Chapter 46 Before the Journey & the Acacia Wood Pendant of the Past
Gojo Satoru's mission was to go to Osaka, so he left much earlier than them. Just as they finished eating the meal sent by the school administrator, the assistant supervisor arrived to pick them up.
He mumbled something, packed up his things, and said casually before leaving: "I'm leaving. See you later!"
Xia Yujie smiled with narrowed eyes and waved, Jiang Lai also raised his eyes and prepared to say "goodbye", but Gojo Satoru had no intention of looking back, and had already walked a long distance away with his long legs.
With a lollipop in her mouth, Ieiri Naoko said vaguely, "Satoru usually leaves after saying something. You don't need to reply. He never looks back anyway."
Xia Yujie put down his waving hand, lowered his eyes and said softly: "I'm used to responding every time." He said, "If this is the last time, there will be no regrets of not having the chance to say goodbye."
Hearing this, Jiang Lai paused slightly.
Ieiri Naoko took out her lollipop and rested her chin on her hand. "Then don't let something like [the last time] happen again. Well, it's hard to say about this kind of thing."
Their topic did not stay at this point for long, and soon returned to their usual casual chat.
During this time, Jiang Lai turned on his mobile phone and edited and organized the electronic version of the information from the Regulatory Commission. He now has a relatively clear understanding of this organization.
All in all, this is a villain organization in decent disguise. Its core members are difficult to identify and seem to have special life conditions. To deal with it, we may need to start from the inside.
He thought about it slowly and carefully, organizing the summary in a memo, but leaving the targeted plans blank for the time being.
After lunch, Geto began to contact the assistant supervisor in charge of delivery - but the meeting place was not at the gate of Tokyo Vocational College.
"I want to go home first and pack up," said Xia Yujie. "I haven't been home for more than two weeks."
Asazawa Apartment? Jiang Lai still remembers it. In the main story timeline, Kagome Kyo's home is on the floor above the house he rented.
"Then go ahead." Jiang Lai nodded and said.
They drove all the way through the city streets to Asazawa Apartment.
The bustling crowds are constantly changing, but after a few years, new and old faces will overlap with the passage of time.
This small apartment is not much different from the one in the future main story timeline. It stands in the same place in the sun, but it looks newer this time.
It was not until this moment that Jiang Lai felt as if he was in another world - he was standing in front of a familiar building, but he was in a different era.
Xia Youjie took a few steps very naturally, and when he noticed that Jiang Lai had not followed him, he stopped and waited: "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing." Jiang Lai quickly came back to his senses. He followed a few steps and smiled. "I just think this apartment has a good location. Living here should be comfortable and convenient."
"Yeah." Xia Yujie recalled, his brows softening a lot, "There is also a small park nearby. When I was young, I often went there with my parents on weekends."
He paused here: "But that was a long time ago."
Jiang Lai knows about the family situation of Xia Yujie in the new series. He does not want to expose people's sad stories, so he does not dig for information or ask more questions, but just walks silently beside him.
It seemed that walking on the way home, the iron handrails, the concrete stairs, these daily environments brought back memories, and Geto Suguru continued slowly: "When my parents disappeared, I was in the first grade of junior high school. It was a hot summer."
Just like what the landlady said, his parents died in an accident not long after he started middle school. Jiang Lai listened quietly.
"I went home after school as usual and waited until dark, but they didn't come home." Xia Yujie continued, "I couldn't get through on the phone. The parents' workplace said they left on a normal day after get off work."
"We called the police, but they couldn't find them. Two living people disappeared on the way from work to home."
Xia Yujie walked to the door of his house on the fourth floor, took out his key and opened it. There was a label of "Xia Yu" on the bronze key.
"For a few days, I foolishly thought [that maybe they were just lost], so I turned on the lights in my house and waited at the door with my schoolbag - but then I gradually realized that they would never come back."
Jiang Lai paused for a few seconds and whispered, "I'm sorry to hear about this... My condolences."
"It's actually okay, after all, it happened a long time ago." Xia Yujie smiled and lowered his eyes. "It's just that I still feel regretful when I occasionally remember it - I forgot to say goodbye to my parents when I went out that day."
So now, will Kagome say goodbye every time he leaves out of habit? Like when Satoru left today.
Jiang Lai thought to himself. He originally thought that Xia Youjie had a premonition that he would be separated from his good friend, so he responded like this.
This conversation naturally stopped after they stepped into the room. The boy with the ball-head hair started looking for sanitary tools to clean the house, and Jiang Lai also helped to clean up.
After a quick cleanup, there was a knock on the door. Xia Yujie went to open the door, and outside was a kind-looking old lady.
Jiang Lai was cleaning the house at the time, and just curiously looked over. He recognized her at a glance. This was the old landlady in the original story. However, she looked stronger ten years ago.
"It's Jie who's back... I said I heard the noise upstairs from downstairs." She said with a smile.
"Hello, Grandma Nakamura." Xia Yujie replied politely and gently, "I'm sorry, maybe I made a little too much noise while cleaning."
"Oh, that's not it." The landlord, Granny Nakamura, waved her hands, looking a little embarrassed, "I just wanted to ask you for a favor, Jay. The light bulb in my house broke last night..."
"Oh, I'll go down and change it for you." Xia Yujie nodded in response and immediately put down the sanitary tools in his hand.
"Thank you, Jie. Fortunately, you are back, otherwise I would have to find someone to fix it." Granny Nakamura smiled with wrinkles on her face. She said naggingly, "Why do you feel thinner than the last time you came back? It just so happens that I have baked some black sesame cookies at home. You can take some away to eat."
"Thank you, Grandma Nakamura. I'll bring some to my friends."
The two people's voices gradually faded away. Jiang Lai's eyes swept across the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the room and fell on the locust wood tablet at his waist.
——Oh, there is also this matter.
Jiang Lai's thoughts were flowing.
He didn't know when he would time-jump this time, but he certainly wouldn't stay for too long. In that case, he should lay the groundwork this time just in case.
It was similar to the purpose of handing this over to Gojo Satoru and letting him carry out the planetary plasma mission.
In order for my future self to be able to see Shiori in the rented room downstairs, my current self is going to place the tablet containing Shiori Fushiguro's soul in the picture frame downstairs.
Because there is a soul inside this pendant, it essentially coexists with the soul and no longer belongs to this world.
Therefore, this object is not affected by the time restart cycle. Once you put it here, it will stay here forever.
That is why Fushiguro Shinobu witnessed the overlap of time.
With thoughts racing through his mind, Jiang Lai took off the locust wood plaque hanging from his waist and planned to go downstairs and put it into the picture frame.
But I have to find a reason to get through it.
Jiang Lai found a toolbox in the house and planned to go downstairs to find them under the pretext of delivering tools.
However, after he went downstairs carrying the toolbox, he realized that this action was unnecessary - the door downstairs was half-open, but no one was there. It was probably that Geto Suguru and Granny Nakamura went downstairs to the convenience store next door to buy light bulbs.
For Jiang Lai, this was much more convenient - otherwise it would be too blatant to place the locust wood tablet under the eyes of the two people. It would also take a lot of effort to explain.
Thinking of this, he seized the opportunity, slipped into the house, locked onto the location of the decorative painting at a glance, took it down as fast as counting money, pulled out the red rope, and placed the locust wood pendant inside.
Then, Jiang Lai put the objects back in place, taking care not to leave any traces under his feet and keeping the door at the same angle after going out, before returning to the fourth floor from the stairs.
At the same time, he was thinking silently about what to do next.
By the time Fushiguro Shinji wakes up in December 2017, rumors of haunting the house may begin to spread, and this situation will continue until the winter of 2018 when I come to rent the house.
During this period of time, I guess I have delayed the renting of the house... Jiang Lai thought. When I return to the main story timeline, I will secretly give the landlord more money as compensation.
——
After staying at Asazawa Apartment for a while, the assistant supervisor came downstairs to pick us up. They were about to drive to the mission destination, which was a relatively remote village.
Xia Yujie was holding the small bag of black sesame cookies that he got from Grandma Nakamura, and he divided it into three small bags.
Before getting in the car, he handed one of them to Jiang Lai: "Here." He smiled, "Taste it, and satisfy your mouth." He knew that Jiang Lai had no desire to fill his stomach.
Jiang Lai was a little surprised. He pointed at the bag of cookies in Xia Youjie's hand and said, "Don't you only have three bags? Give them to me. How are you going to divide them among the three of you?"
"For the remaining two bags, one for Wu and one for Xiaozi." Xia Yujie divided them up while talking. "As for me, there's no need." He said gently, "I've already tried it at Granny Nakamura's place."
"Okay." Jiang Lai raised his hand to take it, "I thought you didn't count me."
"Why [again]?" Xia Yujie half-curled his lips. He and Jiang Lai got into the car and continued chatting, "Did Wu complain to you about something?"
"Wu told me that you always go to report on the missions, and you also bring the first and second graders along. You always consider paying attention to others, but you don't put yourself in the category of "needing attention". This will make you tired and make others worry."
"I believe the first half of the sentence was said by Wu, and the second half..." Xia Yujie smiled, "I think it was said by Lai. Thank you for your concern."
Jiang Lai blinked: "How did you figure it out so quickly?"
"Because Wu wouldn't say such direct words of concern...haha, for him, this should be quite corny." Xia Yujie half-jokingly said, "I probably won't hear him say such words in my life."
"Who knows." Jiang Lai said, "In the future, Wu may grow up to be a shameless and giggling adult who can say all kinds of cheesy words without getting startled."
"Uh, I've never seen such a thing before?" Xia Yujie put one hand under his chin.
"Yes, if you live longer, you can see everything." Jiang Lai frowned and added in his heart.
Or maybe this is just like Jay's habit of saying goodbye, because of the regrets of the past, he will say in the future what he couldn't say in the past.