Chapter 8 Section 8

Heisuke stuffed all the luggage into the sports backpack and planned to zip it up.The last apple that was put in was sticking out, and the zipper couldn't be closed no matter what.The apples were left by visiting relatives.He had no choice but to take out the apple, wiped it with his sleeve, and ate it directly.As soon as he bit it, a few drops of apple juice splashed out and crashed onto his face. "Don't forget something." He said to Naoko who had already changed her clothes. "Well, it should be fine." She replied while looking around the hospital bed. "It's better to double check. Didn't you leave your gym clothes there when you visited the forest school last year?"

"That's what Sami Nami did, not me!" "Oh." Heisuke looked at her face and patted his forehead, "Ah, that's right." "You have to get used to it quickly. I don't feel so awkward when I see Sami's face in the mirror now." "I know. I just didn't notice it just now." Then there was a knock on the door. "Please come in." Hirasuke responded. The door opened, and in came Sami Nami's chief physician, Yamagishi. "Ah, thank you so much." Hirasuke lowered his head. "It was a sunny day when I was discharged from the hospital, which is great," said Yamagishi.

"Yeah, there's nothing better than that." Hearing what Heisuke said, Yamagishi nodded slightly.Yamagishi is a thin, middle-aged man. I don't know if it's because of his round-rimmed glasses, but he always gives people a feeling of unreliability.However, it was precisely under his proposition that although Sami Nami seemed to be fine, she was still discharged from the hospital and underwent detailed inspections again and again.For his prudence and responsibility, Ping Jie has sincere respect. "Doctor, thank you for taking good care of me this time. After we settle down, I will definitely come back to thank you!" Naoko, wearing sports padded clothes, bent down to thank her.

Dr. Yamagishi smiled wryly and looked at Hirasuke. "Your daughter is so sensible, talking to her is like talking to an adult." "Where is it, it just looks sensible on the surface." "That's not true. It seems that your requirements for being a father are high enough." "Where is it? But she is at this age, and sometimes she looks like a child, which is a bit unbearable." After speaking, Heisuke laughed haha, but found that Dr. Yamagishi was at a loss.He immediately realized that there was something wrong with his words, and quickly shook his head to smooth things over for himself: "Ah, no, that... Because she will go to middle school next year, I hope she can lose her childishness."

"Mr. Sugita is really strict, even though you are very modest." The doctor closed his eyes and turned his eyes to Naoko, "From now on, you must listen to your father's words and live hard. Even if you feel a little bit uncomfortable, remember Let Dad take you to the hospital. Remember?" "Well, I see. Thank you." Naoko saluted again to express her gratitude, with a tremor in her voice. After saying goodbye to the nurses who took care of her, Heisuke carried her luggage and walked out of the hospital with Naoko.As soon as I went out, I saw a group of people coming from the direction of the parking lot. There were men and women, some of them were holding microphones, and some of them were carrying cameras.

"Mr. Sugita, congratulations on your daughter's recovery and discharge from the hospital." A female reporter said. "thanks." "Tell me how you feel right now in one sentence." "It's a relief for now." "Kid Sami Nami, look this way." A cameraman said. "When will you report to your wife's grave?" "Wait until you settle down a bit." The female reporter nodded and handed the microphone to Naoko. "Sami Nami, how is life in the hospital?" "I don't feel anything." Naoko replied blankly.

"Did you suffer a lot?" "Nothing. My husband... Dad took good care of me." "What do you most want to do right now?" "Comfortably take a hot bath and relax." "I'm sorry, can I stop here with my daughter's questions?" Hirasuke said to the female reporter. So, the female reporter pointed the microphone at Pingjie again and asked about negotiating with the car company.Heisuke took Naoko's hand and walked towards the parking lot while answering reporters' questions.Finally, under the watchful eyes of the group of people, he drove his car and escaped from the hospital.

When I got home, I got out of the car. As soon as I opened the door, I heard someone shouting "Ah, Sami Nami!" Looking in the direction of the voice, it turned out that Kazuko Yoshimoto from the neighbor's house came over with plastic bags from the supermarket. "Ah, you were discharged from the hospital today, and I don't even know about it." Ping Jie thought to himself: Oh, I met a long-winded aunt.The middle-aged woman in front of me is the news agent in the town. Her two sons are in high school and college respectively.Of course, she's not a bad person, she's just meddling.

"Ah, long time no see, Mrs. Gibbon." Naoko immediately spoke up. "I heard from Heisuke that you helped a lot on the day of the funeral, and I feel really sorry." Yoshimoto Kazuko was taken aback by Naoko's completely unchildlike tone, but she immediately returned to smiling. "What are you talking about, you're so out of touch. But is your body fully recovered?" "Well, thanks to you!" "Yeah, that would be really nice. It's got me worried." "Thank you. I'm sorry, we have to pack up later, and we will visit your house later."

"Ah, good, go to work. Take care of yourself." Naoko hurried into the house.Heisuke remembered what Naoko said about Kazuko Yoshimoto before: Once he talks to the ground, he will not be liberated for an hour.Otherwise, she will kill you and come to your house to chat. Thinking of this, he hurriedly said "goodbye" and wanted to sneak into the house quickly. But Kazuko Yoshimoto quickly whispered into his ear, "I haven't seen you for a few days, and Sami Nami speaks like an adult. Probably because of the loss of her mother, it quickly prompted her to decide to be independent earlier?"

"Ah, maybe it is." Hirasuke pretended to smile and sneaked into the house as if escaping. When he came in, Naoko was facing the altar with his hands clasped together. There was a picture of Naoko herself on the altar.Of course, in the eyes of outsiders, it is the daughter Sami Nami who is praying before her mother's spirit. After a while, Naoko raised her head and looked back at Heisuke, a lonely smile appeared on her cheek. "It feels weird. There are pictures of myself on the altar." "Yes. People will see it when they come to the house." "However, it's not entirely pointless to do so." Heisuke took the small photo frame containing Naoko's photo in his hand, opened the back pull panel, and took out the photo inside.It turned out that the two photos were superimposed on each other.Behind the photo of Naoko, there is a photo of Sami Nami.It was taken by Sami Nami on an outing last year. In the photo, she gestured triumphantly at the camera. "Look." He handed the photo to his wife. Naoko blinked a few times, making a half-crying and smiling expression. "I feel like I haven't seen the real Sami Nami's face for a long time." "But Naoko is not a fake." Heisuke said. Heisuke cooked instant ramen as a light meal at noon, and put the bean sprouts fried char siu pork that he made earlier on the ramen.He doesn't know how to cook, so it's just such a simple meal, which also moved Naoko very much. "Looks like it's not a bad thing to leave you alone at home once in a while." Naoko said while sipping ramen. "See what you said. If I'm in the mood, I can cook French food." "Just brag! Do what you can!" "But I'm not in the mood." At Sugita's house, you can't watch TV while eating in the presence of Sami Nami.This is the rule that Naoko established when Sami Nami was younger.While eating ramen, Heisuke, who loves to watch TV, didn't bother to touch the TV switch.After Naoko finished eating, he quickly picked up the remote control that had been thrown on the floor.Only then did he suddenly realize that Sami Nami was no longer there. Turning on the TV, a building I had seen appeared on the screen.It was the hospital where Naoko lived. "Ah, husband, you are on the screen!" Naoko said, pointing at the TV. Next, the scene where Heisuke and Naoko were surrounded by reporters just now was shown on TV.It's an amazing feeling to see something that happened an hour or two ago come up on TV so quickly. In the picture, Heisuke is taking Sami Nami's hand and walking quickly to the parking lot.Behind is a group of eager reporters. "How do you plan to deal with the compensation issue in the future?" a female reporter asked. "I have entrusted a lawyer to deal with the issue of compensation." "Then what do you hope for the lawyer? For example, the amount of compensation?" "It's not about money, the most important thing is that they have to show sincerity. Sami Nami lost her life, and Naoko was also seriously injured." After Heisuke finished speaking quickly, he sent Naoko into the car, and Also got into the driver's seat. The camera even took pictures of Heisuke driving away.Then the figure of a female reporter appeared. "It seems that Mr. Sugita breathed a sigh of relief because of the safe discharge of his daughter Sami Nami. But when talking about the compensation of the car company, he actually reversed the names of his wife and daughter. It seems that although he looks calm on the surface , I was actually hit hard in my heart. The above is the report brought to you by the reporter from the scene." "Ah, so I said something wrong." Only now did he realize his mistake, Heisuke smacked his lips. The TV screen turns into an interview with a male entertainer who was recently exposed for his extramarital affairs.Heisuke changed the channel with the remote control, but found no other programs showing their presence, so he simply turned off the TV. "You said—" Naoko began, "What should we do from now on?" "What do you mean?" "How do you think I should live?" "Oh" Hirasuke took his arms. This is indeed a big problem.Hirasuke has gradually adapted to this abnormal state.On the surface, Naoko has also accepted this fact.However, it is not realistic for others to accept this state.She will definitely be regarded as a mentally ill person, and she might even enjoy this kind of treatment herself.If they can prove that this is possession, they will definitely attract a group of curious media and people who like to join in the fun.It was obvious that their lives would be messed up by then. Ping Jie muttered in his heart.In fact, he had an idea, but he was hesitating whether to say it or not. Naoko spoke: "Can you listen to my idea? I have thought of a method that I think is more appropriate." "Oh, of course." Heisuke opened his crossed legs and sat upright. Naoko looked into her husband's eyes: "I want to live as Sami Nami." "Ah..." Hirasuke half opened his mouth, but the shape of his mouth was fixed, and he didn't speak. "Although I am not willing to give up Naoko Sugita's position and lifestyle, but this is the best choice. No matter from which point of view, it will be very difficult to continue to live as Naoko Sugita. No matter how I explain it to others, others will not Will trust me like you do." "yes……"" "What do you think, Hirasuke?" "I also think it's better as you said. In fact, I wanted to propose it to you, but it's really hard to say..." "Is it because you are afraid that Naoko will disappear from this world?" "um, yes." "But," Naoko lowered her head, licked her lips, and then raised her head again, "For you, Naoko will continue to live, right?" "Of course. To me, Naoko is Naoko." After speaking, Heisuke thought to himself, perhaps it should not be said that Naoko is Naoko, but Sami Nami is Naoko.But he didn't want to spoil the hard-won atmosphere, so he didn't correct what he just said. Naoko let out a deep breath, then raised her arms and stretched her waist as if it was very comfortable. "It's so much easier to say it. It's just that it took me too much time to make this decision." "But that's something that can't be helped." "I want to look at it positively. It's like getting a new life, just a different body." "However, it's not an unrelated human body." "Yes. Many people say that Sami Nami is very similar to me when I was a child." "Many people also praised our daughter as a little beauty." "Exactly. Just like your nose, turned up a bit." "How do you say that. She's all the more charming because of that!" "Oh, really?" Naoko frowned, but her eyes were obviously smiling.Hiroshi also smiled.He thought it was the first real laugh since the accident. Naoko said "I'll make you some tea" and stood up, walking towards the kitchen.She took out the small teapot from the cupboard and put the tea away.There is no doubt that the series of actions of making tea are unique to Naoko. She put the two cups of tea on the tray and returned to the Japanese-style room. "Sami Nami is already in the sixth grade. I have to study hard. I don't want to embarrass my daughter because of her poor grades." "Sami Nami is good enough in her studies, but you still criticize her all the time." "You say that she is a girl, but she is good at mathematics and science. Why can't she learn Chinese and society well? It may be up to you." "Are you good at math and science?" Heisuke asked with a malicious smile. "No. But I have to find a way." Naoko put the tea bowl in front of Heisuke with a bitter face, "What do you think my daughter's future dream will be?" "Dream..." Heisuke crossed his legs again and folded his arms. "I want to try my best to help her realize her dream. Having a clear goal makes it easier for me to determine the direction of my efforts." "If I remember correctly..." Ping Jie sipped his tea, "If I remember correctly, she seems to have said that she wants to be an ordinary housewife." "Ordinary housewife?" "Yes. She said it was good to be a housewife like my mother." "What kind of dream is this? According to you. I don't need to work hard." "However—" Heisuke looked at Naoko with a teacup in his hand, "I don't know if I can adapt to you when you really become Sami Nami."Why? After asking, she first looked at her hand in surprise, then turned her gaze back to her husband, with an unnatural smile on her face, "Don't talk nonsense, I will always be by your side. " Heisuke didn't react when he heard this, but just took a sip of tea. "Ah, by the way, where is my ring?" "ring?" "A wedding ring. I should have had it on in the car." "Ah, it should be in the little drawer of the altar." Naoko opened the drawer and took out a small plastic seal from inside.Inside the plastic cover was the ring she had always worn on her ring finger.The ring is white gold and just a simple ring.On Hirasuke's ring finger, he also wore a ring of the same style. Naoko took the ring out of the plastic cover and tried to put it on her finger.The ring is too big for her current ring finger.It is equally large on the middle finger.In the end, she put the ring on her thumb and it was just the right size. "You can't put the ring on your thumb." Naoko looked at her hand and sighed. "The biggest problem is that elementary school students wearing rings will make people feel strange!" Heisuke said, "let alone such a simple ring." "However, I hope this ring will always be by my side." "I'm really glad that you can have such an idea..." "Yes." Naoko clapped her hands, stood up, left the room and went upstairs. Soon, she was back again, holding a teddy bear in her right hand and a sewing box in her left. "What are you doing?" Hiroshi asked. "You look good." Naoko took out the small tailor's scissors, cut the seam thread on the top of the teddy bear's head, and opened the seam.Naoko made this teddy bear for Sami Nami.Naoko was very good at needlework. She buried the wedding ring on the back of the teddy bear's head, carefully aligned the seams, and sewed it back together with needle and thread.Her movements are still so skillful. "It's done!" she said. "What do you want to do with this bear?" "In the past, Sami Nami cherished this little bear very much, and always put it in the bed when she slept. I will always keep it with me, so that I can still realize that I am your wife." Hearing her words, Hirasuke couldn't think of how to answer.It occurred to him, what's the point of being aware of that? "This teddy bear hides a secret that only belongs to the two of us." Naoko said, holding the little bear tightly to her chest suspiciously.