July 29th, 2000, Tokyo, Japan, Yuechi family.
Fumitaro's mood had been a little down recently.
Kaoru had finished her three years of studies in China and returned to Japan this month.
For Fumitaro, Kaoru's return was originally a good thing. Of course, he did not want to think about the reason why it was good. The reason was very complicated. There were the feelings of childhood sweethearts, the competitiveness of competition, pity, love, and so on. Anyway, everyone knew that the engagement between Kaoru and Masayoshi Amami was just a formality. Kaoru's feelings had always been cold. Masayoshi Amami also had an official girlfriend and their relationship was very good. These thoughts of his did not matter.
Of course, although everyone grew up together, at this time, in Fumitaro's heart, the most important thing was not related to love.
Three years ago, Kaoru and Masayoshi Amami had a symbolic engagement. Then, they went to Jianghai. The reason was that they wanted to learn China's martial arts from an unknown master. In fact, no one took this reason seriously. However, in just one year in China, in the competition in front of the family head, Kaoru, who was not ranked high among her peers, defeated him in one move. The most powerful Akiying Qianhuan almost defeated him in one move. This became a big event that shocked the entire Yuechi family.
Ever since he was young, he had always been the leader of his peers. He would never admit defeat so easily. Back then, when he was defeated, it was true that Kaoru's strength was above his. However, in terms of the gap between them, he believed that he had indeed underestimated his opponent. Otherwise, he would not have been defeated so easily.
Due to the humiliation of that defeat, he had been training hard for the past two years. His progress was far ahead of others. In his heart, he had the idea of competing with Kaoru again. However, after so long, he did not find a chance.
For the past two years, everyone wanted to see Kaori fight again in order to verify whether or not she had truly become so powerful. Buntaro had such thoughts, as did all his opponents of the same age. Perhaps the elders and the family head had such thoughts as well.
However, it was as if Xun was deliberately trying to avoid this kind of thing. During the three winter and summer vacations, Xun either found an excuse to stay in China or made use of Tian Yu's connections. Even if she came back, she would not participate in these things at home. She even simply could not be found.
Although this was modern society, and people wouldn't treat a girl who was engaged as someone from another family, the engagement between Kaoru and Masanori Amaterasu was a bargaining chip for the Tsukuyomi family to get close to Takama-ga-hara. Since Masanori Amaterasu used his status as her fiancé to suppress some things, the Tsukuyomi family couldn't go overboard.
Thus, two years had passed, and Xun's path to university had yet to be decided. Since he had graduated from high school and returned from Jianghai, in a sense, it could be considered that he had truly gotten rid of China and returned home.
This feeling was naturally different from the feeling she had when she came back during the winter and summer vacations. However, the problem was that the feeling Xun gave him was also different.
Having grown up together, Fumitaro understood this young girl like his own little sister very well. Ever since her mother passed away, Fumitaro's heart had always been in a cold and isolated state. She was cold and indifferent to others, to herself, and to everything. Occasionally, he would look at that perfect porcelain doll-like face, and he would inevitably feel pity for her. However, at that time, everyone was still young, and he could not do anything about it. He could only work hard and practice hard, waiting for the day when he had the ability to help her and change something.
As the daughter of the head of the family, Xun didn't receive any preferential treatment since she was young. Her aptitude wasn't good either. When her mother passed away, she closed her heart and mind and practiced every day.
This method of practicing harder than anyone else didn't bring about any obvious results. Many times, she even injured herself and was reprimanded by her ninjutsu master.
As the strongest among his peers, Fumitaro sometimes wanted to give Xun some help. However, Xun's practice method wasn't wrong, and her degree of hard work wasn't inferior to anyone else's. As a person who also believed in hard work and results, how could Fumitaro give a better suggestion? He could only think that Xun didn't have any talent. However, no matter what, he was still the model of this group of trainees. Occasionally, when he won a competition, he could feel that Xun looked at him with a cold but slightly longing gaze, which brought him great satisfaction.
She envied him, and perhaps even worshipped him. This was the best.
Whether or not this kind of thinking was objective was impossible to confirm, but from the moment Xun defeated him two years ago, this kind of dream collapsed. He couldn't tolerate this kind of feeling, so he trained hard to take back his reputation.
However, when Xun came back this time, he found that even the cold feeling of isolation seemed to have changed.
She still had that kind of indifferent and indifferent expression, and still maintained a faint and alienated attitude with everyone. Every morning, she would exercise and eat with everyone. However, she was no longer the girl who worked hard every day until she got injured and didn't care about her own health at all.
After returning home, in her spare time, she made some small changes to the small courtyard where she lived. This was perhaps the most surprising thing for everyone.
As the daughter of the head of the family, the only difference between Xun and everyone else was that she had a small courtyard by herself. She used to live here with her mother, but after her mother died, she was left alone.
Yuechi Zhengkong didn't come here. Every day, servants came to do some simple cleaning.
The courtyard wasn't big. When the mother and daughter were still here, it was elegantly tidied up. However, after the mother's woman died, they gradually stopped decorating. Xun lived alone, and there were only two rooms in the house. The living room and her bedroom were simple, but it was better than nothing. The two trees in the courtyard hadn't been tended for a long time. The fish in the small pond had all died, but it didn't become a smelly puddle. Some garbage had been left in the corner of the courtyard for a long time. It was the stuff that Xun used to train. After she went to China, she didn't get rid of it.
Almost all the other rooms were locked and dusty.
However, when she came back this time, on the second day, she silently cleaned up the garbage in the courtyard. Probably because she couldn't find the keys that she had carelessly placed, on the third day, she smashed the door that was originally locked in the courtyard. Afterwards, when people passed by the small courtyard, they could see the figure of the girl hammering and reinstalling the lock.
As Yuechi Zhengshi's fiancée, the current Xun naturally had a special status. However, when others came to ask her what she was doing, or if she needed help from workers, they would only receive an indifferent shake of the head. It was very clear that she didn't want others to interfere with what she was doing.
In the following days, the girl moved all types of furniture from the room to the courtyard by herself. Even her mother's bedroom was emptied out.
Buntaro passed by once, and just happened to see the girl dressed in a white top and an azure long skirt dragging a large cabinet out of the room. The empty cabinet looked large, but it couldn't be considered heavy. The girl moved it to the courtyard, and when she turned around to look at the room, Buntaro suddenly had a type of feeling. This still expressionless beautiful face seemed to be mixed with some type of indescribable longing. This longing seemed to be the same as the way she looked at him when she was young. Only, at that time, her gaze was always gloomy and cold. Right now, this gloomy and cold feeling no longer contained any negative emotions.
He suddenly felt a bit lost.
Perhaps it was because she had grown up, and was starting to face her own life.
This was what he told himself.
After everything was moved out, there were several days of cleaning and repair. The girl wore a headscarf and a mask, sweeping away the dust and cobwebs in the room. The tatami mats were also replaced piece by piece. She wasn't in a rush to finish her work. Every day, after working for a while, she would sit in the courtyard's veranda and drink a cup of tea. The feeling she gave off wasn't like she was doing tiring work that normal girls wouldn't do, but rather a type of leisure and entertainment. It was relaxed, content, and content.
She practically renovated the inside and outside of the house, and then moved the furniture in one by one. There were new and old things, and the old ones were naturally carefully cleaned and repaired. Half a month later, the entire courtyard seemed to have been refurbished, just like when the mother and daughter lived here together. The weeds in the corners of the courtyard were pulled out, and the trash in the small pond was scooped up. After changing the water, the water became clear. One time when she went out, there were two lotus plants that were brought in from outside, and the atmosphere was somewhat elegant.
During this period, many people paid attention to the courtyard, and secretly guessed that Kaoru had gone to China for three years to do odd jobs. Yuechi Masako also came to take a look. He probably thought that his daughter was starting to care about the quality of life, so he didn't say anything. After all, she would be a member of the Tian Yu family in the future. As long as Tian Yu Masako didn't have any objections, everything would be fine.
Kaoru also went out a few times to buy some things and put them in the room. There were small appliances, even a television, and some comic books. She also trained every day, but not for long. She practiced a few sets of ordinary China boxing, jogging, and so on in the courtyard. Most of the time, she just sat in the courtyard and thought about something quietly. No one knew what she was looking forward to.
Today, Buntaro finally understood what her meticulous cleaning and tidying up, and what her longing and expectation was for the past half a month …
Yiming, a China teenager of the same age as Kaoru, brought his simple luggage to Yuechi Masako's house, and moved into the room that Kaoru had meticulously decorated.
That was the largest bedroom in the courtyard. Many years ago, Xun's mother, who had passed away, had lived there. If you want to know what happened after that, please go to www.qidian.com to read more chapters. Support the author, support the legal reading of this novel! "