Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard-Chapter 833: Day 493: Snowy Day, the Man Curling Up by the Roadside_2

Chapter 833: Day 493: Snowy Day, the Man Curling Up by the Roadside_2

Hanamaru Hanabi sighed and said, "Alright."

"Really?" Uesugi Sakura didn’t expect her to agree so easily.

"Because Sakura is Hanabi’s husband," Hanamaru Hanabi put the iPad aside and looked at him with a proper posture, "Just now, I said intimate actions were enough, and now it’s a different story."

"Men." The beautiful girl mumbled.

"I’m sorry."

Uesugi Sakura heard the slight resentment in her voice and knew it was his fault.

But as time passed, the lights and air in the hotel became warmer, rekindling the small flame he had felt on the express train.

When this feeling comes, it’s really unstoppable.

"I’m coming."

Uesugi Sakura moved gently, slowly leaning towards her, first wrapping an arm around her slender waist, then slowly bringing his face closer.

Hanamaru Hanabi kept her eyes open the whole time.

...

...

"Not going to continue?"

"I’d like to continue, but Hanabi, could you... move your foot first?"

Uesugi Sakura pointed to the girl’s black-silk foot on his stomach.

"Sakura."

"Huh?"

"Hanabi changed her mind."

"What?"

"Not now."

"Why not again?"

"Things that are easy to achieve bring no sense of accomplishment. Do you agree, Sakura?"

"That’s true, I don’t disagree." Uesugi Sakura thought for a moment.

"So, not now."

Hanamaru Hanabi’s purple eyes half-closed as she withdrew her black-silk legs, placing her feet back together under the bed, adjusted her skirt, covering her thighs again.

"Really not?"

"Noo~pe."

"..."

"Alright then, Sakura, go out now, Hanabi needs to start working." Hanamaru Hanabi picked up the iPad again, "You’ll definitely disturb me if you’re here."

"You want to paint?" Uesugi Sakura sat cross-legged on the bed and asked.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Hanamaru Hanabi, hugging the iPad with both hands, looked at him with her desolate, purple eyes, "Can’t you see it’s because of someone."

Hanamaru Hanabi suddenly picked up her scarf and threw it at him.

"What’s up?"

Uesugi Sakura caught it, bringing it to his nose to smell.

It smelled nice, the scent of Hanabi.

"If you’re going for a walk, remember to put on the scarf, Sakura, don’t catch a cold."

...

It was 7:30 in the evening, and they already had lunch.

The sunset was long gone, replaced by deep blue clouds and a sky in cool gray tones.

Uesugi Sakura, wearing a recently dried coat and the scarf scented with Hanabi, stepped out of the hotel’s entrance.

Hakodate’s city wasn’t as filled with skyscrapers like Tokyo, but rather buildings spread out evenly across the area.

The roofs were square, laden with white snow.

Standing on the street, looking into the distance, Hakodate Mountain’s range could be seen.

"It’s a bit cold." Uesugi Sakura spoke with visible breath.

Across from the hotel was a bustling market street, right in front of him was a soba noodle restaurant.

The building was a two-story small house, and the second floor must be where the owner lived, as clothes hanging inside the windows could be clearly seen.

The street referred to as a big market felt more like a market in a small town.

The buildings were widely spaced, with an open road covered in snow between them, even the power poles had long triangular snowflakes on them.

With a mind to take a walk, Uesugi Sakura strolled slowly.

Passing by a cafeteria, a sushi shop, and a seafood restaurant.

He noticed a common trait among Japanese neighborhood restaurants.

They all use warm-colored lights at the entrance to attract customers, blue curtains to cover the upper half of the wooden doors, and Japanese-style wooden sliding doors, with clear wood grain on top, exuding a small-town vibe typical of privately-owned restaurants.

Standing right across, he could see the steam from the restaurant mixed with light escaping to the outside, flickering indistinctly.

This bit of light and the aroma of food added a glowing warmth to the restaurant in this snowy day.

Because it was a snowy day, there were thick piles of snow on either side of each entrance.

There were a few scattered pedestrians on the road.

Uesugi Sakura observed for a moment and found that besides some tightly wrapped elderly men and women, most of the pedestrians were couples.

"Perhaps, it’s time to head back? Going for a walk with Hanabi might feel better."

After walking in this environment for over ten minutes, he started to feel a bit chilly.

He pulled his hands out from his pockets, lifted his sleeve, and glanced at his watch.

"It’s about time to call them to go eat together."

Uesugi Sakura glanced at the power poles extending into the city, turned around, and began to make his way back to the hotel via another nearby road.

The streetlights were faint, and the snow-covered streets were exceptionally broad, inadvertently adding to the feelings of loneliness in snowy Hakodate City, yet the restaurants on both sides and the passing tourists and pedestrians added a trace of human warmth to the city.

As he walked on the snow-covered path, he suddenly noticed a young man sitting by the street, under a utility pole, next to a sidewalk bench. He was hugging his knees, holding a cellphone.

A homeless person?

Uesugi Sakura felt it was unlikely since the man didn’t look much older than himself.

He looked more like a man who had just gone through a breakup.

Heartbreak, a feeling unimaginable to those who have never been in love.

Out of empathy, Uesugi Sakura walked over and greeted the man curled up with his legs hugged.

"Are you... alright?"

The man raised his head upon hearing the voice.

Only then did Uesugi Sakura get a clear look at his face. As he thought, he looked quite young, like a college student, wearing square-framed glasses with short hair and a few sparse bangs on his forehead.

The young man exhaled warm breaths, realizing someone was concerned about him, and responded in broken Japanese:

"Sorry, I don’t understand Japanese."

Uesugi Sakura switched to another language: "English then?"

The man immediately replied in English: "Barely... It’s just a bit rusty."

Uesugi Sakura looked at him, noticing his typical Asian features.

He began guessing his nationality, deliberately probing in Chinese: "Chinese?"

Upon hearing the proper Chinese, the young man’s desolate expression instantly lit up:

"You are Chinese too?!"

Uesugi Sakura smiled knowingly: "Not quite, I just happen to have Japanese nationality now."

"Hello, hi."

The young man assumed he was some overseas Chinese compatriot, licked his chapped lips, and stood up, brushing off the snowflakes on his clothes.

Uesugi Sakura took another look at him and asked in Chinese: "Are you here traveling? Did you get separated from your companion?"

"No, not really, I am not here for tourism," the young man said sincerely, "I came here to look for someone."

"Looking for someone? From home?" Uesugi Sakura assumed he might be visiting relatives.

"Yes."

"That’s really far to come, all the way from home to Hokkaido. Then why are you crouching on the roadside now?"

"I..." The young man hesitated, a bit embarrassed to speak, "I’ve run out of money..."

"To come to Japan, you must have brought quite a bit of money?"

"Not that much... I’m just a third-year college student, usually living frugally, saved a little over ten thousand, spent ten thousand on the ticket coming here... spent over a thousand on accommodation and meals, and now I have no money left..."

"Relatives?"

"None..."

The young man held a black-out cellphone.

"I relied on this for photo translation before, used translation apps to ask for directions, now it’s out of battery, out of balance too, and I am too embarrassed to ask unknown strangers in a foreign land for money or charging."

Uesugi Sakura was silent for a moment, he looked at the young man with glasses again: "So... you came to Hokkaido to find someone without any preparation?"

"Yes..."

"Who are you looking for?"

"Looking for my wife..."