Hikigaya, the Son-in-law of Three Surnames

He walked over and took a closer look at the content of the photo. It was a photo of a middle-aged man in a suit with an upright posture and a girl in a junior high school sailor uniform.

The middle-aged man looked at the girl with a very gentle expression, his hand gently resting on her head. Although the girl had no expression, the smile in the corner of her eyes showed that she enjoyed this kind of pampering, as if they were a beautiful father and daughter that could be seen everywhere.

It turns out that the greedy man can also show such a pure expression, which doesn't even seem fake at all.

In other words, a man’s love for his daughter is not false, it’s just that his understanding of love is different from that of ordinary people.

"My father would take pictures with me every time school started. He said that pictures are the best way to recall memories. Memories may become fuzzy, and pictures are the best clues. So we should take more pictures while we are young. At that time, I didn't think so..." Yukino gently stroked the photo, as if she was reminiscing about the original scene.

The girl was probably regretting not taking more photos with her father when he was still alive.

"Uncle, I think he dotes on you very much." Hachiman said softly.

Although Yukino no longer went on a hunger strike and had regained some of her will to live, she still hadn't gotten over the grief of her father's death.

"Me too. I don't know if that counts as pampering, but mother never said much to me. But dad... when I was little, dad was very busy at work. But despite that, every time I went to the study to find him, he would put down his work, hold me on his knees, randomly pick a book from the bookshelf, and read to me."

Yukino loves reading, and this habit must have been cultivated by her father since she was a child.

Moreover, Hachiman noticed that Yukino called Mrs. Yukinoshita "Mother", but called the man "Dad". The intimacy revealed in this said it all.

Yukino lowered her head slightly, as if immersed in past memories, and Hachiman's heart twitched slightly.

It was he who destroyed the girl's support and happiness, but now he came to her hypocritically as a comforter.

He killed her father and took advantage of the girl's sadness to occupy her heart.

Self-loathing and guilt welled up in his heart, and seemed ready to drown him at any moment.

But he could only caress the girl with a gentle expression.

But despite this, he had no right to escape, and it was his responsibility to make the girl recover.

The two extreme emotions of an overly strong sense of responsibility and self-loathing were pulling at him repeatedly, as if they were about to tear him in half.

And he knew that as long as he stayed with Yukino for one day, he would have to get used to this kind of tearing.

Yukino seemed to have ended her memories. She slowly raised her head, her pupils seemed unfocused and a little empty.

"But why would such a gentle father be killed?"

Suddenly, Yukino grabbed Hachiman's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Why did he kill his father?"

"Why did you take my father away from me!"

The girl's voice became shrill and her expression was very excited.

"Why!" The girl looked at Hachiman and questioned him.

No, she was questioning the murderer, yes, she was just questioning the murderer.

Because he wanted to sacrifice his daughter to God, which was his love for his daughter.

Hachiman would never allow it.

Hachiman answered silently in his heart, and then showed a heavy sadness: "Yes, why?"

He really wanted to use a mirror to see how disgusting the "sadness" he was showing now was.

..................................

At dusk, Mrs. Yukinoshita came back from Yukinoshita Construction Company. Inside the company, she was still the calm and cold-faced president, handling the aftermath of the crisis with ease. However, she had just returned to the mansion, and perhaps because she relaxed a little, she suddenly felt a heaviness in her head. She couldn't help but hold on to the wall, and it took her a while to catch her breath.

If I hadn't slept on Hikigaya Hachiman's shoulder for a while yesterday, I would have fainted just now.

It’s just that her behavior yesterday was too embarrassing for her and she didn’t want to think about it too much.

After changing her shoes, she passed through the entrance. The house was still deserted. What surprised her was that Hikigaya Hachiman had not returned yet.

Is he still visiting Yukino in the hospital? Yukinoshita Kiyoshi didn't think much about it, but went back to her room to continue her paperwork. When she came to her senses, her stomach had already protested, and night had fallen outside the window. It even started to drizzle in early winter, and the weather was gradually getting colder.

She left the room, but found that the living room was still completely dark, and she frowned slightly.

"Is that all I can say?" she whispered in dissatisfaction.

But as soon as she turned around, she realized something was wrong. Hikigaya Hachiman clearly said that he would be responsible for three meals a day.

She knew the guy a little bit. Once he said it, he would generally not go back on his word.

She took out her phone and called the bodyguard stationed in the hospital to protect Yukino to ask about today's situation.

Including the fact that Yukino lost control of her emotions today, and that Hachiman left the hospital at around 3:00 p.m.

For some reason, Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki had a bad feeling in her heart.

"Ma'am, you are really strong."

She suddenly remembered what Hachiman had said to her late last night.

"No." She was not strong at all.

After saying that, she quickly walked down the stairs, wondering where would Hikigaya Hachiman be now?

She wasn't in the hospital, so did she go home, or was she at a friend's home that she didn't know?

All kinds of thoughts flashed through Qingxue's mind, and soon, he thought of a place.

After she changed her shoes and left the villa, she found that the rain was getting heavier. She opened her umbrella and got into the car. Although she was usually picked up by a driver, Qingxue could drive herself, and the original driver of the Yukinoshita family had been fired by her.

He started the car, turned on the low beam, and gradually drove away from home in the rain and snow.

Gradually, there were faint sounds of thunder, and the ominous feeling in Yukinoshita Kiyoshi's heart became stronger and stronger. She couldn't help but drive a little faster, which seemed particularly dangerous in the rain. About twenty minutes later, Kiyoshi arrived at her destination, a semi-old apartment building.

The place where Hikigaya Hachiman briefly lived with a little girl named Kawasaki Saki. In the end, Hikigaya chose her daughter, and the little girl left sadly. Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki knew all the news, including which floor and room he lived in.

The woman folded her umbrella and quickly arrived at the door of the apartment on the third floor. She found that the door was ajar and not locked.

She pushed the door open gently and walked in. The only sound in the dark room was heavy breathing. There were lightning and thunder, and the blood-stained knife on the ground was cold and blood was flowing on the ground.

Chapter 51 Chapter

The bloody knife and the blood flowing on the ground startled Yukinoshita Kiyoshi.

"Hikigaya!" she shouted, the word "suicide" popping up in her mind. The ominous feeling lingering in her heart came true, and she suddenly pressed all the light switches at the entrance, and the room suddenly became bright.

The boy sitting under the bed seemed a little surprised, looking at the woman who suddenly appeared in the apartment.

"Madam...why would you..."

But Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki walked up to him and first slapped him hard on the cheek, then carefully examined the wound on his hand.

What surprised her was that although he did have some self-inflicted wounds on his hands, they were not on the arteries, but on the back of his hands.

Then I heard Hachiman's slightly hoarse voice: "Madam, do you think I will commit suicide? No..."

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki looked up, looked at his pale face, and looked at his gentle smile: "I still have Yukino to take care of, and the Zunxing Cult to deal with. I will not commit suicide."

"If you don't want to laugh, then don't laugh. There is no one here who needs your smile to feel at ease." Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki said coldly.

Soon, Hachiman's cheeks darkened like ashes.

"If it wasn't suicide, then why did you leave scars on your hands?" she asked with a stern look.

Hachiman slowly lowered his head, and said in a self-deprecating voice: "Because I found that only this kind of pain can make me confirm that I am really alive."

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki was silent for a while, as if she could sense Hachiman's struggle from his words.

"Idiot, didn't I tell you not to bear unnecessary guilt? Everything was done by me and you were just following my instructions." She whispered. She found a tissue on the table and used the white tissue to hold Hachiman's wound that was still bleeding. Soon the tissue was stained red.

Hachiman quickly raised his head, his eyes were a little red, but he struggled not to cry in front of Yukino's mother. He suddenly shouted.

"I also want to think so, to put all the responsibility on you, and say that all of this is your fault, but no, I can't do it. Every time I see Yukino, she reminds me that I killed her most beloved father with my own hands, and I did it voluntarily!"

He struggled to retract Mrs. Yukinoshita's hand, but the other party was stronger than he imagined, or perhaps he was too weak now.

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki looked at the other person expressionlessly, as if she could hear the voice asking for help deep in his heart.

The guilt of killing Yukino's father and the self-loathing that turned from the hypocrisy of comforting Yukino every day have pushed him to a dead end. His overly strong sense of responsibility makes it impossible for him to escape again, and eventually a vicious circle is formed in his mind.

If he had followed the little girl to Tokyo, this situation would not have happened today.

But the boy finally took on everything. However, he is not that strong yet. He will become very strong in the future, but not now. He is not strong enough yet.

This was another sin she had committed. It was she who led the young man to this dead end.

"If, if I were as strong as you, madam." Hachiman said with some emptiness in his eyes.

The strength to ignore all emotions, the strength to face everything with indifference at any time.

This is how Hachiman sees Mrs. Yukinoshita.

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki really wanted to tell him that no, she was not that strong, she was even weaker.

But she couldn't say such words to the child in front of her, because now she had to be his support.

For the sake of his soul, he can hold on.

Slowly, Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki bent her knees and sat up straight, and said to Hikigaya-kun, "Cry, Hikigaya-kun, it will be better if you cry."

Hearing Mrs. Yukinoshita's words, Hachiman's face quickly distorted. In front of Yukino's mother?

Crying in front of the woman who had been standing between him and Yukino since high school and who eventually ordered him to kill Yukino's father?

"What a joke!" he shouted.

But Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki seemed not to hear his resistance at all. She pressed her hands on his cheeks and then rested her cheek on her thighs.

"From the beginning till now, you haven't cried properly."

With his cheek resting on Kiyoyuki Yukinoshita's thigh, Hachiman felt the soft warmth from the thin fabric, and for a moment, he forgot how to struggle.

Then, he heard Mrs. Yukinoshita whisper, "I'm sorry."

Everything was her fault. It was she who forced the innocent boy onto this path.

Accompanied by the sound of rain and thunder outside the window, Hachiman let out a meaningless scream. In this warm embrace, he poured out the negative emotions accumulated in his heart for the first time. Tears began to spread uncontrollably. However, as if to maintain his last bit of self-esteem, Hachiman rested his cheek on Mrs. Yukinoshita's thigh, with his back facing her, his shoulders trembling, so as not to let the other party see his most embarrassing side.

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki looked at the young man who was lying on her thighs and screaming. She rarely showed tenderness and gently stroked the other's hair.

This was a very rare emotion for a woman, and even when facing her two daughters, she rarely showed her tenderness.

Maybe it's because of guilt, or maybe it's maternal instinct.

She had seen his stubbornness, his fragility, and his crying. In a sense, she now understood the boy better than Yukino did.

Tears wet the expensive kimono. After an unknown amount of time, Hachiman slowly stopped moving. He cried for a while, venting the depression in his heart, and then restrained his emotions. However, what embarrassed Hachiman was that he didn't know how to raise his head.

He actually leaned on Yukino's mother's lap and burst into tears. Before today, no, at any time, this was something he could not imagine.

However, what surprised him was that Mrs. Yukinoshita was more gentle than he had imagined. Lying on her thighs, he felt as if he had returned to his mother's arms when he was a child.

"Are you feeling better?" Mrs. Yukinoshita asked calmly.

Hachiman gritted his teeth and straightened his body, but there were still traces of tears in the corners of his eyes. He didn't know what to say for a moment, and an awkward atmosphere began to spread.

Mrs. Yukinoshita did not let him feel embarrassed for long, and said, "I see there is a medicine box here, I will help you bandage your wound first."

Hachiman nodded, and Mrs. Yukinoshita took out a small medicine box from under the table, took out disinfectant and bandages, and began to treat Hachiman's wound.

During this period, he didn't even dare to face the other party.

"Let's stay here tonight." Mrs. Yukinoshita said softly while applying the bandage.

"Eh." Before Hachiman could be surprised, thunder roared outside and the rain became heavier.

Chapter 52 Chapter

"Let's stay here tonight." Mrs. Yukinoshita said softly while applying the bandage.

Hachiman couldn't help but let out a surprised sound, but looking at the heavy rain and thunder outside, he realized that even with a car, going back would be quite troublesome, especially dangerous.

Now, neither Hachiman nor the lady in front of him can have any accidents.

"Thank you very much for coming here specially for me." Even if Mrs. Yukinoshita didn't come, he would be fine. He didn't think about committing suicide. He just wanted to feel his existence through pain. But if Mrs. Yukinoshita didn't come, he would become even more depressed mentally, and even he himself couldn't guarantee what would happen next time.

He even noticed that Mrs. Yukinoshita's expensive kimono was wet in many places. This was naturally because she arrived in such a hurry that she didn't have time to take into account the rain.

Yukinoshita Kiyoyuki was silent for a moment. She was too embarrassed to accept the other party's thanks as the "culprit", but soon she felt a chill through her body.

"A-choo..." Although he looks so stern, he looks kind of cute when he sneezes.

She must have caught a cold. Her health had not been very good during this period, but she managed to avoid Hachiman's thanks by sneezing.