160. Commission

After a moment of silence, Jiang Yu licked his lips, exhaled a turbid breath from his chest, and nervously answered the call.

"Moshi moshi..."

"I heard you've been doing pretty well lately?"

This was met with a statement so straightforward that Jiang Yu found it somewhat incomprehensible.

"What?"

He naturally responded this way.

A brief moment of silence hung over the other end of the line, followed by a chuckle and a scold: "You brat, playing dumb with your old man?"

Hearing this intensely familiar form of address and the playful bantering tone from his memories, Jiang Yu felt his heart inexplicably relax, and his conversation with his biological father flowed smoothly.

"Heh—who told you... Dad, you always like to blurt out things without any context? I have literally no idea what you're talking about."

"Hey—! I say, you punk, have you not been disciplined by me lately, making you think you've grown some spine?"

"Oh, then I look forward to you actually winning a fighting game against me next time!"

"త్‌... You smelly brat, we agreed never to bring that up again!"

This was the way the original owner had always communicated with his father. Their relationship, rather than that of ordinary father and son, was perhaps more like that of peers of equal standing. In Jiang Yu's memory, Jiang He had never scolded or hit him over anything. Such disciplinary matters were generally handled by the original owner's grandfather. If Jiang He ever attempted to intervene, Grandpa Jiang Yinzhou, who was still in robust health, wouldn't mind beating the father and son together.

Amidst this pleasantry and banter, Jiang He on the other end of the line wore a long-lost smile. He leaned against the windowsill, the room pitch black except for a small area illuminated by the glow of the computer.

Extinguishing the cigarette butt in his hand, Jiang He stopped bickering with his son, gave a soft cough, and spoke in a serious tone into the phone: "Now, let's talk about business. Tomorrow... wait, no, the day after tomorrow, your school should be on holiday, right?"

Jiang Yu was momentarily stunned, but still replied, "Yes, we are on holiday. A three-day weekend starting tomorrow. Is there anything you need help with?"

"Well... it's not a big deal. The day after tomorrow morning, I want you to go to Haneda Airport in my place to pick someone up. Also, for the time being, just let her stay at your place!"

"...Um, if I heard correctly, did you just casually use a nonchalant tone to shove a person into the place I'm currently living? And it's a 'she'? Would the girl even be willing..."

Jiang Yu said somewhat irritably.

"Ah... I have various inconveniences on my end as well. Lately, the company's business has been heavy and troublesome, and I still have a few projects whose progress I need to track from start to finish. But that request came from an old friend, begging us to take care of his daughter here. No matter what, I couldn't refuse..."

"So you just threw the problem for me to solve? Please think carefully, am I not still a minor? How can I take care of someone else..."

"Hey—you little punk, don't think I don't know, isn't that girl Umaru living with you quite well? Even if I ask you to take care of one more person, it's just adding one more pair of chopsticks, right?"

"త్‌... Doesn't the other party have any relatives here or something? To actually ask an old friend like you to take care of his daughter, and then you just casually tossed this matter onto me?"

"Well, well... It seems the relatives here are somewhat worrisome. Even though she's that girl's older female cousin, and they sought the other party's opinion, it seemed she was refused, which is why it was entrusted to me."

"Hey—!..."

Speechless, Jiang Yu fell silent. Glancing around his room a few times, a look of sudden realization dawned on him. He quickly interrupted Jiang He, who seemed to have finished speaking and was about to hang up the phone, and said, "Even so, I don't have a place for her to live here! This apartment only has two bedrooms in total—one I use myself, and the other is for Umaru. There's no empty space left, right?"

"Isn't there still a small study room? That's more than enough space for one person to live in, right?"

Then Jiang He on the other end said this as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Ugh... Is it really appropriate to have a girl sleep in the study?"

"Heh, whether you let her sleep there or you sleep there yourself is up to your own judgment. Ah—right, the other party might be a little... in need of someone's care? Hmm... I don't really know how to explain it, anyway, you'll understand when you see her! After that, just act according to your own judgment. So, for the final routine inquiry ritual: Jiang Yu, are you willing to accept this commission, and head to subjugate—sorry, head to Haneda Airport to pick someone up at 10:00 AM the day after tomorrow?"

This was a game the original owner often played with his father when he was a child. Since Jiang He was a veteran MMORPG player, Jiang Yu had also been dragged into the hobby by him. Whenever they needed something from each other, they would propose quests framed like mission commissions—though this was mostly initiated by Jiang Yu—and the other party would almost always gladly accept.

However... in Jiang Yu's memory, it seemed that ever since the original owner's mother passed away, the two of them had never played around like this again. And ever since then, Jiang He had gradually taken over the work of the entire family business, right up until the present day, finally allowing the old man at home to enjoy his retirement in leisure.

From this, it was evident that Jiang He's mood must have been exceptionally good today, for him to adopt such a tone and speak words reminiscent of the playful games he used to play with Jiang Yu in his childhood.

Shaking his head, Jiang Yu smiled helplessly and replied, "Yes... I accept, alright? But what about the photo? How am I supposed to recognize her without a picture? And also, that thing you said—whether it was a slip of the tongue or intentional moe cuteness—you could really drop it."

"Tch, fine, I'm hanging up then. I'll send the photo to your email in a moment. Besides, I'm also looking forward to seeing what kind of work you can whip up by leading a bunch of high school students."

With that, Jiang He hung up the phone directly. Returning to his computer desk, he twisted his neck and began searching for the girl's photograph. Regrettably, Jiang He discovered that he only had pictures of her from when she was a child. After pondering for a moment, he sent it to Jiang Yu anyway, recalling that she didn't seem to have changed much since she was little—aside from her build. He then resumed his previous work, examining one company document after another.

On the other end, Jiang Yu stood blankly in place, staring at the darkened screen of his phone. After a long while, he finally let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed, one hand shielding his eyes from the harsh light while the other rested on the blanket.

It seemed... the conversation went quite smoothly?

Jiang Yu mused to himself. He had previously worried about slipping up in front of the original owner's father, but that natural sense of familiarity made their interaction flow quite smoothly, lifting the heavy stone that had been weighing on his heart.

Jiang Yu did not dislike Jiang He's relaxed style of communication. In his memories from his past life, the impression of his father had long since grown very blurry. He didn't know whether he was Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi. But since things had turned out this way, he still quite cherished the traces the original owner had left behind in this world.

After all, having accepted the other's identity and living naturally in this world as that person from his memories, it was only right to accept everything that came with it.