The first day of the sixth year of astronomy (1537) started with catching fish.
Imagawa Yoshimoto was playing cuju in the courtyard behind the castle tower and sparring with Hayasaka Nao. Hayasaka Nao learned quickly and could barely catch the ball and pass it back to Imagawa Yoshimoto. On the stone table in the pavilion nearby were spread out several fine landscape paintings and a collection of Japanese songs. Such a happy life was what Imagawa Yoshimoto had always dreamed of when he was in the temple.
The hard work of the past few months was all to grow the family and marry Ginkgo. Now that this goal has been shattered, Imagawa Yoshimoto is naturally unmotivated and passive in his work.
"Are you still playing here?" Taiyuan Xuezai, carrying a half-eaten chicken leg, stuck his head out of the window of the castle tower and shouted to Imagawa Yoshimoto.
"As agreed before, all government and military affairs will belong to the old man." Imagawa Yoshimoto kicked the Cuju upward fiercely, and with a strong spin, he went straight to the window of Taiyuan Xuezhai. Taiyuan Xue Zhai was startled, and hurriedly retracted from the window, without even holding the chicken leg in his hand, and fell to the corridor on the second floor of the castle tower. However, the Cuju did not hit the window. Instead, it spun in front of the window and fell down, returning to Imagawa Yoshimoto's feet.
"You brat! You've caused my teacher's lunch to disappear!" Taiyuan Xuezhai saw the chicken drumsticks disappearing and became furious. He shouted at Imagawa Yoshimoto, "Come up and pay for my teacher's chicken drumsticks!" Get a stack of documents and approve them! As a teacher, I will reluctantly spare you this time!"
"Okay, okay..." Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled, stretched out his hands, kicked Cuju at random, and kicked the Cuju to the seat in the pavilion. Then he slowly went upstairs along the stairs and arrived at Taiyuan Xuezhai's room - he immediately realized To be deceived.
There was a basket placed next to the table, and there were seven or eight hot large chicken legs stuffed in the basket.
"You stinky old man!" Imagawa Yoshimoto was immediately angry. He felt even more uncomfortable when he saw Taiyuan Xuezhai touching the brush with his greasy hands.
"As promised before! Keep your word!" Taiyuan Xuezhai was most convinced of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and immediately raised his hand to indicate that Imagawa Yoshimoto had just promised. Imagawa Yoshimoto sighed with a black line on his face, lowered his head like a defeated rooster, picked up a stack of documents worth checking, and walked out of the house in disgrace.
However, before he could enter his room, he suddenly had an idea and went downstairs holding the paperwork with a smile, muttering like a little tune:
"There really is a way!"
·
Half an hour later, Imagawa Yoshimoto arrived outside a shop in the castle town of Imagawakan's west gate. The shop was very small and had a bad appearance. There was a small sign that read "Settling Accounts" hanging on it, which indicated the business of the shop. At the only table in the shop, there was a young man sitting, with his head lowered like his father, hunched over the desk calculating accounts—at such a young age, he had the faintest hint of a workaholic. There was a plate on the corner of the table with half a bun left in it.
Imagawa Yoshimoto frowned slightly, then he walked to the door of the store with the stack of documents and put them on the table, "Boss? Can you help me settle the accounts?"
"Ah! Yes!" The Sena family was so invested that they didn't hear Imagawa Yoshimoto's voice for a while. He immediately stood up, nodded and bowed to prepare to welcome the guests, but found that it was Imagawa Yoshimoto who came, and he couldn't help but be surprised: "Main hall? How did you..."
"I'm here to settle accounts, otherwise why would I come to the store?" Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled and pointed to the sign hanging on the store, "Take a look."
"This..." Although Senajitoshi hadn't reacted yet, he still suspiciously looked through the bill sent by Imagawa Yoshimoto, and then discovered that it was the land inspection data of the Suruga wealthy family and last year's autumn harvest...
"This is an important matter in the family, Grand Hall!" Sena Shitoshi became anxious all of a sudden, walked around the table, hurriedly approached Imagawa Yoshimoto's ear, and lowered his voice, "How can I get it here?"
"I'm asking you to help me settle the accounts. Don't ask for anything else. Not disclosing the customer's information is a basic requirement for settling the accounts." Imagawa Yoshimoto's right hand rested on the pile of paper, while his left hand shook his finger.
"If the main hall has a destiny, then...oh no, how dare the common people disobey?" Sena Shitoshi saluted, but before he could continue, Imagawa Yoshimoto put a bag of silver on his table.
"These are remuneration for settling accounts and hush money. Do not disclose this information to others." Imagawa Yoshimoto pretended to be mysterious and gave a few instructions as if he was really doing business.
"How dare you accept money from the main hall?" Sena Shitoshi hurriedly pushed the money back to Imagawa Yoshimoto, but Imagawa Yoshimoto pushed him back.
"You are no longer a member of the Imagawa family, you are just a commoner. This is business. One code is another code. Is it possible that our Imagawa family still wants to rob people's wealth? Do you want to ruin the reputation of our Imagawa family?" Yoshimoto Imagawa knew. In line with Sena's Jun's nature, he immediately took matters into his own hands and said with a wicked smile. Sure enough, Sena Toshi was speechless immediately after hearing what Imagawa Yoshimoto said.
"Then you don't need so much..." Sena Shitoshi opened the bag and looked at the bulging silver coins and broken silver inside, "I may not have this much income in the next five years."
"This is a top-secret mission for the Imagawa family. Isn't it worth the money? Do you look down on the Imagawa family?" Imagawa Yoshimoto added another line, choking Sena Toshiro's unfinished words.
"Buy some good food and buy some household items." Imagawa Yoshimoto glanced at the leftover steamed buns on Sena Shitoshi's table, and then at the simple and almost shabby living room behind the screen, "Take good care of yourself. Don’t let it happen that when I call you back as a guard, you’ll be so skinny that you can’t even wield a knife.”
"The main hall..." Sena Shitoshi was completely stunned.
"You just helped me take the blame that time. Everyone knows that you did nothing wrong. When the limelight is over, I will vindicate you and recruit you back. However, your father, Mutsu, has always been selfless, and he may not be willing to let you go back to the Sena family. . Just come to me first and help me handle government affairs." Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled and said his arrangement, but Sena Ujitoshi in front of him suddenly lowered his head and sobbed.
"The Great Hall is so kind to me. I really...have nothing to repay. Previously, the Great Hall spared no effort to save my mother, but now..."
"Okay, Sena, don't cry." Imagawa Yoshimoto patted Sena Ujitoshi on the shoulder, "How come you are such a big samurai, and he still loves to cry, with a red nose at all times? Go to bed early, don't talk to him My father is also too tired. What should I do if my eyes are damaged by exhaustion? I’m still asking you to help me work for 30 years.”
·
Returning to the Imagawakan castle tower, I heard the sound of fighting in the corridor from a distance. Needless to say, Imagawa Yoshimoto also knew that it must be Okabe Jiro (the future Okabe Motonobu) and Asahina Kikuchiyo (the future Asahina Taitomo) fighting. The grudge between the Okabe family and the Asahina family was obviously inherited by the legitimate sons of the two families who stayed in Imagawa Hall as hostages, and the two frequently fought in the castle tower.
"Good fight! Look, Mr. Asahina's punch is very powerful! But we can see that Mr. Okabe didn't panic at all. He received the blow steadily and returned the blow with an elbow! Hit! Mr. Asahina fell down It's over! Can he still stand up! Hey! Okabe-san, stop for a moment, you can't pursue your opponent when he's down, you have to have some samurai style! Oh, let's see! Asahina-san has stood up, the tenacious Asahina-san He hasn't fallen down yet, he is still outputting..."
Also far away, Imagawa Yoshimoto could hear Akai Kurotaka's passionate commentary. The fact that these two children were able to fight every day must be attributed to Akai Heigao - as a hostage supervisor, he did not stop the fight every day, but instead kept the fight aside, for fear that the two children would not fight. This fighting maniac doesn't care if he fights often, but he also wants to teach his bad habits to his children.
"Akai, it's almost done. Do you have to watch them fight every day to be satisfied?" Imagawa Yoshimoto walked up the stairs and shouted to Akai Kuro upstairs.
"Your Highness, what do you know? Men don't get to know each other without fighting. The better the relationship, the better! The two of them will be the pillars of the family in the future, and I will help them establish a friendship!" Akai Kuroko replied seriously, as if he didn't I'm looking for excuses, but I really believe this fallacy.
"Asahina, what are you doing? Why are you fighting with Okabe again?" Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled and helped up Asahina Kikuchiyo who was knocked to the ground. He is only 7 years old this year, 3 years younger than Okabe Jiro, and started fighting Naturally, it cannot be defeated. But this boy who refused to admit defeat, even though he was beaten to pieces every time, still kept fighting and losing, and he was the one who took the initiative to cause trouble every time.
"He is meddling in my own business, why should I care about his business when I drink?" Asahina Kikuchiyo pointed at Okabe Jiro's nose and shouted, "Just like his father who is nosy!"
Yes, Asahina Kikuchiyo is also a young alcoholic, fully inheriting Asahina Tainou's genes and his good drinking ability. Although he is only 7 years old, he can make the general horse crowd fall down.
"Master Hall, are you listening to the joke?" Okabe Jiro said coldly, and the dull and depressing tone in his words was exactly the same as that of his father Okabe Oyatsuna. However, Okabe Jiro seems to be deliberately avoiding becoming a direct person like his father. He always starts his speech by "telling a joke."
"It is said that a drunk person will never feel that he is drunk, and others will never wake him up. I just want to try it."
What a cold joke...
Okabe Jiro's joke instantly silenced the crowd who were happily watching the fun just now - yes, even if Okabe Jiro tries hard to avoid speaking directly like Okabe Chitsuna, the jokes he tells are only straighter and colder. They use all the old clichés and baggage, and there is no emotion at all when talking about it, as if they are endorsing it. Every time Jiro Okabe says he wants to tell a joke, everyone already knows the outcome.
"You two are really..." Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled and rubbed the heads of the two children, and then rolled his eyes at Akai Kurogao, "Akai, I see that if you take care of your children, sooner or later you will make them look like you every day. Fight. Let's do this. These two children will be transferred to me as guards. You inform Bizhong Mamoru and Sakyo Shin."
"If Your Highness is not afraid of trouble and doesn't make trouble, of course I have no objection." Akai Heigaohuai laughed twice and made a sign of compliance, obviously ready to watch the show.
