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----------------------------------------------------------To be honest, with Rina’s first word being ’Papa’ instead of ’Mama,’ Erina was actually feeling a bit down.

According to some boring authoritative analysis, "Mama" is the easiest sound to make globally, as it’s a natural result of an infant exhaling. The second easiest is "Papa."

Despite vast linguistic differences, the sound ’Mama’ is almost consistent from Asia to Europe. It’s simple: when infants are hungry, they cry out, and the easiest sound to make is ’Ma,’ which is close to the crying sound ’wa.’ As soon as they make this sound, their mother comes to feed them, and thus infants learn this sound, knowing that it brings milk.

Therefore, infants typically learn ’Mama’ first. It’s rare for a child’s first word to be ’Papa’; this usually only happens if the father is very close to the child and takes care of them more diligently than the mother. It’s just particularly strange.

"Speaking of which, what have you decided about work?"

Senzaemon Nakiri shifted the conversation back to work.

Although Renz was still in his first year of university, his culinary skills were excellent, and he had extensive theoretical knowledge. Senzaemon Nakiri naturally offered Renz a generous salary to be an honorary professor and lecturer in the Chinese Cuisine Department at Totsuki Academy. He just needed to visit Totsuki Academy whenever he had free time.

However, Senzaemon Nakiri considered that not assigning Renz any work might hurt his self-esteem, so it wasn’t a case of Renz getting paid for doing nothing.

Senzaemon Nakiri even considered entrusting Renz with the main judge role for the Spring and Autumn Selection.

"You can arrange it," Renz didn’t have a better suggestion at the moment. At least it was a stable job with a fixed income. He could slowly build up additional income from other ventures. With a child now, Renz placed great importance on earning money for formula.

"Hmm, let’s say seventy thousand US dollars a week," Senzaemon Nakiri mused, giving a figure, then added, "To make it a round figure, how about one hundred thousand US dollars a week?" Renz’s mouth twitched slightly.

You’re practically screaming about giving special treatment, aren’t you afraid of others knowing? Renz was well aware of Totsuki’s salaries; there was no way it could be that high. Even Lecturer Roland only earned twenty thousand US dollars a week, and he had been a lecturer for many years with deep qualifications. Renz was offered five times that amount as an inexperienced new lecturer, coddling him to the point of almost directly handing him money.

"Isn’t that too high?" Renz asked cautiously. He didn’t understand the Old Man’s intentions. Was he simply worried that Renz had too little money and couldn’t support his family, so he was trying every possible way to create opportunities for him to earn money?

"Too little?" Senzaemon Nakiri pretended not to hear.

"Then one hundred and twenty thousand US dollars a week."

I’m saying it’s too much, you Old Man, you play dirty! Erina had even less concept of money and didn’t detect any problems, instead chatting and laughing with Hisako. She seemed to have fully integrated into the current timeline within a single day, showing no confusion from the time jump.

"We have so many days off during this period, let’s go out and have fun together!" Hisako Arato suggested.

"I still have to take care of the baby; it wouldn’t be convenient to go out and play," Erina also wanted to go out. The Christmas period was a good time to relax.

"I can take care of the child. We have a nanny at home," Senzaemon Nakiri said calmly.

"Really?" Erina wasn’t truly disliking her daughter or anything. It was mainly that taking care of a small child was exhausting, leaving almost no time for rest. If Grandpa could help during this period, she could rest for about a week, and then she would properly be a mother after that week of rest.

"Yes," Senzaemon Nakiri nodded.

"That’s great!" Erina secretly grabbed Renz’s hand under the table. "So where should we go to play?"

"Let’s go to Disneyland for a day first," Hisako Arato mused. She didn’t have much talent for recreation either, and after some thought, she could only think of amusement parks. Tokyo Disneyland was the largest amusement park she could think of.

"Alright," Erina accepted Hisako’s suggestion.

Night gradually fell. The banquet slowly concluded amidst laughter. Hisako Arato and Alice temporarily stayed in the mansion, each in their own rooms. Renz and Erina carried Rina to their private room within the mansion to rest. An infant bed had already been prepared

in the room.

Erina, who had been smiling moments before, became serious after putting Rina down. She sat on the edge of her bed, gazing at Renz with an abyss-like stare.

"Tell me, how did you manage to make Rina learn to call you ’Papa’ so quickly?" Erina sat cross-legged on the bed.

"I don’t know either; she just suddenly called me," Renz genuinely didn’t know about this. "Maybe you’re too fierce normally." As he said this, Renz flashed a triumphant smile. "I won’t take the allowance we bet.

This month, you’re in charge of Rina’s night shift." Renz climbed onto the bed, flung his suit aside, and burrowed into the covers.

It was warm, and the mattress was soft, providing a blissful comfort. Rina’s night shift was quite difficult to manage, requiring constant attention throughout the night, always ready for any sudden situations with Rina, which significantly affected sleep quality. Having a nanny would make things much easier. However, there were no plans to hire a nanny yet.

Seeing Renz sprawl out like that, Erina felt a surge of irritation. This loss was too inexplicable. Rina inexplicably started calling him ’Papa,’ and inexplicably became less fond of her own mother.

"Tell me quickly, how did you make Rina so close to you?"

Erina patted Renz, who was trying to sleep on the bed.

"I really don’t know," Renz rolled his eyes. "Maybe it’s charisma?"

"By the way, aren’t you sleeping?" Renz checked the time; it was quite late. "You don’t expect me to help you take off your clothes, do you? That would be emperor

treatment."

"Get lost!" Erina pulled off her stockings herself, then rolled into bed. Unlike Renz, however, she wasn’t sleepy yet. She put on her headphones and opened her phone. Underground Chefs Season 1 was playing.

"You’re still binging shows this late?" Renz leaned closer, whispering from behind Erina, though he couldn’t see what was on the screen.

"I want to watch it from beginning to end. I only saw the ending before, and it felt like something was missing," Erina said, staring at the screen. "Maybe it’s because I skipped the earlier parts, so it felt uncomfortable."

"I don’t think I did well with that dish in the finals," Renz didn’t deny Erina’s feeling. "The confession was too rushed, and the proposal felt forced." Renz paused. "If I had another chance, it would be much better. At least I wouldn’t choose that dish as the decisive one."

Erina suddenly asked, "Last time, how did we go back?"

"Well, we just lived our lives, and then we went back," Renz wasn’t sure how the [Simulator] reviewed things in the end. In short, once the conditions were met, they returned to the past.

"When we traveled through time again, we hadn’t even had the preliminaries, right?" Erina asked.

"Right," Renz nodded.

"I looked at this video of yours, and you seem a bit clumsy in it," Erina pointed out.

"Let me see," Renz leaned his head closer.

"Look at your movements, and your expression. You look like an idiot," Erina teased.

"I remember I was showing off my skills with a calm face, wasn’t I?" Renz wondered. "How could this be?" Indeed, the footage differed from how Renz remembered it. In the first round, knife skills, Renz almost got eliminated. Yet, he clearly remembered sailing through it with ease.

"I might have a clue," Renz said. "Flip to the part where you were confessed to, and look at your facial expression." Hearing Renz’s reaction, Erina sensed something strange. She flipped back to that part and saw, "My expression, why... so surprised?" Erina thought about it. They had been an old married couple for so many years, and they had communicated beforehand, knowing what Renz was going to do. She should have been calm about being proposed to and confessed to.

"My understanding is..." Renz mused. "Every time we come to the future, the past events might revert to their original state."

"Original state?" Erina froze.

"Roughly speaking, it’s us meeting without time travel,"

Renz said, pointing to the people in the video. "But I actually participated in this show originally, without any memory of it. I always thought I hadn’t participated in this competition."

"And I clearly remember the champion’s name was Onze Saiba," Renz said in surprise.

"Indeed, the champion was Onze Saiba, but the face of the champion is yours," Erina pulled up the records.

"Perhaps, I used an alias for the competition?" Erina speculated.

"Also, the name Saiba reminds me of a very impressive senior, Joichiro Saiba," Erina added.

Wasn’t Joichiro Saiba the owner of that small shop he encountered outside of school? A new chain of clues formed in Renz’s mind.

"I feel like we’re currently reverse-engineering our

courtship," Erina said with a smile. "Interesting."

"Well... I might have been an apprentice under Joichiro Saiba for a while," Renz gathered all the information. A meticulous logical diagram was already emerging.

"Perhaps after achieving some progress in my culinary studies, I signed up for this cooking competition. Maybe out of a desire to hide myself and maintain a low profile, I used the surname Saiba."

"But the key question is, why did I confess to you, and even propose, on this show?" Renz highlighted the core point of the entire event. "You can tell that even the show’s you was surprised by this, and was startled," Renz said.

"The most surprising thing isn’t that; the most surprising thing is that I actually agreed, I actually agreed!" Erina also found a point to complain about. "I don’t know what kind of mood I was in."

"Perhaps, as you said, a violent person whom no one wanted suddenly received a marriage proposal and was directly overwhelmed," Renz teased.

"Hey, if you talk like that, you’ll make me angry," Erina kicked Renz with her foot.

"But you won’t actually get angry now," Renz said.

"That’s why I like you more and more."

Erina’s pretty face flushed. Being suddenly praised by Renz and shown such affection made her slightly shy.

"I’ve summarized it: coming to the future might be meant for me to see my past shortcomings," Renz lay on the bed, raising one hand, holding it suspended in front of him.

"To be a good husband, there are still many areas where I haven’t done well enough."

"It’s just that your standards, Erina, are too low, so it seems like you’re satisfied with whatever little I do," Renz turned his head and said. They were both resting on a large pillow, and the distance between Renz and Erina was very close, their hearts also close. In the quiet, they seemed to hear each other’s heartbeats.

"My standards for you have always been very high, okay?" Erina reached out and pulled up the blanket, trying to hide her current nervousness.

"But, as it is now, I feel very happy," Erina said in a lowered voice.

"Then can you say ’I love you’ to me?" Renz turned his head and asked, "I’ve never heard you say something like that. It’s always me who says it first."

"I warn you not to push your luck!" As a tsundere, Erina didn’t follow Renz’s words, her slightly flushed face growing even redder. However, if Renz hadn’t said such a thing, Erina might have said it. But since Renz had said it, Erina felt less inclined to.

"It’s late, good... good night," Erina’s voice even became a bit muddled. She turned over, her back to Renz.

"Mm, good night," Renz reached out and touched Erina’s hand, whispering close to her ear, "Good night, I love you."

Then he turned over, his back to Erina. As they lay back to back, Erina bit her lip and turned over again. "Isn’t it just an ’I love you’? Listen closely, I’m going to say it now!"

Classic tsundere rhetoric.

"Talking like that makes it no fun; it lacks sincerity," Renz protested softly. She could have said it herself, she wanted to say it herself, yet she made it sound like she was only agreeing because Renz had asked her several times, out of reluctance. This was too perfunctory! There was no sincerity left.

"Then what counts as sincerity?" Erina asked, biting her pink lips.

"That’s for you to answer," Renz didn’t know how to answer that question.

"Turn around," Erina patted Renz’s hand. Renz turned over. Erina leaned closer. "Reach out and hug me." Renz paused, then did as he was told, wrapping one arm tightly around Erina, who was nestled beside him.

"I..." Erina hesitated. "I feel like whatever I say now will sound like I’m just going through the motions."

"You’re so annoying."

Erina buried her head. One minute, three minutes, ten minutes. Erina still hadn’t spoken, her mouth firmly sealed by Renz’s earlier remark.

"I..."

"I’m going to say it, are you listening?"

But Renz, beside her, had closed his eyes and fallen into a deep sleep long ago. He wasn’t as conflicted as Erina.

Sleep... sleeping?

Seeing Renz beside her making no sound and breathing evenly, Erina felt her fists clench. She had agonized over it for so long, and Renz just fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes. He probably never even considered that she would actually say something like that willingly.

Damn it.

I guess you don’t have the good fortune. Erina glared fiercely at the ’sleeping’ Renz.

Leaning close to Renz’s ear, she whispered, "Stupid pig, I like you. Too bad you’re asleep, you can’t hear me."

Na na na.

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