[Under her mother's questioning, Yiyuan Meiyu hesitated for a long time, then she thought of your instructions and told the truth.]
[The girl started by talking about her friend, and how she and the girl had reached a tacit understanding, saying they were going out to play, but in fact they were just hanging out outside.]
[Then, she talked about the morning of the summer vacation when she walked aimlessly to the door of the grocery store and was called to work by the uncle of the grocery store and threatened with that incident.]
[Isn't this coercion? And it's coercing elementary school students to do housework for her! Asano Nao was angry. Faintly, she felt that this scene was familiar. She seemed to have seen it somewhere. She didn't take this familiar feeling to heart. ]
[Yiyuan Miyu continued to tell the story, saying that the uncle at the grocery store would give her delicious food and teach her to play the piano.]
[Asano Nao's anger subsided a little, and she felt that the uncle in the grocery store was not particularly bad. However, she still felt resentful. No matter what, it was too much for a single man to trick a little girl into taking care of him! ]
Memory scenes emerge.
Asano Nao clenched her fists, her face serious: "Where is he? I want to have a good talk with him!"
"Eh? Are you sure?" Yiyuan Meiyu looked at her in confusion, "Can mom go out and walk to uncle?"
Nao Asano really wanted to say yes decisively, but she couldn't do it.
"Can...right?" She looked at her daughter in front of her.
"It's a question mark indeed." Yiyuan Miyu sighed.
The disappointment on the girl's face sparked courage in Asano Nao's heart: "I can do it!"
She got out of bed and rummaged through the drawers in the bedroom for a long time. She put on a knitted hat, a thick coat, a pair of black sunglasses on her nose, and a white mask under the sunglasses.
"Let's go." She pulled the hood of her coat over her head and put her hands in her sleeves, fully armed.
"Mom, can you speak properly when you see your uncle?"
"Of course I can... probably. At least I want him to know that the leverage he used to threaten you no longer exists!"
"Well, uncle gets up at eight every day, so we still have more than an hour."
Outside the window, the snow that had been falling all day finally stopped. The snow on the ground was above the ankles. Many villagers were holding shovels, cleaning the yards and roads.
Yiyuan Miyu was wearing a thick red down jacket and a red knitted hat, walking happily on the snow.
This was the first time I went out on foot with my mother. We always took a taxi to the hospital for check-ups.
My grandmother also came along, my mother dragged her along. My mother didn't dare to face the uncle in the grocery store alone.
Come to think of it, I seem to have forgotten to tell my mother my uncle's name? Anyway, my mother, who stays at home, probably doesn't know my uncle, so I'll tell her when we meet.
After leaving the yard, Yiyuan Miyu bent down, rolled a snowball the size of her fist, and threw it at her mother behind her. The snowball hit Asano Nao's head accurately and slid down her knitted hat.
"Don't bully mom. Come and hold my hand." Nao Asano patted her knitted hat and continued to observe her surroundings.
Her reaction was too weak, which made Yiyuan Miyu lose interest.
"I don't want to hold hands. I'm already a big kid." The girl put her hands behind her back and imitated the old lady's walk.
"I know Miyu is already a big kid, so come and hold mommy's hand, or else mommy will get lost!"
"Eh-?"
Yiyuan Miyu scratched her head. Could her mother get lost too
Is this a verbal trap? Deliberately putting oneself in a weak position to gain the other party's sympathy
Yiyuan Meiyu looked at her mother. The way she cowered and looked frightened did not seem like she was acting.
On the snow, there were two sets of footprints, one big and one small, very close to each other.
After walking out of the center of the village and a short distance, they arrived in front of the house.
Yiyuan Meiyu pulled her mother in from the backyard. The sliding door leading to the living room was locked. She picked up the key from under the flower pot next to her and opened the door.
"Come in." She pushed open the sliding door and greeted her mother and grandmother warmly.
Nao Asano was stunned by her daughter's skillful movements. Only after the old man behind her pushed her did she come to her senses.
"No, I can't go in like this." Asano Nao shook her head, "Call him out."
"Okay." Yiyuan Meiyu raised her head and shouted upstairs: "Uncle! My mother is here, please come down quickly!"
After a while, a lazy male voice came from upstairs: "Wait for me for a moment. Meiyu, please entertain mom!"
"Well, uncle got it. Mom and grandma, please come in quickly." Yiyuan Miyu went to pull her mother's hand.
"No, I'm right here."
Asano Nao firmly refused. She was a little angry. What did the man's words just mean? What did he mean by "Miyu, please entertain your mother?" It was as if this was Miyu's home and she was an outsider!
She felt a great sense of crisis. Could it be that this uncle from the small shop wanted to snatch Miyu from her? And he had planned this for a long time
Miyu is her and Yuki's child, no one can take her away!
She squeezed her daughter's hand, and the girl looked up at her in confusion.
"Don't come here anymore!" Nao Asano said to her daughter.
"Well, my grandmother said the same thing before, and it scared me to death, but she changed her mind right away." Yiyuan Miyu believed that her uncle must be able to make her mother change her mind.
The girl's words made Asano Nao frown, pointing out a suspicious point that she had overlooked.
Asano Nao thought, grandma really knew about this matter! Why didn't grandma tell her the truth, why did she protect this uncle from the grocery store
She turned her head to look at her grandmother, but saw that the old lady had quietly retreated to the gate. After noticing her gaze, the old lady moved quickly and ran away in a short while.
Asano Nao was stunned. "Grandma, why are you running?"
Just as she was about to chase after her, Yiyuan Miyu suddenly broke free from her grasp and ran towards the living room.
"Uncle is coming down!"
Her words were cheerful and her steps were light, like a young cub seeing its parents or a young swallow flying into the forest, pouncing towards the young man who was walking out.
The young man put his hands behind his back, waited for the girl to come close to him, raised his hand, and threw a snowball at the girl's head.
The girl's happy mood and running full of joy of reunion were knocked down by the snowball. She never expected to be hit by a snowball at this time, so she covered her head and stood there in a daze.
The young man's hearty laughter awakened her stagnant brain, and she stamped her feet in anger: "Uncle, you are so childish!"
The girl turned away and decided to ignore him.
"Okay, call your mother in." Nan Youxi patted her head.
Yiyuan Meiyu then remembered her mother. She looked towards the yard and found her mother standing there in a daze, not speaking or moving, as if she had also been hit by a snowball suddenly.
(End of this chapter)