My daily life of exorcising demons and falling in love with a witch.

This resulted in only three buildings within the courtyard.

These are the worship halls located directly in front of the main gate and in the center of the courtyard.

The community office on the right.

And, on the left, the shrine maiden's residence.

A worship hall is a building specifically used for worship.

Larger shrines also have a donation hall, which is specifically for offerings of incense money.

Normally, all shrines have a main hall (本殿). It's located directly behind the offering hall (供殿) and the worship hall (拜殿), and also at the deepest part of the grounds.

The main hall enshrines the spirit tablets, such as memorial tablets, steles, and other symbols of the deity. Unlike temples, shrines rarely display statues of the spirits.

Only clergy are permitted to enter this shrine; tourists are strictly prohibited from entering or peeping inside. That would be considered extremely disrespectful.

Small shrines usually combine the worship hall and the main shrine into one, and use the main shrine directly.

But Hatsuyuki Shrine is special.

It has no main hall, but it does have a worship hall.

At the far end of the courtyard directly opposite the main gate, where the main hall should have been, only the Cherry Blossom Tree stands.

Yoshiyuki speculated that this was because the true form of the Sakura Goddess Hatsuyuki was this giant tree, and since the Hatsuyuki Shrine did not enshrine any other deities, there was no need to set up a main hall to house the deity's body.

The cherry blossom tree, like the worship hall and the shrine maiden's house, is surrounded by a redwood fence called "Tamagaki".

That was to separate the abode of the gods from the mortal world, ensuring the purity of the divine realm.

As priestesses serving the gods, shrine maidens were naturally permitted to live in the gods' dwelling place.

Specifically, at the Hatsuyuki Shrine, Sakura Yuki Chiai even lived day and night by the side of the Sakura Goddess. Everything she did at home was gently watched over by Hatsuyuki.

Thinking about this, Yixing felt a warmth in his heart.

Sakura Yuki Chiai must be a pure-hearted and good child.

If it were someone like him or Erina, they would probably be disliked by Hatsuyuki very quickly—as a shrine maiden, they are indulging in all sorts of nonsense every day!

Even God would probably be too ashamed to look at it.

The three of them walked to the front of the worship hall.

Since we're already here, we should naturally pay our respects to the Sakura Goddess.

He looked around but didn't find any special notices or reminders. This meant that the worship methods here were no different from those at other shrines.

First, bow slightly towards the front of the hall.

Then, ring the bell used for prayers, which is hung in front of the temple by a rope, so that Lady Sakura knows that you have arrived.

Next, put incense money into the donation box.

Most people throw in five yen, because that's considered very lucky.

However, in order to support the operation of Hatsuyuki Shrine, Yoshiyuki opened his wallet, took out three 500-yen coins, and handed the other two to Hime and Erina.

He knew that Xiao Ji had no money.

As for the young lady, she probably doesn't have such small denominations of money on her; she only has a stack of ten-thousand-yuan bills and bank cards.

He should remind Erina to bring extra small-denomination coins to school, otherwise it would cause trouble for the shopkeepers and cafeteria staff.

There was no need to toss the coins one by one. So the three of them tossed their coins in almost simultaneously.

After that, the formal worship ceremony began.

There's a mnemonic for the worship ceremony: "Two bows, two claps, one bow."

That is, bow twice, clap twice, and pray with hands clasped together.

The difference between this and going to a temple to pray for blessings is that you don't need to clap your hands at a temple. You can simply put your palms together in prayer.

Yi Xing didn't know what wishes the young lady and Xiao Ji had made.

But his wish was very simple—he just hoped that these happy days could last forever.

With that, he would ask for nothing more.

Of course, he also made a rather embarrassing wish, hoping that Lady Sakura wouldn't mind and would consider helping him fulfill it if she had the ability.

That is, to hope to be trampled and humiliated by the young lady's tiny feet every day.

If that's the case, then he truly lives in heaven.

Of course, after making this wish, Yixing felt a little regretful.

After all, if Lady First Snow finds it too disgusting, it would be terrible not to grant his wish.

Fortunately, the legendary Sakura Goddess Hatsuyuki is said to be very gentle and kind.

So even if his wish doesn't come true, at least he won't be cursed.

Yi Xing was filled with unease as he thought about these things. After the worship ceremony ended, he bowed slightly to express his gratitude according to custom, and then left the worship hall.

He looked up at the cherry blossom tree, its canopy covered in pink cherry blossoms that seemed to blot out the sky, took a deep breath, and felt the sweet, refreshing fragrance of the blossoms.

Cherry blossoms fall from time to time.

One of the pieces swayed gently and fell right in front of Yixing.

He reached out to block it, but in the next instant, he saw Xiao Ji looking up as if eating snowflakes, letting cherry blossoms fall naturally into her mouth. Then she lowered her head and chewed them in small bites.

The young lady, however, appeared in front of him with a smile, blocking his view of Xiao Ji.

"Hmph~ You wretched servant, did you make some lewd wish?"

"No way!" Yixing said calmly, lying without changing his expression, "It's just a very ordinary wish."

"Oh, really? It's just regular astringent stuff, right? Tell me about it!"

"Wishes won't come true if you say them out loud! And I already said it's not erotic!"

Since he hadn't seen Sakura Yukichiai yet, Yoshiyuki decided to wander around the shrine and check out the shrine office to see what they sold.

The first thing you see is the fortune-telling container.

The price for drawing a fortune slip here is very cheap, only 100 yen per draw. However, you can only draw one slip per day. Drawing a second slip is considered insincere and will be inaccurate.

After putting the money into the donation box, take out a folded white paper slip, unfold it, and you will see the slip written in black characters.

The divination slips are divided into five types: very auspicious, moderately auspicious, slightly auspicious, inauspicious, and very inauspicious.

It will also include an analysis of your fortune and suggestions on what you should pay attention to.

On a wall near the commune office, many thin ropes were hanging. Numerous knotted paper tags were tied to them.

Those fortune slips were all ominous or extremely ominous.

According to custom, if you draw a bad fortune slip, you can take it with you as a warning, or you can leave it at the shrine and tie it to the designated spot for tying fortune slips, hoping the gods will protect you from misfortune. There is no extra charge for this.

If the shrine you're visiting doesn't have a place to tie a fortune slip, you can take it to another shrine. You can keep it for a while before doing so. However, please note that if you choose to take the fortune slip to another shrine to ward off misfortune, you need to inform the deity enshrined at that shrine to draw their attention.

The term "He" is a third-person pronoun specifically used for deities. It is gender-neutral. It is suitable when you don't know which deity you are praying to, or when you are unsure of His/Her gender.

In any case, if you draw a good lot, there's no reason to stay here; you have to take it with you.

Because the auspicious fortune slip is so rare and drawing it is considered very lucky, it can even be made into a talisman and carried on one's person in the hope that good fortune will come quickly.