Siheyuan: Cooking journey

"Don't make any noise, let me sleep a little longer..."

Kana snorted and pulled the quilt up again.

Yukiko Nakamori took a deep breath, her heartbeat quickened, she bit her lip, and asked timidly, "Did the man from your family come to see you last night?"

"Um……"

There was a hint of shyness in Kana's voice.

Yukiko Nakamori held her breath and told herself not to think too much.

Kana's men came, they were all adults, something must have happened that left this smell.

The reason why she felt familiar was because she had experienced similar things, so she had a similar feeling.

This is normal and this smell occurs between any man and woman.

She thought so and tried to convince herself, but her heart was still beating fast.

She had never experienced anything like this before. This was the first time she entered Kana's room and smelled this smell.

Moreover, does the taste between other men and women also feel the same?

What made Yukiko Nakamori even more confused was that this smell actually carried the scent of that man.

Is this a coincidence?

Is there such a coincidence?

"When did he leave?"

Nakamori Yukiko clenched her fists involuntarily and said in a nonchalant tone, "It's already noon, and you haven't gotten up yet. Did he just leave and make you too tired to get up?"

"No, what are you talking about..."

Kana said shyly and unhappily, "That's impossible. He left early in the morning. I just sat on the boat for a few days and felt very tired. I wanted to rest for a while."

Left early in the morning!

Yukiko Nakamori secretly breathed a sigh of relief and felt that her previous worries were somewhat funny.

I must be overthinking it. The smell of men and women is very similar.

How is it possible for the same person to be in two places at the same time?

Besides the difference in appearance, it is impossible for a person to be in two places at the same time.

How could the person who was so reluctant to leave in the morning appear here again?

Impossible, absolutely impossible.

Yukiko Nakamori told herself this, and her heartbeat gradually calmed down.

However, when she saw the empty pillow on the bed, her heart suddenly became nervous again.

The room was quiet.

Kana was wrapped in the quilt, motionless.

Yukiko Nakamori's heart was pounding. She picked up the empty pillow next to her and sniffed it, then she relaxed a little.

There was no familiar scent on the pillow.

But then.

When Yukiko Nakamori saw the pillow that Kana was resting on, she became nervous again.

"Kana, it's already noon, get up quickly..."

Nakamori Yukiko urged, leaning against Kana, putting her head on the pillow and taking a deep breath. There was a faint scent of perfume mixed with a hint of freshness, which was very light but made people feel intimate.

The familiar smell made Yukiko Nakamori flustered, her whole body trembled, and she froze.

"No, let me sleep a little longer, don't squeeze me..."

Sensing the other person approaching, Kana muttered softly and tugged at her pillow.

Take a deep breath... take a deep breath...

After a while, Nakamori Yukiko's eyes gradually became clear, and she pretended to be curious and said, "Kana, did your boyfriend come very late? It was already late after we took a shower and had dinner together last night, but we didn't see him."

"It's quite late, and I've already gone to bed." Kana answered casually without thinking much about it.

"What time did he leave? Was it in the morning or late at night?"

Yukiko Nakamori asked in a nonchalant tone.

"Maybe in the morning..."

Kana was a little unsure and answered vaguely.

"So he was gone when you woke up?"

Yukiko Nakamori took a deep breath and held her pounding heart with her hand.

"Why do you ask?"

Kana felt confused.

"Nothing, I just thought that since he came so late, he must be very busy and probably had to leave work early in the morning."

“He is indeed very busy at work.”

Kana said in a low voice: "I just came back from a business trip to Japan. I need to prepare reporting materials. I'm afraid I'll have to work overtime during this period."

“It does sound like hard work.”

Although she wanted to continue asking about that person, she couldn't find a good excuse. After thinking for a while, Nakamori Yukiko spoke again, "What are your two names? I know the man's last name, but other than that, I haven't heard you mention much about the story of how you two met."

"Did you two meet each other through playing chess and then start dating?"

"You can say that..."

Kana couldn't help but blush when she recalled the process of falling in love. Who could have thought that she would choose to leave her hometown and come to a new country with this man?

Yukiko Nakamori bit her lip and asked again, "Did he tell you about anyone else in the family?"

"According to Ye Ying, here the man usually takes the girl back to meet his parents and relatives after the engagement."

"Now that you're here, has he ever said when he'll take you to meet his family?"

Kana lifted the quilt a little to reveal half of her shy face, and said with some disappointment: "I really don't know how to explain this question..."

"What happened?"

Seeing her friend like this, Nakamori Yukiko asked worriedly, "Has he never mentioned this before?"

"That's not entirely true..."

After taking a look at the other person, Kana didn't plan to hide it anymore, so she pulled up the corner of the quilt to cover her face and said in a muffled voice: "Xuezi, I have something to tell you. I hope you can keep it a secret and don't laugh at me."

"What's the matter?"

Yukiko Nakamori was very curious, "Why would I laugh at you?"

"That's it, that, that..."

Kana hesitated for a while and said, "He Yuzhu is already married in the Red Country and has a wife."

"what!"

Nakamori Yukiko bit her lip hard, took a deep breath, and said coldly: "Did he deliberately hide it from you and trick you into the Red Country before telling you?"

"No, I knew he had a wife before."

Kana whispered, "Do you think I'm shameless for staying with him even though I know he's married?"

Yukiko Nakamori wanted to say that it was true, but she couldn't say it anymore when she remembered that she had resolutely chosen to be with a man who she didn't know whether he was married or not.

"Love is complicated. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. As long as you don't regret it, that's all." Although these words were spoken to Kana, Yukiko Nakamori was actually speaking to herself.

"Xuezi, thank you."

Kanara pulled the quilt, revealing her eyes, and said bitterly: "Actually, I never thought about being with him. I just fell in love with him at that time. Plus, the Yamamoto family came to propose marriage, and I couldn't refuse. I just hope to leave some good memories with him."

"I was afraid he would refuse, so I even used the last bit of fragrance left in the house to help."

"After we got together, he was very perceptive and noticed something was wrong, so he said he would handle everything."

“It was only after my grandfather passed away that I felt for the first time that I had someone to protect and rely on.”

"It was also at that time that I felt I couldn't leave him..."

Kana gave a brief account of what happened between the two of them, hiding some of the sensitive parts.

Yukiko Nakamori listened quietly, holding the corner of her clothes tightly in her hands, loosening and tightening them again.

"We had already discussed this before coming to the Red Country."

Kana continued with a sad look on her face, "I'm a representative of a Japanese company and I usually go to work at an instant noodle factory."

"This way, I can see him at the factory every day, but our relationship needs to remain secret."

"The situation here is special. I can understand and I have no objection to it. As long as I can see him every day, it's enough."

"But there is one thing I really didn't expect."

"I asked him a long time ago if he was married, and he said he was, so I didn't ask any more questions."

"It wasn't until last night that he told me that he had been married twice."

"His ex-wife and he had been separated for many years due to some special reasons, and then he married another wife. As a result, his ex-wife came back."

"Each of his wives gave birth to a child for him and remained deeply in love with him. So he spent time with them separately, meeting them every two or three days."

"I really don't know what to do now."

"Originally I thought I was the woman he cared about most besides his wife."

"I didn't expect it would be the third one now. What worries me even more is that his ex-wife is also staying in this hotel."

"He also said that he would arrange for us to have dinner together tomorrow and introduce us to each other."

"Oh, I get a headache just thinking about this. I'm worried that my ex-wife might find out something. I don't have any idea at all."

Kana sighed, looking distressed.

Nakamori Yukiko suddenly asked, "Did you wait until I came back before being with He Yuzhu?"

"Um……"

Kana nodded subconsciously, but then felt something was wrong, "Xuezi, why do you suddenly ask this?"

"It's nothing. I just remembered that last time at the dessert shop, you told me about the Yamamoto family proposing marriage, and that you had someone you liked. I was curious about when you two got together."

Yukiko Nakamori pretended to be curious and explained, then continued to ask: "Now that you know that He Yuzhu has been married twice and is still in contact with them, what are you going to do?"

"What can I do?"

"I didn't really care about his marriage, but I didn't expect that he had been married twice. It's a bit hard to accept."

Kana sighed helplessly, "But who made me fall in love with him? No matter how hard it is to accept, I have to try to adapt and accept it."

"What else can I do? Leave him and go back to Japan when I'm angry?"

"It's easy to go back, but it's even harder to forget him. Rather than leaving and still holding your breath, unable to forget him and always wanting to see him, it's better to just stay with him."

"I think it would be more satisfying to give him some trouble occasionally and make him angry."

The room was very quiet.

Yukiko Nakamori felt a pang of pain in her heart and was at a loss. The idea seemed absurd to her, but the familiar smell on Kana's bed told her that it was all true.

Even though his appearance had changed and his name was different, that special smell would not deceive her.

With this idea in mind, all previous doubts were explained.

Why didn't they make any careful plans when they knew it would be troublesome to enter the port and that they couldn't pick up the ship smoothly? Why didn't they even make any arrangements and just let her wait in the hotel, as if she would definitely be able to check in?

Aren't you worried at all?

not give a damn about?

Now, all the mysteries have been solved, because she knows that Kana is on the boat, knows that Kana will go on the boat with her, believes that Kana can enter smoothly, and believes that Kana will not abandon her.

Thinking back, when Kana called and said she was leaving Japan, she was trapped at home, and that man showed up just in time. How could it be such a coincidence that they were on the same ship? Because he was by Kana's side, he knew everything.

Thinking further, why did he suddenly appear when he went to the dessert shop with Kana?

Why, when it was suggested to elope with him, he always found a reason to refuse, but allowed Kana to take him to the Red Country?

All things seemed to be strung together into one line, and everything became clear.

At this moment, Yukiko Nakamori had the answer in her heart. There are not so many coincidences in the world, there are only deceptions again and again.

But what can we do if we know the truth?