Chapter 44: Love and Friendship

Thinking carefully, Kitahara could actually understand.

Women — what they wanted was simply stability. Especially a woman like Hayami Rina who had been through marriage and the lowest points of life.

They were no longer so love-brained, no longer yearning for pure, beautiful romance. They cared more about material stability.

Kitahara had stumbled into it by accident — bragging a bit actually earned him a point of affection.

Sigh, his life experience was still insufficient, his experience shallow. He didn’t know what women really needed.

If he’d known earlier, he would have done this long ago!

Gently stroking Hayami Rina’s head, Kitahara said:

"Don’t worry, Rina-nee. For you and little Aya-chan, I’ll work hard at writing. I’ll definitely earn more money to make you happy."

"Mm, thank you, Kitahara-kun. I feel so lucky, so happy!"

Hayami Rina was deeply moved. She pressed her face against Kitahara’s chest, listening to his powerful heartbeat, feeling incomparably peaceful.

Her heart had no more troubles or anxiety. This moment was more grounded than ever before.

This was the feeling of finding someone to depend on, someone to lean on.

A moment later, she suddenly snapped awake:

"Oh no, it’s already noon without realizing it! I need to hurry and cook for Kitahara-kun. Can’t delay your meal and affect your health."

...

After lunch and a short nap, Kitahara returned to his own home to write.

Sitting at his desk thinking for a long time, he decided to first try writing a serious novel.

Grasp both, and both hands must be firm.

Erotica had to be done, but literary novels couldn’t be set aside either.

Currently neither of the two erotica series was urgent. While he had time, he wanted to try writing a literary novel.

After all, who didn’t have a literary dream? Who was truly willing to write only erotica for a lifetime?

Although he hadn’t yet gained system ability bonuses in this area, he wanted to try. What if it worked?

Laying out manuscript paper, Kitahara put pen to paper and wrote the words Tokyo Love Story.

Literary works emphasized depth, making people think and reflect after reading, arousing readers’ resonance and emotional response.

So choosing the subject matter was important.

Kitahara felt that using the current post-bubble era as the background was good.

This way it could fit reality, making it easier for people to immerse themselves and empathize.

As for the specific story content, he wanted to reference the story of Hayami Rina’s coworker Sachiko, which she had told him a few days ago.

Novel plots all came from reality. That Sachiko story was good.

Two young people in love, separated by various social contradictions, with cruel reality like an insurmountable chasm standing before them.

The male lead, once a high-spirited youth, gives up life in the big city and returns to his hometown with loss and heartbreak to grow potatoes.

Despite his reluctance, despite loving deeply, he has no choice.

And the female lead, for her dream, to stay in this prosperous yet cold city, steps into a brothel, forcing smiles, catering to others.

Every night, when the lights come on and the city’s noise fills her ears, her heart involuntarily drifts to the distance, missing the male lead.

Of course, this was Kitahara’s artistic embellishment.

If he wrote that the two didn’t love each other that deeply, that the man just couldn’t survive and would starve if he didn’t go home to grow potatoes, and the woman sold herself just to make money — no one would read it.

He needed to find reasonable justifications, making the plot not abrupt while highlighting society’s unfriendliness to young people, the lives of the lower class, the coldness of the big city, and so on.

He had already thought of the ending.

He would write that the male lead made a fortune growing potatoes, returned to Tokyo to start a business, successfully founded a company, and became a president.

One day, while entertaining clients, he happened to encounter the female lead, who was working.

After many years, the former lovers met again.

The male lead’s love for the female lead was still deep. He had remained single all these years. This meeting, he decided not to let go, no matter what, he would be with her.

But the female lead felt she was now dirty, no longer worthy of him.

So after a night of passion, she quietly left.

Went to another city to sell herself.

For this kind of literary work, the ending absolutely couldn’t be happy. It had to be a tragedy.

There had to be regret, so it would leave a deep impression.

Only tragedy could provoke deep thought in readers, and also serve as a warning.

Kitahara felt his ending design was simply perfect.

As for the plot, it could be polished along the way.

After starting to write, because Kitahara had inherited the original owner’s writing skill, it was okay at first. But as he wrote, he discovered a problem.

Why was he directly writing from the female lead’s fall into prostitution?

And all of it was describing her receiving different clients, having different experiences — what the hell?

Could it be that after writing too much smut, he really couldn’t write serious literature anymore?

Sigh, let it be for now!

Kitahara sighed helplessly, put away the few pages he’d written, and temporarily gave up on this creative plan.

Leave it for later!

Today he’d write goblins first.

Otherwise, writing something neither fish nor fowl would just waste effort.

Goblins were much easier to write — no need to rack his brain at all.

The end of the first volume had already left a hook. The protagonist "Kaoru" was clearly somewhat unsatisfied, addicted.

The second volume content Kitahara conceived was about her and her companions returning to the city and school, often missing that day’s experience.

Such an unforgettable adventure was deeply engraved in her memory, worth savoring. She had clearly developed a condition called "masochism addiction syndrome."

Peaceful days passed one by one. Kaoru’s longing grew more and more severe, gradually reaching its extreme.

Thinking there was no life-threatening danger there, Kaoru went alone to that cave again.

The next day, Kaoru returned, exhausted but satisfied.

From then on, she began periodically visiting the cave.

Little did she know, her abnormal behavior attracted her boyfriend’s attention.

That’s right — the second volume had a male lead.

The first volume mainly told of Kaoru and her companions’ friendship. The second volume, Kitahara mainly wrote about love.

Friendship and love were both very special emotions in human life, both of great significance, precious, worth writing about.

Kaoru’s boyfriend, after discovering her abnormality, out of worry and concern, secretly followed her, wanting to see what his girlfriend was actually doing.

So he saw the most painful scene of his entire life.

The important thing was — his girlfriend was actually willing.

He was grief-stricken, jumped out and loudly questioned his girlfriend why.

He got no answer, because he died.

After the goblin tribe discovered this guy wasn’t female, they directly divided him up to fill their stomachs.

And Kaoru, after witnessing her boyfriend lose his life before her eyes, regretted everything.

She felt guilty for what she had done. She wanted to atone.

She wanted to destroy this group of goblins, to avenge her boyfriend!