Ke Xuezhuo's son-in-law

Chapter 552 Conversation with Xiao Ai

Mary gently pushed open Fujiwara's bedroom door, holding her own dinner plate in her hand. She raised her eyebrows slightly and observed Fujiwara curiously. She looked at Fujiwara sitting on the edge of the bed, his shoulders shaking slightly, the corners of his mouth pursed, and his eyes narrowed, as if he was trying his best to suppress his laughter. A speechless expression appeared on Mary's face at first, the corners of her mouth drooped, and her eyes widened slightly, as if to say: "What the hell are you doing again?" Her brows were furrowed, showing her confusion about Fujiwara's behavior at this moment.

Before Mary could ask, Fujiwara spotted her first and greeted her:
  "Oh, Mary, I plan to go out in the afternoon to run some errands. Do you want to come with me, or stay at the hotel and wait for me to come back?"

I had nothing to do last night, so I placed an order for the latest Yamaha off-road motorcycle on the motorcycle website. I thought I would have to wait for a few weeks, but I didn't expect that I received a notification during breakfast today that I could pick up the bike.

"You want to go out?" Mary asked a little confused, "Isn't the game tomorrow?"

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but Mary always feels that Fujiwara Hoshikai is actually not interested in this competition. She has not seen Fujiwara take out the chessboard for training for almost two days here. He is either on the phone or doing other things. But this seems to mean that Fujiwara is extremely confident in himself.

"Yes, tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon. What's wrong? Do you think I'm living too casually these days?"

"Kind of, I don't see you being prepared for the game."

Mary's question was not unreasonable, but Fujiwara felt that he had little chance of winning and further practice might not be effective. Besides, he had already received the reward he needed, so there was no point in trying any harder.

"Instead of putting pressure on yourself, it's better to calm down and be mentally prepared. So you don't need to pay too much attention. I'll leave first."

Fujiwara stood up from the edge of the bed. His movements seemed a little anxious and a little uncomfortable. He picked up the key, waved to Mary, and walked out of the room. Mary's eyes followed his back, with somewhat complicated emotions in her eyes.

The door clicked shut, leaving Mary standing alone. She frowned slightly, with a hint of imperceptible helplessness on her lips. She turned around and returned to her room, sitting gently on the bed. The dinner plate was placed casually on the table next to her, and Mary looked out the window blankly.

"Do you really think you will win?"

She whispered to herself, uncertainty and worry in her voice. Mary knew Fujiwara had his talent and strength, but she also understood that in high-level competition, any small oversight could lead to failure.

She picked up a novel on the table, but her eyes quickly left the text. Mary's thoughts wandered between Fujiwara's words and actions, and she was confused by how unhurried he seemed. Does he really know what's going on, or is he just hiding his uneasiness?

The pages of the novel turned silently under her fingertips, but her vision became increasingly blurry. She thought of the breakfast confrontation between Fujiwara and Yamato Masato, the unspoken tensions and deep emotional entanglements, which were undoubtedly a test for the chess players' mental state.

She came here this time to test her suspicions. When she was watching the game records a few days ago, she vaguely felt that one of the chess players looked particularly familiar. Although she couldn't remember who the other player was, she felt that she should go and take a look. Who knows? On the way, she learned that the other party had withdrawn from the competition.
  "Isn't that person someone I know?"

She thought uncertainly, the expression on her face changing subtly.

Finally, she put down the novel and lay back on the bed, her arms under her head and her eyes staring at the ceiling.

At that time, the phone on the bedside rang. Mary hesitated for a while and then put down the novel and picked up the phone.

On the other side, Xiao Ai heard that the call was dialed and the other party didn't reply, so after thinking for a while, he took the initiative to say hello, "Hi, it's me."

"." Mary listened to the voice from the phone and replied expressionlessly, "What's wrong? Is something wrong?"

"Ah?" Haiyuan Ai was unable to reply because of Mary's rhetorical question, and was speechless. "It's nothing, I just want to make a call to you."

"Oh"

"Um"

Neither of them were talkative types, but Mary's mind was much more mature than Xiao Ai's. Mary, who had slowly adjusted her melancholy just now, asked about the past few days.

Mary adjusted her sitting position and fiddled with the sheets unconsciously with her fingers holding the phone. She coughed lightly, breaking the brief silence.

"So, Ai, how is school? Has anything new happened recently?" Her voice was gentle, with a hint of encouragement for Xiao Ai to speak.

Haihara Ai was fiddling with her hair on the other end of the phone, looking a little embarrassed, but after hearing Mary's voice, she relaxed a little.

"Well, school...is okay." Ai's voice was so low that it almost disappeared in the air.

Mary smiled slightly, knowing that Xiao Ai needed a little push before she would speak more.

Mary noticed a hint of disappointment in Ai's voice. She felt a little pain in her heart and changed the subject: "Besides school, have you gone anywhere to play? The weather is nice now, so it's nice to go out for a walk."

"I went to the library yesterday." Xiao Ai's answer was concise, but at least she was still following the conversation.

"The library, that's a good place. Did you find any good books?" Mary continued, hoping to talk more deeply about this topic. Although she was very interested in the research on antidotes, she never It would put pressure on Xiao Ai. After so many days, it would be completely fine for her to wait a little longer.
  "Well, some science fiction novels." Ai's answer this time had a little more content.

Mary felt the progress and chatted more attentively: "Science fiction? It sounds interesting. Is there any one that particularly attracts you?"

""Galactic Empire"." Ai answered a little faster, obviously this topic aroused her interest.

Mary caught on to this and continued the conversation: "What's your favorite part of Isaac Asimov's classic?"

Ai pondered for a moment, but quickly answered: "The Three Laws of Robotics."

After a brief chat, Mingmei, who really couldn't stand it anymore, took over and asked about the situation over there. After learning that Fujiwara was out of the hotel and not at the hotel, Mingmei said happily, "It seems that Fujiwara-kun is very confident, but it's also pretty good. By the way, yesterday someone from Fushae came over to measure Xiao Ai and I's height. It seemed that we were What clothes should I wear? Do you know?"

In fact, to be precise, they customized all-season clothes, shoes and various clothing for the three of them, which made her very embarrassed. She said that she wanted to give her sister a bag painted by Fusha.
  "Oh, I know, Fujiwara seems to know Fusae's boss."

(End of this chapter)