Chapter 99 – Tonight’s Plum Rice

“Thanks.” Natsuki Arai narrowed her eyes and smiled, taking the bamboo basket she handed her, “How long have you been waiting here?”

“No, no …… just for a moment ……” Keiko Hayakawa stammered.

Aoi Natsuki looked at her feet that kept pacing from side to side, it seemed like they should have been freezing, then pursed her lips, “Go inside first, I’ll send you back later.”

“I, I actually ……”

“It’s okay la, go inside first.” Aoi Natsuki patted her back, and Hayakawa instantly, like an electric shock, her pace suddenly accelerated and she arrived in front of the iron door.

Aoi Natsuki pulled out the key and opened the iron door, and Yoshi Sauce’s yell rang in his ears.

The three of them walked in, and from a distance, they saw the sly eyes of Yoshi Sauce in the darkened living room.

Opening the entrance door afterward, Lina took the brunt of the change of shoes quickly, ran to the living room to turn on the underfloor heating, and skillfully pulled the guest blanket out of the cupboard.

It’s as if practice makes perfect.

“Wear these.” Natsuki Aoi searched through the shoe cabinet and eventually pulled out a pair of cotton shoes, which were neatly placed on the porch steps.

“Yes!” Hayakawa agreed sharply, but didn’t actually make a move, she was very nervous inside right now, her mind still thinking about the intimate actions between Natsuki and herself just now.

“What’s the problem?” Seeing her delay, Natsuki Aoi asked.

“No …… “Hayakawa Keiko could only move now, bending down a little to untie the laces of her canvas shoes, slowly peeling off the shoes from the heels, a pair of small feet wearing pure white socks appeared in Aoi Natsuki’s line of sight.

It was the first time he had ever seen such small feet, probably only about thirty-five yards, and Hayakawa himself was not tall and small-boned, so even with such small feet it was not at all out of place.

The water from the melting snow soaked his socks, and when he saw this, Hayakawa also froze outright, and at that moment the air in the entire corridor froze with it.

Sensing a hint of embarrassment, Aoi Natsuki also got up and hurriedly left the scene and walked into the dining room.

It took several seconds before Hayakawa, red-faced, would bend his legs backward, take off his socks, and put on his cotton shoes to follow in small steps.

When I came to the dining room, since the living room was connected to the dining room, the whole environment heated up slower as well, but there was still a hint of warmth.

The table still had the plums she had brought, and Rina was sitting next to it, constantly looking from side to side, while Natsuki Aoi dove headfirst into the kitchen.

Without a word, Hayakawa then took his seat at the table as well.

At that moment, Natsuki Arai poked her head out, “Hayakawa, did you have dinner then?”

“Not yet …… but it doesn’t really matter if we eat dinner or not!” Hayakawa suddenly waved his hand repeatedly towards him.

“How about that, I’ll see what’s left at home.”

“Awwww!” Lina slapped the tabletop, beside the bamboo basket with the packed back burger fries.

Aoi Natsuki gave her a blank look, “You’re letting people eat fast food when they’ve traveled so far to come here… I don’t think children should eat so much junk food.”

Hearing this, Lina felt like an enemy and immediately protected her favorite punching bag with both hands, vowing to live with it.

Aoi Natsuki walked out from the kitchen, couldn’t help but laugh, came to the table, his eyes also fell on the basket of plums, then he opened the lid, and a fragrance came out, he picked one up just about to take a bite, but then suddenly thought of something, and just licked it, and inhaled instantly.

So sour ……

“Hayakawa, this is ……”

“This, this was brought over by my relatives in the countryside, it’s plums that were stored in the cellar a long, long time ago, sour maybe, but the flavor I believe is good!”

That’s true, Natsuki Aoi does have a very strong plum aroma and aftertaste when I look back on it now.

“Awwwwwww!” Smelling the odor, Lina all but craved it, raising her right hand high to ask for it again and again.

Aoi Natsuki saw this and handed the plum up, “Only a small bite oh.”

Korina saw that it was just a small plum, directly bit a big mouthful, immediately an unimaginable acidity made her saliva crazy secretion, directly to spit it out, along with the saliva also dripped down.

Cute and cuddly kept spitting out his tongue.

Aoi Natsuki laughed, then picked up the bamboo basket and said, “I know what to make, let’s make you guys a meal of plum rice, it’s simple and delicious.”

“Uh, okay.” Hayakawa nodded in agreement.

Then Aoi went back to the kitchen to start panning the rice, at least the plum rice is very simple, there are with the rice to cook together, and also added at the end, but this kind of acidity, then, soak will be rice water is okay, I’m afraid that the acidity of the ordinary people can not resist.

This kind of acidity is actually a symbol of high quality, and some plums that have been stored for a long time can even be sold at a sky-high price of tens of thousands of dollars a piece, which is the same concept as some of the countryside in the Celestial Kingdom that collects Chenpi of different years.

The aroma of rice also wafted out of the kitchen as it cooked.

The relationship between Rina and Hayakawa-san is very good because she is willing to teach herself how to write, and is also very gentle, and Natsuki seems to like her a lot as well, although sometimes this liking makes Rina feel a little jealous, but thinking that Hayakawa-san is so good to her, so begrudgingly, she’ll share Natsuki with her!

The two watched cartoons together in the living room.

It can be said that two people who both love animation came together, and these lower-age animations are sort of Hayakawa’s childhood memories, which are now looked back on with great interest.

Gathering Lina into his arms, every now and then he glanced back to the kitchen.

After being in the warmth for what felt like twenty minutes, she no longer felt the cold all over her body, and her feet were starting to regain their temperature.

“Let’s eat.” Aoi Natsuki walked out at that moment wearing gloves and holding a pot of rice.

“Let’s go.” Hayakawa signaled, then pulled Rina along with him as they walked to the dining room.

At the same time, the plum’s rich, fruity aroma reached his nose, and it smelled very good.

And Lina, after feeling the sweetness of the plums back there, now looked at the plum rice surprisingly wanting to take two more bites instead.

Aoi Natsuki took the rice spoon and served three bowls, two large and one small.

A plum on top of one’s meal.

That’s a sufficient amount.

Rice water soaked in plums is flavorful enough on its own.

“Then I’m going to start (awwwwwwww)!” The three said in unison.

Immediately afterward, he began to pick up his chopsticks and eat his plum rice.

The sourness that had originally been concentrated had been neutralized a lot by now, and although it was still sour, this acidity combined with the plum’s unique sweetness instead made it feel very appetizing, and Rina no longer reacted like she did just now, but instead, after taking a bite, she kept filling her mouth with rice.

Hayakawa was also surprised by the flavor, holding the bowl of rice with both hands and the heat covering her glasses.

“Favorability +2”

“Favorability +1”

Now Hayakawa’s favorability has officially stepped into the 80 mark, and I wonder if the favorability value -100 is the lower limit, so is positive 100 the upper limit.

Aoi Natsuki bit into her chopsticks, and in her heart, she thought back to the matter of having a nurturing function, since she had chosen Hayakawa, then she would have to rely on this nurturing function to rapidly increase Hayakawa’s various scores before she could do so.

“Well ……,” he breathed out a long breath through the tip of his nose.

“Natsuki, are you thinking about something?” Hayakawa asked softly as he leaned his body down.

Aoi Natsuki came back to his senses, an idea suddenly came to his mind, “Do you have time on the weekend ……?”