Chapter 333

It's finally Ishihara Mikoto's turn.

Seeing Ishihara Mikoto like this, the Uesugi couple didn't take much liking to her; first of all, although Mikoto appeared relatively young, one could tell at a glance that she should be the oldest among these few people.

In Japanese marriages, as high as 70% have the husband older than the wife; even among the remaining 30% where the wife is older than the husband, the vast majority are within five years, and wives older than their husbands by more than five years account for less than 10%.

Times have changed; in Japanese dramas from the 90s to 00s, there was still a certain progressive notion retained—for example, in the famous drama *Section Two, General Affairs*, mature older beauties seeking younger men, or nightclub queens who had been with many men, were considered charming by Japanese society at the time and often received high praise within their circles, and were also more easily accepted by society.

That was also an era personally experienced and lived through by Uesugi Hironori; his father originally had little fondness for the so-called "women's liberation" and "Ueno Chizuko" of that time, and later, needless to say, his aversion only increased, almost to the point of frowning whenever he heard someone shout about women's rights.

Older in age, with a fox-like charm that allured and carried a touch of professional woman's seriousness and persistence, after investigating, the Uesugi Hironori couple did not have a good impression of Ishihara Mikoto, merely restrained because this was the forensic assistant designated by their son, so they didn't say much more.

"Ms. Ishihara, are you living alone in the police dormitory now?" Uesugi Tomoko said lightly.

"Hi, yes, Uesugi-kun arranged for me to stay in the women's dormitory of the Metropolitan Police Department." Ishihara Mikoto said in a low voice, thinking to herself that this was precisely why she didn't want to get involved in the Uesugi family's private life!

Women like me, older, divorced, and with a child (referring to Asuka), are disliked wherever we go!

Damn it, how can Japanese people be so awful!

"Your maiden family seems to be staff at a law firm, right? Parents divorced, and you have a younger brother, correct?" Uesugi Tomoko continued asking: "Have you already decided on an heir?"

"Yes and no; my mother is an actuary at the law firm, and we haven't been in touch for a long time."

"Oh! Did you ever study abroad?"

"No, only during my time at Osaka University did I briefly go abroad to Canada as a visiting scholar once."

"Really? Looking at you like this, we all thought you had been receiving long-term education overseas and had just returned~heh~heh"

"Heh" Uesugi Tomoko said with a smile: "After all, choosing forensic work, being divorced and childless while still focusing on one's career—such women are indeed very rare."

On the surface, it was encouraging and permissible words; inside, it was thick with yin-yang weirdness.

Hearing these words, Ishihara Mikoto felt embarrassed and lowered her head, pursing her slightly thick, sensual lips, remaining silent, while also feeling somewhat indignant in her heart.

There's no way around it; this society evaluates men and women differently. For men, success can be understood as a straight line: upward represents increased wealth, power, and respect; downward denotes the opposite, and although there may be some differences (for example, Uesugi Kuninori is pure and noble, Watanabe Eiji carries weight, Shimakawa is just rich), overall, the evaluation standard for men is fairly consistent.

But for women, it's different; society's evaluation standard for women is an XY coordinate axis: on one hand, similarly increased wealth, power, and respect; but there is another coordinate axis whose evaluation is unrelated to this, and that axis evaluates whether one is married, whether one has given birth, whether one has a successful marriage, a happy family, and excellent children.

This leads to the so-called "success" for women needing to satisfy both conditions simultaneously to gain general societal recognition, especially in Japanese society, which is very conservative; everyone tends to consider only the latter kind of success as true success.

Moreover, Japan has had a thick feudal tradition since ancient times, superimposed with the golden era Japanese women's various harsh to perverse marital and romantic demands, moral indoctrination, and gender slander trends that brought backlash; nowadays, Japanese society's evaluation system for women has become even more stringent.

Both Ishihara Mikoto and Shirakawa Mai have some feminist coloring, among whom Shirakawa Mai is even revered as a deity by some organizations.

But first, Shirakawa Mai herself does not throw punches; second, Shirakawa Mai herself is truly excellent.

Although Japanese people are conservative, having experienced the modernization under Five-Star MacArthur and the post-war global progressive thought reforms,

they still respect truly outstanding women who can prove their work abilities.

Ishihara Mikoto, however, cannot, and moreover, needless to say, this woman might have come in through pillow business!

"Mom, asking about roots and bottoms is about enough." Uesugi Muneyuki couldn't bear it anymore, and still took the initiative to help Mikoto-nee out: "Mikoto-nee is the forensic assistant I personally selected; she has outstanding work ability and is indispensable to me."

"Oh my, we're just chatting, right? Ms. Ishihara?"

"Yes—" Ishihara Mikoto lowered her head sadly.

These upper-class society ladies are all masters of yin-yang weirdness, experts in skin-deep yang autumn.

"Our family has only two sons so far; Yukimatsumaru's older brother is an archaeologist, usually buried in archaeology and case-reading career, and only Yukimatsumaru is active outside; everyone, please take care of our dog son in the future." Uesugi Hironori confirmed that Uesugi Muneyuki had nothing wrong, then bowed to the crowd, looking as if he planned to leave.

"Wait!" Uesugi Muneyuki could only say: "Father, about that previous matter—uh——·that is, the Asuka issue."

Uesugi Hironori stopped his steps.

"Asuka has already undergone official adoption procedures by Ishihara Mikoto, and signed the domestic helper contract, oh, Father-in-Law, Mother-in-Law, this matter was handled by me, and likewise, I also need to thank Father-in-Law and Mother-in-Law for their support and recognition!" Minami took the opportunity to claim credit.

"Hmm, I also really like Asuka, Uncle Auntie, in my view, Asuka is just like my little sister; having her at home taking care of the junior student, I also feel relieved." Mai Xuejie also took the opportunity to say, she took Asuka's little hand, indicating the girl should hurry out to say hello: "Asuka?"

Asuka slowly walked out, the adorable Victorian-style little maid Ashūshū's body trembled, and with a voice as fine as a mosquito's wing, she softly said: "Please—please give me guidance!"

." Uesugi Hironori furrowed his brows tightly, he strangely glanced at the entire ward.

What on earth is this girl?

Able to bewitch the son to the point of losing his soul and spirit, while also simultaneously gaining recognition from the two major faction leaders in the Ooku?

Does this girl called "Asuka" (Asuka and Asuka have the same romanization as asuka) really have such terrifying charm?

Simply unbelievable.

But since these two people have both recognized her, plus the son likes her so much—"Is that so? Since you've chosen to stay, then just work hard." Uesugi Hironori could only reluctantly pat the girl's little head, then bade farewell together with his wife.

The Uesugi couple left just like that, and as they left, Ishihara Mikoto also immediately proposed to leave; Minami still had a pile of things to be busy with, Eirina merely came back temporarily, and tomorrow morning early she would have to go to the Police Affairs Department of the Metropolitan Police Department to accept an internal investigation, and also reluctantly left.

Finally, only Shirakawa Mai and Saito Asuka remained in the room.

"Rest a few days, wait until my New Year holiday, and we'll settle that guy together!" Saito Asuka Xuejie came to Uesugi Muneyuki's side and said: "At the same time, we should go to Kurosawa Shinai; you already have self-protection ability."

Kurosawa Shinai! Uesugi Muneyuki's face sank heavily as he nodded.

Yeah, we should go there to explore a bit, but the biggest problem is, Kurosawa Nu Tu has already completely disappeared.

"Also, be careful." Saito Asuka Xuejie said softly: "That person in Kansai might have realized you are an existence of the inner world."