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"Not really. Jiuhua Xiaoyue will probably take some time to come back."
"Will that mean I won't be able to attend Matsumae-san's birthday party?"
"Basically."
"Also, Fujii, you started calling her Xiaoyue in private. Is your relationship progressing?"
".No need to joke about this, it's just that she felt it was too strange for me to call her Jiuhua, so she started to let me call her by her name."
“Then why do you buy so many things?”
Akagi Muzi glanced at Fujii Itsuki's cart.
Dragon fruit, whole wheat bread, bacon, butter, and a bottle of pickles.
She was stunned.
After a few seconds of silence, he looked back at Fujii:
"This is.?"
"I was planning to bring these things to visit you," Fujii Itsuki could only smile, "I didn't expect to meet you here."
"Visit me? Why do you have to make it so formal? Can't you just give me a call and I'll come out?"
"No, no, no, this time is different. This time I mainly want to thank Akagi-ni, and I also want to visit Aunt Shiori."
"Ashu, do we still need these thanks between us?"
"Don't you need it?"
Akai Muzi hesitated for a second and replied:
"of course."
Fujii Itsuki stared at the large and small things in the cart, feeling a little bitter.
He originally wanted to thank Muzi, and then told her about his situation and completely rejected her feelings.
But now.
Neither seems suitable.
The rhetorical question just now was actually an attempt to distance himself and to test Muzi.
The second that Muzi paused proved that she absolutely understood what she meant.
But she still chose to take the initiative to build a relationship with me.
this.
This is true.
Fujii Itsuki is really ashamed.
Akai Muzi seemed to see Fujii Itsuki's embarrassment, and she said generously:
"Don't worry about some details. I don't care. Besides, Shu, aren't you coming to visit me today with gifts? Let's go. I've bought all the food. How about we go together?"
"Muzi."
"It's okay, it's okay. I don't care. I know you want to reject me, but you have already rejected me. There is no need to emphasize it twice."
"Then why are you helping me so much?"
"Willingly. Didn't I say that before?"
"."
"Besides, I am an old acquaintance of the dean, so naturally I would go to see her occasionally. It is only natural that I would take care of her if I discovered that she had high blood pressure. I didn't tell you about this because the dean asked me not to worry you."
"."
Fujii Itsuki nodded.
"So let's go check out now? And then go to my house? My mom is home now."
"Row."
The two then checked out at the supermarket counter and walked out of the supermarket carrying large and small bags of goods.
The two took the bus and went all the way to Muzi's house.
Muzi's house is a two-story apartment.
The kind of place where civilians live that often appears in anime.
In reality, these are indeed small houses where civilians live.
Fujii Itsuki followed her to the second floor. He looked around and felt that this place was still the same as he remembered.
Akai Muzi took out the key and unlocked the door.
After changing into slippers, Fujii Itsuki looked inside through the entrance. The hut was the same as before.
"This place can't compare to Jiuhua's big villa, so I'm sorry to bother you for a while."
"Why are you feeling wronged? I used to come here often and I was quite happy." Fujii Itsuki handed over the plastic bag.
Akagi Muzi took the large and small things from his hand and looked inside again: "Come to think of it, Ah Shu, you still remember what I like to eat."
“The taste hasn’t changed, has it?”
"No, thank you for preparing so much."
Put away the plastic bag and place in the refrigerator.
At this time, Fujii Itsuki walked into the living room and wanted to say hello to Aunt Shiori, but he didn't see her in the small living room.
He couldn't help looking around.
Familiar, too familiar
Wheat-colored tatami, square black wood chandelier, a kotatsu coffee table in the middle of the living room, and the LCD TV on the left has been used for a long time and looks like it was from the millennium.
And on the right, there are tablets for grandma and grandpa.
Fujii Itsuki subconsciously came to the two men and saw that the small drawer was still there. He then imitated what he had done before, lighting two incense sticks for the two old men and bowing to them.
He looked up and suddenly saw many photos next to the incense table of the two old people.
Most of them are photos of Muzi and her mother
There is a photo placed in the most prominent position.
Did you read that right?
This is a photo of Muzi and himself back then.
Clarinet and saxophone ensemble on the Otaru Canal.
"My grandparents were so nice to me before." Akai Muzi came to Fujii Itsuki with a cup of tea.
Fujii Itsuki quickly put down the photo and took the teacup.
"Thank you."
"My mother often praised the good things about my grandparents, but since they passed away and my mother got leukemia, our family has completely fallen apart. I remember I told you about this before."
"I remember."
Akai Muzi sat on the ground next to Fujii Itsuki, facing the two elderly people in the photo, "I have been working illegally since elementary school for my mother's illness. When I pass by a vending machine, I have to use a wooden stick to feel if there is change under it. I have to collect an empty bottle when I see it, so I also got to know a lot of homeless people.
"After my grandparents died, no relatives came to help. All I thought about every day was money, money, money for a long, long time."
Akai Muzi had a dull expression and took a sip of tea.
"That period was like a nightmare that I couldn't get rid of. Even though the situation got better and I went to high school, I still felt like I was stuck in the past.
"After school, I would subconsciously look under the vending machines. Even though my mother repeatedly told me not to pick up bottles, I would still pick them up.
"Every time I see some classmates going home, I think of my childhood self. 'What would it be like to live a life with all these glamorous clothes and a complete family life?' When I was young, I often hid behind the beech tree at the school gate and secretly watched my peers go home from school. I always thought so.
"."
There was silence for a while.
"Ashu, do you know how I viewed myself at that time?"
"You have an inferiority complex." Fujii Itsuki said, staring at the reflection in the teacup.
"Yes, I have a low self-esteem. My hands are dirty and rough, and they don't look like a girl's hands. My clothes are dirty and tattered, and they don't look like a girl's clothes.
“At school, I always sat in the corner of the classroom, next to the trash can.
"I am in the same school as everyone else, but I feel like I am in another world. I dare not talk to my classmates, and I dare not face their strange eyes. Every time I hear that a classmate's parents celebrated her birthday, I envy her so much."
Fujii Itsuki clenched the teacup in his hand.
The more Muzi said this.
The more he understood, the more he understood why Muzi wanted to go to the United States.
As far as we can remember, the United States has always been the most developed and prosperous place in the world.
There are skyscrapers, financial buildings, and Times Square. It is the pinnacle of the world and the times.
A little girl who picked up rags walked step by step to the pinnacle of the world's music and art academy and became the clarinetist of the world's top orchestra.
Muzi went to the United States not only to pursue her dreams and to fight for her missed childhood.
She also wanted to pick up the courage she never had in her heart.
Likewise, she also wanted her to——
Akai Muzi smiled at the photos of her grandparents:
"Ashu, can I tell you a secret that I have never told you?"
"Go ahead."
"Don't we play music by the Otaru Canal every day after school?"
"Ah."
"As for me, I actually always feel that what I play is not worthy of your saxophone. You play much better than me, and there are many others who are much better than me. And you have always been accommodating and considering me."
These words lingered in my ears.