Chapter 344 Neighbor's Child
"It seems that the Zeshan family's children will be back today."
"I haven't seen him for so long, I don't know how the child is doing now."
"He should have become a reliable character like an adult. After all, he is studying at the University of Tokyo. And I heard from Ako that he has started working recently. I can't believe that the child has changed so much."
In the living room, several aunts and uncles were sitting together chatting, but the content of their conversation made Fujii Miyuki, who was standing at the stairs, somewhat concerned.
She was carrying a wooden basin filled with dirty clothes. She was supposed to put them into the washing machine in the bathroom on the first floor, but at this moment her feet seemed to be rooted and she stayed at the stairs without moving.
She also wanted to hear more from her aunts and uncles about Zeshan Haruno.
"Come to think of it, didn't Eina plan to help Miyuki get engaged to that kid?"
An aunt joked, "I told you to make a decision sooner. Now the child probably plans to live in Tokyo for a long time. Even if he comes back, there won't be much hope, right?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Fujii Eina said unhappily, "I did want to, but when that kid was in high school, my Miyuki was still in elementary school. I mentioned it to Ako several times, both openly and covertly, but nothing came of it."
"."
Standing at the stairs, Miyuki Fujii hugged the wooden basin tightly. She bit her lips lightly and showed a complicated expression.
Mom liked the man named Sawayama Haruno very much, and she knew this since she was a child.
The old house of their Fujii family was built like most of the rural houses in Quannan City. It was a wooden apartment-style house, almost over 30 years old. Before she was born, the family had already prepared an empty room in advance.
According to my cousin, my mother had just married my father at that time. Because the child of the neighbor Zeshan family was born too early and was very smart since childhood, my mother often took him to her house for dinner and overnight. The room where he stayed was the room where she sleeps now.
After learning the truth, Fujii Miyuki actually felt a little disgusted. Although she was still in elementary school at the time, she already had a vague and fuzzy gender awareness, and always felt that it was a bit awkward for her to live in a room that had once been occupied by another boy.
Fortunately, the awkwardness was not very strong, and she didn't care about it later.
What really made Fujii Miyuki care about the other person was that her mother had mentioned things like arranging a marriage for her children intentionally or unintentionally. It was also from here that she gradually developed a slight curiosity about the man named Sawayama Haruno.
There was a big age gap between the two of them, so they couldn't play together, but whenever they were at home, whether at school or in front of their elders, they could hear Sawayama Haruno's name from time to time.
He has excellent academic performance, good looks, and is born into the local wealthy family of Zeyama. He knows everything since he was a child, as if he were a reincarnated person. He is even the only genius in his hometown who went to study in Tokyo after high school and was admitted to the University of Tokyo.
What a perfect person! He is completely different from most of the kids in their countryside. Normal kids would worry about whether they can go to school with their good friends in high school after graduating from junior high school, or whether they can encounter a "cherry blossom-like romance" after school starts.
But the other party made the most unexpected and "promising" choice in every sense.
Such a character is extremely destructive to young girls who are young and inexperienced but have dreams and yearnings for big cities like Tokyo.
Even though Fujii Miyuki felt that she didn't have much in common with the other person, she couldn't help but feel a vague liking for the man named Sawayama Haruno every time the elders mentioned him during their conversations.
"Zeshan, Haruno"
Standing at the stairs, Fujii Miyuki whispered the other person's name.
"Ah, Miyuki-chan? What are you doing standing here?"
Just as Fujii Miyuki wanted to eavesdrop further on the conversation in the living room, an aunt who had just come out of the bathroom found her standing at the stairs.
Facing the aunt's surprised expression, Fujii Miyuki opened her mouth, but her face was so embarrassed that she couldn't utter a word.
"Do some laundry."
She held the wooden basin full of dirty clothes and stammered, "I changed these yesterday and haven't had time to put them in the washing machine yet."
"Really? Then go ahead."
The aunt didn't think much about it, thinking that the little girl was embarrassed to run downstairs with the clothes.
But after noticing the commotion, Fujii Eina called her daughter over, obviously asking her to come and chat with the other aunts.
This was exactly the part that Fujii Miyuki feared the most. She was not good at dealing with her elders and always felt uneasy in such situations.
What's more, her focus was on Sawayama Haruno, and after Fujii Eina called her over, the other aunts and uncles naturally focused their discussion on her, so they would miss out on information about Sawayama Haruno.
"I should have moved higher up," Miyuki Fujii thought regretfully.
At this point, thinking about anything was of no use, and she could only chat with the elders with a sad face.
When the topic changed from "Miyuki's performance in school" to "Does Miyuki have a boy she likes?", Fujii Miyuki's face finally became a little embarrassed.
Fortunately, the doorbell rang in time and freed her from this embarrassing situation.
"Ding-dong-ding-dong-"
"Hey, is anyone else coming?"
Fujii Eina felt a little strange and was about to stand up when she was stopped by Fujii Miyuki.
"I'll go open the door. Mom will stay here with the aunts."
After saying this, she didn't give her mother any chance to refuse and seized the opportunity to quickly stand up and run towards the entrance.
After successfully escaping from the living room, which could be described as an "embarrassing scene for the younger generation", Fujii Miyuki breathed a sigh of relief.
That's great. I don't know what to say if I continue chatting. Although I don't know who rang the doorbell, thank you in advance.
While expressing her gratitude to the guest outside, Fujii Miyuki opened the door without hesitation.
However, when the cold wind from outside blew in, what the ignorant girl saw was a handsome young man with a gentle and elegant temperament.
He was wearing a thick red and black plaid jacket with velvet, paired with black trousers. He looked clean and tidy, and gave people an inexplicable sense of friendliness. His hair slightly covered his brows, and his pair of brown-black pupils appeared particularly deep in the white air he exhaled. Almost the moment their eyes met, Fujii Miyuki knew who he was.
There was no mistake. Although they hadn't seen each other for a few years, Fujii Miyuki was extremely certain about his identity. Moreover, no one in this small town had such an inexplicable temperament, except for this most talked-about "genius".
"Sorry." His voice was also extremely gentle, like the spring breeze that suddenly blew after the cold winter faded away, so warm that Fujii Miyuki couldn't help but get goose bumps.
"Yes!"
Miyuki Fujii shouted out loud subconsciously, just like a student who was caught daydreaming by the teacher in class.
Such an impassioned and powerful response even made the handsome young man stunned for a moment.
"Um. I'm Zeshan who lives next door."
After hesitating for a moment, Sawayama Haruno decided to tell the purpose of his trip.
He politely explained, "I'm running low on soy sauce at home, but the convenience store nearby is closed, so I wanted to ask if you have any extra soy sauce I could borrow from you."
Worst excuse ever, but Sawayama Haruno was serious.
He really ran out of soy sauce at home.
The closure of convenience stores is of course true. After all, there are no 24-hour convenience stores in the small town. In the snowy winter, store owners will start closing long in advance. Generally speaking, they will only be open for about half a day, and now it is obvious that it has exceeded the so-called "half a day".
Out of desperation, Sawayama Haruno had to help Sawayama Ako out and ask the neighbors if he could borrow some soy sauce.
"what?"
After listening to Sawayama Haruno's entire explanation, Fujii Miyuki was stunned.
She stood there in a daze, not daring to believe what the other person said.
Most of the girls in the town have never seen Sawayama Haruno's real appearance, but everyone is convinced that he is definitely tall and handsome, and a top student. He is a rare type in the whole Tokyo. No, in the whole island country. After all, being able to be admitted to the University of Tokyo is the best proof.
Logically speaking, such a person should have lived a relatively successful and happy life. Although he may not be able to bring a female companion to various high-end places, he certainly cannot help borrow soy sauce, right? ?
I don't know why the original tall image seems to be destroyed in an instant.
"There's none?"
Seeing the other party's dumbfounded expression, Sawayama Haruno became more and more embarrassed.
He regretted agreeing to go out and borrow soy sauce from his mother, but he had no other choice at this point, so after a brief silence, he politely apologized to the other party, and then prepared to go to the next house to ask again.
"and many more!"
Fujii Miyuki thought quickly and called him.
"That grocery store sells it."
She stammered, "It just so happens that I'm running out of the ones at home. If you want to buy some, would you like me to take you to another grocery store?"
This is a lie.
Miyuki Fujii's father happens to work in the local government's demolition office. Although there is no demolition plan for this shabby place every year, it still does not affect their enjoyment of some small benefits from the government.
For example, every year the town would keep some daily necessities for distribution to neighborhood committee members and residents attending meetings, and some of them would be taken away by them, and soy sauce was one of them.
Although the soy sauce at Fujii Miyuki's house cannot be described as abundant, compared with the amount that ordinary families would stockpile, it can be said that they have a lot of soy sauce.
In other words, Fujii Miyuki was not trying to use the other person as a soy sauce, but just wanted to find a chance to be alone with the other person.
"You guys have run out of it too?"
Sawayama Haruno was a little surprised, but seeing the other party's enthusiasm, he thought about it for a moment and felt that it was indeed more convenient to buy it at the grocery store than to borrow it from someone. After all, it could avoid embarrassing situations from happening again.
So he didn't think any more about it, just nodded and thanked him politely.
"I hope it won't bother you."
"No, I won't."
Miyuki Fujii's heart was beating so fast that she even forgot to change into more suitable clothes. After hurriedly putting on her shoes, she took Sawayama Haruno towards another grocery store in the town.
Along the way, the junior high school girl's mind was in a mess. She wanted to secretly glance at the young man who was following her, but was afraid of being discovered by him. After walking almost at the same pace for a long time, Sawayama Haruno, who couldn't bear it any longer, finally spoke.
"Um, you are Aunt Fujii's daughter, right?"
Sawayama Haruno looked at Fujii Miyuki, whose walking posture was extremely stiff, with a little amusement.
"Come to think of it, although our two families are neighbors, we rarely saw each other when we were young."
He paused and added: "It was only after my mother told me that I had a general impression of it."
"Well, it's because I'm several years younger than you." Fujii Miyuki subconsciously clenched her fists and said nervously, "But the school I'm attending now is... the same school you attended before."
She originally wanted to add honorifics, but in her nervousness, Fujii Miyuki accidentally bit her tongue. Now her face was almost wrinkled in pain, but she had to pretend to be calm.
"The school I attended before? It was Kinnanji National Middle School. It's such a long time ago that I almost forgot what that school looked like." Sawayama Haruno said casually.
Hearing what he said, Fujii Miyuki couldn't help but glance at him, and then asked cautiously: "Um, is it difficult to get into a school in Tokyo?"
"Ok?"
Sawayama Haruno was a little surprised, but he still explained truthfully: "It's not that difficult to get into high school, but it's a bit troublesome to get into Tokyo from a local area. Either the score line is very high, or you have to enter high school and then apply for a school in Tokyo, and then transfer there."
The changes in academic status in the island country are somewhat similar to those in his previous life, but also somewhat different. The reason why Haruno Sawayama was able to be admitted to a high school in Tokyo was partly because of the help of the teachers in the school, and partly because his grades were so good that it was not a big problem for him to apply to Tokyo.
Simply put, either you have points or you have money. From this point of view, there is not much difference from his previous life.
Of course, high school is one thing, and taking the college entrance exam is another. High school is relatively much better, but the difficulty of getting into college will increase significantly.
Most of the schools that you can buy into are nominal schools run by institutions, the kind that will only give you two stamps after graduation; or they are ordinary, crappy schools that are purely for gilding a local Tokyo degree.
It is undeniable that there are good schools that can be bought with money, but for the residents of this small town, they are basically not within their consideration.
(End of this chapter)
