Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard-Chapter 803 - 477: Aei and Chiaei Disappear from the Supermarket (Part 2)

Chapter 803: Chapter 477: Aei and Chiaei Disappear from the Supermarket (Part 2)

"Hanabi-chan, what do you think, if this novel gets published and soon after gets axed, what then?"

Hanamaru Hanabi calmly replied, "Then Sakura-kun should keep trying harder."

Being axed was actually not a big deal for Uesugi Sakura, but the key was that this novel was an implicit love letter written for little Hanabi, and he hoped she would recognize it while reading.

Getting axed... would be too heartbreaking.

"Do you think it might become popular, Hanabi-chan?"

Hanamaru Hanabi tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at him with her cute, slightly cherry-pink face, "Sakura-kun... actually, creating... requires psychological preparedness."

"Hmm? What’s wrong?"

"Because the depth of your efforts might not be enough for your work to spread, and often it might even lose to works that are inferior to yours. There are many standards for evaluating a work, and in the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand different views. If you can’t make readers understand your unique charm, they will categorize it as incomprehensible whining, naturally developing a sense of aversion."

"Can’t I just express it more obviously?"

"No, doing so they’d then think it’s shallow, just staying on the surface without substance."

Uesugi Sakura didn’t expect that the usually cute Hanabi-chan might also be a great philosopher.

"What should one do in such situations?" Uesugi Sakura pulled a chair over to sit.

"Only hints, appreciating a work is originally about finding resonance within it. If it fails to resonate with the readers, then you need to find ways to make them resonate, be it lines, colors, or structure."

Uesugi Sakura pondered over her words.

"I’m not clear on writing novels, but roughly it’s a process like this, just replace the elements of painting with elements of novels."

...

While mulling over Hanabi’s words, Uesugi Sakura changed clothes and got ready to head out.

As he was changing shoes at the entrance, Aei came running over, her little feet tapping the floor.

"Are you going out, nini?"

"Yeah, that’s right, we’re short on ingredients for dinner, I’m going out to buy some."

"Then why not take me and sis along, nini?"

"You want to go out for a walk?"

"Mm," Aei had her hands behind her back, looking down at the seated Uesugi Sakura at the entrance, "Even sis says watching TV is boring."

"Alright then," Uesugi Sakura said while tying his shoes, "Go call Chiaei, we’ll go together."

"Mm."

Aei turned around, holding her arms flat and swinging them like a plane, and ran back to the living room.

Uesugi Sakura finished changing his shoes and stood up, shortly Aei came back holding Chiaei’s hand.

Upon closer look, the two little girls had grown significantly taller.

"Let’s go, off we go."

"Let’s go~"

Aei ran straight into the hallway.

Chiaei: "Slow down!"

...

Actually, Uesugi Sakura’s house was right across the commercial street, and the big supermarket was just a street away.

At Don Quijote, in the cake section, the shop assistant saw the two little girls hand in hand coming over and smiled asking,

"What would you little sisters like to eat?"

Aei leaned her hands against the display window, pointing one by one, "This, this, this, and this, all of them, please."

Chiaei: "There’s no way we can eat so much cake!"

"If we can’t finish it, we can put it in the fridge, silly sis."

"Aei!" Chiaei took on her big sister role, hands on her hips, "You can’t buy so much, besides, cakes aren’t as good the next day."

Aei glanced back at the tag on the cake cabinet: "But there’s a half-price promotion, you know."

"You aren’t thinking you have to get two just because it’s half-price?"

"Yeah, because it’s half-price, buying two costs as much as buying one, so it’s still the same price."

"Can’t you just buy one, isn’t that still half-price?"

"Hmm..." Aei pondered on her tiptoes for a while, "Seems so, then just one strawberry cake, please."

"Is this the one?" The shop assistant sister smiled, pointing at one with tongs.

"Yes!" Aei nodded while gazing at the cabinet. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The shop assistant sister wrapped the cake and handed it to the eagerly cupping-handed Aei, "Here, hold it carefully."

"Okay!"

Aei reached up and received the cake, then turned and handed it to Chiaei, "Here."

"Ah? What’s this about?" Chiaei instinctively hugged the cake.

"Sis, hold it, Aei is so tired."

"..."

When the two sisters snapped back to reality and began searching for Uesugi Sakura,

they realized none of the figures passing by was him.

The two little girls just stood there, bewildered.

Aei looked at the people in the supermarket, her face full of confusion: "Where’s nini?"

Chiaei: "Brother... seems like he’s not here..."

Aei: "Nini must be trying to sell us, elementary school kids are worth a lot of money."

Chiaei said, somewhat speechlessly: "Let’s go find him."

Aei: "Sis, don’t trust him, nini is definitely selling us off."

Chiaei: "..."

The two little girls said this and then began their quest to find someone in the supermarket.

——————

Meanwhile, Uesugi Sakura just spotted a beef discount and put two boxes of steak into the shopping basket.

"890 yen per box, not bad."

He even felt like he was becoming a competent homemaker, unfortunately, Hanabi-chan wasn’t around, otherwise, his favorability score might have increased significantly.

Steak, corn, pork, he wandered down the aisle, and didn’t realize the two little girls were missing until he reached the refrigerated section to grab milk.

He stared at the empty space behind him in a daze:

"Aei and Chiaei, where are they?"

...

In the afternoon, the wind was a bit chilly.

Uesugi Sakura waited at the supermarket exit for the two little girls to come out.

Honestly, he wasn’t worried that the two little girls would get lost.

These two kids were sharper than anyone, and if they encountered a con artist, Uesugi Sakura feared the con artist would get fooled by Aei.

Plus, there was phone contact, and Uesugi Sakura had already called them.

"Sis, go, Sis, go." Aei held the strawberry cake and cheered.

"Aei, help out a bit, will you?"

"No way, Aei can’t let go of the strawberry cake."

Uesugi Sakura heard the voices of the two little girls.

Aei’s voice was lazy and easy to discern.

After taking a few steps, he soon saw Chiaei dragging a large bag over.

"What’s this?" Uesugi Sakura couldn’t make sense of it.

Aei said: "It’s a present."

Chiaei explained: "Some uncle was loading this stuff into his car when his wife caught him and he couldn’t take it, so he had to give it to us."

"Huh?"

Uesugi Sakura walked over, holding up the shopping bag, and opened the plastic bag.

He found it was a large bag of beer.

There were regular ones, fruit-flavored, sparkling water, and even milk-flavored...

In short, all sorts of different beers.

Hey, being banned from drinking beer by your wife is a bit much, isn’t it?

Even more ridiculous, there was a guy giving beer to two underage little girls at the supermarket entrance...

Uesugi Sakura’s gaze kept shifting between the beer and the faces of the two little girls, "So, what do we do with this beer?"

Aei seemed to see right through Uesugi Sakura’s thoughts: "Nini, you know you can’t just throw garbage anywhere in Japan; if you’re caught, you’ll get fined."

"I know that."

Uesugi Sakura rubbed his chin with one hand, so should he take this beer or not?

Keeping it didn’t seem useful, as he didn’t drink.

But letting it go felt like a waste.

Plus, so many of these beers are fruit-flavored, almost like drinks.

Uesugi Sakura weighed it carefully.

Fine, keep it, take it.

Anyway, in Japan, eighteen is considered an adult now, so he can drink.