I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

"Miss Huafeng is my good friend, although there is a big difference in age between me and her. When I first came to Shirobei Clubhouse, Miss Huafeng gave me a lot of help."

"I feel like a very gentle person." Ogata said.

When Hua Feng was chatting with Gua Sheng just now, he spoke in a soft voice, with a warm smile on his face and eyes all the time, so he gave Ogata a feeling that "this person seems to have a very gentle personality" .

"Yes. Miss Huafeng is very kind and gentle. When she was a wandering girl, she was loved and respected by the people around her."

"After successfully saving enough money to redeem herself from being a wandering girl and changing to a dispatcher, Hua Feng became even more loved by everyone."

"After all, there are too few people like her who are not only senior, but also willing to kindly guide younger generations."

Since Hua Feng left, it was after Hua Feng told the recent situation of Miss Lingyin, Gua Sheng's face was full of disappointment.

Looking at the disappointed Guasheng, Ogata pursed his lips.

Even a fool could see that it was the matter of Miss Lingyin that caused Gua Sheng to look disappointed.

But Ogata didn't know Miss Suzune well, so he didn't know what kind of connection Miss Suzune had with Guasheng.

So Ogata wanted to cheer up the frustrated Guasheng, but he didn't know what to do.

While Ogata was still thinking about how to get rid of the lost look on Gua Sheng's face, Gua Sheng said abruptly:

"Mashima-kun, are you wondering who that Suzune-san is?" Guasheng raised his head and showed a faint smile.

"Of course I will be confused. After all, I don't know her."

"Miss Lingyin is a wandering girl from the house where Miss Huafeng belongs."

Gua Sheng said slowly.

"My relationship with Hua Feng and her has always been very good."

"About half a year ago, she finally saved enough money to redeem herself."

"After redeeming herself, she didn't choose to stay in Jiyuan like Miss Huafeng did, but chose to leave this place that has trapped her for more than ten years."

"Ms. Suzune is also one of my friends. After she left Yoshihara, I have been asking about her recent situation, but unfortunately I have not been able to find out."

"until just now"

After speaking, Gua Sheng fell silent.

And Ogata was also silent along with it, not knowing what to say now.

As early as 3 months ago in Kyoto, Obino had seen the desolation of the wandering girls in Shimabara.

After coming to the Shirobei Clubhouse and becoming a member responsible for protecting Edo Yoshihara, Ogata has a deeper understanding of the situation of the wandering girls who have no place to talk about desolation after the scenery.

Traveling girls have three enemies: disease, money, and age.

Due to their work, traveling girls are extremely susceptible to various diseases.

And these diseases can't be cured by the medicine of this era.

If the wandering girls in Yoshiwara want to be free, they must save enough money to redeem themselves before they get sick and old, or meet a rich man who is willing to redeem themselves. Finding enough money to redeem oneself, or meeting a rich man who is willing to redeem oneself, is as difficult as heaven.

After all, not everyone has the ability to have guests roll their names every night.

For a long time, there was no guest roll call, and it was normal for most of the traveling girls to earn less than a penny.

If you fail to redeem yourself before you get sick and old, then you will face two endings: you will be treated like garbage and sent to a chaotic place like the Rashomon River to fend for yourself, or your boss is kinder, Leave you in the playgirl's house and let you do all kinds of chores and chores.

Therefore, a wanderer like Hua Feng who can successfully save enough money to redeem herself, and at the same time find a fairly stable job after quitting being a wanderer, is considered one of the best in a hundred.

After being silent for a while, Gua Sheng suddenly said in a slightly serious tone:

"Mashima-kun, you just asked me why I don't like samurai with prominent families, right?"

"The reason is actually very simple."

"Because I think these illustrious warriors are useless."

"They have no worries about food and clothing since childhood, and they can also receive the best education."

"Because of their prominent family background, they are destined to be able to hold various important positions in the shogunate and vassal government since they were born."

"They have the best clothing, food, and education, and they occupy all the important positions in the shogunate and feudal government, but they always stay there for a long time. disappointment."

"I don't talk about the distance, I only talk about the near."

"Obviously, there are many chaotic phenomena that urgently need to be corrected in Mingji, but they just don't try to manage and correct them."

"But I don't blame Shirobei-sama either."

The helpless look on Gua Sheng's face became more intense.

"Although Mr. Shirohei also holds part of the management power of Yoshihara, he does not have the qualifications and authority to carry out drastic reforms to Yoshihara's official tour."

"It is the senior officials of the shogunate who can carry out drastic reforms on Yoshihara."

"However, these high-ranking officials have never looked directly at and managed the chaos in Yoshihara."

Guasheng's little head hangs lower and lower.

"If the reason why they ignore Yoshihara is because of other more important events, then that's all."

"But I have not seen that this country has become more and more powerful. Three years ago, there was a famine in Tianming, and so many people starved to death."

"After I came to the Shirobei clubhouse, I always felt that the girls were very pitiful. I also became friends with many girls."

"In order to reduce the pain of the wandering girls as much as possible, I have always tried my best to do everything I can for the wandering girls."

"That's why I worked so hard at the Shirobei clubhouse."

"At the beginning, I really thought that by doing this, I could alleviate the suffering of the wandering girls."

"It was only later that I realized that what I did was like sharpening a dull knife with my fingernails.

How can you sharpen a knife with your fingernails? "

"My efforts don't seem to be working at all"

"It's such a disgusting feeling, I've been doing a futile thing"

By this time, Gua Sheng's head had dropped to his chin, almost touching her collarbone.

His eyes were full of confusion.

Ogata has been quietly listening to Guasheng's long emotion just now.

After Guasheng had finished speaking, Ogata remained silent and did not speak out immediately.

Ogata and Guasheng, who were silent, just let the atmosphere called "silence" linger around them.

After a while, someone finally broke the atmosphere.

"Sorry, I seem to have said a lot of strange things just now, Mashima-kun, you can pretend that you didn't hear what I just said."

The person who broke this atmosphere was Gua Sheng.

While talking, Gua Sheng raised his head and showed his usual cheerful smile.

Ogata turned his head and glanced at Gua Sheng beside him.

Subsequently

"There's nothing wrong with sharpening a blunt knife with your nails."

Under the gaze of Gua Sheng's surprised gaze, he talked eloquently.

"It is better to sharpen a blunt knife with your nails than to do nothing to it."

Speaking of this, a pensive look appeared on Ogata's face.

After pondering for a moment, Ogata said softly again:

"Send a light if you can. Even if the light is like a firefly, it can bring some light to the darkness. There is no need to wait for a torch to illuminate the darkness."

This is a famous quote from a famous person in Ogata's previous life.

For some reason, after hearing Guasheng's emotion just now, this well-known saying jumped out of Ogata's mind automatically.

So Ogata slightly modified this famous saying, changing it into a pattern that is more suitable for Japanese oral habits, and then told it to Guasheng.

As soon as Ogata's words fell, Guasheng's astonishment and surprise surfaced at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's really worthy of being the first name in the literary examination." After an unknown period of time, the astonishment and surprise on Gua Sheng's face turned into a faint smile, "I can actually say such powerful words."

Hearing Guasheng's words, Ogata couldn't help feeling a little guilty.

Because he knows that the sentence he just said was not thought up by himself, but borrowed directly from the celebrity in the previous life.

"This sentence is not what I thought, but I heard it from a very powerful writer before"

Ogata's truth is not finished yet

"You bastard!!"

A sudden shout interrupted Ogata's words.

The shout came from quite a distance, but because of the loudness, Ogata and Guasheng could still hear it clearly even after a considerable distance.

As soon as the shout, which was obviously made by a man, fell, Ogata and Guasheng's expressions changed.

There was no need for anyone to tell the two of them, and the two took the knives in their waists and rushed to the source of the shouting.

I don't know if it was Ogata's illusion, but he always felt that this shout was somewhat familiar, as if he had heard this voice somewhere before.

After running all the way to the place where the shout came from, Ogata and Guasheng saw that many club servants who also came to support the bayberry house, as well as the guards hired by the bayberry house themselves rushed to the scene.

The shout came from a large room on the third floor of Yangmei House.

After Ogata arrived at the scene, the door of this large room was left open.

After entering the room through the open door, Xu Bian saw a messy scene.

And a very familiar person.

"Takigawa?" Ogata frowned.

"Mashima Goro?!" Takikawa, who was standing in the corner of the room, also frowned after seeing Ogata.

After seeing Takikawa, Ogata finally understood why he felt the tone of that shout sounded so familiar to him just now.

This is Takikawa's voice.

Chapter 402 Matsudaira Sadanobu: "Mashima is my guest"

rewind time to not so long ago

The place where Takikawa, Uesaka and other friends agreed to meet was at the gate of Yoshihara.

When Takikawa and Uesaka both arrived in front of Yoshihara's gate, the rest of the friends were already there.

After the No. 8 people including Takikawa arrived, Uesaka led the way and led everyone to the bayberry house where Uesaka had reserved a room.

Under Uesaka's deliberate arrangement, those who participated in the banquet tonight with the sole purpose of helping Takikawa Zhen were all Takikawa's usual friends.

While walking on the way to Yangmei House, everyone chatted chatteringly.

Listening to the chatter and laughter of friends around him, Takikawa felt that the haze that had lingered in his heart since last night dispelled a little bit.

"Look! That's the bayberry house!" Uesaka, who was walking ahead, suddenly pointed forward.

"Oh! What a magnificent teahouse!" said a friend of Takigawa who was walking behind Uesaka on the right, "So Yoshihara is such a magnificent teahouse!"

Among the people present, some of them didn't come to Yoshihara very often, so they didn't know much about the details of Yoshihara.

"The reason why Yoshiwara is called the city that never sleeps in Edo is not only because there are three thousand girls in it." Uesaka responded half-jokingly, and then sped up his pace a little.

However, at this moment.

Suddenly, a discordant voice sounded from behind Takikawa and the others.

"Huh? Isn't this Takikawa Heiichiro from the Takikawa family?"

As soon as this discordant voice sounded from behind him, the expression on Takikawa's face froze immediately, then he stopped his feet, frowned slightly, and turned his head to look behind him.

As for Uesaka and other people, they also stopped in their tracks.

Behind Takikawa and the others, three well-dressed warriors walked slowly towards Takikawa's direction.

The leader of the three well-dressed warriors was very young, with a neatly shaved Tsukiyo head. Although his facial features were ordinary, his eyes were very sharp.

This person, like Takikawa, is also a Banner warrior.

However, the level of his family is much higher than that of Takikawa.