Page 209
When the sun shone on the earth in the early morning of the next day, Sakura opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
The scent of the ancient tatami made her rusty brain stunned for a while before she remembered that she was in a hot spring hotel with Tomoyo and Reiya.
A hot spring hotel opened by ghosts.
She should have been afraid, but she wasn't at all, probably because the other party was too enthusiastic, no matter which ghost it was.
Even if they look strange, like frogs, salamanders, or giant salamanders, their enthusiastic attitude is irresistible.
Faced with such a ghost, even she, who was most afraid of ghosts, would not be afraid.
It turns out that monsters are so friendly and not scary at all. She was always afraid of them when she was a child.
Sitting up from the tatami, Sakura found that Reiya and Tomoyo had already gotten up. They were sitting on the balcony of the room, looking at the sea outside. This was a sea view room.
Sea view room?
"When did this place turn into the sea?" Sakura walked to the balcony and looked out. Sure enough, there was endless sea.
The first three floors of the oil house are for bathing, and the fourth floor is for resting. Probably to accommodate the height of some big monsters, each floor is six or seven meters high, so looking out from the fourth floor is already considered to be a high and far view.
"Yeah, last night." Tomoyo answered slurredly while chewing on a berry daifuku. "I heard from the monster that it rained at midnight last night, and it rained here, so it became like this. Ah, what a pity, such a beautiful view, why can't the camera take pictures?"
"But Chishi, aren't you surprised? It was still grassland there yesterday, right?"
"This is a place of monsters, what's so strange about it?"
Ah, that makes sense. Since we're already in the strangest place, it's okay for it to get even weirder.
"Compared to this, look over there!"
Because she was busy looking at the sea in the distance, her eyes were attracted by the vast blue. At this time, Sakura looked in the direction pointed by Tomoyo, and she realized that the small island they were on was a sea of pink flowers.
"Is this Sakura?"
Around the oil house, wherever there was a little dirt, cherry blossoms were in full bloom. So many layers upon layers that I could no longer see the street I saw yesterday.
There is only a sea of cherry blossoms in full bloom.
"This is too exaggerated."
It's really exaggerated, it turned into a world of cherry blossoms overnight. It turns out that the world really can change because of people's thoughts, just because they said they wanted to enjoy cherry blossoms?
The monsters here are so hospitable.
"Reiya, that Yubaba, does she know your identity?"
"Probably. But I think she might have mistaken me for someone else."
"other people?"
"The master of the Underworld, Izanami."
Ling didn't care whether the other party had mistaken her or not. Even if she was considered the mother of the gods and the master of the underworld in the thousand-year-old legend of this island country, that was the other party's business and had nothing to do with her.
After all, Gaia does have the power to bring back the souls of the dead.
"Tomoyo, when did you guys get up?"
"At sunrise."
"Sunrise? Isn't that early?"
"Because it's rare to come to such a beautiful place, I want to see the sunrise."
It was really beautiful when the sun jumped out of the sea. At that time, Zhishi took out his camera again, but still couldn't capture any pictures.
"What a shame, Sakura didn't see it."
It's indeed a pity, but if Sakura has to get up at five o'clock, she would rather not watch it.
"Tomoyo, is this berry daifuku you're eating for breakfast?"
"Yeah, I ordered something else."
Japanese breakfast is not much, and even children only eat breakfast when they are growing up. As adults and start working, most adults do not have the habit of having breakfast due to busyness or other reasons.
This also leads to the lack of breakfast culture in the island country. Forget about xiaolongbao, shengjian, soup dumplings, and glutinous rice.
Ling is also better, as the family's chef Shigong will prepare a French breakfast for her.
Sakura and Tomoyo usually have toast or rice for breakfast even at home. So when they woke up early and saw that there was a rich breakfast at Aburaya, Tomoyo couldn't help but order some.
As he was talking, someone knocked on the door.
After getting permission, I pushed open the sliding door and a young woman came in carrying a tray.
"These are fresh sea bream sashimi, caramel salmon and golden herring sashimi, and these are shrimp roe and fish roe sushi. I don't know what the guests like, so I prepared some of them."
Because Tomoyo only said she wanted sushi and didn't say anything specific, she didn't expect the other party to bring so much, a full tray. Wasabi octopus, snail meat, saury, and so on, even tamagoyaki and tofu skin inari sushi.
"Sorry, I didn't make my order clear."
"It doesn't matter. The guests can eat whatever they want. Just leave the leftovers."
But Chise was taught from a young age that food waste is not allowed. You should be moderate when ordering food and finish all the food you ordered.
"How about you eat with us?" Ling also said.
"Me?" The young woman who brought the meal pointed at her nose and said in confusion.
"Yeah, you're human, right?"
The oil house was filled with strange creatures, except for this woman, who was about the age of a high school student and looked exactly like a human.
"I'm not human." The woman shook her head. "I'm a mountain dweller."
Mountain people, although born as humans, were abandoned as babies, thrown into the mountains, and raised by spirits. They have never lived as humans, so they are certainly not considered humans.
Since you think you are a monster, then you are a monster.
There were many abandoned babies like this, especially girls, in the past. Most of them were taken away by wild beasts in the mountains, and there were only a few spirits willing to adopt them. It was a miracle that they survived. Even in the hidden places, it was almost impossible to find another one.
But she is of human descent after all. Even if she is not very pretty, at least she has the appearance of a normal human girl.
There were exactly two eyes, and the nose and mouth were in the right proportions and in the right places. This was quite rare in a place full of monsters.
Perhaps Yubaba knew last night that this great god favored humans, so she deliberately let this mountain man entertain them today.
I have to say that this is indeed a wise decision. Compared to facing those strange monsters, the mountain people with human blood are more acceptable.
"I'm sorry to have you working overtime."
The working hours of the oil house are at night, and now that the sun has risen, it is actually rest time. Sleeping during the day and going out at night is the normal work and rest schedule of ghosts.
"It's okay." The mountain girl breathed a sigh of relief.
She was originally reluctant to accept the task of receiving the distinguished guest, after all, she heard that even Yubaba was afraid of the guest.
The legend spread throughout the ayuya, some said it was the owner of the big river, some said it was the great god of Takamagahara in the mythical era. There were all kinds of opinions, and some even said it was the real Amaterasu.
After all, it had never happened before that Yubaba took the initiative to make the entire Kamikakushi Land full of cherry blossoms in just one night.
I heard that even her mother-in-law's hateful minion, Mr. Bai, was ordered around by her and worked busy all night. He only came back before dawn and rushed to Shikoku to capture a lot of cherry blossom elves.
Kobayashi originally thought that the god who was treated so solemnly by Yubaba was aloof, but he did not expect him to be so approachable.
"Got it. Let's take these sushi downstairs and have a cherry blossom viewing party! I'm Oshima Reiya, what's your name?"
Being asked this question suddenly, the woman was stunned for a moment and stammered, "My name is Xiaolin."
Xiaolin only has one surname. Mountain people don’t have names and don’t need names. Including the word “Lin”, it is very likely that it is not the surname of her real relatives, but she picked it up in the woods and gave it this surname.
"Xiao Lin, could you please bring these sushi downstairs for us? We want to find a place to enjoy the cherry blossoms."
"Of course that's no problem."
Xiaolin quickly agreed.
but
How could it be like this?
Xiaolin was confused. When did the sushi start to be stuffed in her mouth? It was so strange that she had no memory of it. Did the sushi just pop into her mouth?
Of course this is not the case.
In this cherry blossom garden, colorful petals fluttered like rain. It was like a fairyland or a fairy tale. Even Kobayashi, who grew up in a barn, had never seen such a scene.
So when the customer handed her the sushi, she forgot to refuse.
Really delicious!
She was picked up in the deep mountains by the boiler grandfather of the oil house. She grew up in the oil house and has been working here for many years.
She was considered a senior worker among all the female workers in the oil house, and no one would deduct anything from her except for the annoying frog-keeper in the accounting office who would sometimes assign her extra work.
The three meals a day were all sufficient, and sometimes she would steal some from the kitchen, but the kitchen staff would not mind. The oil house was her home.
But she had never tasted these high-end dishes prepared for distinguished guests.
"Xiao Lin, try this. The foie gras is so tender. Was it cooked with a blowtorch?"
Xiaolin doesn't know what a blowtorch is, but the foie gras is really delicious. The rich fat melts on the tip of the tongue, giving an incomparable sense of satisfaction.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Yubaba. I am very satisfied with this place."
Hearing Ling say this, Kobayashi was about to remind her that Yubaba is not here during the day. She will transform into a crow and leave, doing bad things somewhere, and will not come back until night every day.
But the next second, Yubaba appeared, jumping out of thin air.
"Your satisfaction is better than anything else."
Yubaba suddenly appeared, almost choking Kobayashi's foie gras sushi. However, Yubaba didn't even look at her. It was as if she was air.
"But I don't have your currency. I've been bothering you all day, and I don't know how to pay you."
"What are you talking about! It is a great blessing to be allowed to worship you. How dare I ask for your gift!"
Kobayashi found it more and more unbelievable that Yubaba would actually say such a thing. Is this still the money-loving Yubaba in her memory?
Ling also thought about it, and suddenly grabbed a handful of fine sand from somewhere.
"Thank you for your hospitality. I'll use this as payment."
No matter how you look at it, it's just ordinary white sand. At first, Yubaba didn't notice anything unusual, but when she looked at it more carefully, her breathing suddenly tightened.
Subconsciously, I reached out to grab it, but halfway through I forced myself to stop.