful. I don't want to go through it again!"

Despite their discussion, mom was eventually persuaded to go home with her luggage. As Ichiyo watched his mother sit in the back seat with the window open, her face full of resentment, he couldn't help feeling like he was raising a daughter.

To be honest, outside of his system abilities, Ichiyo had never encountered a chef like his sister-in-law who could create dishes with sedative effects. He had never even known that cooking could have such an effect. There are definitely not many chefs in the world who can make dishes that create a food hallucination in the brain by causing sedative effects.

Although the Sakuraba family is a long-established chef family, Ichiyo had never really eaten his father's dishes when he was a child because he was on a sugar-free diet. Although the chefs at the mansion made dishes that tasted good, none of them reached the level of hallucination. Over time, Ichiyo had often heard that other chefs made dishes that tasted great, but he generally just considered such statements as exaggerations. After being drugged by his sister-in-law last night, he finally realized that the world was a little different! And because of the series of impacts brought by the system, he also began to change.

As the night deepened, Ichiyo didn't look at the notes his father had left for making pastries over the years, but instead picked up the basic textbook for the first grade of junior high school at the Totsuki Academy that his sister-in-law had sent him and began to study it while looking at the notes beside him.

The phone rang again, and Ichiyo looked at the caller ID, his brow furrowing slightly in surprise.

"Chihiro, why are you calling so late? Is something wrong?" Ichiyo asked.

"Call me 'Teacher,' you disrespectful brat. Be careful, or I won't continue to be your guarantor, and you'll have to come back to class obediently!" Chihiro said.

"It's okay, transferring schools is pretty easy these days," Ichiyo replied.

Sengoku Chihiro is a teacher at the Suimei University of the Arts and the administrator of Sakura Dormitory, a place where odd students gather. She calls herself 29 years old forever, but her actual age is 29 years and 15 months. She is fond of various matchmaking events. Thanks to her being a relatively easy-going and open-minded teacher, in recent years, Ichiyo has also been able to apply for the privilege of missing classes with her as a guarantor, as long as Ichiyo's grades have not fallen too much.

(p.s. Sengoku Chihiro is a character from "The Pet Girl of Sakurasou" anime.)

"I'm too lazy to argue with you. I'm still busy figuring out how to date someone. Next month, you must come to the school's cultural festival. You already skipped the opening ceremony, and if you don't come to make up for your attendance, even if your grades are good, you won't get a graduation certificate. That's what the dean said."

"Okay, I'll consider it," Ichiyo said with a sigh. "Just let me know when the event is coming up. By the way, Chihiro, do you know any students or something like that who want to work part-time? the main job is a waiter or something like washing dishes."

"Do you think anyone else is as free as you, with nothing to do all day and no classes to attend?"

"Ha, I guess not."

The system's upgrade requires points, which are accumulated through the consumption of experience. Experience is calculated based on one-tenth of the total price of the dishes that Ichiyo makes and sells. He has been in a slump for several days, so it's time to think of a way to earn some points. At least he can upgrade from level 1 to level 2 to see what new functions and changes the system will bring.

The phone call with Chihiro had ended quickly and there was still no result so he decided to call his father.

"I need money!" Ichiyo said as soon as the call was connected.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time before a middle-aged man's voice spoke. "How much do you need?"

"A lot and the family resources will definitely be affected when the time comes. If possible, I may even need the support of my grandfather and uncles on the other side," Ichiyo said.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time before Ichiyo's father spoke again. "Where did your mother go today?"

"Well, I convinced her to go back home," Ichiyo said.

"You should know that this is not very likely," his father said.

"I know, and now I'm asking for your help," Ichiyo said.

"Why?" his father asked.

"I have a chance to change our family and bring us to the top of the world, but it may be too much for just our family to bear. It would be better if we could bring in my grandfather and the Nakiri family later," Ichiyo explained.

"The Sakuraba and Nakiri families are essentially just culinary families, and your grandfather's family are just ordinary local noble, relying only on the inherited land to flourish," his father pointed out. Despite his father's words, Ichiyo's father did not doubt his son's words. This was the trust of a father for his son, who had been sensible and rational since childhood.