Seeing Kitahara quickly bowing and apologizing to him, Ogata's depressed mood caused by Kitahara's arrogant attitude just now gradually dissipated.
He nodded slightly to show his acceptance of Kitahara's apology.
After seeing Kitahara apologize to Ogata so conspicuously and promptly, and seeing that Ogata did not seem to pursue Kitahara's rude behavior any further, Naoshige felt relieved.
"Mashima-san." Naozune made a gesture of invitation to Ogata, "I'm very sorry to have kept you waiting outside the museum for so long. Come on, let's go in."
"It's okay. No need to apologize, I just got here."
Ogata and Naoshige walked side by side towards Zenhyōkan.
The four young men who were in charge of receiving the guests and who had just gathered in front of Ogata to support Kitahara, now recovered from their shock.
One of them hurried forward very conspicuously to lead the way for Zhi Zhou and the others.
Kitahara had straightened his back, which had just bowed to apologize to Ogata, and was staring blankly at Ogata who had already passed through the door and was about to enter the museum.
——This guy... is actually Mr. Isshiki's VIP...? !
Until this moment, the cold reality before his eyes still made Beiyuan feel unbelievable.
Kitahara's brain was working rapidly at this moment.
He was racking his brains to think: This guy wearing a bamboo hat, judging from his voice, was probably about the same age as him. What kind of person was he to be treated so courteously by Isshiki Naozune?
Is he the descendant of a high-ranking official? Or a descendant of a wealthy businessman?
Suddenly—Kitahara’s body shook violently and his face turned pale.
He suddenly discovered something that made him break out in a cold sweat.
She is about the same age as him, and yet she is treated so courteously by Isshiki Naoshige...
An unprecedented sense of crisis struck Kitahara's heart.
He quickly shifted his gaze and subconsciously followed Isshikika's figure.
However, his sight could no longer catch up.
Everyone in the Isise Sword Hall had now entered the hall.
…
…
"Mashima-san, let me introduce him to you." Naoshige, who was walking side by side with Ogata, enthusiastically introduced him, "This is my eldest son, Isshiki Rusui."
"Rusui, this is the great man I told you about: Majima Goro."
"Mashima-san, nice to meet you." Rusui was the first to bow and greet Ogata, "My name is Se Rusui, please give me your guidance."
Ogata nodded gently in return, "Nice to meet you, I'm Majima Goro."
While Ogata was introducing himself, Rusui looked at him quietly.
——Is he the Majima Goro that my father mentioned?
Since Naoshige and Isshikika were keeping Ogata's true identity a secret, Rusui naturally had no idea that the current "most wanted criminal in Japan" was right next to him.
Naoshu only told Rusui that he had invited a young samurai named "Mashima Goro" to watch the "Daishikai" with them, and when they met him, they must remember to be polite and not do anything disrespectful to him.
His name was Majima Goro, and his father respected him extremely for some reason - this was all the information that Josui knew about Ogata at the moment.
Rushui knew very little about Ogata, let alone the apprentices in the academy.
The apprentices of Isshiki Sword Hall who were walking behind Ogata, Naozune, and them were now looking at Ogata, whose back they could only see, with curiosity and confusion.
"And this one..." Naoshige turned his gaze to Isshikika, his expression slowly becoming strange, "This one... I don't think I need to introduce her any further."
"Long time no see, Mr. Majima." Isshikika nodded to Ogata and said lightly.
Isshikika had a blank expression on her face at this moment.
But when Isshikika nodded and greeted Ogata, the emotions in her eyes became strange and complicated as if subconsciously.
The extremely embarrassing scenes with Ogata in the bath flashed through Isshikika's mind...
The same is true for Ogata.
After seeing Isshikika, fragments of memories consisting of keywords such as Isshikika and bath automatically popped up in Isshikika's mind, causing Ogata's expression to become uncontrollably weird when he looked at Isshikika.
"Hmm..." Ogata said softly, "Long time no see..."
The venue for the "big test" is the "No. B Dojo", the most spacious one in the entire military training hall.
After arriving at the "No. B Dojo", the scene inside the dojo made Ogata involuntarily let out a low cry of surprise.
It was the first time that Ogata saw such a spacious and luxurious dojo.
The dojo is so spacious that even if there are more than 50 people sparring and competing inside at the same time, it will not feel crowded at all.
In order to welcome the arrival of the "big test", the floor of the dojo was scrubbed so clean that one could reflect a person's reflection in it.
Even hard-to-clean places like the ceiling were cleaned thoroughly.
Half of the seats at the edge of the dojo are already occupied.
After entering the dojo, Ogata immediately felt countless gazes directed towards them - the vast majority of them were directed at Isshikika who was sitting behind Ogata.
Ogata took a quick look and found that those who were staring at Isshikika were mostly young men.
The looks they gave Isshikika contained the same emotion - passion.
Facing the fiery gazes from these people, Isshika didn't even move her eyebrows, as if she was used to it.
Most of the young people were looking at Isshikika, while the older people were mostly looking at Ogata, casting puzzled glances at Ogata, who was particularly conspicuous because of his conical hat and face scarf, and was also a very unfamiliar person.
"Eh? Majima-kun?"
At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly came into Ogata's ears from the side of him.
"Shibata?" Ogata looked at the owner of the voice in surprise.
"Ah! It's really Majima-kun!"
The owner of the voice was the bodyguard of Hatsumitsu, the "number one geisha in Osaka", who had worked with Ogata for a night. Shibata Masaru smiled heartily, waved his hands vigorously at Ogata, and ran towards him quickly.
…
…
At this moment——
In a remote corner of Quanbing Hall, where no one is,
"Mr. An Yun, let me confirm that you haven't forgotten the content of the new task you received last night, right?" A young man with a stern expression asked a sturdy man in front of him who was constantly exercising his neck muscles.
This sturdy man called "Ayun-kun" has a large horizontal scar on his forehead, which makes his face look more hideous.
"I'll remember." An Yun stuck out her scarlet tongue and licked the left corner of her mouth. "This new mission is my favorite type of mission... I won't forget it."
"Just leave it to me."
An Yun stretched hard and smiled grimly.
"Lord Toyotomi finally gave me some interesting tasks to do..."
"I am so lucky to be able to compose a beautiful prelude for the 'Spring Campaign of Osaka'. I made the right choice to work for 'Taikogiri'."
"Prajna, when the 'big test' starts, just watch carefully from the audience."
At this time, An Yun turned her gaze back to the cold-looking young man in front of her.
"Look how well I accomplished my mission."
The stern young man called "Prajna" nodded:
"I will be looking forward to your performance."
"You can make as much noise as you want later."
"But remember - no matter what, you must ensure that you can be sent to Yang's house in Osaka later."
"If we fail to achieve this most important goal, all our efforts will be in vain."
(Yangwu: prison)
…
…
In a busy city in Osaka——
"Ms. Atachi! Look! This squid is so big!"
Azhu was very excited to show A-Ming the string of grilled squid in her hand which was as big as her whole face.
"Wow, it's really big. Where did you buy it?" Ating, who was stuffing glutinous rice balls into her mouth continuously, spoke a little unclearly because her mouth was full of glutinous rice balls.
"It's at the intersection over there." Azhu pointed to the intersection not far away, "There is a grilled squid stand over there, a skewer costs only 20 wen, Miss A-Ming, do you want to buy one and try it?"
"Well... I don't need it." After thinking for a moment, Ating shook his head, "Compared to grilled squid, I still prefer sweets. I want to save some space for more sweets."
After saying that, Ating stuffed a whole bunch of glutinous rice dumplings - a total of 4 dumplings - into her mouth in one breath.
A-Ming and A-Zhu are both lively girls.
There are still many places in Osaka that they haven't visited, but they are just sitting there in the hotel doing nothing and wasting their time - they can't do that.
Therefore, after Ogata rushed to Zenhyōkan to prepare to participate in the "Great Test", A-machi and A-tsuku went out together, ready to continue their "exploration" to areas they had not yet visited.
After leaving the hotel, the two of them walked, stopped, ate and drank along the way, and were very happy.
"Ms. A-Machi." A-Tsuku stuffed the huge grilled squid in her hand into her mouth. Although her entire mouth was filled with the squid, she spoke without any hesitation. "I just found out - go straight along this street, then turn right twice, and you will see a very lively entertainment street."
"There are many artists playing the piano, telling stories, and performing acrobatics on that street."
"This street is not too far from here. How about we go and take a look together now?"
When he heard the word "storytelling", Ating's eyes immediately lit up, and then he nodded vigorously without thinking:
"Okay, okay, let's go check it out now."
The two of them talked and laughed as they strode towards the location of the happy street that Azhu mentioned.
"By the way, Ms. A-Ming." A-Tsuku swallowed the last bite of squid and said, "I have a question I've always wanted to ask you."
"Hmm? What's the problem?"
"Ou...ah, no, Master Majima, does he not have any religious beliefs?"
"Ah? Why are you asking this suddenly?" A-Ming cast a surprised look at A-Tsukushi.
"I was just curious and wanted to ask." Azhu said, "After all, no matter who you are, you should have some respect for gods and Buddhas."
"But Mr. Majima doesn't seem to be like that."
"Before, when we were heading to Owari and passing through the Mikawa area, we passed by an abandoned temple."
"We passed by this temple and it was getting dark soon, so we stayed overnight in the deserted temple. Do you remember this?"
A-Ming: "Hmm... I don't think I can remember clearly..."
"It's okay. Just listen to me. If I continue, you will probably be able to remember it."
"There is still an old wooden Buddha statue enshrined in that temple." Azhu continued, "You and I both bowed respectfully to the statue at that time, but only Majima-sama ignored the statue..."
"But that's all."
"What Majima-sama wants to do next is incredible..."
"When we were trying to light the bonfire, we couldn't find any wood, so we couldn't get the fire started."
"So Master Majima suggested smashing the wooden Buddha statue and using it to start the fire..."
At this time, Ating burst into laughter, and then said in a helpless tone:
"Oh, I remember now... I remember everything now. It really happened."
"You put a lot of effort into stopping him..."
"That incident gave me a huge shock..." Ah Zhu shrank his neck, a bit of fear flashed across his face, "It's the first time I've seen someone want to smash a Buddha statue to make a fire..."
"Although I'm not a Buddhist, I still think that smashing Buddha statues to keep warm is too outrageous..."
"I tried to persuade Master Majima afterwards, telling him that when it comes to gods and Buddhas, it is better to believe in their existence than to believe in their non-existence."
"Respect the gods and Buddhas, worship their statues more often when you see them, and pray to them more often. There will be no harm in that."
"The result! Miss A-machi, guess what Mr. Majima told me?"
"He smiled and said to me: If I pray to the gods and Buddhas frequently, I will have to put my hands together frequently. How can I hold the sword then?"
“I think I’ll remember this forever…”
"...Ayi really doesn't believe in gods or Buddhas, so he often does things that are very confusing." A-Ting sighed softly, "So I'm somewhat accustomed to his behavior."
"He has done many more exaggerated things."
"You know I'm a Shintoist."
Azhu listened carefully and nodded in agreement: "Yes, I know."
Through the various details of Atachi's daily life, Azhu already knew that Atachi was a devout Shinto believer and was very respectful of Buddhism.
"Ayi knows that I believe in Shintoism, but he still tries every means to persuade me to wear a shrine maiden costume... He says he wants to see me in it."
After saying that, Ating acted as if he was "unable to complain".
As for Azhu, she couldn't help but say in a bad tone: "Clothes like shrine maiden costumes... can't be worn by non-clergymen, right? And what's so good about shrine maiden costumes?"
Ah-Ming nodded: "Yes, that's why I just said that Ah-Yi often does some very confusing things."
At this point, Ating changed his tone to a joking one:
"I've thought about it before - maybe Ayi could become good friends with Oda Nobunaga, who has been dead for more than 200 years."
"After all, they both could use a Buddha statue to burn in a fire without blinking an eye."
"Ah! It's Master Kiyosumi!"
"It's Master Qingcheng!"
At this time.
Just as A-Ming finished his words, he and A-Zhu both heard a very loud noise coming suddenly from the front.
Amidst the noisy sounds, there were cheers and words of “Master Qingcheng” spoken in a respectful tone.
Confused, A-Ming and A-Zhu looked at each other for a while, then quickened their pace and ran forward.
After running about a hundred meters, the two saw an old monk with kind eyes and wearing a brown robe in the middle of the street ahead.
There were many people gathered around the old monk. They greeted him enthusiastically, and the old monk nodded and smiled at them one by one.
"Who is this monk?" Ah Zhu was shocked. "Such a big scene..."
"Huh? Don't you know Master Kiyosumi?" A middle-aged man with pimples all over his face standing in front of Atsushi and Azuki turned his head and gave them a puzzled look after hearing what Azuki had just murmured.
"I don't know." Azhu shook his head honestly, "Who is this Master Qingcheng? Why does he look so popular? So many people are surrounding him and greeting him... Master Qingcheng is surrounded by so many people that he seems to be unable to walk..."
"This Master Qingcheng is a famous living Bodhisattva in Osaka." The "pimple-faced man" showed a proud expression, "He is the abbot of Ryusui Temple. Not only is he well versed in Buddhism, he is also proficient in medicine."
"Whenever he had free time, he would go outside the temple and provide free treatment to the poor. He was the lifesaver of many people, so many people were very grateful to him."
"Master Qingcheng is probably going somewhere to treat the poor now."
While they were listening to "Pimple-faced Man" introducing Master Kiyosumi, Master Kiyosumi had already walked past Atachi and the others not far away.
When Master Kiyosumi passed by them, Atachi only felt a special, refreshing fragrance coming towards her.
"What's that smell..." Ating sniffed her nose cutely.
"Oh, this is the incense specially made by Master Qingcheng." "Pimple Face" said, "Master Qingcheng is not only the abbot of the temple and a doctor, but also an outstanding incense master."
"The fragrance you just smelled is the incense he specially made. Doesn't it smell good? This is a unique fragrance in the world."
"Master Qingcheng often uses this special incense to make his clothes smell good."
"It's a pity that the fragrance of Master Qingcheng's special incense doesn't last long. If this defect can be corrected, then this incense will be perfect."
The art of incense is one of Japan's "elegant arts" along with flower arrangement and tea ceremony.
Making incense, smelling incense, appreciating incense - this is the incense master.
Ating's background... to put it bluntly, she is just an uncultured country girl who can't even recognize Chinese characters, so she can't smell anything elegant or vulgar. She can only smell that Master Kiyosumi's special incense is indeed very nice, and it is the smell that Ating likes.
Ah-Ming couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, trying to take in a few more of the pleasant smell, then turned to the "pimple-faced guy" and asked:
"Does Master Qingcheng sell his special incense?"
"Uh... I don't have this." Pimple Face shook his head. "Master Qingcheng never sells his incense."
"Is that so..." A look of regret emerged on Atachi's face, and he took a few deep breaths of the fragrance that had become faint due to the departure of Master Kiyosumi.