Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Breaking the Promise
"Yeah?"
Yukimura Seiichi paused for a moment, then held the game console in his hand again.
Xiangcheng mustered up the courage to raise her head and faced the disappointed Yukimura in front of her: "I'm sorry... Grandpa has been ill recently, and I don't know if I can still..."
"So you asked everyone to take pictures, and you've been acting weird lately, so you want to go back to Tokyo?"
Xiangcheng's eyes turned to surprise, shocked that Yukimura guessed it so quickly.
Yukimura Seiichi took a step forward, closing the distance between them. Xiang Cheng could see more clearly: the corners of his lips twitched, as if he was about to say a thousand words.
Yuihara Kaoru began to think about how many things he had done wrong.
She didn't even dare to look directly at Yukimura like this.
Yukimura Seiichi asked as if to verify, "Is that so?"
Xiangcheng nodded slightly.
Yukimura suddenly felt relieved and got the answer he wanted to know.
"Then... who am I?" He laughed at himself, "I don't even have the right to be angry."
Her choices and actions were reasonable, and he didn't even know how to stop her.
The words "Who am I?" suddenly made Xiangcheng's heart surge with infinite sadness - the Yukimura in her heart should be the focus of the spotlight, instead of speaking such words to an ordinary person in such a tone.
"I'm sorry..." she murmured.
I wanted to handle everything perfectly, but ended up hurting my most important friends.
Yukimura's voice became distant: "What did you do wrong?"
He has no right to say no.
But if he just told her it was okay, and comforted her that grandpa would be fine, he couldn't utter a word.
It was obviously him who was about to lose her.
Noticing that his tone had become unfamiliar, Xiangcheng bit a piece of flesh on the inside of her cheek, forcing herself to divert her attention and hold back all her tears.
Then he spoke again: "I'm really sorry, Yukimura, I broke my promise. If... I have the chance in the future, I will come back to Kanagawa to see you."
"good."
Xiangcheng reached out and said, "Give me the game console."
Yukimura slowly loosened his grip and handed one end to Kaoru.
No one spoke again. Yukimura turned and ran into the night as he had done when he arrived.
Xiangcheng watched him disappear at the end of the street, and then she realized that there were tears on her chin that she hadn't seen since when.
"Okay, let's do some research on the Tokyo school." She muttered to herself and tried to pull the corners of her mouth.
The corners of his mouth disobeyed the command and twitched downwards.
Tick-tock——
Xiangcheng stood there at a loss.
Even after running a long way, Yukimura Seiichi still felt a hot spot on the back of his hand that made him uncomfortable.
He wiped it several times, and the huge force made the spot turn red and aroused a slight tingling pain.
On Saturday, after all of her grandfather's nephews had left, Xiang Cheng took the bus back to Tokyo.
It was so nice not having to greet all the relatives. Xiangcheng relaxed and helped Grandpa sort through old photo albums and letters.
He pointed to a photo of the five of them when they were young, took a breath of oxygen and said, "Look at this, this is the current coach of the two boys from the Kuroo and Lone Claw families."
When they were young, their coaching philosophies were very different.
"Ah, this is Wu Yang."
"Ugane and I both agree that 'only attacking will give us a chance', but Nekomata has the opposite view. He says that only 'the ball doesn't hit the ground' is correct."
Grandpa's tone was filled with melancholy: "Now only Mao can carry through his philosophy. Wu Yang's health is not good either. It depends on who falls first, me or this old friend!"
"Grandpa!" Xiangcheng glared at him and said, "Don't talk nonsense."
Grandpa chuckled and said, "If you have any questions about volleyball in the future, feel free to go find Grandpa Nekomata."
"I'll just look for you." Xiangcheng's voice dropped.
"Xiangcheng, there are many things that need to be explained clearly when you think of them..."
He unbuttoned the first two buttons of his clothes, and Xiangcheng clearly saw that there was a tumor the size of an egg on his grandfather's chest, beating with his heart under a thin layer of skin.
This was the first time she had seen this thing, and it seemed to have a life of its own, roaring and trying to break through her grandfather's body.
Grandpa buttoned her shirt back up and patted her head.
Xiangcheng was still staring at that place in a daze.
After cleaning up, grandma came over and said, "Ah! How could you scare Xiangcheng!"
Grandpa breathed in oxygen: "You have to know~"
Grandma hugged Xiangcheng and said, "Are you scared?"
Xiangcheng came to his senses: "It's okay! I'm not that timid."
Even so, she couldn't help but look again - that thing had been hidden by her grandfather, like a time bomb.
Suddenly the phone rang. Xiangcheng picked it up from the coffee table. It was an unfamiliar number. "Hello, this is Jieyuan Xiangcheng. May I ask..."
After a while, "Autumn Conference Training, I'm sorry, Mr. Kawaira, I—" The phone was taken away by my grandfather, and he greeted familiarly: "Kawahira, listen to who I am?...Hahaha, you still remember me!"
"I'll make sure she goes on time. Please take care of it."
After hanging up the phone, grandpa tapped her on the head and said, "Kawahira is my student. This is a great opportunity to represent Kanagawa in the junior competition."
Xiangcheng shook her head: "I don't want to go. The training will last for 15 days."
Grandpa sighed: "Good boy, go ahead. I will go to watch the game. Maybe... this will be the last time I see you play."
Xiangcheng's eyes were red and she sniffed: "Okay. Then you have to make sure you take good care of yourself before you come and cheer me on."
Grandpa imitated her usual behavior and made an OK gesture.
Xiangcheng laughed again.
When leaving home, Xiangcheng looked back as if she sensed something. Her grandfather clenched his fist with one hand, smiled and nodded at her.
She then joined the training camp which lasted for half a month.
— — — —
Monday morning's tennis club practice was exceptionally solid. It wasn't because Yukimura or Sanada were mad, but rather because Yukimura, who usually supervised the team, was training on his own for the first time.
Seeing this serious attitude, the other members of the tennis club were suddenly inspired and started training silently.
But they were still a little confused - they hadn't heard of any major competitions recently. Could it be a practice match?
After training was over, they began stretching, their teeth bared. After a happy weekend, this was a bit too much. But seeing Yukimura's calm face and lack of breath, they silently suppressed their ferocious expression.
They watched Yukimura waiting at the alley as usual, then as if remembering something, he walked towards the classroom.
"Did they have a quarrel?"
"Could it be that Jieyuan rejected him?"
Several people looked at each other, then looked at Yukimura's back. No wonder it looked so desolate.
Yukimura pulled out his chair and sat down. The space behind him seemed unusually empty. He turned around and happened to meet the eyes of the boy behind Kaoru. The boy asked, "What's going on with Yuihara? Didn't he come to school today?"
Yukimura shook his head and said nothing.
He turned around and looked out the window involuntarily. He knew Xiangcheng would not appear there. He knew she had gone to training.
But after that...she probably won't appear again.
He also lost his study partner, but he still took careful notes on physics.
When I was halfway through writing, I unconsciously thought that she probably didn't need it anymore.
Both Kuroo-kun and Guzhua-kun are good at studying, and they will have more time to study together, live together, play games together, and play volleyball together.
Soon... she would forget her own.
"Yukimura-kun? Yukimura-kun?"
Ah, Yukimura came back to his senses and saw the physics teacher staring at him: "Solve this problem."
"Yes." Yukimura stood up and finished his steps fluently.
The physics teacher nodded and asked him to sit down. "Even though Jieyuan is not here, you can't be distracted... Otherwise, when she comes back, she won't be able to keep up with the progress, and you won't be able to explain it clearly, what will you do?"
The classmates burst into laughter.
Yukimura felt a little embarrassed and apologized again.
The physics teacher waved his hands: "Hahaha, just a joke."
... "No way?" Fujino Yu grabbed his setter's neck and said, "I was waiting for you, and you actually threw a flying back pass to Yuihara?"
The setter scrambled away from her grasp, "Look at that junior, Jieyuan, she never wastes my passes!"
Fujino Yu held his heart and said, "I can't do it anymore. I'm so hurt."
Yuihara Kaoru popped her head out from behind the setter. "Tell me, my spike was beautiful, wasn't it?"
Fujino Yu pointed at her: "Okay, okay, provocation, right?"
Xiangcheng made a face.
Each region sends a representative team to compete in the autumn tournament. This year's Kanagawa team is mainly composed of Shonan, and several additional players who have performed outstandingly in previous competitions have been recruited as supplementary players.
Only Yui Kaguya and Kotomi Igarashi were selected from Rikkai University. During the seven or eight days of training, they both successfully secured their positions as the starting main players.
Coach Kabaira is the coach of Shonan. This time he was entrusted with an extra important task and vowed to help the Kanagawa team get a good ranking in this year's competition.
Kawanapira is worthy of being my grandfather's disciple, and his training methods are the same - his requirement is that everyone should do what they are supposed to do in their position.
Therefore, as the main attacker, when not practicing, Xiangcheng would practice smashing with Fujino.
On the tenth day, Xiangcheng felt the familiar pain in her back muscles. She asked for a break from training to give herself a massage. Fujino Yuu saw this and came over to massage her.
Xiangcheng was grinning in disbelief at the pressure from her strong hands, but she had to admit that the pressure did have some effect.
Teacher Kawaihira hurried towards Xiangcheng. Seeing his heavy expression, Xiangcheng stood up unconsciously and had a bad feeling.
"Jihara, Mr. Tatsuo is seriously ill. I'm here to take you to Tokyo."
The scenery outside the car window was rapidly receding, reflecting Xiangcheng's expressionless and pale face.
It won't be that fast.
Then why call her over?
"Your grandfather's tumor suddenly ruptured. His condition is quite critical. He is still in surgery, but..." Yuhara Nagatomo patted his daughter's shoulder and said to Kawaira, "Thank you, Kawaira-kun."
Kawaira said you're welcome and waited for the results with them outside the operating room.
Xiangcheng looked at her grandmother and mother kneeling in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary outside the operating room, and could not help but stand behind them, looking up at the Virgin Mary with a calm face.
Latin scriptures flowed slowly from her mouth.
She used to hate taking religion courses, but this was the only time she pinned all her hopes on it.
If I could make my grandfather better, I would become a devout believer, she vowed.
But the peaceful Virgin Mary seemed to have given up on this "believer".
The doctor finally injected a little adrenaline to give the patient the strength to open his eyes and say goodbye to his family.
Walking into the ward, listening to the sobbing sounds all around, Xiangcheng didn't cry out loud.
She walked calmly to the bedside, held the old man's still warm hand, and looked into his eyes until he could no longer hold on and closed his eyes.
After a long time, the heartbeat faded away, but it did not stop completely.
Grandma let go of Xiangcheng's hand and said with a sob, "Good child, please go out. Grandpa will be reluctant to die if he knows you are here."
Xiangcheng didn't move, and no one knew who was pulling her back step by step until they were completely out of the ward.
The world was quiet for a moment, and then the cries of loved ones were heard again.
Xiangcheng touched the corners of her eyes, but there was not a single tear.
She mechanically changed into a black suit and, starting the next day, followed her parents to thank the relatives and friends who came to pay their respects.
After sending grandpa to the cemetery, Xiangcheng watched as the familiar person turned into a smiling photo. She presented the last white rose and lowered her head to look at the photo.
Today is the preliminary round of the autumn conference. I didn’t go, and neither did you.
We all broke our promises.
The tears that had been held back for several days finally began to flow.
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