Chapter 19
Although making this kind of dish, which is easy to cook as long as you have curry cubes, doesn't really showcase Ye Yihe's culinary skills, the finished product still received high praise from Oda Sakunosuke.
Then they ordered it for a week straight.
Ye Yihe, who couldn't show off his knife skills or wok-flipping abilities: ...It's truly a case of a hero having no place to use his talents.
Is this guy too easy to please? Is he satisfied with just curry every meal?
Every day, the ingredients are potatoes, onions, and carrots, with only the chicken, pork, and beef being switched between... Cooking this pot of stuff has almost become muscle memory for him!
In the supermarket, Ye Yihe followed Oda Sakunosuke, who was putting potatoes into the shopping cart, with a blank expression and a faint look of despair in his eyes.
"Are we having pork today?"
Oda Sakunosuke turned to ask Ye Yihe for his opinion.
"I'll listen to you, Curry Immortal."
Ye Yihe replied quietly.
To express this sentence, he even went to the dictionary to find out how to say "immortal" in Japanese.
Although Oda Sakunosuke didn't understand the joke, he grasped the meaning and put two cabbages and broccoli into the shopping cart.
This is the food Ye Yihe wants to eat; he doesn't want to eat the same food every meal with Oda Sakunosuke.
To describe this amount in their local dialect: it would make a person turn into curry.
The supermarket wasn't too far from where they lived, and Ye Yihe was happy to go shopping with Oda Sakunosuke, while also getting some sun and familiarizing himself with the area.
Oda Sakunosuke's apartment was too small and faced away from the sun. If Ye Yihe didn't go out for a walk every day, he felt like mushrooms would grow on his body.
The good deed we're trying to do is still nowhere in sight; the only good news is that the system hasn't reported any failures yet.
"I'm stuffed."
After lunch, Oda Sakunosuke, sitting at the table, clasped his hands together in front of the empty bowl, then got up and put it into the sink.
Then, wearing a black shirt, he fastened the shoulder straps and concealed the two guns in holsters under his arms; by simply putting on a jacket, he could move around almost without a trace.
"I need to go out to work,"
After packing up some small tools and cash, Oda Sakunosuke said to Ye Yihe, "I might not be back tonight."
Ye Yihe nodded, "Okay."
As a highly renowned assassin in the industry, Oda Sakunosuke receives numerous commission requests, with fees often reaching exorbitant figures—he was once stunned by the amount in a bankbook he found in a drawer.
...As expected of one of the oldest professions in the world, there is never a shortage of buyers.
He had originally been worried about Oda Sakunosuke's safety—after all, their first meeting was in a detention center—but after listening to Oda Sakunosuke, he earnestly explained that he had voluntarily surrendered that time.
His employer had framed him for another murder.
Because he was unaware of the situation at first, when he realized that he had actually stumbled into the scene of a frame-up, he did not put up much resistance when the police came to arrest him. He obediently allowed himself to be tied up and restrained on a wooden chair in the next room.
It wasn't until the appearance of the kimono-clad man with exceptional martial arts skills, and the revelation by a young boy, that he realized the true culprit at the crime scene was his employer who had specifically sent him there.
With his hands bound behind his back, he then fired through a wall during a struggle to escape from the man in the kimono, accurately killing his employer who had betrayed him.
"[Getting serious with that guy would be troublesome,]" Oda Sakunosuke concluded. "[But as his bodyguard, he'll definitely abide by the law and won't use torture on me. So, it's better to let them lock me up and then find another opportunity to get out."
Taking down those guards is much easier than defeating him.
Ye Yihe fully agreed with Oda Sakunosuke's ideas.
The man in the kimono didn't look very old, but his expression was calm and dignified, and his whole body exuded a seemingly relaxed yet powerful combination of offense and defense. Even though he was wearing wooden clogs, his walking posture still showed perfect control over his body, and the force exerted by each step was perfect. This was a level of skill that ordinary martial artists could not possess.
Given his current physical condition, he might not even be able to win a single round.
After watching Oda Sakunosuke leave, Ye Yihe finished washing the dishes and chopsticks, dried the countertop, and took two Japanese textbooks with him when he went out.
The room was poorly lit.
He recently discovered a teahouse nearby. The sunlight by the window is lovely, and you can sit there all afternoon with a serving of wagashi (Japanese sweets) and roasted tea without any staff chasing you away. It's perfect for reading and studying.
Sometimes you can even see a calico cat dozing on the windowsill, but unfortunately you can't touch it. After the shop assistant feeds it some dried fish, it will wag its tail and leave.
As for paying the bill, Oda Sakunosuke generously reimbursed him in full; he was the kindest of the kind!
"Mr. Fyodor, is today the usual routine?"
I met this handsome young man again at the same time. His appearance was delicate and gentle, which was unique to Europeans. The shop assistant smiled warmly and two small dimples appeared on his cheeks.
"Thank you for your help."
Ye Yihe nodded slightly to her without saying anything more.
After all, the more you say, the more mistakes you make.
The book tucked between his arms right now is a beginner and intermediate Japanese vocabulary and grammar textbook—he even covered it with a newspaper cover because he was a little embarrassed to let people see it. As long as no one gets too close to look at the contents, there won't be any problem.
As for his current level of Japanese... in Oda Sakunosuke's opinion, he has finally left kindergarten and is making great strides toward the upper grades of elementary school.
The weather is still great today. The clouds drift by like seagulls spreading their wings and slowly gliding across the azure sea, appearing light, clear, and pale white in the sunlight.
While waiting for the roasted tea, Ye Yihe spread out his textbook, which was already covered in notes, and began his grueling grammar study for the day.
He had contacted Ivan a few days ago, and Ivan eagerly offered to fly over 7,000 kilometers overnight to take care of his daily life—even though Ivan said he was also fluent in Japanese, he firmly declined.
Yeikh himself didn't know how long he would stay here, so how could he have brought Ivan from Moscow only to have him flown back after a few days?
At the time, he was thinking that if the matter was resolved quickly, Ivan might still be on the plane, so he would return the body first, leaving the original owner and the arriving Ivan looking at each other in bewilderment...
The reality is that he's currently stuck here again, miserably learning a third language—he also has to find time to review Russian so he won't forget it all when he goes back.
"Young man, I often see you sitting here reading."
A rather warm male voice rang out. It was impossible to tell his exact age; his tone was smooth and deep, reminiscent of a European gentleman who always carried a cane and was impeccably dressed.
Ye Yihe looked up from the book and found that the other person was indeed similar to the image he had conjured up in his mind.
"What's wrong?" he asked, puzzled.
"I just wanted to satisfy the curiosity of some fool."
The other party's self-proclaimed title of "Fool" carried a hint of playful mockery, and he even winked at Ye Yihe.
But just by looking into the other person's eyes, which had been tempered with the gentleness and wisdom of years, and glancing at the obviously high-quality fabric of the suit, Ye Yihe knew almost without thinking that the other person's identity was definitely not simple, and that he had come specifically to test him.
Although he felt there was nothing to test, his activities over the past two weeks had been very monotonous, and he spent his time at the teahouse studying Japanese.
If I had to say something, he did find a cell phone in the store yesterday, but he immediately handed it over to the clerk to wait for the owner to come back and look for it, without even bothering to turn on the screen.
"Um?"
Ye Yihe responded with the shortest possible syllable, waiting for the other person to continue.
Since he himself has no suspicious points, it is possible that he is after Oda Sakunosuke.
After all, he was a renowned top assassin. Some people asked him for help, while others feared and resented him.
"These days, few people are willing to sit down and read, but you come almost every day, very consistently... Hmm, is the content that interesting?"
The gentleman in the suit in front of me continued speaking unhurriedly, his five fingers, which were resting on his round-headed wooden cane, twitched slightly, as if it were just an unconscious action.
It was this slight movement that reminded Ye Yihe, like a switch being pressed and a tungsten filament light bulb turning on.
Could it be... that the other party's target is the original owner of this body—Fyodor?
Ye Yihe immediately remembered that because he had been cramming on Japanese, he hadn't had a chance to ask Oda Sakunosuke one thing: what was the original owner's personality like?
It would be even better if we knew his purpose in coming to Japan from Russia.
When I get back, I'll have to ask Oda Sakunosuke, and also remind him to be careful about my departure... It would be convenient to explain it using the excuse of my second personality.
"…………"
As for the gentleman in the suit's question, Ye Yihe, who was sitting in his seat, did not speak. Instead, he took the initiative to raise his hand, which was pressing on most of the book page, and showed the other person the complete content.
"Does that mean it'll be faster if I see it with my own eyes? Hmm, let me see what good book it is..."
The gentleman in the suit—Natsume Soseki, with a slightly inquisitive expression, suddenly paused upon seeing the content and blurted out.
"What? Fifty common conversational syntax analyses and application examples?"
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