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The weather is gradually heating up.

In days like this, Kana believe that what one should is to stay indoor, turn on the air conditioner, and eat watermelon.

“All right, alright, when we get to the barbecue shop, I will get you a plate of watermelon,” Eru tried to coax Kana as she pulled her hand on the bus.

Kana smiled. Did she just actually hear a good offer?

Exactly, it is a good offer.

With how hot the sun is today, Kana had planned not to leave today, and it ended up with Eru pecking her cheek lightly and she eagerly followed Eru to the Classical Literature Club’s celebration party.

All 1,400 copies of Hyouka that the club had held on has finally been sold out. According to Kana’s instruction, these thousand and four hundred units were sold little by little, drip feeding the market. On average, the price reached up to 2,000 yen a copy. Finally, the total sales figure exceeded 2,800,000 yen. Even every clubs combined wouldn’t need this much operating fee. When the last book was sold, Mayaka was madly happy. As a result, the Classical Literature Club decided to celebrate once.

To be honest, the fast sale of Hyouka can be partially attributed to Crepe Myrtle Bookstore¹‘s help. Because Da Vinci Code will be published by Torea Publishing House, Crepe Myrtle Bookstore finally understood that they aren’t the only publisher in Japan, and so finally corrected their attitude. They quickly publish the final volume of Adventure Tiger and sell it on market. Finally, three simple words have been etched to the readers’ memory. Slipped Egg-Eater-sensei’s trendiness has rose up to its peak once again, the readers’ eyes naturally fell on Hyouka

When the bus almost reached its station, Eru looked out the window and said, “It’s shining really bright. If I had known, I would have asked Dad to bring us here.”

That guy was accompanying his girlfriend, no way he would have time. Kana felt suffocated when she thought of it. She already warned Ako that Yukihiko might be having an affair, but from Ako’s tone, it’s as if she didn’t take her warning seriously.

Kana also thought this, ‘Let parents handle their own matter.’

But in reality, the matter isn’t that simple. Putting the economic problem aside, Eru really liked this family. Yukihiko and Ako’s divorce would be a permanent shadow in her memory. After their divorce, it isn’t certain whether she would live together with Eru or not, in case they also want to split both sisters into two. This would be a fatal blow to Kana too.

“Hey, Eru, do you like Chitanda Yukihiko or Chitanda Ako more?²”

“Nn? Onee-chan, why did you suddenly ask that?”

“Nothing, I suddenly wanted to know.”

“I love both Dad and Mom.”

“Then, relatively speaking, which one do you like more?”

“I like both of them equally.”

This answer lack any meaning. Kana whispered something. She turned her eyes and then asked, “Then, what about me? Between me, Dad and Mom, who you like the most?”

Eru tilted her head in thought. Her serious demeanor made Kana who was originally confident felt uneasy.

When the bus stops, Eru jumped off the bus, she spun around on her feet, looked at Kana, and said with a smile, “I dislike Onee-chan the most.”

“Ehh!! Why?”

“Onee-chan is lazy yet a picky eater, every day would sleep until noon, can’t change clothes by herself, would rather play game every day, and doesn’t want to go to school, would sneak eating snacks, and then would hide under the quilt…”

“You make it sound like I’m a good-for-nothing…” Kana mumbled, cannot believing what she heard.

The sun was basking down on their head, burning it hot, Kana extended her hand into her backpack and feel about, but she didn’t find her hat.

Eru took out a sun-blocking bat from her own bag and put it on Kana, she tied the strap up, and smiled, “I knew that you would forget, my good-for-nothing Onee-chan.”

“Mu…” Kana pouted. She suddenly felt like the reason she is a ‘good-for-nothing’ was mostly Eru’s fault.

“Chii-chan! Kana! Over here!” Mayaka waved to the sisters from further down the streets.

It wasn’t only Mayaka who had arrived. Oreki Houtarou and Fukube Satoshi too.

“Mayaka, Satoshi, aaa…”

Kana squeezed through Eru, and stood in front of him to block. She extended her hand, “Oribou.”

Oreki symbolically grabbed her hand, “Please call me Houtarou.”

“Come on, it is just a little different. Does it worth fussy over that?”

“You can also call me with my surname, nevertheless, my surname is Oreki.”

Mayaka and Satoshi laughed. They now no wonder wonder over the hostility Kana have for Oreki.

There’s a shopping street near Kamiyama High, and the reputation for the Willow Garden Barbecue Shop in it is immensely popular, having appeared on travel magazines for a few times. Matching that is also its price point, a normal student club dinner’s budget wouldn’t be able to afford them to choose to dine at this shop. However, there was some extra income this time, so the Classical Literature Club decided to hold their celebration party in this shop³.

Even though the shop is expensive, its business is actually not bad, because a few businesses will inevitably hold a their dinner here. After all, this can be considered to be located right next to the best-grade restaurant.

Ibara Mayaka, Fukube Satoshi, and Eru went to order together. Kana and Oreki both have an adopter of the energy-saving ideology, so they stayed on their seat and goofed off.

“I heard that Kana-san doesn’t eat meat, right? Is it really appropriate to choose a barbeque shop then?” Oreki asked.

“I don’t actually don’t eat meat. I still eat a little bit of salmon, Kōbe Beef, and such,⁴” Kana gazed fell to another table far away, looking in pensive thoughtfulness.

“Your food criteria is really high,” he ridiculed.

At this time, Eru seem to have recognized someone from that table, she ran over to greet that person, and were talking cheerfully.

“Nee, Oreki, I hear that your reasoning capacity is decent,” Kana suddenly pointed to the person on that table and said, “Come look and guess, what kind of people are on that table. If you guess right, then I will treat you to Kōbe Beef.”

“Which table?” the question piqued this interest, “All of them are wearing formal wear, they shouldn’t be friends or family members dining out, I think it is a business dinner to entertain a client or to discuss matters. Eru-san seem to be very familiar with one of them, which means that that person obviously know the Chitanda family, and the most likely possibility is that that person has high position in Chitanda’s business matter. Chitanda primarily trades agricultural products, so their trading partner obviously is someone who dabbles in food.”

“If that person can personally meet the high ranking people in the Chitanda business, then that person must either be a very important or a customer that buys in tremendous volume, however, considering Chitanda business scope, there are few people who fits the bill in Kamiyama. The only possibility is that, that customer’s identity is more special, perhaps the government, so that person should be a government worker.”

Kana nodded, Oreki faintly smug and sip his drink.

“You are half wrong.⁵”

“Pff… cough cough.”

Oreki spit out his drink, Kana puckered up her brows in disdain.

1. Apparently, Japanese culture remarked that the tree keeps blooming abundantly while its flowers fall, so it isn’t a random name. My source is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Hokusai

   The book store original name is 百日红书店, so you can search from there if you would like. The first result should be the Chinese-language Wikipedia page.

2. Richie: Calling your parents by full name? Wow.
3. Richie: I hope this shop is full of fresh fruits and veggies, we wouldn’t want out MC to starve, or Eru will be the one who suffer.
4. Richie: Did you eat them because they are delicious or because they are premium?
5. Richie: I had a feeling that he over think
   it. It is Eru we are talking about. Then again, it’s kind of unfair question.

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