my samurai lover HE

?When the last snow covered the roof, and the charcoal in the brazier still had the damp smell of snow water, his body had gradually recovered.

The place where we lived was a small, unremarkable village, but unfortunately, during the period from the time we stayed to the time we left, I never had time to know the name of the village.Even so, I am still very happy living in this log cabin.Looking at the diary I once wrote while sitting by the brazier in the dim light of candles, I can still miss the mood at that time: "I think in this era, there is no Western culture that is closer to the daily life of Japanese people than me." Soujiro and I are like the most ordinary Japanese couple, living in that small world. I only have him, and he only has me, and we are looking forward to the arrival of a new life together.”

"Yoshihiro-san," I touched the black cat squatting beside me, and whispered to it, "Did you get kicked out by them?"

Yoshihiro meowed softly, flicked his tail, and then raised his paw and pressed it on my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," I rubbed its little head, and it rubbed comfortably, "I left Takeuchi in the United States, are you lonely too?"

Yoshihiro shook his body, fixed his eyes on the bowl in front of me intently, and then jumped to the plate.

"Meow—" it called out in dissatisfaction, and a white hand pinched the fur of its neck and lifted it up.

I turned my head and found him standing behind me, holding the struggling Yoshihiro-san in his arms.

Seeing me looking back at him, he smiled at me and said, "Look, if I don't come out for dinner, I will be ruined by Yoshihiro-chan."

I didn't speak, I stepped forward and fastened the belt of his clothes, and then closed him up.

"You still cough when you blow some wind, if you run out without proper clothes, I will tell Mr. Matsumoto!"

He put the cat on the ground, Yoshihiro meowed, and ran into the warmer room again.

He supported me with one hand, and said flatteringly as he picked up the plate with the other.

"I'm worried about you."

Then he yelled at our house a few times: "Hey, that guy in the house, if you want to eat, do it yourself!"

He carefully helped me into the house, and then helped me to sit down on my knees. As the child grew up, my figure finally became bloated and it was difficult to move.

We live in seclusion in this unknown small village. Except for Mr. Matsumoto who comes to see him once every ten days, at this time, the only one who can find time to come and bring us news is Shinpachi.I don't know how he did it, but he is the one who visits us every time.I know why. Once when I thanked him for his kindness when I sent him out, he just patted his stomach with a smile.

"I can't help it, I have too much free time! Oh, the situation is so tense now, it's good to come to your place once in a while to get some fresh air."

Shinpachi didn't answer my words, so I had no choice but to pretend that there was nothing, but I was also very happy that Shinpachi came to talk to him.I have seen him wipe the polished blade countless times, the edge of the blade released a biting murderous aura, and the bright blade reflected his delicate and solemn eyebrows and eyes under the light of the candle, which also contained a burst of murderous intent.I know that he can't wait to go back to Kyoto, where he is eager to carry out the Tao.

I watched him lower his head and asked me gently if I was tired and if I needed some water. I thought in a daze: If I hadn’t been here to stare at him, he would have sneaked back in spite of Mr. Matsumoto’s warning. Alright.

"Ouch," Shinpachi's loud voice interjected between us again, "This meal is so sumptuous!"

Shinpachi rubbed his hands together, picked up two chopsticks, and plunged one chopstick into the back of the little fish that had flipped open in front of him.

To be honest, this meal is really very simple in my opinion: the plate consists of two pitifully small dried pickled fish, a spoonful of sour radish, and half a bowl of miso soup, which is the following rice It's all over.However, both Shinpachi and he followed the samurai's code of living in peace and contentment, slacking off on appetite, so both of them expressed very high satisfaction with such a poor meal.

"It's not bad," Shinpachi praised the food while eating, "Compared with the Kyoto cuisine in Heyuan Town, it's not inferior."

From the time I came to this country, I found that the Japanese are always polite and detached in etiquette, but what is interesting is that they always like to use exaggerated tone when expressing praise, exaggeration demeanor and exaggerated movements.

Facing Shinpachi's praise, I can only reply in accordance with Japanese etiquette.

"You are really flattered, please use more."

"Oh, this sour radish is also well pickled."

Shinpachi picked up a piece of radish and looked at it carefully, then burst out laughing.

"Those long strips just now have edges and corners, and are the same size. This one looks like a monk's hat. Did you cut it? Well, that's not okay," he said to Soujiro earnestly, "Your own knife skills are so good, why don't you teach her well."

"Hey, it's not good to be picky while eating other people's food." He turned his head and smiled at me with crooked eyebrows.

"Don't pay attention to him, I've already eaten very well."

After speaking, he ate a mouthful of plain rice with another piece of strangely shaped radish.

"Hey, you kid..."

I watched the two of them laughing and talking, and picked up the chopsticks and ate slowly.

What is certain is that in this period I was perhaps the closest Westerner to the life of ordinary Japanese people.I have never cooked. Even when I was living in Kyoto, I asked Mr. Tadano, who lived with me, to prepare the meals.But here, I learned how to steam white rice and how to prepare three meals a day.It’s really amazing to say it, it’s obviously an ordinary job, but I still find it enjoyable to do it.That's probably because of being with him. When I only thought about taking better care of him, I didn't think those were tedious housework.

I made the sour radish with him, and his technique is very beautiful, he can peel the skin of a radish completely from the radish.He once said happily: "When I was a child, I also started to learn to help my eldest sister peel radishes." I watched in fascination as he twisted a small knife between his slender and white fingers, holding the fat body of the radish in one hand, and holding the radish in the other. With a quick movement of the wrist, a radish was processed in a few staggered steps, so I also learned to chop off the radish skin with a knife, but the movement was very clumsy.He watched me struggling to peel the radish, and he would take my knife and the radish together after processing the radish in his hand.

"Look, this is how a knife should be used." He slowed down, and slowly peeled off the remaining radishes bit by bit.Although he asked me to watch carefully, he didn't let me do it again.What puzzled me was that he didn't seem to care about my cooking skills. Even if I boiled the precious white rice for the first time, he still ate it with a smile on his face.

It wasn't until the day when Shinpachi came to visit that I realized his truest intentions.

Shinpachi smiled and said to me, "You look like a real Samurai woman now."

He listened and smiled brightly, showing his white teeth.He stretched out his hand and squeezed my hands tightly, looking at me tenderly with dark eyes like night, but with pride and gratitude on his face.

"Ms. Okita, thank you."

We were going to sleep that night, when he carefully covered me with the quilt, he said so shyly and seriously.He kissed my fingertips, then put my hands in the middle of the quilt and tucked the corners of the quilt.He bent down in the dim candlelight, leaned his head against my swollen belly, and routinely spoke to the baby in my belly.

When he said, "You have to be good", I could feel the child in my womb kick vigorously and hit him on the cheek.

"Oh!" He yelled at me in surprise, as if he saw something extraordinary: "He moved, he moved!"

I watched his ecstatic look, he was still at a loss like a child, he didn't know what to do for a while.

I really said that: "Sojiro, why are you still acting like a child?"

He leaned over dissatisfied and bit my cheek: "That's not true, I'm a child, how can I let you..."

"En." I responded in a low voice, stretched out my hand to wrap his arms around his neck, rubbed against his smooth and delicate skin, and whispered in his ear, "You are a man..."

His body trembled for a moment, then he took my hand firmly and stuffed it back into the quilt.

"No way," he pressed the quilt tightly, "you will catch a cold."

I watched Soujiro pull the blanket beside me, and by the dim candlelight, he took off his coat and got under the quilt, then turned his head and looked at me tenderly.

I also looked at my little reflection in his pure black pupils.His complexion is much better than when I first came here. I look at him fascinatedly, no matter how many times I can't get tired of watching him.Maybe it was because my gaze was too intense, blood slowly turned to his cheeks, he was still a little shy, but he didn't look away.

"Don't look at me like that, Mrs. Okita."

"Really?" I bickered with him, "Then why do you look at me like that?"

The two talked meaningless words to each other until the last bit of candlelight was completely extinguished, and the room suddenly became completely silent.

We all stopped talking at the same time.

It is also very quiet outside, we can even hear the sound of snowflakes falling on the roof, which is sandwiched in the occasional wind that hits the window, but it makes people feel calm.

"Winter will be over soon." He sighed suddenly.

I suddenly remembered a little poem I once read: "If winter has come, west wind, how can spring be far away?"

"Mary?" He called me suspiciously, it turned out that what I just read was in English.

I slowly translated the poem to him: "This is written by a poet. The general idea is that winter is coming, so spring is not far away."

"It really makes sense."

He was silent for a while, and suddenly became happy again: "Spring is here, and my body should be completely healed."