[Your relationship with Asano Nao has deepened.]
[You got to know Nao Asano better. She was a shy person. Even though you were familiar with every inch of her body, she would still blush like a young girl who had never seen her face before.]
[At the same time, you also clearly recognize Asano Nao's fear of society and strangers.]
[She never orders takeout. Food and daily necessities are delivered by couriers. She asks the couriers to leave them on the platform at the door. She will pick them up after the couriers leave or when it is late at night. Moreover, she will try her best to reduce the number of times the couriers come to her house, and buy a lot of items at a time to store them.]
[Another night, you told Asano Nao what happened during the summer vacation and the agreement between you and your parents. Under Asano Nao's supervision, you spent two hours studying every day.]
[Your grades in the second semester are in the middle of the class, and your parents are relieved. ]
[After graduation, you entered an ordinary university.]
[Without Asano Nao's supervision and no reason to study, you soon dropped out of college and moved into the Asano family. Mrs. Tanaka guessed correctly that Asano Nao had a large amount of savings. If you use it frugally, this savings will be enough for you to live a carefree life.]
[When you were 22 years old, you and Nao Asano submitted your marriage application, and you became husband and wife. There was no wedding, just an ordinary family dinner. The only people who attended the dinner were your parents, your sister, and Nao Asano's grandmother.]
[It should be a very festive day, but there is not much joy in the atmosphere. Your parents don't like Asano Nao, and think she is a NEET. They vaguely realized that the reason why your high school grades declined and why you dropped out of college was because of Asano Nao, which made them even more dissatisfied with Asano Nao. ]
[Before the marriage, they told you many times that they hoped you would return to Ino County and marry an ordinary, normal woman. You firmly rejected them.]
[The younger sister also dislikes this sister-in-law. She has no problem with Asano Nao herself, but she is very angry that she has led her brother astray.]
[At the dinner table, my father, mother, and sister forced themselves to smile. Their smiles were stiff and their acting was full of flaws, which could not be hidden from anyone present.]
[Asano Nao's grandmother was at a loss. She liked you very much and also thought that it was her granddaughter who was dragging you down. She used her skinny hands to make various body movements, trying to liven up the atmosphere. She used her hoarse voice to rack her brains, telling those old-fashioned anecdotes from the countryside and making a dry laugh.]
[You used your eloquence to take over the topic at the table. With your witty remarks, the laughter gradually became more genuine. You added fuel to the fire and used various techniques to extract sunny and cheerful fragments from your daily life with your wife and with Asano Kana, and told them to everyone.]
[My sister let go first and laughed, then my mother, and finally, even my father smiled. My father drank the sake in the cup in one gulp. At your eye signal, Asano Nao took the wine pot and poured wine for my father. My father hesitated for a moment and smiled at her.]
[The atmosphere gradually became more lively, and smiles echoed in the living room. Asano Nao mustered up the courage to talk to your parents and sister. Her expression was still panic and her voice was still weak, but compared to before, it was a great improvement. When her parents and sister talked to her, their voices and expressions gradually softened.]
[Granny Asano looked at the warming atmosphere and smiled brightly. She raised her glass to compete with her father.]
[After three cups, she fell to the ground, her body twitching.]
[The living room was in chaos, and the father immediately squatted down to check on Grandma Asano. You immediately called the emergency number.]
[The ambulance took Asano's grandmother away. You, your father, mother, and sister, walked out of the house and followed them to the hospital.]
[Asano Nao did not take a step forward, she stopped in front of the door. Outside the door, many people gathered because of the ambulance. She looked at the crowd, her legs trembling.]
[You hold her waist, put her head on your shoulder, and tell her to close her eyes and just follow you. ]
[Asano Nao took a step forward. But it was too late. She and you both noticed that disappointment flashed across your family's faces, and the closeness they had just felt disappeared.]
[Granny Asano was not seriously injured, but she was too excited and fainted due to the alcohol. In front of the bed, the doctor gave her some simple instructions and left.]
[Father, mother and sister said goodbye to you, they are going back to Ino Prefecture. Asano Nao greeted them, but only her mother responded to her.]
[You went downstairs to pay the bill, and when you came back, Grandma Asano had already woken up. The old lady sat hunched over at the head of the bed, looking at you with guilty eyes. Asano Nao was not at the bedside, so you went to the bathroom in the ward and hugged her crying shoulders.]
[Grandma needs to be hospitalized for a day for observation, and you and Asano Nao return home. Asano Nao apologizes to you, and you comfort her.]
The memory scene appeared.
There was no light in the bedroom, and a dim light came through the gap in the curtains. There was no moon tonight, so that was the light from the street lamps.
On the double bed, Minami Yuki put her arms around Asano Nao's shoulders, and Asano Nao buried her face in his chest. He felt two cold lines on his shoulders. It was his wife crying.
"I'm sorry." Nao Asano sobbed softly.
"Blame me."
"Do not blame you."
"Blame me. You've already arranged everything so smoothly. If I could step out of the door, my father and the others wouldn't hate me..."
"Don't worry about them. Marriage is a matter between the two of us, and it will be our life from now on."
Minami Yuuki helped Asano Nao up, no, it should be Minami Nao's face. They were already married, and Nao had given up the last name Asano and took on the same last name as him, Minami.
Nao didn't answer. She pushed away Minami Yuxi's hand and lay on the pillow next to her.
"Go to sleep." Nan Youxi patted her back. "Go pick up grandma tomorrow and take her home. You have to comfort her and tell her not to worry."
There was no response for a long time in the darkness.
Neither of them could sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Nao's voice suddenly rang out.
"You shouldn't have married me."
"Are you regretting it? It's too late!" Nan Youxi said in a deliberately naughty tone.
Nao raised her body and supported her hands on Minami Yuki's sides. In the darkness, her face was hidden among her jet-black hair.
She said, "You shouldn't have anything to do with me."
Nan Youxi reached out to touch her face, but she turned her head away abruptly, and her hair hit the back of Nan Youxi's hand.
"You had excellent grades in high school. If it weren't for me, you would have been admitted to a key university, worked for a large company, and then... and had an excellent wife."
She stared into Nan Youxi's eyes, her hanging hair like a curtain, wrapping Nan Youxi in the small confessional where only she was, and listened to her confession.
"Aren't you an excellent wife? You are so excellent that I can't control myself every night. My health is getting worse and worse." Minami Yuxi put her arms around Nao's waist. "Besides, I only had good grades in the countryside. I'm pretty average after I came to Misaki."
"That's not what I'm talking about. It's... spiritual excellence. At least you won't be afraid to go out just because there are too many people! And you won't be afraid to hold a wedding just because there are too many guests!" Nao's voice was almost a shout.
She lowered her head, her cold hair scattered on Nan Youxi's face, and tears flowed down her hair and across his lips.
Nan Youxi noticed that his new wife was very serious.
In front of her who was so serious, comfort was no different from perfunctory. She had been thinking about it for a long time, be it several hours, several days, several months, or even several years.
Her concept of confession has matured and become complete; it cannot be broken down or broken through.
The only way to subvert the foundation of her philosophy is to use more shocking facts.
Nan Youxi just happened to have such a fact in her hands.
"Maybe I should be the one to say sorry." He lifted his hair from his face and looked at his wife's face hidden behind it.
The light coming through the curtains was dim, and he could only see the outline of Nao's cheek, but he knew from the sound of her sobs that stopped in the darkness that his wife was looking at him in surprise.
"Do you remember the first time we met? Do you think that I really came to you to borrow comics and games at that time?" Nan Youxi said slowly.
(End of this chapter)