Chapter 310: Karuizawa in August (5)
Xiaolian and Jiazhi are playing on the lawn.
Just a bare patch of grass and some dragonflies can keep them happy for a while.
Watanabe Toru and the other two sat at an open-air dining table by the lawn.
Most of the customers around were in pairs, chatting about trivial matters in a sweet and relaxed atmosphere.
So do the three of them.
"The first match of the wind orchestra will begin in two days?" Watanabe Toru asked Kiyono Rin.
Qing Ye Lin nodded and said in her calm and pleasant voice: "August 5th, the second game in the afternoon."
“How far can we go this year?”
“The level is barely good enough to qualify for the national level.”
"Reluctantly means... if you make a mistake, you won't be able to go?"
"Um."
Kujo Miki was lazy and yawned.
Affected by yawning, Watanabe Toru and Kiyono Rin also felt a little tired, so the topic of the wind instrument competition ended there.
Watanabe Toru was stunned as he looked at Xiaolian and Kaori who were squatting on the lawn, studying something.
Is Mai Asuka helping the wind band practice? Is the windowsill of the music classroom filled with plastic bottles like last year?
In a few days, Koshien will also start.
Unable to leave Tokyo before the start of the Koshien tournament, how will Koizumi Aona pass the time?
What are parents doing in such hot weather? Taking a nap with a fan on or watching TV to kill time?
For a moment, my body and mind became lazy.
"If you can do a few questions right away in this state, it will definitely be a great exercise for your willpower."
In his mind, Toru Watanabe opened the red question bank with the words "University of Tokyo" printed on it and started doing the math problems on it.
[Parabola C: Y = ... l, m are two straight lines passing through the origin and tangent to the parabola. ]
[Question 1: There is a point A on the parabola. Its distances to the lines l and m are respectively... Find the coordinates of A. ]
"Watanabe."
"A (2, 2). What's going on?"
"What A(2,2)?" asked Miki Kujo.
"The first question of the Tokyo University 2018 college entrance examination."
"That simple linear programming problem? Doing that kind of problem won't help you at all." Qing Ye Lin smiled and said, "I'll give you a problem about Markov chains."
"I said this is the first question. I'm going to do it one by one."
"Linear programming, Markov chains, how difficult can these things be?" Kujo Miki interrupted, "Let's go for a walk in the forest. If I sit down any longer, I'm going to fall asleep."
"I agree." Qing Ye Lin said, "It's okay to be bored, but the gazes and lies around me are unbearable for me."
"I know about the sight, but what about the lie?"
"The couple on the left who say they only love each other are fake; the woman on the right who says it's her first time here is fake; the uncle in the back who keeps bragging about winning money betting on horses is fake; over there..."
"Stop." Watanabe Toru stood up, "Let's go for a walk."
The two beautiful girls stood up, and he picked up his baseball uniform from Kujo Miki's chair and put it on.
"Aren't you hot?" Qingye Rin asked curiously.
Watanabe Toru thought about it, then took it off and put it on his arm.
"People who are easily influenced by others are the most useless." Miki Kujo said, hugging her elbows.
Watanabe Toru looked at the coat in his hand, then looked at the two of them: "You two might as well kill me."
"It doesn't matter whether you have a promising future or not. Who do you listen to?" asked Kujo Miki with a smile.
"Why should I wear a coat in August?" Toru Watanabe asked her back.
Kujo Miki snorted, then said arrogantly: "This lady allows you to listen to Kiyono Rin this time."
"Watanabe-san, can you turn into a dog?" Kiyono Rin asked curiously again.
"I'm going to turn into a dinosaur and crush both of you vicious women one by one."
Seeing Watanabe Toru feeling wronged, the two young ladies laughed happily.
The three of them stepped onto the lawn, ready to take Xiaolian away.
"Lian-chan, are you leaving?" Kaori asked Xiaolian.
Xiaolian looked at Watanabe Toru.
Watanabe Toru thought for two seconds and asked Kaori: "Miss Kaori, are you out here alone?"
"Of course!" Kaori puffed out her chest, "I come here every year. There's no place I haven't been."
"I feel relieved that Xiaolian is with Miss Kaori, who is so familiar with Karuizawa." After saying that, Watanabe Toru turned his head and looked at Xiaolian, "Do you want to play with Kaori? Do you dare to stay here?"
"......Hmm!" Xiaolian clenched her fists.
"You are so brave." Watanabe Toru rubbed her head, "Brother and sister are walking in the forest over there, you can play here, and they will pick you up later."
"Xiao Lian is here for the first time in Karuizawa." Kujo Miki glanced at him.
"When she was in Mizawa Village, Xiaolian ran all over the mountains by herself, knowing what to do and what not to do."
"Xiao Lian." Qing Ye Lin reminded, "If you want to come to us, or if you have anything else, remember to use your cell phone."
"Don't worry!" Jiazhi held Xiaolian's hand and said as if she was swearing to protect her, "I know this place better than you do!"
Leaving Xiaolian here to play with Kaori, Watanabe Toru went into the forest for a walk with Kiyono Rin and Kujo Miki.
"It's a pity you left Xiaolian alone." said Kujo Miki.
"That girl in the princess dress comes out to play alone every day, why can't Xiaolian? I believe in her." said Toru Watanabe.
"Don't cry and beg me to send someone to look for her if something happens."
"I will cry and beg you when the time comes. Please, Lady Miji, and yes, Lady Kiyono Rin."
As we walked deeper into the forest, the trees became more and more lush, with their branches and leaves covering the sky.
The trees are so densely packed together that only a small path is left. When people walk through it, they have the illusion that a path has been cut out in the sky.
Deep in the forest, there is a wooden church with a pointed roof.
The huge triangular roof, with two sides hanging down to the ground, looks like an elf house in a fairy tale.
From some distance away, Toru Watanabe, with his excellent hearing, heard the gentle sound of a harp.
This is the Plateau Church.
The three of them walked closer and found that the predecessor of the Plateau Church was the Xingye Youxuetang built in 1921, so on the door of the church, you can see the five big characters "Xingye Youxuetang".
A female clergyman in long robes at the door said to them:
"There's a performance going on inside. If you don't mind, please go in and listen for a while."
"Are we going in?" Watanabe Toru asked the two.
"Take a look." replied Kujo Miki.
After thanking the staff member, Toru Watanabe pushed open the door and the strong atmosphere of the church filled the air.
There were rows of long wooden chairs on both sides, with a few people sitting sparsely on them, some sitting in the front, some in the back, sitting very casually.
On the wall opposite the gate - at the end of the church, is a huge triangular glass window.
Behind the huge transparent glass, there are lush trees, like a vivid painting.
Light shines in through the glass window, projecting onto the cover of the Bible on the wooden table, creating a holy atmosphere.
In front of a wooden table displaying a huge Bible, a choir was chanting the gospel, with harp and organ as the accompanying instruments.
Toru Watanabe smelled a faint fragrance, the unique smell of wooden buildings.
Several people sitting in the middle of the church suddenly turned around and waved to the three people. They were the two ladies.
There were some unfamiliar people around them, probably ladies who came to Karuizawa to escape the summer heat.
Miki Kujo walked straight over and Rin Kiyono turned and left the church.
Toru Watanabe watched Kiyono Rin disappear, walked towards Kujo Miki, and put his baseball jacket on the bench.
"Ms. Miki, congratulations!" Looking at this scene, a young lady said to Kujo Miki with a low laugh.
"Are you planning to hold your wedding here?" another lady immediately asked.
"I recommend the Stone Church. When I get married in the future, I plan to hold my wedding there," said the third lady.
"What do you think?" Kujo Miki asked Watanabe Toru with a smile.
"The Stone Church is also in Karuizawa. Let's decide after we see it." Toru Watanabe replied in a low voice.
"Oh——" the ladies made a teasing sound.
The ladies in front turned around, gave them stern looks, and gestured to them to keep quiet.
The young ladies immediately sat up straight, and when the wives turned their heads away, they resumed their conversation in low voices.
"Where did July go?"
"I went to a mountain villa in Hokkaido and it was so boring. I will never go there again."
"I've already invited you and me to go skiing at Ski Portillo in Chile. Lake Inka is even more beautiful than in the photos!"
"I was locked up at home and learned all kinds of nasty things. I finally came to Karuizawa and was dragged to church."
"Where's Miss Meiji?"
"I stayed in Tokyo and didn't go anywhere."
"Ms. Meiji is different from us. She has already taken over the affairs of the household."
"I even have a fiancé."
The ladies giggled at Watanabe Toru.
"I seemed to have seen Kiyono Rin just now." A young lady said to everyone meaningfully.
"They leave as soon as they see us." said another young lady with a smile.
"You're still so pretentious and conceited , thinking you're so great." The third lady looked at Mrs. Qingye in the row in front of her and lowered her voice, not hiding her expression of rejection.
Watanabe Toru glanced at her.
"Watanabe-kun is so unlucky." The lady didn't see the look in Watanabe Toru's eyes and continued to talk to herself, "Miss Meiji has to associate with her because of family reasons, and you are the same now."
"That's human nature." Kujo Miki said suddenly.
Everyone looked at her in confusion.
Kujo Miki lifted the hem of her skirt with her fingers to make it more natural, and said nonchalantly:
"If you hate a person, everything he does to maintain his dignity will be called hypocrisy; everything he does to exaggerate will be regarded as a lie; and if he remains silent about certain things, he will simply be accused of betrayal."
The lady's face looked unhappy for a moment, but she quickly concealed it.
“Just concentrate on enjoying the show, or you’ll get scolded,” another lady said with a smile.
"I've been scolded several times just now." The lady joked as if nothing had happened.
They quieted down and watched the performance in front of them.
Watanabe Toru whispered to Kujo Miki: "The sentence in "The Moon and Sixpence" is a very brilliant rebuttal."
"I've been out of work lately, and I've been reduced to reading these boring books to kill time."
"You didn't read books before?"
"Yes. But even if I read foreign books, it was while learning a foreign language. I only read books like The Prince and Han Feizi. I only read the Peking Opera Battle of Wits because of its name, and I happened to see you."
"...I'm surprised you would speak up for her."
"But in Kiyono's eyes, I am no different from those people." After saying that, Kujo Miki suddenly turned her head and stared at Watanabe Toru with her deep eyes. "Don't you think she is too much in treating me the same?"
Before Watanabe Toru could speak, she continued:
"I almost forgot."
Her tone returned to normal: "You are firmly on her side in this matter."
Toru Watanabe looked at Miki Kujo, speechless.
Even if it is just a white lie from someone close to her, Qingye Rin will coldly reject it.
Treat people like this and never regret it, that's what Qingno Rin is like.
Toru Watanabe thought her ruthless attitude was beautiful.
After a long moment, he held onto Miki Kujo's hand and squeezed it a little harder.
"You can do whatever you want with everyone else, but you and her, I will do everything I can to make you reconcile."
"Unless she kneels down and licks my shoes." Miki Kujo said, looking at the front of the church.
"She only wants you to call her sister, even if there are conditions, yours is too harsh."
Kujo Miki didn't state the conditions, but instead said something else:
"You and Kiyono Rin have such a close relationship that you can't think calmly and look at her objectively. You think about everything from her perspective."
What was wrong with Kiyono Rin?
It’s just that I don’t want to lie, I insist on not lying, and I hate lying.
At the moment when my heart was filled with anger towards the world and sympathy for Kiyono Rin, the words that Kujo Miki had just said rang in my ears again.
"You and Kiyono Rin are so close that you can't think calmly and objectively. You think about everything from her perspective."
Is it necessary to hate lying so much that she refuses to get close to her relatives and friends? Isn't that too cruel?
But what's wrong with being yourself? And it takes a lot of courage to stick to it.
These relatives and friends wanted to change her, make her give up on herself, learn to lie, and integrate into the world of lies.
Toru Watanabe thought for a long time amid the harp and gospel singing.
The more I thought about it, the more upset I became, and I found the singing too noisy.
"I'll be out for a while." He whispered to Miki Kujo.
"Don't run away with Kiyono Rin." She said jokingly.
"As long as you're here, I'll stay at the door."
"Go ahead."
Toru Watanabe stood up and walked out of the church to the sound of the gospel.
Although he had only been inside for a short while, the air outside gave him a very fresh feeling.
Looking up at the overlapping layers of leaves, they are almost transparent in the sunlight and so green that they seem to be dripping with water.
I twisted my neck and saw Kiyono Rin in the middle of the forest trail. She raised her phone and took pictures of the birds on the branches.
Toru Watanabe stood in front of the wooden door of the church, his hands in his pockets, staring at her quietly.
Qingye Rin saw him out of the corner of her eye, put away her phone and walked over here.
Tall trees, blue sky, white clouds, sunlight shining through the branches onto the forest path. Kiyono Rin, wearing a French shirt and light blue dress, is walking towards them.
"It's a beautiful path." Toru Watanabe said to Rin Kiyono who walked up to him.
"Really?" Qingye Rin did not comment.
"I'm not dreaming, am I?"
"Karuizawa is a very humid place. The yard, tree roots, roads, and everywhere else that can grow moss are all covered with moss. Is your head not immune to this?"
"The way you walked over here just now, walking slowly and leisurely..."
"Um?"
"If possible, please do this every year."
"Tell me some sweet words. I'm happy. It's not impossible for me to agree to you."
"If you ask me to say it suddenly, I can't think of it."
"What happened?" Qing Ye Lin asked in a very natural tone, "Facing God, you suddenly feel guilty about all the lies you told?"
"Those people just said bad things about you."
Qingye Rin smiled and didn't take it to heart at all.
She is just like this, she disdains the eyes of the world. Even her relatives and friends cannot change her determination.
Don't regret and don't ask for others' recognition and sympathy.
She stood alone on a plateau where no one could reach her, enduring the desolation, loneliness, wind, rain, lightning and thunder.
"You ran away in anger because they said bad things about me?"
"I am angry, but that is not the reason for me to come out." After a short pause, Watanabe Toru continued, "Meiji spoke for you about them."
"Yes, thank you. But please tell her that she doesn't need to do anything for me."
Kiyono Rin and Watanabe Toru stood side by side, looking at the fresh path through which the sunlight filtered through the shade of the trees.
There is beautiful moss on the tree roots, lush and dense pampas grass, and crisp bird calls can be heard in the woods.
The summer breeze blows, and the green leaves tremble gently.
Watanabe Toru's mood gradually became more cheerful.
There is still a lot of time, the scenery is beautiful, and everything will get better slowly.
"Tokyo Handsome Guy", have the confidence to accomplish anything.
"It's a beautiful path." Qingye Rin said as he looked at everything in front of him.
"I will let you two be friends again." Toru Watanabe turned his head and said to her with a smile.
"Still thinking about these impossible things." Qing Ye Lin sighed helplessly, turned his head to look at him, and said with a smile: "Come on, Watanabe-san."
"As long as I set my mind to something, I can do it for you to see."
"Really?"
The female clergyman suddenly came over and handed a camera to the two of them with a smile.
Watanabe Toru took it with a puzzled look, and Kiyono Rin leaned over.
The soft light, the solemn church, the shadows of the trees swaying in the breeze, they stood in the green shade of the trees in the bright sunshine and smiled at each other.
"Excuse me, can this photo be placed in the church?" asked the female clergyman.
"As far as I know, all the wedding photos displayed in the church are of people who got married here," said Rin Kiyono.
"The Lord told me that you two will definitely get married." The female clergyman smiled.
"R-san!" Watanabe Toru hurriedly stopped him, "Don't quarrel, don't curse, don't give me the cold shoulder, they just think the photo is so pretty, they are just praising you for being pretty and photogenic, we are not angry, we are generous."
Qingno Rin didn't make a fuss or scold, she just gave Watanabe Toru a cold look.
She said to the female clergy:
"If it's not a wedding photo, that's fine, please."
