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"It's very beautiful." Shirakawa Haru shifted his gaze and secretly looked at Hachiman Kailing's face.

He thought that he was not only attracted by the pure white pigeon, but also by Hachiman Kailing. Compared with the pigeon, Hachiman Kailing was even more attractive to him.

The Ferris wheel car they were in rose to its highest point. The thin glass windows flickered, and the melancholy sunset shone unscrupulously into the car, falling on Hachiman Kailing's face.

The setting sun released its last rays of sunlight, dyeing the profile of Hachiman Kailing a brilliant rose-red, bright red, beautiful, and radiant. She only left Shirakawa Haru with a profile.

Half of the glass window on Hachiman Kailing's side was filled with the blood-red sun, and the other half was filled with dusk. The crimson sunlight flickered in her pupils as the carriage moved.

"Here's this bouquet of flowers for you." Shirakawa Haru paused for a moment, then handed the bouquet aside to Hachiman Kailing.

"What is this? Shirakawa-kun, why did you send the bouquet back again?" Hachiman Kailing tilted her head.

Because she had leaned against the glass window just now, her bangs were a little messy. She subconsciously smoothed her hair in front of Shirakawa Haru, with a puzzled look in her eyes.

"After thinking for a while, I decided to give this bouquet of flowers to you," Shirakawa Haru said, "because... well, beautiful things should be matched with beautiful people. Right now, in my eyes, Miss Hachiman sitting on the Ferris wheel is very beautiful." He described it this way, "Besides, I bought this bouquet of flowers to give to you. I've already put the money in the basket."

Shirakawa Haru had experience in giving flowers to others in the past. When he was promoted from junior high school to high school, he gave flowers to the chairman of the board of directors. When he participated in social practice in a nursing home, he would occasionally buy flowers to give to the elderly.

But this was the first time in my life that I gave a girl a bouquet of flowers.

He thought anxiously, would he be rejected by Hachiman Kailing?

Actually, in his opinion, being rejected is not a big deal, but for some reason, he is a little concerned about his behavior this time. Oh, by the way, in the eyes of most boys, giving flowers to a girl and being rejected seems to be an embarrassing thing.

Although Shirakawa Haru didn't care about these things, he was still a man, and the social rules and codes of conduct had a certain degree of restraint on him. So, would he be rejected? He thought so.

"Shirakawa-kun gave me flowers on the Ferris wheel... is there some other meaning behind this?" Hachiman Kailing took the bouquet from Shirakawa Haru's hand and caressed the stamens with her fingertips. She didn't agree or refuse, just waited for Shirakawa Haru's answer. In fact, she didn't know what to do. She wanted to accept the bouquet, but her mind told her that this was inappropriate behavior.

Imagine a boy invites you to ride a Ferris wheel filled with couples, and then, when the Ferris wheel reaches its highest point, he gives you a bouquet of roses, delicate and fresh. Before that, he hugs you, holds your waist, and changes your shoes.

In this situation, Hachiman Kailing could no longer imagine what Shirakawa Haru wanted to express by giving her the bouquet of flowers. It was ambiguous, extremely ambiguous. Was he trying to confess his love to her, or was he trying to test her bottom line and her tolerance for his behavior?

She had to admit that she and Shirakawa Haru were a little too close.

But it doesn't look like it. Hachiman Kailing stared at Shirakawa Haru's face, just like Shirakawa Haru looked at her, she would also feel amazed and beautiful when looking at Shirakawa Haru at dusk.

She thought: Baichuan Qing's eyes have always been pure, I'm probably overthinking it.

"What other meaning is there?" Shirakawa Haru remained silent, then suddenly realized what Hachiman Kailing was referring to, "No, nothing. I just wanted to give you flowers."

"I'm sorry for causing misunderstanding, Miss Hailing." Shirakawa Haru immediately stretched out his hand, ready to take back the bouquet.

"Thank you, Shirakawa-kun." To Shirakawa Haru's surprise, Hachiman Kailing leaned back, holding the rose bouquet in both hands, lowering her head and letting her nose touch the flowers to gently sniff. The rose fragrance was not strong, but as fresh as dew. "I accept it."

"Yeah. I thought I was going to be rejected."

"No wonder Shirakawa-kun didn't want the Ferris wheel to fall apart," Hachiman Kailing said, "Did he keep his bad mood until now?"

She made a joke.

"Maybe it's because I feel a little happiness now." Shirakawa Haru said quietly.

So during the entire time the carriage was gradually lowering, Hachiman Kailing didn't say another word.

Chapter 141 Lenai and the Stray Cat

After taking the train back from Chiba Prefecture, Shirakawa Haru walked on the road for a while and finally returned to the vicinity of his home.

The lush ginkgo trees on both sides of the road swayed in the evening breeze.

The evening breeze was strong, and the ginkgo tree was tall. The velvety leaves shaken by the evening breeze fell on his head from time to time.

The bass box on Shirakawa Haru's back rose and fell slightly with his footsteps. He walked alone on the desolate and lonely streets of Tokyo. There was no one here except him.

He still hasn't figured out what the expression on Hachiman Kailing's face was as she leaned against the window and pressed against the glass as the Ferris wheel car gradually went down.

As the sun sets, the outlines of the mountains are completely clear, and the colors of the sky are deep and dark. Now is the blue hour. The twenty minutes after sunset is called the blue hour. This is the most beautiful moment of the day. When the sun is between minus four and minus six degrees below the horizon, the whole world will be dyed a mysterious blue.

It is certainly inappropriate to use the word "moment" to describe this period of time, but what Shirakawa Haru wants to say is that every minute and every second during this period of time is as beautiful as a whole century. If you have a camera, you can just take a picture of the undecorated and extremely beautiful scenery.

Time is not accurate in people's perception. Sometimes what you think is a lifetime is just the first second of eternity, and what you think is a moment is the journey of eternity from the beginning to the end.

In the first microsecond of eternity, Hachiman Kailing's calm, even arrogant, face was disturbed, and her face, holding the bouquet, was flushed. Was it a lingering glow in the sky, or was it the bouquet of roses that stained her face?

Was she remembering something shameful or feeling embarrassed?

Shirakawa Haru didn't know. He didn't know. Could she be blushing because he gave her flowers? He thought to himself that for him, seeing a girl like Hachiman Kairin who was a bit cold was very interesting, not to mention that the reason for her blushing could be directed at him.

He turned into a small alley, which was full of houses with gray and white walls, one after another, crisscrossing the street. There was a pavilion in front, which was very spacious.

The pavilion is surrounded by many plants, including oak, ginkgo, hazel and other kinds of flowers and plants. From the pavilion comes the sound of a piano with a faint and fresh fragrance of flowers.

Shirakawa Haru felt that the sound of the piano was somewhat familiar.

There was a cat's cry -

The piano trembled and then stopped. The cats' meows grew louder, gradually rising and falling. There were many cats. A strong wind blew, and the branches and leaves of the trees rustled noisily in the wind, bringing the vast night with them.

On the quiet path, a street lamp circles out a bright park, filled with the fragrance of old cypress trees.

"Qing." In the dim darkness illuminated by street lights, only one girl jumped out. She was wearing casual clothes and looked only fourteen years old. She had a pair of very toned long legs. In order to resist the cold, she wore a pair of almost transparent stockings with white sock covers on the outside. Her curves were very immature.

She was followed by many cats.

"Lena?" Shirakawa Haru was a little confused as to why Lena was here at this moment. Lena looked at Shirakawa Haru with burning eyes, her heterochromatic pupils like two glass beads, and her slender fingers brushed the strings of the guitar, causing a tremolo sound.

"Why are you here? I remember there was a band rehearsal at RING tonight, right?" Shirakawa Haru squatted down, and the cats that had come with Lenai meowed around him. He tried to pet them with his hands.

"If Haru isn't here, I don't really want to go to rehearsal. I attend band rehearsals every night for two reasons: one is that I want to play guitar, and the other is that I want to see Haru. I wouldn't be happy if I missed one of these two reasons." Lenai took Shirakawa Haru's hand and led him to the small pavilion in front. "Besides, everyone in the band has been a little absent-minded lately."

"Absent-minded?" A pure white cat jumped onto Shirakawa Haru's legs. He opened his eyes wide and saw that the cat's fur looked more like transparent silver under the light of the street lamp. He scratched the cat's chin and found that the cat's eye color was the same as Lenai's, blue on the left and yellow on the right.

"Its name is Yaoji." Lenai said, "Yaoji likes you very much."

"Lena, how do you know it likes me very much?" Shirakawa Haru touched Yaoji in his hand. Yaoji moved around on his thigh and gently bit his fingers.

"These cats are all my friends. I can understand cat language, not only can I understand it, but I can also speak it." Lenai placed the guitar on the stone table in the center of the pavilion. "It just said that your hands are very warm, much larger than mine, and it takes more strength to touch it. Kaname is a traitor. When Qing came, she refused to play with me and took Qing away."

"Do the other children have names? What are they called?" asked Shirakawa Haru.

"This is the big cat, this is the second cat, this is the fourth cat, the one with blue eyes is Lan Ji, the one with yellow eyes I call it Moon, there is one that is all black but has white feet, its name is Taxue, and that one... that one is just..." Lenai pointed at the cats and told Shirakawa Haru the names of those cats one by one.

"What's the name of the cat that's all black with white feet?" asked Shirakawa Haru.

"I think it's called Ta... Yue?" Le Nai thought hard, then shook her head. "I can't remember. Naming is a very troublesome thing. Except for Yaoji, the names are all the ones I just came up with."

As expected of Lenna, Shirakawa Haru thought. These cats must be her friends, right? It was the first time he'd seen someone go to such lengths to name their friends. But it was perfectly in keeping with Lenna's personality; after all, she was the type to do whatever she pleased.

A quirky cat girl.

Just like the cat in his arms. Shirakawa Haru lowered his head, carefully examining the cat in his arms. It was probably a Turkish Angora, with a wedge-shaped face and long limbs, just like Lenai. Its large, almond-shaped eyes were watery and lustrous, beautiful and moist. Its white fur was soft, a testament to the purest Angora bloodline.

"Just now, when you told me the names of the cats, Lenai, why did Two Meow suddenly become Four Meow? What about Three Meow?" Shirakawa Haru thought of this question for some reason.

"Three meows." Lenai lowered his eyes. "It was there, but then it disappeared. I looked for it for a long time, but couldn't find it."

I said the wrong thing. When the wind blew away the long hair covering her eyes from Lena's forehead, Shirakawa Haru thought, there is no doubt that Lena is now in sadness, because he has seen this look before. When he was reading a book when he was bored, he had this scene:

The girl ran frantically as the bus slowly pulled away, a long-distance bus heading south. Her beige dress, the hem swaying as she ran, evoked the swagger of a fish. Breathlessly, she waved fiercely at a man on the bus, her cheeks flushed, her thin, slightly parted lips a vibrant crimson. The man waved back at her, but without asking the driver to stop, he got out.

It was a farewell without a word. The next time they met was unpredictable; it would be many days from now. She worried about the future.

Her eyes followed him closely, her hands raised high, until she covered her face. He also turned sideways, waving out the window until he was out of sight. That pitiful gaze had also passed by your window. Though it had no intention of lingering, it had left a deep mark in your heart - it shouldn't be like this, shouldn't make such a beautiful girl sad. It felt like you had been through it together, as if you had a responsibility to her.

"Lena, can you tell me about this?" Shirakawa Haru stood up from his seat and sat on the other side of Lenai. He wanted to touch Lenai's head with his left hand, but that hand had just touched the cat. "I'm sorry for making you recall these bad things."

He reached out to stroke the top of Le Nai's head. Le Nai was willing to be touched on the head by Shirakawa Haru, so she obediently lowered her head, gently leaned against Shirakawa Haru, and lay on her back. The white kitten with mandarin duck eyes was driven away by Le Nai and meowed innocently a few times, but Le Nai did not speak to it. Instead, she picked it up by the neck and put it on the ground.

"These cats are all strays." This topic was sad, like frost soaked in the full moon. Then Lenai hugged her guitar and gently stroked the strings. "Before I met Qing, I would carry my guitar and speakers everywhere. On the road, in pure days and summer days, I met these cats. I was wandering, and these cats were wandering too. I bought them cat food and some canned food, and they would stick to me and follow me."

Yaoji was pinned down by the guitar, and in dissatisfaction, he jumped off Lenai's body, ran into the darkness, and squatted down somewhere.

"There are a lot of cats here, and except for Yaoji, Taxue, and Yueliang, they're all from the same family, which is why I call them 'Big Cat' and 'Second Cat.' One day, maybe it was raining, or a typhoon, or a night so hot it could kill ants, I don't know, but the weather was bad. I went to the grove to look for them, and suddenly I realized one of the cats was missing," Lenai said. "It was Third Cat. He was gone, the smallest of the family."

"That day, the cats refused to eat the cat food and sausages I brought them. They just circled around me. Suddenly, I couldn't understand what they were saying. I felt something bad was going to happen, and the three cats would never come back."

Shirakawa Haru didn't know what to say now. He had said the wrong thing. He shouldn't have asked this question. This was indeed a very sad story. His friend was gone, and Lenna must be very sad.

"If I didn't tell you something, the cats would think I forgot it. I haven't forgotten anything, but some things are only suitable for collection. I can't say them, I can't think about them, but I can't forget them." Lenai's voice was very light, but not airy, rather heavy.

Lenai began to give an impromptu praise, saying that anyone who loves music is a genius in expressing emotions. A few notes, a few repetitive paragraphs, very simple things, can form an old typewriter. White paper goes in, and out comes a sad poem full of ink spots.

"So, Lenai, have you thought about one thing?" Shirakawa Haru asked, "What should Yoji and the others do next? Spring and summer are relatively gentle seasons. Under normal circumstances, as long as they don't encounter extreme weather, Yoji and the others can survive even without your help... But what about autumn and winter?"

It was cruel, but Shirakawa Haru had to bring this to Lenai's attention. If these cats, including the strong Kaname, didn't have a safe place to live, they would most likely not survive this winter.

Even if they don't freeze to death or starve to death, they will probably be beaten to death while stealing food or rummaging through trash cans, or die from eating something poisonous.

When Baichuan Qing said this, he saw Lenai's body tremble obviously, and the sound of the piano stopped. Lenai squirmed on Baichuan Qing's thigh, her head hanging in the air, her crystal silver hair hanging down like stardust, and she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I haven't thought that far yet..."

"Don't look at me like that, I can't stand it," Shirakawa Haru said, shielding Kaname Lenai's eyes with his hand. Lenai put down her guitar, grasped Shirakawa Haru's hand, and gently pressed it against her face. She blinked, her long eyelashes sliding against his palm. Like the sound of a flowing spring, her palm and eyelashes warmed simultaneously.

"When I'm free, I'll take Yaoji and the others to the pet hospital for a physical check-up," said Baichuan Qing. "We have to find a way to find them a home." Hearing someone calling it, Yaoji ran over from the darkness, and Baichuan Qing touched its wet nose.

"Can't they stay with me?" Lenai said seriously, "I can feed them. They've been with me for a long time, and I've fed them for a long time. I want to adopt them."

"How often does Lenae feed them?" asked Shirakawa Haru. He removed his hand that was covering Lenae's eyes. Just as Lenae was looking at him seriously, he also looked at Lenae seriously.

"Once a day." Le Nai thought for a moment and said, looking into Shirakawa Haru's eyes and realizing there was nothing in them, she knew she couldn't hide anything from him. "I'll try to feed Kaname and the others once a day. If I make money playing guitar, I'll buy them sausages."

"It's not enough, it's not enough." Shirakawa Haru helped Lenai up. Lenai didn't seem to mind ending her body with him, so he didn't care too much.

This is a very serious topic, and it is not okay to talk about it in the state they just spoke.

responsibility.

Because once it comes to responsibility, whether it is as big as the world and the country, or as small as the relationship between family and friends, even if it is just adopting stray cats and dogs, everything will become very serious.

The only thing that needs to be taken seriously is death, but Baichuan Qing wants to say that no, responsibility also needs to be taken seriously, and even more so than death, because once you die, you will turn into air and disappear, in a few days at the shortest, or a dozen or hundreds of years at the longest, and everything you leave behind will eventually dissipate.

But responsibility is not like that. Responsibility is something that will pursue you even after death. In its eyes, death is not the end, but the beginning of another responsibility. It connects the world before and after death, just like a spider weaves fine threads into a web.

"Lena, you can't be so selfish." Shirakawa Haru stood up, stood opposite Lena, then half-knelt down and stared into her eyes, "Since you want to take in the stray Kaname and the others, you must fulfill your responsibilities."

You adopted these cats, and in their eyes, you are their parent. One of them is only 1.5 meters tall, and Shirakawa Haru doesn't even know if he has any adult parents.

"Responsibility..." Le Na looked at Kaname uncomfortably.

The beautiful Angora cat jumped into her lap and lay down, purring coquettishly.

"Right, responsibility." Baichuan Qing called out. In the darkness, another cat walked out, dark clouds stepping on the snow. He touched the snow's belly, "Lena, do you know where these cats usually live?"

"Sometimes they live in the woods. There's an alley behind RING, and they hide there for a few days. There's also the school playground, and..." The more he spoke, the more obviously Lenai's expression changed.

"Lena, you thought you took them in, but to be honest, they are still stray cats."

Chapter 142: Duet: Blond Passerby

"Lena's parents wouldn't let her wander around. No matter where she goes or where she comes back from, there will always be a place for her in the family. From the moment she was born, they've been preparing for her life, buying her clothes and milk powder. They felt bad when she was sick. When you played guitar for the first time, were they so happy that they took a picture of her and kept it safe?"

Shirakawa Haru spoke quietly. In his eyes, Lenai was a very smart child with a unique worldview. As long as he said a few words, Lenai could figure out many things.

Understanding responsibility isn't difficult at all. Responsibility permeates our lives. Whether you realize it or not, it's always there. When you're facing it, you can see it; when you're facing away, it's your shadow.

"What about meals a day? Does Lenai's family prepare sumptuous meals for you every day?" Shirakawa Haru asked. "Even though Lenai always cries for matcha parfaits, your family actually calls you home for dinner every day, right?"

"Yeah." Le Nai nodded. "It's very rich. Grandma said I should eat more and try to grow taller than dad."

"So Lenai should treat Yaoji and the others in the same way. She should prepare a place for them to live so that they won't get wet when it rains and won't get cold when it snows. They also need stable meals. They don't have to eat three times a day. One feed a day is fine. The important thing is stability," said Shirakawa Haru.

He raised his eyes and looked at Lenai. Lenai said nothing, but lowered his head, thinking alone.

"I'll go back and ask grandma if I can take Yaoji and the others in."

"What is Lenai going to do if your grandma says no?"

How to do?

Yao Lenai looked at Yao Ji and the Da Miao family with an incredible expression.

She never seemed to think that her grandmother would refuse her request. In her opinion, apart from Shirakawa Haru, her grandmother was the person who loved her most in the world.

Her grandmother would prepare whatever she wanted.

Shirakawa Haru dotes on me even more than my grandmother does. He seems to agree to any unreasonable request I make, and this is the most important reason why I like him.

What should I do if grandma doesn't let me keep them? Should I ask Shirakawa Haru for help?

What if I get rejected? Will Qing help me?

Go back and ask grandma first.