A short memory scene appears.
The eaves corridor of Japanese architecture is a bit like the corridor of ancient Chinese architecture. Both have a roof on top and are used for passage underneath, leading to functional areas such as warehouses and toilets.
The difference is that the eaves of Japan are not covered with tiles, but with floors that are higher than the ground and at the same height as the house.
Nan Youxi opened the door of the backyard, walked through the vegetable yard, took off her shoes, stepped on the floor of the porch, and sat next to Moyu.
He did not hide his figure or the sound of his footsteps, and Mayu did not look at him, but maintained her posture, with her face downcast, staring at the floor at her feet.
The girl's beige slippers were neatly placed aside, and two pairs of white thin socks were stacked and placed next to the slippers. Her fair and tender soles of the feet were pressed against the light-colored wooden floor.
"Why are you back so early?" Nan Youxi noticed the girl's expression. He just thought that the girl was silent because he was not at home, but now, he was not so sure.
"The last class is physical education, so I left early." The girl turned her head, rested her cheek on her knees, looked at Nan Youxi's face, and smiled: "Welcome home, Youxi."
Her long black hair slid down from her back to her shoulders as she moved, and it slid down smoothly and naturally without any stagnation. Nan Youxi stared at the black hair, a little lost in thought. He thought that it must be very comfortable to insert his fingers into such soft hair and gently stroke it, feeling the hair rubbing against the inside of his fingers.
If the girl was 7 years old, he would extend his hand without hesitation, but the girl was 17 years old.
"I went to the painting studio on the seaside with several local painters," said Nan Youxi.
He didn't know why he had to explain, since Mayu clearly didn't ask him where he went.
Maybe it was because of Moyu's words "welcome home", maybe it was because Moyu explained why she came back early, or maybe it was because of the frustrated look of the girl that he saw when he entered the door.
"Is it the studio with a view of the pier?"
"Um."
"I learned painting there when I was in junior high school. Later, the painting class moved to the city. I wanted to go in and take a look several times, but the door was always locked."
"I have the key over there." Nan Youxi reached into her pocket and took out a silver key.
For any creator, a quiet place is a necessity. The painter of Sakuragaoka gave him the key, allowing him to use the semi-abandoned but well-equipped studio at will.
"Can you give it to me? I want to go and take a look when I pass by." Moyu stretched out her hand to Nan Youxi, and her white palm with a faint pink color was placed in front of Nan Youxi.
Looking at this hand, Nan Youxi thought of strawberry daifuku and cherry blossom pudding.
He placed the key in the girl's hand.
After taking the key, Mayu smiled even more brightly, with a cunning look in her eyes.
She held the key tightly and said to Minami Yuxi, "If Yuxi wants to go to that studio, remember to tell me and I will open the door for you."
“…Can I have the key back?” Nan Youxi realized that she had been tricked.
"No, this is mine!" The girl stood up and raised her hand holding the key high. The evening light shone on her proud face.
"Don't you just need to visit the studio once?" Nan Youxi had guessed what the girl was thinking, and he wanted to verify it.
"I didn't say I only wanted to look at it once! I want to keep watching!" The girl put down her hands, took two steps back, and put her hands behind her back to guard against Nan Youxi's snatching.
She continued, "If Yuuki wants to paint, she can just pick any room, or paint in the living room. I'll clear the table. Outside studios are forbidden! Mom said that men can't have other rooms, otherwise, after a quarrel, men will run away from home without scruples and go to that house!"
Nan Youxi thought that Moyou would not quarrel with him, and the girl was not worried about what would happen after the quarrel. The girl was worried that he would move to the studio. There was a two-story villa over there, and it would be no problem to clean up one room as a bedroom.
"How did you know I had the key to that studio?" he asked.
"I can see the pier from the studio window, and of course I can see the studio window from the pier. As soon as I saw a figure inside, I knew it was Yuuki."
Moyu didn't know that Minami Youxi had the key, but when she saw him go inside, she suspected that he had the key.
"Leave the key with you. I didn't plan to go there anyway." Nan Youxi replied.
"It appeared, and the classic man's phrase was 'I didn't intend to do that'!"
[You thought that the girl was upset and flustered because you were not at home, and you felt guilty, so you were not on guard in the subsequent conversation with the girl.]
[You fell into the trap of the girl. She had already found out that you were in the studio next to the pier. She pretended to be lost and stole your key.]
[The girl tried every possible means to stop you from leaving Uta Island, leaving her home, and leaving her side.]
[This obstruction was neither a hard blockade of reality nor a bondage of emotions. In this respect, Moyou showed the coquettishness and cunning of a 17 or 18-year-old girl.]
[You didn’t care about the key, or the feelings behind the girl’s actions, because you felt that if time went on and the filter of memory was removed, Moyu would leave you.]
[Your bland reaction annoyed the girl a little. She wanted you to gently reprimand her, pinch her cheeks, pull her ears, and pick her up from the ground, just like when they were little. However, you didn't even hit her head.]
[After dinner, she took you to the studio. She curiously looked at all the rooms. One of the rooms had a sofa and a thin quilt suitable for sleeping. She locked the room and pulled out the key from the door. You laughed.]
[In the few days after Moyou got the key, the meals were particularly sumptuous. This was the girl's euphemistic compensation.]
[You used the empty room next to the bedroom as a studio, and every time Mayu went to school, you started painting. You didn't paint Mayu, but the sea behind the house. ]
[The school's lunch break is short, and Moyou can't come back to make lunch for you. The girl suggests that you go to her school, and she runs out to eat with you in the store. You reject the proposal and eat lunch at the only restaurant on the island. You are often the only one in the restaurant.]
[You first became acquainted with the family who owned the restaurant, and then with the nearby residents. Utajima is a very small, closed island. As an outsider, and an outsider in Misaki, you attracted many residents to come and see you and talk to you. After you mentioned that you had been abroad, more people came to see you.]
[Before the novelty of the residents wore off, you used your well-developed social skills to become acquaintances with them, and could be considered friends.]
[On the weekend, Mayu took you out to climb the mountain on Uta Island. On the way, you greeted the residents you met, and your relationship with Mayu was teased by them. Among them, several women enthusiastically told you where there were interesting places on the mountain and wanted to go with you. You knew what they were thinking and declined them.]
[After leaving the residential area and entering the woods, everything around you became quiet. Moyou walked in front of you, her steps were fast. You were not used to the path in the woods, and gradually fell behind.]
Memory scenes emerge.
Nan Youxi carefully identified the ground under her feet and tried her best to step on places without fallen leaves.
It is hard for modern people who are used to walking on solid ground to imagine that walking can also be a difficult thing. When they take one deep step and one shallow step, and occasionally stumble due to misjudgment of the footing, they will realize how difficult the mountain road is.
After going around a tree in front, Nan Youxi raised her head and looked forward, but the girl's back was no longer visible in the gap between the tree trunks.
He took two more steps forward and looked around carefully to make sure the girl had disappeared into the sea of trees.
Although there was some distance between him and Mayu, the distance should not be so great that he would lose the girl if he looked down a few steps.
After a while of confusion, Nan Youxi had a guess. He closed his eyes, recalled the place where he last saw the girl, and walked towards that place.
The leaves and soft soil under his feet made a dull sound, which spread and disappeared into the deep forest.
He came to a tree with a dense canopy and looked up.
A piece of blue skirt and a small piece of pink were reflected in his eyes.
"Don't look!" A branch fell from above.
Taking a step back, Nan Youxi avoided the thin branches and retracted her gaze.
He turned around and looked at the sky in the distance. It was so round.
"Seyouxi!" The girl glared at him with her cute face.
"Don't climb trees if you're wearing a skirt." Nan Youxi sighed.
Although Moyu showed some wildness in farming when she was a child, Nan Youxi did not expect that the girl could climb trees skillfully and even climb them in a skirt.
"I thought Yuxi wouldn't find out." The girl was still angry, but now she was angry at herself.
She wondered where she had revealed her flaws that allowed Yuki to notice it.
"'Thinking' is often the beginning of tragedy."
Minami Yuxi wanted to use the example of Hongyi being cheated out of money, but she felt it was inappropriate to tell other people's daughters about stupid things their fathers did, so she changed to ordinary words: "You have to fully consider the consequences first."
He treated the girl as his junior and unconsciously used a warning tone.
"I have thought about it, since Yuki is the only one here!" the girl defended herself.
"Can I? Then what were you shouting about and attacking me with a branch?"
"… I wasn't preparing to attack. I was trying to fold a bunch of leaves to cover my skirt… and then my hand slipped and fell."
"I thought Xiao Moyou thought I was troublesome, so she lured me under a tree and stabbed my head with a sharp branch, intending to dump my body in the forest."
"I don't think Yuuki is troublesome."
"Then why are you walking so fast and hiding in the tree to tease me?"
Hearing what Minami Yuki said, the girl's cheeks puffed up again: "That's Yuki's fault."
"How come it's my fault?"
Nan Youxi thought back to what he had just done. He wondered if he had said a few more words to the 20-year-old restaurant proprietress, or if he had smiled at the boatman's daughter who was in her twenties, or if it was the widow next door to the Chaowu family...
"You just hugged someone else! You never hugged me!" Moyu accused Minami Youxi of infidelity.
"Don't talk nonsense, how could I hug anyone else?" Nan Youxi was shocked. He didn't remember hugging any woman.
Seeing that the man refused to admit it, Moyou's cheeks became rounder, and she said the other person's name: "It's Xiaoya!"
Nan Youxi thought for a while. There were many people on the island and he couldn't remember all their names, but among the few he was familiar with, there was no one called Xiaoya.
"Who is Xiaoya?" he asked at a loss.
"That's the boy you just hugged!"
"…?"
Nan Youxi remembered that before going up the mountain, he met a family of three taking a walk and hugged one of the children.
He was a little troubled and answered Mayu seriously: "If Mayu was a little girl of four or five years old, she could have as many hugs as she wanted."
"I'm a little girl who's a few months over four years old." Moyu opened her arms and wanted to hug Nan Youxi.
"You've been doing this a bit too much these past few months." Nan Youxi pressed a finger against her forehead to prevent her from getting any closer.
The two men smiled at each other and continued to move forward towards the mountain.
On the way, the girl was still a little indignant.
"That little boy is so cunning!" she muttered.
[Moyou tried to tease you, but she failed. When you asked her, she told you the reason for her dissatisfaction, because you hugged a little boy instead of her.]
[This result makes you think deeply. The girl's jealousy is not towards women, but towards children.]
[Walking behind the girl, you think, maybe Moyu's feelings for you are not what you imagined before. ]
[You feel relieved by this discovery. The stone that has been weighing on your heart has been removed. You think, if this is the case, you don’t have to be so careful.]
[You didn't climb to the top of the mountain, but stayed on the cliff at the edge of the island for a while. The sky on the island became darker, the sun disappeared into the clouds, and the grayish white clouds covered the entire sky.]
[You hurried back and forth, but were still a little late. By the time you arrived at the residential area, it had already started to rain.]
[You two are taking shelter under the eaves of the house next door. Moyou's blue skirt is soaked by the rain and sticks to her body. The girl is using this to tease you.]
A short memory scene appears.
The rain poured down in torrents, and the rain lines connected into a piece in front of the two people, like a curtain, shielding them behind the eaves and separating the small space under the eaves into a private area.
Nan Youxi took off her coat and handed it to the girl next to her.
Part of Moyu's blue dress was wet, and the shoulders, chest and back were stuck to her skin. The fabric of the dress was very thick, which did not reveal the radiance of the girl's skin, but revealed the curves of her figure.
After taking Nan Youxi's coat, the girl did not put it on immediately. Instead, she squinted her eyes and looked up at the man in front of her.
She found that Nan Youxi's eyes deliberately avoided her body.
"Are you moved?" she asked with a smile.
"Girls can't say such things." Nan Youxi knocked her head.
This time he used quite a bit of force. The girl covered her head and shrank her neck: "It hurts."
"This is a lesson for you."
"Because it's Brother... Yuuki, I said that!"
"Neither can I."
"We used to take baths together when we were kids."
"I don't remember anything like that."
"After taking a shower, Yuuki ran into my room..."
Her voice stopped, Nan Youxi pinched both of her cheeks with both hands and pulled them away hard.
"It hurts, it hurts, I was wrong!" the girl begged for mercy pitifully.
When Nan Youxi let go of her hand, her pleading look quickly disappeared and she revealed a mischievous smile.
"Yuxi pinched my face." She put her hands behind her back, stood on tiptoe, and approached Nan Yuxi with a beautiful smile: "The next step is to let Yuxi take the initiative to hug me."
(End of this chapter)