Tokyo Sound

"No, it's so embarrassing." The girl curled her lips.

"Well... let me see. The gifts for relatives, new clothes, and toys for nephews and nieces are almost all ready. Ayane, is there anything else you want to buy?" Mom asked as she looked at the shopping list.

"I don't have any more." The girl shook her head sensibly.

"Really? Then let's find a place to eat and go shopping after we rest."

"Hasn't it been bought already?" Sakura Ayane asked puzzledly.

"What are you talking about? Shopping is shopping, and buying things is buying things." Mom said, "The former is enjoyment, and the latter is life."

"So shopping and buying things together constitute enjoying life?" Sakura Ayane complained with a sullen face.

"That's right!" Although she was a mother, the woman who looked more like a sister laughed, "What do you want to eat?"

The girl looked at the streets full of celebration and hesitated, "Then let's have Western food."

……

"Welcome, two beautiful ladies, you are like elves in winter, bringing the warmth of early spring." The waiter praised the new guests.

"Really? Thank you. Is there any room left?" Mom said with a smile, covering her cheek.

"Of course, of course. Please follow me." The waiter hurriedly led the way.

Sakura Ayane leaned out from behind and glanced at the waiter, a little surprised. Then she looked around constantly, as if looking for something.

"Ayane, what are you doing here? Just here." Her mother waved to her when she noticed she didn't follow.

"Coming." The girl trotted after him suspiciously.

Meanwhile, Table 18.

"Please give this Christmas gift to one of your waiters and say it's to thank him for caring about me when I was down." The short-haired beauty with a capable temperament sat upright and gave the order lightly.

"May I ask who exactly should I give it to?" the waiter asked politely.

"I don't know, but he is very young and handsome, so he should be a student," said the short-haired beauty.

"This is too vague. Is there a specific name?" the waiter asked.

"I don't know his name. He won't tell me."

"Well..." The waiter was a little embarrassed.

"It seems to be a part-time job." The short-haired beauty suddenly thought.

"The part-time jobs here are always uncertain. As far as I know, the longest time someone has worked there was only three weeks. Currently, there are no students coming to do odd jobs," the waiter replied.

The short-haired beauty was stunned for a moment, her expression a little lost, as if something was missing in her heart, as if she had said goodbye to her first love. She lowered her eyelids and whispered, "Then let's leave this gift here. Please give it to him when you have a chance."

After saying that, he stood up and prepared to leave.

"Sir, aren't you going to eat anymore?" the waiter asked hurriedly.

"No." Chima Sayaka seemed to be wiping away tears, but in the end she left without looking back, leaving behind only her strong back.

Five minutes later, table 27.

"Where is the man? Where is that young man?" The female president, who was wearing gold and silver and weighed over 300 pounds, was so anxious that her whole body was shaking.

"Which one?" The waiter was a little confused.

"The very handsome one!" the female president said simply and rudely.

"...I think I'm quite handsome." The waiter wiped his face. It was not an exaggeration to say so. When he was in college, he was a senior member of the bodybuilding club and always stood in the center of the group photos.

"You must be kidding me!" The female president slammed her palm on the table. "Where is my 'Rose Man'?"

"Don't be angry, sir. This is a normal restaurant. There won't be anyone with a nickname here!" The waiter was dumbfounded.

"No, you lied to me, wuwu, he must not be my illusion, ask him to come out and see me, just for once." The female president used to decide the future of her employees with just a word, but now she was calling out in sorrow, and tears fell uncontrollably.

The same situation has been happening these days.

The store manager stood at the counter, looking at the sudden drop in customer flow on the account book, as well as the rapidly declining order rate for expensive dishes such as deep-sea abalone and supreme king crab, and fell into a long silence for a while.

I could have endured the loneliness of darkness if I had not seen the bright and beautiful sunshine.

I could have tolerated the crowded subway if I hadn't driven a lightweight supercar and stepped on the accelerator to the floor.

The store manager pondered for a long time, and finally made a call to the Mamasana she often went to, asking her if she was familiar with any gigolo clubs and whether there were any excess talents there.

"Ayane, why are you always looking around?" The mother looked at her restless daughter in surprise.

"No, just look at the decoration." Sakura Ayane coughed lightly and sat down obediently.

She felt a little lost in her heart, just like at an intersection on the way home from school, there was always a stray cat that would bask in the sun on the wall, wagging its tail and taking a nap, but suddenly it disappeared, so all her expectations for today were dashed, and she didn't know where it would appear next time.

The end of the volume takes root and blooms in a foreign land

Yin Ze was awakened by a start. He dreamed that he was a gangster and was stabbed in the waist during an assault on a smokescreen. The knife was quite long and was more than enough for chopping wood.

He sat up with his hands on the floor and subconsciously scratched the itchy flesh under his armpits. He was still a little dazed after just waking up and his thoughts were not clear.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu's home was not far from him. The rented house was too small, and the floor took up too much space for two people to sleep on. He often had to watch his step when he got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and be careful not to step on people and the wires of the heater.

The single social animal team has spent more than 20 days and nights together, and has developed into a close relationship where they can share the history of middle school and black history. During this period, they have found ways to have fun in life...

For example, on Christmas Eve, they shared an apple. On New Year's Eve, the power went out and they could only wrap themselves in quilts to keep warm and listen to the New Year programs on the radio in the dark. On New Year's morning, they self-deceived each other by sending each other 100-yuan red envelopes to celebrate and add to the New Year atmosphere. While working on a sea of ​​math problems late at night, Matsuoka bought half a bag of walnuts to nourish his brain, oh no, to restore his brain power.

The feeling of his waist and kidneys being penetrated in the dream was too real. He didn't want to take a nap anymore. If he continued to dream, he would suffer a huge loss. He was going to lose anyway, so he decided to use the disconnection method to escape.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth and boiling some water, Yin Ze stood beside the stove, touching his chin and always felt that something was wrong.

Most people have had this experience: they wanted to talk about a topic in the last second, but suddenly forgot it in the next second.

Yin Ze is feeling this way right now.

It stands to reason that he has superpowers like a soul solid-state drive and a museum of consciousness, and he can remember everything he sees. But the problem is that this is an active skill, and he has to think about flipping through the folders first. His memory level is not much better than that of normal people, and he has to flip through the playlist first to request a song.

So this involves a paradox... The memory data is all stored well, but he suddenly forgot what he wanted to recall, without even a vague impression, and the search function is blocked. So did he forget it or not?

Therefore, he decided to name his superpower "Schrödinger's Corridor of Life".

But now the Life Corridor program was running a little slow. He didn't dare to stamp his feet to overclock it, because if he ran it too hard, the nutrition would not be enough.

I wonder what I overlooked and why I feel such a strong sense of crisis.

The recording work of tool man Knight has been postponed to next quarter due to the production company, so there is no rush at all.

The real estate agent didn't call me to go see the new rental house today.

I finished the test two weeks before the unified examination, and my score of 825 perfectly met the standard. My head teacher and the dean were so moved that they cried.

The late-night large-scale adult variety show was also recorded.

What else can he do when he comes here alone...

Hmm? Unified Examination?

The corridor of life suddenly became unblocked like a clogged toilet. Yin Ze froze as if struck by lightning.

"Todai's scores are the sum of the unified examination and the school examination!" The principal's cold pursuit revealed the fangs of an iron-blooded educator, and the scene of grabbing him by the collar jumped into his vision with a 100% restoration in the form of a video.

Damn! School exam!

The man roared in his heart, and his facial expression, which was leisurely in the early morning, quickly distorted.

Damn it! Today is the school exam!

I finally know where that heavy sense of crisis comes from. It's not that I failed the exam, but that the huge amount of aid from Fukuzawa Yukichi that I could get if the project is completed is about to vanish into thin air!

"Matsuoka! Lend me your bicycle!" Yin Ze shouted excitedly, quickly turned off the stove, and hurriedly looked for clothes to wear. After two seconds, he realized... he didn't know how to ride a bicycle.

Two seconds later, the blazing fighting spirit rose again - at this time one could only hope that Takizawa's body would respond instinctively!

He was wearing an old brown windbreaker and the same scarf as Gryffindor, but he couldn't find a pair of socks for a long time, so he had to wear one black and one yellow. He jumped like a zombie and ran to the door to look for his shoes.

At this time, the handle clicked and the security door was pushed open. Carrying the rice balls and milk bought from the convenience store downstairs, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu was slightly stunned when he saw his friend busy putting on his equipment, "Are you awake?"

"Something big happened! No time to explain!" Yin Ze said hurriedly.

"I know. You're taking the Tokyo University test today. I booked a taxi for you yesterday." Matsuoka Yoshitsugu took off his shoes and walked in. He said calmly, "But it's only 7 o'clock now. Let's have breakfast first."

The scene suddenly turned cold.

"How do you know?" Yin Ze asked for a long time, holding up the shoe.

"We were working part-time one day before, and you told me you were going to apply for the University of Tokyo when we were having dinner. I wrote down the time for the entrance exam, and I woke up at 5 this morning." Matsuoka Yoshitsugu was talking, and suddenly he felt guilty when he saw Yin Ze's strange expression, "Eh... then, isn't that right? What did I do wrong?"

"No, no, let's eat." Yin Ze breathed a sigh of relief, threw down his shoes, and was now trying hard to untie the knot of his scarf.

"Oh."

……

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.

Today, Hongo-Sanchome Station on the Toei Oedo Line and Ueno-Hirokoji Station on the Ginza Line must have been crowded with people. Nervous test takers and equally anxious parents gathered together, and they had been preparing for this fateful day for a long time.

As a prestigious institution of higher learning, the main gate of Tokyo University is very low-key, not grand and majestic enough, and it doesn't even have a name sign.

The gate of the Hongo campus was originally the gate of the Maeda family, the lord of Kaga Domain, who was a close friend of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It is commonly known as the red gate because it is painted in vermilion.

In the Edo period, it was a custom for feudal lords to build red gates when they married. The gate at Todai was built when Tokugawa Ieyasu's daughter got married, half a century earlier than Todai itself. Once the gate of the Goshuden was damaged, it could not be rebuilt, so this gate was the only one left.

"This is a cultural relic. It gives off a heavy sense of history." The Dean pushed up his glasses. "Newspapers often describe 'entering the Red Gate' as being admitted."

The usually quiet and elegant university was filled with people, and staff members were holding banners and running quickly to organize the crowd.

Their group, led by the principal, entered the school.

Walking through Ginkgo Avenue, looking at the silent Yasuda Auditorium in the distance. The times have left Western marks on this school, but its eaves and corners are full of Japanese spirits. Koizumi Yuzaburo has a complicated look in his eyes.

"My connection with this place is due to Kawabata Yasunari [a well-known Japanese writer whose representative works include Snow Country and The Dancing Girl of Izu], the man whose words penetrated my soul."

The principal exhaled white air and spoke softly.

"One summer night, after reading the last paragraph of The Dancing Girl of Izu, I cried like the protagonist, just wanting to sleep in comfort and contentment. I understood sadness and romance from then on. They reverberated in my body, took root and sprouted, and led my dreams. Ten years ago, I came here to take an exam and walked around Sanshiro Pond, where every generation of literary masters had stayed, including Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Oe Kenzaburo, Dazai Osamu, Natsume Soseki, and Kawabata Yasunari [Note: a bunch of famous Japanese writers]... I walked very quietly, for fear of disturbing the beauty that was stagnant in the cracks of time."

Yin Ze and others quietly watched the principal immersed in sorrow.

"Go, follow the footsteps of the ancient sages. We will wait here for you until you move away." The principal shook his head and sighed.

"Then I'll go to the examination room first." Yin Zegang turned around and thought for a moment before stopping again, "By the way, there's one more thing I haven't told you yet."

"What?" The principal turned around in surprise.

"Director, Principal, Mr. Yasui, thank you for your attention and care for me."

Yin Ze took a few steps back and bowed solemnly.

"If I were to plan my future life on my own, I would never have thought of coming here. I would like to thank the teachers for their guidance and teaching."

"Hey, good boy, then come back with a first-class honors in the third grade, so that I can brag about it when I drink with colleagues from other schools in the future." The dean touched his sparse hair and laughed.

Yin Ze nodded and ran away with his stationery bag.

The Dean of Studies sighed, "Every time I see young people taking entrance exams, I feel very touched. Every year there is no shortage of older people in the workforce who can provide references. Principal, why don't you pick up your pen again and pursue your dreams again?"

"Some things are worth remembering only if you have regrets about them." Koizumi Yuzaburo said with a smile, "Besides, this is my most beautiful dream from my student days. I'm worried that if I really accomplish it, I'll only be entangled in endless financial interests from now on... So let's just continue to regret it."

……

Yin Ze sat in a corner of the examination room, holding his pencil case. The examinees were far apart from each other, and there were all kinds of people. There were relatively few freshmen like him, and most of them were wanderers who had repeated their studies or people in society. Everyone had a poker face, and the huge classroom was so quiet that one could hear the sound of the air conditioner.

It seems like I have arrived in another dimension.

The air was so heavy that it seemed to have condensed into a block. When the examiner silently opened the papers with a hand knife, several older ronin with stubble on their faces were shaking under the pressure and the shadow of failure.

To be honest, this place cannot be compared with the Unified Examination. If the Unified Examination is an exchange meeting where friendship is the first priority, then this place will become a slaughterhouse where countless people will die.

Sitting here and competing with these people who have been living in darkness since childhood and have worked hard day after day, he feels respect and shame.

The college entrance examination is a step towards maturity and also the end of student days.

After that, the youthful recklessness gradually came to an end, and you could take any road you wanted. Some went thousands of miles away, while others fought in the north of the vast ocean.

It was not until a few years later when I was working in the workplace that I realized that sitting in a classroom and doing exercises was the most innocent job, an air-conditioned dormitory with brothers around was the most ideal rental house, and the love affairs on the Internet were ultimately not as sentimental as the whispers on the small notes in the drawer.

Yin Ze was a little dazed. When he took the college entrance examination in China, he was undoubtedly one of the cannon fodders. His proud record was that he had scored 15 points in mathematics, ranking second to last in the grade. But there was nothing he could do. The last in the grade had worse luck than him. He only guessed two multiple-choice questions correctly and scored 10 points, winning the championship.

As a typical sleeper in the examination room, he spent ten minutes to finish the multiple-choice questions in the college entrance examination but did not fall asleep as usual.

It was not because he was concerned about the sight of others or the patrol teacher's disapproval, but because the sun was shining brightly that day and the breeze was not dry. He watched a beam of golden sunlight penetrate the bright green ivy, pass through the windowsill and shine on the chalk-dust-stained podium.

After handing in the paper, the student days are over.