"No. Sorry, I'm a little tired now." Isshikika shook her head gently, "I want to go home and rest quickly."
Kitahara actually has no interest in performing at all.
The reason why he invited Isshiki to watch the performance was simply because he knew that Isshiki was a person who loved watching acrobatic performances.
Even the effort to invite Isshiki to watch the performance failed - Kitahara's face showed a bit of regret and loss.
However, he quickly put his expression and emotions in order and smiled gracefully again:
"It's alright. See you later, Miss Isshiki."
"Yes." Isshiki bowed to Kitahara, then turned and left without any hesitation.
Kitahara did not rush to leave immediately, but continued to stand there, staring blankly at Isshiki's gradually receding back.
He did not take his gaze away until Isshiki's back had completely disappeared from his sight.
At this moment, Kitahara suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him:
"Kitahara-kun, stop looking. Miss Isshiki has disappeared."
"Miura-kun? Why are you here?" Kitahara raised his eyebrows and cast a surprised look at the owner of the voice - a young man followed by seven followers.
The young man whom Kitahara called Miura was dressed in extremely luxurious clothes.
Brocade from the Tang Dynasty has always been a symbol of status and a synonym for expensiveness in Japan of this era.
Those who can afford brocade are, without exception, either rich or noble.
All of Miura's clothes, from head to toe, except for socks, are made of silk.
He wore two swords at his waist, both the scabbards and handles were engraved with many decorative patterns. It was obvious at a glance that the swords were of great value.
"I just happened to pass by here." Miura said with a smile, "When I passed by here, I happened to see you saying goodbye to Miss Isshiki."
Beiyuan looked embarrassed and laughed dryly: "You saw it..."
"You are so infatuated." Miura sighed softly, "You have been pursuing Miss Isshiki for three years, right? It's amazing that you can persist. If it were me, I would have been so persistent that I wouldn't have been able to persist for three months, let alone three years."
After saying that, Miura turned and looked in the direction that Isshiki had just left.
"Ms. Isshiki is really stubborn. Her attitude towards you is still so cold..."
"If I were to choose a husband, there's obviously no one in Osaka more suitable than you, Kitahara-kun."
"He is handsome and at such a young age he is already the teacher of the Quanbing Academy. It is only a matter of time before he inherits the Quanbing Academy."
At this point, Miura changed his tone to a half-joking one.
"If I remember correctly, Miss Isshiki is already 21 years old this year, right? If she waits a few more years, she will become an old woman. She is so old, isn't she worried about her marriage?"
"Hey, Miura." Kitahara cast an unhappy look at Miura at this time, "Even if it's you, you are not allowed to say bad things about Miss Isshiki."
Miura was startled by Kitahara's sudden serious tone and shrugged: "Got it, I take back what I said just now."
After saying that, Miura straightened his clothes and cleared his throat.
"Okay, let's not talk about Miss Isise anymore. It's rare for us to meet each other, do you want to go to our old place and have a few drinks together?"
Beiyuan hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Okay."
Miura and Kitahara walked side by side, quickly heading towards their old place - an izakaya they often went to.
After turning an intersection, they suddenly saw that there were a lot of people gathered in three layers inside and three layers outside the street ahead.
"What are you doing in front?" Miura frowned slightly.
Because this group of people happened to be located in the area that they had to pass through in Beiyuan, they strode towards the crowd in front.
As soon as they approached the crowd, they heard a loud shout from inside the crowd:
"Please watch - I will use the sword technique to cut this piece of wood into two pieces."
…
…
Ogata took advantage of his height and raised the wooden board in his hand high up, so that the attracted spectators could clearly see the finger-wide wooden board he had just picked up at random.
"A lot of spectators have come. It's about time to start the performance, right?" A sturdy man dressed like a samurai with two swords on his waist shouted to Ogata with impatience.
Only someone with two swords on his waist would dare to speak to someone with two swords on his waist like this.
Ogata ignored the burly man's urging and looked around at the spectators - there were already more than 50 people gathered around.
Seeing that the number of people was almost enough, Osamu lowered the raised wooden board and said, "Well, I will officially start the performance. Please don't be distracted from now on."
Hearing what Ogata said, the spectators around him immediately held their breath.
Most of the spectators thought that Ogata was going to put the wooden board on a platform half a person's height and then chop it with a knife.
As a result, Ogata made a move that almost everyone around him could not have expected.
He threw the board high into the air.
The wooden board rolled to the highest point and then slowly fell down.
As the wooden board began to fall, Ogata maintained a normal standing posture, with his left hand hanging naturally, while his right hand grasped the handle of Daishiten's sword.
Muga's two-sword style: Raikiri.
There was a flash of knife.
A flash of knife light passed over the wooden board that was about to hit Ogata's forehead, and the board split in half from the middle, and the two pieces fell on the left and right sides of Ogata respectively.
quiet……
The spectators around were silent at first, and then burst into applause and cheers.
"Oh..." Kitahara, who was standing at the back of the crowd and saw all of Ogata's actions, raised his eyebrows.
Having sheathed his sword, Ogata bowed slightly to the spectators in front of him, and then shouted loudly:
"Everyone, that was just a small test. I will perform a more powerful performance next."
"But before that—"
Having said this, Ogata winked at A-machi, A-tsuku, and the little girl beside him.
After receiving Ogata's gaze, A-Machi, A-Tsuku and the little girl hurriedly came towards the audience with bags of tooth powder.
"Can you please buy some tooth powder?" Ogata spread his left hand and made a "please" gesture, "These tooth powders can be bought for only 16 cents a pack!"
“Not only is the price affordable, but the quality is excellent.”
"All you need to do is buy 15 packs, and I'll have enough energy to continue my performance."
Ogata was just about to say, "Want me to perform? Pay for the tooth powder!"
Although Ogata said so bluntly, "If you want to see the show, buy tooth powder," before he finished speaking, a large number of people had already taken out money to buy tooth powder from A-Machi and A-Tsuku.
Because Ogata's routine is actually an old routine that everyone has seen many times. So when Ogata suddenly "changed his style" and asked everyone to buy tooth powder, no one was surprised.
Using performances to attract customers, and then stipulating what kind of performance to perform based on how much goods are sold - this method is actually very common in this era.
Although this routine is very common, using swordplay to attract customers is quite rare.
After all, there are only a handful of people who can use swordsmanship and are willing to perform with swordsmanship.
Ogata had heard about this from Makimura before: When Makimura was still a Yoroki in Kyoto, he once saw a medicine seller on the street who was doing a very prosperous business.
His secret to selling medicine is to perform sword-drawing skills.
There will never be a lack of audiences when swordplay is used as performance content.
Swordsmanship is a very mysterious skill for ordinary people - there are very few people who have the money and time to learn swordsmanship, so the attitude of most ordinary people towards swordsmanship is "curiosity".
Therefore, there was never a day when the medicine seller was without customers, and his medicine was almost always sold out.
His routine is basically like this - he first tries out his skills to let the audience see his ability, and then tells the audience: As long as my medicine can sell 10 or so copies, I will continue to perform something more amazing.
He made a fortune by doing this.
Now, Ogata is just "borrowing" this routine.
At this moment, relying on this routine, the little girl, who had been selling only a few packs of tooth powder for most of the day, achieved her goal in a blink of an eye and sold 15 packs.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Ogata picked up the second wooden board and prepared to start his second performance.
…
…
Ogata performed three times in total.
All three performances were sword-drawing techniques. The second performance involved two consecutive swings of the sword, which cut the fallen wooden board into three pieces. The third performance involved three consecutive swings of the sword, which cut the fallen wooden board into five pieces.
Even in a metropolitan city like Osaka, swordplay performances are extremely rare, let alone swordplay demonstrations of this level.
After the third performance, Ogata and his team had sold out all the tooth powder they had.
From the time I started helping the little girl sell tooth powder to the time all the tooth powder was sold out, it only took about three incense sticks of time.
Since the tooth powder had been sold out, Ogata naturally didn't need to perform any more, so he bowed to the audience, indicating that the performance was over and everyone could leave.
Some spectators were still not happy and asked Ogata to perform a few more times. Some people also asked Ogata if he would perform here tomorrow or at some other time. Ogata responded in a tactful tone: He would perform here again when he was short of money again.
The spectators gradually dispersed, and Ogata and his friends quickly left with the money they had earned.
But Kitahara and the others still stood there.
"...That guy's skills are pretty good." Kitahara watched Ogata and the others leave. "From his accent... he doesn't sound like a native of Osaka. He's probably a ronin from out of town ."
"What a pity. His sword skills are decent, but he is a crooked person who uses sword skills as a sideshow."
Kitahara sneered and shook his head.
"Okay, Miura, let's go to our old place and have a few drinks. If we delay any longer, it will be dark... Okay?"
Kitahara looked at Miura beside him in surprise.
Miura, who was standing next to him, was staring blankly in the direction where Ogata and the others had just left.
He looked dazed, as if he had lost his soul.
"Miura?" Kitahara gently shook Miura's shoulders.
With Kitahara shaking his shoulders, Miura's "soul" finally returned to his body.
However, even after his soul returned to his body, Miura's gaze was still fixed on the direction where Ogata and the others left.
It was not until Ogata and the others were almost out of his sight that he muttered to himself:
"That woman is so beautiful..."
After he finished speaking, he swallowed hard.
Then, a hint of determination appeared in his eyes .
…
…
"Okay, let's go home quickly while it's still light." Ogata touched the little girl's head.
At this time, Ogata and the others returned to the door of the teahouse where they had just met the little girl.
"Thank you so much!" The little girl held a small cloth bag filled with the money she earned from selling tooth powder in her arms. She thanked Ogata and the others loudly with a slightly choked voice, and bowed deeply to them until her head almost touched the ground.
"It's just a trivial matter." Ogata smiled and said lightly, "Go home quickly."
The little girl ran towards the nearby street corner, looking back every few steps. She would stop every few steps, bow deeply in the direction of Ogata and the others, and then continue walking forward.
"Mashima-sama is so kind!" After the little girl left, the short Azuki raised his hand with some effort, smiled and patted Ogata's shoulder, "You are willing to condescend to help a little girl."
"What do you mean by condescending..." Ogata said unhappily, "I'm not noble or honorable in any way. To be honest - I'm just an ordinary person who is good at fighting."
"I just happened to be free, so I just did something small within my ability."
"Okay, let's go. Let's go somewhere else before it gets dark... hm?"
Ogata's voice suddenly paused - because he saw out of the corner of his eye: a group of people were striding towards them.
The leader of this group was dressed very brightly and beautifully, and exuded the aura of a wealthy man.
This "rich man" was followed by a handsome man - but unfortunately he had a topknot. In Ogata's eyes, this hairstyle successfully brought his appearance to a negative level.
There are seven people following behind these two men - judging from their clothes and actions, they should be their entourage.
At this time, A-Ming and A-Zhu also noticed the group of people striding towards them, and cast puzzled and wary glances at them.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Miura Taro! I'm the eldest son of Miuraya!" As soon as he strode to Ogata, the guy who exuded the aura of a "rich man" introduced himself loudly, "Miss, you are so beautiful, can you tell me your name?"
Miura asked this question——to A-machi.
After Miura
Then he looked around and confirmed that Miura was talking to him, then smiled awkwardly but politely.
"Thank you for the compliment." Atachi first thanked Miura for the compliment he just gave her, "My name is Majima-cho."
"Machi! What a great name for a beauty like you! Do you have time now? There happens to be a teahouse owned by our Miuraya nearby! Do you want to go have some tea and snacks together?"
If I were to describe Miura's behavior from the beginning in one word, it would be honest.
He introduced himself very directly, and then very directly invited Ating to have tea with him.
He is very straightforward - but A-Ting is also quite straightforward:
"Sorry." Ating continued to put on a polite smile, "Thank you for your invitation, but I have something else to do with my husband now, so I'm sorry I can't accompany you."
"Husband?" Miura's eyes immediately widened.
At this time, Ogata quietly took half a step across and stood between Miura and Atachi.
"I am his husband." Ogata said calmly.
Miura's current expression is quite interesting.
He first looked at Ating with regret and unwillingness, and then glared at Ogata with jealousy.
After looking back and forth between Ogata and Atachi for a while with a look full of complicated emotions, Miura said quietly:
"Well...please forgive my intrusion..."
After saying that, Miura turned around and left with the rest of the people around him.
Not long after Miura and the others left, Azhu pouted immediately: "Why did you only invite Miss A-Ming and not me..."
"Why?" Ating asked jokingly, "Do you really want to have tea with a stranger?"
"It's not that I want to have tea with strangers, but I feel weirdly frustrated that you're the only one invited even though you and I are standing next to each other..." Azhu raised his hand and rubbed his childish face vigorously. "By the way, that person's clothes were really outrageous... Those fabrics look really expensive... And the people of Osaka are really welcoming... I've been following you for so long, but this is the first time I've seen someone take the initiative to talk to Miss Azhu."
After all, the Edo period was still an ancient society, and the relationship between men and women was not too open, and things like picking up girls were very rare in that era.
Ah-Machi nodded, "Yeah, that's right. People in Osaka are really proactive and enthusiastic. Okay, forget about that guy, let's go."
Neither Ogata nor Atachi took the "pick-up" incident to heart.
Someone had the courage to approach Ah-machi - Ogata didn't think this was anything surprising.
After all, Ogata knows very well how beautiful and what her figure is like. If no man comes to chat with her, he would start to wonder if there is something wrong with the aesthetic taste of other men of this era.
Ogata and Atachi both regarded the previous chat-up incident as an ordinary episode in their daily lives.
But as the other party involved in this incident, he couldn't forget it...
…
…
"What a pity, Miura," Kitahara said jokingly, "I mustered up the courage to invite that woman, but she turned out to be a married woman."
"All the good carrots were eaten by donkeys..." Miura's face was covered with many black lines at this time, "Such a good woman is actually married... It would be fine if she was married, but she married a poor guy who makes a living by performing juggling and selling tooth powder..."
"Even I feel sorry for that woman... That woman really doesn't know how to find a man..."
"Forget it, Miura." Kitahara patted Miura's shoulder and comforted him, "From the woman's accent, I can tell that she is from another place."
"That woman speaks in an Omi accent. She's probably just a country bumpkin from somewhere in Omi."
"She probably doesn't even know what 'Miura-ya' means in Osaka, so she rejected your invitation."
"If she knew how huge the family business you would inherit was, she would probably immediately regret having rejected your invitation, and would cling to you and beg you to take her as a concubine, and then kick her poor husband aside."
Kitahara just said a bunch of nice words to comfort Miura.
But Miura seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
The dark lines on his face slowly disappeared, and his originally depressed face gradually turned into a smile.
"That's right!" Miura nodded seriously, "It's that woman's loss if she refuses my invitation!"
"You're right to think so! Okay, stop thinking about that woman." Kitahara patted Miura's shoulder again, "Hurry up and go to the old place to have a drink."
"Oh, by the way, Kitahara-kun." Miura patted his forehead as if he remembered something, "I'm going to have a banquet with some friends in Shinmachi tomorrow night."
"Would you like to come along?"
Having said this, Miura lowered his voice and put on a mysterious look.
"Tomorrow's banquet will be grand. I have spent a lot of money to invite the artist who has been very popular recently - Chu Guang."
"Chu Guang?" Bei Yuan was stunned. "You actually invited her?"
"How? Wanna come?"
"No." Kitahara smiled bitterly and shook his head without any hesitation, "If it was somewhere else, it would be fine, but Shinmachi is..."
"You know, Miss Isshiki hates the kind of men who frequent those places the most."
"In order to maintain my image, I will never set foot in Shinmachi again before I marry Miss Isshiki."
"We're just going to a banquet, not to play with women together." Miura shrugged, "Forget it, if you don't want to go, then don't go."