Chapter 19 Section five

In the evening, while I was busy washing clothes, I caught a glimpse of the snow-soaked soil in the yard, which was as beautiful as a red river bank in the afterglow of the setting sun.For a moment, I couldn't help calling S to have a look, but I immediately shook my head and put aside this thought. Perhaps because he was too engrossed in watching, the clogs splashed the water in Tongli by accident.Although the kimono and washed clothes on his body were fine, mud was splashed on the back of his calf.Anyway, it was dirty, so I added firewood to the stove outside to burn the bath water.

S and I sat next to each other in the bath to keep warm. S talked about the scene when I first arrived at this house like a dream, his tone was full of nostalgia, and I also listened with nostalgia.But if you think about it, it's actually not that long.I'm submerged in hot water, wrench pointing.The little finger first bent once, and then straightened again, which happened to be half a year.Again I was amazed at how short the time was. When I got out of the bathtub and I helped S scrub his body, he said: "The moment I learned that your factory was on fire, my whole heart almost turned pale with fright. Really, that's the feeling."

A sad wrinkle was engraved on S's beautiful forehead. At that time, S rushed to Tokyo immediately and found me soon.The factory that my father had spent his whole life running was burned down, and all the adjacent houses were also burned down.I lost all my family, no relatives, no family, all alone and didn't know what to do, and he found me. Later, I found out that the fire started in the president's office in the factory. Although it's called the president's office, my father has long since stopped working in that room.Due to a tumor growing in his brain, his father could not move his hands and feet freely. He always relied on the help of the servants to deal with things in the living room at home.It was the mother and the young doctor who came to see the father regularly to use the president's office instead of the father.I know very well that they always stay in the president's office on Sundays and holidays when the factory is resting.

Even as a daughter, I couldn't help admiring my mother's beauty.And the doctor, too, had a handsome face that the maid couldn't help peeking out of the corner of her eye, sighing and whispering.Once, I quietly eavesdropped on the door while the factory was on holiday, and my mother's intermittent breathing came from the president's room.At that time, for the first time in my life, I felt sorry for my father, who was obsessed with work, stubborn and clumsy, and never accompanied me. When I learned that the source of the fire was in the president's office, I immediately remembered that doctors always smoked.After the mother and the doctor left, the president's room always lingered with the bitter smell of tobacco.Was the fire caused by not twisting out the cigarette butt?The accident happened on Sunday night. It must be the doctor who stayed in the president's office with his mother. He didn't check the safety of the candles before leaving, so the sparks from the cigarettes spread and caused disasters.

However, I did not reveal to anyone the relationship between the doctor and my mother. After losing everything due to the fire, the attitudes of the men who proposed to me suddenly became very cold. They were obviously full of love and love before.It wasn't until that moment that I understood what they were after. S appeared at that time.He told me he lost all his family too.Relatives and friends have all become victims of the atomic bomb. Then, S invited me back to my hometown. "I was taken aback when I first stepped into your room." Soaked in hot water, I played with my hands to recall.

The room S showed me was filled with my photos.There are really a lot of them, some were taken in the photo studio with relatives when I was young, there are also profile photos when I was in girls' school, and there are even back photos taken near my home. S admitted that the photos of Tokyo were secretly taken every time he came, and he always carried them with him in his suitcase.Fortunately, when the town was hit by war, only S and the photos were preserved. S said that he loves me, he has liked me since he was a child, he only likes me, and he still likes me to this day. So, I moved into this house.

I brought the cash from selling the land in Tokyo, and that Daruma. Of the items placed in my room, only this Bodhidharma escaped the evil fire.Bodhidharma, who didn't paint black eyes on his left and right eyes, stared at me as if he knew everything.Although I brought it specially, those big empty eyes made me afraid, so when I arrived at this house, I immediately put Bodhidharma in the back of the closet. I, who lost everything in Tokyo, fell in love with S who was so unbelievably infatuated. However, I didn't think S was so beautiful at the time.I haven't been able to feel that way about any man since going through that fire.

S became the incarnation of beauty in my heart on New Year's Eve.I will never forget what happened that night.