Ten minutes later, there was a strange sound in the room, which seemed a bit depressing.

After twenty minutes, the sound seemed to be unsuppressable, and the joy in it could be clearly heard.

Thirty minutes later, the noise outside the window gradually overshadowed the sound in the room. It was the noise of the villagers still making friends while arranging a flowing banquet.

An hour later, Natsume Naoki looked a little tired but in good spirits. He stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom on the first floor to tidy up his appearance.

He buttoned the second button on the collar and rolled up his sleeves to two and a half inches above his wrists.

Looking up, I see myself in the mirror in full glory, seemingly in the most graceful period of my life——

No matter what happens to a twenty-year-old young man, the vitality on his body is the best men's perfume.

"You should rest for a while before you go! Anyway, the flowing water banquet won't start until noon, so children don't need to help."

When he didn't hear an answer, he shouted out the door again, "Well, don't be angry. I didn't mean it, I couldn't help but..."

"snort!"

A sonorous and powerful cold snort followed, causing Natsume Naoki to smile awkwardly in front of the mirror.

Hey, it seems like I went a little too far.

He thought as he pinched the tips of his slightly dry bangs that had just been sprayed with hairspray.

In the living room, Asai Mao was gargling her mouth. Judging from her expression, she was obviously angry. She was gargling as if she had eaten some unpleasant coptis, and she wanted to use the mouthwash to scrape off all the tongue coating.

She picked up the glass on the table and took a big sip of water. After she finished "gulping", she spit it into a black garbage bag and wiped the corners of her mouth fiercely.

Inside the garbage bag was the garbage from the bedroom. It had just been collected, and you could smell the rotten heather inside through the plastic bag.

After that, she tied up the bag of garbage and packed it up, carried it past the bathroom and threw it at the door. As if out of resentment, she stepped back and kicked Natsume Naoki through the bathroom door.

"Throw away the trash when you go out...and jump into the trash can by the way, you scum!"

Asai glared at him and took the cup he drank from just now to the kitchen to clean it.

Natsume Naoki rubbed her butt and grinned, but watching Natsume Naoki turn around and enter the kitchen, she smiled happily in her heart.

Because he could see clearly in the mirror just now, Mao-chan took off her slippers behind her. She was afraid that it would really hurt him and that it would stain his clothes and make him lose face when he went out, so he used the soft slippers.

The little foot stepped on his right buttock.

Although the kicking skill with stamina 9 was still very painful, Naoki Natsume felt very comfortable.

After packing himself up, he prepared to go out to help Uncle Murata and the others.

When I arrived at the entrance, I didn't even wait to talk to Asai, but I already heard footsteps behind me.

Natsume Naoki turned around and saw that Asai seemed to be holding something in his hand, waving at him with a look of disgust.

"Go away quickly, annoying insects and pigs! I feel upset when I see you!"

While waving Natsume Naoki away, Asai showed a very disgusted expression.

Natsume Naoki held onto the wall with one hand to maintain balance, and put on the heel of his shoe with the other hand.

Seeing something in her hand, the clever Natsume Naoki immediately thought of what it was.

"You'll be cuter when you're more frank."

He turned to look at Asai and smiled: "You were obviously sarcastic to me yesterday morning, saying that you might not marry me in the future, but now you are doing this... Doesn't it mean that you have admitted that you are my bride?"

Asai turned his head and didn't answer, while Natsume Naoki just smiled.

It's really strange that there are girls in this world who are so cute even when they are not frank.

Since she is still so arrogant and keeps everything in her heart and refuses to say it, then let her be.

Who told Asai Mao's flower language to be "implicit"?

"I am leaving!"

Natsume Naoki shouted like this, but he stood at the door with his back to Asai, with no intention of opening the door and going out.

He seemed to be waiting for something.

So Asai quietly walked forward, gently brushed his shoulder with the back of his clenched fist, then spread his hand, holding two flints in his palm.

She struck the flint, causing tiny sparks to fly over Natsume Naoki's shoulders, and whispered, "Martial fortune is prosperous."

This is a custom in the village. In fact, this custom is found in many places in Japan——

When going out for something important, relatives will hold flint stones to see them off. Even some old shops that have been passed down for many years will use flint stones to see off guests when they leave, and hang a purifying fire on them to ward off misfortune.

This ritual that was popular in the Edo period is called "Kiriki".

Because the village relied on mountains many years ago, it was often dangerous for people to hunt for a living. On this basis, when going out, they would recite the words "Martial luck is prosperous" and hope that they can return safely.

Another very important point is that from beginning to end, this custom in the village requires the wife to see off her husband.

In other words, in the village ceremony, the wife can only cut the fire for her husband. Asai naturally knows this very well.

Today's events are very important to the village, and they are also very important to him.

It is an important day for her to respect tradition and pray for him.

Natsume Naoki listened to the crisp flint beating behind him and the soft voice of Wu Yun Changlong in his ears. He opened the door with a slight smile on his lips, bent down and picked up the garbage bag beside the door and walked out.

——

"Look who has gone out? I haven't seen you much in the morning lately. What are you doing at home?"

Just as Natsume Naoki was throwing garbage into the village's centralized processing station, a group of men carrying tables and chairs walked towards him.

With generous smiles on their faces, they were very happy after seeing Natsume Naoki: "Why did Naoki come out so early? Children don't need to come out to help."

The person next to him clicked his tongue: "Zhi Shu is here to throw away garbage, can't you tell? No wonder people don't want you when you go out to work, and you can't even throw away ashes."

The man shook his head and sighed: "You are smart and no one wants you. Now that the economy is so sluggish, why don't you just stay at home like me?"

The person next to me replied: "Wait until next spring and then go out and think of a solution. If you can't find a job in a big city, you can only come back and ask..."

Before he finished speaking, his companion covered his mouth, frowned and scolded him softly: "Don't say this in front of other people's children! It's not easy for any family now, you have to figure out your own way."

Natsume Naoki's ears moved slightly, and he actually heard the conversation of the villagers. He just smiled and pretended not to hear.

If it were seven or eight years ago when there were many factory orders, Natsume Yusei's factory could accommodate the whole village to work. Although the wages offered to everyone were not comparable to those working outside, they would not be able to live a stable life.

questionable.

But at that time, the villagers declined Natsume Yusei's kindness and chose to go out to work. Natsume Yusei had no choice but to recruit some workers from the town. Now, after the economic downturn, the people who went out to work have all come back and cannot find work.

Looking back, Natsume Yusei can no longer afford to pay the wages of so many people due to the sudden drop in orders.

Therefore, the villagers also understand this truth. Although they all know that if they go to Natsume Yusei, the kind-hearted Natsume family will definitely agree to recruit workers and will still treat the fellow villagers with average wages, but no one is willing to make this happen.

People in the village care about these things the most. Face is always the most important thing.

If the Natsume family doesn't say anything, others will poke their spines.

This also better reflects Murata's difficulties in begging Natsume Naoki that day. If it weren't for the fact that the family couldn't get rid of the problem, the children needed money to go to school, and the mother needed to take medicine, Murata, a man who was upright in the village, would never have lowered his head.

Natsume Naoki was thinking this, and the image of Murata who didn't even eat at noon that day and was busy going to the neighboring village to do carpentry work gradually emerged in his mind.

The feeling of being helpless and constrained, like the embarrassment of an introverted child who ruined his test paper and is too embarrassed to raise his hand to tell the teacher.

Only after pressing my lips three times and swallowing four times did I finally say, "Go and beg your dad for me."

It shouldn't be like this.

He thought that Uncle Murata should have a better life, and when he looked up at these simple villagers, they were the same.

They believe in themselves and are even more confident in their own hopes than in their sons' success. The whole village takes care of everything at home. Even when they were in high school in Tokyo, they often received fruits and melons from the villagers.

Vegetables and letters are very valuable.

Then you should bring them a better life.

Fortunately, everything is going to change today.

"I'm just here to help. It's too laborious for three or four people to move such a heavy table."

Natsume Naoki smiled and walked over to take the heavy tables and chairs in their hands, but the group of men were like frightened birds, and even tensed their muscles just to free up one hand to push Natsume Naoki away.

"No, no, no! Naoki, you are in poor health since you were little. We all know that you can't lift such a heavy table and chair!"

The people next to him also chatted: "Some of these tables and chairs were made by Murata's father in the past, and some were made by Murata after more than ten years. Some of them are made of high-quality wood, and they are heavy... You...

With such a small body and bones, even a chair is too big for me."

"It's not that my uncles look down on you, you know it. You are the most promising in the whole village. To be honest, no one's children can compare with you. But people who use their brains should engage in mental activities. This heavy work should be done for you.

Let us roughnecks do it! Carrying cement on construction sites used to be much heavier than this!"

These villagers respect Natsume Naoki from the bottom of their hearts, even though he is a junior in terms of age.

But the prestige and connections Natsume Yusei had accumulated were blessed when Natsume Naoki was born, and the talent and courage he showed as a child made the villagers think he was a genius.

Geniuses are different from ordinary people.

Therefore, in their minds, Natsume Naoki should not only be a member of the Diet, but also a big boss or scientist who sits on one side. How could such a person carry a chair weighing 70 to 80 kilograms from the east to the west of the village in the early morning?

Woolen cloth?
To be continued...