Chapter 060
In the following days, Qingxi lived her life as usual. In the blink of an eye, it was the season when the peach blossoms had faded and the peach trees were bearing fruit.
Rengoku Kyojuro walked to the crow house through the small door in the backyard of the clinic as if he knew the way there, and then walked to the kitchen as if he knew the way there. There, a girl was standing on a small wooden stool with her back to the kitchen door, cutting vegetables.
The knife rises and falls, and the knife gently touches the chopping board, making a regular chopping sound.
"Hmm, I saw someone selling strawberries in the store today. They smelled delicious. I bought a lot. My mother asked me to bring some over. Ah Xi, let's eat them together."
Qingxi's eyes fell on the big red strawberries in the bamboo basket. Just by getting a little closer, she could smell the fragrant and sweet fruity aroma. She opened her mouth towards Rengoku Kyojuro, and the boy with flaming hair tacitly picked up a strawberry from the basket and put it into her mouth.
The strawberry was a bit big, and Qingxi didn't even take half of it. "Delicious."
It is not the soft and sweet taste of fully ripe fruit, but the sweetness with a little bit of sourness, which makes people feel a sense of layered taste after eating it.
After eating it in one bite, Qingxi took two more bites to finish the strawberry that Rengoku Kyojuro was holding.
"Kyojuro, you can try some too. These strawberries must have been picked right from the fields and brought to the shop. They taste really good."
Rengoku Kyojuro followed her words and picked up a strawberry from the basket and put it into his mouth, "Delicious!!"
Unlike Qingxi who just sighed softly because he had eaten something delicious, when the boy spoke, his voice was so loud that everyone living in the crow house could hear it.
Qingxi silently tilted her head slightly in the opposite direction of Rengoku Kyojuro. You know, habit and fear of noise are not in conflict at all.
"Aki, is there anything I can help you with?" Rengoku Kyojuro asked while feeding the person next to him while eating himself.
Qingxi thought for a moment and said, "Not yet." She changed the subject, "I don't have much to talk about here either. Every day I'm either helping to raise the 镵丸 or cooking for the 鎹crow. So today I want to talk about you, Kyojuro. Have you encountered anything interesting recently?"
"Anything interesting?" Rengoku Kyojuro thought about the recent events and shook his head. "No."
"However," his tone suddenly dropped several notes, and even the two small strands of hair on his head wilted. "Father seems to be in a bad mood recently."
Qingxi paused while chopping vegetables with a knife, and the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board also stopped abruptly. "You're not in a good mood? Why?"
"I don't know," Rengoku Kyojuro said. "Recently, he even gave up teaching Chijuro and me the Flame Breathing Technique."
A big question mark appeared on Qingxi's forehead.
Originally, she was thinking that Rengoku Makijuro was sad about the death of the former Water Pillar, Mr. Hasegawa.
But it has been almost two months since Mr. Hasegawa was killed by a demon. Before that, because she revealed in the cemetery that the souls of everyone in the family were still in the world, even the last bit of farewell with his companions was gone.
In particular, since returning from the cemetery until now, she has gone there three or five times with "offerings" after reporting to Ubuyashiki Kōya. A group of souls sat around on several large rush mats eating and drinking. After she described the scene she saw, even Ubuyashiki Kōya might have had the last bit of sadness in his heart dispelled by them themselves.
After ruling out this possibility, she seemed to have no idea why he became like this.
"Mrs. Ruhuo doesn't know either?" she asked.
Rengoku Kyojuro was unsure, "She probably doesn't know. Mother never asks about Father's work."
Qingxi scratched his hair, "Then...won't you communicate with Mr. Purgatory?"
Facing the curious gaze Rengoku Kyojuro cast at her, she pointed to the servant in her hand and said, "I'll prepare the meal for the crows first, and then we can talk while we eat."
With this premise, Rengoku Kyojuro no longer disturbed her work except feeding her strawberries while she was cutting vegetables.
An hour later, the two of them sat in a row on the corridor under the eaves, holding bowls.
Unlike the normal-sized bowl in Qingxi's hand, the one that Rengoku Kyojuro held was the one she used to serve food to Gyoumei Hieijima. The one that was used to serve rice has now become Jiro's exclusive rice bowl. As for the remaining bowls for rice, except for the one she is using now for Rengoku Kyojuro, the other four or five bowls of the same type have been put away by her.
According to Sister A Ling, no one in the clinic has a big appetite that requires such a large bowl.
"tasty!"
"tasty!!"
"tasty!!!"
"Okay, okay, I can tell from your increasingly loud voice, Kyojuro, that the strawberry rice is very delicious, so can we please speak a little more quietly?" Qingxi raised her hand and touched the tips of her thumb and index finger together to make a "a little bit" gesture.
This time it was Rengoku Kyojuro's turn to feel embarrassed.
"It's not that I hate that exclamation you make every time you eat something delicious, Kyojuro. On the contrary, as a chef, I really enjoy seeing people like you eat. Your behavior is the best recognition of the chef's skills." Qingxi explained, worried that her friend's young heart would be hurt. "Kyojuro, your eating manners are very popular."
In a world where delicious food is practically everywhere, she guaranteed with her character that whenever he walked into a restaurant to eat, he would bring popularity to the owner.
But immediately, the expression on her face turned a little painful. "It's just that it's a bit hard for the people who are eating with you. It's just... my ears were a little shocked."
Rengoku Kyojuro understood what Kiyoki said, and a thin layer of red gradually crept up his face, which still had baby fat, as if he was shy.
"I'm telling the truth," Qingxi reiterated. "Kyojuro's way of eating is the kind that makes people think your meal is incredibly delicious, and they can't help but want to order the same thing and devour it just like you. But, it's a little loud."
"...If you speak a little more quietly, I think I can eat two bowls of rice just by watching you eat." Qingxi muttered.
Rengoku Kyojuro, who had never been praised like this before, had a blank mind.
[Kyojuro is great, I really like him.]
Suddenly, he remembered the day when the girl and Tsurumaru Kuninaga were whispering in the kitchen about him behind his back.
The girl's voice, saying confidently that she liked him, seemed to ring in my ears again.
...Rengoku Kyojuro's face turned even redder.
"Hmm, I understand." Rengoku Kyojuro said vaguely.
"Do you really understand?" Qingxi asked him again a little uncertainly.
"Well, yes, I understand. I will protect you, Aki, from now on." As if he had made up his mind, Rengoku Kyojuro looked directly into Qingxi's eyes and said in a serious tone.
Qingxi, who had no idea why her friend suddenly became so excited, looked at the other person. Reason told her that the other person seemed to have misunderstood something, but the current atmosphere of oaths, which seemed to be a gamble with one's life, told her not to pour cold water on others in such an atmosphere, as that would definitely be a huge blow to them.
Deciding to just go along with what the other person said for now and then find a suitable time to ask him again later, Qingxi said, "Huh...? Well, then... I'll leave it to you, Kyojuro."
Look at her eager eyes. Did they show it? How was the effect? This should have encouraged Kyojuro.
Looking at the girl staring at him with her eyes the same color as the sea, Rengoku Kyojuro felt his face burning. He lowered his head, picked up the rice with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. In an instant, his entire mouth was once again occupied by the vinegar rice that seemed to have just the right sour taste. As he chewed slowly, the sweetness of the rice in his mouth gradually emanated.
"I have a lot of this strawberry rice that looks like mini strawberries. If Kyojuro likes it, you can come to me next time." After making sure that the person was really fine, Qing Ximi finished eating the raw meat in the bowl of Kabukimaru, and poured some spring water into another small dish beside it for it to drink.
"Let's get back to the topic we left unfinished in the kitchen." He picked up a piece of golden-brown pork tenderloin with bananas and put it in his mouth. "Since Kyojuro is worried about Mr. Rengoku, why don't you try to ask him and have a chat?"
"Can I...?" Rengoku Kyojuro hesitated, having never thought about this feasibility.
"Why not?" Qingxi asked back. "Let me ask you, if someone has something on their mind, is it better to tell someone they trust and work together to figure it out, or is it better to keep it to themselves, like a gourd with its mouth sawed off?"
"If you can't do it alone, then naturally you should ask someone you trust for help."
Qingxi put down the bowl and chopsticks in his hands and clapped his hands, "Look, Kyojuro, you can understand this principle yourself, right?
If you keep something in your heart but don't say it out loud, it will eventually become a mental illness, a boil, or an insurmountable calamity. A person who was originally sunny and bright can become gloomy, and a good person can become depressed. There are many such cases.
If you don't know what's wrong with Mr. Rengoku recently, then go and ask him. If he is willing to tell you, Kyojuro, you can help Mr. Rengoku. If Mr. Rengoku is unwilling to tell you..." She paused and looked up at the sky, "Maybe if you make Mr. Rengoku angry, Kyojuro, you may get beaten or scolded.
You have to be mentally prepared for this.”
She was the one who made the suggestion, but she also had to tell Kyojuro about the worst consequences in advance.
Otherwise, she was really afraid that he would run home and go to Mr. Purgatory like a fool without caring about anything, and then get beaten up.
To be honest, Rengoku Kyojuro, who had been trained by his father since he was a child, didn't think that being beaten a few times was a big deal at all. In addition, according to Kiyoki, there was no problem with it. So Rengoku Kyojuro started thinking about how to ask his father after he returned and had a rest.
Looking at the boy who was gradually sinking into his own world, Qingxi did not disturb him. She picked up the bowl and chopsticks placed beside her and continued to eat the strawberry rice she had not finished.
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