[Net King] Winter Snow

The black-haired boy in front of him was wearing a light-colored checkered striped kimono at the moment, with a frown on his handsome face.Uemura Yuriko forced a smile to ease the atmosphere at the moment, but Sanada Genichiro ungratefully said nothing.

"That... everyone has been waiting for a long time, let's go up first." Seeing that the other party did not answer her, the girl gathered her kimono sleeves, pretending to be calm and restored her smile to a gentle arc, pretending that nothing happened before. Did not happen.

Yuriko Uemura just passed Genichiro Sanada who was standing in front of her straightly, and her clogs made a crisp sound when they stepped on the blue-gray steps in winter.It wasn't until the two of them were back to back about three or four steps apart that the boy who hadn't made a sound closed his eyes and said in a calm voice, "Escaping won't solve anything, it will only make you more and more limited. own world."

"I know." The girl who stopped her pace didn't turn her head back, but lowered her eyelids slightly, showing a bitter smile, "I understand what Kiyomiko said, so Sanada-kun doesn't need to repeat it again."

Hearing Yuriko Uemura's footsteps gradually go away, Genichiro Sanada clenched his fists under the sleeves even harder.She didn't understand anything at all, and she never thought of facing the conflicts between them head-on and frankly.Whenever this is the case, the black-haired boy wants to shake Yuriko Uemura's shoulders to make her more realistic, not to always hide aside and refuse to face it, but when he really stands in front of that girl, Genichiro Sanada says nothing No, I can only watch the relationship between the two people in this strange state of half-stiffness.Closer than friends, farther than lovers.

Before arriving at the Shrine on the top of the mountain, Sanada Genichiro never thought that the person who broke the barrier of Uemura Yuriko would be Takeuchi Kiyomi who seemed to refuse to get close to anyone on weekdays.The light brown-haired girl suddenly became angry for some reason. He had just stepped on the last step when he heard the other party's harsh words resounding in the clean courtyard of the shrine.

Kiyomi Takeuchi accused Nakagawa Mie of being the one who got angry, but Genichiro Sanada saw Yuriko Uemura's complexion getting worse and worse. It was only after such a comparison that the young man listened carefully to the words in the girl's mouth, with some anger It is not difficult to hear from the tone of the voice that Takeuchi Kiyomi is really angry not because of Nakagawa Mie, but because he can't see Yuriko Uemura's self-deceiving and evasive attitude.

When Kiyomi Takeuchi finally shut up, he realized what impulsive thing he had done. The girl was stunned for a moment, and then seemed to consider the situation of Liu Lianji around her, and she could hardly lower her head for her mean anger just now Apologize.

Seeing Yuriko Uemura lowering her head, Genichiro Sanada seemed both annoyed and frustrated.Seeing that the people from the tennis club were about to go to the cash box to pray for blessings, the black-haired boy hesitated for a moment, and finally took Uemura Yuriko's hand and walked towards the path behind the shrine.

All the way to the remote and uninhabited corner, the girl didn't make any sound, but followed Sanada Genichiro's footsteps obediently.The sounds of the crowd gradually became far away, and when the black-haired boy finally stopped, the voices of the people who came to pray for blessings could hardly be heard.

When Genichiro Sanada turned his head, Yuriko Uemura still kept her head down so that no one could see her face. The other side's twitching shoulders seemed to be crying. The boy hesitated for a while, and finally took out a handkerchief Pass it to the girl.

Genichiro Sanada took the handkerchief and wiped it on his face, only then did he confirm that Yuriko Uemura was indeed crying.He didn't know what Kiyomi Takeuchi and Yuriko Uemura said on the stairs before, and he didn't know what happened at the shrine after that, but just from the fact that Kiyomi Takeuchi lost his anger in a crowded place No matter how you say it, the girl with light brown hair behaved too improperly.

"Takeuchi-san..." Genichiro Sanada hadn't finished speaking when he was interrupted by Yuriko Uemura's nasal voice.

"Qing Jianzi is right." The girl who had been lowering her head finally raised her face at this moment, and there was a helpless smile on the face with red eyes from crying, "She was right."

"My father is a corrupt criminal, and I have always been worried about this matter." Uemura Yuriko's smile gradually became sad, "I always thought that I accepted this matter, but until Kiyomiko said, I just realized that I haven’t accepted it at all.”

"He has always been the man in my heart with a gentle smile. I don't believe he would do that kind of thing. But I didn't know until Qing Jianzi said that what my father did in the political arena, even if it was Kiyomiko in Hokkaido has heard of it. Is this father really the Uemurata Ichiro I remember? Probably not...he only left me the most gentle side."

"I can't accept my father who made mistakes, so I can't accept the things you did. I deceive myself and think that if I continue to escape, I can pretend that nothing happened. It may be much easier to pretend that I don't know anything."

"But..." Yuriko Uemura said a lot to Genichiro Sanada, and finally she looked straight into the eyes of the black-haired boy, "It happened, it happened, no matter how much you lie to yourself, it's useless."

"Sanada-kun is actually the same as Kiyomiko, right? More than once, he wanted to wake me up and let me see this reality clearly, so I decided——" Saying this, the girl's eyes became firmer, "From Come out of that snail shell."

Hearing Yuriko Uemura's words, Genichiro Sanada felt mixed feelings.The girl he knew was always growing, but the price of promoting her growth every time seemed a bit too heavy.He used to worry that someone like Takeuchi Kiyomi who was extreme, indifferent and indifferent would make Uemura Yuriko's mentality more negative, but now the boy felt that he had to apologize for his prejudiced first impression.

"But before that, why don't you accompany me to a place first?" The serious girl suddenly smiled lightly, as if she wanted to ease the atmosphere before, she walked up to Genichiro Sanada said in front of him.

"Where?" Looking at Yuriko Uemura's face in front of him, Genichiro Sanada blushed and turned his head away, coughing calmly.

"Well, a secret." With her index finger upright in front of her mouth, the girl said playfully, "Anyway, just go with me. I'm a bit lacking in courage by myself."

"I see." Sighing, Genichiro Sanada couldn't hold back the person in front of him.

Walking on the street with Uemura Yuriko, the black-haired boy thought at first that the girl had gone the wrong way, but when that place finally appeared in front of his eyes, Genichiro Sanada understood what the other party called going alone to a place where courage is insufficient where is it.

The prison with iron walls and iron walls, the place where Ichiro Kamurata was imprisoned.

"Just get here." Standing at the door, Yuriko Uemura said to Genichiro Sanada.

"Don't I need to accompany you in?" The black-haired boy seemed a little worried, and then realized that it was not safe to say so, and added again, "I can wait for you at the door of the room."

"No need." Shaking her head, Yuriko Uemura showed a smile, "If I don't even have the courage to go in, I will look down on myself."

Seeing the girl in kimono walk in accompanied by the guards, Genichiro Sanada saw a long dark corridor at the foot of the other party.At the end of this corridor was a room where he could visit the prisoner, and all he could do now was to wait here for her return.

Pushing open the slightly cold door, Yuriko Uemura sat on a chair, quietly waiting for her father's arrival.She still remembers the first time she came here, when Uemurata Ichiro had just been arrested, and she didn't believe that her father would commit corruption and bribery at all.That was the first and only time she came to this place, and no matter what Ami Uemura said after that, the girl couldn't take another step forward—and now, it's time to face the truth.

The man who finally appeared in front of her was much older than she remembered.The sideburns and hair, which are grayer than her mother's, make it impossible to see that the other party is just a man in his early forties, but instead looks like an old man in his 50s, which makes Yuriko Uemura feel distressed.Time has taken away too many things from Kamurata Ichiro, and now only deep wrinkles and traces of time are left on the man's face.

Six years.

She has not seen her father for six full years.

Looking at the man sitting across from her, Yuriko Uemura wanted to reach out her hands to caress the wrinkles on his face.The cold glass separated the distance between the two of them, and the girl's hand was pressed against the transparent barrier. Only now did she know what a bastard her six years of avoidance were.

"It's become more beautiful, Yuriko." The man on the other side of the glass didn't say anything reproachful, just smiled quietly and looked at her with gentle eyes, "The kimono suits you very well."

"Well, my mother said that this kimono was specially made for you, so I want to wear it for you to see." On the surface, she smiled and said to her father, but Yuriko Uemura was constantly suffering in her heart.She would rather her father be angry with her like Takeuchi Kiyomi at this moment, asking her why she didn't want to see him for six years, and she didn't want him to tolerate all her willfulness with gentle and understanding eyes like now.

The father and daughter chatted like this for a long time, until the guard said it was time, and Uemura Yuriko reluctantly prepared to leave.One second before getting up, the girl heard her father say the last sentence in front of the microphone, and just one sentence made Yuriko Uemura burst into tears, which she had held back for a long time.

"I'm glad you came to see me, Yuriko," he said.