I am only one world away from Yukinoshita.

Kiyoshi could recall that they were two girls the same age as Asuka, and could remember their clothes, but could not recall their faces.

"Kiyoshi?" Touko reached out and touched her daughter's face. "Would you like some water?"

"Thank you for your trouble, Mom..." Qinglai said in a hoarse voice.

"It's not troublesome at all."

Yuanzi placed the prepared straw into the water that had been adjusted to the correct temperature and fed it to Qinglai's lips. "Is there anything else that's bothering you?"

Kiyoshi shook her head. After regaining consciousness, she no longer felt any discomfort.

Am I sick?

“No, the doctor said you might have been too tired lately,” Yuanzi said, with a brown paper bag next to her. “The doctor did a brain CT scan and an echocardiogram for you, and there were no problems.”

Qinglai nodded.

"If you're still worried, we can have you hospitalized for another check-up, including your blood vessels and such."

Yuanzi didn't know much about medicine; she only vaguely remembered what the doctor had said.

“No need, I’m not old enough to have arteriosclerosis,” Qinglai smiled easily. “Besides, my check-up two years ago was very healthy.”

“Hmm…” Touko seemed convinced. “Then let’s go home. Your mother has made dinner and is waiting for us at home.”

Is the food that person made edible...?

Touko, who saw right through Kiyori's thoughts, pinched her nose with her hand. "She just doesn't do it very often."

As Qinglai sat in the passenger seat after leaving the hospital, he noticed a gift bag placed at his feet. "A chestnut bag from Xinfutang?"

"What's wrong? Why did you suddenly decide to buy this to eat?"

“It’s not for taking home, it’s a thank-you gift for Asuka’s mom,” Touko glanced at the bag in Kiyori’s hand. “Since we happened to run into Asuka’s mom who was doing some errands nearby, she took you to the hospital. Remember to take the gift over later and thank her properly.”

“Okay, sure.” Kiyoshi nodded.

I'll also go check out Asuka...

"Speaking of which, where's Asuka? Has she gone home yet?"

"Isn't it a bit late to ask now?"

Kiyoshi gave an awkward smile.

"As for Asuka, she went home with your aunt when your mother Carol and I arrived. You can go and let her know you're safe later."

Qinglai nodded hurriedly.

Everything my mother says is right.

As soon as he got home, Kiyoyori carried the chestnut bag and headed to Asuka's house.

Although the two families were neighbors, the Tanaka residence was so large that there was enough space between them for another house. Kiyoyori waved his hand to chase away the annoying summer insects, and as he walked further, he could vaguely see the lights from Asuka's house.

"Are you trying to drive me crazy?!"

A woman's hysterical roar suddenly echoed on the quiet road.

No one answered.

"You're going to drive me crazy!"

That's Aunt Aso's voice.

Is it...

Kiyoshi rushed to the door and pushed it hard, but unsurprisingly it was locked. She rang the doorbell repeatedly, but there was no response from inside. Looking around, apart from a dilapidated bicycle that looked like it had been abandoned, there seemed to be no other tools, and the wall was about twice her height.

Without a second thought, Qinglai moved his bicycle to the wall and roughly assessed the possibility of using it to jump over the wall.

"call--!"

Qinglai took several steps back, jumped up as if to encourage himself, and then rushed towards the bicycle in one go, jumped up, and stepped onto the bicycle seat.

"Ugh!"

Using the bicycle frame as a fulcrum wasn't quite enough, but Kiyoshi managed to grab the eaves with his fingers without any serious injury. Due to gravity, his arm was suddenly pulled, and Kiyoshi immediately knew that he must have strained his arm muscles.

"hiss……"

I am grateful to Yuanzi's mother for encouraging her to exercise since she was a child.

Kiyoyori struggled to pull himself up the wall, and his arms began to tremble uncontrollably the moment they gave way. Without any more time to hesitate, Kiyoyori jumped off the wall and into the bushes in the Tanaka family's garden. Then, disregarding his disheveled appearance, he scrambled and crawled straight into the house.

Tanaka-tachi is a traditional Japanese-style bungalow, with the rooms separated from the outside world only by a sliding door.

"Asuka!"

Asuka's room door was wide open, and Asuka, kneeling on the tatami, was motionless, bearing the brunt of her mother's anger.

Without a second thought, Kiyoshi pounced on Asuka and pinned her down, pressing her head into his chest.

The broom-beating began as expected.

Chapter 40 We Go Home

"Well--!"

The broom handle struck his back mercilessly, and Kiyoshi groaned, instinctively hugging Asuka tighter in his arms.

Asuka seemed terrified. She never expected someone to suddenly rush in, let alone that it was Kiyoshi, who had been hospitalized not long ago. The person in front of her was pressing down on her, and the child, who was not even as tall as her, used his thin body to create a protective umbrella. Kiyoshi's gasps reached Asuka's ears before she came back to her senses.

But Tanaka Aso, blinded by rage, seemed completely oblivious to the extra person in the room. She was like a soulless woman, staring blankly at Asuka, then mechanically waving her arms, tears streaming down her face, striking everyone's hearts.

"Kiyo-!"

Asuka cried out Kiyori's name in a panic, desperately trying to break free from Kiyori's grasp. Without thinking, she reached out her hands to hold Kiyori's back, wanting to protect her, but Kiyori frantically tried to grab her hands back.

"Are you crazy? You don't want to play the basso contralto anymore—ah!"

Provoked by the words "low bass," Tanaka Aso slammed his fist into Kiyoyori's back, making her dizzy.

"stop it now!"

Asuka struggled beneath Kiyori, crying out in a sob:

"Stop it, Mom!"

Puzzled back to her senses by her daughter's heart-wrenching cries, Tanaka Aso finally saw the situation clearly. Her hands trembled, and the broom rolled out of her hands.

"Little Qinglai...?"

Tanaka Aso knelt on the ground, trying to use his trembling hands to check on Kiyori, who was in so much pain he couldn't speak, but Asuka glared at him fiercely.

"Don't touch her!"

Asuka hugged Kiyori's limp body and backed away, tears streaming down her face, yet she still looked at her mother with a stubborn gaze.

Tanaka Aso painfully withdrew her hand. "I'm sorry, Asuka... I'm sorry, Mom didn't mean it... I'm sorry..."

Asuka's face was red and swollen on one side, and her usual red glasses had fallen to the corner of the room. She couldn't see her mother's face clearly, nor did she want to see her self-reproachful and painful expression. "Please go out first, Mom. I will take Kiyoyori home."

Tanaka Aso walked towards the door, looking utterly dejected.

"Mom doesn't need to wait for me to come home tonight. I'll stay at Qinglai's house."

Tanaka Aso paused in his departing figure, his trembling lips only able to utter a pale apology, "I'm sorry..."

Asuka didn't answer again, but simply hugged the person in her arms tighter.

She could understand her mother's opposition to her learning the euphonium, and she could tolerate her mother's beatings and scoldings whenever she had a mental breakdown. But this time, she could not forgive her mother for treating Qinglai like this, nor could she forgive herself for hurting Qinglai.

"Don't cry..." a soft whisper came from beside my ear, "This is so unlike you."

Asuka sniffed, wanting to give this brat who dared to come up to her and protect her without any sense of propriety, but she also felt sorry for her because she had suffered so much today. Afraid that her hands, which had nowhere to go, would touch Kiyoyori's back injury, she could only let them hang limply at her sides.

"Weren't you in the hospital? Are you trying to go back now that you've run out here?!"

“It’s nothing,” Kiyoyori slowly straightened up from Asuka, his face contorted in a grimace. “The last blow was particularly painful, but since it hit my shoulder blade, it should only be a minor cut.”

Kiyoshi felt his shoulders go numb.

But as she straightened up, something fell out of her clothes.

"what is this?"

It looked like some kind of food, but the plastic packaging was almost completely torn apart, and the contents inside were smashed to pieces, with fragments falling out of the leaking packaging.

"The chestnut buns were originally intended for Aunt Aso..."

Kiyoshi looked awkwardly at the chestnut bag that was covered in crumbs. It was almost unrecognizable as it was. Even the outer box had many marks on it, the corners were torn, and the supporting parts were basically broken.

This is what Qinglai stuffed into her clothes as she ran. She guessed that Aunt Aso might lose control again, so she used this as a precaution.

She thought she should take back what she had just said; Kiyora simply couldn't imagine the consequences of those blows landing directly on someone.

Asuka's eyes were red, and she only slowly let out a sigh of relief when she saw the chestnut bread crumbs all over the floor. Then, still angry, she pounced on Kiyoyori's chest and punched him lightly. "You're so clever! You asked me if I wanted to play, but you didn't think about yourself!"

Asuka is destined not to pursue a professional career, while Kiyori is destined to.

Asuka couldn't imagine the day when Kiyoyori would be unable to play the oboe; it would be a nightmare for her.

Kiyotomi chuckled awkwardly, instinctively reaching to scratch his hair, but accidentally pulling on the spot where he had just been hit. "Ouch!"

"Let me see." Asuka's expression changed, and she worriedly pulled open the collar of Kiyoyori's short-sleeved shirt. She saw a bluish-purple patch appearing on Kiyoyori's shoulder, viciously eroding his normal skin color. A large lump had swollen up on his once flat and firm shoulder and back.

"Does it hurt?"

Asuka gently blew on Kiyoshi's bruises, just like when Kiyoshi was a child and got hurt because he was naughty, but he didn't dare tell his mother, so he came to Asuka and asked her to "blow on" them for him.

The warm breath made Kiyoshi shrink back uncomfortably, and she also noticed the redness and swelling on Asuka's face.

"It hurts, it hurts so much!" Kiyoshi gently touched Asuka's swollen face, making her turn her head slightly, and complained with heartache.

"I'll go back with you, wait for me."

Asuka stood up, picked up her glasses and put them on her nose, then took out a small backpack and filled it with her clothes. Kiyora looked at the mess on the floor with embarrassment, "What... should we do with all this?"

"That's fine, that person will come and clean it up."

That person...

Kiyoshi opened his mouth, but swallowed back all the words that were about to come out. After a while, when everything around him quieted down, Kiyoshi realized that his arms were burning with pain. When he raised his hands, he saw that the ulnar side of both arms was scraped raw, and there was oozing fluid and blood. Not seeing any tissues nearby, Kiyoshi had no choice but to press his clothes against the bleeding areas.

A sharp pain came.