I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Since the Tokugawa family established the Edo Shogunate in 1603, Japan has enjoyed nearly 300 years of largely peaceful times.

The peaceful and prosperous society, where warriors no longer needed to fight, led to the rapid rise of the urban class.

With the rise of the urban class, popular arts such as Kabuki, Joruri puppet shows, and Rakugo, as well as urban literature represented by novels, flourished.

Today, the variety of novels available on the market is dazzling.

There are humorous novels like "Saluben" that specifically depict life in brothels.

There are documentary novels, such as "Reader's Edition," which mainly depict historical stories and myths.

There are historical fiction novels that are based on "true records".

Of course, in the Edo period, when the sex industry was quite developed, there was no shortage of erotic novels, often accompanied by suggestive illustrations, such as "yellow paper."

Thanks to the novels that Okita and the others brought to relieve boredom, Aoto wasn't too bored while staying at the Jinyi Hall.

Everyone else gave him normal novels, but Harada gave Aoto something quite extraordinary...

When Qingdeng first moved into Renyitang, a little incident occurred—

Harada, who came to visit Aoto with Nagakura, Saito, and Todo, secretly slipped 10 yellow paper slips to Aoto while the others weren't looking, all the while giving him a meaningful smile...

At the same time, he whispered to Qingdeng:

"Mr. Ju, these are all for you. I've personally examined them, and they're all excellent. Although I can't read the Chinese characters very well, the illustrations are quite good. Aren't these books much more interesting than those lousy books and readers?"

At that moment, looking at that thick stack of yellowed paper, Qingdeng didn't know what kind of expression to make...

Qing Deng's rationality told him: these books should be returned to Harada immediately; if people find out that I am reading these kinds of books, my reputation will be ruined.

But a strange, inexplicable feeling made it difficult for Qingdeng to let go of these yellow papers.

After a fierce internal struggle, Qing Deng finally decided: This kind of book is indeed too dangerous...

Then he quietly put away the yellow papers, making sure no one, including Kyubei, would discover the books.

I'm not interested in the contents; I just want to see what makes these works, which Harada praised as "good stuff," so good... As I put away these yellow papers, Aoto reminded himself of this.

Amidst the peace and tranquility, the time gradually came to June 5th.

That morning, after examining Qingdeng's body, Beifangren said to Qingdeng:

"Hmm... Mr. Ju, the recovery of your wound is better than I expected."

“You can now get out of bed and take walks occasionally, but the walks are limited to my Renyi Hall.”

Finally, I don't have to stay in bed all the time anymore... Although I can only walk around Renyitang, being able to get out of bed and move around is definitely better than continuing to lie in bed and get moldy.

Having finally received the doctor's "permission to move around," Qingdeng couldn't wait to leave the ward alone after breakfast this morning and began to wander aimlessly around Renyitang.

Renyi Hall has three floors. The first floor is the "outpatient clinic" where Beifang Ren and his doctors hold consultations for visiting patients. The second and third floors are the "inpatient department" for patients.

Qingdeng's ward is located on the top floor of Renyitang, specifically the 3rd floor.

As a medical clinic, Renyitang naturally didn't have any sightseeing spots. Qingdeng spent less than half an hour to tour the entire clinic.

With nowhere else to go, Qingdeng had no choice but to return to the third floor where his hospital room was located.

Not wanting to go back to her ward so soon, Qingdeng decided to linger in the corridor outside her room to kill time.

He walked to the very end of the corridor in one breath, then lay down on the windowsill of a south-facing window and looked out at the scenery.

It's only morning, but the sun outside the window is already incredibly strong.

The sunlight flowing across the earth melts everything in its golden-red glow.

The cotton-like clouds were tinged with a pale red.

The sky was a clear, lake-blue color typical of summer.

The incessant chirping of cicadas announces the arrival of summer to the world.

—Summer has truly arrived...and the fireworks festival is just around the corner.

—I wonder when this year's fireworks display will be held, and how long it will last...

Admiring the beautiful scenery outside the window, Qingdeng let his mind go blank, letting his thoughts wander and drift into the distance.

Suddenly, Qingdeng felt a bright, shining aura slowly approaching from his side.

"Ah, Ms. Sanako."

Her jet-black hair was styled into the trendy Shimada bun, her pretty face, untouched by makeup, was naturally serene. She wore a white and blue women's kimono, her slender feet in white socks and blue-buttoned wooden clogs, her hands elegantly folded in front of her, as she walked gracefully towards Aoto.

It was none other than Miss Chiba Sanako.

*******

*******

A high school-aged man takes on an elementary school-aged girl as his apprentice...

"Nioh's Prison Meal"... Ah, no, "Nioh's Work" is a serialized novel!

Although I, the author, am not very good at writing today and failed to reach my goal of 1 words, the word count is still quite high, so I'm still asking for a monthly ticket reward! (Like a leopard crying.jpg)

Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets!

The "Second Annual Character Popularity Vote" is still going strong in the QQ group. This voting event will last for a long time, until 0:10 on October 2nd.

As of last night, Sanako was still in the lead... however, Kinoshita Mai's votes weren't much less than Sanako's, so the final outcome was still uncertain.

Recently, I've seen some readers asking how many words this book contains. Those who frequently participate in QQ groups should know the approximate length of this book.

Let me give a unified response here: This book should be able to reach more than 800 million words, and 1000 million words is not impossible.

This book is currently still in the stage where even the prologue is not yet finished.

【until

This book will be an extremely long masterpiece, so be prepared that you'll be a virgin when you start reading it, but have a whole bunch of kids by the time you finish.

Chapter 191 Aoto Teases Sanako Until She Blushes [7000 words]

I'm very sorry, I still couldn't reach 1 words today (dead.jpg)

But this isn't because the author was lazy. I spent seven or eight hours writing this chapter, going back and forth. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make Sanako even cuter and more vibrant.

Sanako in today's chapter is so cute! She's so cute that I dreamt about her blushing face last night.

Please vote for this book with more monthly tickets, considering the quality of this chapter! (Leopard crying.jpg)

*******

*******

Sanako prefers blue.

Both the white and blue striped women's kimono she was wearing and the pair of blue-buttoned flat wooden clogs on her slender feet were outfits that Aoto was familiar with.

If there's anything different about Sanako today compared to usual, it's that she's wearing a low-brimmed straw hat on her back to shield herself from the sun.

"Good morning, Tachibana-kun."

Sanako stopped and bowed respectfully to Aoto before continuing to walk slowly toward him, finally stopping beside him.

"Tachibana-kun, what are you doing here? Are you able to get out of bed now?"

"Yes, Mr. Beifang said my health is recovering well, and I can now occasionally get out of bed for a walk."

"I see... That's great."

"Miss Sanako, where is Mr. Jutaro? Didn't he come with you today?"

In this era lacking advanced technological equipment and scientific methods such as surveillance and big data screening, and with grassroots management proving difficult to implement, if a person goes missing, it is highly likely that they will never be found again.

And Qing Deng actually managed to find the Chiba family's darling daughter in just a few days... It's not hard to imagine what kind of feelings the Chiba family must have for Qing Deng.

On the first day that Aoto moved into Jinyi Hall, Chiba Sadakichi led Sanako, Chiba Jutaro, Chiba Michisaburo, Chiba Tamonshiro and others to personally visit Aoto to express their gratitude.

Chiba Sadakichi immediately grabbed Aoto's hand tightly with trembling hands, repeatedly expressing his gratitude.

Chiba Jutaro's reaction was the most exaggerated.

He burst into tears of joy, his face streaked with tears of ecstasy, unable to utter a coherent sentence.

Aoto deeply felt the love and care that Chiba Sadakichi and others had for their family's precious daughter, and couldn't help but think: Miss Sanako is so lucky to have such a happy and loving family.

During Aoto's hospitalization, Chiba Jutaro and Sanako visited him almost every day.

Today, I only saw Sanako, but not Chiba Jutaro... This puzzled Aoto, hence the question.

“My brother left for Yokohama yesterday afternoon for some personal matters,” Sanako replied. “He won’t be back until the day after tomorrow.”

"Oh, I see."

"..."

"..."

silence……

Aoto and Sanako both fell silent...

A suffocating silence rapidly built between Aoto and Sanako...

The spacious corridor, now empty except for the two of them, became exceptionally quiet due to their silence.

This tranquility gradually fostered an atmosphere of "awkwardness".

Under the pressure of this awkward atmosphere, Qing Deng, whose expression became slightly stiff, awkwardly glanced to the side and looked out the window again.

—This is so awkward… I need to think of something to talk about…

In the past, when Sanako visited Aoto, she was always accompanied by Chiba Jutaro, who was very familiar with Aoto and was also very talkative.

When the eloquent and persuasive Chiba Jutaro is around, there's never a worry about running out of things to talk about.

At the moment, Chiba Jutaro is away due to personal matters, and only Sanako is standing in front of Aoto...

Qing Deng suddenly realized that, not counting the night he rushed to the settlement, this was the first time he had been alone with Sanako.

When he and Sanako rode the radish towards the settlement, they had a brief time alone together, but at that time their minds were entirely focused on the Extermination Group and the settlement which was in imminent danger. They had no spare time to think about anything else.

To date, Aoto and Sanako have had very little personal interaction, and he has basically had no experience of chatting with Sanako alone.