Chapter 21 Chapter 1 Voiceless

It happened shortly after the war. It will be two weeks before Qingyin officially becomes the user of Torikoshi's house. Regarding the layout of the mansion and her own work, Qingyin has generally begun to get used to it.Although it was the first time in her life to work, she did not feel particularly hard and tired.What's more, Qingyin is full of gratitude to the homeowners who provide job opportunities for people like herself. Let's make something delicious tonight.I don't know what dishes the owner likes? Qingyin was standing beside the ancient gate in the corner of the Torikoshi's vast courtyard, thinking hard.There are some hydrangeas and plants with black fruits quietly growing on the side of the door.

It was the rainy season at that time, and today the sky is still full of dark clouds, and it seems that it will rain at any time.Just when Qingyin was fascinated by the hydrangeas, a crisp and pleasant "click, click" sound from wooden clogs came from a distance.Looking around, I saw the owner walking towards the slender, stone-paved path among the bamboo groves outside the door.Click, click.The footsteps were getting closer, and then he found Qingyin. "Master, welcome back" When the owner came to the door, Qingyin immediately lowered her head cautiously and said. "Voice I'm back"

The owner of the house stopped beside Qingyin, and his gaze rested on the hydrangea behind Qingyin who bowed his head. "The hydrangeas are blooming. So it's already the season." The owner of the house folded his hands into the sleeves of his kimono and smiled.Qingyin looked at the young master's expression and couldn't move his eyes away for a while. Really like a woman.Qing Yin thought about it while looking at the master's appearance.If you can grow your hair long and put on lipstick, you will be as charming as a Japanese doll. The owner's name is Zhengyi, and he is a friend of Qingyin's father.Every time she sees her master's pale and thin fingers, Qingyin can't help feeling sorry for him.

"Qingyin, are you used to this job?" Zhengyi narrowed his eyes and asked. "You are still young, it must be very hard for you to do housework alone?" How could it be, Qingyin couldn't express her surging gratitude with cautious words, so she had to laugh awkwardly.Basically, except for one small doubt, Qingyin likes Toshiko very much. At this time, Qingyin noticed that the thick brown envelope that Zhengyi was holding was missing when he went out, so he guessed that Zhengyi must have sent the letter to the only mailbox in the market. "If you tell me, I can send you a letter."

"No, I sometimes feel that I should go out for a walk" "That's right. But is it really okay if you don't clean that room?" "Well, Yuko likes to clean that room herself" Hearing Yuko's name, Qingyin immediately felt a burst of fear for no reason.She does this every time she hears the name. "Is... Ma'am okay?" Zheng Yi's complexion suddenly became very gloomy, and Qingyin felt that his complexion became as bad as today's weather. "It's probably not very optimistic recently..." But Qingyin has no sense of reality at all.

Although it has been two weeks since he came to Togogoshi's house, Qingyin has never seen his wife once.Apart from hearing that she has been bedridden in Zhengyi's room recently, Qingyin doesn't know anything about her.What kind of woman is this man's wife?Whenever Zhengyi mentions Yuko, Qingyin always thinks this way. "Hydrangea, actually..." Zhengyi approached the hydrangea blooming beside Qingyin, at this moment Qingyin smelled the smell coming from Zhengyi's clothes. "The real petals of Hydrangea are not these, you know?" Zhengyi points to the petals of the Eight Immortals that have been dyed with a thin layer of turquoise.

"These parts that look like green petals are actually just calyxes, they're fake." For some reason, Qingyin's heart beat very fast. "Hydrangeas grow luxuriantly in the rain. Hey, what is this plant with black fruit?" Zhengyi saw the black fruit growing beside the hydrangea, so he turned his head.Qingyin watched Zhengyi bend down and put his nose close to the black fruit, feeling relieved for some reason. It was a pure black, about the size of a little finger, shiny black fruit.The fruit grows alone and scattered. "This black color is beautiful" Saying so, Masatoshi stepped on his wooden clogs and walked towards the door.Click, click, the clear and transparent sound gradually faded away.

Qingyin took a big breath.The rainy forest smell entered the lungs with the air, and Qingyin coughed uncontrollably. Looking in the direction Masahiro left, he could clearly see the entire Togoshi family mansion stretching out like a bird's wings.Qingyin still can't believe that she will work in such a big mansion.From the courtyard covered with gravel, the main entrance, the stone wall at the entrance, and even the stepping stones at the entrance, it is a style that has never been seen before. Qingyin began to imagine the appearance of that woman named Yuko whom she had never seen before.

Zhengyi and Yuko have been eating together in the room, so Qingyin always prepares food for two people and puts it in front of Zhengyi's room door every meal time.The corridor leading to his room had been stripped of paint, exposing the dirt walls.The rows of rooms do not have any partition windows, so there is always a thin darkness here.Every time I walk on the old smooth floor in the corridor, there will always be a "chirp, chirp" sound from the soles of my feet.Therefore, whenever Qingyin walked to his door and wanted to tell him to eat, he would always hear Zhengyi's voice from the opposite side of the sliding door: "It's fine to put it there, thank you"

Voiceless put the food outside the door of the room where Masagi and Yuko were supposed to live together and left.So far, Qingyin has never seen what it looks like on the other side of the sliding door. Qingyin thought, both the master and the wife are strange people.She would always subconsciously suspect that Zhengyi and Yuko deliberately closed the sliding door in front of her to prevent her from peeping.The chirp, chirp sound produced by the friction of the floor in the corridor seemed to be the alarm bell for the two of them.Thinking of this, Qingyin shrank her shoulders unconsciously.After coming to Torikoshi's house, several times when I walked in this long, dark and damp corridor, I would suddenly feel a very annoying sight.The walls of that corridor were decorated with masks of Hannya and Tengu, and there were also some ugly masks whose expressions seemed to change suddenly when the eyes were moved away.So when Qingyin arrives here, she always walks very quickly.

One day after he first started working at the Togoshi family, Qingyin went to the room where Masagi and Yuko were staying to clean up the dishes.Just as Qingyin put the food in front of the room door, Zheng Zhengyi and Yuko would put the tableware back to the same position in front of the room door after eating, so Qingyin would silently take the tableware back to the kitchen. Dinner that day was tempura.Qingyin was only taken to eat by her father once when she was a child, so now she wants to make it for Zhengyi and Yuko to eat, and she still feels a little uneasy. Not bad, huh?But is that the right taste for tempura?Qingyin himself is not sure.So she compared the tempura in her memory with the food in front of her and thought for a long time. Qingyin always goes to a certain family in the next village to buy vegetables, and learns some cooking methods from there.Tempura is made according to the method taught by that family, but Qingyin still doubts whether it is the correct way to make it?So, when she came to Zhengyi and Yuko's room to clean up the tableware, and found that there was still half of the food left, she felt really sorry for the two of them. How to do it?Do you want to say hello to them?Qingyin picked up the half-eaten plate and struggled in front of the room door.Should I ask what is wrong with the tempura I made? At this moment, Zheng Yi's gentle voice came from the room.The sliding door was still tightly closed, speaking through the sliding door, Qingyin felt a little lumpy in his heart. "Qingyin, can I delay you for a while?" coming!Are you talking about tempura? "Qingyin, can you cut Yuko and I's meals by half from tomorrow?" What does cut in half mean?Is my cooking really that bad?Already too bad to want to eat yet? "My husband and I both eat very little. After all, neither of us do physical exercise. So, can we reduce our food intake by half from tomorrow?" "that……" Qingyin tremblingly tried to ask Zhengyi. "Well... Could it be that the food I cook is too unpalatable? If that's the case, I hope you can tell me positively, so that I can have a bottom line in my heart..." Saying so, I heard Masayoshi's cheerful laughter behind the sliding door. “Your tempura is really delicious” Qingyin's face became hot all of a sudden, and she fled the scene hastily.It wasn't until she was tossing and turning on the bed that Qingyin suddenly remembered that although she heard Zhengyi's laughter at that time, she didn't hear Yuko's laughter at all. Next to the kitchen is a warehouse built for easy access, and the materials needed for cooking are basically obtained from there.Cardboard boxes covered with white and dried soil, dusty stoves and other sundries were placed in this warehouse.Every time I entered that warehouse, I would smell the smell of damp straw that filled the room. Potatoes, carrots and vegetables purchased from the neighboring village are always placed in the box, but one day, when Qingyin opened the box, she found that there was nothing inside.How to do it?Can't make lunch without ingredients.Qingyin opened the other boxes one by one.The cardboard box has become very soft due to the damp, but the mud on the surface of the box is still very dry.When you touch the box, your fingers will be stained white, and your hands will be cold. Every box is empty, and it seems that all the vegetables that can be cooked have been used up.How to do it?I should have found out earlier that all the materials were used up!Voiceless cursed his negligence.But she didn't give up, she put her face on the dusty ground and continued to look for cooking materials.Finally, Qingyin found another cardboard box behind the stove. Qingyin patted her chest, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. She decided to move the stove to check what was in the cardboard box.At that time, she found that the stove was heavier than expected, and when it was lifted, it felt like it was being filled with lamp oil. There were only old white radishes and onions in the box that were slightly yellowish in color, and it seemed that there was at least enough to cook for Masagi and Yuko. As for my share... just find some fruit from any tree and eat it. When Qingyin planned this, he found that there were many wooden boxes placed side by side on the shelves built against the wall.On the box made of rough wooden blocks, the words "doll" were written on it.Whether it's the text or the box itself, it seems to be very ancient things. Qingyin was attracted by the word "doll".Although she is illiterate, because her father is a puppeteer, she is very clear about the appearance and meaning of the word "doll". Do all those side-by-side boxes contain dolls?If so, the number is too much, right?Maybe there are some works of my father in it. Unable to resist the drive of curiosity, Qingyin intends to quietly open one of them to take a look.She kicked her feet and carefully took the box down.As soon as he lifted the box, Qingyin let out a low "Aiya".After removing the box and opening the wooden lid, she finally understood why the box was so light. There was nothing in the wooden box, and the other wooden boxes were also empty.The voiceless doll that should exist has not been seen. That afternoon, Qingyin went to the market in a neighboring village to buy vegetables.When she said this to Zhengyi, he generously gave Qingyin a lot of money for shopping. "Although there is no motorcycle in this house, you can use the trolley in the storage room. Is it okay to be alone? If it is too heavy, you must ask the people from the market to help you bring it back." After Qingyin thanked her, she said "no problem" and stepped out of the house. Even if the trolley was not loaded with goods, it would take a lot of effort to push it, but as long as you don't use too much force after moving, the trolley will move forward slowly. Passing through the gate of Torikoshi's house, Qingyin pushed the trolley along the winding stone path that split the bamboo forest in half. But Qingyin still has some doubts in his heart. Why does the master insist that I go to the market in the neighboring village to buy vegetables? Why on earth did he keep avoiding me from going to the village market? Speaking of it, Qingyin also felt that the people living here would always cast a strange look at her.Just like now, when she is pushing the cart to greet others, everyone hastily turned their eyes away, treating themselves like a plague. There is a vast paddy field between the market and the market.As long as you walk straight on the uneven path, you can walk to the market in the neighboring village.There is a store that has been under the care of the Togoshi family.Because they are willing to sell vegetables to Qingyin, they will teach her all kinds of cooking carefully and treat her like an ordinary person, so Qingyin likes that family very much. It was a rare sunny day in the rainy season, and Qingyin pushed the car on the rough road.At this time, she found a three-wheeled truck from a neighboring village driving towards her.It would be dangerous for a truck and a cart to walk along the width of the trail, so the three-wheeled truck pulled over and parked in front of Qingyin, waiting for her and the cart to pass. In order not to cause trouble to others, Qingyin thanked her and planned to pass quickly, at this moment, the truck driver called her. "Could it be that you are the user of the Togoshi family?" The man seemed to live in a neighboring village. "Yes" Voiceless replied. "Hmm~" The driver wiped his chin with his hands and said carelessly, "Come on!" Although the other party's tone was not friendly, Qingyin felt warm in his heart for some reason.She could vaguely understand why Zheng Yi insisted that she go to the neighboring village to buy vegetables. The wheat harvest is over, and the rice fields are dark.Looking up, there was a cloud floating in the sky, which just blocked the sun.