Hidden Assassin

July 29, 2000, Yuechi's house in Tokyo, Japan.

Buntaro's mood has been a little low recently.

Kaoru completed her three years of study in China and returned to Japan this month.

For Buntaro, Kaoru is back, which is originally a good thing. Of course, he has never wanted to think about the good reasons. The reasons are very complicated, including the feelings of childhood sweethearts, the desire to compete with each other, and perhaps No matter pity, love, etc., everyone knows that the engagement between Xun and Tianyu Zhengze is just a formality. Xun's relationship has always been cold, Tianyu Zhengze also has an official girlfriend, and the relationship is still very good. His These thoughts don't matter anymore.

Of course, although everyone has grown up, the most important thing in Buntaro's heart at this time is not about love and pity. Three years ago, Xun and Tianyu got engaged symbolically, and then went to Jianghai. The reason was to learn Chinese martial arts from an unknown master. But in fact, no one took this reason seriously. However, after only one year in China, Later, in the competition in front of the head of the family, Xun, who was not ranked high among his peers in terms of strength, was able to defeat them all with one move. The most powerful Chi Ying Qian Huan almost defeated him with one move, which almost shocked the entire month. A major event for the Chi family.

He has been the leader of his peers since childhood, and he will not give in easily. In that defeat, Xun's power was indeed superior to his, but in terms of the gap, at least he believed that he was indeed too powerful at that time. If you underestimate the enemy too much, you won't be defeated so cleanly. Because of the humiliation of that defeat, he has been training hard in the past two years, leaving others far behind. He has the idea of ​​competing with Xun again. However, in such a long time, he has not had a chance. turn up.

For two consecutive years, everyone wanted to see Xun make another move. In order to prove whether her strength has really become that strong, Buntaro has this idea, his opponents of the same age have it, and maybe the elders and the family head also have this idea. However, it seemed that he was deliberately avoiding this kind of thing. During the three winter and summer vacations, Xun either made excuses to stay in China and did not come back, or he took advantage of Tianyu's relationship. Even if he came back, he would never participate in these things at home, or even It was simply impossible to find anyone. Although this is already a modern society. An engaged girl is not considered to be a completely different family member, but the engagement between Kaoru and Tianyu Masanori is itself a bargaining chip for the Yue family to get closer to Takamagahara. Tianyu uses his status as fiancé to suppress some things, and here it is It’s not good to overdo it.

So, two years have passed, and Xundi's path to college has not yet been decided. Now that he has graduated from high school, he is coming back from Jianghai this time, in a sense. It should be considered as truly getting rid of China. arrive home. This feeling is naturally different from the feeling when she came back from winter vacation and summer vacation, but the problem is that Xun's feeling seems to be different too.

Growing up together, Buntaro understands this girl who is like his sister all too well. Since the death of his mother, Kaoru's heart has been in a cold and autistic state. He is cold to others, himself, and everything. Faintly, occasionally looking at that perfect face like a porcelain doll, he would inevitably feel pity in his heart. But everyone was young at that time, and he couldn't think about it, so he could only practice hard. One day, I will be able to help her and change something.

As the daughter of the head of the family, Xun has not received any preferential treatment since she was a child, and her qualifications are not very good. When her mother passed away, her heart became closed. Every day is about practicing and practicing. This practice method of working harder than anyone else has not brought obvious results. Many times he even got himself covered in bruises and was scolded by his ninjutsu master. As the strongest among his peers, Buntaro sometimes wanted to give Kaoru some help. However, there is nothing wrong with Xun's practice method, and his level of hard work is no less than anyone else's. As Buntaro, who also believes in hard work and reward, who can give better advice, he can only think that Xun has no talent. , but no matter what, he is after all a model among this group of trainers. Occasionally winning a competition and noticing the cold but slightly yearning gaze Xun casts on him can bring him great satisfaction. She envied him, maybe even worshiped him, which was best.

Whether such an idea is objective cannot be confirmed, but from the moment Kaoru defeated him two years ago, this dream collapsed. He could not tolerate this feeling, so he trained hard to get his reputation back. However, when Xun came back this time, he discovered that even the cold feeling of being autistic had changed somewhat.

She still has that indifferent expression, and she still maintains a slightly distant attitude from everyone. She exercises every morning and eats with everyone. However, she is no longer the person who works out hard every day until she gets injured and doesn't care about herself at all. A girl. After returning home, she spent her free time making some small changes to the small yard where she lived. This was perhaps the most surprising thing to everyone.

As the daughter of the head of the family, perhaps the only difference between Xun and others is that she owns a small courtyard by herself. She used to live here with her mother. After her mother died, the girl was left alone. Yuechi Zhengkong doesn't come here. Servants come here every day to do simple cleaning. The yard is not big. When the two mothers and daughters were together, it was kept quite elegantly. After the death of the mother, she gradually stopped doing too much decoration. Xun lived alone and only used two houses. The living room and her bedroom were simply furnished, which was better than nothing. The two trees in the yard had not been taken care of for a long time, and all the fish in the small pond had died, but they had not turned into a smelly puddle. There was some garbage, which was used by Xun for training. She had not disposed of it since she went to China. Most of the rest of the rooms were locked and dusty.

However, when she came back this time, on the second day, she quietly cleaned up the rubbish in the yard, probably because she couldn't find the keys she had randomly placed there before. On the third day, she smashed the locked key in the yard. Then when people passed by the small courtyard, they could see the figure of the girl knocking and reinstalling the lock inside.

As the fiancée of Tianyu Zhengze, Xun currently has a privileged status. However, when others ask her what she wants to do and whether she needs help from workers, all she gets is an indifferent shake of the head. It is obvious that she is currently doing it. She doesn't want others to interfere in her affairs. In the days that followed, the girl moved all kinds of furniture from her room to the yard alone, even her mother's bedroom was empty. Buntaro once passed by and saw a girl wearing a white top and blue skirt dragging a large cabinet out of the room. The empty cabinet looked big, but it was not heavy. The girl moved it to the yard and put it away. When looking back at the room, Buntaro suddenly had a feeling that this beautiful face with no expression seemed to be mixed with some kind of indescribable longing. This longing seemed to be the same as the look she had when she was a child, but His eyes were always cold at that time, but now there was no negative emotion in this cold feeling at all. He suddenly felt a little confused. .

Maybe it's because she has grown up and begun to face her own life. He told himself this.

After the things were emptied, there were several days of cleaning and repairing. The girl wore a headscarf and a mask, and cleaned the dust and cobwebs everywhere in the room. The old and damp tatami mats were also replaced with new ones piece by piece. She also Don't rush to work. After working for a while every day, you will sit on the porch and drink a cup of tea. It doesn't feel like you are doing tiring work that ordinary girls will not do, but just a kind of leisure and recreation. , relaxed and comfortable, contented.

I renovated almost the inside and outside of the house before moving the furniture in piece by piece. Some of these things were old and new. The old ones were naturally cleaned and repaired carefully. After half a month, the entire yard seemed to be in a new state. It has been completely renovated, just like when the mother and daughter lived here together. The weeds in the corners of the yard have been pulled out, the garbage in the small pond has been picked up, and the water has been changed, and it has become clear. After going out once, there is more in the water. With two lotus plants moved from outside, it has a somewhat elegant atmosphere.

During this period, many people were paying attention to the small courtyard, secretly guessing that Xun had been working as a handyman for three years after going to China for three years. Yuechi Masakora also came to see her, and probably thought that her daughter was starting to pay attention to the quality of life. He didn’t say anything. Anyway, we will all be members of Tianyu’s family from now on. As long as Tianyu Zhengze doesn’t have any objections to all of this, everything will be fine. Xun also went out a few times and bought some things to put in the room, small electrical appliances, and even a TV. In addition, there were some comic books. He also trained every day, but the time was not long, and he played a few mediocre sets in the yard. Strange Chinese boxing, running, etc. Most of the time, I just sit in the yard and think about things, quietly, not knowing what I am looking forward to.

And it was only today that Buntaro finally knew what the longing and expectation that she had been carefully cleaning and cleaning for more than half a month were probably...

Yiming, a Chinese boy of the same age as Xun, arrived at Yuechi's house with his simple luggage and moved into a room carefully decorated by Xun. That was the largest bedroom in the courtyard. It was Xun’s deceased mother who lived there many years ago...

.