Hearing the voices coming from downstairs, Haixing was startled for a moment, then pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while before confirming who was talking to his father.
She went downstairs to take a look, and the person standing in front of Maki Seiichiro was indeed Naoko.
"Shangzi."
Seeing Haixing who was wearing black-rimmed glasses and dressed at home, Shangzi smiled slightly and said, "Haixing."
She returned the smile and quickly glanced at her hotel to make sure Naruse didn't come with her, and then asked: "What's wrong with Naoko coming here?"
Seeing the two chatting, Maki Seiichiro turned around and returned to the store.
"I'll get the umbrella." Shangzi said.
"Umbrella?"
Haixing was startled for a moment, and then suddenly remembered what happened the night before yesterday: Although she was soaked, she finally went home holding Naoko's umbrella.
"I almost forgot."
She turned around and went upstairs, "I put away that umbrella. It's upstairs. Shangzi, please come up and sit for a while."
"Excuse me."
After taking a few steps, Haixing realized what he was doing and turned around to go downstairs.
"I'll get the drinks."
Shangzi passed by her and asked casually, "Isn't Yiye here yet?"
"No. But it's almost time. She should be here soon."
Before entering Haixing's room, Shangzi stopped at the door of another room on the second floor.
There was no one around, and after a few seconds of hesitation, she still didn't open the sliding door.
This is Naruse’s room when he lived here before. The size is almost the same as Haixing’s room. The main difference is that the window faces away from the street.
It was already five years ago...
Shangzi sat in a daze for a while, and Haixing came up with a large bottle of wheat tea and three cups.
"Please use."
"Thank you." Shangzi sat on the floor mat, with books and notes on the low table beside him. It seemed that Haixing was studying before she came over.
Those failed re-examination papers were also on the table. Haixing packed them up and pressed them under his notebook, feeling a little embarrassed, "Dad said that he just saw Yiye going to the bookstore, and she will be here later."
"Will I disturb you?"
"Ah, it's okay."
"That's good." Shangzi picked up the cup and took a sip.
Haixing suddenly thought of a possibility, "Did Shangzi come here alone?"
"Yeah." Shangzi smiled, understanding what she really wanted to ask, "Chunhai is going out."
"Oh." Haixing didn't ask any more questions, his face was deliberately cold.
Shangzi looked at her and realized that it would be much more natural to continue the conversation than to take the initiative.
"Chunhai went to get a new uniform. When he goes to school tomorrow, he will be wearing the same uniform as us."
Haixing turned his head subconsciously, looked at the Jingao uniform hanging on the wall, and said casually: "Really, it's really fast."
"Because it's the off-season for the factory."
Naoko looked at her, "Chunhai received a call from the uniform store on Friday, but because of the typhoon, he couldn't go to the store to pick it up - by the way, Chunhai said that when he was doing those things in the cafe that day, he encountered a starfish.
”
Haixing was just listening, but suddenly there was obvious surprise on his face, and he looked at her again.
"Did he tell Shangzi?"
"Chunhai told me everything." Naoko nodded, because he didn't know what expression to show, so he had no expression at all and just looked at her calmly.
From Haixing's point of view, it means something completely different: Shangzi, who always smiled, can no longer smile.
"Then what are Shangzi going to do?"
"..."
Does what Chunhai does in private have anything to do with her?
Shangzi was pleasantly surprised and puzzled.
"I... don't know." She told the truth.
"He said so too."
Although the relationship with her ex-stepbrother is not very good, Haixing has no prejudice against the gentle and approachable Shangzi.
She wanted to comfort her, but it was only for a while and she didn't know what to say.
"However, there will always be a way to solve it...probably."
Solution? Solution?
The more confused Shangzi felt in his heart, the calmer his face became.
"What did Harumi say at that time?"
"He said..."
Haixing recalled for a moment, and then remembered that Naruse didn't answer his question at that time, and she interpreted his silence as helplessness.
Shangzi was still looking at her, waiting for an answer. Haixing simply said what he said before to support his inference.
"He said that Shangzi still feels that the atmosphere of the handicraft club is very good and will not quit...well...even if he is targeted, he will not tell him anything."
"..."
When he heard "Handicraft Society", Shangzi was startled, and then his heart tightened.
It turned out to be because of this incident...
Thinking about Naruse's behavior in the handicraft club these days, she almost understood it.
Sure enough, it still caused trouble for him.
But...
"There will always be a way to solve it," Shangzi said with a smile.
"Ah... um." Seeing her smile return, Haixing also nodded vaguely.
She just didn't quite understand, Shangzi seemed to feel much better all of a sudden.
"I am willing to stay in the handicraft club because I care about like-minded friends, not those who target me." Shangzi smiled at her again, "Don't worry."
Hearing what she said, Haixing felt relieved.
After that, Shangzi took a glass of water and drank it, but was silent for a while.
When she came back to her senses and saw Haixing looking at her, she smiled and said, "By the way, the relationship between Haixing and Harumi seems to have improved."
Haixing's face immediately sank and he glanced to the side, not that he was angry with her, "How is that possible?"
"Harumi said that the day before yesterday at the coffee shop, he also tutored Haixing on Japanese history."
"That's..."
She opened her mouth and wanted to say that the truth was that he had discovered her unintentional eavesdropping. She was at a loss as to what to do, so she accepted it in a daze.
"What he did was not considered counseling at all." Haixing decided to deny it from another angle.
"——Really, I think that method is quite suitable for starfish." A third person's voice came from the door.
The two looked over and said, "Yiye."
Morimi Kazuyo is here.
"Shangzi, Haixing."
She came over, sat down, and greeted the two of them.
"Should we start?" Shangzi stood up, "Then it's time for me to go back."
"Why don't you sit down for a while?" Mori looked at her.
Shangzi shook his head and smiled, "Haixing's make-up exam is more important, so I won't bother you anymore."
"By the way, umbrella." Haixing also stood up.
She opened the door to Naruse's room and went in to search.
Shangzi glanced at the door, "Has this become a utility room?"
Starfish came out with an umbrella and closed the door behind her.
"There are only two people in my house, and the room is empty, so I use it to put things."
After going downstairs to see Shangzi off, she returned upstairs and stood for a while at the door of the utility room.
Morimi in the room held his chin, without urging, and looked out the window again.
......
In a second-hand store near the station, Naruse sat at the front desk and had been waiting for nearly an hour.
Perhaps because of the bad weather, no customers came to the door during this period. He did not feel bored, but enjoyed it.
If you really own a second-hand store, this is how it would feel?
Naruse thought as he sat at the front desk and looked around the store.
After scanning for a moment, he looked down at the disassembled radio in front of him.
Although he had little contact with electrical appliance repair, after studying for a while, he also saw the areas that needed to be repaired.
The soldering iron was at hand, and he was confident to reconnect the lines, but after all, it was someone else's thing, so he didn't do it in the end.
Just when Naruse was about to walk around the store for the fifth time, the real store owner Shioyue Ming finally came back.
The pickup truck stopped in front of the antique store. He jumped out of the truck and lifted a wooden box one meter high from the truck bed.
"You..."
After carrying the wooden box into the store, Shioyue Ming looked at Naruse and finally remembered that he was the person he asked to look after the store.
"Thank you for your hard work. I will pay for the visit to the store."
Naruse was a little curious about how much money he would pay her. When he actually handed over a thousand-yuan bill, he shook his head and said he didn't need it.
"Really?" Chao Yueming didn't show politeness to him and put it away directly.
Naruse looked at the wooden box and asked, "Is this a record player?"
"That's right." Chao Yueming opened the wooden box and revealed the record player inside, "The hand-cranked one has a history of more than a hundred years."
Naruse raised his eyebrows.
"What about the price?"
Ming Shiotsuki, who had always been expressionless, now showed a bit of pain, "One hundred and ten thousand yen."
"It's not cheap..."
He took out a vinyl record from under the wooden box, then cranked it a few times, and the old record player made a beeping sound, the kind of dance music that Naruse had only heard in movies.
After playing, Chaoyue Ming asked Naruse to help carry the record player into the store's warehouse.
There were more antiques placed inside, and while Naruse was looking around, Chao Yueming suddenly said: "I remember who you look like."
He patted the old drawer-type wardrobe next to him. There was a celebrity poster on the side. It was an actress who was very popular more than ten years ago and even now.
Looking at the pretty girl on the faded poster, Naruse smiled.