Chapter Seventeen: Tōdori Masaru

  At night, it rained unexpectedly, and by dawn, the sky cleared up again. The house was covered with green wisteria vines, each drop of dew falling onto the next leaf, eventually landing on the soil. A thin layer of water had accumulated on the stone bench and stone table in the small courtyard, shining brightly under the clear blue morning sky. Outside the gate, there was a winding asphalt road, which was the path where Kim Min-hee drove away yesterday. In the nearby mountain forest, the chirping of birds could be heard, calling out to those still asleep...

  Li Qiu was used to getting up early, a habit she had developed to help Li Xiaoli make breakfast. Now that she wanted to change it, she found it hard to shake off. Habits were scary things - once a behavior became a habit, it was like a part of one's body, or a tumor that had grown on one's skin. Trying to get rid of it would only reveal how deeply it had merged with oneself. Two elderly people also got up early. The old man's sleep habits were generally early to bed and early to rise. As Li Qiu walked to the front door of the house, Teng Mu Sheng was already doing some simple stretching exercises in the courtyard.

  "Wow! You're up early, kiddo!" Togeki Shou was a very cheerful old man, with a smile that never left his face. Alongside the strict Yamaguchi Mireiko, no one would have thought they'd be husband and wife living together for half a century.

  "Good morning, Mr. Fujiki." Although Li Qiu couldn't speak Japanese and didn't understand it either, she still knew the most basic greetings.

  "Shall we... how to put it, morning exercise, right?" Yamaguchi Mireiko speaks Korean, Fujiki Masaru doesn't, and he also knows that Li Qiu can't speak Japanese. He wants to invite Li Qiu for a morning run but doesn't know how to express it, so in the end, he starts running on the spot, then points towards the mountain behind.

  "Morning exercise? Okay." Li Qiu didn't understand what Tōnokikatsu said, but he understood his actions. His short body moved a bit and followed behind Tōnokikatsu.

  The morning air was fresh, especially since Tōnoki Masaru's house was still surrounded by green trees at the foot of the mountain. The rain from last night made the morning air feel like it had been filtered through eighteen layers, purified to the point where there wasn't a single impurity left, and even carried a hint of flowers, grass, and trees. Tōnoki Masaru's morning exercise routine was simple: he climbed mountains. Sometimes he would climb halfway up, sometimes all the way to the top - it depended on when Yamaguchi Mireiko woke up. If she was still asleep when he went for his morning run, he could make it all the way to the summit; if she was already awake, he only made it as far as the teahouse halfway up the mountain, and would return just in time for breakfast. Today, Tōnoki Masaru had brought Li Qiu with him to this teahouse on the half-mountain slope.

  The mountain's staircase was almost a thirty-degree slope, and Tengmu Sheng had been climbing it for decades, day in and day out. Although he was getting older, his body remained robust, and he had grown accustomed to this exercise. He climbed halfway up the mountain without showing any signs of fatigue, except for slightly rapid breathing. In contrast, Li Qiu, who was used to city life and didn't have a habit of morning exercises, wasn't doing as well. Although he often danced, dancing and mountain climbing were not on the same level of exercise. Yesterday, Li Qiu had also climbed this mountain with Cui Xiu Ying and Gao Cheng Gang, but because of Cui Xiu Ying's slow pace, they stopped frequently to catch their breath, so they wouldn't appear tired. This morning was no different. Tengmu Sheng sprinted up the stairs in one breath, reaching the small pavilion at the halfway point, while Li Qiu was still far behind, panting heavily, holding onto the railing, and taking heavy steps as he climbed.

  "Kid, you're no match for me!" Tōdori Masaru gazed at Li Qiu lying on the ground of the pavilion and threw down a sentence before walking to the plain outside the mountain.

  "Ah...... uh......" A shrill and sharp voice, like a thin line, whistled out of Tōdori Katsu's mouth, slowly spreading and echoing in the mountains, lingering for a long time. "Alas, there is still some noise, after so many years, it can't be changed, too late, too late......"

  "Huh? This whistling sound, why does it feel like mine, but with much less noise and even sharper and more delicate than my own!" Lying on the ground, Li Qiu heard this whistling sound and his first reaction was to cover his ears. His second thought was that this voice seemed similar to his own shouting voice! Li Qiu's vocal cords were normal when speaking calmly in everyday life, but whenever he exerted too much force, such as singing or yelling loudly, his voice would immediately become hoarse with a lot of noise and the sound produced was extremely unpleasant.

  "Grandpa Fujiki! Your voice is just like mine!" Li Qiu, who had rested enough, stood up and said, standing beside Fujiki.

  "What? Scared by my voice? It's okay, my voice is hard to hear, it only shows up when I use too much air." Tōnokī Katsu didn't understand Li Qiu's words, he just darkened his face and slowly said a sentence. His family was a family of performers, everyone had a good voice, but he was an exception! Normally he spoke normally, and even had a warm feeling, like the morning sun; But when he used too much air, his voice became extremely hard to hear, for so many years, he had been searching for ways to change...

  Of course, Li Qiu didn't understand what Fujimori Shou said either, but not understanding doesn't mean he didn't see through it. As soon as Fujimori mentioned the problem with his throat, his face clearly darkened, and Li Qiu thought Fujimori had misunderstood him making fun of him, so he immediately shouted out towards the pavilion:

  "Ah......" Li Qiu's whistle was clearly more unpleasant than Tengmu Sheng's, with a heavy, harsh noise mixed with an unmistakable childish tone, and some piercingly sharp notes. This whistle was even more "frightening" than Tengmu Sheng's, and the birds nesting in the lush green forest were startled into flight by the sound. From the pavilion, a dense flock of birds could be seen flying about, a magnificent sight...

  "?" Shigeru Fujiki heard the scream and was initially stunned, but immediately grabbed Akihito Li, lifted his head high, and carefully examined his throat. "Swallow once, ah, forgot you don't understand Japanese, come on, do it with me, swa..."

  Suddenly grabbed by Tōmoku Shō, Li Qiu was really startled. Seeing Tōmoku's urgent appearance and not understanding what he was saying, she finally followed his actions in confusion, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Gululu..."

  "Right, lift your head again and swallow once more!" He lifted Li Qiu's head again, observing his throat, after a while, he used his hand to feel it again, continuing to make Li Qiu swallow. After a long time, he finally let go of Li Qiu, pried open his mouth, looked at his oral cavity, and finally threw out a sentence that Li Qiu couldn't understand: "Not developed yet!"

  ……

  After finishing his morning exercise, Tonomura Katsu was thinking about some problems and didn't even eat breakfast before entering the study room that Yamaguchi Mireiko had taken Li Qiu to yesterday. He didn't know what he wanted to do, but this was no longer a problem for Li Qiu to worry about, because Yamaguchi Mireiko's "test" had already begun.

  "Come in!"

  "This..."

  "Didn't you hear? I told you to come in!"

  "Yes, Grandma Yamaguchi."

  Li Qiu held a bag in his hand, thought for a moment, and finally crawled inside. Where did he crawl into? The cellar! This cellar was just behind the house, under the shed where all the animals that wouldn't make a sound were kept. After breakfast, Yamaguchi Mireiko brought him to the entrance of the cellar and told him to go in, without saying what he was supposed to do inside, only telling him to go in, and threw him a bag containing a large amount of dry food and purified water...

  Li Qiugang crawled into the cellar and immediately smelled a strong acidic smell, along with a hint of alcohol. Just as he covered his nose, the entire cellar suddenly turned pitch black. It turned out that after he had crawled in completely, the entrance was sealed by Yamaguchi Mirei. The cellar door was sealed shut, and the inside of the cellar immediately fell into darkness. A thin red thread shot out from the corner of the internal wall. If there were any light, it would be visible - a infrared camera, with a small amplifier next to it.

  After a long time, Li Qiu's eyes finally adapted to the darkness in the cellar. She squatted down and sat at the entrance, looking around, but couldn't see anything because it was too dark.

  This was originally a wine cellar, with jar after jar of wine vats neatly attached to the wall of the cellar, and the sour smell and wine smell were fermented from these wine jars.

  "My test for you is this: stay inside until you can't take it anymore!" Li Qiu had just sat down in the corner of the cellar, next to the infrared camera and loudspeaker, when Nakayama Mirei's distinctive voice came through. All of Nakayama Mirei's students who she truly acknowledged had gone through her test; as for why she did this, only she herself knew.

  "Are you staying here?" Li Qiu moved the pocket next to him, where there was enough food for a week, and if he ate less, it could last even longer...

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