Capítulo 28: Chapter 28
Shuichi Chiba gave her a light slap on her perky ass and said, "Where's all this drama coming from? I'm not interested in immature little girls."
Tsuki Akiyama let out a soft whine, somewhat convinced, and then explained her earlier point.
"We don't have any man in our house. If I don't act a bit more assertive, it wouldn't be surprising to get bullied, right?"
Shuichi Chiba fell silent. Single-parent families, especially single mothers in Japan, have it really tough.
Here, single mothers find it hard to get jobs because employers think they need to take care of their children and can't fully commit to work.
So, when a husband passes away, it's common for the widow with children to fall to the bottom of society, sometimes even resorting to unsavory means to make ends meet.
On the surface, there are minimum welfare guarantees, but in reality, Japan's spending in this area is nearly nonexistent.
Among developed countries, Japan has the lowest coverage rate for basic income support. France can reach 91.6%, the UK between 47-90%, and Germany up to 64.4%. Japan only manages 15.3-18%.
Developed countries on average allocate 3.5% of their GDP for poverty alleviation, while Japan only spends 0.5%.
In recent years, things seem to be improving, but back then, Mrs. Akiyama's situation was clearly dire.
"In elementary school, when the classmates found out that An-chan didn't have a father, they often bullied her. And you know now that An-chan is a bit naive and easily fooled; she's been tricked by her classmates many times and still falls for it."
Tsuki Akiyama looked at her sister's back and let out a small sigh. "At that time, we weren't in the same class, so I was always a bit late to realize what was happening. But even if we were in the same class, I couldn't be there for her every moment; she had to grow up. So I taught her to disguise herself, to act a bit aloof and unapproachable, to be a bit more capable—this way, she wouldn't get bullied so easily."
Shuichi Chiba patted Tsuki Akiyama's head and said simply, "You've worked hard."
Tsuki shot him a glare and huffed, "I'm not a weak girl who needs comforting."
"True, someone like you is quite impressive," Shuichi Chiba chuckled. "But... maybe we should think about rewarding such a hardworking president."
Tsuki Akiyama perked up, her face full of mischief. "Is it a train ride? Maybe on the train later..."
"???" Shuichi Chiba gasped, surprised. Tsuki was taking this to a whole new level of boldness.
"Let's skip the train; I'm afraid some overly enthusiastic bystander might report me as a pervert, and I wouldn't be able to explain myself."
But Tsuki Akiyama seemed not to hear, her eyes shining with enthusiasm and her breath becoming a bit rapid.
Shuichi Chiba felt a twitch in his eyelid, sensing that if this continued, he might really end up on a path of no return—he'd be heading toward the days of working the sewing machine.
"I almost forgot, let's add each other on LINE for easier communication. Also, is there anything else you need help with at the ramen shop?" Shuichi Chiba pulled out his phone, interrupting her train of thought.
"Nothing else needed, but let's talk about the reward. What exactly do you plan to do later?" Tsuki Akiyama accepted his friend request and asked eagerly.
"Then I'll go ask the class representative." Shuichi Chiba rolled his eyes.
"Wait, I'm serious," Tsuki Akiyama tugged at his sleeve. "In the past, the ramen shop catered mainly to local residents. Now that we've moved, it's unlikely the old customers will come all this way for a bowl of ramen, so attracting new customers might be challenging at first."
"Got it, I understand." Shuichi Chiba nodded, opening the system to check how much funding would be needed to attract customers.
However, just as he brought up the system interface, he received a new notification.
[Tamako Akiyama Sense of Belonging +10, Administrator Monthly Salary +100,000 Yen.]
Shuichi Chiba felt that persuading the class representative's family to open the shop was an incredibly wise decision. The sense of belonging had increased so quickly, but he was unsure of the exact reason.
Was it because he praised her cooking during breakfast, saying how delicious it was and how much he enjoyed it, making her happy?
Or perhaps it was the pleasant atmosphere of breakfast that eased some of the initial unfamiliarity and made her feel more at home?
Or maybe it was the good rapport he had built with her two daughters?
Shuichi Chiba couldn't quite figure it out, but it seemed that complimenting her was always a safe bet.
After closing Akiyama's personal information, he clicked the button to summon the butler and silently stated his request—help with promoting the Akiyama family's ramen shop after its opening.
[Administrator requests to arrange promotion for the ramen shop. This request will consume 100,000 Yen. Do you wish to proceed?]
Hmm? Another 100,000 Yen?
Shuichi Chiba suddenly had a faint suspicion that it might be the case that whatever he asked the butler for, the price was always this amount.
So, regarding the renovation issues with the two Ogawa ladies, if he hadn't applied to arrange a reliable renovation team but had instead just requested the renovations directly, wouldn't he have saved on renovation costs?
What if he applied to tear down and completely rebuild the entire shopping street as a skyscraper—wouldn't that also only cost 100,000 Yen?
Curious, he decided to give it a try. Shuichi Chiba quickly clicked to proceed, first resolving the ramen shop issue, then submitting a request for the shopping street reconstruction plan.
[Illegal application, please resubmit.]
"..."
Shuichi Chiba thought to himself that, as expected, the system's loopholes were not easy to exploit.
However, after thinking it over, he tried applying for a renovation of the shopping street again, only to receive another illegal application notice.
After several attempts, Shuichi Chiba began to understand what kind of applications would be approved.
First, the system had already indicated that during the operation of the shopping street, if he encountered difficulties, he could request help. So, he needed to have an actual problem to resolve.
Moreover, it seemed that only requests made on behalf of deserving shop owners who truly needed assistance would be considered. After all, serving capable shop owners was part of his role.
Simply trying to fulfill his own desires was unlikely to succeed.
If he wanted to renovate the entire shopping street, it would probably require unanimous agreement among all the capable shop owners that a renovation was necessary.
"Chiba-kun, what are you thinking about? It's time to get on the train." Tsuki Akiyama's voice suddenly broke into his thoughts.
Shuichi Chiba quickly snapped back to reality, realizing that he had unconsciously followed Tsuki all the way to the train station.
"Where's the class representative?" He suddenly noticed someone was missing.
"I asked her to travel in the next train." Tsuki Akiyama replied, her gaze intense and seemingly impatient.
"Next..." Shuichi Chiba's lips twitched slightly. This girl really had some urgent needs—so much so that she sent away her beloved sister.
"Aren't you worried about her being alone in the next train? What if something unexpected happens?" Shuichi Chiba couldn't help but ask.
"An-chan is old enough now; I can't protect her forever. Besides, in today's society, it's not girls like An-chan that need to be feared on the train." Tsuki Akiyama explained.
"That's true..." Shuichi Chiba deeply resonated with this. In his past life, he had always tried to avoid sitting near the opposite sex on the train during his daily commute to school.
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