Page 74
The tomatoes have been harvested several times, and the new branches are producing small, green tomatoes.
In the fruit shed, Sakura was as cheerful as a lark. Sprouting, blooming, and bearing fruit, every new journey of life is always touching. But what really made Sakura excited was Nadeshiko who was by her side.
Her mother, who had gone to heaven seven years ago, returned to her again.
It is no longer a photo, nor the bits and pieces of memories from my father's mouth, but a real person who I can see with my own eyes and touch with my own hands.
In the planting shed outside the Oshima family castle, Sakura followed her mother in watering the plants.
Growing these plants was originally Maria's job - and also her hobby, and now this work is shared by Nadeshiko.
"It must be boring to follow me here to water the flowers, don't you want to go and play with your friends?"
"It won't be boring, and Ling hasn't come back yet."
Sakura hummed a song, and the water droplets from the watering can in her hand formed a gorgeous rainbow in the sunlight.
Sakura often comes here, sometimes with Lingye, and sometimes by bus. The guards of the Oshima family have known this young lady's friend, and not only will they not stop her, but they will also arrange for vehicles in the manor to pass through (it is several kilometers from the gate to the castle).
"Can't Dad know that Mom is here?"
Recently, she has been going to Lingye's manor, and her father did not suspect anything, thinking that she was just looking for friends to play. Fujitatsu was happy that Sakura finally found a friend of the same age. But Sakura always felt guilty for hiding it from her father.
Xiaoying knew that her father loved her mother more than she did. How happy he would be if he knew that her mother was still alive!
But Nadeshiko persisted. After watering the tomatoes, she took a look at the cucumber and corn fields. They were growing well and should be ready for harvest this month.
"Well, please, Sakura. It's better for Fujitatsu not to know about these things."
In fact, when facing Sakura, Nadeshiko always has complicated feelings. It is an objective fact that Sakura's mother died seven years ago. She is just a fake. She knows it, and Sakura knows it too. She can fool others, but not herself.
Although this fake has inherited Nadeshiko's DNA and memory both physically and psychologically, can she really live as Sakura's mother with peace of mind?
Nadeshiko always felt uneasy, because neither human ethics nor laws would recognize her existence. She might be accepted by the gods of this world, but Nadeshiko didn't think she could feel at ease.
So she didn't dare to face Fujitsu. It had been seven years. Nadeshiko had no sense of the time. She just felt like a cycle of closing and opening her eyes. But it must not be the case for Fujitsu. Seven years was enough time for him to accept many unacceptable things.
Since I have already accepted the fact of my own death, what does it matter if we meet only briefly?
Nadeshiko didn't think her existence could last long. She always remembered that she was the messenger of the Yawa people. The war between Yawa and humans, maybe on the day when the war ended, she would lose all her role.
After all, she could not grow old with Fujitsuya. She was just an unrecognized, short-lived garbled code in this world, an illusion of program redundancy.
There is no reason to let Fujitsuya face separation again.
"By the way, can I make you an apple tart?" Nadeshiko deliberately changed the subject, but this topic did attract Sakura.
"Can Mom make apple tarts?"
"Ah, don't look at me like this, I am still very good at desserts! However, I am actually better at making strawberry tarts, but there are no strawberries in this season."
Strawberries are a fruit of early spring. When the winter chill gradually fades away and the spring permeates the earth, they ripen quietly among the green grass, and then disappear when summer comes.
It is early autumn now, the harvest season. Although there are no strawberries, it is the time when peaches, apples, pears, oranges and other fruits are ripe.
Nadeshiko is very good at making fruit tarts. Fujitsu's favorite is strawberry, so her "Dream-colored Strawberry Tart" is her best. However, if strawberries are not available, other fruits can be used as substitutes.
"I hope Chef Shinomiya doesn't mind me using his kitchen."
Chef Shigong and Chef Caibo both have their own kitchens, but Chef Caibo prefers frying and cooking, while Chef Shigong focuses on French cuisine and often makes desserts. His kitchen has more complete pastry utensils.
Chef Shinomiya certainly didn't mind.
After Nadeshiko asked him to borrow the kitchen, he agreed after a little hesitation.
Although many chefs regard the kitchen as their own territory and do not allow others to invade - Shigong used to be like this, but after serving as a culinary school instructor for a few years, he has become accustomed to students carrying out terrorist acts in his kitchen. Even the expulsion order cannot scare away their enthusiasm, as long as they don't blow up the kitchen, he has become accustomed to it.
What's more, the kitchen here actually belongs to Oshima's family, not his private kitchen of "SHINO'S".
It's already five o'clock in the afternoon and Ling hasn't come home yet.
Because they belong to different schools, Sakura only found out today when she met Ms. Maria that Ling had already left the "Homecoming Club" and joined the school's "Chorus Club" like Tomoyo. There is a club activity after school today, and I heard that they are rehearsing a new piece of music, so they need to come back later.
Maria and Butler Mino were both happy to see this. The young lady was able to find something that interested her and participate in school club activities normally, which also meant that she was gradually integrating into normal school life.
"It's great that they can participate in club activities together."
Sakura was a little envious, she also wanted to be like Tomoyo and Reiya, good friends who could be together every day. But she didn't have such friends in her school, it would be great if she could go to the same school with Reiya and Tomoyo!
It was more than an hour later when Lingye returned home, and she was greeted by Sakura and a freshly baked apple tart.
"Thank you, Aunt Nadeshiko." Ling was also a little happy that she had dessert as soon as she got home. "I should have asked Tomoyo to come along."
"It's okay. I'll pass by Chishie's stop when I take the bus home. I can bring some for her." Sakura said.
This is a dessert made by her mother. Sakura doesn't know if it's a psychological effect, but she thinks it's extra sweet.
The smell of mother should be synonymous with "memories", but to Sakura, the smell of mother is the most unfamiliar and has never appeared in her memory.
Maybe he had tasted it before the age of three, but children under the age of three have many taboos and cannot eat normally. Even if he had tasted it occasionally, he would have long forgotten it in an unknown place in his memory.
She had never tasted the food cooked by her mother.
This is the first time.
The egg tarts were indeed delicious, and it wasn't just Sakura's imagination. Even Chef Shinomiya ate two.
"Such skills are good enough to be a pastry chef in my Shino's." - This is Mr. Shinomiya's evaluation. Although I don't know if it adds points to friendship, but for a French Prussels Medal winner to say such a thing, it is enough to show the superb cooking skills.
Full of apple fragrance, the most special thing about this egg tart is the puff pastry, which is crispy and yet has a full and moist tight feeling. It feels moist in the mouth, with a rich milky flavor, a bit like a brownie cake full of cream, with a very thick taste.
Served with the jam made from fresh apples, it is a refreshing enjoyment in one bite.
Reiya also ate two, and if Maria hadn't reminded her that she couldn't use dessert to replace the main meal of the following dinner, she would have eaten another one. Maria baked a tray of egg tarts, and except for a few left for Tomoyo to take away, they were quickly shared by Sakura, Reiya, Shinomiya, Maria, and Mino.
"Is this called 'Dream Apple Tart'?"
"Yes, the original recipe was supposed to be a strawberry tart, but since there are no strawberries this season, we can only use apples instead."
There are no out-of-season fruits in this era, and even if there are, the taste is not very good. Artificial intervention can never compare to the gift of nature.
This is the formula that Nadeshiko learned in high school, and it is filled with memories of her and Fujitatsu. The so-called "dream color" is actually the feeling of love - her cousin Amami (Daodaiji) often complains about this, and really doesn't understand what's so good about the university archaeology professor named Kinomoto Fujitatsu, but liking someone is originally unreasonable.
Love makes people blind, just like being indulging in a dream.
After eating two egg tarts, Sigong hurried back to the kitchen, seemingly having a new recipe inspiration.
When Sakura left, she took a box of four egg tarts, which she simply wrapped in a food box. This was a gift for Tomoyo.
"By the way, I saw a livestock cart on the road when I came back just now. Are there new animals on the farm?" After saying goodbye to Sakura, Ling suddenly remembered what he had seen before.
The way home that Lingye pointed to was the road inside the manor. It intersected with Jianye's car, which she was sitting in. Because the road inside was a bit narrow, they gave way to each other when they met the big car. But Lingye couldn't see clearly what kind of animal was in the car.
There were only carts for transporting livestock, and they could only be transported to farms.
"Ah, that one." Maria's tone became a little teasing, "It was sent by Hachiken's 'fiancée'."
It has to be said that gossip is human nature, especially for women, it is almost an innate instinct. There are already several versions of the story of Hachiken and Aki.
"Fiancée? Are you engaged?" Ling also asked with interest.
"That is to say, before they gave Yuchuan, now they gave two ponies. If this isn't a token of love, what else can it be? But it's been several years, and they haven't said anything. Ah, young people's love, an old aunt like me can't understand it."
It was fine for Maria to tease herself as an "old lady", but it was absolutely unacceptable for anyone to take over the conversation in this situation. So Ling also kept her mouth shut.
Chapter 96: The Little Pony's Safe Haven
The two foals that Aki brought to the farm were one black and one white. They were obviously purebred horses of excellent bloodline. Over the past two hundred years, the fine horse breeds were artificially bred from the original Arabian horses, and each one had a pedigree that could be checked.
When Lingye came to the stable, Hachiken was feeding the foal with concentrated feed and cleaning the manure and the stable.
"This is Aki. Ah, she was fostered by one of my high school classmates." Hachiken explained to Lingye who was leaning against the fence looking at the foal.
"I remember that the previous Mikawa was also fostered by the sister named Aki at your place, right?"
"Yeah." Hachiken responded, but felt that his expression was a little unclear, so he continued, "Actually, Aki is worried because there are always horse dealers going to her stable. Aki likes Mikawa very much and doesn't plan to sell him, but she can't stand the harassment from the horse dealers. Purebred horses like Mikawa are very popular and are likely to win good places in the race. In order to prevent the horse dealers from thinking about it again, Aki entrusted Mikawa to me two years ago."
If she had stayed at her family's horse farm, Mikawa would have been sold off by her father at a high price. After all, the owner of the horse farm was Aki's father.
This may sound strange, because horses are raised in horse farms for sale. But Aki doesn't like this. It's not that she's hoarding good horses to raise the price. To her, Mikawa is different and has special meaning. She doesn't want to trade it for money.
"And these two foals, too?"
"Yes, Aki likes them very much and doesn't plan to sell them. But recently, horse dealers have heard about it and come here. Their noses are always the most sensitive at this time. If they are not sent to us, they will be bought in a few days. Sorry, I should have told the young lady first."
After all, this is the Oshima family's horse farm. Although Hachiken is responsible for the fodder and daily expenses (Aki will also regularly remit part of the expenses), he should indeed seek the owner's consent. Mr. Oshima agreed to take in Mikawa before, but the two foals were sent a little too hastily this time.
I heard that the parents of the two foals have good bloodlines and are frequent visitors to the racetrack. A large group of horse dealers have already targeted them since they were born, so Aki hurriedly sent them here. They are only six or seven weeks old and have just learned to walk in more than a month. If they were humans, they would be babies who have just learned to crawl.
Hachiken himself was not aware of this beforehand and only received the letter from Aki from the farm this morning.
The letter was sent more than a week ago. In an era without mobile phones and even landlines, it was really difficult to communicate. Ten days was very fast for the Hokkaido post office to deliver the letter to Tokyo. Sometimes it took more than a month, and it was common for the mail to be lost.
So when Hachiken learned about it from the letter, the pony had already arrived in Tokyo. The transportation company's notification was only a few hours later than the postman's.
[Running a farm is different from raising pets. You don't need to invest too much emotion in those livestock.] - Aki has been scolded by her father more than once, but she still insists on doing so. Once there is a horse that she is deeply attached to and does not want to sell, she will send it here. This has almost become a tacit understanding between Aki and Hachiken - in this way, even her father cannot sell them.
Baxuan seemed to have become her safe haven.
Are Hachiken and Aki in a relationship? Ling is not sure. After all, what does she know about love? Even in the past, when she was in high school, she had zero experience in love. Not to mention now.
"Of course it's okay to foster them here. Anyway, no one else will need this stable except Mr. Hachiken. But do these two foals have names?"
Ling also stretched out her hand, and the white pony licked her palm a few times. It was wet and warm. If it was an adult horse, such an action would be very dangerous and it would probably get bitten by the horse. There was no danger for the foal, as it was still in the stage of drinking milk and its bite force was not strong, so Hachiken did not stop it.
He was just a little surprised that the eldest lady was indeed very popular among animals.
"Name? Probably not." Baxuan said uncertainly.
"Can I name them?"
"Well, yes."
This time, Hachiken answered very straightforwardly. The foal was only a month old, and Nobuaki hadn't told him about the name, so it probably hadn't been named yet. Even if it had been named, as a reward for fostering in the Oshima family, such a small matter as naming was of course insignificant.
But Ling couldn't decide what name to give it for a while.
The foals must drink breast milk in the first month after birth, as they only recognize the taste of their mothers. After one month, cow's milk or goat's milk can be used as a substitute, and some concentrated feed can also be added. The two foals had just been weaned from breast milk when they were delivered, and Hachiken prepared some beans mixed with honey in the trough (the honey is to prevent constipation), and some fresh goat's milk.
Goat milk is put in bottles and the temperature must be adjusted to be similar to breast milk, otherwise the foal's sensitive lips and tongue will feel the difference and it will be unwilling to drink it.
"Uncle Baxuan, let me do it, I'll feed it!"
Feeding small animals is a fun thing, and both adults and children like it. It is no wonder that those cute pet parks can be opened in major business districts in the future. Many people are willing to spend much more than the price of the vegetable market to buy some feed to feed those small animals.
Being able to have a pasture at home and raise a group of small animals at will is probably the dream of many city children, right?
Ling took the bottle from Baxuan and knelt in the haystack in the stable without feeling dirty. The two foals came to greet her. Baxuan was a little surprised. Were these two foals so well-behaved before?