This happened as soon as she returned to Minato after the death of the man who had ransomed her life when she was a prostitute. Komako said that since the beginning of the fight, she has hated that person and has always been estranged from him.

"It's good to be able to last for five years. ”

"There have been two times when we were about to break up. Once as a geisha here, and once when I moved from my master's house to my current home. But my will is too weak. My will is too weak. ”

She said that the man lived in Port City. Because it was not convenient to settle her there, I brought her with her when he came to the village. She was very kind, but she never thought of marrying herself to him, and it was so sad. Due to the large age difference, he only came once in a while.

"How can I break off the relationship? I often think, just do something deviant. I've really thought about it that way!"

"It's so bad to deviate. ”

"I can't do deviant things, or I can't do them by nature. I take great care of my body. If I wanted, I could have shortened the four-year period to two years, but I didn't want to do it reluctantly, and my body mattered. If you do it reluctantly, you may make a lot of money. The deadline is not to let the main family suffer. The amount of monthly capital, interest, taxes, plus food expenses, you can understand it as soon as you calculate it. Just enough to spend, don't force it. I was tired of the troublesome banquet, so I hurried back. If it weren't for the regular customer's name, it would be too late, and the inn wouldn't have called me. If you are extravagant, you will become a bottomless pit. If you earn enough money, that's fine. I have already repaid more than half of the capital. It's been less than a year. However, pocket money or something costs 30 yuan a month. ”

She said that she could earn $100 a month to cover her expenses. The person who earned the least last month was 300 branches, or 60 yuan. The foal went to the feast more than 90 times, which is the most, and once he went to the feast, he could get a branch, so for the main family, although he suffered a loss, he would soon earn it back. In this thermal bath, not a single person has extended the term due to the increase in debt.

The next morning, the foal still got up early.

"I was dreaming about cleaning the arranger's house when I woke up. ”

When you move to the dresser by the window, you can see the mountains covered in autumn leaves. The autumn sun in the mirror is bright and dazzling.

The girl from the candy store brought the Komako's change of clothes.

"Sister Ju. ”

There was a shout from behind the door, but it wasn't Yezi's clear, almost mournful voice.

"How's that girl?"

The colt glanced at Ah Hua:

"She often goes to the grave. You see, there is a buckwheat field under the ski resort, with white flowers. Isn't there a grave to the left of it?"

After the foals returned, Ah Hua also went for a walk in the village.

Under the eaves, a girl in brand new red flannel snow pants slaps a ball against a white wall. It's an autumn sight indeed.

There are many antique buildings that give the impression that they were built during the days when feudal princes went on patrol. The eaves are deep. The paper sliding window on the second floor is only a foot high, and it is a slender strip. In front of the eaves hangs a curtain made of barmao.

The dirt slope is surrounded by a fence of dogtail grass. Dogtail blooms with pale yellow flowers. The slender leaves stretch out one by one, resembling fountains, and they are so beautiful.

The leaves are spread on the sunny side of the road, and the straw mats are threshing red beans.

The red bean glow popped out of the dried bean straw.

Ye Zi had a towel wrapped around his head, probably not seeing Ah Hua. She spread her legs in snow pants and sang a song that was so clear that it almost mournfully caused an echo at once.

Butterflies, dragonflies, and crickets,

Chirping and chirping in the mountains,

Jin Pipa, Jin Zhonger, and Textile Niang.

There is also such a folk song: The evening breeze blows, and the big crow flies away from the cedar forest. But looking down from this window, I saw that there was still a group of dragonflies floating in front of the cedar forest today. Dusk was approaching, and they hurriedly picked up the speed of the drift.

Before setting off, Ah Hua found a new edition of the hiking guide in the area at the station kiosk, bought it, and read it casually. It reads: From this room, you can see the mountains at the prefectural border, and there is a path through a beautiful pond on the top of one of the mountains. In the nearby moorlands, the flowers of various alpine plants compete for beauty. If in the summer, the red dragonfly flutters all over the sky, sometimes resting on people's hats, hands, and sometimes even on the frames of glasses, there is a world of difference between the free energy and the city dragonfly that has been abused.

However, a group of dragonflies in front of him seemed to be chased by something, and it seemed to be anxious to prevent the darkness of the cedar forest from erasing its figure before night fell.

In the evening sunset, the mountain clearly shows the red maple leaves on the top of the mountain.

"People are vulnerable. It is said that if you fall from a height, you will be crushed to pieces. However, bears and other bears will not be hurt at all if they fall from a higher rocky mountain. ”

Ah Hua remembered what Koma had said this morning. At that time, she pointed to the mountain over there and said that someone had been killed in the rock field again.

If a person has a layer of fur that is hard and thick like a bear, the human senses must be very different. However, people love their delicate and smooth skin. While contemplating, Ah Hua looked at the mountains bathed in the setting sun, and couldn't help but feel a little sentimental, admiring people's skin.

"Butterflies, dragonflies, and crickets...... I don't know which geisha sang this song when they played the clumsy shamisen during the early meal.

The mountaineering guide book simply lists the climbing route, schedule, inn, fare, and other items, but it makes the fantasy run freely. The first time Ah Hua met Komako was when he walked to this hot spring village from the mountains covered with residual snow and sprouts. Now it's autumn mountaineering season, and when I look at the mountains where I have left my footprints, I can't help but be fascinated by the whole mountain scenery.

He was idle, idle, and tirelessly climbed the mountain, which can be considered a typical futility. Because of this, there is also an illusory charm here.

Although he was far away from the foal, Ah Hua still thought about her from time to time, but once he came to her, perhaps because he was completely relieved of his heart, or because he was too close to her body, he always felt that the lovesickness of attachment to skin and longing for the mountains was like a dream. This is probably due to the fact that Komako just returned from spending the night here last night. However, sitting alone in the silence, I had to hope that the foals would come uninvited, and there was nothing else to do. Listening to the innocent and lively playful sounds of the schoolgirls hiking, Ah Hua unconsciously felt drowsy, so he fell asleep early.

After a while, it looks like it's going to rain.

When I woke up the next morning, I found that Koma was already sitting at her desk reading a book. She wears a plain silk short kimono.

"Awake?" she said quietly, glancing at Ah Hua.

"What's wrong?"

"Woke up?"

Ah Hua guessed: She came here to spend the night after she fell asleep, right? He glanced at his sleeping bunk, picked up the watch next to his pillow and saw that it was only half past six.

"It's early. ”

"But the maid has already come to add fuel to the fire. ”

The iron kettle emits water vapor, like a morning scene.

"Get up!"

The foal stood up and sat down on his pillow. She behaved very much like a housewife.

Ah Hua stretched his waist, then grabbed her hand on his lap, and while stroking the cocoon on the piano on the tip of his little finger, he said:

"I'm sleepy, it's just dawning. ”

"Alone, have you ever slept well?"

"Hmm. ”

"You still haven't grown your beard. ”

"That's right, that's right. The last time we broke up, you said you wanted me to grow a beard. ”

"You'll forget anyway, forget it. You're always shaved clean, leaving a bruise. ”

"You usually take it off*, isn't it like you've just shaved your face!"

"Your cheeks are fat again, aren't you? Pale and beardless, and when you fall asleep, your face is round, which is a bit weird. ”

"Isn't it nice to look soft?"

"It's unreliable. ”

"Nasty, so you keep an eye on me?"

"Hmm!" Komako nodded with a smile, and suddenly burst out laughing out loud as if on fire, unconsciously even the hand holding his finger became even harder.

"I'm hiding in the closet. The maid was completely unaware. ”

"When, when did you hide in it?"

"Didn't you just now, when the maid came to add fuel to the fire? She laughed again when she thought about it. His face was flushed to the base of his ears, and as if he wanted to hide the past, he picked up the quilt and fanned it while saying, "Get up." Wake you up!"

"It's too cold. Ah Hua hugged the quilt and said, "Are all the people in the inn up?"

"I don't know, I came up from behind. ”

"From behind?"

"I climbed up from the pine forest. ”

"Is there a road over there?"

"There's no decent road, but it's close. ”

Ah Hua looked at the foal in surprise.

"No one knew I was coming. There was a voice in the kitchen, but the door hadn't opened yet. ”

"You're up so early again. ”

"I couldn't sleep last night. ”

"Did you know there was a shower?"

"No wonder the mountains and bamboos over there are wet, and it turns out that it is raining. I'm going back, you can sleep again, please rest. ”

"It's time for me to get up. Ah Hua still held her hand, and suddenly crawled out of the bed, walked to the window, and looked down at the place where she had come up, only to see the end of the dense bushes, showing a thriving mountain white bamboo forest. The place is halfway down the hill adjacent to the pine forest, and the ground in front of the window is full of radishes, sweet potatoes, green onions, taro, etc., and although they are ordinary vegetables, they are sprinkled with the morning sun, and the leaves are full of colors, giving people a sense of freshness at first sight.

The shopkeeper threw bait at the red carp in the pond on the porch leading to the bath.

"It looks like it's getting cold, so I don't eat much. After the shopkeeper said to Ah Hua, he stared at the crushed dried silkworm chrysalis floating on the surface of the water for a long time.

The foals sat there, looking very elegant, and she said to Ah Hua, who came out of the bath:

"How nice it would be to do needlework in such a quiet place. ”

The room had just been cleaned, and the autumn morning sun was shining on the somewhat old mats.

"You can also do needlework?"

"What a rude question. I've had the hardest time among my sisters. In retrospect, when I was an adult, my family was in a difficult situation. After she said it to herself, she suddenly raised her voice: "If the maid asks me with a look of surprise, 'Sister Ju, when did you come?' I can't hide in the closet again and again." It's really hard to do. I'm going back. It's so busy. I can't sleep, I want to wash my hair. If you don't wash it in the morning, you can't go to the comber until your hair is dry, and you won't be able to catch the morning feast. Although there was a banquet here, I sent someone in the evening to tell me that I had promised someone else that I could not come. It's Saturday and I'm so busy I can't come and play. Although the foal said this, he did not mean to stand up and leave.

She decided not to wash her hair anymore. She invited Ah Hua to the backyard. In the aisle below the porch were the colt's wet clogs and cloth socks, from where she probably snuck in.

It seemed that she couldn't climb the mountain white bamboo through the grass she had just picked up, so she had to walk down the edge of the field in the direction of the sound of water. The banks of the river are steeply slashed, creating a cliff. From the chestnut tree came the voice of a child. A few chestnuts landed in the grass beneath their feet. The foal clogs clogs crumble through the shells and peel the chestnuts out. It's all little chestnuts.

The steep mountainside on the opposite bank is full of flower spikes of barmao, swaying and glowing with dazzling silver-white. Although it is dazzlingly white, it is like a fickle and transparent thing soaring in the autumn sky.

"Can you go over there and see your fiancé's grave?" ”

The foal stoodled to his feet, stared straight at Ah Hua, and coldly threw a handful of chestnuts into his face:

"You're going to make a fool of me!"

Ah Hua didn't have time to dodge, and the chestnuts hit him on the forehead with a bang, and it hurt terribly.

"What does this tomb have to do with you, and is it worth seeing?"

"Why are you so serious? ”

"For me, that's a serious thing to do. Not cynical like you. ”

"Who's cynical?" he muttered feebly.

"So, why do you say it's my fiancé? Didn't you make it clear to you before? Not your fiancé, you forgot?"

Ah Hua did not forget.

"Master, maybe I have considered letting the young master marry me. But I just thought about it in my heart, and I never mentioned it in my mouth. The young master and I are a little aware of this kind of thinking. However, there was nothing else for the two of us. It's always been their own life. When I was sold to Tokyo, he was the only one to see me off. He remembered that Foalko had said that.

The man was critically ill, and she went to Ah Hua to spend the night. As if she wanted to commit herself to him, she said, "I can love as much as I want, how can a dying man hold back me?"

Just as the foal was sending Ah Hua to the station, Ye Zi rushed to tell her that the patient was dead and that he wanted to take her back. Despite this, the colt refused to go back. Therefore, it seems that he did not see each other at the end of his life. Because this kind of thing had happened, Ah Hua remembered the man called Xingnan more and more.

The foal always avoids talking about the affairs of the man. Even if he is not an unmarried couple, he does not hesitate to work as a geisha here in order to earn him a sum of money, which is undoubtedly a "serious and serious matter".

Although Ah Hua was hit with a handful of chestnuts, he didn't look angry. The foal suddenly felt a little strange, and suddenly leaned on Ah Hua with a weak paralysis:

"Hmm. You're such an honest man. You seem to have something sad about you?"

"The children want to see us in the trees. ”

"The people of Tokyo are so complicated and elusive. It's noisy around, and you're absent-minded, right?"

"Nothing is absent-minded. ”

"Someday even if you are not even interested in life? ”

"Hmm. ”

"You see, you don't want to go to any grave at all. ”

"It's just that you're feeling constrained. ”

"I've never been here once, so it's a bit of a constraint. Seriously, not once. Now the master is also buried here, and when I think about it, I'm really sorry for the master. Now, I don't want to go to the grave. This kind of thing is really disappointing. ”

"You're a complicated person. ”

"Why? Since the living cannot explain the matter, at least the dead must be explained. ”

Walking through the pine forest, which is so silent that you can almost hear the sound of ice dripping, you will find a graveyard along the railway road below the ski slopes. In a corner a little higher up in the ridge, there are only a dozen or so old stone tablets and Jizo Bodhisattvas. Each tomb was very cold, bare, and devoid of flowers.

However, in the low shade behind Jizo Bodhisattva, the upper body of the leaf suddenly appeared. In an instant, she glanced at this side with a serious look on her face as if she was wearing a mask, and her sparkling gaze was sharp. Ah Hua saluted her coldly and stood still.

"Yezi, you're early. I'll go find a comb......" Komako said halfway through when a whirlwind blew as if to blow them away, and she and Ah Hua both shrank together.

A wagon rumbled past them.

"Sister!" shouted through the loud rumbling noise. A teenager waved his hat from the door of a black van.

"Saichiro, Saichiro!" Ye shouted.

This is the kind of voice that calls out to the station master in front of the signal station on a snowy day. It was as if he were shouting to the people on the ship who were not easily heard in the distance, and his voice was so beautiful that it bordered on sorrow. When the wagons pass by, it's like taking off the blindfold, and you can clearly see the buckwheat flowers hanging from the red stems on the railway, which looks very quiet. Accidentally met the leaves, so that the two of them barely noticed the train rushing by, and it seemed as if everything had been scraped away by the truck.

After that, the sound of the leaves seems to leave a longer afterglow than the sound of the wheels. It is an echo of pure love.

Ye Zimu sent the train away.

"My brother took this train, and I really wanted to go to the station. ”

"But the train won't be waiting for you at the station. The foal smiled.

"yes. ”

"I'm not going to go to the grave of the man. ”

Ye Zi nodded, hesitated for a while, squatted down in front of the grave, and folded his hands in worship.

The foal was still there.

Ah Hua looked away and looked at Jizo Bodhisattva. Jizo Bodhisattva has three long faces, and in addition to the hands that are folded in front of his chest, he also has two hands on the left and right.

"I'm going to comb my hair. The foal said to the leaves, and walked along the ridge to the village.

From one trunk to another, several layers of bamboo and sticks are attached, and the rice is hung to dry like a drying rod, making it look as if a tall straw screen is standing. The local vernacular called it "Hattie" - the villagers also made this kind of "Hatty" on the side of the road where Ah Hua and the others passed.

The girl gently twisted her waist in snow trousers, threw a bunch of rice up, and the man who was climbing high on the drying rack caught it deftly, separated it neatly, hung it on the drying pole, and repeated the skillful and swift action intently.

As if weighing valuables, the foal held the weeping tassel on the "Hatty" on the palm of his hand and weighed it a few times: "What a good rice, even if you touch it, you will feel comfortable." It's very different from last year!" she said, squinting her eyes, as if admiring the rice, and suddenly felt a feeling. Above her head, a flock of scattered sparrows flew low.

An old poster was posted on the wall beside the road, which read: "The wage contract for rice planters stipulates that the daily wage is nine jiao, and the gang is paid." Female workers are discounted by six. ”

There is also this "hati" in front of the house of the leaves. Her home was built in a field slightly sunken down by the road, with a tall "hati" tethered to a row of persimmon trees planted along the neighbor's white wall on the left side of the yard. At the right angle of the "hati" on the persimmon tree, where the field borders the yard, there is also a "hati" tied, and an entrance is opened at one end of the paddy that can be drilled under these ears of rice. It's like a straw hut built with straw instead of straw mats. In this field, in front of the withered passionflower and rose, the green taro is stretching its luxuriant leaves. The lotus pond with red carp is at the end of "Hatty", and it is no longer visible-