Chapter 77

This is Shigure's first time wearing a kimono.

She was wearing a dignified dress in snow-blue with camellia flowers painted on the hem, a cute and gorgeous taiko knot at the waist, her black hair was loosely tied up, and a few sweet braided strands were hidden in the hairpins at her temples.

…It would be quite atmospheric to dress up like this for the Eastern Festival, but, but…!

Shi Yu was wearing a pair of wooden clogs awkwardly, and the tassels on her hairpin swayed with her unsteady movements. Xiao held her arm with all his heart and led her away from the crowded crowd.

"Are you not used to it?" Kanhara gently guided her, "Try to relax and walk like you normally do."

"Well, I'll try..."

But let alone clogs, Shi Yu had never even worn shoes with higher heels. Now when he wore clogs, Shi Yu felt stiff from the soles of his feet to his calves, and it was strange to walk.

After Xiao asked for her opinion, he took the enthusiastic Shigure to put on the kimono and style it, which took almost two hours.

It was the morning when the busiest traffic was. A young man wearing a headscarf was walking towards us, carrying several stacks of cardboard boxes. His steps were unsteady, and the top box, which was full of items, was shaking.

There were many people around, and realizing that he couldn't avoid the other party's path, Shen Yuanxiao pondered for a moment, then slightly reduced his strength, put his arm around Shi Yu's shoulders, and brought her into his arms.

Shigure: ...!

The metal buckle on the boy's military uniform suddenly hit her forehead. Shi Yu didn't understand what was happening. Her face turned red in an instant and her fingers curled up shyly.

"dawn……?"

Shi Yu looked up and just as he spoke in confusion, a shadow fell in front of his eyes.

The tall young man from the East easily stretched out his arm and helped the young man passing by to hold up the top cardboard box.

"Oh, thanks, bro!"

The young man breathed a sigh of relief, stuck his head out from behind the cardboard box, and thanked him cheerfully.

"It's okay, just be careful."

Xiao smiled.

"Are you from the East, too? Oh, a soldier?" From Kanhara Akira's demeanor and his way of speaking, the young man realized that this young Alpha was from the same hometown as him. His tone immediately revealed a sense of familiarity, and he said with a smile, "If you have time later, why don't you bring your girlfriend to our shop? We sell takoyaki and other grilled goods, and many girls like them."

...Then the shop owner readily promised to give them discounts or something as long as they patronized the shop, but Shigure didn't listen.

She huddled in Xiao's arms, her mind full of messy thoughts - Hey... girlfriend?

Girlfriend, whose?

Xiao is the only one around her...

"I'm still a student, not a soldier," Shi Yu heard Xiao's gentle explanation, "Thank you for your kindness. Wait a moment, I'll take her to see it."

Then, naturally, they said goodbye and left. Xiao let go of her shoulders, and with a faint smile in his voice, he lowered his head and asked her, "How are you now? Can you walk on your own now?"

Xiao just now, did not explain the other... girlfriend problem.

Shi Yu seemed to realize something, lowered her trembling eyelashes, and shook her head slightly.

So Shenyuan smiled and naturally took her hand, "Let's go."

Because I took the time to dress up and watched a show with Xiao, it was almost lunch time.

Knowing that he had wasted too much time this morning, Shi Yu pulled out his tablet and made plans seriously while chewing on fried noodles. "Xiao, let's go see if there are any stalls where we can play mini-games this afternoon. Then there's a dance performance at three and a float parade at six, respectively. We absolutely have to go see them!"

"There are some snacks and other things..." Shi Yu thought for a moment, feeling a little distressed. "I want to try some too, but is it too late?"

The young man from the East Country lowered his narrow eyes slightly as he flipped through the guidebook in his hand. "Well, it's just that some of the shops are located in remote areas, so maybe..."

Does that mean I should give up going to those shops? ...Time is limited, there's nothing I can do about it, Shigure thought.

"Maybe you need to eat faster, Shigure."

Xiao waved the brochure in front of Shi Yu's eyes like she was teasing a cat, and showed him the page with the special delicacies printed on it. She smiled and said, "Come on, there are still many delicious foods waiting for you."

Shi Yu hummed twice, suddenly feeling nervous, and finished the last of the fried noodles in a few bites.

Before leaving, Shi Yu went to the bathroom to tidy herself up. After tying her messy hair up in front of the mirror, she staggered towards the sink and was about to turn around when she suddenly seemed to hear someone crying.

Huh…?

The intermittent, small and weak crying seemed to be right under my feet.

This is the bathroom reserved for Omegas. She noticed it when she came in just now, but there was clearly no one there.

Shi Yu thought she had misheard and took two steps forward with her scalp tingling. When she didn't hear that sound again, she waited nervously for a while before she breathed a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, before he could completely relax, the sobbing sound exploded in his ears again. The crying of a baby almost sounded like a scream. The loud and unreasonable sound scared Shi Yu so much that he forgot to breathe for a moment.

Her face turned pale, and she looked around. When she found that there was no one around, she mustered up her courage, slowly, slowly leaned over the sink, and bent down.

At first, it was the cotton corners, and then Shi Yu saw the dark blue swaddling clothes, the red and tender skin, and the sobbing sound. The baby's face was wrinkled with grievance, like a little monkey abandoned here.

Shi Yu looked at the baby in surprise. The little devil barely opened his eyes a crack. Maybe he noticed someone in front of him. He twisted his body and babbled, with tears in the corners of his eyes, looking very pitiful.

"Excuse me, is anyone here? There's a baby here."

She clumsily carried the child out, stood up straight and asked a question - of course, no one answered in the empty bathroom.

The baby started to burp and Shi Yu held him stiffly in her arms and legs, and walked out to see Xiao waiting for her at the door.

"Here...Xiao, there's a child."

She seemed unable to speak, and in confusion she lifted up the child she had picked up to show the boy. Xiaowei was stunned for a moment, and then she realized something keenly. The gentle smile she had just shown to Shi Yu gradually disappeared from her expression.

"The child you found?"

Xiao bent down and took the baby, holding it in his arms, stroking the back of the swaddle thoughtfully. Shi Yu looked at the boy's skillful movements and nodded a little at a loss.

"Um……"

Kanhara frowned slightly, and the baby stopped sobbing in his arms and even made two giggles.

"What should we do? Is there anyone in charge here? Let's ask him to use the radio to find his parents or something."

Shigure looked at it for a long moment before offering a suggestion dryly.

Xiao was somewhat helpless. "Since we've left the children here, I guess this method won't make them stand up..."

"However," Xiao Wei lowered her eyes, smiled and winked at her, signaling her to relax, "This child may not have been abandoned. Let's give it a try, okay?"

Shi Yu didn't think too much about it, nodded, and made the same decision as Xiao.

The festival venue was very large. The two of them took a look and found that there were no volunteers around. Then they asked passers-by and found out the location of the radio station - the only radio station in the entire venue was actually outside the venue, and it took nearly half an hour to walk there!

That's fine... Even if it would delay his next date with Xiao, Shi Yu felt that it didn't matter if it took a little time as long as he could find the child's parents.

But unexpectedly, something horrible happened!

The baby in Xiao's arms suddenly burst into tears, kicking its legs as if something unbearable was happening to it. Shi Yu stared at the baby blankly. Before she could react, Xiao calmly reached into the swaddling clothes, felt around for a bit, and then comforted her, "It's nothing serious, probably just hungry."

"Ah, what does he eat?"

Xiao narrowed her eyes in thought and carefully observed the baby in her arms. "He's not old enough to eat solid food yet. He's about five months old. At this time, he can use breast milk or..."

The young man from the East Country paused for a moment. He suddenly realized that there would be basically no shops selling milk powder at this kind of festival... If the baby is five months old, maybe he could try feeding the child some complementary food.

Meanwhile, Shigure waited anxiously for Akatsuki's next words after a long while.

Ah…breast milk, is it necessary? But where can I find it?

Not knowing what he was thinking of, Shi Yu's face suddenly turned red, his eyes flickered, and he became a little flustered and moist.

She may not yet—

"Shigure, are you listening?"

Kanbaru's confused voice.

Shi Yu came back to her senses stiffly and embarrassedly, her earlobes red and hot, and she murmured "hmm" softly. She knew that she had been thinking a little bit astray just now, and now she lowered her head, too embarrassed to even look at Xiao's face.

"Let's go find something for the child to eat first. On the way, look out for any shops selling easily digestible foods like eggs or biscuits."

The baby's crying became louder and louder, as if he was very hungry. His little hands struggled to get out of the swaddling clothes. Xiao stopped talking helplessly, hugged the baby in his arms, and patted his back gently.

"Alright, alright, be good..."

The handsome and elegant young man patiently comforted the baby, as if he had done it a thousand times. He casually untied the red string at the end of the baby's hair, hooked it with his fingertips and swung it in front of the baby's eyes, with a smile on his face.

Shi Yu stared at the scene and suddenly felt a subtle harmony, as if Xiao was born to take care of children...

"We just had fried noodles at the place. Aren't there a lot of food vendors nearby? It's not far from here." Xiao was concentrating on holding the baby, so Shigure had to walk on his own in his clogs. "Let's go over there and take a look?"

"Well, let's go."

"Xiao, um," Shi Yu hesitated, and finally couldn't help asking, "You seem to be very experienced in taking care of children? I just had no idea what to do, but you looked... very relaxed."

"Easy," Xiao smiled and tilted her head, repeating the word, "I guess so. We have a large family, and I have many brothers and sisters."

It turned out that habit becomes experience. Shi Yu was a little happy when he heard Xiao talk about family matters for the first time. "Xiao, are you the eldest brother in the family? Everyone must listen to you."

"No, I have two older brothers."

Hmm, I see. Shigure followed Xiao in small steps, not paying much attention to Xiao's words about having many brothers and sisters. He then casually asked, "Xiao, how many people are there in your family?"

Xiao held the baby in her arms, seemingly calculating, and then said thoughtfully, "...I have ten children below me, plus my parents, my uncle, and Aya... Xiao Hei."

Huh?

Shi Yu blinked blankly. Xiao just said that he had ten brothers and sisters?

And Akatsuki has two older brothers... So Akatsuki's family is like Asana in a certain otome anime, with a total of thirteen children?

The author has something to say:

Woo woo woo, it’s too late to get up again QAQ.

I've been really busy lately, so busy that I've lost a lot of hair.

Now the school requires us to have classes on Saturdays and Sundays as well... But there is also an advantage, I can have a holiday at the end of May - by June, I will definitely be able to update every day!