After a while, Nakajima Yohei received a reply.
"Minami Yuuki: Maybe I made a mistake."
At least from the text, Nan Youxi believed his lies.
Nakajima Youhei breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nakajima Yohei: How did you know my mother's name?"
"Minami Yuuki: Maybe I made a mistake. Mr. Nakajima may have forgotten about it."
How could I forget? How did you know my daughter's name
Nakajima Yohei typed out a long string of text, wanting to ask further questions, but before clicking send, he deleted all the text.
If he acted too eager, the boy might realize something was wrong.
"Nakajima Yohei: Put more effort into studying."
"Minami Yuuki: Mr. Nakajima is so considerate. It would be nice if he had a good wife by his side."
"Nakajima Yohei: Don't joke about adults' private affairs!"
"Minami Yuuki: I'm not kidding, I can introduce someone to you, teacher."
Nakajima Yohei raised his eyebrows. This guy is so kind
"Minami Yuuki: In return, please introduce your daughter to me."
So this is what you were planning!
"Nakajima Yohei: No need!"
"Minami Yuuki: You're so cold. By the way, has Nakajima-sensei's mother met me?"
Nakajima Yohei's heart trembled. Why would the boy ask such a question? Has Reina ever seen him? What kind of question is this
"Nakajima Yohei: I don't know about that. Why do you ask?"
"Nan Yuxi: It's nothing, teacher, go to bed early."
Nakajima Youhei held the phone and frowned at Minami Yuki's question.
Reina probably has never met Minami Yuxi, but she does know of Minami Yuxi's existence.
He looked through the chat records and guessed based on what Minami Yuki said, it was a person named "Nakajima Reina" who contacted him, so he sent a message to ask.
But this is impossible. With Reina's personality, it is impossible for her to contact Minami Yuki.
Forget it, these young people just do whatever they want, don’t take it too seriously.
Putting the ashtray back to its original place on the railing, he walked out of the smoking room and stood in the corridor to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke.
The hospital was silent at night, the lights shone on the plastic floor and the handrails on the wall, reflecting a few blurry lights that were not dazzling. This scene and this dead silence always reminded him of death.
Thinking that the smell of cigarette smoke on his body had faded, he walked deeper into the corridor.
Pushing open the door of his daughter's ward, a sea of white came into his sight: the walls, the floor, the curtains, the fluorescent lights, everything was white.
The white curtain was drawn open, and a girl in a blue hospital gown was sitting on a white bed, covered with a white blanket.
Her face was turned toward the window, looking toward the garden below.
"Reina." Nakajima Youhei walked into the ward.
"Hmm?" The girl turned her head, revealing a gentle face. When she saw her father, a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
That gentle smile was like a statue of a god, dispelling the feeling of death that was infecting Nakajima Yohei in the corridor.
"It doesn't matter." Nakajima Reina shook her head and looked out the window again.
Nakajima Yohei scratched his head. He was actually not good at dealing with his daughter. Compared to the overly lively students in school, his daughter was particularly quiet.
Sometimes, when he was teaching students who were too noisy a lesson, he would suddenly feel envious. He would think, it would be great if Rena could be as noisy as them, just as willful, have the same distinct ideas, and have a passion that only lasts for three minutes but is very intense.
"I made a joke this morning." Nakajima Yohei tried to find a topic. "I woke up late by accident, and hurriedly put on a tie before going out. When I got to school, I realized that the color of the tie was the same as the color of the shirt..."
As he began to speak, his daughter's eyes were fixed on him and she seemed to be listening carefully.
He knew that this was just a courtesy, a tolerance. Was his daughter really interested in his tie? Probably not, but his daughter was not disgusted by his topic either. She was willing to listen to him and gently told him that he was stupid or reminded him to pay attention next time.
This was not the reaction he wanted; he wanted to bring some fun to his daughter who had been in the hospital for a long time.
He changed the subject many times, but none of them succeeded.
There was no other way, he could only use his ultimate move.
"That Minami Yuuki went home with Chishou Kazumi again today."
When talking about Minami Yuki, Nakajima Yohei keenly grasped his daughter's slight emotional change, and this topic made her feel interested.
"I thought that after he got involved with Ichinose Shiori, he would often cling to her. Marrying her would save him from struggling for his whole life, but I didn't expect that he would still stick with Chiju Kazumi."
Nakajima Yohei recounts his observations of Minami Yuki today.
It was at the beginning of the month that I discovered that my daughter was interested in Minami Youxi's story.
He had limited stories to tell and would run out of things to say after a while, so he often brought up stories about his classmates as topics of conversation with his daughter.
Over the past decade, he has told stories about countless students, some of whom, some of whom played some farces, would briefly arouse his daughter's interest, making her more focused and her eyes brighter than ever before.
In early April, a new batch of students enrolled, and the dazzling presence of Minami Yuxi naturally became new material for Nakajima Yohei to chat about.
This handsome boy from a remote area made a fool of himself because of a few trivial things that no one actually cared about, and quickly fell into a state of autism. It was an excellent plot.
As he expected, after he began to tell the story, his daughter was attracted by the boy's story.
While he was delighted, he also thought that his daughter would soon lose interest in Nan Youxi, just like her previous students. His daughter had never been interested in a person or a thing for more than five days.
He was wrong. Nan Youxi's story had been going on for more than half a month, and his daughter's interest had not only not faded, but had tended to become stronger over time.
Even if he only talks about some very meaningless things, such as how many times Nan Youxi yawned this morning, how she secretly looked at her phone during class, and what she said to whom, my daughter will still find it very interesting.
It was a good thing to be able to continue to arouse his daughter's interest, but he was also jealous of his daughter's strong interest in a boy.
Over the past twenty days, Nan Youxi has become a regular topic of conversation. He feels like a third party has come between him and his daughter.
He was eager to find another topic that would interest his daughter and replace the daily time with Nan Youxi, but he has not succeeded so far.
"Mr. Nakajima, the time is almost up." The nurse on duty knocked on the door to remind Nakajima Yohei.
"Okay." Nakajima Yohei stopped talking about Minami Yuxi and responded to the nurse.
He stood up. "See you tomorrow, Reina."
"See you tomorrow, Dad." Reina Nakajima waved to him.
(End of this chapter)