"Master, thank you for your kindness."

Qingden bent down towards Zhouzhu.

"But I don't have the idea of ​​starting a family yet."

"The 'anti-barbarian' thugs in Edo are still rampant."

"As a 'three times' samurai, I really don't have the energy to take care of both men and women at the moment."

There was no politeness or lies in Qingdeng's polite refusal. They were all sincere words.

Now he has completely offended the anti-barbarian group to death.

Before annihilating this unrelenting enemy and uprooting this group of crazy terrorists, he really did not have the spare energy or leisure to marry a wife and start a family.

Hearing Aonto's answer, Kyubei suddenly showed a frustrated expression.

Zhou Zhu looked normal - after all, Qingdeng was just a disciple and resident of their trial guard house, and he had no right to interfere with Qingdeng's private life.

Since Qingdeng has made it clear that he does not want to marry yet, Zhouzhu can only nod:

"Well, at your age, you really don't have to worry about men and women in a hurry."

"If you want to start a family one day in the future, you are welcome to come to me at any time! I will help you find a matchmaker!"

Zhou Zhu smiled freely at Qingdeng.

…

…

That day, late at night——

Trial Wei Pavilion, among the diners——

Qingdeng, who had already changed into white pajamas and was lying on the bed, suddenly felt a little thirsty.

So, he had to lift off the quilt he had just covered and prepare to go to the kitchen on the first floor to find some water to drink.

As soon as he left the diners' room and stood on the corridor outside the diners' room, Qingden suddenly heard the sound of the door being opened beside him.

"Okita-kun?"

"Hmm? Ju-kun, are you still awake?"

On the other side of the corridor, Okita was holding a bathtub in his arms. He kept closing the door of his bedroom with one hand and blinked at Qingteng in surprise.

"I was a little thirsty, so I wanted to find some water in the kitchen." Qingto lowered his eyebrows and glanced at the bathtub in Okita's arms, "Okita-kun, are you going to take a bath at Chihiro's house?"

"Yeah." Okita nodded.

If Okita wanted to take a shower at Chihiro's house, of course he would have to go down to the first floor of the trial bathroom first.

Therefore, Aoto and Okita naturally walked side by side towards the stairs leading to the first floor.

The two of them had nothing to say at first.

But suddenly, Okita suddenly murmured in a tone that made it difficult to understand his emotions:

"It feels a bit scary..."

"Huh? Scary? What is scary?" Qingdeng asked in confusion.

"Today at dinner, Master and the others are taking Kondo-san on a blind date... I feel a bit scary." Okita's lips curved into a wry smile, "Maybe it's because of my personality, I've never liked it very much.

Blind date..."

"Suddenly, my parents forced me to come over with someone I didn't know at all...and asked me to marry that person...I think this kind of thing is really scary."

In the Edo period, although people were free to fall in love, "parents' orders, matchmaker's words" and "get married first before falling in love" were still the mainstream of matters between men and women in this era.

After hearing Okita's emotion, Qingto nodded in agreement: "Well... we both have very similar ideas... Compared to blind dates, I personally prefer the kind of 'accidental acquaintance and then a natural combination'

love affair."

Perhaps because he heard too many bizarre blind date stories in his previous life, Qingdeng has always had a slight resistance to the activity of "blind date".

"Hahaha." The smile on Okita's face changed back to her usual cheerful smile, "It turns out you don't like blind dates either, Tachibana-kun."

"Compared to blind dates, I also prefer the kind of romance where you meet by chance, gradually fall in love with the other person over time, and finally marry with the other person naturally!"

The stairs from the second floor to the first floor were not long. After just two or three words, the two of them had already descended to the first floor.

When the two were about to separate and each was doing his or her own thing, Qingto could not help but glance at the bathtub in Okita's arms.

"Speaking of which...Okita-kun, you really like to take a bath late at night."

"I've been staying at the Bathhouse for so long, but I haven't seen you go to Chihiro House to take a bath outside of late at night."

"Because there are few people in the bathhouse late at night, I am often the only one in the entire bathhouse." Okita replied without thinking, "I really like the feeling of monopolizing the entire bathhouse."

After saying that, Okita waved his hand vigorously towards Aoden.

"Okay, it's time for me to take a shower. If I don't hurry up, Chihiro House may be closed."

"Well, okay. See you later."

As for Okita's habit of taking a bath when the bathhouse is almost closed... Aomori just mentioned it casually.

After saying goodbye to Okita, he put the matter behind him and walked to the kitchen to get some water.

…

…

Time passes in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, Qingdeng's short vacation was over.

Until the end of the vacation, Qingdeng lived a very regular life, spending every day in the Trial Guard Hall concentrating on training.

Compared to Aoto, Kondo is much busier. In recent days, he has been dragged by Shusuke, Abi and the others to deal with various blind date matters, and to have dinner with the Matsui family, and so on.

On the last day of the holiday, the big news that "Aizuhou is going to hold a swordsmanship competition" was finally widely announced.

The Aizu Domain is indeed one of the most powerful feudal clans at present, with a lot of money - they directly sent some of the domain warriors to go door to door to various sword halls in Edo to promote their games.

The competition location and time have been determined as Asakusa and April 16th. Each sword hall only allows a maximum of 3 apprentices to participate.

Both Shusuke and Kondo intend to use this competition to hone their disciples in the gym. With luck, if they get good rankings in this competition, they can further expand the reputation of their gymnasium.

So on the day when the feudal lords of the Aizu Domain came to promote the competition, Kondo and the others gathered all the disciples in the academy and asked if anyone was willing to participate.

There were quite a few people signing up, and in one breath, more than ten people stood up and expressed their desire to go to this competition to see the world.

Each sword hall could only have a maximum of three contestants. Kondo had no choice but to start the selection process and select the three most powerful newcomers to compete - Ainoto was very lucky to be among them.

"Tachibana-kun, based on your current strength... some of the old men in our training hall who have been practicing swordsmanship for a long time may not be able to beat you." - These were Kondo's original words when he selected Aototo to compete.

After the long vacation was over, Qingdeng returned to his job again.

Thanks to the new achievements of "making another great contribution" and "increasing his salary by 400 shi in one breath", Qingnobo's status and treatment within the Beifan Institute have been further improved obviously!

Qingteng is now walking in Beifansuo. Almost everyone who passes by him will take the initiative to greet him enthusiastically. Those senior seniors who are now talking to Qingteng also speak softly.

.

The name "Stupid"...is completely a thing of the past.

Aoshito's main focus these days is to familiarize Nagakura and the others with Okabiki's daily work.

Okabiki's daily work is quite simple. In a nutshell - their main job on weekdays is to help their employer to handle some hard work, such as patrolling the jurisdiction for Qingden and summoning a certain person.

Helping you run errands when you are alone...

They were all jobs with little technical content, so Nagakura and the others got started quickly.

From Qingdeng's vacation to now, there have been two major events worth mentioning in the clinic.

The first major event: Shogun Tokugawa Iemoge personally ordered that the bandits be mobilized to annihilate the rebel group!

The Huo Fu thieves were actually dispatched... This shows that the nature of the case of the "Arrest and Anti-Barbarian Group" has completely changed.

Specially responsible for handling major vicious incidents and dealing with those vicious criminals, Huofu Thieves, whose functions are similar to those of the WU police, were recruited... This shows that the shogunate has completely regarded the anti-barbarian group as a terror that "will shake the national order and must be eradicated as soon as possible"

organize.

The famous Huofu Thief was transferred to assist them - this greatly boosted the morale of the officers at the execution station.

It's a pity... the people from the Yi group can really hide.

After the incident of "the city and town were set on fire and the Fanshu Diao Office was attacked", Edo suddenly became much calmer, and the people of the anti-barbarian group did not show up again.

The execution office and the Huofu Thief Kai almost worked together to turn the entire Edo upside down, but they still had not found the stronghold of the anti-barbarian group, nor had they captured the important leading cadres headed by Kamino.

As for the second major event...although it is not a very serious or important event, it is worth mentioning a few more words.

For some reason, the frequency of sightings of the Kaitou Neko-monk by the town residents has suddenly increased a lot recently!

During the recent period, the monastery has frequently received reports of "seeing the cat monk appearing at night."

Cat Monk's appearance is very irregular. Today I received reports of him appearing in the city center, and tomorrow I heard rumors of his appearance in the eastern suburbs.

Then, on April 6th, something happened... that left all the officials at the execution station confused.
To be continued...