A reversal of fortune and victory in a world hated by all girls!

Sakurajima's hand remained in front of him.

Aoi looked up, and Sakurajima stepped forward, gently poking his heart with her right index finger. Her gaze fixed on him, she said in a low voice, "If... ever one day you feel even the slightest bit of attraction towards me, you must tell me. I want..."

She slowly raised her gaze, meeting his eyes.

"I will definitely be very happy."

After saying that, Sakurajima An immediately looked away, turned around and walked into the dining room. Aoi Natsuki was still standing there dumbfounded, thinking about what had just happened. For some reason, he had heard a lot of complicated emotions in Sakurajima's tone. Sakurajima wanted to express something, but she couldn't say it out loud.

"..."

After a long silence, Aoi Natsuki let out a long sigh, stopped thinking about it, and walked through the door.

As soon as I took my first step inside, I heard Sakurajima's voice again.

"Wow! Is this what Aoi looked like at five years old? So cute~"

Ok?

"Dad! What are you doing?!"

……

The fifth day of the holiday.

Aoi Natsuki will continue to implement the plan to improve Hayakawa's special skills. Sakurajima mentioned finding a new fishing spot, and after asking around last night, it turns out there really is such a place. It's a good day off, so she can spend another day there.

Early in the morning, the sun was shining brightly and fluffy white clouds hung in the sky. Although it was a little chilly, it was no longer as cold as before.

Wrap a scarf around Lina's neck and get ready to leave.

"Are you ready?"

"Awoo!"

Lina's signature move: giving a thumbs-up in approval.

He smoothed her hair, then packed the necessary items according to the information Sakurajima had sent him. Sakurajima would take care of the equipment; he only needed to focus on the cooking afterwards.

With a large bag on their backs and Lina holding their left hand, the two finally stepped out of the door they hadn't left for two days. They liked to stay at home whenever they were on vacation, especially in winter, when they had underfloor heating and didn't want to go out at all.

Stepping out of the front door, both Natsuki Aoi and Rina took a deep breath of the cold air and shivered in unison.

"Awoo~"

Lina waved goodbye to Ji-chan.

The two then went to the meeting place with Sakurajima, where they met Hayakawa, who had arrived earlier. After waiting for ten minutes, Sakurajima Anne arrived, and the four of them boarded a bus and began to slowly drive towards the outskirts of Tokyo.

Well, it's a good experience for kids to see the sea.

Spending all day in front of tall buildings can negatively impact one's mental state.

We should relax more often and enjoy life when we can.

After driving for four and a half hours, Lina was so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open. She leaned on Natsuki's arm and dozed off. Natsuki's enthusiasm also cooled down. When he looked out the window again, he saw a completely different scene.

It is the sea.

It was a truly boundless sea.

He opened a quarter of the window, and a sea breeze blew in, directly waking Lina from her drowsy state. Her hair was blown into disarray, revealing her large forehead.

She slowly got up and, upon seeing the vast ocean outside, immediately let out a gasp.

The noise was so loud that the other tourists on the bus started laughing.

Aoi Natsuki felt awkward. The bus was full of elderly men and women, dressed very simply. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that several of the men had fish buckets next to their feet, suggesting they were also on their way to fish.

Keiko Hayakawa gazed wistfully out the window. She vaguely remembered that this was the scene in the countryside when she was a child. Many of the houses here were guesthouses, which looked particularly nostalgic.

At 11:00 a.m., the group got off the bus.

But the scene after getting off the bus left Aoi Natsuki completely bewildered. Wasn't she here to fish? This place was more than a kilometer away from the sea.

"Sakurajima, did you get off at the wrong address?"

No, this is the place.

"But there's no sea here, how can we fish?"

Did I say I came here to fish?

"Ok?"

Sakurajima Anne slung her backpack over her shoulder, unzipped it, and took out a small shovel.

He smiled and said to everyone:

"Let's go beachcombing together today."

Chapter 122 Today was a fruitful day

"Beachcombing..."

Aoi Natsuki vaguely remembered this term; she thought it was something like...

The scene shifts, and the group changes into special beachcombing clothes, with black tall rain boots on their feet. Each person is given a plastic bucket containing a small shovel and pliers.

Just as expected, it was exactly the same as what she saw on TV. Aoi Natsuki's eyebrows twitched involuntarily, and her gaze subconsciously turned to Hayakawa, hoping that she wouldn't be averse to this place. If she lost favor because of this, it would be too much of a loss.

Surprisingly, Hayakawa showed no discomfort whatsoever. Instead, his eyes revealed a deep longing as he gazed at the receding mudflats before him.

"Hayakawa, do you mind being here?" Aoi Natsuki asked cautiously.

“I don’t mind at all.” Hayakawa looked over, immediately shook his head, and smiled. “When I was in the countryside, my home was near the sea. Although my elders didn’t let me go near the sea because I was young, my grandfather would often take advantage of the time to go beachcombing and bring back all sorts of things. It was so nice to be able to try it out myself.”

"Hmm...that's great." Aoi Natsuki nodded in agreement, relieved. She looked up at Sakurajima Anne, who had already walked more than ten meters away. She was just as excited as Hayakawa, sometimes spinning around and sometimes backing away to urge them to move forward.

Lina kept her eyes on her feet, leaving a footprint on the mudflats with each step, exclaiming in surprise. Sometimes she went fast, sometimes slow, having a great time.

"Alright, let's leave it here. Let's dig up some interesting things!"

Sakurajima Anne took a small shovel out of the plastic bucket and said to the group with a smile.

"Awoo!" Lina cheered, raising her little shovel high. However, the shovel in Lina's hand was thoughtfully replaced with a plastic children's version to avoid injury.

Then the group began the "treasure hunt".

Aoi Natsuki scanned the ground, but saw nothing. Could it be that someone had already looted everything beforehand?

“Aoi, you won’t find it by searching like that. You have to bend down and look carefully. Different soil types will have different ways of hiding. Hmm… Look here, isn’t the sand slightly raised and has wavy layers on the surface? That means it’s just starting to lie in the sand. I guess there’s a clam hiding underneath.” Sakurajima An said carefully beside him. Just like during the last dance practice, Sakurajima’s attitude became very serious whenever she mentioned key points.

"Really?" Aoi Natsuki squatted down and dug around in that spot with a shovel. Sure enough, she felt something hard underneath. When she dug it open, it turned out to be a clam.

"Congratulations, you've struck gold!" Sakurajima Anne said with a smile, her hands clasped together.

"But... it's so small." Aoi Natsuki held the clam above her head; its diameter was probably less than two centimeters.

"That's normal, keep looking slowly."

After finishing her sentence, Anne Sakurajima began searching on her own.

Meanwhile, Hayakawa was near the relatively damp land, and based on her grandfather's old theoretical knowledge, she knew that good stuff would definitely come from there! She really hoped to dig up some big crabs or other good stuff.

But it's definitely not that simple.

"Awoo!" Lina's voice suddenly came from behind.

Hayakawa looked back and saw that Rina was also behind her, and at the same time, half of her feet were already stuck in the mud.

Upon seeing this, Hayakawa was immediately frightened, his face changed, and he shouted loudly for the other two to help.

Hearing the sound, Aoi Natsuki and Sakurajima Anne straightened their backs and craned their necks to look in their direction.

"Lily, Lily's foot is stuck!"

"!" Aoi Natsuki was startled. She immediately recalled the news reports of people getting stuck in swamps. So beachcombing was such a dangerous thing!

"Don't be so nervous, it's okay." Sakurajima Anne acted calmly, tossing the clams she had dug up into the plastic bucket, and then slowly walked to Rina's side.

Seeing that Lina was struggling to stretch her legs out despite using all her strength, her little face turned red.

Keiko Hayakawa cast a worried glance at her.

Sakurajima Anne looked down at Rina, then put the plastic bucket on the ground, freeing her hands to reach under Rina's armpits. With a gentle lift, Rina was successfully freed, but her two rain boots remained in the mud.

He handed Rina to Aoi, then pulled the rain boots out of the dirt and placed them on the ground.

"Don't panic if something happens. You won't sink into places like this. If it really goes above your feet and you can't pull it out, just give up on your boots. These are basic common sense," Sakurajima An said calmly.

Hayakawa blushed slightly. Indeed, when she saw that something had happened to Rina, she immediately panicked and couldn't even think of a simple solution like having her take off her rain boots...

"Thank you," Aoi Natsuki said, then glared at Rina. "From now on, stay right behind me, understand?"

“Hmm…” Lina lowered her head and agreed.

They then put her rain boots back on, and the group continued digging for the seafood stranded on the mudflats.

About twenty minutes later, Aoi Natsuki had dug up quite a few things, but most of them were clams. Was today some special day? There were so many shellfish. He had heard before that some anglers were very knowledgeable about the changing seasons and could use this knowledge to catch different kinds of seafood. So, did Sakurajima Anne bring them here specifically today?

“Here,” Sakurajima An pointed to the ground, “you can see many unevenly arranged holes here. These holes often hide some razor clams. In order to protect themselves and burrow into the soil, these holes are their crawling entrances. Over time, they will be covered up, but you can still see them clearly now.”

After finishing her sentence, Anne Sakurajima squatted down, picked up a shovel, scraped off the surface layer of soil, took out a bag of salt from a plastic bag, and called the other two over.

Lina, carrying a small shovel, came running over with wide, curious eyes. She was covered in mud, but she had a lot of fun today.

"I'll show you a magic trick."

Sakurajima An then opened the salt package and sprinkled it evenly into the inconspicuous holes. After waiting quietly for seven or eight seconds, she repeated sprinkling salt and waiting again.

This time, a magical scene finally unfolded.

One by one, razor clams suddenly poked their heads out of the ground, as if they had planned it in advance. There were about seven or eight of them in total, with half of their bodies showing on the ground.

Lina covered her mouth, utterly astonished.

Aoi Natsuki was also surprised, and then helped Sakurajima pull out the razor clams and put them into the plastic bucket.

"How interesting," he muttered to himself.

I learned some pretty good things about beachcombing today, so it was a worthwhile trip. Also, it would be even better if I could use this opportunity to improve my skills in Hayakawa.

Hayakawa got the hang of it quickly, and after an hour, she had dug up even more than Sakurajima. The four of them had a very fruitful harvest.

Having been bent over for so long, her back was starting to ache. At this point, Anne Sakurajima announced a change of location, saying they would take a special bus to the next stop.