restless daily life

"Pfft..."

Beside her, Yukinoshita Haruno's perfectly timed laughter successfully knocked her sister out of the water.

In the driver's seat, Yukinoshita's father had a kind face but a sinister heart, and the scales in his mind were swinging wildly.

At the agreed intersection later, let's just pretend I made a common mistake for a new driver and stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake!

"Does my sister really have no memory of Grandpa?"

"Hey, Yukino-chan, do you think I'm some kind of non-human species? Do you even remember things from when you were around three years old?"

"So what kind of person was Grandpa exactly?"

"Since Mother won't tell, let's try to deduce it..."

Ok?

Under the snow, the father frowned, drove past an intersection, and entered the highway.

Something's not right...

What about people?

Holy crap! You little brat, you didn't just stand me up, did you?!

Apart from Yukinoshita's mother, the other three had a vague premonition that they had been stood up, and this premonition grew stronger as the journey progressed.

Tsk, does this bastard think it's more fun to just cancel this?

Yukino took out her phone and sent a few messages.

Not read or replied.

Has something happened?

Yukino was completely bewildered. She temporarily put aside her doubts and looked at the scenery that kept passing by outside the window.

Leaving the city, the desolate wilderness stretched as far as the eye could see, offering a sense of freedom absent in the towering buildings of the city. The earth and sky seemed to extend endlessly to the horizon, and occasionally, Angelina would flit across the view, strolling along the edge of the highway fence…

What the hell?

……

……

Let's rewind to the previous day.

The banner was thoughtfully hung on the rear window of the elder brother's car. As for whether it would be discovered today or tomorrow, and by whom, such a trivial matter was left to fate.

I've already thanked the hero, which means it has nothing to do with me.

Bai Ying boarded the tram in a cheerful mood and soon arrived at her destination, an ordinary village.

Following the newly built, smooth cement road is like traveling backwards in time, turning the landscape of urban development upside down for a closer look. Naturally, the majority of those coming and going are elderly, just as the most lifeless cities need the most vibrant young people to fill them, and the most vibrant countryside comforts each and every aging soul.

"The city makes one feel small, as if trapped in a cage; the mountains and fields make one feel small, as if the world is boundless... Hmm?"

The white figure tilted its head and gazed at the old man on the main road ahead.

With a pig's head covered in meat on his back, his right hand steadily supporting the pork behind him, and his left hand carrying a chicken, a duck, and two fish hanging by their gills with straw rope, he moved with incredible speed and strength. In ancient times, he would have been a fierce general capable of wearing armor.

What a strong old man!

To retract my previous statement, even an old man is still an old man.

"Giggle giggle—!!"

Suddenly, the chicken launched a sneak attack, breaking free of the rope on its feet and landing on the ground. It quickly got up, spread its clipped wings, and hopped away.

"You beast!!"

The old man shouted, his hair and beard bristling, his eyes blazing with fury. He felt as if his body was weighed down by a thousand pounds, and for a moment he could only watch the chicken that was about to be cooked escape. Suddenly, he noticed a young man dressed in city clothes trying to stop the chicken in the direction it was fleeing in a panic, and he quickly shouted.

"Watch out! This is a wild pheasant caught from the mountains! It's very fierce!"

The white figure smiled slightly, adjusted its direction, and blocked the pheasant's path. Just a mere chicken...

“Ku ...

The pheasant, suddenly enraged, let out a few fierce cries, stomped its foot on the ground, and with a flap of its wings, leaped nearly two meters into the air. In mid-air, it arched its back and lowered its head, simultaneously launching an attack on the white figure with its sharp beak and lean, powerful claws.

In a flash, the white figure bent down to dodge the chicken's beak, grabbed a chicken's foot, and amidst the pheasant's sudden panicked clucking, swung it around like a giant windmill before slamming it to the ground with a thud.

With a few feathers falling, the fluttering pheasant was grabbed by the base of its wings and lifted up by a hand, no matter how much it struggled, it was to no avail.

"it is good!"

The old man couldn't help but cheer.

At this moment, the pheasant recalled the horror of being dominated by the upright apes and the humiliation of having its fate grasped by the scruff of its neck.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Men, I understand!

"This young man has good athletic ability."

"Giggle!"

"The old man is no less impressive; at his age, he can still carry heavy loads on his shoulders and in his hands without showing any signs of fatigue."

"Giggle!"

"Haha, it's nothing special, just strength I developed from working."

The pheasant, attempting to defy its fate, was ultimately caught by the wing of destiny, left only to squawk helplessly in furious rage. An old man, walking and chatting with the white figure on the main road, glared at the pheasant and sneered, "Squeak, squawk, squawk! I'll hang you up later and see if you still squawk!"

The pheasant, like a fighting warrior, cried out: "Cluck cluck cluck—!!"

"Hmph." The old man snorted coldly, having probably already thought of a dozen ways to kill the chicken. "Young man, are you on vacation? This place may not be very famous, but the hot spring bathhouse is quite nice. Just follow this road straight to the end, and you'll find a guesthouse with a hot spring."

"Thank you for pointing the way, sir."

Bai Ying casually smiled and said, "Grandpa, are you carrying so many things? Is there a happy occasion at home and you're preparing a feast?"

"It's a happy occasion, I suppose." A slight smile appeared on the old man's square and dignified face. He suddenly asked, "By the way, how old are you this year, young man?"

Sixteen, currently in high school.

"Hmm, they do look similar... What do young people your age usually like to do?"

"What do you usually like to do?" Bai Ying thought for a moment, "Dating, I guess."

"Do you like dating?"

"After all, most of our time is spent in class, studying, and reading. It can't be that we like textbooks, exam papers, or something else, right?" Bai Ying said casually. "Speaking of liking something, it must be someone we care about but can't say anything about, which means we must like dating..."

The old man corrected him, "I meant hobbies and interests."

Bai Ying said in surprise, "These things definitely vary from person to person—is the old man perhaps the kind of elder who never paid attention to what the young people in his family liked before, and only suddenly realized this when it came to the last minute, and is now in a hurry to find a standard answer?"

"?"

The old man coughed and said, "Young man, what you're saying is really unpleasant to hear. It's because of the generation gap..."

"Grandpa is joking. The so-called generation gap is just a matter of being too lazy to communicate," Bai Ying said dismissively. "Boyfriends and girlfriends can disagree, and that's called a generation gap?"

“That’s different,” the old man said, raising his eyebrows. “For example, when I was your age, I had to learn how to do business, how to socialize and cooperate with others, work on construction sites, and start shouldering the burden of my family. Now times are different. At the same age, you have to study and learn. Naturally, you don’t have much to talk about. That’s what we call a generation gap.”

"Oh." Bai Ying sneered. "Since you know so much, you must have a very good relationship with the younger generation in your family, right?"

"?!"

The old man's eye twitched, and he frowned, saying with displeasure, "Young man, I'm trying to talk to you nicely, but you keep saying things that spoil the mood."

"See, the generation gap is already there, isn't it?" Bai Ying shrugged. "Grandpa, the standard answer is useless."

The old man twitched the corner of his mouth. This young man was quick-witted. He chuckled twice without any emotion, then changed the subject: "Young man, what you said is not wrong—you came on a trip, why didn't you bring your girlfriend with you?"

"It's less of a vacation and more of a trip to relax."

Bai Ying shook her head and said, "I've been having relationship problems lately. Sometimes I feel like I might be wrong, and other times I feel like it's not my fault. Sigh..."

"I've heard that you young people like to break up all the time, breaking up today and getting back together tomorrow..." The old man didn't expect the other person to be so frank, and couldn't help but say, "Men should be more magnanimous, don't be so hesitant and dwell on those little things!"

"It's mainly because she cares about it," Bai Ying said with a troubled expression. "If she cares, I can't just pretend I don't know, can I?"

"That's true." The old man clicked his tongue. "What did you two argue about?"

Bai Ying said, "She gets jealous. When I'm with other girls, she starts to overthink and gets all sulky—not exactly arguing, though, as she doesn't like emotional outbursts like arguing or cursing, but she inevitably gets upset when she talks about it."

"That's making a mountain out of a molehill."

The old man pondered for a moment and said, "Who can decide whether the person you need to talk to is male or female? You can't just talk to her from now on, can you? Your girlfriend is a bit too controlling."

"Probably. Sometimes she gets quite upset when I talk to her sister," Bai Ying nodded. "I can understand her though..."

"Understand?" The old man shook his head and said disdainfully, "A man should have backbone. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. What's the point of compromising? Young man, you need to show your attitude!"

Bai Ying hesitated and asked, "Is this her problem?"

The old man glanced at him sideways and said, "Is it your problem?"

“That’s true.” Bai Ying looked enlightened and said confidently, “She likes her sister’s boyfriend, so it’s her problem no matter how you look at it.”

"Yes, she has a very serious problem..."

The old man chimed in, then suddenly realized something was off: "Her sister's boyfriend? Who? You?"

Bai Ying nodded and said, "That's right."

The old man asked blankly, "Isn't she your girlfriend?"

Bai Ying asked in confusion, "Yes, I just said that."

"You..." the old man hesitated, "You have two girlfriends?"

Bai Ying shook her head. Before the old man could even catch his breath and sort out the relationships between the characters, he heard a sentence that twisted his thoughts into a pretzel.

There are four.

The old man's computer is down, four?

So you're a heartless man who cheats on his wife with multiple women?!

Just as the old man had sorted out his thoughts, Bai Ying sighed, "I'm still a little confused. Did they do this on a whim, or did they think it over carefully and tolerate it for the time being, or did they go against common sense to prove their sincerity, or did they just go with the flow and follow their hearts? Anyway, they just admitted it. However, it's normal for them to be dissatisfied with the status quo from time to time and to be jealous and angry with each other."

"what?"

The old man recovered from his mental lapse, but almost crashed again. His eye twitched: "You mean, they know?"

"Hmm?" Bai Ying asked doubtfully, "That's for sure, isn't it?"

The old man put on a serious face and, after a long while, managed to utter a comment: "You young people have so many tricks up your sleeves."

“So I’m quite troubled,” Bai Ying said as she walked. “I’m troubled about how to treat them well. If I treat one person separately, will the others feel that I’m being unfair and dissatisfied? How do I resolve her negative emotions? How can I maintain the relationship and state she wants? What kind of things should I do to be considered good for them? After all, the fault lies with me, not them.”

How to treat them well... that is indeed a problem.

After all, the fault lies with me.

The old man seemed to understand, and said, "Young man, you should be troubled and bear these things, so running away to relax alone is not a good idea."

"Oh? I thought the old man was going to give me a cold shoulder and point fingers."

"Heh, that's your business, what does it have to do with me? It's a waste of breath to scold you." The old man laughed magnanimously and offered words of comfort, "Men, I know them! They're fickle, always thinking about this one and that one, they're all heartless scoundrels."

“Yes,” Bai Ying agreed. “But if you give in to your desires, you’ll never have enough. Once you have one, two, three, or four, you’ll start thinking about five, six, seven, or eight. In the end, you’ll simply want more. You won’t care about what you have, and you’ll just think that it’s yours.”

"That's being a slave to desire," the old man advised with the air of someone who'd been there before. "Young man, cherish what you have. There are plenty of beautiful girls out there. If you like this one or that one, then a beautiful girl in your heart will become one or two things, not one or two people. If you don't treat them as human beings, how can others treat you as human beings? The same principle applies to pursuing fame and fortune."

Bai Ying concluded, "When you think you are controlling your desires, you are actually being controlled by them. When you can't tell which one you are, you should stop and look around."

"Yes...we've arrived."

The old man stopped outside a typical detached house in the countryside.

A beautiful two-story house made of cement bricks and tiles, with a spacious stone courtyard in front of the door, and spring gradually awakening on the hill behind, with lush greenery and rocks.

"You've come such a long way, come in and rest for a while."

The old man warmly invited Bai Ying into the house. Although it was a rural building, it was no different from a city house, with all the necessary water, electricity, and gas, and even seemed more spacious. Bai Ying deftly helped tie up the pheasants and ducks to await their execution in the autumn, threw the live fish into a basin to keep them alive, and stuffed the pork into a large freezer to keep it fresh.

"She is quick and efficient, unlike city dwellers who don't know anything about this or that and get hunched over and out of breath after a short while."

The old man seemed to think of someone, gave a dismissive look, brewed a pot of tea, and moved two reclining chairs and a small table into the courtyard. Bai Ying busied herself for a while, and in the main hall, she saw a shrine and weapon racks placed around it.

The shrine was fully equipped with swords, spears, and halberds, adding a touch of solemnity and warfare to its atmosphere.