Chapter 24 Chapter 06

Zhu Shi hummed the ditty he had learned while watching the performance of the Aguo Song and Dance Troupe, and went down the back door to the Takase River to wash clothes there.When the cloth was spread out in the water, the surface of the water with falling flowers also set off bursts of eddies. Someone said to her on the embankment: "Auntie! You sing really well!" Zhu Shi turned around and asked: "who is it?" It turned out to be a short little boy with a long wooden knife across his waist and a big bamboo hat on his back.As soon as Zhu Shi stared, he turned his big round eyes and grinned with a sophisticated expression.

"Where did you come from? You call me auntie, I'm still a girl!" "Then—call you a girl." "Bah! You're still a kid, not qualified to tease women from a good family. You're still dripping with snot!" "But, I have something to ask you!" "Oops! I'm just talking to you, and my clothes are gone!" "I'll go pick it up." Jotaro chased after the sarong that was washed away by the river, the long wooden sword just came in handy, and he hooked it with one hook. "Thank you! What do you want to ask me?"

"Is there a teahouse called Wormwood House near here?" "The one called Wormwood House is the only one over there, and it's opened by my family." "Really?—it was hard for me to find." "where do you come from?" "there." "Over there? Where is that over there?" "I don't really know where I'm coming from either." "This kid is really strange." "Who do you think is weird?" "Okay, okay!" Zhu Shi burst out laughing, "What's the point of coming to my house?"

"Does Matahachi Honbita live in your house? I asked the people in the Shijo Yoshioka martial arts school, and they will know when they ask here." "He's not in now." "Liar!" "Not really—although he used to live at my house." "Where is he now?" "have no idea." "Would you please ask me?" "My mother didn't know either—because he ran away from home." "What a headache!" "Who asked you to come?" "My master." "Who is your master?" "Miyamoto Musashi."

"Have you brought a letter or something?" "No." Jotaro turned his face to the side, eyes bewildered, looking at the whirlpool at his feet. "I don't know where I came from, and I haven't brought a letter with me. You little messenger is so strange!" "I have a message." "What message? Maybe—maybe he won't come back again, but if he comes back, I can help you pass it on to Eighth Brother." "is this okay?" "It's useless to discuss with me, you can decide for yourself!" "Okay, let's do it like this... It's like this, someone said that he must see Matahachi."

"Who?" "Mr. Miyamoto. He said that he will wait on the Gojo Bridge every morning between January 1st and 7th next year. Please ask Mr. Matahachi to meet him one day during the seven days." "Hehehe! Hehe... Oh! This message is really long! Your master is as different as you... Ah! My stomach hurts from laughing!" Jotaro puffed his cheeks and cursed: "What's so funny! You stinky eggplant!" Zhu Shi was taken aback, and immediately stopped laughing. "Oh? Angry?" "Of course I'm angry, but I'm begging you very politely!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I won't laugh anymore - if my eighth brother comes back again, I will definitely tell him." "real?" "real." She bit her lip to keep from laughing again, and nodded in reply. "You said... what is his name... the person who wants you to pass the message." "You're so forgetful, his name is Miyamoto Musashi." "Which two characters are 'Musashi'?" "武 (mu) is the wu of a samurai..." While speaking, Jotaro picked up the branches at his feet and wrote them on the sand by the river for her to read.

"That's it." Zhu Shi kept staring at the writing on the sand: "Ah...doesn't that pronounce 'takezou (Musashi)'?" "It's musashi." "But it can also be pronounced as takezou (Musashi)." "You are so stubborn!" He threw the branch into the river and watched it float away. Zhu Shi stared at the words on the sand, without blinking his eyes, and kept silent in thought. After some difficulty, she moved her eyes from Jotaro's feet to her face, looked at him carefully again, and then asked with a sigh: "This man named Musashi, isn't his hometown in Yoshino Township in Mizuma?"

"That's right! I'm from Bozhou. Master lives in Miyamoto Village. We are neighbors." "Is he tall and manly? Yes! He never shaved Tsukishiro, did he?" "You are so clear!" "He told me before that because he had boils on his scalp when he was a child, if he shaved into a tsukidai shape, the scars would be exposed, which is not good-looking, so he kept his hair." "When did you say before?" "Five years ago—it was the autumn of the year of the Sekigahara Battle." "You knew my master before?" "..."

Zhu Shi didn't answer.She didn't have time to answer. At this moment, she was full of beautiful memories, and she was playing a sweet tune! ...Brother Musashi! Zhu Shi wanted to see Musashi very much, trembling all over.Seeing what her mother did—and seeing Matahachi’s transformation—she deeply felt that she had made the right choice in choosing Musashi.She was secretly thankful that she was still single - Musashi was indeed very different from Matachi. She has met countless men in the teahouse, and she knows that her future will never belong to any of them. She looks down on those disgusting men, but secretly buries the shadow of Musashi five years ago in her heart, sometimes accompanied by singing, Enjoy this only dream alone.

"Then, please. If you see that Matahachi, you must tell him!" After explaining, Jotaro hurried on his way again and ran up the embankment. "Hey! Wait a minute!" Zhu Shi chased after him.Grab his hand, as if you have something to say to him.Jotaro saw that Zhu Shi's face was flushed, and she was extremely beautiful. Zhu Shi's blood boiled, and he asked: "What's your name?" Jotaro answered "Jotaro", and felt strange seeing her charming and excited appearance. "So, Jotaro-san! You're always with Takezou-san!" "It should be Musashi, right?" "Ah... that's right! It's Mr. Musashi." "Ok!" "I must see that person, where does he live?" "His home? He has no home." "Huh? Why?" "Because he is still a martial artist." "Where's the hotel where he's staying?" "Go to Treasure-in Temple in Nara and ask for it!" "Oh... I thought he was in Kyoto!" "He'll come next year. Next January." Zhu Shi seemed to be possessed by an evil spirit, and his mind was in a trance.Suddenly, Ah Jia shouted from the kitchen window behind her: "Zhu Shi! What are you doing there? Don't be lazy there with that wild child. Come back quickly when you're done." Zhu Shi was usually very dissatisfied with his mother, but in this case, he blurted out. "This kid came to look for Eighth Brother, wasn't I explaining to him? Do you think I'm for someone to order?" Ah Jia's face stuck out of the window, frowning, as if sick again.Who raised you?would talk back to me like that—but she didn't say it, she just stared and said: "Youba?...What can you say about Youba? This kind of person is no longer a member of our family! Tell him you don't know, why don't you just send him away? Youba came back with no face. What do you want him to do? Leave him alone!" Jotaro was petrified and muttered: "Don't take people for fools, I'm not a wild child!" Ajia seemed to be monitoring Jotaro and Zhu Shi's speech, and said: "Zhu Shi! Come in!" "...But, the clothes are still left by the river!" "Wait a while and ask the maid to get it. You go to wash and freshen up, and you still have to put on makeup! If Mr. Seijuro comes to visit suddenly again, and he sees you like this, his impression of you will be greatly reduced!" "Pfft...that kind of person! I'm only happy if you have a reduced impression of me!" Zhu Shi was indignant and ran into the house reluctantly. Ajia's face also disappeared from the window.Jotaro grimaced at the closed window. "Yeah! The old woman still puts on such thick white powder, it's disgusting!" As soon as he finished speaking, the window opened again. "What did you say? Say it again and see!" "Ah! She heard it!" He hurriedly wanted to escape, but a pot of washing water had been splashed onto his head, and Jotaro turned into a drowned rat! He grimaced, grabbed the leaves from his collar, and sang his disgust loudly with all his might, and escaped as he sang—