Stardew Valley of Gensokyo

"What?" Akina Ze was also a little confused.

"It's alright, the porridge does taste much better with added sugar, but one bowl isn't enough, I want another one." Reimu Hakurei picked up the empty bowl and handed it to Zeya Akina.

"Isn't it a bit much to eat so much in the morning?" Akina Ze also advised.

It's not advisable to eat a lot in the early morning, and Akina Ze felt that as a chef, he should give some advice.

"I don't care, just bring it here. Here you go."

Reimu Hakurei pried open Zeya Akina's fingers, forced the bowl inside, and then sat back down in her original spot.

"Alright, alright, is this porridge really that delicious...?" Akina Ze, somewhat speechless, went back to the kitchen.

After Akina Sawa also left, Reimu Hakurei collapsed completely.

"Hmm...that's my treasured white sugar! How many days' worth of money would it take me to put in my cash box to buy that!"

The Hakurei Shrine was already struggling financially, and Reimu had to scrimp and save for many days to get that little bit of sweetness.

Now we can only hope he didn't use too much white sugar...

After quickly composing herself, Reimu Hakurei sat up again.

"Mmm~ I smell something delicious, is there something tasty?"

At that moment, Suika's voice came. She groped her way up from the floor, her eyes blurry, clearly still in a daze.

"No, you're still dreaming. Lie down, lie down!"

"It was Reimu Hakurei speaking softly from the side."

"Hmm? But I think I smell something, it's a sweet smell!"

Rubbing her eyes, Suika Ibuki sniffed the air.

Seeing that Suika seemed to be waking up, Reimu Hakurei pulled out an exorcism stick from somewhere and hit Suika on the back of the head.

In an instant, Suika Ibuki fell into a sweet sleep again, it seemed she had also gone back to sleep for a nap.

"What are you doing?"

Akina Ze, who was carrying two bowls of radish porridge, happened to witness this scene.

"It's okay! There's some dust on it, I'll clean it off." In her panic, Reimu Hakurei waved her long exorcism wand a couple of times.

"Are you really alright?" Akina Sawa looked at Reimu Hakurei with a suspicious gaze, while Suika was sprawled out in a wide V-shape at his feet...

-------------------------------------

“There are more than three bowls of porridge. Reimu, what you’re doing isn’t very good. Look, Suika has a lump on the back of her head.” After learning the truth, Akina Ze couldn’t help but criticize.

Ibuki Suika, who had been woken up, nodded in agreement.

"...How much did you cook?" Reimu Hakurei was on the verge of tears.

"Hmm? You only cooked one pot? I tasted the white sugar and it tasted pretty good, so I added a little more."

Destroy Gensokyo...

"Eat up, didn't you say you wanted two bowls?" Akina asked, puzzled, seeing that Hakurei Reimu was still not moving.

He watched as Reimu Hakurei froze, staring motionlessly at the porridge, seemingly lost in thought.

However, Suika seemed to enjoy the porridge quite a bit. Perhaps ghosts have a strong resistance to heat, as she wasn't afraid of the scalding porridge at all, and kept stuffing spoonfuls into her mouth.

It's hard to say whether it's because the porridge is too delicious or for some other reason. Akina Ze also thinks that it might be because Suika is drunk and it's perfect for her to drink porridge. Everyone says that porridge is good for the stomach. I wonder if it can also soothe the stomach of the demon.

Seeing that Reimu Hakurei didn't react, Akina Sawa didn't bother with her anymore and took out a spoon to eat as well.

If he hadn't spent some time talking with the unexpectedly visiting spirit Youmu in the morning, he would have finished eating long ago and wouldn't have bumped into Reimu, who was sleeping in, while he was eating.

He blew on the surface of the porridge to dissipate some of the heat, and Akina Ze also took a few licks.

Hmm, it feels a bit too sweet. I might have put in too much sugar. I'll use less next time.

Chapter Forty-Six: The Value of Records

Warm sunlight streamed into the room through the window. Aya Shameimaru glanced at the empty desk, sighed, turned around, pushed open the wooden door of the newspaper office, and walked out.

The once yellowish-brown earth is now covered with a layer of snow. Freshly fallen snow is usually fluffy and full of air, but this snow fell last night and is now hard and compacted underfoot.

Shameimaru Aya spread her wings and leaped onto a boulder. She crouched down, her jade-like feet, clad in long white cotton socks to keep out the winter cold, sinking shallowly into the snow-covered rock in her wooden clogs.

In the distance lies the direction of the mountainside pool, which is clearly visible from Aya Shameimaru's vantage point.

"rustling"

A noise came from above, and a flurry of snowflakes began to fall.

Shameimaru looked up and saw two brown squirrels with colorful tails playing on the branches. They were taking off each other's tails, showing no signs of the clumsiness of winter but rather agile and lively.

What a happy squirrel!

Aya Shameimaru silently raised her camera, intending to record this scene. Perhaps many years later, these two squirrels would be gone, but the photo would still preserve the traces of their existence.

"I never expected that Aya Shameimaru, who only knows how to make a big news story, would pay attention to these small things."

Suddenly, a voice came from below. It turned out that Ji Haitang was speaking from the bottom of the boulder.

"Are you here to mock me?" Aya Shameimaru asked, looking down.

"No," Ji Haitang shook her head, brushing the snowflakes off her arms. "I came to look for someone, but since they're not here, I should go back."

"Wait!" Aya Shameimaru jumped down from the boulder and grabbed Himekaidouka's arm. "Explain yourself clearly, who are you here to see?"

"Let go of me! Who I'm looking for is none of your business!" Ji Haitangguo shook her arm violently a few times, but Shameimaru Aya held on tightly, not giving her a chance to escape.

Seeing that she couldn't break free, Ji Haitang sighed and put on an arrogant expression, saying, "You know perfectly well who I'm talking about. What? Do you really want to hear that name from my mouth?"

"..."

After a while, Aya Shameimaru frowned and released her grip on Himekaidouka's hand.

"You'd better not be here looking for trouble."

Freed from her grasp, Ji Haitang rubbed the spot that had been pinched sore, and said with a reproachful look, "I just told you, but you didn't believe me. And why are you taking it so seriously? You wouldn't actually...?"

"Stop!" Aya Shameimaru forcefully interrupted Kaidou Kaoru, who was about to say something. "That's absolutely impossible. I'm a tengu, a youkai! And even the Hakurei Shrine Maiden will die of old age, so don't ever mention such things again!"

"Fine, I won't mention it then, why are you being so fierce..." Ji Haitang said, feeling wronged. She had never seen Shameimaru Aya so forceful before.

With a cold snort, Aya Shameimaru dropped the Himekaidou fruit and returned to her newspaper office with mixed feelings.

As soon as she entered the room, she leaned over the desk, looking at the fountain pens casually placed on it.

The sunlight shone on her, but Aya Shameimaru couldn't feel the warmth.

Ji Haitangguo's words had just made her flustered, and she hurriedly fled the scene.

Now, sitting in the quiet room, my chaotic thoughts are starting to surge.

"What's wrong with you?" she said to herself. "You are a celestial dog, a celestial dog that soars freely in the sky, a short-lived creature bound by gravity throughout its life... What is there for humans to care about?"

Don't think about him, don't think about him...

Aya Shameimaru turned her head away from looking at the few pens that were casually placed.

However, the ink that seeps out of the pen nib is quite remarkable.

Related, unrelated, associative, direct.

Various images appeared in Aya Shameimaru's mind, and the more he tried not to think about them, the clearer they became.

"what!"

Aya Shameimaru covered her ears, trying to block out the images that kept flooding into her mind.

Standing, sitting, lying down, hunched over, faces covered in sweat, countless...

Unable to resist any longer, Aya Shameimaru simply picked up the camera that she had casually tossed onto the table earlier.

The photo of the squirrel that was just taken has been completed. Aya Shameimaru took the negative out of the bottom of the camera.

Playing and frolicking, the lively squirrels finally managed to divert some of their attention.

But watching these two squirrels playfully fighting, Aya Shameimaru inexplicably felt a sense of déjà vu.

She shook her head, forcibly banishing that feeling.

"What do photographs mean to you?" Aya Shameimaru asked herself. "Are photographs merely a backdrop to the news, or evidence to make the news more credible?"

She really wanted to answer yes, but the words just wouldn't come out.

"..."

Really? Is that right? Is this really true?

Is that all the photos mean to me?

Suddenly, Aya Shameimaru seemed to remember something. She squatted down, opened the drawer where the film negatives were stored, and rummaged through it.

The photos accumulated over the years are piled up together, numerous and in disarray.

But Aya Shameimaru searched for each photo one by one, her eyes fixed on them, afraid of missing any of them.

After an unknown amount of time, she stopped, her fingertip resting on a photograph.

Aya Shameimaru carefully shaped it, her fingers trembling slightly as she did so.

It was a photo taken during the Flower Dance Festival. The two people in the photo are hugging each other, their faces full of happy smiles, even though one of them is stepping on the other's foot...

Perhaps her original intention in picking up a camera was to record the beautiful moments of life.

Nothing lasts forever, but if something exists longer than a person, does that mean it's eternal for her?

Aya Shameimaru believed she had found the answer, and at that moment she calmed down.

Carefully tucking the photo into the pocket close to her heart, Aya Shameimaru stood up again and retrieved her Polaroid camera from the table.

"I'll only regret it if I keep missing out," Aya Shameimaru said with a smile. It was time to go and find her own happiness.

Chapter Forty-Seven, right?

After passing through the clouds and shaking off the moisture from my clothes, I saw the Hakurei Shrine below, its blue tiles covered with a layer of snow. Even the two stone lions at the shrine's gate wore white hats on their heads.

As he fell from the sky, Shameimaru expected his heart to pound violently, but it was actually very steady, as if it were a natural process.

The kitchen was located on the left side of the shrine. Aya Shameimaru tiptoed to the window to scout out what was going on inside.

Based on her understanding of Akina Sawaya, he should be here at this time, right?

"Dong~dong~"

Sure enough, the sound of the cutting board being tapped came from inside.

The kitchen window was some distance from the ground, and Aya Shameimaru stood on tiptoe, peering inside curiously.

Wearing a simple beige apron tied around his waist, Akina Ze gripped a cleaver in his left hand and pressed down on a purple onion with his right, slicing it into pieces one by one.

His eyes were resolute, undeterred by the pungent smell of onions; his strokes were ruthless, each cut aimed to the very end.

Aya Shameimaru stared at it for a moment, unwilling to look away, until the smell of onions being chopped wafted in front of her.

"Haha!"

The smell was so strong that Aya Shameimaru couldn't help but sneeze. Startled, she quickly squatted down and covered her mouth with her hands, worried that Akina Sawa would also notice. She was teary-eyed in a unique way.

However, Aya Shameimaru was quite lucky, as Sawa Akina didn't notice anything outside at all.

Indeed, who would have thought that someone would spy on someone while they are cooking?

Can you imagine that? Absolutely not.

Wiping away the few tears that had welled up in her eyes from the fumes, Aya Shameimaru walked to the kitchen doorway, intending to greet him as usual. But now, she hesitated.

She adjusted her bangs, worried that they had been blown messy on the way here, and then straightened her skirt, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Inside, Akina Sawa was still focused on his cooking, but outside, Shameimaru Aya's heart, which had been steady, was beating more and more violently.

Although I hate to admit it, the essence of some things has undergone a radical change.

Stay calm! Stay calm! Quickly recall how you used to view him!

Aya Shameimaru closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself, then opened her eyes, raised her head and chest, stretched out her left foot... and then pulled it back.