Chapter 72 Chapter Forty-One

goodbye "It's a pity that I didn't let you see those duck people." May Kasahara said regretfully. I sat in front of the pond with her, looking at the thick white ice.The pond is quite big.It is unbearable to leave countless scratches on it like knife marks of skates.It was a Monday afternoon, and May Kasahara specially asked for leave for me.I originally planned to come on Sunday, but it was delayed by a day due to a railway accident.Kasahara May is wearing a windbreaker with fur inside and a bright blue beanie on her head.The hat is woven with a geometric pattern with white wool.There is a small ball on the top of the hat.She said she knitted it herself, and said she would knit the same one for me next winter.Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were as clear as the air here.This makes me happy.She is seventeen years old, and any change is not a problem.

"As soon as the pond freezes, the ducks don't know where to go. If you meet those people, you will definitely like them. Come here again in the spring, and then I will definitely introduce you to the ducks." smile slightly.I was wearing a not-so-warm trench coat with a bib wrapped up to my chin and my hands in my pockets.It was freezing cold in the woods.The ground was frozen hard from the snow, and my tennis shoes squeaked and slipped playfully.Should have bought a pair of anti-ski boots. "So you're staying here for a while longer?" I asked. "Yes, I think I will stay for a while. After a while, maybe I want to go to school again. Maybe I won't go to school and marry someone at once---I don't think it will happen." Speaking of this, he signed Yuan May exhaled and laughed, "But anyway, I will stay here for a while. I need a little time to think. I want to slowly think about what I want to do and where I want to go."

I nodded and said, "That might be fine." "Warm, Wind-Up Bird, at my age, don't you think about this too?" "Have you thought about it? You don't seem to be very focused when you think about it. Frankly speaking. Of course, I still think about it more or less, but I don't think it is so intoxicating in my memory. Generally speaking, I think that as long as I live normally, all kinds of It's almost always going to work out. But at the end of the day it doesn't look like it's going to happen, sorry." May Kasahara stared at my face with a calm expression, and clasped her hand in her lap.

"Aunt Kumiko isn't out on bail yet?" "She refused bail," I explained. "She said she would rather stay quietly in the detention center than go out. She didn't want to see me. Not only me, but nobody -- until everything was settled." "When will the trial begin?" "About spring. Kumiko has made it clear that she's guilty, and she's ready to obediently obey any sentence. The trial won't take much time. There's a good chance the sentence will be suspended. Even if she actually serves the sentence, it probably won't be very heavy."

Kasahara May picked up a stone in front of her feet and threw it towards the middle of the pond.The stone bounced noisily on the ice a few times and rolled to the opposite bank. "Are you going to wait for Aunt Kumiko to come back? In that house?" I nod. "Okay... Is it okay to put it that way?" Kasahara May said. I also exhaled into the air, and said, "Yeah. After all, we also struggled for this step, maybe." It's possible to get worse, I think. Birds were singing, and birds were singing from far away in the vast woods around the pond.I raised my face and looked around.But that happened only for a moment, and now nothing is heard, nothing is seen.Only the dry sound of woodpeckers pecking at the trunk rippled away silently.

"If Kumiko and I have a baby, I want to name it Corsica," I said. "It's a pretty name!" Kasahara May said. While walking side by side in the forest, May Kasahara took off the glove on her right hand and put it in the pocket of my windbreaker.I thought of Kumiko's movements.She often does this when walking with her in winter.There used to be one pocket in cold weather.I held May Kasahara's hand in my pocket.Hands are small, warm like a deep soul. "Hey, Wind-Up Bird, people must think we're lovers." "Maybe." I said. "Well, have you read all my letters?"

"Your letter?" I was puzzled, "I'm sorry, I haven't even received a single letter from you! You didn't have any contact, so I called your mother, and at least I got your address and phone number. Number—I had to tell a bunch of lies for that." "Hey, what's going on here! I wrote you a total of no less than 500 letters!" May Kasahara sighed looking up to the sky. At dusk, May Kasahara took me to the train station on purpose.We took the bus into town, ate pizza together at a restaurant near the station, and waited for the three-carriage internal combustion engine train to arrive.In the waiting room of the station, a large stove was burning red hot, and two or three people gathered beside the stove.We didn't go in, and the two of us stood alone on the cold platform.The chiseled winter moon hangs frozen in the air.The first quarter moon has a sharp arc, like a Chinese knife.May Kasahara kissed me lightly on my right cheek this month.I could feel her cool, thin little lips above the now-gone bruise.

"Goodbye, Wind-up Bird," May Kasahara whispered, "Thank you for coming to see me." With my hands in my windbreaker pockets, I stared at May Kasahara.I don't know what to say. As soon as the car pulled into the station, she took off her hat, took a step back and said to me: "Hey, wind up the horse, if you have anything to do, call me loudly, call me and those ducklings!" "Goodbye, May Kasahara!" I said. Even after the car leaves the station, the first quarter moon is always above my head.When the car turned the corner, the moon appeared and disappeared.I look at the moon.When you can't see it, just look at the lights of several small towns outside the window.I picture Kasahara May, wearing a blue woolen hat, who is taking the bus back to the factory in the mountains, and the duck man sleeping in the grass there.Then he turned to think about the world he wanted to return to.

"Goodbye, May Kasahara!" I said.Goodbye, Kasahara May, I hope you are well protected. I close my eyes and get ready for sleep.But it was a long time before I fell asleep.I quietly fell into a moment's sleep far away from anyone or anywhere. - - - -End of the full text - - -