My new wife discovered my past

At the same time, deep in the Hidaka Shrine, in the most solemn and private bedroom of the shrine, it was cool and silent.

Mari Hidaka woke up slowly in a state of chaos and pain.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts..." Hidaka Mari frowned and breathed subconsciously, taking several breaths in a row and shouting in a hoarse voice.

This bedroom is extremely spacious. It is cold in winter and hot in summer. In addition, there is a hot spring next to the bedroom, which makes it even hotter in summer.

In order to keep the bedroom cool and refreshing during the hot summer season and allow all successive lords to have a peaceful sleep, not only central air conditioning was installed in the bedroom, but also several cabinet air conditioners were placed, which were turned to maximum power to produce cold air 24 hours a day to provide fresh air for Mari Hidaka's bedroom.

So what really happened was that Mari Hidaka gasped several times.

Mari Hidaka no longer cared whether the air she breathed was cold or hot. She only felt unspeakable discomfort and pain. Her body seemed to have been torn apart and reassembled. Every inch of her muscle and every bone was clamoring with fatigue and protest.

The woman struggled to open her heavy eyelids, and her sight was focused on Tsukimi Saki, who was leaning on the soft pillow of the bed not far away, handling the work of the consortium with a tablet computer.

As if she had noticed her movements, Tsukimi Rizaki raised her head, and her face, which was always a bit cold and calculating, showed a rare trace of fatigue. However, she still maintained basic etiquette and greeted with a slightly hoarse voice:

"Awake? Truth..."

"Hmm..." Mari Hidaka squeezed out a single syllable from her throat. She tried to sit up, but was forced back down by the strong feeling of discomfort coming from all over her body.

Hidaka Mari couldn't help but frown, and complained in a voice that only she could hear, "...Watanabe, that bastard, really didn't know how to use his strength...

"Is this what you call treating someone more gently?"

Even though Mari Hidaka's physical fitness had been tempered through countless battles, when facing Tetsuya Watanabe's complete form, she was no different from other women and had almost no ability to fight back.

As a result, he has fallen to this point, and his last bit of strength has been completely drained away, leaving him in a miserable state.

Tsukimi Rizaki seemed to have heard Hidaka Mari's whisper, and a smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

This smile instantly ignited Hidaka Mari's unhappiness, and she snorted coldly: "Hey, what are you laughing at?"

Although Hidaka Mari’s voice was still weak, her tone had turned cold: “Saki… is your fate any better than mine?
"How does it feel to have Watanabe step on your head or spit on you?"

The smile on Tsukimi Rinaki's face faded a little after being touched on a sore spot, but she did not argue with Hidaka Mari about the matter:

"Truth, don't be so angry~
"I'm not kidding you!
"Just like what the truth says, we are both the same, and our fates are similar, so why do we need to laugh at each other?

"What I mean is that the changes in Horiguchi Rika are obvious to all. Although she was not able to be intimate with Watanabe today, we all saw it before. It seems that we need to speed up the process."

Hidaka Mari gently rubbed her wound and nodded in agreement: "Saki is right."

At the same time, Tsukimi Rin Saki changed the subject lightly: "Instead of worrying about these, you might as well pay attention to what's going on outside.

"Does Mari know that Watanabe finished this round at 10:30 in the morning, and then he went back without making any more trouble.

"But... at noon, the Hoshimi Miko and the fourth daughter of the Sakuraba family went to the attic where Watanabe and Shimizu Noriko lived to have lunch together, and they haven't left yet..."

Tsukimi Ryosaki provides information to Hidaka Mari who has just woken up.

After hearing this, Hidaka Mari's eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth and called out to the outside of the bedroom: "Ikeguchi!"

A respectful response was immediately heard from outside the door, and soon she walked in with her head lowered and her eyes submissive.

"Tell me in detail what Xiaoyao and that Sakuraba Mihime did in the afternoon." Hidaka Mari regained some of the dignity of the sixth-generation Lord.

Ikeguchi Gon-miyaji did not dare to hide anything and reported everything, including that Hoshimi Haruka and Sakuraba Mihime had entered the attic together at noon, stayed inside for quite a while and had not come out yet, as well as the fact that Watanabe was present. He also handed the tablet with detailed information to Hidaka Mari.

After reading it, Mari Hidaka waved away Ikeguchi Gon-guchi, and the bedroom became quiet again.

The woman frowned and looked at Tsukimi Saki: "Saki specifically mentioned this to me. Did you find something wrong with them?"

Tsukimi Rinaki put down the tablet she was working on and shook her head: "I don't have any specific findings...

"I just think it's a little strange."

"Strange?" Hidaka Mari asked back, with a hint of sarcasm in her tone, "Then according to Saki, should we arrest them immediately and torture them?"

Upon hearing this, Tsukimi Rin Saki smiled, with a hint of amusement in her smile: "It seems... Mari, you really trust your good niece~~"

Mari Hidaka didn't say anything, but just looked at her calmly.

Tsukimi Rizaki didn't care about her silence and continued to speak:

"That's right. After all, it was you, Zhenli, who helped her become a priestess, taught her how to practice, helped her gain the recognition of the gods, and even told her some of the shrine's secrets...

“Oh, now I know part of it too.

"If it wasn't for the extreme trust, how could it be achieved to this extent?"

After saying this, Tsukimi Rizaki paused, then suddenly changed the subject, her eyes sharpening: "But... the truth.

"Have you really told Hoshimi Miko everything?"

"Whatever you want to say, Saki, you might as well make it clearer." Hidaka Mari's voice became a little colder.

Tsukimi Rizaki chuckled: "Nothing, I just think the truth is...

"It's really a 'contrast'~!"

Tsukimi Ryosaki stretched out a finger and tapped the air lightly: "The Mingmingxingjian Miko has divine power and is the only one in this shrine. In theory, Zhenli should be extremely afraid of her.

"But look at yourself, Zhenli. It seems that no matter what you go through, you remain calm and composed. You don't seem to be worried about the counterattack of the Hoshimi Miko at all... What does this mean?"

Without waiting for Hidaka Mari to answer, Tsukimi Ryosaki continued, "It means that Mari has an absolute countermeasure in her hands, doesn't it?

"The red magatama that Mari showed me last time, Mari said it had run out of divine power...

"But that was just a sample that Zhenli showed me, right? Who knows if Zhenli has other useful artifacts in his hands, or...

"Why not just keep a bunch of unused scarlet magatama filled with divine power?"

Tsukimi Rizaki made a bold guess. She looked at Hidaka Mari's still calm face and smiled even more:
"Don't look at me like that, Truth...

"If you want to blame someone, you can only blame the truth for being too obvious. I just linked these pieces of information together. If you think about it a little, you can sort out the logical relationship between them~"

Mari Hidaka remained silent, but her slightly narrowed eyes revealed her inner unrest at the moment.

Tsukimi Rizaki knew that she had guessed correctly.

She became more curious about the mysterious scarlet magatama and the true trump card of Hidaka Shrine, and at the same time, she saw new trading opportunities.

"I'm very interested in your artifact that stores divine power." Tsukimi Rin said bluntly, "I know you can't just give it to me..." "How about this, Mari, how about we make a deal?"

She leaned forward slightly, her tone tempting, “Give me a copy… I don’t need to have too much, just enough divine power samples that can be used in my laboratory research.

"In return..."

As she spoke, Tsukimi Rinaki's smile turned a little cold, with an almost cruel "sincerity": "In the future, if your precious niece really has other intentions and you can't bring yourself to clean up the mess...

"I can kill my relatives for you."

In the bedroom, only Tsukimi Rizaki's smiling voice was echoing.

Mari Hidaka remained silent, with no expression on her face, as if she was carefully weighing this tempting yet dangerous proposal.

It seemed as if she already had the answer in her heart, but she just didn't want to show it to others easily.

Hidaka Mari did not give any easy answers...

◆

It was quiet in the attic bedroom where Watanabe and Noriko lived.

As time goes by, the light outside the window is no longer as bright as it was at noon.

Noriko Watanabe was still sleeping in the soft bedding, breathing evenly and deeply, completely unaware that a "ritual" that was enough to shake her entire world had just taken place in the living room just across the wall.

And in this bedroom, it wasn't just Kiko who was sleeping.

Hoshimi Haruka sat upright in a chair in front of the dressing table, her back straight, her hands neatly placed on her knees, her posture as standard as an apprentice shrine maiden being inspected in a shrine.

But at this moment, her face was pale, heavy and almost numb.

Hoshimi Haruka didn't move, like an exquisite but soulless doll.

The divine power, like invisible tentacles, has already spread quietly.

Although it was impossible to cover the entire shrine and see every detail, Hoshimi Haruka could see everything within the scope of this small attic.

There was only a wall and a door between them, but everything that happened in the living room could not be hidden from her, the shrine maiden with divine power from the Hidaka Shrine.

No matter how good the sound insulation is, it cannot block the bridge of perception built by divine power.

On the tatami in the living room, the gradually blending auras of Watanabe-sensei and Sakuraba Miki, and the exchange that finally announced the completion of the ceremony...

Everything was like a high-definition image, projected into the depths of Xing Jianyao's consciousness without missing a frame.

She saw it clearly and heard it clearly.

Brother Toru...really like that Sakuraba Miki who looks so much like Watanabe Naoko...

Jealousy, anger, grievance, unwillingness...all kinds of emotions washed over Xing Jianyao's heart like a raging sea, but eventually they all settled into a cold numbness.

Xing Jianyao couldn't even feel her own heartbeat. It was as if her soul had been sucked out of her. Only a stiff shell was left sitting there.

The witch wanted to get up and flee this place immediately, staying far away so that out of sight, out of mind.

But reason tells Haruka Hoshimi that this is not possible, as she still has to "watch over" her sister Kiko, maintain the scam, and... wait for the next instructions from her beloved brother Toru.

There is no escape, no avoidance, only this boundless numbness and helplessness nails Xing Jianyao firmly to this chair.

Xing Jianyao has never felt that time is so difficult to endure...

◆

When the clock was about to point to five o'clock in the afternoon, Noriko Shimizu on the bed finally let out a slight moan, her eyelashes trembled a few times, and she slowly opened her eyes.

She felt as if she had had a long and bizarre dream.

It seemed like she was still herself in the dream, Qingshui...

But it seemed not to be the case. In short, Jiko experienced some inexplicable things. Her body was sometimes light and sometimes heavy, but what exactly happened was vague after she woke up and she could not remember it at all.

"Hmm... Tetsuya-kun?" Kiko rubbed her eyes and adjusted herself to the light in the room. She immediately saw her husband Watanabe standing by the bed. A smile of relief and joy immediately spread across her face.

"Are you awake?" Watanabe's voice was so gentle that it could squeeze water out of her. He leaned over, carefully supported his wife Noriko's shoulders, let her sit up slowly, then took Noriko into his arms and gave her a warm hug.

"Did you have a good nap?"

"Hmm! I'm sleeping so soundly..." Noriko leaned on her husband Watanabe's arms, sniffing his familiar scent and feeling extremely at ease:
"I haven't slept so soundly in a long time... By the way, where are Xiaoyao and Yuji?"

Noriko looked around the room and didn't see the other two women.

"Oh, them..." Watanabe Tetsuya's tone was very natural, without any flaws:

"Soon after Noriko fell asleep, we played cards and watched TV for a while. Then, seeing that Noriko was sleeping so soundly, they felt embarrassed to disturb her, so they said goodbye and left."

"Eh~? Is that so..." Hearing this, Ji Zi showed a little apology on her face:
"I'm so embarrassed. I was the one who invited them, but I fell asleep first... I have to apologize to them properly next time."

Jiko felt a little embarrassed about her impoliteness, but when she thought about what they had agreed upon before, that they could go to the town together to watch the fireworks display tomorrow, she felt much better.

"Okay, don't think too much. Are you hungry, Kiko? Let's go have dinner first." Watanabe patted Kiko gently.

Considering the weather and the fact that Kiko might not have much appetite after just waking up, Watanabe asked the priestess to prepare cold noodles.

After dinner, the sunset outside the window had dyed half the sky red, and the sunset glow was gorgeous.

Watanabe considerately did not let Noriko rest immediately. Instead, he held Noriko's hand, supported her waist, and walked gently to the courtyard outside the attic to take a walk to digest the food.

In the late summer evening, the evening breeze brings a hint of coolness, blowing away the day's heat, which is very comfortable.

The two of them admired the picturesque sunset while chatting leisurely, enjoying their rare time together.

Only at this time did Watanabe Tetsuya feel as if he were alive again.

How wonderful it would be if I could live like this with Noriko every day in the future...

Unfortunately, Toru Watanabe could not get his wish.

Because at this moment, footsteps were heard on the wooden stairs leading to the courtyard from the second floor of the attic.

Watanabe's face froze for a moment. He and Noriko looked in the direction of the sound and saw Saotome yawning, holding the handrail of the stairs with one hand, and walking down with a slightly staggering step... (End of this chapter)