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Matsumae Shinchun knelt upright on the prayer mat at home, clasped his hands together, lowered his head, and closed his eyes to calm his mind.
The wind blew in along with the glass wind chimes flowing by the window.
The ends of her hair hanging down in front of her ears were lifted up, and her thoughts, like the incense in front of the shrine, swayed towards the past.
"Miss."
"Miss."
"Miss."
In the main hall of Matsumae Shrine, in front of the statue of a white fox holding a jade bracelet in its mouth, Matsumae Shinchun took a long time to regain his focus from Lord Baiye's eyes.
The young little girl opened her tear-stained eyes, raised her slightly round face, and looked at the kind-looking Nagayama Sakura.
Nagayama Sakura was smiling and addressing the little girl respectfully.
"Sakura."
"Miss, have you finished your prayers?"
"Ah."
"Now that we have finished praying, we should go to the meditation room to study etiquette as requested by the master."
The four-year-old girl seemed lost in thought.
"Miss, you don't want to go?"
Nagayama Sakura seemed to understand the eldest lady's emotions.
"Yeah." The little girl answered in a baby voice and nodded.
Nagayama Sakura advised: "I hope you can understand your noble status. You are also the next chief priest and goddess of Matsumae Shrine. You want to take over the duties of the lady. I am sorry that I cannot let you do what you want, but for you, etiquette is a course that you must learn."
The four-year-old girl was very obedient, and didn't seem to want to embarrass Nagayama Sakura. After hearing his words, she gave up the idea of not wanting to go.
She stood up and bowed to the jade fox statue in the shrine.
She was wearing a tiny shrine maiden's costume. Even though she was only four years old, she could perform the salute movements very properly and in a proper manner.
She walked outside the shrine and came to the entrance.
There was a small step at the entrance. She wanted to jump down directly, but the habit she had developed over the past few days made her restrain herself.
She turned carefully, put her hands together, and bowed gently to the shrine. Then she squatted down again and touched the ground with her hands to indicate her departure.
Then, she rolled up her small shrine maiden costume, squatted down, turned the shoes that were placed outside inwards to the outside, and then put them on.
The little girl went ahead and walked down the stone steps.
Nagayama Sakura followed behind her.
In fact, since then, Matsumae Shinharu has felt that there is always emptiness around her.
She wanted Ying Bo to stand next to her.
But I don't know what is holding her back.
She did not make this request.
After struggling for a long time, I finally chose to speak to the air:
"Father, aren't you home today?"
Yongshan Ying replied from behind, "Yes, the master has some important matters to attend to, and he probably won't be home until the early hours of the morning. Miss, you'd better go to bed early."
"What about mother?"
"Madam has been in the study all the time."
The little girl was silent.
She knew that she would not be able to see her mother again today.
All the way to the meditation room of the Matsumae family.
Meditation room.
As the name suggests, the etiquette class that the little girl needs to learn is naturally meditation - staying in the same place for four hours.
During this period, you cannot make any small movements, remain in the kneeling position, turn your head, or look around.
Only eyes closed and eyes open are allowed.
With my eyes open, I can only see the calligraphy and paintings in the meditation room.
Sakura Nagayama left after following Shinharu Matsumae to the meditation room.
The teacher in the meditation room was the little girl's cousin, a strict and rigid middle-aged woman with sharp eyebrows and eyes and a thin figure.
She closed her eyes. Behind her hung a painting with the word "heart" written on it. Next to her was a long pine ruler.
She was very clean all over, and the huge meditation room was also spotless, as if she had a mysophobia.
"Aunt Kako."
"Well, go ahead and sit down in front of me. It's still four hours today."
Matsumae Shinharu came to the cushion holding the shrine maiden's costume and took her seat.
Matsumae Shinchun remembered very clearly that she was a little afraid of her at that time, so she didn't dare to move for more than two hours.
Because the little girl knew very well the consequences of moving - being whipped ten times with a ruler.
Matsumae Shinchun still remembers the piercing pain of being hit on the hand by the ruler.
At the same time, she couldn't cry at that time, otherwise she would be hit ten more times.
My aunt was standing in front and didn't say anything.
Matsumae Shinchun just sat in front of her aunt, waiting for time to pass.
The little girl closed her eyes, without any distracting thoughts in her head, nor any intention to move. What she did was just like in the past, erasing the inappropriate thoughts from her mind and eliminating the inappropriate movements from her body.
but
The heart that has erased everything seems to become even emptier.
She suddenly wanted to see her mother.
Her mother hadn't seen her for several days. Neither had her father. Every morning when she woke up, she faced an empty, large, simple room.
It seemed like she was the only one in the house.
She is the only one living as the "eldest daughter of the Matsumae family".
All she had to do was follow the arrangements left by her father and study a whole day of family courses and family etiquette.
Perhaps her heart was too empty and her body was a little numb from sitting for a long time. The little girl couldn't help but turn her head and look in the direction of her mother's study when her aunt closed her eyes.
However, he didn't expect that even though he turned his head and glanced silently, his aunt who had her eyes closed still noticed it.
She picked up the ruler and walked over.
"hand."
Matsumae Shinchun lowered her head and consciously stretched out her chubby little hand.
"Do you know what you did wrong?"
“The rules should not be broken.”
"What's the reason?"
"No reason."
"You know not to make excuses, which is not bad." Matsumae Yoshiko nodded, very satisfied. "Precepts are precepts, rules are rules! The Matsumae family has been able to survive until now and to rise again because of these. You are the eldest daughter of the head of the Matsumae family, you should have known these things long ago. Do you know that you are wrong?"
"Know."
"Then hold out your hands."
As Matsumae Shinchun stretched out her hand, she closed her eyes in fear.
Just when she realized that her aunt had raised the ruler to hit her palm, something suddenly shouted outside.
squeak~
squeak~~
"Where did the mouse come from?"
Yoshiko Matsumae obviously couldn't stand this. She frowned and looked around in the meditation room following the sound. She suddenly found that the mouse seemed to be outside the wooden door.
The mouse was not only squeaking, but also scratching the door frame.
The next moment, he actually got into the meditation room and climbed onto the beam.
"Damn you, you worm!"
Yoshiko Matsumae was shocked and quickly picked up a broom to drive it away.
The mouse was extremely agile. Matsumae Shinchun looked back and saw that her aunt was being played around by the mouse, being chased left and right.
The cousin, who was originally very majestic, turned out to be a little funny.
After a chase, the mouse finally escaped.
It was obvious that my aunt had had enough and she wanted to go out.
"Xinchun, you stay here and rest for a while. I'll go find someone to take care of this. Remember, don't move! If I come back and see you looking around, be careful to give you ten more blows."
"Yeah." Matsumae Shinchun nodded obediently.
"Really? How come there are rats in this place?"
My aunt walked out of the meditation room complaining.
Matsumae Shinharu continued his meditation.
In silence, she once again wiped out all her thoughts and desires.
“Squeak~Squeak~~”
The rats are back?
But my aunt said not to move.