Chapter 4 Futaba Chapter 2

The recording room rented by our orchestra is located in West Ikebukuro. After practice, I wanted to go shopping and said goodbye to my companions in front of the building. "You can work harder when you officially play, we have no time to get together to practice." Tomohiro said.He has a stinky face from beginning to end today, the reason is that I was completely absent-minded when I sang. "I'm sorry, I will work hard." I folded my hands and apologized to him. The reason for my absent-mindedness is very simple, because my mother's affairs are always on my mind.It's been five days since I've been on TV and she hasn't said a word about that day, and she's not throwing a tantrum or ignoring me on purpose, her attitude is exactly the same as usual, no, maybe not as strong as usual, or It should be said that she is not energetic, but she doesn't seem to have any dissatisfaction with me.

This made me care more. It would be easier to understand if she was obviously angry. After all, I broke the agreement first, so it was natural to be scolded, but she was not angry at all.I would rather she yelled at me and I would feel more at ease, but I can't figure out what the mother is thinking now. The picture of my mother crying a few days ago was deeply imprinted in my mind. After that, I wanted to ask her what was wrong several times, but I couldn’t. speak up. It was already past nine o'clock when I returned to the apartment downstairs after shopping. Tonight it's my mother's turn to cook dinner. Even if it's not my turn to cook dinner, she will probably be angry if I come home late, but tonight I hope she Lost tantrum, I hope she returns to normal quickly.

As soon as I stepped up the apartment stairs, there were voices above the stairs. "If you change your mind, please contact me." The voice sounded like an unfamiliar middle-aged man. I muttered which neighbor's visitor this person was as I walked up the stairs, but the next voice stopped me. "I won't change my mind, please raise your hand..." It's my mother's voice, absolutely unmistakable. I haven't heard her speak in such a respectful tone for a long time. Seeing that something was wrong, I turned around and tiptoed down the stairs to hide in the dark of the bicycle parking lot.

Then there was the sound of footsteps going down the stairs. There should be only one person going down the stairs. I poked my head out and looked around. A man in a dark suit was walking out of the apartment with a small briefcase. The lights were dim. I couldn't see his face clearly. I only knew that he was short in stature and about fifty years old, but he didn't look like that at all. Thin, because his posture is quite confident, and the suit is also high-end, and the material exudes luster. I waited for five minutes before I came out, went up the stairs and opened the door to enter the house. My mother was in the kitchen, and she looked at me in astonishment.

"Futaba, you just came back?" Mom's voice was a little nervous. "yes." "Did you meet anyone on the road?" "Huh? Well, no." "Oh... that's good." Mom let out a sigh of relief, and her figure seemed to be half a circle smaller at that moment. "What's the matter? Has anyone been here?" "Huh? Well, yes, a salesman just came, and he came to sell things at this time and still stayed at the door. I was almost annoyed to death." "Oh." I took a peek at the sink, where there were teacups for receiving visitors. It seemed that my mother's lying skills had deteriorated.

"Have you had dinner yet?" "not yet." "Oh, then I'll cook now, wait for me." Mom turned around and lit the pot on the gas stove, her back seemed smaller than usual. Mom hasn't eaten yet, and it's nearly ten o'clock when we sit down to eat together.Tonight's main course is beef stew, and my mother talked about the seasoning and cooking skills while serving the food with a spoon and fork.Today's mother is very talkative and more energetic than yesterday, but looking at her expression, she always feels a little forced and smiling. When the conversation between the two is interrupted, the atmosphere becomes very awkward.

"Mom." I took advantage of the gap in the conversation and said, "Aren't you mad at me for being on TV?" Mom seemed a little caught off guard, she shrank slightly, then shrugged and said: "Of course I'm angry." "Then why didn't you scold me?" Mom was picking up a piece of meat with a spoon, she stopped and looked at me, "You want me to scold you?" "Nope," I poked a carrot with a fork, "it just felt weird. I thought you were going to scold me, but you didn't say anything." Mom smiled slightly, but her eyes were still serious, and she ate her own food in silence.

After dinner, Mom said, "Will it be Friday next time?" She means being on TV. "Yes." I said. Mom nodded meaningfully, "If you are temporarily unable to play, I don't know what will happen to that show?" Is this a threat? "I also know that the staff must be extremely nervous. The director and producer should be in a panic." "I think so, but anyway, you are just playing around, there should be many replacements, right?" "What are you trying to say?" I frowned and said, "Could it be that you want to keep us out of the game in a pinch?"

"That's not the case, just asking." After saying this, my mother started to clean up the dishes neatly. That night, I was unable to fall asleep under the covers for a long time. Too many questions I wanted to ask my mother were circling in my mind. I tried to piece together reasonable inferences, and I lost all sleepiness.I didn't want to toss and turn in bed, so I just got out of bed and walked out of the room. Mom's room was quiet.Mom's snoring sound was so loud that others would think that there was a beast in it, so she should not be asleep.I tapped twice on the paper sliding door, and there was a response from inside, "What are you doing?"

I opened the paper sliding door and sat down beside my mother's pillow. "Can I ask a question?" "What's up?" "Who is that visitor today?" Mom shouldn't be drowsy, but it took her a long time to understand my question, and she looked surprised. "I saw it." I scratched the side of the bridge of my nose, "That middle-aged man looks decent, not a salesman at all." It took a while for Mom to smile again on her tense face. She sighed deeply and said: "You saw it, so I have no choice but to recruit." "Who is that man?" I asked again.

"My mother's former colleague. At that time, he and I were both working as research assistants at the university. He took good care of me, but he is now a professor." "What is he doing at our house?" "Well..." My mother seemed to feel something wrong and closed her mouth again. After a pause, she said to me: "He said he just came to visit me nearby, and he probably came to Tokyo for business." "Why did you lie to me as a salesman?" "There's no reason, I just said it casually." "But……" "Futaba." Mom raised her index finger, "Didn't you say you only asked one question?" "Hmm..." I was at a loss for words. "Satisfied, go to bed, mom is not like you, I have to get up early tomorrow." Reluctantly, I stood up, walked out of the room and closed the paper sliding door, and said through the door: "Good night." There was also a "good night" from the other side of the door. Back in bed, I recalled the conversation between the gentleman and his mother. "If you change your mind, please contact me." "I won't change my mind, please raise your hand..." Mom actually said such words as exalting her hand, the other party must not be an ordinary person. Could it be my dad? This sudden thought made me stunned for a moment, but it is indeed possible when I think about it, my mother may have broken up with my father for some reason, and since then I have lived in a place where my father can't find me, but I was on TV, so my father found my mother When he was missing, he came to the house and asked his mother if she would like to get back together with him... Thinking of this, I shook my head. This inference is really stupid. If Dad really wants to find it, it should not be difficult to find out where we live. Besides, even if he is his biological father, it is impossible to rely on the scenes of my appearance on TV. The image identified me as his daughter. Cranky, I fell asleep. It was rare for me to go to school the next day. In fact, this was the first time I stepped into school since I was on TV. Towa University, where I was studying, was located in Takadanobaba. As soon as I entered the lecture theater, my classmates from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature let out deafening screams. "Xiao Lin! Why haven't you come to class for so long? I thought you had dropped out of school!" Some people even said so. The female classmates surrounded me and asked about being on TV. These friends were very supportive of my participation in orchestra activities. "Ah, by the way, someone asked me a lot about you a few days ago. Let me think about it... It seems to be the day before yesterday." The girl nicknamed Lizi said. "Ask me? Who?" "He said he was from the TV station, but the more I thought about it later, the more suspicious he became. He is a very thin old man with strange looks, and he really doesn't look like someone from the entertainment industry." "How did he find you?" "Not long after I walked out of the classroom, he chased after me. He first asked me if I was a student of the Chinese Department. When I said yes, he said that he was from the TV station and wanted to interview Kobayashi Futaba." It's a strange thing, and people from the TV station should not do this. "What happened next?" I asked. "He said he would pay for the interview. I thought it didn't matter, so I followed him to the coffee shop for an interview. I didn't expect him to ask some strange questions." "What did he ask?" The students on the side urged. "He first took out Futaba's photo and asked me to confirm whether Kobayashi Futaba was this person. I said yes, it was her, but that photo was a bit weird." "How?" I asked. "The person in the photo is indeed you, but it's weird. It seems to be younger and more well-behaved. In short, it's not the same as you." "Huh? What are you talking about?" "I can't tell, maybe it's a photo of you in high school, and you have straight and long hair in the photo." "Straight long hair?" I frowned, "I've never had that hairstyle before." "But it's like that in the photo." Lizi pouted. This is really weird, I had short hair all the time in high school, I grew it long in college, and I got my hair curled very early, how did that man get that kind of photo? "Forget it, let's not talk about it. What else did the man ask?" "Well, he asked some questions about your personality and daily life. I think it's time to say something nice for you, so I added a lot of embellishment, especially when it came to your grades, but it was good. I'm so guilty." "What else?" I became more and more upset the more I heard it, and crossed my arms on my chest. "Later, his questions became more and more strange. For example, have you ever been seriously ill or have any chronic diseases?" At this point, Li Zi suddenly lowered his voice, "He also asked if you were pregnant." "What!?" There were screams all around. "Why would you ask such a question?" I said. "How would I know? I also thought it was weird, so I told him that I didn't know about these things and left. Anyway, the interview fee has already been taken." "How much did he give you?" Asked a classmate at the side, Li Zi stuck out his tongue and smiled shyly, "Ten thousand." "What!?" There were louder screams than before. When you don't know what to cook, cooking curry rice is just right.Since I was in elementary school, my mother asked me to help make dinner, and this policy of determining the dishes has not changed since I was a child.Thanks to this, now I can cook curry with my eyes closed. Although my mother often complains that my cooking skills have not improved, who cares, it is only me and my mother who eat it. I turned down the gas stove to let the curry simmer slowly, then sat down on the kitchen chair and looked at the electronic clock in the microwave, it was eight thirty-two.Looking at my mother's shift schedule today, she should be home before nine o'clock. I rested my chin on one hand and flipped through the evening paper at the dinner table. There was no interesting news, or I should say that there was no news that attracted me, because the incident kept turning around in my mind. According to the results of today's investigation, there are three people including Li Zi who received 10,000 yuan for the interview. They are all second-year students in the Department of Chinese Language and Culture. When someone stopped him from behind, he immediately asked if he was a student of the Chinese Department. My imagination is that the man should have investigated the schedules of the second-year students of the Chinese Department first, and then ambushed at the door of the classroom. The other two people were asked the same questions as Chestnut. The most incredible thing is that many of the questions revolved around my physical health, and everyone was asked "whether I was pregnant before", which made me feel hairy .A classmate said that the old man must be my boyfriend’s father, who secretly visited me to confirm whether I was suitable to be their daughter-in-law, “So I said a lot of good things.” I really thank her dick. Who is that man?Why are you investigating me?In particular, they also paid an interview fee of 10,000 yuan per person, which further deepened my suspicion. No matter how generous people in the entertainment industry are, it is impossible to spend so much money on these few issues. The first thing that came to my mind was the decent gentleman who came to my house last night, but according to the description of Lizi and the others, it should not be the same person. I heard that the old man had a limp on his left foot when he walked, but that gentleman walked very sluggishly last night. normal. I couldn't think of a reason, so I decided to change my mood. I took out Four Roses bourbon from the cupboard, poured it into a glass and added some ice cubes to sip it, and then I took out a lemon from the refrigerator and ate it directly. Well, my mother often said that just watching me eat lemons made her mouth water. I think people who don't understand this kind of pleasure are really unfortunate. After eating half a lemon, the wireless phone next to the microwave rang. It should be from my mother.I pressed the call button, but the voice of a strange man came. "Hello? Is this Miss Xiaolin's home?" "Yes." I replied.The man's voice sounded very serious, and I had a bad feeling. "This is the Traffic Section of the Shakujii Police Station. Are you Miss Kobayashi Shiho's family?" As soon as I heard the word police, my whole body froze. It seemed that my premonition was correct. I held the receiver tightly and said, "I am her daughter. What's wrong with my mother?" I couldn't help raising my voice. "She had a car accident and is now being sent to Guyuan Hospital." I exclaimed, unable to utter a word, my heart was beating violently, and the lemon in my hand fell to the ground. "Hello? Miss Xiaolin?" "...I'm here. How is she doing?" "I don't know the details, but I heard that life is in danger. Is it convenient for you to rush to the hospital?" "I'll go there right away." "Do you know where Guyuan Hospital is?" "I know." Of course I do, because that's the hospital where Mom works. "May I ask... what was the situation at the time of the car accident...?" The policeman replied after a while: "The other party hit your mother and then ran away. We are doing our best to investigate and arrest the perpetrator as soon as possible." "Hit and run..." These four words were deeply stabbed in my heart. After I hung up the phone, I didn't touch up my makeup, and I rushed out of the curry-smelling home in jeans and a polo shirt. As soon as I arrived at the hospital, I rushed through the gate. The waiting room was dark except for a fluorescent lamp, and the registration desk was closed. As I walked, I took off my sneakers and shouted, "Is anyone there?" A nurse appeared around the corner of the corridor. She was petite and looked younger than my mother. "You belong to Miss Xiaolin..." she asked in a low voice. "right." The nurse nodded and beckoned me to follow her. I thought she was going to take me to the operating room, but she took me to a room at the end of the corridor with an empty number. The nurse gestured to the door and said, "This way please." "My mother..." I wanted to ask "is my mother inside", but I choked up in the middle of the sentence, because I saw tears in the nurse's eyes and heard the sobbing inside the door. My body began to tremble, the cold air rushed through my body, and countless goose bumps appeared, and a cold sweat flowed from my temples to my neck. I held the doorknob with a trembling hand and pulled it. In the dark room, a large group of white shadows came into view.A white hospital bed, two white-clothed nurses in front of the bed, and a white cloth. I staggered towards the bed, and the two nurses backed away as soon as they saw me.I stood by the hospital bed and looked down at my mother whose face was covered with a white cloth. This is just a joke....I want to say this very much, but I can't utter a word, my lips won't work; I want to remove the white cloth, but my fingers won't work either. "Mom...it's me, Futaba." I stood there in a daze, and managed to squeeze out these few words.