July 29, 2000, Tokyo, Japan, Tsukiike House.

Buntaro's mood has been a little low lately.

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

For Buntaro,Kaoru is back.,This was originally a good thing.,Of course, why he's not willing to think about it.,The reasons for this are very complicated.,There's the feeling of childhood sweethearts.,There's competition with each other.,Maybe there's pity.、Love and the like.,What's wrong with him.,Anyway, everyone knows that Kaoru and Tianyu Zheng's marriage contract is just a formality.,Kaoru's feelings have always been cold.,Tianyu Zhengzheng also has a formal girlfriend.,The relationship is still very good.,His thoughts.,It doesn't matter.。

Of course, although everyone grew up, at this time in Buntaro's heart, the most important thing is not something related to love. Kaoru and Tianyu symbolically got engaged three years ago.,Then go to Jianghai.,The reason is to learn Chinese martial arts with an unknown master.,But in fact, no one takes this reason seriously.,But it's only been in China for a year.,After that, in the competition in front of the head of the family.,Kaoru, who was not at the top of his peers in the original power ranking, was an enemy.,With the most powerful Ikezakura Thousand Illusions, he almost defeated him with one move.,It almost became a major event that shocked the entire Tsukichi family.。

Since he was a child, he has been the leader of his peers, he will not easily admit defeat, and the defeat at that time, Kaoru's strength is indeed above him, but as far as the gap is concerned, at least he thinks that he was indeed too light at that time, otherwise he would not have been defeated so simply. Out of the humiliation of that defeat, he has been training hard for the past two years, leaving other people's entry far away, and he has the idea of competing with Kaoru again, but for so long, he has not found a chance.

For two years in a row, everyone wants to see Kaoru's shot again. In order to verify whether her strength has really become so strong, this kind of thinking is that Buntaro has it, and opponents of the same age have it, and maybe the elders and the head of the family also have it. However, it seems to be deliberately avoiding this kind of thing, three winter and summer vacations, Kaoru either found an excuse to stay in China and not come back, or took advantage of the relationship on Tianyu's side, even if he came back, he would never participate in these things at home, or even simply couldn't find anyone. Although it is said that this is already modern society. I don't think the engaged girl is completely regarded as another family, but the marriage contract between Kaoru and Tianyu Masanori itself is a bargaining chip for the Moon Housekeeper to get closer to Takamagahara, and Tianyu uses the identity of his fiancé to suppress something, and it is not good to do too much here.

So, two years have passed, and the road to Kaoru University has not yet been decided, and since he graduated from high school, he came back from Jianghai this time, in a sense. It should be regarded as a real escape from China. Back home. This feeling is naturally different from the feeling she feels when she comes back from winter and summer vacation, but the problem is that Kaoru seems to have a different feeling.

Growing up together, Buntaro understands this girl like his sister very well, since the death of his mother, Kaoru's heart has been in a cold and autistic state, to others, to himself, to everything is cold and indifferent, occasionally looking at the perfect face like a porcelain doll, his heart will inevitably have pity. But at that time, everyone was small, and he couldn't think about it, so he could only practice hard. Wait until one day, you can have the ability to help her and change something.

As the daughter of the head of the family, Kaoru has not received any preferential treatment since she was a child, and her qualifications are not good, until her mother dies, her heart is closed. Every day, every day is practice, practice. This method of practicing harder than anyone else has not yielded noticeable results. In many cases, he even made himself bruised all over his body, and was reprimanded by the ninjutsu master. As the strongest of his peers, Buntaro sometimes wants to give Kaoru some help. But Kaoru's practice method is not wrong, and the degree of hard work is no less than that of anyone, as Buntaro who also believes in a hard work and a harvest, where can he make a better suggestion, he can only think that Kaoru has no talent, but in any case, he is a model among this group of trainers, and occasionally winning in the competition, and perceiving the cold but slightly wistful gaze that Kaoru throws at him can bring him great satisfaction. She envied him, and perhaps admired him, for the best.

It's impossible to confirm whether this is an objective idea, but from the moment Kaoru defeated him two years ago, this dream collapsed, and he couldn't tolerate such feelings, so he trained hard to get his reputation back. However, when Kaoru came back this time, he found that even the cold feeling of self-isolation seemed to have changed a little.

is still that kind of indifferent expression, still maintains a faint and alienated attitude with everyone, exercises every morning, and eats with everyone, but she is no longer the girl who works hard every day until she gets injured and doesn't care about herself at all. After returning home, she made some small changes to the small yard where she lived in her spare time, which was perhaps the most surprising thing for everyone.

As the daughter of the head of the family, Kaoru's only difference from everyone may be that she has a separate courtyard by herself, and she used to live here with her mother, but after her mother died, the girl was left alone. Tsukichi Masaku doesn't come here, and servants come over every day to do a simple cleaning. The yard is not big, when the two mothers and daughters were in the past, they were cleaned up quite elegantly, after the woman who was the mother died, she gradually did not do too much decoration, Kaoru lived alone, and there were only two houses to use, the living room and her bedroom, the furnishings were simple, better than nothing, the two trees in the yard had not been taken care of for a long time, the fish in the small pond had also died, but it had not become a stinky puddle, and there was some garbage in the corner of the yard for a long time, which was used by Kaoru for training in the past, and she went to China after she never dealt with it. The rest of the room, almost locked, was dusty.

On the third day, however, she smashed the locked door of the yard, and then when people passed by the small courtyard, they could see the girl knocking on the locks inside.

As Tianyu Zheng's fiancée, the current Kaoru is naturally already a privileged status, but when others came to ask her what she was going to do, did she need the help of the workers, but all she got was a indifferent shake, and it was obvious that she didn't want others to interfere in what she was doing at the moment. In the days that followed, the girl moved all kinds of furniture from her room to the yard by herself, and even her mother's bedroom was empty. Buntaro once passed by, and saw a girl in a white blouse and a blue dress dragging a large cabinet out of the room, the empty cabinet looked big, but it was not heavy, the girl moved it to the courtyard and put it away, and when she looked back at the room, Buntaro suddenly had a feeling, this beautiful face that still had no expression seemed to be mixed with some kind of indescribable longing, which seemed to be the same as the gaze she looked at him when she was a child, but the gaze at that time was always cold, and this cold feeling at this time, But there is no negative emotion in it. He was suddenly at a loss.

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

After the things were emptied, it was cleaned and repaired for several days, the girl wore a headscarf, put on a mask, cleaned the dust and cobwebs around the room, and the old and damp tatami mats were also replaced with new ones piece by piece, she was not in a hurry to work, and after doing it for a while every day, she sat under the courtyard porch and drank a cup of tea, which did not feel like she was doing tiring work that ordinary girls would not do, but just a kind of leisure and pastime, relaxed and comfortable.

Almost the inside and outside of the house have been renovated, and then the furniture is moved in one by one, these things are new and old, the old nature has been carefully cleaned and repaired, half a month later, the whole yard seems to have been renewed, just like when the mother and daughter lived here together, the weeds in the corner of the yard have been pulled out, the garbage in the small pond has been fished up, the water has been changed, and it is clear, after going out once, there are two more lotus plants in the water that have been moved from the outside, and there is some elegant atmosphere.

During this period, many people paid attention to the small courtyard, secretly guessing that Kaoru went to China for three years, whether he had been a handyman for three years, and Yuechi Zhengkong also came to see it, and it is estimated that his daughter began to pay attention to the quality of life, and he didn't say anything, anyway, he will be a member of the Tianyu family in the future, and as long as Tianyu has no opinion, all of this is good. Kaoru also went out a few times, bought some things back and put them in the room, small electrical appliances, and even a TV, but also some comic books, and trained every day, but not for a long time, playing a few sets of ordinary Chinese boxing in the yard, running, etc., more often, just sitting in the yard thinking about things, quietly, I don't know what I was expecting.

And it wasn't until today that Buntaro finally knew what her longing and expectation were for more than half a month of careful cleaning and cleaning......

A Chinese boy of Kaoru's age, Kazuaki, arrives at Tsukichi's house with his simple luggage and takes into Kaoru's carefully furnished room. It was the largest bedroom in the courtyard, and it was Kaoru's deceased mother who lived there many years ago......