Chapter 223

The next day, half past ten in the morning.

Shimizumi only realized it was already this time after seeing the clock on the wall.

I glanced towards the bed and found that Sakurai Haruka and Sakurai Shio were not in the room.

Not only that, there was also an extra blanket on his body.

After a short while, Qing Shuijian remembered that he had woken up once about half an hour ago.

At that time, Sakurai Haruka and Sakurai Shio seemed to have just gotten up, washed up, and were preparing to have breakfast.

However, maybe it was because he drank plum wine last night, but Shimizu felt a little uncomfortable when he just got up. Although he still feels a little dizzy now, Shimizu asked Sakurai Haruka and the others to have breakfast first and not wait for him.

Although a high-end hotel of this level naturally provides free breakfast, Sakurai Shio doesn't like the food in the hotel very much, saying that the really delicious food is in the small shops outside.

Because the barbecue restaurant she took her to yesterday was indeed delicious, Shimizu Mi had to agree with this.

In any case, Qingshuijian got up first.

After washing up, changing clothes, I took the elevator downstairs.

After walking out of the hotel, Qingshuijian, with his brows furrowed more and more as he felt more and more uncomfortable, stared at the ground, and then he heard a loud and lively voice.

"Student~brother!"

Looking up, Shimizu saw Sakurai Shio running towards them, waving her hands back and forth.

Because the noise and movement made so much noise, it attracted the attention of some passers-by, and Sakurai Haruka, who was walking with her, seemed a little embarrassed.

"Junior, you are too late."

"what?"

This was the first sentence that Sakurai Shio said when she stopped in front of Shimizu.

"You said I was late... didn't you and I arrive almost at the same time?"

"No, that's not right. We came here a long time ago. We waited for a while and then ran over after seeing you, junior brother."

Having said that, Sakurai Shio did not tell Shimizu Mi about the time, so there was no question of being late.

"How long is 'waited a while'?"

"Hmm... maybe three minutes."

Sakurai Shio thought about it for a moment, then answered seriously.

"It's not enough to question me about being late."

"I say, junior, if you make a girl wait for you for one second, you can be considered late. Really, junior, do you always make girls wait like this when you go out on a date?"

"This isn't a date..."

Qing Shuijian realized something after he said it.

Although for the three of them it was just a trip, and it even felt a bit like the school trip organized by the school before, but for others, this was probably no different from a date.

And the main point is to be with two girls.

While Shimizu was thinking about this, Sakurai Haruka handed him a mandarin orange.

"Want to eat?"

"……Thanks."

Shimizu took the mandarin orange and peeled it silently.

"Why do I feel like my junior is listless? Is it so boring to be with us?"

"That's not what happened..."

Perhaps because of the dizziness and discomfort, Qingshuijian looked a little listless.

"That's true. I think so too."

Sakurai Shio giggled shamelessly.

"Don't be so depressed, travel should be happy."

"So, where are we going today?"

"Let me think... Anyway, let's go have breakfast first."

"Didn't you guys just go there?"

"No, we just wandered around here for a while. Besides, there's no way we two could leave our junior behind to enjoy ourselves."

In fact, even if the two of them went to eat first, Qingshui Jian wouldn't mind.

Afterwards, Sakurai Shio led Shimizu Mi and Sakurai Haruka and strode forward on the busy street.

She walked without hesitation, and it seemed that she had already decided on the restaurant to eat at.

Shimizu Ken followed all the way, just silently eating the mikan petals one by one. I don't know if Sakurai Haruka bought them at the nearby fruit store, but they were unexpectedly sweet and delicious.

After walking about two blocks, I turned left near a shopping mall and walked down the stairs to the basement, which seemed to be an underground commercial street.

Unexpectedly, Sakurai Shio soon stopped in front of a ramen shop located in the underground street. The unique aroma could be smelled becoming stronger and stronger on the steps near the shop, and Shimizu Mi's worries were slightly relieved.

On the wall outside the store, there is a report about a famous food cartoon that came here to collect materials, so it doesn't seem to be a strange store.

Although it might seem unusual to eat ramen for breakfast, it was already nearly eleven o'clock, so technically it was lunch.

The ramen was delicious and the food was served very quickly after ordering. Shimizu wolfed it down.

In addition, Sakurai Shio took advantage of the system of adding extra noodles. When the clerk asked about the hardness of the noodles, Shimizu Mi heard her say "steel wire" and complained politely.

I didn't expect there was such a hardness classification. After Qingshui learned about it, he realized that it seemed to be just the degree of soaking the thin noodles in hot water.

After eating, Sakurai Shio took Shimizu Mi and Sakurai Haruka and immediately got on the train.

She said there was a shrine nearby, which only took about 30 minutes by train. Since they were traveling, visiting the local shrine and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way was part of the trip.

"The weather is great."

After leaving the station, Sakurai Shio walked briskly up the slope leading to the shrine with a smile that seemed to compete with the sun.

Although it was noon on a non-holiday, the approach to the shrine was still crowded with people. There were souvenir shops, grocery stores, restaurants, and small shops selling strange souvenirs on both sides, which was very interesting to watch.

What particularly attracts people's attention are the several famous bakery shops next to it. Even if you have just finished eating ramen, the delicious aroma will stimulate your nose.

Sakurai Shio would walk into the store from time to time to look around. Although she didn't buy anything in the end, the sellers knew that she was just looking, so she could enjoy the fun of shopping with peace of mind.

Under the scorching sun, Qingshui finally climbed up to the shrine with sweat all over his forehead, and went to a nearby vending machine to buy a drink.

Vending machines are specially set up in such perfect locations that can easily stimulate consumers' desire to buy. Although consumers are unwilling to be defeated by the merchants' tactics, rationality has to succumb to thirst, a physiological need that is vital to life and death.

While drinking the drinks, Sakurai Shio and Sakurai Haruka, who were walking in front, had already put a short distance between themselves and Shimizu Mi.

At this time, even Shimizu had to admire the physical strength of these two people.

“I feel so youthful.”

Sakurai Shio still had a smile on her face. Sakurai Haruka stopped beside her and shook her sweaty blonde hair: "The sky is very blue, but it's a pity that it's not spring... It's so hot."

The people around had probably reached the limit of their physical strength, and many of them sat under the shade of the trees without any scruples.

Although I know it is summer, it seems to be particularly hot today.

The three of them continued to move forward, relying on their youth and the fact that they had been hydrated to avoid dehydration. After washing their hands, they followed the other travelers and touched the cow statue that was heating up in the sun. As for why there was a cow statue, Shimizu read the instructions, but forgot about it because it was so hot. The protagonist Sakurai Shio, who suggested coming here, had no intention of reading it at all.

After walking across the small bridge, they finally stood in front of the god's offering box. Qingshuijian threw five yuan of incense money into the box and bowed.

Although the scale of this shrine is much smaller than the Kiyomizu-dera Temple visited during the school trip in Kyoto, the form and atmosphere of the worship are actually very similar. So after going through the whole process, Kiyomizu's movements seemed particularly skilled.

By the way, Shimizu seemed to have read somewhere that the purpose of worshipping a shrine is not to pray to the gods, but to express one's determination in front of the gods.

Even so, Qingshui saw that he had no determination at the moment, and had no choice but to help the two people around him.

Shimizu pretended to pray and made a wish to the god.

When he came to his senses, Shimizu found that Sakurai Haruka and Sakurai Shio had been praying silently for longer than him.

Perhaps they made completely different wishes, but Shimizu Mi had no intention of asking.

Praying is something one does silently.

"I hope I can continue traveling around with my junior and Haruka like I do now. What about my junior?"

It was a good idea. If possible, Shimizu would also like to spend his life leisurely like this. Unfortunately—

"Wishes are things that won't work once they're spoken out."

"How can that be possible? Junior, haven't you heard that everything depends on human effort? Whether a wish comes true or not depends on one's own efforts and persistence."

Is she such a pragmatic person?
It seems that before this, Shimizu Mi seemed to have a little misunderstanding about Sakurai Shio.

"Nene, what did Haruka wish for?"

"Don't tell you."

"Wow, how cruel! My heart hurts so much—"

Sakurai Shio pretended to cover her chest, and then noticed from the corner of her eye that some tourists were walking towards somewhere ahead.

"Junior, let's go and ask for divination too."

Sakurai Shio, who was pretending to be heartbroken a second ago, ran to the fortune-telling area in front after she finished speaking.

Shimizu Ken and Sakurai Haruka had no choice but to follow.

Sakurai Shio threw a hundred-yen coin into the box without hesitation and drew a lot.

"Whoever gets the best lottery ticket wins."

What did she take the fortune-telling as?

Sakurai Haruka also threw a coin and drew a card, but Shimizu Mi didn't.

Because he felt that the probability of drawing bad luck every time was much greater than good luck, after the last school trip, Shimizu decided not to touch these projects anymore.

"Ah, Daji!"

Sakurai Shio shouted loudly with joy, leaving Shimizu speechless.

"Where's Haruka?"

"lucky."

"Xiaoji's bottom?"

"It's Daji's bottom."

"No matter what, I win, hehe."

"As long as you are happy."

"It says above that a good match is coming, how great..." Sakurai Shio murmured as she looked at the fortune she drew.

"If you really think it's good, why would you speak in such a tone?"

Shimizu said something casually, and Sakurai Shio tilted her head towards him and laughed at him from a very close distance.

This woman is obviously very cute as long as she doesn't speak, Qingshuijian couldn't help but think so.

Then Shimizu looked away and heard Sakurai Shio laughing again, but she was just laughing and didn't say anything.

After that, Sakurai Shio continued to lead the way back along the way they came.

However, we did not walk up the small bridge we came from, but went around to the left and passed a pond.

There were many turtles in the pond. Sakurai Shio bought some turtle food from the nearby store and sprinkled it into the pond.

Looking at the turtle's slow movements, the heat seemed to dissipate a little.

While Shimizu Mi and Sakurai Haruka were concentrating on feeding the turtle, Sakurai Shio ran over to talk to a little girl who was passing by.

"Sister, is that your boyfriend?" asked the little girl.

"No, we are——"

Sakurai Shio paused, looking as if she was thinking hard, then looked towards Shimizu Ken.

Before she could ask, Qing Shuijian answered in advance: "Isn't it enough to just say we are friends?"

"Even though they are children, it's not good to fool them like this, right?"

Fooling around... This is probably the relationship that was originally going on.

After hearing this, the little girl was completely confused.

After feeding the turtle, we continued walking along the pond and came to a restaurant. At Sakurai Shio's suggestion, we decided to take a break.

The air conditioning in the store was very strong and Qing Shuijian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. In addition to the three of them, there were three other groups of customers in the spacious store, including a family of three, an elegant old couple, and three somewhat noisy old ladies.

Qingshui saw the three people sitting on the tatami seats by the window. After a while, the kind waitress brought two glasses of water and asked what they wanted to order.

"Three almond cookies. I want to drink the "Huoyuan". What about you?"

Shimizu had no idea what Sakurai Shio had ordered, so she nodded, and Sakurai Haruka did the same, and then the old lady clerk walked to the back of the store with a smile.

Before I even started waiting, the waitress brought me almond cookies and three glasses of iced dairy drinks on a red plate, saying, "Sorry for the long wait."

Apparently, this drink is called "Huoyuan".

"I heard it's a specialty. It's mentioned in a magazine. It's a lactic acid drink sold exclusively in Hokkaido by Snow Brand Dairy."

While Sakurai Shio was talking, Shimizu Mi took a sip first. It tasted really good, with a strong lactic acid bacteria flavor. And because it had been frozen in the refrigerator beforehand, he felt his body temperature gradually drop, and the cool feeling spread all the way to his fingertips.

As for the cake, it seems to be the white round cake that the store always has on hand. The crust is thin and fluffy. When you bite it, the red bean filling overflows from it. It is sweet and slightly salty, very delicious, and goes well with chilled lactic acid bacteria.

"It's delicious. How about following me?"

Sakurai Shio kept touching Sakurai Haruka who was sitting next to her with her arm, and Sakurai Haruka reluctantly replied, "It's OK."

"Haruka is really not candid."

After finishing the almond cookies, Sakurai Shio drank the remaining lactic acid bacteria while spreading the magazine on the table.

"What should I do next?"

At this moment, Sakurai Haruka seemed to have accidentally caught a glimpse of something in a travel magazine.

"Oh, Haruka is also interested. Did she see something...ah!"

Sakurai Shio was halfway through asking when she suddenly screamed.

(End of this chapter)