Cyberpunk: 2075

"Why do you wear this dress every day?"

It has always been Carl's good habit to ask questions when he has questions. So when he was wondering why Haruko always wore the same set of clothes, Carl approached her and asked: "Do you have more than a dozen sets of the same clothes in your closet? Do you wear them every day?"

Before Haruko answered his question, Chiyo's eyes swept over.

She was surprised at her colleague's recklessness. Even she understood this kind of thing. Generally speaking, would a man ask a woman such a question?

This is very rude, and the words are too casual and intimate.

Is this a way for Carl and Miss Haruko to get along?

When Chiyo stood at the door and watched this scene and thought carefully, Haruko was not shy and gestured to the seat opposite the coffee table. After Carl sat down, she said:

"Because I like cherry blossoms."

"I like cherry blossoms..."

Carl remembered the flower language of cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are a symbol of love and hope, representing elegance, simplicity and pure love. However, he felt that the flower language, which was already very niche in the past, should not be the reason why Haruko liked cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms often represent other meanings in the context of Japan.

Brilliant when alive, sad when withered.

"A kind of Japanese aesthetic of mono no aware?"

Mono no aware means true feelings are revealed, and the scene evokes emotions. It simply means that the mind comes into contact with the outside world, and develops different feelings for it and feels touched by it.

For example, looking at the new buds on the old tree, one feels happy for its vitality, and seeing the petals of the flowers crushed under the wheels, one feels sad for it.

This kind of emotion, which is called hypocrisy by some people, but sometimes it is felt in such a situation and environment, is called mono no aware in Japan.

What Karl said was a little vague, but Haruko understood it.

He was asking, are you attached to cherry blossoms because you think of a certain situation of your own?

"No."

Haruko shook her head slightly at Karl's guess, and she chuckled at Karl: "Just because I like cherry blossoms."

She repeated the words again, but the meaning was revealed.

"Do you just like cherry blossoms? I thought you would be more or less lamenting if you were born in such an environment."

"I'm not a great writer."

Haruko smiled and shook her head, gently holding her hands together under the cherry color, and then separated them. A touch of golden color appeared on her fair right palm.

"It's the orange I promised you."

"Are you doing magic? Or did you hide the orange in the sleeve of your kimono? This reminds me of the story of hiding oranges during the Three Kingdoms period."

Carl looked at the medium-sized orange in Haruko's palm, and was a little curious about what Haruko had just shown.

Can kimonos also hide things like the wide-sleeved long gowns in ancient times?

In the past, Carl always thought that only the obi (belt) of kimonos could be stuffed with things.

Haruko didn't intend to explain the magic trick or the little trick. She just blinked and responded to Carl's story about hiding oranges during the Three Kingdoms period:

"You are talking about the story of Lu Ji carrying oranges, right? I have read that story too."

As part of her literary cultivation, Haruko still knows this classic story of filial piety, but...:

"Lu Ji carried oranges, he only took three, and I...

She gently turned her left hand and stretched it out in front of Carl: "As many as you want."

In the palm of her left hand was also a golden orange.

"I don't believe that as many as you want."

It's not like Carl hasn't seen an orange tree before:

"You clearly said that it's just an orange tree. A well-cultivated orange tree can produce more than 200 oranges. A small orange tree can only produce 60 or 70 at most. This is not as many as you want."

"Heh. "

Qingzi laughed. She didn't say anything. She just stretched her right hand forward again. Karl understood what she meant and took the orange from her palm.

As soon as he got it, Karl felt that something was wrong with the orange.

How could it be so heavy when it looked so small?

Out of curiosity, Karl peeled the orange peel, but found that there was only a thin layer of orange peel, and the fullness of the flesh inside was beyond his expectation.

Have you ever seen an orange with orange-red flesh, crystal clear and seedless at a glance?

Karl had seen it, but there was only one possibility for such a good-looking orange in this era.

"Is this an orange grown in a special cultivation room?"

"Every environment is adjusted by a dedicated person."

"Sure enough."

With the current air pollution situation around the world, the rain that falls may not be clean, so how can such an orange be grown?

He skillfully split the orange in half, Karl took half for himself, and handed the other half back: "Share half when we meet."

"But this is what I gave you. ”

“So, do you want it?”

“Peel it.”

“So that’s what the young lady is like.”

Not caring about leaving a little orange peel at the bottom after peeling it to prevent his fingers from directly touching the orange itself, Carl handed it back, and Haruko also put the orange in her left hand on the coffee table and happily took the orange with both hands.

Haruko’s tender white fingers gently picked up the orange segments that separated naturally after touching it, put them into her mouth and slowly tasted the taste. After a few seconds, her eyes narrowed slightly, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously showed an arc: "Delicious."

“Sweet and refreshing, juicy and without residue, it’s really good. "

Carl ate half of it in one bite, unlike Haruko. It was too much torture for him to eat oranges one by one slowly, as he was used to eating oranges.

After swallowing it, Carl, who felt that he could not taste the oranges carefully except for the first bite, focused on the orange peel.

He had seen such good oranges before, and the peel could be eaten together.

He picked it up and stuffed it into his mouth.

"The orange peel smells very fragrant, and the smell is very familiar. What kind of orange is this?"

"Aomi orange."

Aomi orange?

No wonder.

This is a hybrid orange bred in Japan, which originated from Chinese oranges.

It turned out to be the taste of hometown.

Carl picked up another orange on the coffee table and was about to peel half of it for each of them, when he suddenly remembered something.

"I almost forgot. I wanted to come to your place yesterday to eat oranges. It would be wrong not to bring some gifts, so I made some more."

Carl reached into his pocket and took out a small warm box under the gaze of Chiyo and Haruko at the door.

"Potato stew, I made it myself. I just made it this morning. Please don't mind it."

Carl remembered the Japanese anime he had watched before. In the anime, neighbors like to make potato stew and bring it as a gift when visiting people, so he followed suit and made a portion to bring over.