21st Century Necromancer

"Hiromi, when do you get off work today?" With a little time left before the end of the workday, Chen Yu finished up his tasks and went to the surgical office, strolling over to Jounouchi Hiromi's desk.

Hospitals are probably the least likely places in the world where one can leave work on time, as you never know when a patient will show up, necessitating overtime.

Fortunately, Japan's tiered healthcare system means that emergency cases are usually concentrated in community hospitals and such, with fewer emergency patients being sent to large university hospitals like Eastern University Affiliated Hospital.

Of course, if there is a sudden emergency, ambulances will still bring in patients, and there can be crises with inpatients, so there are still occasions when patient rescues are needed.

"Professor Chen, you pamper your girlfriend so much, you might as well marry Dr. Jounouchi and take her home early!" Seeing Chen Yu's demeanor, other doctors in the office immediately started teasing him.

Faced with everyone's teasing, even Jounouchi Hiromi herself felt a bit embarrassed, her face flushed with redness.

Upon hearing the other doctors' taunts and seeing the shy expression on Jounouchi Hiromi's face, Chen Yu waved his hands to signal everyone to stop teasing: "Hiromi hasn't even met my parents yet; it's too early to talk about marriage. Don't worry, everyone will be invited when we do get married."

"Oh~!" Chen Yu's words immediately drew a chorus of "ohs" from everyone in the office, making Jounouchi Hiromi feel even shyer. Her face was burning hot as she couldn't help but pinch Chen Yu at his waist: "Who said I'm marrying you!"

"Hahaha!" Jounouchi Hiromi's pinch elicited another round of good-natured laughter from everyone.

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Although Chen Yu's proposal to knock off work early caused a small stir, it didn't have any adverse effect. In fact, it meant that Jounouchi Hiromi left the office only about an hour later than the standard end of the workday.

"I'm lucky it was you, Mr. Chen Yu, who came looking for me today! Otherwise, I would have definitely been busy until seven or eight in the evening." Even though she had just pinched Chen Yu in the office, getting to leave work early still made Jounouchi Hiromi very happy: "What brought this on today, coming to pick me up from work?"

"Would I be seen as the type of man who wouldn't pick up his girlfriend from work in your eyes, Hiromi?" Chen Yu looked at his girlfriend and feigned a heartbroken expression to tease a laugh out of her before explaining: "But today I came to get you early from work because my aunt has invited us out for dinner, and it wouldn't be nice to make her wait if we were delayed until seven or eight."

"Mm-hmm." Hearing Chen Yu mention his aunt, Jounouchi Hiromi immediately became meek and shy but couldn't help asking with concern, "Mr. Chen Yu, what does your aunt think of me? She won't oppose you dating me, right?"

At Jounouchi Hiromi's words and seeing his girlfriend's demure demeanor, Chen Yu smiled, pinched the tip of her upturned nose, and reassured her, "Don't worry, my aunt likes you a lot. She even told me to hold on to you tightly and marry you sooner rather than later!"

"But I'm older than you, doesn't that matter? Don't Chinese people care a lot about that?" However, Chen Yu's comfort did not settle Hiromi Jounouchi's concerns; perhaps it was her worry that made her so anxious.

After all, this was only the first relative of Chen Yu she had met. Even if she could get past this, there were still many more challenges ahead, especially since she had not yet met Chen Yu's parents.

"Don't worry, none of that matters! As long as you can do one thing, my parents will definitely accept you!" Chen Yu's hands rested on Hiromi Jounouchi's shoulders, and as she looked at him with a mix of confusion and anticipation, he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "As long as you bear my child, they will definitely accept you to hold a grandchild."

"Ah! You're terrible!" Hiromi Jounouchi immediately punched Chen Yu's chest in embarrassment, but before she could do anything else, Chen Yu had already embraced her and gently said in her ear, "Don't worry, Hiromi, even if my family members don't want to accept you, I won't leave you. If it comes to it, we can just stay in Japan and visit them during the holidays."

"Can we really do that?" Hiromi Jounouchi lifted her head from Chen Yu's embrace, her gaze filled with hope and yet worry: "But those are your parents, doesn't it seem wrong to do that?"

After hearing Hiromi Jounouchi say that, Chen Yu thought seriously for a while before nodding and assuring her, "It's okay, my parents always said that after I got married, I shouldn't live with them, so the biggest difference between staying in Japan and going back to China is just that visiting them might take a bit longer.

But the city where my family lives does have an airport, and it's not too inconvenient to fly back, so we'll just visit them more often in the future."

With Chen Yu's persuasion, Hiromi Jounouchi finally cast aside her worries and went with him to the sushi restaurant in Ginza where they had agreed to meet with Chen Yu's third aunt, Xu Xiaohong.

"Yu, Miss Jounouchi, you're here! Come sit!" Upon seeing Chen Yu and Hiromi Jounouchi arrive, Xu Xiaohong quickly called out to them, "I didn't know which restaurant was good, so Xiao Min said she was familiar with this one and picked it for me. You two are more familiar with Tokyo, what do you think of this place?"

"A sushi restaurant like this costs at least ten thousand yen per person, and if you really indulge, a single person could spend twenty to thirty thousand yen.

Hiromi and I usually can't afford to come to places like this; we are really taking advantage of your treat this time!" Chen Yu quietly mentioned the cost of eating at such a restaurant in Chinese, before finishing the latter half of his statement aloud in Japanese.

However, since Xu Xiaohong had chosen this place to treat Chen Yu to a meal, she naturally had a prior understanding of the restaurant's costs, and she could explain the expense as a work necessity, filing for reimbursement later and not having to pay out of pocket. So even after hearing Chen Yu's reminder, she maintained her composure and said, "Is that so?

Then today, Yu, you can eat as much as you want!"

"Then today is going to be a real treat! I've been wanting to try the high-end sushi in Ginza for a long time." Chen Yu laughed, and he and Hiromi Jounouchi took their seats: "Where's Xiao Zhao? You didn't make her fend for herself, did you, Auntie?"

"No, her sister came to visit her from Kyoto, and the two sisters haven't seen each other for a long time, so I let her spend time with her sister," Xu Xiaohong explained to him.

"Xiao Min? Xiao Zhao's sister? Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in a long time. She came to see me when she first arrived in Japan," Chen Yu paused for a moment, then remembered who Xu Xiaohong was talking about, Xiao Min.