Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 275: Victims of the Tianming Fire

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"Kyoto?"

Ogata was now asking for directions from a passerby who happened to be walking in the opposite direction from him.

"You just keep going along this path."

The passerby pointed at his feet.

"Keep going, keep going, and then you will see a village called 'New Sun'."

"Go west past Shinri Village and you'll see Kyoto."

"Thank you!" After bowing deeply to the passerby to express his gratitude, Ogata got back on his horse.

Following the instructions of the passerby, Ogata rode his horse forward along the dirt road under his feet.

After nearly half an hour, wisps of smoke slowly appeared in Ogata's eyes.

After noticing the wisp of smoke, Ogata quickly tapped the horse's belly with his heel again, urging the horse under him to run faster.

Beneath the wisps of smoke is a fairly large village.

The villagers in this village don't seem to hate outsiders.

After seeing Ogata riding his horse towards them, several old men who happened to be gathered at the entrance of the village to chat warmly welcomed Ogata into the village.

Ogata asked these old men and confirmed that this village was Shinri Village. If they walked some distance north from Shinri Village, they would reach Kyoto. Then Ogata looked up at the sky.

It was now dusk, and the sun was about to sink below the horizon.

Looking at the sun that was about to disappear from the horizon, Ogata made a secret decision: to spend the night in this Xinri Village.

On the way from Owari to Kyoto, Ogata never walked at night.

In such an ancient society, there were no lighting facilities in the wild.

It is really pitch dark in the wild at night.

Walking at night is both inefficient and dangerous. Instead of wasting your energy walking at night, it is better to have a good rest and save enough energy to travel further during the day the next day.

So during the days on the way to Kyoto, Ogata always rested well at night and never traveled at night.

…

Ogata led his horse and walked slowly in Xinri Village.

Looking around, you can see hotels with various signs.

Looking at these hotels with various signs, Ogata thought to himself:

——Just as the old men at the entrance of the village said just now, this village is developing tourism...

Just now, after confirming with the old men who were chatting at the entrance of the village whether this place was Xinri Village and whether they could reach Kyoto by leaving Xinri Village and heading west, Ogata chatted casually with these old men.

According to those old men, this Xinri Village was originally just an ordinary rural village.

But about eight years ago, a new village chief took office.

The new village chief was quite talented. He keenly saw the biggest advantage of their Xinri Village - it was very close to Kyoto.

As one of the largest cities in Japan, Kyoto attracts countless traveling merchants and travelers every day.

Therefore, the new village chief of their Xinri Village encouraged the villagers to open inns.

Under the leadership and encouragement of the new village chief, some villagers who had the spare capacity to open inns started to open inns.

The policy of "developing tourism" by the new village chief of Xinri Village has been quite effective.

Every day, many people do not have time to arrive in Kyoto before dark, but do not want to walk at night. For these people, Shinchi Village, which has a large number of cheap hotels, is the best place to go.

Therefore, since the development of "tourism" under the leadership of the new village chief, Xinri Village has become slightly richer than before.

However, for some unknown reason, every hotel Ogata entered in the village was told that it was "full".

Hearing the continuous "Full House", Ogata's heart gradually became heavy...

Just when Ogata began to suspect that he might have to sleep on the ground as a bed in a place full of inns tonight, a kind old woman said to Ogata:

"Master Samurai, you are looking for an inn with vacancies, right?"

Ogata nodded.

"Then just keep going along this road." The old woman pointed behind him, "Just keep going along this road to the end, and you'll see a hotel with a sign saying 'He'. That's Granny Gao's hotel. Granny Gao's hotel should still have rooms available."

"Grandma Gao?"

"That's our nickname for the proprietress of the inn." The old woman smiled. "Because she really likes to eat the specialty of her hometown, Kusatsu - Grandma Cake, so we all like to call her 'Grandma Cake'."

After saying goodbye to the enthusiastic old lady, Ogata walked all the way in the direction the old lady had just pointed.

At the end of the road, there is a two-story house with a decent size and a sign with the word "和" on it.

——This should be it…Why does this hotel seem so deserted…

While Ogata was thinking this in his mind, he slowly opened the door of the hotel.

There were a few candles lit in the hotel, so the light was quite bright.

Just as Ogata was about to shout "Is anyone there?", he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from deep inside the hotel.

After a while, a short old woman appeared in front of Ogata.

The old woman was wearing a badly faded light red kimono and a pair of white socks that were also quite old.

Although the clothes she wore were very old, both her kimono and socks were quite neat and clean.

The old woman came towards Ogata with a smile on her face.

After seeing Ogata's face clearly, the old woman seemed to smile even more happily.

"Wow wow wow~~" the old woman covered her mouth and laughed, "Today's new customer is a young and handsome guy. I am so lucky today."

"Good evening, you should be Grandma Gao, right?" Ogata couldn't help but smile at Grandma Gao's unique opening remarks just now.

"Wow, sir, you still know my name. I'm so happy. Sir, do you want to have dinner here or stay overnight?"

"You guys also provide food here? Then I need both dinner and accommodation."

"Okay!"

Granny Gao quickly quoted a price.

The price was quite cheap, so Ogata agreed very happily.

Under the guidance of Granny Gao, Ogata carried his not-so-large luggage to the second floor of the hotel.

The hotel has 2 floors, each with a different function - the first floor is a restaurant and the second floor is a hotel.

Food and accommodation are integrated - this hotel has quite complete functions.

But after following Granny Gao up to the second floor of the hotel, Ogata was surprised to find that he seemed to be the only guest in this hotel.

Granny Gao, who was walking in front, seemed to notice the confusion on Ogata's face behind her, and smiled and said softly:

"Sir, you are wondering why there are no customers here, right?"

"This is inevitable. After all, our store is located in a remote location, so business has always been average."

Although Granny Gao said this with a smile, Ogata could still hear a hint of disappointment in her words...

…

After putting his luggage in his room, Ogata followed Granny Gao back to the first floor to prepare for dinner.

This hotel doesn't offer many dishes, they are just some ordinary home-cooked meals.

Although the dishes provided were just ordinary home-cooked meals, Grandma Gao's cooking skills were quite good. Even though they were just ordinary home-cooked dishes, Ogata still ate them with gusto.

Because Ogata is the only guest, there are only Ogata and Granny Gao in this inn at the moment.

After serving all the dishes ordered by Ogata, Granny Cake walked towards Ogata with a smile, holding some cakes with quite strange shapes.

"Sir, come. Please have some."

“I didn’t order this…”

"I'm treating you to this." Grandma Gao smiled, covering her mouth with her hands. "This is a specialty of my hometown, Omi Kusatsu: Grandma Cake."

“It’s my favorite food.”

“It’s also something I love to share with my guests.”

"It's a rare occasion that we have a young and handsome guest today, so please eat something! Come on, eat quickly!"

"I can't say I'm handsome or anything like that..." Xu Fang looked helpless.

"I think you are very handsome, sir." Granny Gao seemed to like to smile with her hands covering her mouth. "Even though I am quite old, I still like to look at young handsome guys."

"In this respect, he is very similar to my husband."

"My husband is quite old but still likes to look at pretty young girls."

"When I see a pretty young girl, I stare at the back of her neck and her bare feet without tabi."

Granny Gao was so enthusiastic that it was difficult for Ogata to refuse.

After picking up the pastry called "Grandma's Cake" handed to him by the cake lady, Ogata did not rush to put it into his mouth, but looked it up and down several times first.

— Rice cakes?

After simply looking it up and down several times, Ogata found that this grandma cake seemed to be just a strange-shaped rice cake.

Now wrap the rice cake with a layer of red bean paste, and then put a piece of white rice cake on the red bean paste.

The size is just enough for Ogata to eat one in one bite.

He threw the laolao pancake in his hand directly into his mouth, and the sweetness immediately filled Ogata's entire mouth.

"More than 200 years ago, when Rokkaku Yoshitaka was defeated by Oda Nobunaga, Rokkaku Yoshitaka entrusted his great-grandson to his wet nurse."

"The wet nurse made rice cakes in her hometown and sold them on the main street to support Rokkaku Yoshitaka's great-grandson."

"Because this cake looks very much like a wet nurse's milk, it is called 'Grandma's Cake'..."

While Ogata was chewing the Grandma Cake in his mouth, the cake lady sitting next to him chattered to him about the history of the Grandma Cake.

Ogata had no interest in the history of laolaobing.

But he didn't have the heart to interrupt Granny Gao or show obvious impatience on his face.

After all, he liked this enthusiastic Granny Gao very much. Therefore, in order not to hurt Granny Gao's feelings, Ogata chose to be patient, pretending to be very interested and listening attentively. While listening to Granny Gao's "history lesson", he nodded from time to time.

…

Just as Ogata was quietly listening to Granny Gao's history lesson——

"Master Hasegawa, we're here. This should be the New Sun Village. Tsk... It's so late, I don't know if there are enough inns."

"Anyway, let's just look at the rooms one by one. As long as we can find a place where we can live."

…

After finally talking enough about the history of grandma cake, Grandma Gao changed the subject:

"Sir, you are from Izumo, right?"

Ogata raised his eyebrows: "How do you know?"

"Because I, mother-in-law, have received several guests from Izumo, I could tell right away from your accent that you are from Izumo."

"By the way, sir, allow me to ask you a question - is this a birthmark?" Grandma Gao raised her finger and pointed to the left side of her neck.

"Yeah." Ogata touched the dark purple flesh on the left side of his neck. "Yes, this is my birthmark. Fortunately, this birthmark is on my neck. If it was on my face, I would be disfigured."

The place that Grandma Gao pointed to was naturally where the immortal poison lurked.

The place where the immortal poison lurks - the skin on Ogata's left neck is still dark purple.

This was not the first time Ogata had been asked what was wrong with the left side of his neck.

And Ogata has now figured out the best answers to these questions - these are birthmarks.

Granny Gao looked at the dark purple patches on Ogata's neck, her eyes filled with reminiscence:

"I miss it so much... My son also has a birthmark on his neck, but his is red and not as big..."

After taking her eyes off Ogata's neck, Granny Gao asked Ogata:

"You came all the way from Izumo to Kyoto. You must be here to attend the Gion Festival, right?"

"Ah?" Hearing Granny Gao's question, Ogata was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted and nodded, "Oh, yeah. Yes, that's right. I'm here to participate in the Gion Festival."

It was not convenient for him to tell Granny Gao the real purpose of his coming to Kyoto, so Ogata decided to just make up a lie to fool Granny Gao.

"You've arrived just in time." Granny Gao smiled, covering her mouth with her hands. "Today is July 16th, and tomorrow is the busiest time of the Gion Festival."

"Sir, if you stay overnight, you will miss the busiest day tomorrow."

Ogata didn't know much about the Gion Festival, and didn't even know why tomorrow would be the busiest day of the Gion Festival - and he didn't want to know.

After all, he didn't come to Kyoto to attend the Gion Festival.

So in response to Grandma Gao's words just now, Ogata just smiled slightly and said perfunctorily something like "Yes, it's really lucky".

"I'm going to close the store here tomorrow as well."

A look of deep longing emerged on Granny Gao's face.

"Tomorrow is the busiest day of the Gion Festival, and I can't help but join in the fun."

“Wow, wow, wow~ I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

"It's a pity that no one is traveling with me. I don't dare to have too much fun."

"Hmm?" Ogata raised an eyebrow, "Grandma Gao, are you going alone?"

"Of course. After all, I have no family anymore."

Surprise crept onto Ogata's face.

"My husband died of illness three years ago."

"After my husband passed away, I still had a son, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson."