"Mr. Makimura, welcome back!"
After a brief moment of surprise, Kinoshita Mai's pretty face was instantly filled with excitement.
She has a very good relationship with Makimura Yahachi.
Makimura treats her as his own.
And she also liked this amiable old man very much.
Among the many elders, the one who loves her the most is Makimura.
Her grandmother, Kinoshita Rin, was a stern person. Although she occasionally showed a gentle side in front of Kinoshita Mai, she usually showed a stern image.
As for Boss Kiryu...he is a kind and benevolent person. But in addition, he also has another identity, that is, Kinoshita Rin's tutor assigned to Kinoshita Mai.
In other words, Boss Kiryu shoulders the heavy responsibility of teaching Kinoshita Mai.
Therefore, he couldn't do anything according to Kinoshita Mai's temper.
When necessary, he would still show a solemn face in front of Kinoshita Mai.
Only Makimura was free from the pressure of "educating Kinoshita Mai" and because of his personality, he could pamper Kinoshita Mai without any scruples.
After all, Kinoshita Mai is just a girl who is not even 16 years old.
The child's mentality of "I will be nice to anyone who is nice to me" still remains in his consciousness.
Kinoshita kicked off the red clogs on her feet, and stepped on the wooden corridor with her cute little feet wearing neat white socks, and glided to Makimura in three steps and two steps at a time.
"Mr. Makimura, have you finished your business in Yokohama?"
Makimura is nearly 1.9 meters tall, nearly 40cm taller than Kinoshita Mai.
Affected by this, whenever she stood next to Makimura and spoke, she would subconsciously stand on her tiptoes.
"Um."
Makimura smiled slightly.
"I'm lucky. It only took much less time than expected to handle all the things that should be done. I just returned to Edo, and I just finished saying hello to Kiryu. You’re back.”
Makimura just said "it's been a long time"... which is actually not quite accurate.
After all, the last time he met Kinoshita Mai was only half a month ago.
Just at the beginning of this year, Makimura came to Edo all the way from Osaka.
On January 6, he met Qingdeng and the two had a discussion.
After staying briefly in Edo for some time, he set off for Yokohama, saying that he was going to handle an errand assigned to him by Kinoshita Rin.
As for what the errand was... As soon as Kinoshita Mai asked, Kiryu and Makimura kept it secret.
Upon seeing this, Kinoshita Mai knew it and didn't ask any more questions - as the strictly protected young master of Calabash House, she had long been accustomed to this kind of "people around her seem to have secrets" and "people around her know everything." You won’t tell me” feeling.
Yokohama is a port city adjacent to Edo, located in the southern part of the Kanto region and facing Tokyo Bay to the east. It used to be just a small fishing village with less than 100 households.
The year after the "Black Ship Incident" broke out, that is, the first year of Ansei (1854), U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry led a fleet to forcibly anchor at Koba Village of Rokuura Domain. The shogunate sent envoys to negotiate, and the two sides held peace talks in Yokohama Village.
Afterwards, the two sides signed the Treaty of Kanagawa.
Four years later, the "Japan-US Amendment and Trade Treaty" was signed, which opened the port of Kanagawa. This became the prelude to the development of Yokohama.
In the 6th year of Ansei (1859), Yokohama Port was officially opened to the public and quickly became a raw silk trading port, commercial port, passenger port and industrial port.
Relying on its superior location advantage, Yokohama quickly found its own differentiated track, realized value transformation, found its vertical areas of expertise through unique levers, and became a gateway to the outside world.
The embassies of Western countries are basically concentrated in Yokohama, and Yokohama has therefore become a city where Westerners live together.
To the south of the customs clearance is the area where foreigners live, and to the north of the customs clearance is the area where Japanese people live.
Although it has only been a few years since it was officially developed, Yokohama has now become a thriving and vibrant coastal new city.
Makimura returned to Edo... This certainly made Kinoshita Mai feel more excited.
However, she still has quite urgent matters at the moment and needs to report to Boss Kiryu immediately.
So, after she came back to her senses, she quickly turned her head and said urgently to the old man with glasses beside her:
"Mr. Kiryu, something bad has happened! Aoden, he..."
Before Kinoshita Mai could say anything, Kiryu said calmly:
"I already know everything about what happened last night."
Kinoshita Wu was startled.
"Mr. Kiryu, do you already know?"
Kiryu nodded slightly.
"Young Master, there is no need to worry. Mr. Ju is currently safe. Even if he is as powerful as the Qingshui clan, it is not easy to find out where he is hiding."
When Kinoshita Wu heard this, she bit her lower lip unconsciously.
Qing Deng showed up last night...he is still alive and kicking.
For Kinoshita Mai, this was really a great thing that almost made her cry with joy.
In the more than half a month since the sudden fire in Kodenma Town and Aoto's mysterious disappearance, she has been cooperating with Kondo Isamu, Chiba Jutaro, Katsu Rintaro and others, running around Edo, looking for Aoto.
As the powerful "Phantom Thief Cat Monk" in Edo, Mai Kinoshita not only possesses extraordinary agility and outstanding mobility, but also has a thorough understanding of Edo's complex market conditions.
Even if it is a hidden trail that the locals have no idea about, she knows it clearly.
The manpower of the Trial Guard Hall and the "Beichen Sect" Sword Hall, the connections of Katsurin Taro and Antoine Angoulême, Mai Kinoshita's ability to find people and things... the power of the "Tachibana Alliance" cannot be underestimated.
However... despite the scarcity of information, they were still unable to find a living person in such a vast Edo.
After all, Edo is a metropolis with a population of one million.
Finding someone in a city of this level... is not as difficult as climbing into the sky, but it can also be called finding a needle in a haystack.
Although Kinoshita Mai and others have burned the ointment to continue the work, they have not even collected half of the relevant clues, let alone finding Qingteng.
The "Tangerine Support Alliance" is already short of manpower, but who would have thought that just a few days ago, Okita Souji and Chiba Sanako also disappeared.
However, compared to Qingdeng who disappeared without a trace, the "disappearance" of the two girls is not too frightening.
Before they left, they left a farewell letter in their respective bedrooms, saying that they were leaving home temporarily for a while. As for where they were going and what they were doing, they didn't mention a word.
The two of them "ran away from home" at the same time... Somehow, when she first heard the news, Kinoshita Mai suddenly had this conjecture in her mind -
Okita-kun and Chiba Sanako found Aoto, but because Aoto was running for a very urgent matter, he ordered him to "not reveal his whereabouts." Both Okita-kun and Chiba Sanako wanted to help Aoto, so they both "left home and became a monk" and followed Aoto to deal with that "important matter."
Regarding why Qingto has been missing to this day, Kinoshita Mai has already made detailed thoughts and guesses.
Based on her understanding of Qingdeng, she was 100% sure that if Qingdeng was still alive, he would definitely return to the Trial Guard Hall as soon as possible to report to his relatives and friends that he was safe.
Qingdeng is a person who values affection and justice, and he would never do such a thing as "let his relatives and friends worry" without any reason.
The reason why there has been no news from him, Kinoshita Mai thought about it, only two reasons came to mind.
Or he has lost his personal freedom, such as being locked up somewhere.
Or...he is involved in some troublesome incident! In order not to implicate innocent people, he consciously cut off contact with others!
Although this conjecture was born inexplicably and there is no ready-made evidence to support it, but it is weird, Kinoshita Mai always feels that the facts are very likely to develop as she guessed...
Funny to say, the Orange Support Alliance spent a lot of effort looking for Qingdeng, but in the end, he showed up by himself last night.
However, the way he returned... was truly shocking.
Although Kinoshita Mai had long known that Aoto was a very restless "troublemaker", she learned that he actually kicked the Shimizu clan 13 times in just one night, offending the largest Yakuza group in Kanto to death. When she heard it, she was still stunned and wondered if she had heard it wrong.
As far as Kinoshita Mai knows, there should be no conflict between Ayoto and the Shimizu clan.
If I had to say... I'm afraid Qingdeng's late father owed the other party several hundred taels of gambling debt.
Let’s not mention that the Qingshui clan had already written off this gambling debt in order to win over Qingdeng.
Based on Qingdeng's current status and financial resources, he could easily pay off a mere few hundred taels of debt without blinking an eyelid. How could such a festival lead to a fierce conflict between the two parties?
All in all, no matter what, it is an indisputable fact that Qingden and the Qingshui clan have formed an undying feud.
Based on the Qingshui clan's vengeful nature... they will never let Qingdeng off easily!
The Qingshui clan is no better than the Yi group.
The latter are just a group of rabble with only fighting spirit and no ability.
Looking at all the members of the Yi group, only their leader Kamino is still a figure.
Therefore, after Qingden killed Jinye, the anti-barbarian group, which lacked an outstanding leader and a mature organizational system, fell apart in an instant.
On the other hand, the Qingshui clan, which has been cultivating in Kanto for many years, does not have these problems.
At first glance, Qingdeng's battle last night was a very good one.
The normally arrogant Yakuza of the Qingshui clan were defeated like chickens and dogs.
But such a result can only frighten the ordinary people who have bright eyes.
Anyone who knows a little bit about the background of the Qingshui clan knows that a large part of the reason why Qingden was able to win so happily in last night's battle was because he had an "unexpected" advantage.
The unshakable dominance has long made the Yakuza of the Qingshui clan accustomed to living a peaceful life where no one dares to make trouble, and they have neglected to take precautions.
Therefore, when Qingdeng attacked, they were immediately in a panic.
Although Rakshasa, Shimizu Eiichi and others later made remedial measures and urgently sent reinforcements to various important locations, the timing was still a little too late.
Kinoshita Mai, who wears the vest of "Cat Monk" and takes it as her mission to rob the rich and help the poor, has long wanted to attack the Qingshui clan and steal all the ill-gotten wealth they have accumulated over the years.
However...however, every stronghold of the Qingshui clan, especially their headquarters, all have extremely strict security measures.
If you want to enter the Qingshui clan's stronghold, you will have no way to do it unless you enter from the front like Qingteng did.
Therefore, Kinoshita Mai has a much clearer and more intuitive understanding of the energy of the Qingshui clan than the average person.
Due to the rigidity of the system, the rise of the commodity economy, and the gradual collapse of the small-scale peasant economy, many years ago, a large number of middle- and lower-level samurai fell into the embarrassing situation of being on the verge of bankruptcy or already bankrupt.
There are countless bankrupt samurai who turned to the Yakuza just to earn a living.
Among them there are many outstanding talents with superb skills and even Yun Wen Yun Wu.
No one can tell how many top warriors the Qingshui clan has recruited over the years.
By the time the Qingshui clan completes their mobilization, Qingdeng will no longer be able to attack his stronghold like he did last night.
God knows what kind of cruel revenge the Qingshui clan will take on Qingdeng next.
As Aoto's lover, Kinoshita Mai has 100% trust in Aoto's skills and abilities.
But... no matter how powerful Qingdeng is, he only has one pair of feet, one hand, and one head...
One party has perfect organizational capabilities and thousands of manpower and material resources.
The other side has very few helpers and may still be working alone.
The gap in strength between the two sides is clear at a glance.
Thinking of this, Kinoshita Mai couldn't help biting her lip harder.
Between the slightly pale cheeks, joy and worry...the two emotions were beautifully mixed together.
At this time, Kiryu's call brought her consciousness back to reality.
"Young Master, please go down and rest first. I have something to say to Makimura now. Regarding Mr. Tachibana, we will discuss it in detail later."
Kinoshita Mai was startled, and immediately raised her gaze, casting a surprised look at Kiryu.
For Kinoshita Mai, she naturally hopes that Kiryu can put down all the work at hand as soon as possible and discuss with her "how to find Aoden who finally showed up" and many other matters.
However, Kiryu said, "We'll talk about it in detail later"... This naturally made her feel puzzled.
However, she quickly sorted out her emotions.
In Kinoshita Mai's eyes, Kiryu is an omnipotent superman.
No matter what happens, as long as you listen to Kiryu's instructions, everything will go smoothly. If you don't listen to him, something will go wrong.
Over time, Kinoshita Mai had absolute trust in Kiryu's words and deeds.
Moreover, in terms of the depth of his feelings for Aoden, Kiryu is not inferior to her.
Aomori was the direct disciple that Kiryu had spent decades trying to find.
Kiryu must also want to find his beloved disciple as soon as possible.
He didn't do that...probably because he was going to have an extremely important secret conversation with Makimura next!
With this thought, Kinoshita Mai no longer felt awkward.
She quickly gathered her mind, suppressed the slight displeasure in her heart, lowered her head and said "Yes, I understand", then walked quickly past Kiryu and Makimura and went straight to the back room.
After Kinoshita Mai's footsteps gradually faded away, Kiryu turned his attention back to Makimura.
"Makimura-kun, sit down."
Kiryu made a "please" gesture to the empty seat next to him.
Makimura was not polite and sat down directly.
As soon as he sat down, he let out a long sigh.
"Alas...Mamiya, I really didn't expect that I would be gone for such a long time, and there would be such a big mess in Edo..."
Since there was no one else around, Makimura changed back to Kiryu's previous name, which was also his most commonly used vest name: Mamiya Kuro.
On the way back to Edo, Makimura had heard about the cause of "Aoto's disappearance" from others.
He also heard a little bit about the shocking incident that happened last night.
Kiryu smiled bitterly, and after saying "We'll talk about this later," he said seriously:
"Makimura-kun, did you gain anything from your trip to Yokohama?"
Seeing that Kiryu got straight to the point, Makimura didn't hesitate much and responded straight to the point:
"Mamiya, I found the manufacturing workshop of Genfusyo."
*******
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There is a typhoon in Guangzhou...the wind is so strong today...
(End of chapter)
