Chapter 11 Section 11

When we came out of the hotel, it was raining harder.Heisuke held up his umbrella and walked towards Shinjuku Station alone. "Buy a piece of cake for Naoko to take home." Thinking of this, he turned around near Shinjuku Station.Strange to say, when Naoko was in his wife's state before, he seldom thought of bringing her presents. No suitable stores were found.Heisuke decided to visit Odakyu Department Store.At this moment, he suddenly found a woman squatting behind the hall pillar of the station.It was none other than Kajikawa's driver's wife.At first he thought she might be in a bad mood, but that didn't seem to be the case.She was actually smoking a cigarette, and she reached out to the trash can next to her from time to time to flick off the ash.Although she pays attention to the position of her legs, it is not always elegant for a woman to squat in public.Maybe it's just too tired.Although she is about 40 years old according to her age, her rounded back makes people think she is an old woman.

Hirasuke wanted to pretend not to see and walked over, but it was too late, and her eyes seemed to catch Hirasuke.Her eyes were wide open, and there was no spirit in them.She also opened her mouth slightly, as if to let out an "ah". No way, Hirasuke had no choice but to nod to her.It is estimated that she remembered Heisuke's appearance on TV. She quickly stood up, nodded to Pingjie as well, and then turned around and left quickly. In the next instant, however, her body swayed as if dancing.Then, as if trying to catch the air, she stretched out her hand, and then she sat down on the concrete floor all of a sudden, and let out a scream of "ah", trying to keep the voice as small as possible.

Ping Jie hurried forward.Many people passing by also stopped and stared, but no one wanted to reach out to help her except Hirasuke. "Is there something wrong?" Heisuke asked while stretching out his right hand. "Ah...it's okay, it's okay." "Is it dazzled?" "Well, I was too violent when I stood up." Ping Jie thought that it must be the reason why she squatted for too long and stood up in such a hurry, not to mention that she didn't seem to have much strength. "Grab my hand." He held out his right hand again. She said "thank you" and grabbed Heisuke's right hand.But just halfway up, she showed a painful expression and sat on the ground again.Ping Jie took a closer look and found that her right ankle was bruised.

"Ah, did you twist your foot?" "No, it's okay, it's really okay." After speaking, she tried to stand up on her own strength, but failed.It looked like her ankle must be hurting.Hirasuke gave her a helping hand again, and this time she finally stood up, but it still seemed a little difficult to walk. "Where do you live?" Heisuke asked. "Oh, you don't have to worry, I can go back by myself," she said, still showing the pained expression on her face. "Is there anyone who can come and pick you up?" "No. But I'll figure it out myself."

It seems that Kajikawa's wife is determined not to cause trouble for Hirasuke no matter what.Heisuke can also understand her. In fact, he himself wants to escape from this scene as soon as possible, but he still can't bear to leave her alone. "Where is your home? Tell me quickly, otherwise I will be very embarrassed." Hirasuke said in a slightly forced tone.She seemed a little surprised when she heard that. "In...Chofu." "Chofu? That happens to be in the same direction as my house. Let's take a taxi back together." "Oh, no, I can walk back."

"Don't hold back. So many people are staring at us, take a snapshot and do what I say." The things she carried with her were a black handbag, a paper bag she gave when shopping at the mall, and a folding umbrella.Heisuke carried the three things together in his right hand, and lent her his left hand to support her body.In this way, I can finally move my body. In the taxi, the two basically did not speak.Even if she said it, she just said "sorry" repeatedly, and Hirasuke replied "it's okay" repeatedly. The taxi stopped in front of a two-story apartment building.The building in front of me seems to be a combination of floors, which is very simple.

Heisuke just wanted to pay for the taxi, but Kajikawa's wife insisted on asking her to pay.In the end, the two adopted the AA system. She said "you can just get here", and advised Pingjie to take this car directly to go home, but Pingjie got out of the car anyway, because she heard that her family lived on the second floor. It took a lot of effort for the two of them to finally reach the second floor.This time, she probably felt that she couldn't just let Pingjie go back, and said to Pingjie, "Come in and have a glass of water." "Ah, no, you don't have to worry, I'll put your things down and leave."

"How can it be done! You came here specially for me, so let me treat you to a cup of tea anyway." Hearing this sentence, Hirasuke felt a little awkward: Can you buy me a cup of tea? There is a nameplate next to her door."Kagawa Yukihiro" written vertically, next to the two names "Seiko" and "Yumi".Zhengzi should be her, and Yimei should be her daughter.After opening the door, Kajikawa Seiko shouted "Yumi! Yimi..." Soon, footsteps came from inside the room, and a middle school student-sized girl with short hair came out.She was wearing a tracksuit on top and jeans on the bottom.Seeing Hirasuke, she looked a little surprised.

Seiko explained what happened to her daughter, and Kajikawa Masami said with a dull expression after listening, "It's really embarrassing." "Anyway, hurry up and make a cup of food for Mr. Sugita. Also bring a cushion." Kajikawa Seiko ordered his daughter.Ping Jie felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. "Forget it, I'll go back now." Ashikawa Seiko turned around and bowed deeply to him: "At least please have a cup of tea before leaving, please." When she said this with a haggard face, Hirasuke also felt that it would be too unmanly to continue arguing.So he said, "Well, I'll just sit down for a while." After speaking, he took off his shoes and entered the house.

The layout of Kajigawa’s house seems to be two bedrooms and one kitchen.After entering the door, two steps forward is a relatively spacious kitchen that doubles as a dining room, and further inside are two opposite rooms.It looks like one is western style and one is Japanese style.It is estimated that an altar was set up in the Japanese-style room, because he smelled incense sticks. Suddenly, Kajikawa Seiko squatted down on the floor.Heisuke thought she might be dizzy again.But not so.She knelt down towards him. "Mr. Sugita is really sorry for this incident! I don't know how to apologize to you for making you lose your wife." After she finished speaking, she pressed her forehead to the ground.

"Ms. Kajikawa, please don't do this. I don't want to see you do this. Please stop, please." Heisuke grabbed her wrist, trying to pull her up.As he pulled, he thought, maybe she insisted on letting me in just to kneel down to me. Maybe it was because the sprained Xie's foot hurt so much, she frowned and called out "pain". "Ah, are you okay?" Heisuke slowly helped her up and let her sit on the chair. Kajikawa Seiko sighed. "I'm sorry, I know no amount of apology is enough..." "Okay, I really don't want to see you like this again." Hirasuke said. An embarrassing silence spread across the room.The kettle in the kitchen was making a "chichi" sound.Yimei turned off the gas and started to make tea with a small teapot. A teacup filled with tea was placed in front of Heisuke.The teacup looks like a free gift you get when you buy something else. "Thank you. Well, you are a middle school student?" "A sophomore in junior high school." "Really, then you are two years older than my daughter." He didn't think much when he said this, but Kajikawa Seiko didn't simply listen to it. "For causing your daughter to suffer so much, I really... want to apologize to her in person." She seemed to squeeze out the words through her teeth. In fact, Hirasuke really wanted to tell her: My daughter is dead, and what survives is her body; while my wife has lost her body.All of this was caused by your husband alone! "Father—" Yimei stood there and said suddenly, "Saizai is too tired!" "yes?" Hearing Hirasuke's question, Yimei nodded slightly. "He hasn't had a rest since the end of last year, even in the first month of the year, and occasionally he just sleeps when he comes home, and he always looks exhausted. He told me that when he was working on the ski bus, he didn't even take a nap. No, it's very uncomfortable." "It seems that there is indeed a problem of overloaded labor, isn't it?" Heisuke asked Kajikawa Seiko. Seiko nodded. "I think this problem is particularly serious in January and February. There used to be temporary lounges for drivers in the hotels on the ski resort, but when there are more tourists, the lounges are also converted into guest rooms, so they sometimes stay in the cafeteria. I was confused for a while. Although the bus was driven alternately by two people, I heard from him that I couldn’t sleep well in the car. When I stopped at the restaurant on the roadside, I was busy checking the condition of the car, so I couldn’t rest at all.” "It seems that they are really tired enough." Ping Jie followed suit.But he said that not at all as an expression of sympathy.In his opinion, this is nothing more than an excuse for the accident he caused.So he said with a bit of sarcasm: "Isn't it their job to take care of their physical condition?" After hearing this, Kajikawa Seiko seemed to be slapped in the face, and her face turned red all of a sudden.She blinked and looked down. "Because our family is very poor." Yimei said, "Dad works so hard to make more money." "If you were poor, I don't think you would live in such a house, would you?" "We can live in such a house because of my father's hard work!" After saying this, Kajikawa Masami turned around and walked away, and entered the western-style room without looking back. "I'm sorry, this child is ignorant and contradicted you." Kajikawa Seiko bowed his head to apologize to Heisuke. "It's okay." Heisuke finished speaking and drank a sip of tea, which was the kind of light brown rice tea. "I should go." Hirasuke stood up.Just then, the phone rang.The telephone sits on a small cabinet against the wall. Zhengzi stretched out her hand and was about to pick up the receiver when the door of the Western-style room opened, and a sharp voice came from inside: "It's a harassing call!" Zhengzi hesitated for a while, but finally picked up Tingjian. "Hello!" But she frowned after listening to a few words, and took the receiver away from her ear.After a few seconds of pause, she quietly put down the phone. "Is it really a harassing phone call?" Hirasuke asked. She nodded slightly: "It's been a lot less recently. But I still call from time to time." I must have called several times today.Yimei must have answered it too. Ping Jie suddenly felt very bad mood.In order to quickly resolve this unhappiness, he stood up decisively. "Then, I will take my leave." "Ah, I'm really sorry today." Just as Hirasuke was putting on his shoes, the phone rang again.Seiko looked at Heisuke, with a pitiful look on his face.Like before, she reached for the phone. Heisuke gently pressed her hand from above.Seiko looked up at him in surprise.He nodded at her and picked up the receiver. "You murderer!" The voice seemed to be coming from the bottom of a deep well, so low that it was impossible to immediately tell whether the other party was a man or a woman. "How long do you want to live like this? Hurry up and die. Only death can atone for the crimes you have committed. Listen carefully, before two o'clock in the middle of the night today, you must hang yourself, otherwise..." "Enough!" Hiroshi roared angrily.Perhaps it was unexpected that a man would come out to answer the phone, but the other party cut off the phone immediately, leaving only the sound of "beep" in the microphone. Heisuke hung up the phone. "Have you called the police?" "No. I heard that the police don't care much about things like harassing phone calls." Hijiki was silent.Maybe what she said was true.On the other hand, the purpose of the harassing caller is very clear. From this point of view, she is not willing to call the police. At this time, Hirasuke saw something that looked like a small card next to the phone.I picked it up and saw that it was an employee card of a company.Zhengzi's photo was affixed to the employee card, and the word "Zhun" was stamped on it, which probably meant that she was not a regular employee, but a seasonal worker and a prospective employee. "Tabata Seisakusho...is a metal processing company, right?" "Yes. You know even that." "Because this is a subsidiary company of our company, I have been sent there several times." "Really, so you are working in BIGOOD?" "Yes." Ping Jie nodded.Heisuke's company is called BIGOOD Co., Ltd.Because the founder of the company is named Big Wood, which translates into English as BIG WOOD, and after simplifying it becomes BIG00D. "Then when did you start working there?" "It started last summer." Kajikawa Seiko replied. "Really?" This surprised Hirasuke.He thought that Seiko had to start working after losing the pillar of the family. "Although Mr. Sugita may not believe me when I say this, our family really doesn't have much money." Probably aware of Heisuke's psychological activities, she continued to add, "Although my husband can't even take a break, I don't know Why is there no money left at all?" "Of course the money will be gone." "We're not spending money lavishly." "I think your husband works so hard, the subsidy must not be too little?" "His salary is really not much, and he has to work hard every month to avoid a deficit." "What is their salary structure like?" Heisuke tilted his neck. "I don't know either. My husband has never let me see his salary statement. The living expenses are all withdrawn from the bank first and then handed over to me. It is too hard to live only on the living expenses he gave. , I decided to go out to work just to subsidize my family a little bit." "Perhaps your husband is a thrifty man, and actually has a lot of money in the bank." Hearing what Heisuke said, she shook her head vigorously. "The family didn't have much savings at all, so I had to go to work again soon." Ping Jie thought this is really a strange thing.If the wages of bus drivers are really that low, will anyone still be willing to do it?But Kajikawa Seiko didn't seem to be lying. "I think the working conditions and remuneration of the bus company will be revealed to the public soon." Heisuke said with a tone of a bystander.After speaking, he began to put on his shoes.It's not that he doesn't sympathize with her, it's just that he feels that he can't have a sense of solidarity with this woman, otherwise he feels that he has betrayed the companions of the Victims' Families Association who were together just now. "I'm leaving. Take care." After saying that, Ping Jie left her house.Kajikawa Seiko seemed to say something again, but he didn't listen at all.