Chapter 154 Romeo and Juliet
[Elopement] This setting comes at a really timely moment.
Akashi carefully observed the attitudes of the people he often came into contact with. As the young lady said, not only were they not disgusted, they also had a certain degree of sympathy for such things.
And with this setting, all his unspeakable secrets seemed to become logical in an instant.
So Akashi didn't hesitate for even a second and took on this setting.
——Then naturally, he had to do something from the side to consolidate the impression of this setting in the eyes of the majority of villagers.
Let’s use local materials…
He turned to look at Miss Suzuki, who was unconscious and whose life or death was unknown: With such an excellent tool who would not cause trouble, it would be so easy to play the role of an affectionate man.
The dinner that day was root vegetables like sweet potatoes.
The only cooking method is roasting. The skin is hard and covered with black ash. There are two small ones, and they were brought to him by the familiar young lady.
When the young lady came in, the red-haired former nobleman was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the hand of his beloved girl, lost in thought.
——Originally, arriving in such a strange place suddenly requires a lot of time to think about the current situation and calm down.
Now, it’s just a matter of having an extra fixed posture when thinking.
The low tents meant poor lighting, and the exiled troops meant a lack of lighting.
In a dimly lit environment, as long as his posture looks worried and annoyed, he doesn't even need to spend energy to maintain the corresponding expression.
Just daydream.
Suzuki Sonoko was unconscious, but her hands didn't move or sweat, so holding her was no different from holding a pen or a cup.
"But I love you."
Akashi recited the setting in a matter-of-fact tone: "I love you, I love you enough to abandon my family, stay away from relatives and friends, endure the hardships of fleeing, and suffer from hunger."
"As long as you know that you love me back, even if I don't get any response, I will always stay by your side and take care of you patiently."
After saying this, he thought carefully for a while.
The way people speak in this world is actually quite old-fashioned. Some words can be described as difficult to pronounce, and country slang is particularly vulgar. On the contrary, such frank vernacular sounds a bit fake because of its awkwardness.
——It sounds like the parallelism often used in stage plays, doesn’t it?
He changed some parts and repeated it again, and it seemed to sound much better.
But the tone is still weird...
What should a sentimental tone sound like?
Akashi Seijuro has never been deeply affectionate to anyone in his life. He once tried to hold Suzuki Sonoko in his arms - the kind of posture often seen in TV dramas, where a dying person gives his last words to his beloved - to help himself get into the role.
Still no success.
What does a loving look look like?
Akashi felt that, although tone of voice could still be imitated, the eyes were truly impossible to imitate - the human eye was nothing more than a lens, and besides reflecting light, did the lens have any other functions?
Since there was no other way around it, he could only spend as much time as possible staring at Miss Suzuki (only used as a prop here), making sure that everyone who entered the tent felt that his attention was always on her.
After looking at it for a long time, I found it to be quite cute.
——Compared to the lady who delivers meals and the little girls running around outside, Miss Suzuki is much more pleasing to the eye, whether in terms of skin color, hair quality, facial features or body shape.
Time has slowed down since then.
The land area here is not small, but people can only walk twenty miles a day. They don't set out before dawn and stop before dark. People spend more than 15 hours a day stuck in tents.
Akashi Seijuro used to only daydream occasionally, and he liked to spin a pen when he was daydreaming.
Now he basically spends the whole day in a daze.
——Occasionally I would be in a daze and come back to my senses. Oh, Miss Suzuki’s white and soft fingers were almost making me tie a bow unconsciously.
Why do locked-up children like to talk to their dolls?
Because she had no other choice except talking to the doll!
Comparable to Akashi-kun now.
Is there any clear difference between Suzuki Sonoko and a rag doll?
Oh, there are still some.
She has body temperature and human touch, so there is no need to worry about her getting diseases like skin hunger after using her for a long time.
Today is just a repetition of the past many days.
After taking the food handed to him by the young lady, Akashi slowly let go of Suzuki Sonoko's hand, counted to five in his mind, and left himself some buffer time for the so-called "reluctance to leave her", before he slowly and methodically prepared today's food.
The young lady still didn't leave.
She should be very outgoing, or because she has briefly escaped from ignorance, she is curious about the outside world and the people outside.
Akashi also didn't want her to leave.
She talks a lot, and the amount of information she inadvertently leaks is quite substantial, but she doesn't have much judgment, so she's not afraid of being discovered if she reveals a little.
Sure enough, while Akashi was eating, the young lady started chatting again.
She asked a question she had been holding back for a long time, saying, "You...are not from Qing Country, right?"
Akashi: "Yeah."
He bit his food without even looking up to observe her expression, and then tried his best to adjust the way he answered.
——In fact, no matter which country the young lady asked, he would choose to deny it directly.
Because she would ask, it meant that she had heard certain legends from her elders or passers-by and had a general understanding of it. On the contrary, he knew nothing about it. But whenever he opened his mouth to confirm the next one, as long as he brought up the topic, there would always be a risk of being exposed.
On the other side, the young lady, who thought she had gotten the answer, naturally breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's what I mean," she said in a familiar voice. "The Qing court is corrupt. If you were the descendants of these corrupt officials, you would be disliked even if you could offer us protection along the way."
Akashi swallowed the last bite of food and hummed softly as a response.
Turning around, he began to concentrate on feeding water to Suzuki Sonoko, as if this matter was of great importance. In the corner where the young lady couldn't see, Akashi's face turned dark.
——He doesn't have to go out to find food, and can get supplies and care, mainly because in the village head's opinion, they have the ability to make demons retreat.
Although we were lucky and no monsters attacked the team along the way, this is never absolute.
Akashi subconsciously touched his wristband, underneath which was a simple leather bracelet, the thing hanging on it was given by his cousin, which should be really useful against demons.
If there is really no other way... the only option is to hand this thing over before being exposed, hoping to cover up the lie.
Thinking of this, Suzuki Sonoko's collar was completely soaked by the water he had poured out. He finally wiped the corner of the other's lips with his thumb, pretended to have finished cleaning, and turned around calmly.
For a moment, Akashi Seijuro felt like a face masker.
Moreover, he was a psychopathic face-soothing artist who had to say "I love you" to the "corpse" at least three times a day.
Over there, the young lady quietly waited for him to finish taking care of his unwell lover before she spoke a second time.
She opened her mouth and asked, "Why... did you elope?"
Akashi put down the ceramic bowl and thought to himself that this was a really good question.
Because he doesn't know either.
——In addition to the action settings when they are getting along with each other, do we have to complete such a complicated pre-plot?
Completely unaware of what he was thinking, the young lady started to guess by counting on her fingers.
"Is it because you are not a good match?"
Without waiting for an answer, she denied it herself: "It doesn't look like it..."
"You look like a young master from a wealthy family. Is there a feud between your two families?"
Akashi thought to himself, why not just try to apply a realistic setting? Their family and the Suzuki Group really don't get along very well...
However, the young lady didn't need any excuses at all. She reasoned on her own: "...None of that makes sense. Since you suddenly chose to elope, it must be too late to make other choices, right?"
"So...is she going to marry someone else, or are you going to marry someone else?"
Akashi: "...She's getting married."
Oh my god, it really combines reality...
The young lady was satisfied for a long time after getting the answer, and finally said, "You are so cool. I wish you happiness again!"
About three days later, the team went deep into the mountains.
Because they had never encountered any monsters, they were treated quite well, and the situation that Akashi was worried about never occurred.
Suzuki Sonoko still hasn't woken up.
Akashi always stayed by her side, and when talking to people, he would secretly collect information. Most of the time, while communicating, he would pretend to take care of her (including feeding her water, wiping her body, combing her hair, etc.). Once he could not continue the conversation, he would immediately pretend to be very focused and toss her around.
——Suzuki Sonoko was half asleep and half awake, and was in the [prop] state most of the time, but when the movements reached a certain size, she would also hum.
When Suzuki Sonoko made a noise due to his tossing and turning, he immediately made an excuse, saying that he was busy and had to take care of her, and asked the others to leave first, naturally interrupting and avoiding the topic.
If you do it too many times, of course you will be exposed.
The old village chief may not be good at political struggles and has not learned any rhetoric, but he has lived for almost eighty years and has gained a lot of nourishment from the trivial conflicts in family affairs. He gradually discovered that his behavior was not normal.
Finally one day.
Akashi waited until the serious-looking old man came to ask.
He looked as shrewd as he did the first night, and smoked a pipe of dry tobacco, hesitant to speak.
“You two…”
The old man's voice was unusually dry: "After all, she was getting married, so we eloped together..."
"Or did you suddenly find out she was getting married, so you just ignored it and snatched her away?"
Akashi thought that this was a good question because he didn't know either.
This moment of hesitation was immediately caught by the old man.
Even though Akashi denied it immediately afterwards, the old man still kept that moment of pause in his mind as some kind of evidence.
Akashi thought he might be finished.
=====
It turned out that his feeling was right.
Within two days, rumors were spreading everywhere. These people were from the same village, so it was impossible for them to talk about anything elegant. Family gossip was the most popular topic.
As a person who eloped, he had been the subject of much discussion for a long time - otherwise, the news that was only heard by the young lady would not have reached the village chief's ears so quickly.
He tried to explain, but to no avail.
The good news is that before Akashi Seijuro completely transformed from a "playboy who eloped for love" to a "marriage kidnapper", the heroine finally woke up.
Suzuki Sonoko seemed to have had a long nightmare. When she woke up, she didn't even know what day it was.
She felt like she remembered a lot of things, but in fact she remembered nothing. Time seemed to have stopped at the second before she fell into the water, so when she saw Akashi Seijuro, she was stunned for a moment, and then her face became sad in an instant.
Miss Suzuki was heartbroken: "It's all my fault!"
She sniffed: "I'm useless. I've gotten you into trouble. I'm really sorry!"
I want to cry later, mainly because I think of Akashi-kun who seems to like hitting people...
As a result, she rubbed her eyes and looked around. The violent Akashi was dressed like a poor Central Asian boy, and there was an old lady with dark hair and face next to him.
What the hell is this?
The outward manifestation is that the crying voice is stuck in the throat.
The old lady's attitude was originally lukewarm, but seeing her reaction now, her expression quickly turned to regret, and then she glanced at Akashi-kun with guilt. This change made Sonoko even more confused.
The answer is a long sigh.
The old lady said, "Don't cry, why are you doing this?"
"The country is in such a state of chaos, it's a blessing to be together. Since you feel sorry for him, then cherish this opportunity to be together..."
At this point, the old lady thought to herself, this girl might have gotten married out of some family responsibility. Although she was excited on the eve of the wedding, she gradually thought of her family and might get stuck in a dead end!
So I sincerely advised her: "Don't punish yourself for the past. What's done is done. It's an explanation to yourself."
After saying that, she looked at Akashi Seijuro with deep emotion, "He made the decision for you that you didn't dare to make, so don't let him down or quarrel with him anymore..."
"Do you know?"
Sonoko: I don’t know.
no.
She went to see Akashi Seijuro again: What should I know?
Akashi-kun ignored her.
After the old lady finished speaking, no one knew what kind of information she had analyzed from this one-sided eye contact. She patted Akashi's shoulder and turned away with a feeling of deep emotion.
As she pulled the door and moved out, Yuanzi realized: this was actually a thatched hut!
The windows in the room are surprisingly small. They are used for ventilation rather than for letting in light. When the door is opened and closed, the room becomes dark.
"It really does look like a... refugee camp."
Akashi pulled a straw stool over to sit on and said, "This is just a temporary shack. Miss Suzuki, please don't ask for too much."
"Ms. Suzuki mainly wants to know what's going on."
Yuanzi rubbed his head and muttered, "Why does it sound like I was the one who cheated on you, but also like neither of us cheated on the other, and instead we were persecuted by the environment?"
"Did you make up a story to trick the old lady?"
Akashi Seijuro paused while pouring water.
"Let's just say so."
He hadn't figured out how to explain this to this gentle young lady, but she took the dirty pot with such naturalness, raised her hand and poured the water down. She then asked generously, "Then tell me, what kind of stories do you make up?"
"Are we currently husband and wife or siblings?"
Akashi: ...
Akashi: "The old man said they were together, so why is there still a brother and sister option?"
Sonoko said, "Because that sounds like eloping..."
She said confidently, "Young men and women trapped in love can elope, but siblings are troubled by worldly matters and cannot finally marry. This is also a reason to be trapped in love and need to elope to solve the problem!"
The girl waved her hand nonchalantly, "Don't discriminate against incest. After all, it's been the inspiration and emotional theme for countless literary and artistic creations."
Akashi: ...
Akashi: "You are older than me, thank you, brother and sister."
Sonoko: ...
Sonoko: "No, I was just kidding. Did you really make up a story about incest and elopement?"
Akashi now realized that he had been led astray by her. He looked at Suzuki Sonoko for a long time because her face was so familiar - he even knew that she had a small red mole behind her ear - but in the end he couldn't get angry anymore and could only let it go.
The eldest young master remained silent and sat still.
Yuanzi thought, ignoring me?
So she tugged at his sleeve and said, "Alright, I apologize. It's my fault for talking nonsense. Tell me what you made up. Otherwise, what if you get caught?"
When Akashi pulled the sleeve for the first time, he naturally lowered his head to look at the fingertips on his sleeve. His skin was white, soft and pink, without any dullness or shrinkage. On cold nights, it was a very stable source of warmth for him.
It’s different when it moves.
Even without looking at the expression, the movement of this one hand alone, acting in a coquettish and intimate way, is bound to be offensive.
Because she did it so naturally and looked so calm.
Akashi's eyes paused for a long time, and he finally turned his head and began to talk about the settings.
"According to the setting, you and I are the descendants of a civil official and a military official respectively. The conflict started in the previous generation, and it continued to the next generation. Both families looked down on each other."
As expected, they fell in love at first sight.
"After falling in love, you were asked not to be together, and you were even locked up in a small dark room—"
“Why was I the one being locked up?”
Yuanzi raised her hand obediently.
Akashi said it wasn't important.
In short: "We restrained ourselves and separated for a while, but then I heard that you were going to get married, and I went to find you in anger, and then we planned to elope."
"You took a drug that faked your death and deceived your elders. You were buried in the family cemetery."
"I calculated the time to dig you out. I brought you, even though the effects of the drug hadn't worn off, across the ocean to a foreign land, ready to build a bright future together."
Suzuki Sonoko: ...
Suzuki Sonoko: "Are you bullying me because no one in this world has read Romeo and Juliet?"
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