Tokyo Rebirth: Start From Picking Up Sayu

The house is a single-family house common in the countryside, but it only has one floor.

The layout is two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom and one bathroom. There is a small yard outside, which is usually used to dry clothes.

As soon as you open the entrance door, you can see the living room.

There are four-seater wooden dining tables and chairs, a three-seater sofa and a low table. The rarer ones are probably a Tivoli (retro multifunctional radio) placed on the cabinet, and a niche set up in the corner of the living room.

The two bedrooms next door are also very modest.

One is a Japanese-style room with tatami mats and paper drawers. There is a low table for drinking tea and a cushion.

The other room is a completely modern room: a single bed and bedside table, a desk and an old one-seater leather chair. There is neither a TV nor a computer. Instead, there is a bookcase with a large number of books on one side.

90% of them are reference books, and 10% are ancient books with a sense of time such as "Man'yoshu", "Snow Country", "Dancing Princess" and so on. Just like the feeling of this house.

The door was closed with a click.

Carrying the luggage, Kato Yusuke walked to the living room naturally and placed the things on the dining table and chairs.

Sayu, on the other hand, stood cautiously at the entrance door and timidly said "Excuse me..." before changing her shoes and walking in.

The room was filled with the faint scent of thread, and it smelled inexplicably calming.

Just listen to the boy say: "It doesn't matter if you relax a little. There is no one else here, just treat it like you are in Tokyo."

"Hmm..."

Sayu nodded slightly and caught up with him, her eyes unconsciously attracted to the niche in the corner.

"Yusuke, that is..."

Looking back following her gaze, there was a photo placed in the opened niche. On it was an old man with a pale face, who looked very similar to Kato Yusuke.

There are still some burnt incense ashes in the incense burner on the table below. It is not difficult to imagine that someone had worshiped here before.

The dark eyes moved imperceptibly, Kato Yusuke nodded slightly and said, "Well, it's my old man."

He took the girl's hand to the niche, then knelt down on the ground.

He picked up a short stick from the ground, pulled a large black bowl to his knees, and struck it with the short stick.

"Ding---"

The long and crisp sound came from the Buddhist sounding instrument called lóng, echoing peacefully in the ears.

Then he took out the long box containing incense sticks from the niche cage and took out three sticks.

Cha, Shala.

The match ignited a scorching flame in the short friction, and overlapped with one end of the incense stick, passing on its own flame.

Gradually, curls of green smoke rose in the room.

The young man who inserted it into the incense burner clasped his hands together and whispered: "I'm back, old man."

Then he got up from the ground.

"Eh...? Is this all right?" Sayu, who was maintaining the same movement behind him, couldn't help but say something.

"The real cemetery is not here." Kato Yusuke, who ruffled her hair, said softly: "Let's go, let's go do other things first."

"What other things do you mean?"

“Gifts, visits, and debt repayments.”

…

There are buildings like the Kato family's old house about every 100 meters in the village.

The space is so spacious that it would be the envy of Tokyoites who can see their neighbors next door when they open the curtains.

Walking together on a narrow road that is impassable to vehicles, the souvenirs in their hands continued to decrease as they visited door to door. In the process, Sayu also met the villagers who had sponsored Yusuke Kato to study in Tokyo.

Because she didn't know how to treat these kind and honest people, she chose to do the same actions and say the same words as Yusuke.

When the other person said thank you, she said thank you, and when the other person bowed and saluted, she also bowed and saluted.

Even if no one is surprised by this, the girl is always happy with it, just like a little daughter-in-law, and she is quite happy with it.

Watch people's expressions of surprise, kindness, simplicity, and praise, and be quietly by someone's side. This alone allowed her to have a witnessing process, as if she had really participated in the other person's life.

Then we came to the last family besides Motoyama Mina's family - the Uchiyama family, which is also the landlord's family that currently owns the most fields in the village.

If the former Kato family was regarded as a declining family, then the current Uchiyama family is an upstart of the late Jin Dynasty.

To sum it up simply, about 70 to 80% of the land that once belonged to the generation of Shuto Kato (grandpa) is now owned by the Uchiyama family.

Thanks to the long-term vision of the family owner, Uchiyama Koko, their business is not limited to the village. The agricultural products produced under his name are even circulated in the Tokyo market.

He is somewhat famous.

Kato Yusuke neither understands nor cares about the delicate relationship between the two ancestors.

He only knew that the other party had also helped him with his schooling, so what he had to do now was to return the money to the other party.

"...Greetings from a long time ago, Grandpa Uchiyama. Thank you for your financial aid to me before. Here is the 800,000 yen you lent me originally, which I can now return to you. There are also some small gifts, please accept them."

Sitting in the spacious Japanese-style room, Kato Yusuke bowed slightly and pushed a stack of money as high as a small mountain into the souvenirs he had brought with him with both hands.

Sitting opposite him was Ko Uchiyama, the actual head of the Uchiyama family.

He was a short old man with a few strands of white hair hanging sparsely on his shiny head. He has dark skin and deep wrinkles on his face. He looks like an authentic old farmer.

At this time, he was smoking his cigarette pipe while alternately looking at the things on the ground and the boy in front of him. Then he asked: "Have you been to other people's places before coming here?"

A dry and hoarse voice spurted out of his mouth along with white smoke. A pungent smell of smoke immediately hit his face, and swirling white smoke rose in the room.

"Yes." Kato Yuuki nodded without hesitation, trying his best to block the girl behind him with his body, and said: "Because Mr. Uchiyama's family has the most money, so I went to pay off the money from the other uncles' families first. Just came for the finale visit.”

"oh--?"

When Uchiyama heard this, he raised his eyebrows and laughed out loud, "You said that, didn't you leave the Yamamoto family at the end? When it comes to money, that little girl who treated you as her own son had It’s not much less than the old man’s.”

The laughter like a dead tree made people feel very uncomfortable, but Kato Yusuke did not move at all.

He just replied in a neither humble nor condescending manner: "Auntie Mina is different."

"Well, that's true for you..." The other party smoked the pipe again, inhaling the smoke from his mouth and then blowing it out from his nostrils.

Ko Uchiyama glanced at Yusuke Kato and said, "I don't know how you live alone in Tokyo, but I can really accept this money, right? Kato boy."

"Eh……?"

Sayu, who had been holding back from covering her nose since the beginning, couldn't help but let out a soft sigh, with a confused expression on her face.

The young man responded like this: "Please rest assured, I earned this money through legal means, and there are no tax issues. Mr. Uchiyama can accept it with peace of mind."

"Oh, you actually made this kind of money in just one year." Uchiyama Geng murmured and nodded, with a little more approval in his eyes, "That's really amazing. In that case, I'll accept it."

After hearing these words, Sayu finally understood what the old man opposite was worried about, and he couldn't help but feel a little unhappy in his heart, but it didn't show on his face.

Kato Yusuke bowed slightly politely, "Then we won't disturb you. I wish you good health, Mr. Uchiyama."

So Sayu also bowed slightly and said, "Sorry to bother you."

The two people stood up and walked outside.

Ko Uchiyama didn't stop him, he just continued to smoke his pipe.

Just when Kato Yusuke was about to open the paper door——

Uh-huh.

The door was opened first.

"Hey, I'm back, Master... Ahem, are you smoking here again... Huh?" The half-sentence of blaming words ended abruptly.

A muscular young man who was slightly half a head shorter than Yusuke suddenly appeared in front of him and met his eyes.

There was a moment of silence at the scene.

Immediately afterwards——

"Long time no see." Yusuke Kato spoke first, with a lukewarm tone.

"Yes, it's you——!?" The young man pointed his finger at him, and his handsome face suddenly wrinkled, as if he had seen something disgusting.

"Oh~ You're back, Kenta." Hearing the commotion, Uchiyama Kō walked out with a smile on his face. "Just in time, the boy from the Kato family has also returned from Tokyo. Let him take you to play."

While speaking, he also put out his cigarette pipe and subconsciously fanned the wind in front of him with his hands.

"Grandpa..." The boy known as Kenta responded in a daze at first, then suddenly raised his voice: "Who wants to play with him!?"

"Huh? But didn't you say you wanted to take the high school entrance examination in Tokyo before? Wouldn't you like to share your experience with Kato-boy?"

"That's a long way to go, I can pass the exam on my own!" Uchiyama Kenta scratched the back of his neck impatiently, "Anyway, I'm going to study now, so don't bother me. Really... I would have never come back if I had known it was summer vacation. ”

Ignoring Uchiyama Kou who still wanted to say something, he was about to turn around and leave.

Kato Yusuke also seemed not surprised by this.

Just a second before Kenta Uchiyama was about to turn around, a cute little face lightly painted with makeup suddenly poked out from behind him and looked at him curiously.

The eyes of both parties met in an instant.

"Hello." As if feeling a little apologetic, the girl smiled at him and nodded.

Kenta Uchiyama couldn't help but pause in his footsteps. His eyes that were originally full of impatience were blank for a moment, but he immediately reacted and nodded subconsciously.

"...Hello."

…………