(a)

In early spring, fog and rain cover the sky, and clouds cover the sun. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The department store "Fog and Rain House" in Rennosato was deserted, and there were not a single customer. It's no wonder, who would run out to shop in such wet and cold ghost weather?

The store manager, Mori Kinnosuke, had nothing to do, so he sat down at the counter and fiddled with the boxes of spices that had just arrived. He opened the small wooden boxes one by one, took a few grains out of them with tweezers, dotted them on the oiled paper, carefully looked at their color and shape, and then crushed them with his fingertips, brought them under his nose, and smelled their fragrance. This series of tedious and meticulous steps is mainly to check the quality of the spice, its variety, and whether it is damp.

If it's damp, or it's simply defective, put it at the front of the shelf and sell it at a discount – that's what the merchants do.

"Yo, Rinnosuke, I'm playing ZE again!"

Suddenly, a short, blonde girl who couldn't even reach the countertop of the counter rudely pushed open the door and ran in. You don't have to look at it, Rinnosuke also knows that this is his boss's daughter, Marisa Kiri who has just passed her seventh birthday.

The business of the Wuyu family has been booming over the years, and the two members of the family have always been busy, and they have always had no time to take care of such a baby daughter. Since Marisa was four years old, it was no longer her parents who took care of her, but Rinnosuke, a dutiful housekeeper.

However, no matter how thoughtful Rinnosuke takes care of, he can't replace his parents after all, not to mention, he doesn't take care of him very well. This guy Rin Nosuke is lazy by himself, and taking care of children is basically free-range, as long as Marisa doesn't get into big trouble and doesn't get into any big trouble, he basically doesn't care much. He can take care of all the food and daily life, but his cooking skills are really bad, and he has an undercooked level of frying three egg batters and two of them.

This is probably the reason why Marisa grew up with an iron stomach and could eat everything!

All in all, Marisa, who grew up in such a difficult environment, gradually became a wild child like an orangutan, fighting, mischievous, going up to the barnyard field to steal books and fold them into hundreds of paper airplanes, and down to taking advantage of the lunch break to draw a beard for Huiyin-sensei, basically doing all the bad things, and there is no cure.

Now, the bad boy is standing at the counter with his hands behind his back, like a victor. She was drenched by the rain, and she didn't even have an inch of dry fabric from head to toe, but her mood was very high, and she knew at a glance that she had come from the "victorious escape" in the temple house.

"You......" Rinnosuke looked at her triumphant look, shook his head helplessly, and said, "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?"

"The class was so boring that it fell off. Marisa said this with a lot of sense, it didn't look like she was skipping class, but like she got a high score on an exam.

"Teacher Huiyin will be angry!"

"There's no use being angry!" Marisa said, grinning, revealing a small tooth that was in the process of changing her teeth.

In this way, Lin Zhisuke didn't know what to say about her, and he couldn't bother to beat and scold her, so he had to sigh in his heart, "You can't teach a child", so he took out a dry towel from the cabinet behind him, threw it on her head, and said:

"Dry your hair, then go to the back room and change your clothes, you're going to catch a cold like this!"

"Okay!"

Marisa took the towel and rubbed it all over her head, kneading her pretty blonde hair into a chicken nest, and then began to undress in front of Rinnosuke. She's really, and she's never treated Rinnosuke as an outsider.

Of course, there was no way Rinnosuke would have let her do that. Just because a child is ignorant doesn't mean he doesn't understand either.

"Don't take it off here!" he said, waving his hands, "to the back room!"

"Oh. ”

Marisa answered, and walked into the back room with her wet little vest and a towel in her open coat, revealing the soaked thin tank top inside.

"Hey......"

After she left, Rinnosuke sighed and said to himself:

"Sometimes, I really think that this child is taken out of the monkey's nest......"

(b)

The rain was still pouring outside, not too big or small, and it was endless. Marisa changed into a crisp white dress and ran out of the back room barefoot. She got behind the counter, got into Rinnosuke's arms, sat on his lap, and asked as soon as she came up:

"What are you doing, Rinnosuke?"

"I'm checking these spices. Rinnosuke replied.

Marisa's little brain was on his chin, wet and a little warm, if I had to describe it...... It felt like cuddling a big golden retriever that had just finished a bath.

"Spices—spices?" asked Marisa again.

"Sichuan pepper, star anise, black pepper, cumin, bay leaf, cinnamon, rosemary, ......"

Rinnosuke mechanically muttered the names he had already known by heart, and continued to fiddle with his goods in his hands. Marisa swayed her legs and listened intently. Although she didn't know what Rinnosuke said at all, she felt that what Rinnosuke said was much more beautiful than what Huiyin-sensei said.

There's no reason, that's what she thinks.

"By the way, Marisa, speaking of ......"

Rin nosuke read and thought, and suddenly he had an idea, and he stopped what he was doing, and said:

"Anyway, today is school day, and I happen to have a little interesting lesson here, don't you listen?"

"I'll listen!"

Marisa, who sees learning as a demon debt collector, uncharacteristically raises her hand and gives a very firm, affirmative answer.

"Okay, then I'll tell you about it. ”

Rinnosuke smiled, took out a small piece of dried leaf-like thing from a small wooden box in front of him, leaned over Marisa's nose, and said:

"You smell it. ”

Marisa sniffed a few times, then said:

"Good...... What a strange taste. ”

She wasn't sure if it was a scent, but she didn't think it smelled. Overall, it's a rather unique scent that leaves a lasting impression just by sniffing it.

"This is rosemary, a vanilla," Rinnosuke said, "Do you know how rosemary is said in English?"

"Of course...... I don't know!" Marisa scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

You may not believe it, but Terakoya teaches English, and Huiyin's English is even better than her Japanese, but Marisa never learns hard.

"It's called rosemary. Rinnosuke put the vanilla back in the box and said.

“Rose...... Mary?" Marisa muttered, "Rose...... Mary?"

"Doesn't that sound familiar?" said with a smile, "Your father's name is 'Saburo', your mother's name is 'Serah', and your name is 'Marisa'." Connect the end of your father's name to the beginning of your mother's name to Rose, and then your name to Rosemary, which is rosemary. ”

"Isn't that Lin's help Xianglin?"

"Huh?"

Marisa's question stumbled Rinnosuke. Before he could figure it out, he listened to Marisa say:

"The names of the family should be connected together, and then the rosemary should be followed by Lin Zhisuke, and when they are together, isn't it 'Xianglin'?"

Marisa craned her neck and winked at Rinnosuke. Rinnosuke looked down at her big watery eyes, and didn't know how to deal with it for a while.

He wanted to teach Marisa a lesson, but in the end, he was taught a lesson! Marisa, a little ghost, really has no other shortcomings except that he doesn't like to study.

"Yes, it's Xianglin. Rinnosuke gladly accepted the new name.

"Haha, then from today onwards, Linnosuke will be renamed Xianglin!"

Marisa laughed, shaking her little feet again.

"Family. ”

Until Marisa was dragged away by the rain by the rain by the ears of Teacher Huiyin, Rinnosuke's heart always echoed this word.

The kind woman who saved him, Marisa's grandmother, never told him that word. Marisa's father, who appreciated and promoted him, never said anything like that.

In his heart, he actually understands very well that he is not surnamed Wuyu, nor is he a complete human being, so he is not qualified to integrate into this happy family. He had never had a home before, and he would not have a home in the foreseeable future. With the help of the forest, he can only be an orphan wandering near the forest from beginning to end.

But why?

When this child, who had not finished changing his teeth, said those words, he actually had an urge to cry.

It was as if some kind of desire that had been suppressed in the depths of my heart was awakened at that moment.