Chapter 200: Christmas Towards the End of the Semester (9)
Kiyono's mother got the belt prepared by Toru Watanabe, while Kujo's mother got the bathing powder for her daughter.
Both of them were very satisfied.
Next, everyone shared the cake baked by Qingye's mother and ate the fried chicken made by Kujo's mother.
In addition, there is a wide variety of food.
Roast suckling pig, sausage, ham, stew, steak, lamb chops, pork chops;
Mashed potatoes, French fries, ketchup, puff pastry tarts, ice cream, salads, various puddings, and various fruit pies;
Roast duck, pan-fried buns, spring rolls, dumplings, puffs, biscuits;
Kaiseki cuisine in Kyoto, takoyaki in Osaka, seafood in Hokkaido, grilled eel in Nagoya, sushi in Tokyo, soba in Nagano, pufferfish in Kyushu...
All of these things were placed on the long table, surrounding a huge golden roast turkey.
"Watanabe-kun, how about fried chicken? I haven't made this ." asked Kujo's mother.
Toru Watanabe dipped the fried chicken in hot sauce and took a big bite.
"Tell the truth?" He asked the four people present in a tentative tone.
"Come on, why are you being so polite to me ?" said Kujo's mother with a smile.
"Compared to me, there is still a little gap."
"Watanabe-kun, can you cook?" Kiyono's mother was dipping slices of roast suckling pig in sugar.
This scene reminded Toru Watanabe of Kitauji Bridge. During the school trip, by the Uji River, Kiyono Rin said that she ate roasted suckling pig dipped in sugar.
“I don’t know how to cook,” he said. “I worked part-time at a supermarket near Nishi-Shinjuku Station, in charge of the prepared food section.”
"Deli section?"
"Well, it's mainly oden, various fried foods, and fried chicken. I work five days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and weekends. During the time I'm in charge, the transaction volume in the deli section far exceeds that of other time periods. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm the little prince of the deli section."
"So delicious? I really want to try it!" Kujo's mother said expectantly.
"It doesn't matter if I'm good enough, my boss has never raised my hourly wage."
"Besides these, what other jobs has Watanabe-kun done?" asked Kiyono's mother curiously.
"Stop talking nonsense." Qingye Rin and her mother spoke at the same time.
"What nonsense?" Watanabe Toru was unhappy, "Kiyono-san, which of my lies did I tell?"
Qingye Rin put down the apple pie in her hand.
She first said calmly: "You are always being clever."
Then, point out the truth: "You only have a pretty face."
"Guess?" asked Toru Watanabe.
"Was it wrong?" Qingye Rin asked back.
"I'm so handsome, no matter what I do, I'm inevitably affected."
"Use your brain to think about serious things instead of thinking about various ways to lie all day long." Qingye Rin said bluntly.
"Everyone has their own situation. With my intelligence, I can handle even the most serious matters easily, so I have plenty of time to relax my brain."
"Smart? In front of me?"
"Number one in the country." Toru Watanabe puffed out his reindeer chest.
"To measure a person's intelligence by their grades proves that you are not smart enough and that you have a narrow vision."
"Awesome, not only is your brain not working, but you also deny my vision. Is this double payback?"
Qingye Rin put her hand to her mouth to hide her smile.
At this time, Qingye's mother's voice came, also with a smile:
"You two stop arguing. Watanabe-kun, did you hear what I just said?"
Oops—this word popped up in Watanabe Toru's mind.
Sure enough, in the corner of his eye, Kujo Miki was also looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
The two people's eyes met.
What she meant was: I'll deal with you later.
"In addition to supermarkets, I have also held up billboards, but that kind of work requires paying a part-time company for dispatch fees, and it is very hard work. Unless I am short of money or have other reasons, I will not do that."
"So you heard my question. I thought you only had eyes for Rin." Kiyono's mother said in surprise.
Miki Kujo was eating the peeled king crab legs boredly, and under the table, she stepped on Toru Watanabe's foot as if nothing had happened.
Grind it hard.
The reindeer suit is really good and thick enough.
Toru Watanabe only felt that Kujo Miki was giving him a massage.
By the way, find an opportunity to let Miss Kujo give him a massage.
Watanabe Toru pretended to be enduring pain on his face.
"Watanabe-kun," Kujo's mother asked curiously, "Can you tell me about your family situation?"
"My family's situation is very ordinary." Watanabe Toru continued the topic, "A remote village, very poor."
"How poor is very poor?" There was no malice in Qingye's mother's tone, only pure curiosity.
"Hmm..." Watanabe Toru thought for a moment, "In front of every house, the firewood they chopped themselves is piled up to the eaves."
"It's very vivid." Qingye's mother said with a smile.
"After all, if you think about naughty things all the time, it's hard not to have a rich imagination."
Qingye Rin, who was picking up the roast suckling pig with chopsticks, rolled her eyes at him.
"Honey." Miki Kujo pulled out the meat from a crab leg and pretended to feed it to Toru Watanabe.
"Thank you, sweetheart." Toru Watanabe opened his mouth.
Miki Kujo ate the crab leg meat herself.
“…”
The two mothers laughed.
Watanabe Toru ate a strawberry the size of a baby's fist and continued:
"But nowadays, less firewood is used. If we don't pay attention to it, animals will build nests on it."
They listened quietly to what Watanabe Toru had to say.
"What animal?" asked Miki Kujo.
“Sometimes it’s a bird, sometimes it’s a snake.”
"Snake?" Qingye's mother seemed a little scared.
"Yes. I saw a snake lay eggs with my own eyes. Later, my father asked the villagers for a cat. The cat slept on the firewood pile all day. The birds and snakes were all gone."
Toru Watanabe ate another strawberry.
Kujo Miki picked up the wine and asked, "Tell me about your father."
"Is this what we are talking about on Christmas?" Toru Watanabe looked around at everyone present.
"Compared to the frivolous things you think about all day, this is pretty serious." Qingno Rin wanted to eat steak, and Kujo's mother handed the plate to her, and she thanked her softly.
The best steak, fried to medium rare, cut into long strips and topped with a special sauce.
"My father...a very ordinary person." The image of his father emerged in Watanabe Toru's mind.
"He doesn't care about the economy, nor is he interested in who is the prime minister. The only thing he can boast about in his life is that when he was young, he climbed Mount Fuji on a motorcycle."
“Climbing Mount Fuji?”
"Yes, that happened when he was in high school." Watanabe Toru nodded, "After that, he sold the Yamaha motorcycle that he was afraid would be stolen even when he fell asleep after marrying my mother. He replaced it with a Honda Chibi that was more convenient for transporting goods."
"What a great father."
Watanabe Toru nodded, then shook his head and said with a smile:
"It's the same for all fathers, no matter where they are."
"Where is your mother?" Qingye Rin wiped her lips with a napkin after eating steak.
"My mother is even more ordinary. Apart from me, she doesn't seem to have anything to brag about. But then again," Watanabe Toru laughed, "climbing Mount Fuji on a motorcycle is not something to brag about."
"A parent's greatest pride is always their children." The look in Qingye's mother's eyes when she looked at her daughter was both proud and a little sad.
"Meiji has also suffered a lot. Come, let mom feed you." Kujo's mother pinched a piece of special mackerel sushi.
Kujo Miki picked up the plate and motioned for her to put it on.
"Mother Kujo, Aunt Kiyono, Miki and Kiyono are indeed excellent, but it's not that I'm conceited. Whether it's music, sports, or grades, they are no match for me."
"What did you say?" Queen Kujo Miki looked over. "Say it again?"
"Watch your words, Watanabe Toru." Lord Kiyono's stern gaze shot over.
"Music?" Kujo's mother said as if she remembered something. "By the way, Watanabe-kun is really good at playing the oboe. How about you play it for us as a Christmas activity?"
"I heard about it too." Kiyono's mother looked at Watanabe Toru expectantly.
'Kujo Mama, Kiyono Mama, you are all my mothers!'
Ignoring the sharp looks from the two beautiful girls, Watanabe Toru said to the two ladies:
"Of course , I'd be happy to do that!"
Kiyono's mother called the maid and asked her to go to the instrument room to get the oboe.
When the servant was about to leave, she called her back, "By the way, get two more trumpets."
"yes."
"Aunt Qingye, do you want to blow it too?"
"Of course it was you young people who played it for us."
"Miki is also learning trumpet?" Toru Watanabe asked Miki Kujo curiously.
"I've also learned to play percussion instruments," Kujo Miki said with a smile, "Would you like to try it?"
"...Definitely, if I have time."
The servants brought the musical instruments.
Two of Santa Claus' granddaughters, a cute deer, playing "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus's Daughter".
The trumpet was originally a solo instrument with a loud and clear sound, but Kiyono Rin and Kujo Miki were unwilling to give in to each other.
Add to that Toru Watanabe, who was shaking his head and playing the oboe as if it were a suona, and the sound was a complete mess.
But it does have a Christmas party atmosphere.
It was very lively, and when the music reached a happy point, Mother Kujo started to sing in Italian, with gorgeous, clear, and high notes;
Toru Watanabe changed his rhythm to match her.
After Kujo's mother finished singing, Kiyono's mother sang jazz in contralto.
After this, Kujo Miki was forced by her mother to sing Seiko Matsuda's "Uniform";
Rin Kiyono sang "Blooming like a rose, falling like cherry blossom petals";
When it was Watanabe Toru's turn, as soon as he opened his mouth, the four people asked him to continue playing the oboe.
The atmosphere was lively, with bursts of joyful and happy laughter echoing throughout the spacious living room and circling among the branches of the ten-meter-high Christmas tree.
The mother and daughter of Kujo sang a song together, and Kiyono Rin played the trumpet to accompany them.
"The roast suckling pig is gone." Qingye's mother suddenly said.
There is not a whole suckling pig on the table, but rather slices of the suckling pig, with a small amount of the most delicious part.
"Watanabe-kun," Kiyono's mother stood up, "Excuse me for a moment."
"Okay." Although he wondered why the servant didn't bring it, Toru Watanabe still stood up.
The two of them left the living room and walked into the kitchen, one after the other.
Instead of letting the chef slice the meat, Qingye's mother put on gloves and did it herself.
Toru Watanabe was carrying plates one by one.
The knife cut through the golden roasted pork skin, making a crisp sound, and a layer of shiny fat gradually covered the blade.
Just hearing the sound made Toru Watanabe want to eat it.
While Kiyono's mother was cutting and arranging the dishes, she said:
"Watanabe-kun, how is your relationship with Rin?"
"We're friends." Toru Watanabe looked at the roast suckling pig, wondering what was the most delicious part of it.
"If you're a friend, you probably know a lot about Rin."
"Yeah." Watanabe Toru suppressed his appetite and waited quietly for her next words.
"Watanabe-kun, you are Rin's only friend since that incident. I hope you can help her."
"Help her?"
"She can't lie about this."
"Do you think this is a bad thing?"
"What do you think? Good or bad?"
Toru Watanabe looked at Kiyono's mother. Although she was a wealthy lady, she was very skilled in slicing the suckling pig with a knife.
"I think it's fine either way," he said. "I told Kiyono-san that I will be her friend forever."
"No one can stay with someone who can see through lies." Mother Qingye continued to cut the suckling pig.
Watanabe Toru was about to say something when Kiyono's mother interrupted him and spoke before he could:
"You are young now, you have only known each other for less than a year, because it is new, because she is beautiful, so you don't feel anything. Wait a few years, when you are 20 or 30 years old, can you guarantee that you can still stay with her?"
"Then I should be used to it." Watanabe Toru said with a smile.
Qingye's mother looked up at him and said jokingly, "What if you run away halfway?"
"Run away halfway?"
"It's not mandatory. You can leave her at any time."
"I understand what you mean: we can't expect others to accommodate her, we must let her change herself?"
"If this is possible, it would be the best, both for Rin herself and for the Kiyono family."
The suckling pig was held up with its limbs put into a position that it could not and absolutely did not want to assume on its own.
How pitiful.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Kiyono." Watanabe Toru said, "Just now I said 'anything is fine', but that's not right. It should be - as long as it's Kiyono-san's own decision, anything is fine."
"Watanabe-kun."
Mother Kiyono placed a piece of roast suckling pig on the plate in Toru Watanabe's hand and looked into his eyes.
"Do you like my daughter?"
"…Huh?!" Watanabe Toru was shocked. "Why are you asking this? Miki and I are dating."
"Since you don't plan to help Lin change, in order to prevent her from being alone, I have no choice but to make sure that even if you can't stand it, you can't run away. You can only continue to get used to her."
“…”
"Scared?" Kiyono's mother laughed, like a mischievous adult teasing a child, "I won't force you. Why don't you make up your mind now that you like Rin very much and can tolerate her shortcomings? You can give me everything that happens next."
By saying "Leave it all to me", Watanabe Toru didn't know whether she was hinting at the Kujo family, or saying that when the day came when he couldn't stand Kiyono Rin anymore, she would make it impossible for him to escape.
After a moment of silence, Watanabe Toru said, "I..."
"Are there any more crabs? You're so stingy. Just put in a little bit. It won't be enough for my Miki." Kujo's mother walked in with a little complaint, a little smile, and a voice that rose and fell like the melody of an instrument.
"Crabs are cold in nature, and it's not good for girls to eat too much." Kiyono's mother responded with a smile, then turned her head and said to Watanabe Toru, "Watanabe-kun, you too, no matter if you are a man or a woman, you will feel uncomfortable in your stomach if you eat too much."
"Oh, okay."
"Don't listen to her nonsense." Kujo's mother walked over, scolding and laughing, "Watanabe-kun, isn't the purpose of having money so that you can eat what you want when you want to eat it?"
"Watanabe-kun is not a rich man, and even if he had money he would still need to protect his body," said Kiyono's mother.
"My son, who said you have no money?" Kujo's mother picked up a piece of roast suckling pig from Watanabe Toru's plate.
The crispy skin was bitten, making a crisp sound.
"You haven't even gotten married yet, you're too eager to become a mother-in-law." Qingye's mother said with a smile.
Mother Kujo did not reply. While eating the roast suckling pig, she said to Toru Watanabe:
"Watanabe-kun, in the future, it doesn't matter if you want to buy a luxury car, a yacht, eat any delicious food, or wear any expensive clothes."
"……oh."
"But when it comes to women, you can only have one, Miki." Kujo's mother said with a smile.
She looked so much like Miki that when Toru Watanabe saw that smiling face, he had a conditioned reflex in his heart.
"Of course," he assured.
"You're lying to me, aren't you?"
"How come?"
"Watanabe-kun, I am not speaking as the head of the Kujo family, nor as Kujo 's mother. I am just speaking as an ordinary person. It doesn't matter if you think of me as a sister or a friend. I am speaking to you in this capacity, so don't feel burdened."
"You are indeed very young. If I were not Meiji's boyfriend, I would have thought you were only twenty years old."
"This child is really good at talking, but this is also thanks to you."
"No, you are young."
"Watanabe-kun, the Kujo family will never do anything to let you down. Let you enjoy your life to the fullest. You also have to promise me that you will never do anything to let Miki down in the future."
"Of course."
Kujo's mother picked up a piece of roast suckling pig and handed it to Watanabe Toru's mouth.
"Holding the plate, you can only look at it but cannot eat it. How pitiful! I'll feed you. Ah——"
"Auntie, Kujo's mother..." Toru Watanabe leaned back.
"Stop making trouble." Qingye's mother took off her gloves and said with a smile, "Hurry up and take it back."
"Okay, I'm leaving now."
Toru Watanabe quickly left the kitchen.
Mother Jiujo put the piece of roast suckling pig in her hand into her mouth.
"Well, the skin is crispy and the meat is tender, but unfortunately, it's too greasy."
"Aren't you here to get crabs for Meiji? There are some newly delivered crabs in the tank."
"Let the chef steam it." Kujo's mother said, "But you are going too far. That is the husband that my Meiji has chosen."
"He's also Rin's only friend."
"Then there's nothing we can do." Mother Kujo sucked the grease off her fingers and said indifferently, "The only option is war."
"Oh, you are very confident. I won't lose to you."
Mother Kujo reached out and pinched Kiyono's mother's belly:
"Just because of your little belly?"
"…I don't even have a belly when I'm standing! And, you didn't have one recently either, right?!"
