Chapter 209 New Year in Iwate Prefecture: Collective Action (6)
Watanabe Eda had already gone out and the house was empty.
"You rest for a while, I'll light the stove."
"Okay." Qingye Rin nodded, put the tomatoes on the table, lifted the quilt and sat in.
Toru Watanabe put the Fukujinzuke into the kitchen, took some firewood, and lit the stove.
This stove is made of tinplate and is placed in the living room. It has a chimney and is usually used for making fire, roasting sweet potatoes, baking bread, and keeping boiled water warm.
Watanabe Toru took a piece of wood and moved the firewood in the stove to make sure there was enough oxygen.
Looking at the twinkling lights, Watanabe Toru said nostalgically:
"On snowy days, I can sit around this stove all day. Sometimes I put sweet potatoes, taro or potatoes in it, and roast them until the skin is charred, and the outermost layer of meat turns into rice crust. I feel so happy when I take a bite of it."
"Hearing you say that, I want to try it." Qing Ye Lin looked at his face dyed red by the firelight, "When will it snow?"
"It's early, at least in late January."
"Iwate Prefecture is only separated from Hokkaido by Aomori Prefecture. Even if it's not as cold as Hokkaido, it should have snowed earlier."
"It's like this in other places in Iwate Prefecture," Toru Watanabe put the firewood in his hand and picked up another one, "but Mizawa Village is a very special place."
"special?"
In front of the stove, holding firewood, Toru Watanabe said in a reminiscent tone:
"That was sixteen years ago, when the hydrangeas were in full bloom..."
"You're lying again." Qingye Rin said firmly.
"Wait for me to finish."
"Anyway, it's just narcissistic talk again. Is the reason why Mizawamura is special because of the basin?"
"Maybe, it may have something to do with being close to the sea, who knows." Watanabe Toru didn't care about this kind of thing at all. The fire that was about to be extinguished was much more important than geography.
There was silence in the living room for a while.
"It's turned off?" asked Qingye Rin.
"Wait." Watanabe Toru raised his hand, his face serious, "It's not time to admit defeat yet."
"Then I'll give you one more minute."
What one minute? Of course it's a mocking countdown!
Toru Watanabe knelt on the tatami and blew air into the stove.
With his strong lung capacity, the black firewood barely produced a few sparks, but as soon as his breath stopped, the sparks went out immediately.
"Is it ready?"
"...Okay, smile."
Qing Ye Lin put his index finger on his chin and said thoughtfully: "I'll give you another chance."
"Please speak." Watanabe Toru made a listening gesture.
"I once said something about failure. If you can say it, I won't laugh at you."
"Pushkin's "Before failure, there is no such thing as a master. In the face of failure, everyone is just a mortal"? "
"This is just an excuse you make for yourself."
“Many runners fail in a race because they fail in the last few steps.”
"I'm not interested in Socrates."
"What is that...Ah! I figured it out!" Watanabe Toru clapped his hands.
"Um?"
"Rabindranath Tagore once said that mistakes cannot withstand failure, but truth is not afraid of failure!"
"Don't think that bringing up Tagore can save you, or do you only know Tagore?" Qing Ye Lin shot a cold gaze at Watanabe Toru, "Have you forgotten what I said at that time?"
"How could that be? I remember it clearly."
“You are…”
"I haven't forgotten what I told you."
"So you were pretending to be stupid just now?"
"Yes." Watanabe Toru admitted his mistake decisively.
"Tell me about it."
"'It's a very pleasant thing to have problems that can be overcome', isn't it?"
Watanabe Toru looked over proudly, but only saw Kiyono Rin's cold face.
"No?" he asked in surprise.
"It's the previous sentence." Qingye Rin's voice was cold.
"Ah, ah! Now I remember, it turns out that I'm not the type of person who has to succeed at everything I do the first time..."
"Watanabe-san, as a rural person, even something as simple as making a fire is…"
"R-san, R-san! Stop talking, seriously! I already know I was wrong. If there was a hole, I would crawl into it right now!"
Having lost his dignity as a countryman and the memory challenge, Toru Watanabe, who was completely humiliated, launched a second attack on the stove.
When the fire in the stove started to burn, Kujo Miki just came down from upstairs.
She wore a red baseball jacket and sky blue jeans, which made her look youthful, beautiful and easy to move around in.
"Tomato?" Miki Kujo noticed the tempting tomatoes on the table, reached out to pick them up, and took a small bite.
"That's mine." Qingye Rin, who was sitting in the fireplace, looked at her coldly.
"I can't eat?"
"You should at least say thank you."
"Thank you?" Kujo Miki repeated the word, "You should thank me for being able to hear my beautiful voice so early in the morning."
"I return these words to you as they are."
The two of them started to be narcissistic early in the morning.
After lighting the stove, Toru Watanabe came back from the kitchen after washing his hands.
"We're going to the mountains to dig winter bamboo shoots later. Do you want to go with us?" he asked.
"You can go and take a look." Miki Kujo walked to the stove.
She supported her right elbow with her left hand, held a fresh tomato in her right hand, and took a bite from time to time.
He looked over the stove in front of him, studying how it differed from the fireplace.
"Kiyono-san?" Toru Watanabe turned his gaze to Kiyono Rin.
Qing Ye Lin hesitated a little: "Do you want to climb the mountain?"
"Climb." Watanabe Toru answered, "But the mountain path is very flat, so we can just take it as an outing and walk slowly."
Qingye Rin was somewhat tempted.
"Besides, it's a rare opportunity to come here, so it's worth a try. Just treat it as a life experience."
Qingye Rin finally nodded, her pretty face showing determination: "Okay, let's go hiking."
"...No, we were going to dig bamboo shoots." Watanabe Toru corrected.
Miki Kujo laughed at the side, mocking Kiyono Rin's weak physical strength.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you fall.” She took a bite of the tomato expectantly, like a winner enjoying a glass of red wine.
Qingye Rin snorted confidently, stood up and went back to her room to change clothes.
When she came down, she was wearing her school's sportswear.
"Why are you wearing this?" Toru Watanabe asked curiously.
"We decided to come here a day in advance. The apartment didn't prepare any sportswear, only school sportswear," explained Kiyono Rin.
Given her personality, she certainly wouldn't buy sportswear, and Toru Watanabe had never seen her wearing sportswear, mostly skirts.
After going out, Watanabe Toru went to the warehouse and got a hoe and two shovels.
The sky was as blue as a canvas, with intermittent white clouds shaped like baguettes.
The three of them walked slowly along the canal.
On the way, a cow came towards us, led by an old man wearing a straw hat.
The two beautiful girls stared at her as if they had never seen her before. Qingye Rin took out her cell phone and prepared to find a suitable angle to take a photo.
As they waited, the cow walked up to the three people, and all the stench from the cowshed came to their faces.
“…”
The two beautiful girls held their breath, frowned, and tried their best to turn their faces away.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Hearing Watanabe Toru's loud laughter as he watched the fun, Kujo Miki covered her nose and mouth with her left hand and slapped his back hard with her right hand, making a "bang" sound.
It didn't hurt, but the sound was quite loud.
The cow didn't even look at them, it just wagged its tail, looking relaxed and at ease.
In the front yard of the Yoshida family, several people had gathered. There were no adults, but students who were digging bamboo shoots as an outing.
"Archer, Archer!" From a distance, a little girl in overalls waved to Watanabe Toru.
The three of them walked over, and Watanabe Toru said to the little girl:
"How many times have I told you to call me Brother Toru? Is that you who called me Archer?"
The little girl completely ignored him and stared straight at Kiyono Rin and Kujo Miki, her eyes slowly wavering and beginning to shine.
"City people?!" Her tone was as if she had discovered an alien.
Miki Kujo was not old enough to be interested in children, so she looked at the several women of similar age in the lobby.
Qingye Rin smiled and said to the little girl: "Yes."
"Tokyo?!"
"Um."
The little girl covered her face with her hands and said in ecstasy, "I watched TV this morning and a comedian introduced the Italian noodles in Tokyo."
"Do you like eating pasta?" Qingye Rin asked softly.
"When the camera was pointed at the door of the store, a tram ran by ."
"…Train?"
"As expected of Tokyo." The little girl sighed, "Tokyo is so great," with a satisfied look on her face.
“…”
"Don't worry about her," Watanabe Toru comforted Kiyono Rin, "This little girl's brain circuit is not normal."
"You have no right to say that about her, right?" Qingye Rin glanced at him.
"What nonsense! I'm not surprised by the train. Isn't it normal for Tokyo to have trains?"
"From your answer, I can tell how abnormal you are."
"...Hmm?" Toru Watanabe really didn't understand what was wrong with him.
"Shouldn't normal people be concerned about - why are we talking about trams instead of pasta?"
"Is this true?" Watanabe Toru didn't believe it.
Qingye Rin stroked her forehead and sighed helplessly.
"Hmm." Lingzi, who had obviously just woken up, coughed, "Well, Xiaoche, let me introduce you to everyone."
"I almost forgot." Watanabe Toru no longer worried about whether he was normal or not, "This is my girlfriend, Kujo Miki. This is my friend, who is also a member of a school club, Kiyono Rin."
After introducing the two of them, Toru Watanabe introduced the villagers to them.
"This is Yoshida Reiko, a teacher at the Mizawa branch. She's an older single woman, and her special skill is that she can fall asleep even when sitting."
"Don't say anything unnecessary." Yoshida Reiko complained, and then laughed, "And not only can I fall asleep while sitting, I can also fall asleep while standing."
"Don't say anything extra - think more about yourself before you talk about others," said Toru Watanabe.
He went on to say:
"This is Ayako Honma, my senior. Because she liked Rukawa Kaede from Slam Dunk, she went to Kanagawa to study in high school, but she joined the wind band. By the way, she didn't make it to the national competition this year."
"Don't say anything extra - I'm talking about you, Watanabe Toru." Ayako Homma pulled a hideous smile at the corner of her mouth.
"And these two are my junior schoolmates, Kana from the first grade, and Mana from the fifth grade. They are sisters."
"Hello, Sister Kujo, Hello, Sister Kiyono." The two sisters bowed and greeted each other obediently.
"Hello." The two young ladies returned the greeting.
"As for this one," Watanabe Toru pulled the little girl who was still intoxicated with her hands on her face over to him, "my cousin, Watanabe Ren, a first-grade elementary school student who is a little dumber than me, but also much more abnormal than me."
"The salmon in Tokyo is really amazing," sighed Ren Watanabe.
Two beautiful girls: "..."
"Let's go." Yoshida Reiko broke the situation of 'not knowing what to do'.
The group walked up the mountain.
Watanabe Ren was holding a children's shovel, walking in front and singing loudly.
"Red dragonfly in the sunset, please tell me: when did I meet you in my childhood? "
"I picked up a small basket and went to the mountain, where the mulberry trees were green. I picked mulberries and put them in the small basket, and when I looked back, I saw the shadows in my dreams."
"Xiao Lian, it's morning now." Ayako Honma reminded.
Watanabe Ren stopped, shook his index finger, and said in a didactic tone:
"Ayako, you really don't understand. When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, they are already buried in the soil."
"Ah?" Ayako Honma was stunned. "What?"
Watanabe Ren's small body sighed heavily and suddenly shouted:
"Ayako! How can you do this? If you are too stupid, you will be thrown into the mountains and eaten by wild boars!"
"...No, no, I'm not stupid!"
Behind the crowd, Kujo Miki nodded with some interest: "Your cousin is very interesting."
"I'm like that, how can it not be interesting?"
"But the feeling is different from what most people think." said Kiyono Rin at the back.
"I'm worried about her too. I don't know who she looks like." Toru Watanabe sighed.
They both rolled their eyes at him.
In the front, after some unknown conversation, Ayako Honma sang "Red Dragonfly" with Xiaolian to prove that she was not stupid.
They began to climb the mountain while singing "Red dragonfly in the sunset, where are you? It's the red dragonfly resting on the tip of the bamboo pole."
Not long after the start, Qingye Rin was panting and supporting her hands on her knees.
Although Kujo Miki was also tired, her steps were still steady.
She deliberately walked in front of Qingye Rin, looking back from time to time and smiling at her provocatively.
Qingye Rin couldn't even make a sarcastic remark. The breath couldn't get into her chest and she could only keep her head down and climb the hill.
Toru Watanabe fell at the back to prevent Rin Kiyono from falling.
Her long, smooth, dark hair looked very elegant. Looking at her back, Watanabe Toru, who was not tired to begin with, walked even more easily.
Keep crawling, keep crawling, crawling on your hands and knees.
"Kiyono-san, we're here." Hearing Watanabe Toru's voice, Kiyono Rin raised her head.
Watanabe Ren and her friends climbed up a steep slope from the middle of the mountain road and entered the bamboo forest.
The bamboo is green, as if it is still spring here.
The mountain breeze blows, and the bamboo leaves rustle.
Deep in the woods, there were sounds of birds singing.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the intermittent sound of pecking at wood, so it was the woodpecker that was calling just now.
The forest floor was covered with withered and yellow bamboo leaves, some of which were stained with white bird droppings.
"Come on." A hand was extended to her from the steep slope, and she subconsciously put her hand on it.
The man pulled her and she used the force to easily climb the steep slope and enter the edge of the bamboo forest.
She looked up and saw that the person pulling her was Kujo Miki.
"You're welcome." Kujo Miki said with a smile.
Qingye Lin took a deep breath.
In the bamboo forest, there was the childish voice of Ren Watanabe singing the fairy tale "The Girl Born in the Bamboo" into a song.
"This happened one day. An old man went to the mountains to cut bamboo. From the cut of the bamboo, a little girl emerged."
"The girl grew up healthily and soon became a very beautiful girl."
