Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

Yes, yes, now she can only rely on herself, she can only hold on tighter.

"Hanabi...?"

"Hmm... I'm not asleep yet... Kai-kun..."

"Hang in there, I'll take you to the hospital right away. Drink this first." Uesugi Kai pulled out a small bottle from somewhere.

"This...is it okay to drink?" Hanabi Hanamaru couldn't see clearly, and held the smooth little bottle in her hand, feeling a bit weak.

"Go ahead and drink it. At worst, you'll just catch a slight cold."

"Um......"

As the blizzard, corrupted by darkness, approached, Kai Uesugi held her on his back with his arms behind his back, his eyes narrowed, and followed closely behind the group in front.

The night grew deeper and deeper, and the mountains at the county boundary were no longer clearly visible. The city's outline hung heavily in the howling snowflakes, and only a few faint beams of light illuminated the long train tracks as they were swallowed by darkness.

###Chapter 503 The Thousand Paper Cranes Collected in Otaru City###

The next morning, the first thing Hanabi saw when she opened her eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling.

The room was filled with the breath of early morning, and the gauze curtains fluttered in the sunlight, as gentle as the wind.

This is a single-occupancy hospital room.

Hanabi Hanamaru lowered her eyes, letting out a soft, gentle moan that only a young girl would utter upon waking.

She slept almost non-stop that night, and her head is still throbbing with pain.

Her gaze followed the IV drip in her hand upwards; half a bottle of clear liquid hung from the suspender, and tiny drops of fluid dripped evenly from the ampoule in the middle of the IV tubing.

The girl stared blankly upwards with her violet eyes. After a while, she realized that what happened last night was not a dream.

She turned around and looked at the room again, finally realizing that she was in a hospital.

Although the air in the private room was very good, if you smelled it carefully, you could still faintly smell a disinfectant.

The room was quite spacious, bright with sunlight, and had a private bathroom.

However, it was precisely because of this spacious room that Hanabi Hanamaru felt somewhat uncomfortable.

She felt like she was alone, all alone in a cold, deserted hospital room.

Hanabi Hanamaru pulled the blanket over her face, leaving only her forehead exposed.

She remained like this for a while, then, as if remembering something, the girl subconsciously used her most natural, gentle voice to softly call out someone's name:

"Kai-kun..."

......

But...she also understood that Kai-kun wasn't here...and he couldn't hear her speaking...

A strange emotion suddenly welled up in my mind.

This feeling made her shrink into the covers, hug her legs, and curl herself up tightly.

........

"Ah-Zhao, is Hanabi feeling any better?"

“It’s alright,” Uesugi Kai said, tidying up the packed lunchboxes. “The doctor said she just has a slight cold, and if things go well, she can be discharged this morning.”

"But it looked so serious yesterday..."

Kai Uesugi: "It's probably because she has a cold and the weather is cold, and her constitution is weak."

Mrs. Uesugi sighed, "Oh, really, of all times, we had to encounter such a snowy day last night."

Kai Uesugi smiled and put the chopsticks into the insulated tote bag. "It's all over now, isn't everything alright?"

"It's over now, but everyone was terrified. If the snow had been even heavier on the last stretch of road, we probably would have had to spend the night in the snow." Mrs. Uesugi was clearly still shaken.

"Alright, alright." Mrs. Hanamaru said with a smile while coaxing Hanamaru Hanayu to sleep, "Since it's all over and nothing bad happened, why not treat this as a unique experience of our Hokkaido trip? After all, you don't get the chance to experience a blizzard in Tokyo."

"Mieko, you have such a big heart."

"Haha, I know you've always been a coward!"

Looking at the two ladies talking in front of him, Uesugi Kai was about to take Hanabi's breakfast back to see her when Ai and Chi Ai appeared in front of him.

“Nini~” Ai Yi tugged at his clothes.

"what happened?"

Kai Uesugi crouched down, slightly raised his head, and looked at the two little girls who were neither too tall nor too short.

"Is Sister Hanabi alright?" Qian Aiyi asked softly.

"It's alright, her fever subsided by midnight." Uesugi Kai smiled at them again. "You two were very brave last night, you deserve praise. We'll go have something nice to eat at noon. If you don't have anything else, I'll go see Hanabi-neechan first. I'm worried that if she wakes up alone and there's no one to take care of her, she'll feel lonely."

"Your sister Hanabi is the one who can't stand being alone the most."

“Nini, open your hands.” Ai Yi put her hands behind her back.

Suddenly realizing that Ai was going to give him something, Uesugi Kai reached out his hand to her.

Then, Ai Yi and Qian Ai Yi each stretched out their small, clenched fists and placed them in his palm.

They are two origami cranes.

"Aiyi is actually very grateful to her brother, Hanabi-neechan, and all the uncles and aunts... It was her brother and sister who brought us out... They even cooked for us, bought us clothes, toys, and snacks..." As Aiyi spoke, her head drooped lower and lower.

Ai then said to Kai Uesugi, "My sister wanted to say that she felt guilty for not being able to help Hanabi, who is sick, so she folded a paper crane and wanted to ask my brother to give it to Hanabi."

As Xiao Aiyi finished speaking, her delicate face nodded to herself again:

"Yes, Ai-yi thinks so too."

"A thousand paper cranes."

Looking at the two small pieces of paper in his hand, Uesugi Kai felt a surge of emotions. He subconsciously murmured, "When your Hanabi-neechan was little, she used to give me these all the time."

"Was it the same back then? Sending origami cranes."

"Most elementary school students will learn to do this."

Uesugi Kai gently held the blue and red origami cranes folded by Ai and Chi Ai in his palm.

"As the teacher was demonstrating how to fold them, she said, 'Origami cranes symbolize blessings; they represent your wishes for the recipient...'"

Xiao Ai tilted her head and continued his words: "Legend has it that if you fold a thousand paper cranes every day and persist for a thousand days, you can bring happiness to the person you love."

“That’s just a legend,” Uesugi Kai said immediately with a smile, then suddenly realized something was wrong and changed his words, “There’s some truth to that legend, isn’t there?”

Uesugi Kai patted the two little girls on the head and stood up.

"Alright, I'll pass on your good wishes to your sister Hanabi. Go and have breakfast."

"Ah."

As Uesugi Kai watched the little girl run to the two ladies to eat breakfast, he thought that Hana and Kokoro would probably run like that in the future.

If we go any further back, it will probably be my own child with Hanabi.

Right now, I only know her girlish side.

However, if she were to become a mother, Uesugi Kai would fully believe that she would be capable of fulfilling that role.

She is a girl who treats everyone around her with gentleness.

herself, and her child...

It's hard to say about the girl, but she must be very beautiful, and she must have eyes as beautiful as her mother's.

If it were a boy who dared to disobey his mother—Uesugi Kai would definitely pull out a clothes hanger and spank him until his bottom was a bloody mess.

Kai Uesugi walked out of the hotel.

Otaru City.

Because of its narrow north-south shape and significant elevation difference, Otaru town has many long, sloping streets lined with glass craft shops, teahouses, restaurants, and large stores.

On the glass display cases of some gift shops, there are many exquisite dolls and handicrafts. An elderly man, who looks like the shop owner, is standing in front of them, bending over and using a shovel to clear the snow brought by last night's storm.

"How much is this?" Uesugi Kai stopped in his tracks, his eyes fixed on a round shark plush toy displayed in the shop window.

The doll was smiling, with a few flower decorations on its face, looking quite sunny and cheerful.

The old shopkeeper, shoveling snow, noticed Uesugi Kai standing in front of his shop window. Looking into his earnest eyes, he smiled slightly.

"It's free."

"It's free?"

“Yes.” The old shopkeeper, wearing an apron with the shop’s logo, continued to bend over and shovel the snowflakes at the entrance. “I opened this gift shop not to make money, but to commemorate my daughter, who loved these little trinkets since she was little.”

"So what about her now...?" Uesugi Kai's heart skipped a beat.

The old shop manager looked up, seemingly seeing through his thoughts, "Haha, don't misunderstand, she's still here, she just went abroad to study and won't be back for a long, long time."

"I see."

The old shopkeeper planted the shovel on the ground and looked up at the cute signboard that was completely out of character with him:

"However, it would be a lie to say I don't miss her. Seeing this shop always reminds me of her elementary school days. She would often run down the slope after school, her eyes almost slits, arms outstretched, happily calling out 'Dad!'... She was also very proud of this shop and often brought her classmates to patronize it..."

The store manager exhaled a breath of hot air and continued bending over to shovel snow.

"Young man, I liked the look in your eyes just now. The toy factory went bankrupt, and there's only one of those dolls left. Go in and take it."

......

I got it.

Raising an arm and pinching Uesugi Kai's arm, I can't quite describe the feeling.

But when he saw the round, chubby shark in his hand smiling happily at him, he knew that Hanabi would definitely like it.

Kai Uesugi continued walking along the street.

A colorless, transparent sky, misty roadside trees, smooth cobblestone streets, low and exquisite red brick houses, and piles of white snow everywhere... Otaru City after the snowfall looks like a scene from a movie.

As travelers stumble through the snow, the scenery and atmosphere unfold with each step in the silent snow.

Walking through the bustling city center, Uesugi Kai, wearing a scarf and breathing out warm air against the cold wind, entered the gate of Otaru Municipal Hospital.