Chapter 39 Section thirty-ninth

Yukiko called me and said that a man came to visit me, but I didn't know who he was. It felt a little weird, and asked me if I could come and see if I was free.Having been fired from a furniture company, I had a lot of time, so I said yes right away, put on my jacket and headed out.The weather that day was very strange, the sky was clear, but it was raining from time to time. As soon as I arrived at the hospital, I saw Yukiko standing in front of the ward with an uneasy expression on her face.She saw me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Where are the visitors? Have you gone back?"

Yukiko shook her head and turned to the direction of the ward without saying a word. The room can be seen from the door of the ward.That room was Kuramochi's personal room. Life support equipment was installed around the hospital bed, and all the equipment was covered with transparent plastic film. A man stood beside the bed.He looked to be in his mid-fifties and was wearing a dark brown three-piece suit.Although his figure was not strong, his tall and straight figure exuded a majestic aura.He carried a neatly folded umbrella as a crutch, and with a hat on, he looked like an English gentleman.

The man remained silent, quietly looking down at Kuramochi's sleeping face.Of course, even if he spoke, Kuramochi couldn't hear him.However, many visitors will still want to say something to him. "Who is he? Didn't he introduce himself?" I asked Yukiko in a low voice. She hands out a business card. "He gave me this." "Enterprise Management Consulting Company Sakura Yohei" is printed on the business card.The address of the office is in Minato. "He said he was Xiaoxiu's old friend." "Haven't you heard Kuramo mention his name?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't look like a suspicious person, please politely ask me to let him in to visit the doctor, I have no reason to refuse..." She was absolutely right.I nodded to her too. "Haven't Mr. Tajima seen that person?" "It's not very clear from here, but I don't think I know it." "Did he stand still like that when you called me thirty minutes ago?" "Yeah. Almost motionless, I kept staring at Xiaoxiu's face. I always feel..." She vaguely carried the words behind, probably trying to say: "It's weird." I also felt the same way.

The two of us waited outside the ward, wanting to observe his situation for a while, and a few minutes later, the man came out.He looked at me and nodded slightly. I thought to myself, I really don't know this man.Yet almost at the same time I felt as if I had seen him somewhere.Maybe I have seen someone who looks like him before, so I have an illusion. "I'm really sorry to bother you for so long." The man apologized to Yukiko. "After all, we haven't seen each other for a long time." "It's like this." She smiled and looked at me with pleading eyes.

I think it would be best for Yukiko not to be present to investigate the origin of the man. "You'd better go and see what Kuramo looks like." "Ah... yes. Then, Mr. Sakura. I will not accompany you." "Oh, please, don't call me." I watched Yukiko walk into the ward and slowly walk to the other side of the corridor.Men saw me do that and followed me. "Is your surname Sakura? Do you work as a business consultant?" I asked as I walked. "Well, yes. However, the clients are small companies." "What's your relationship with Cang Mo?"

The man didn't answer right away, but smiled lowly. "We are old friends. Our relationship cannot be described in a few words." We stopped in front of the elevator.The man didn't seem to be interested in further explanation, and asked me instead: "Excuse me, who are you?" "His friend." After saying that, I lied reflexively. "My surname is Ejiri. Sorry, I'm unemployed now, so I can't give you my business card." "Oh, where, it doesn't matter." The man raised his hand slightly with a smile, it seemed that he was not interested in me.

The reason I didn't give my real name was because I was worried that he would be in trouble if he was a victim of "Creating Opportunity".Perhaps one of the victims knew that a man named Tajima was in charge of the accounts. We took the elevator, and before reaching the first floor, I watched the man's profile.I really feel like I've seen him somewhere.I thought to myself, maybe he's a celebrity.Maybe I've seen him in a magazine or on TV.Some people who are engaged in business management often appear in the mass media.I guess, Kuramochi probably became close to this man because of his business dealings.It doesn't look like special vigilance is required.

The elevator goes to the first floor.I followed Sakura out of the elevator.Before passing through the lobby on the first floor, Sakura stopped and turned her face to me. "Then, I will take my leave here. Please wait for me to convey to Madam, and ask her not to be too depressed." "I will tell you the truth. However, do you want to find a place to drink tea? Please tell me the relationship between you and Kuramo." "I'm very sorry, I have something to do later. Let me tell you about my relationship with him another day." The man politely rejected me.I realized that he would not come again.

"Then I will see you to the door." "No, it's fine here." Sakura raised a hand and turned away. However, just as he was about to move forward, there was a sound from the side.A fat old woman squatted down in a hurry to pick up the scattered change.It appeared that she had spilled the contents of her purse. A ten-yuan coin rolled to Sakura's feet.He picked up the copper plate and walked to the old woman. "Your change." "Oh, thank you very much." Sakura held the ten-yuan coin between her index finger and middle finger, and placed it in the old woman's palm.The old woman quickly nodded her thanks.

At that moment, my memory was awakened.A memory from a long, long time ago. I quickly followed Sakura.I called out to him before he was about to step through the automatic door in the hallway. "Uncle An, do you still play backgammon?" Sakura stopped in her tracks.He turned his head slowly, his eyes dimmed.I looked into his eyes, and continued: "The other person is fined a hundred dollars, isn't it?" After speaking, I made a move of playing chess. We went into a coffee shop next to a hospital.Sakura calmly smoked a cigarette. "It was taught to me by people in a company I worked for when I was young. There are also people who use chess. However, backgammon is faster to determine the outcome, so I took it as a way to quickly earn pocket money and found Many people came. However, I never dreamed that I would meet someone who knew about the incident at that time. It’s really embarrassing.” Sakura said reminiscently.The company he mentioned seems to be referring to local underworld enterprises. "Did you know Kuramo at that time?" Hearing my question, he nodded deeply. "At first, he was one of my guests. But then he started bringing friends and he stopped playing chess. I thought he was a weird kid. One day, he whispered in my ear, If he brings guests, give him one hundred yuan per game. I was shocked when I heard him say that. Because I always thought he was a primary school student and didn't take him seriously. A bucket of cold water was poured over my head. But, I can't just be looked down upon by him, so I told him to stop joking, and only give him fifty yuan for a round." Sakura shook his shoulders and laughed. "I heard that Kuramo helped you with your side business at your home, didn't you? I heard from him that it seemed like he was making magic props." Sakura narrowed her eyes as if looking into the distance, then nodded her head two or three times. "It happened. Not only is he eloquent, but he is also very sensitive in his hands and feet. He really helped me a lot." I was tempted to say, "I was there when he was working at your house," but decided to keep my mouth shut. "Kuramo said that he learned a lot from you that is more useful than what the school teacher taught." Sakura exhaled a puff of smoke with a smug expression in response to what I said. "I chatted with him a lot. If someone listened to it, they would definitely make a fool of themselves, thinking that I was talking so much to a child. At that time, I was unemployed and couldn't find a job. I was living a self-defeating life. So I mixed complaints and jokes I told him all the strange jobs I had done before. I didn’t expect him to listen with gusto, what a weird boy. His family opened a tofu shop, but he was not interested in the family’s business at all, and he also looked down on Down-to-earth, hard-earned money guy." "Did he start thinking that way under your influence?" Hearing what I said, he quickly waved his hand in denial. "That man has been like that since he was a child. He hated poverty from the bottom of his heart, and often said: 'It is unreasonable for people to have a gap between rich and poor because of their birth environment.'" "Birth environment..." "If you are born into a rich family, you can enjoy all the glory and wealth from an early age, but if you are born into a poor family, you can only live a hard life. However, I don't think his family is particularly poor, just because there is a rich man beside him. The young master of a rich family, and jealous of that child. That child's family..." Sakura showed a thoughtful expression, and continued: "It seems to be a well-known rich family in the local area. His father opened a dental clinic." I was startled and my mind went blank. "There is a piece of land near his home with a high land price, and there is a whole row of high-end houses there. If you lived in that town when you were a child, you should have an impression? The so-called people who live there. There is a particularly magnificent mansion, which is The home of the dentist's son." "He's jealous of that kid..." I feel parched and reach for a water glass instead of a coffee mug. "He has a strong sense of inferiority. I'm thinking that maybe it's that sense of inferiority that drives him to think that way. He often says: 'Since I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I have to easily become like him. I'm rich as well, so I don't want to use my labor to make money.'” Sakura's every word is like a nail piercing into my heart.It seems that Kurachi is really very personal, so he set traps for me one after another. "But, it's not that he hates that boy. This is where the complexity of that man is. Although he is jealous of the other person's good background, he can maintain a calm attitude and think about the other person's background and human nature separately. So although it can't be called Friendship, he does hold an emotion similar to friendship towards the other party, but at best, it is only an emotion similar to friendship." "How do you say that?" "He seems to want the other party to suffer misfortune. Because he can't become a rich man right away, he wants to drag the other party down first." I remembered what happened a long time ago, and the word "kill" written in blood appeared in my mind.Kuramochi mistyped my name as Tajima and Shin, but he did write my name on the list. "What happened to that boy afterwards?" I knew this matter better than anyone else, but I still asked tentatively. "Has he had any misfortune?" "Actually, he did encounter misfortune." Sakura took a sip of coffee. "Probably not long after he entered junior high school, his family fell apart and the mansion was sold. The boy moved to another town with his father." "Just as Kuramochi wanted. What a coincidence." Hearing what I said, Sakura rubbed her fingers against the middle of the person, and gave a dry cough in a meaningful way. "Oh, I don't know if it can be called a pure coincidence." "What do you mean by that? Isn't it just a mere coincidence that the dentist's son had the misfortune that Kuramochi had hoped for?" "On this point, I have no position to speak. It's just that most of the things that happen in this world are not just coincidences." "If you knew anything..." However, Sakura shook her head, unwilling to continue. "Didn't I say that I have no position to speak? Besides, this matter has nothing to do with you, does it?" Unable to refute, I lowered my head.I clenched my fists under the table. "You said, you are his friend?" Hearing Sakura asking me this, I raised my head and nodded silently. "Do you really think so? Or, do you just say so tentatively or superficially?" "Why are you so..." "Because I want to know if that man can actually make friends. I think with his lifestyle, it should be difficult to make friends." I couldn't figure out what kind of medicine was sold in the Sakura gourd, so I picked up the coffee cup at hand.Before I could, however, he pursed his lips and smiled.I put the coffee cup back on the table. "What do you want to say?" "No, sorry. I think I guessed right. You're not his friend at all. At least you don't think so. You hate him instead. Well, am I right?" "Why do you think that?" "Because that's how the man lives. Or maybe he's the way of the world. I taught him the basics of that thinking, so I have some responsibility." "What did you teach him?" "The thing I taught him is very simple. That is, people must have sacrifices to succeed." "Abandoned...?" "Of course, the abandoned child in this case refers to a person. However, it does not mean simply using people. As long as it is a person, anyone will encounter a gamble. Depending on the situation Different, sometimes even bet on the name. At that time, there will be a completely different result if there is a sacrificial child and no sacrificial child can be used. In addition, the sacrificial child can sometimes play the role of a breakwater, so that you can avoid In danger. So I taught him—you must always prepare someone who is suitable to be an abandoned child. Also, one of the most necessary conditions for an abandoned child is someone you can trust.” I couldn't make my expression look normal and natural.Sakura seemed to be aware of it, he picked up the umbrella beside him calmly and calmly, stood it in front of his body, folded his hands on the umbrella as if leaning on a cane. "You seem to know it in your heart." "If you live in that way, what's the fun in life?" I asked with a still stiff face. "I think he should feel that he has a fulfilling life. Although you may hate him, he should regard you as a friend." "Aren't you an abandoned child?" Hearing what I said, Sakura shrugged again, smiling quietly. "Like I said earlier, that man is complicated. He doesn't trust anyone, and he doesn't open up to anyone. There are exceptions, though. And that's people like you. Ironically, he trusts from the bottom of his heart The only ones he chooses to be the sacrificial sons are the only ones. But this is only from his point of view.” "If he thinks that way, he should want his friends to be happy." "He wants you to be happy. It's just that there are several conditions behind happiness." "What conditions?" "Don't let the abandoned son be so happy that he loses his role as an abandoned son." At that moment, the hairs all over my body stood on end.In the words that Sakura said, it seemed that Hamachi carried Kuramochi's persistent idea of ​​wanting to control my life.In fact, I was under his control.Whenever I am close to reaching happiness, Kuramochi will come riding on the ominous wind. "I seem to have talked too much. Could it be because seeing him made me feel sad?" Sakura got up and took out the wallet, looked inside the wallet, and frowned. "Trouble. I don't have change." "It's okay, I'll pay here." After finishing speaking, I took the bill to my hand. "That's right. Then I won't be polite." Sakura bowed her head and walked towards the gate. I think the title of corporate consultant is probably deceiving.Although he was dressed neatly, he should have been receiving financial assistance for storage until now.I don't think that man who was down and out could turn into a gentleman in just twenty years. Abandoned son—Kuramochi cleverly used this method to let me live a life full of humiliation? He said it was no mere coincidence that the dentist's family fell into misfortune. If it is not a coincidence, what is the reason? -------------------------------- Note: