Yukinoshita's Correction Method

Haruno Yukinoshita did not say it outright: I'll solve your problem for you, so show me what you can do.

So Dong Yunshan did not answer directly either: I don't need you to solve my problem, and I have no need to show you what I can do.

Since you didn't move to clear the table, I won't raise my hand and flip it.

Everyone ate and drank their fill, said what needed to be said, laughed when it was time to laugh.

Three

They both understood what the other meant, and both still wore smiles on their faces.

No one knew what would happen in the future. Getting the point across was enough.

They changed the subject and treated it as if nothing had happened.

Haruno Yukinoshita looked in the direction the car had driven off. "Which bar is Paradise?"

"Its full name is Paradise Spin Spin Spin Bar," Dong Yunshan replied. "It provides corresponding services for specific groups."

"For him, it really is paradise." Haruno Yukinoshita blinked. "But if he makes a name for himself at the bar, it won't be so easy for him to scam someone into marriage in the future. And if he works at the place you designated, he won't have a chance to come bother you again."

"Isn't that great?" Dong Yunshan raised a hand and swept his hair behind his head. "He's satisfied, and so am I."

"Judging by the look of him, his self-control seems pretty average."

"Then that's not my fault." Dong Yunshan's eyes were deep and dark. "He can only blame himself... for being useless."

"You're amazing, little underclassman!" Haruno Yukinoshita turned to look at Dong Yunshan. "Thanks for all your hard work on this commission. If you ever run into something you can't solve in the future, just leave it to your big sister."

That sounded familiar.

Should he say they really were sisters?

Yukino Yukinoshita's second order had been the same thing.

She had required Dong Yunshan to commission Yukino Yukinoshita to help him accomplish something he could not accomplish on his own.

So...

"Get in line," Dong Yunshan said bluntly. "If I really run into something I can't solve myself, I have to go to someone else first."

"I know. Yukino told me everything." Haruno Yukinoshita lightly touched her chin with her finger. "She didn't want your correction to suffer any unnecessary interference, which is why she hoped I could help resolve this matter."

Dong Yunshan lowered his eyes slightly.

In Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes, this was a problem he could not solve.

But Yukino Yukinoshita had not made him use this to fulfill the second condition.

Instead, she had silently gone to Haruno Yukinoshita for help.

Considering the relationship between her and Haruno Yukinoshita, for her... this was not an easy thing to do.

Yukino Yukinoshita's desire to help Dong Yunshan would not change in the slightest because of anything Haruno Yukinoshita had done.

"I should thank her in person, but with her personality, if she knows I solved this myself, she definitely won't accept it." Dong Yunshan shook his head helplessly. "Although I don't think I need her correction, no matter what new method she comes up with, I'll cooperate of my own accord."

"Oh?" The corners of Haruno Yukinoshita's mouth rose, and her eyes curved happily as well. "Looks like you haven't noticed, even though I worked so hard to remind you."

Dong Yunshan frowned. "Noticed what?"

"Yukino's Correction Method has already been put into use, and you're cooperating with it right now." Haruno Yukinoshita's voice echoed by Dong Yunshan's ear, sometimes near, sometimes far. "Didn't I say it before? [If something comes up that you can't handle, just ask your big sister for help!]—that was the hint."

A hint for what?

When Dong Yunshan recalled that sentence, his thought had not been to ask Haruno Yukinoshita for help, but to discover Haruno Yukinoshita's true goal through it.

That sentence had been guiding him to think about Haruno Yukinoshita's goal.

In fact, Dong Yunshan had indeed perceived Haruno Yukinoshita's goal through that sentence.

But what if that kind of thinking was one of Haruno Yukinoshita's goals as well?

Just like... Yukino Yukinoshita's goal.

"That's right. Guiding your thinking was the purpose of that sentence." Haruno Yukinoshita spoke softly. "Ordering you to think is Yukino's Correction Method."

Volume Three: Finals and Spring Break: Release Remarks

Hello, everyone. I'm Slightly Cool and Warm, the one who can never catch up with the trends.

This pen name comes from that stretch of time between late spring and early summer.

The weather is slightly cool, but not cold.

The sunlight is warm, but not scorching.

In the end, it became a true reflection of myself.

My subject matter is slightly cool, and my results are warm.

"Slightly cool" means the trend had already passed by the time I started writing.

"Warm" means I can scrape by, keep myself fed, and eat something hot.

Five years of writing, six million words.

I started at my peak, and my results have steadily declined.

I figured it was about time I faced and accepted my own incompetence, rationally allocated my time, and tolerated my own escapism.

I wanted to write a story with some popularity and earn a little more money.

But the hot blood had cooled, and I no longer had that ability.

Then I'd just write something I wanted to write.

Little stories as trivial and boring as chatting with classmates and passing notes back in school, along with those sweet-and-sour little feelings.

There wouldn't be any intense conflict, nor any dramatic ups and downs. It was enough to live comfortably.

But I hadn't expected to receive so much support and encouragement.

New friends expressed the joy of discovering treasure;

Old friends who had been walking with me expressed their trust in me.

That faintly cooled hot blood became warm again, just like that.

I could accept my own incompetence, and I could tolerate my own escapism.

But I couldn't accept giving up, and I couldn't tolerate betraying everyone's encouragement.

From the moment I decided to write this subject, I knew the emotional development couldn't be fast.

This was Yukino Yukinoshita, after all.

It was just that, as I kept writing, I still couldn't help wanting to roar: you two, hurry up and get married already!

But the journey itself was scenery, and there had to be a process.

It wasn't like I could just fast-forward straight to raising kids, right?

So the pacing would be slow, the popularity would be low, and the results would be poor.

But I still had to write it.

This was Yukino Yukinoshita, after all.

A beautiful girl blessed with both looks and intelligence, who said what she meant and corrected what was wrong, a little cutie with an icy exterior and a gentle heart.

Any thought of giving up would turn into the courage to try one more time before her.

Because she was still persevering.

So I, supported and encouraged by everyone, wanted to keep writing.

In short:

The story was still continuing, and every view along the way was beautiful.

A thousand words boiled down to one sentence—five updates upon release.

Final Exams and Spring Break: Every Strike a Critical Hit

Haruno Yukinoshita's eyes reflected Dong Yunshan's face. "Yukino hopes to correct you through an appropriate failure, but what degree of failure falls within your tolerance? Only you yourself know that."

So...

["I want you to commission me to help you complete something you can't complete on your own."]

["One month. Complete this order within one month. If you still haven't encountered a problem that fits the conditions by then, I'll change it to an order that can be completed immediately."]

["If I fail to complete your commission, count it as my loss to you once, and you can order me once."]

Faced with such an order, how would Dong Yunshan think?

First, he had to think about something he couldn't complete on his own.

This in itself was actively pursuing failure, allowing Dong Yunshan to clearly recognize that he was not omnipotent.

Second, he had to filter out things that were too exaggerated, so Dong Yunshan wouldn't think about things that normal people could never have done in the first place.

This was to prevent Dong Yunshan from falling into defeatism and nihilism, preserving his motivation to think and move forward.

Finally, he had to consider whether, within a reasonable range, Yukino Yukinoshita could accomplish something Dong Yunshan could not.

This was guiding Dong Yunshan to correctly view the differences between individuals and face his own failure head-on.

Whether Dong Yunshan could find something to fulfill Yukino Yukinoshita's order was not important at all.

The process of thinking itself was Dong Yunshan correcting himself under Yukino Yukinoshita's order.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Rather than correcting Dong Yunshan, it was better to let Dong Yunshan correct himself.

As expected of... Yukino Yukinoshita.

The blurry neon street before him seemed to fall silent in an instant.

Snowflakes drifted down in flurries, soundless, yet burying everything and leaving only a pure white expanse behind.

Haruno Yukinoshita, who resembled Yukino Yukinoshita, seemed to truly become Yukino Yukinoshita. Amid the swirling snow, she turned around, raised a hand to brush aside the long hair hanging over her shoulder, and revealed a confident faint smile.

The sense of accomplishment that surfaced on her face made her smile shine even more brightly.

["From now on, carry your gratitude toward me and apply this way of thinking to your actual actions. Carefully savor the life you have after being saved."]

If it were her, she would definitely say that.

But the person before him was Haruno Yukinoshita.

"Not enough, little underclassman." Haruno Yukinoshita wore a smile, but there was no amusement in her eyes. "At this level, you can't even beat Yukino."

"I've thought of it," Dong Yunshan said, raising one eyebrow. "A way to correct Yukino."

"Really?" Haruno Yukinoshita pressed curiously. "Can you tell your big sister?"

Dong Yunshan met Haruno Yukinoshita's assessing gaze. "Have you played Jungle?"

In Japanese, it read: Jungle.

Each side had eight pieces—elephant, lion, tiger, leopard, wolf, dog, cat, and rat—with their combat strength descending in that order, but the rat could kill the elephant.

The two sides fought each other, and the first to enter the opponent's den won. A player could not enter their own den.

There were also designs like rivers and traps, but those were not important here.

The smile on Haruno Yukinoshita's face froze for an instant. She had already realized what Dong Yunshan's so-called method was.

"An elephant can kill a cat. A cat can eat a rat." Dong Yunshan brought two fingers together and lightly tapped his temple. "And a rat can kill an elephant."

Yukino Yukinoshita had lost too many times. Defeating her would not achieve the goal of correcting her; instead, it would worsen her problem.

But Yukino Yukinoshita had also beaten too many people. Losing to her would not achieve the goal of correcting her either; at most, it would maintain the status quo.

Then... all he had to do was defeat Haruno Yukinoshita, who had always beaten her.

In that way, Dong Yunshan's initial goal of blurring the concept of victory and defeat would be achieved.

Yukino Yukinoshita, who had lost to Haruno Yukinoshita, had defeated Dong Yunshan, while Dong Yunshan, who had lost to Yukino Yukinoshita, had defeated Haruno Yukinoshita—a closed loop.

Who was the strongest in rock-paper-scissors?

All of them were strong, and none of them were.

Repeat that cycle a few times, and Yukino Yukinoshita's correction would naturally be complete.