CHAPTER 126: CHAPTER 77 (SEEKING THE FIRST SUBSCRIPTION) PERHAPS IT’S TIME TO LOOK FOR THE MONKEY!

The next morning, Harano had breakfast and finally ate a fried egg—with a runny yolk at that, bidding a complete farewell to those bland, tasteless boiled eggs. This put him in an even better mood, and he felt that at this slow and steady pace, braised pork was no longer a distant dream.

He decided to give himself a day off today as a reward. After breakfast, he started roaming around the house, and when he followed the wooden corridor to the front yard, he looked up and saw Qing feeding the chicks—she was holding a flat bamboo basket, completely focused as she kept scattering bran for a group of fluffy, golden chicks. Most of the chicks kept their heads down, pecking at the food, but there were a few mischievous ones running around her, some even playfully pecking at each other.

She didn’t get upset, just gently scooped up a chick, played with it for a moment, then gently put it back, telling them not to squabble and play, but eat properly.

It was a very ordinary rural scene, nothing special, yet there was an indescribable tranquility and beauty that made Harano stop and quietly admire the moment.

First he looked at the adorable, lively chicks, then his gaze shifted to Qing herself.

It was about eight or nine in the morning, the sun neither too high nor too low. Soft, clear light fell on Qing, making her figure appear even more tall and slender, giving her black hair and little topknot a faint golden glow. Usually, her face was cool and expressionless, but at this moment, a warm smile lit up her features—if you looked closely, you could even spot shallow dimples.

Her brows and eyes seemed unusually gentle now. She wasn’t a stunning beauty, her features could only be called delicate, but when she smiled, a kind of warmth and gentleness radiated from her, giving her a touch of liveliness and radiance, like a final stroke that brings a dragon to life in a painting.

Harano watched for a while, unable to stop himself from smiling warmly too, as if it was contagious.

Hmm, he’d never seen Qing like this before. Normally she was like a doll, expressionless most of the time; sometimes she could sit there for hours without moving. It was truly rare to see her so childlike...

Well, maybe not childlike anymore!

Harano took a closer look and realized that Qing seemed to have gotten a bit taller over the past few months, at least five centimeters taller. The thing was, he saw her every day but somehow hadn’t noticed—maybe it was because she’d been eating her fill, getting enough nutrition, so she’d shot up?

She was taller, and her face was no longer dirty and grimy like when they first met. Looking at her now, she rather resembled a middle school girl from his previous life—not really childlike anymore.

But why hadn’t Ah Man changed at all? They were eating the same things, but she didn’t seem taller, and she still looked as annoying-punchable as ever!

Harano’s thoughts started wandering again uncontrollably, while Qing soon noticed him standing in the corridor daydreaming, and couldn’t help but tilt her head curiously. The little topknot on her head seemed to wobble into a question mark.

Harano snapped out of it, strolled over with a smile, and asked an obvious question, "Are you feeding the chickens?"

Qing tilted her head again, looked at the chicks, then looked at him, but didn’t answer. Her personality meant she was unlikely to respond to such an obvious redundant question anyway.

Harano wasn’t surprised. After all, they’d lived together for more than a hundred days and he was quite used to it by now. He looked interestedly at the lively chicks and asked, "Are those chickens you’re raising?"

Qing nodded lightly. "I just... wanted something to do."

Harano nodded in understanding. At the moment, Qing was pretty much his personal guard, but since he spent most of his time in his workshop and barely went out, Qing ended up with nothing to do.

Harano was easy-going about this. At heart, he was broad-minded and cared about people around him. He immediately said, "There’s nothing dangerous here in Takeshige Manor. If you’re bored, you can go out and wander around, no need to just stay at home all the time."

Qing shook her head slightly. "It’s fine. I... read a bit when I’m free."

She wasn’t like Ah Man, who couldn’t sit still for even three minutes. On the contrary, Qing really liked her current quiet and peaceful life—feeding the horses and donkeys every day, playing around with the little monkey, then feeding the chicks, practicing martial arts, reading. That was happiness enough for her. She didn’t ask for more.

"That’s fine then!" Harano didn’t force her, mostly because he never really understood what she was thinking. But this mention of reading made him ask, "Have you run into any problems?"

Actually, Qing was a bit slow and didn’t like asking others for help. If she got stuck, she’d just keep at it herself. She had plenty of issues, but didn’t want to trouble Harano, so she hesitated, unsure whether to nod or not.

Harano saw through her hesitation and took the initiative. He’d been so busy improving daily life lately, he’d barely done any teaching—a rather poor performance as a tutor. So he said, "As it happens, I have some free time. Let me take a look for you."

The two of them went to Harano’s study. Qing brought out the "textbook" she had copied out by hand and asked him about sentences she couldn’t make sense of and characters she couldn’t recognize. Harano patiently answered her questions, and while he was at it, pointed out some copying mistakes in her "textbook" for her to fix herself.

Qing obediently pulled over a small table, sat down, and started correcting her mistakes earnestly. Harano sat cross-legged beside her, watched for a while, then noticed that the little topknot on her head kept swaying back and forth. He couldn’t help but suggest, "Have you ever thought...about letting your hair grow longer?"

The image of Qing feeding chicks had left quite an impression on him. He thought Qing was already a young lady; there was no reason for her to keep the boyish hairstyle, always tying up that childish little topknot—it was definitely time for a change.

He thought, for example, that the "princess cut" would suit her well: long, straight black hair in the back, bangs cut across the forehead at eyebrow height, and side locks trimmed to chin length. It would really suit her face and temperament.

Yeah, he didn’t mean anything else by it, just thought it would look nice—there’s nothing wrong with looking a bit better, right?

Qing was immersed in correcting her mistakes. When she heard what he said, she looked at him strangely, tilting her head again. After a moment, it clicked what Harano meant. She hurriedly reached up to touch the little topknot in the middle of her head, her face suddenly flushing bright red.

Harano realized too that what he’d said might have been a bit too forward. After all, the two of them weren’t exactly close—compared to Ah Man, Harano and Qing were far less familiar; he and Ah Man were nearly at the point of accusing each other of talking nonsense at any time. In a few more months they’d probably be sparring regularly.

He quickly prepared to say, "Sorry, just pretend I didn’t bring it up," to smooth things over and dodge future awkwardness. Before he could say it, Qing had already lowered her eyelids and actually replied, "If my hair’s too long... it’s not convenient in a fight."

So that’s what she was thinking?

To a practical type like Harano, that reason was flawless. He felt a touch of disappointment, but still agreed, "Safety first. Short hair really is better, then."

Qing didn’t say anything else, just kept blushing and correcting her writing. After Harano watched for a bit and saw nothing wrong, he got up and left. Only then did she sneak another touch of her little topknot, cheeks still flushed, imagining what she would look like with long hair.

Until now, no one had ever asked her that. Now that someone had, she started to feel a bit curious herself...

......

Harano felt a little regret. He really would have liked to see Qing feeding chicks with long hair—the scene would have been even softer and sweeter. Still, there was nothing he could do, the world didn’t revolve around him; everyone had their own ideas!

He didn’t go far. Today he had no plans to mess around in the workshop, so he sat down at his desk to read and pass the time. Previously, he’d borrowed quite a few anonymous Samurai notebooks from the Hosokawa Guanyin Temple. With nothing else to do, he flipped through them—they helped him understand the period better.

But the contents were... hard to describe.

According to a lot of people’s stereotypes, you’d think that people in ancient Japan admired ancient China. After all, if they weren’t impressed, why would so many risk their lives, despite underdeveloped seafaring, to study in China? Why go to such lengths to bring back Chinese monks? But based on what Harano read in these notebooks, that wasn’t really the case at all.

Most of the notebooks were filled with criticism—especially over how, during the Heian Era, the Japanese imperial family tried to imitate the fubing system and set up a standing army, but it all deteriorated and led to nationwide chaos and collapse. Nearly every notebook brought this up, blaming it as the main cause for the end of the Heian Era.

There was also the failure of two Mongol invasions of Japan, both nearly resulting in total disaster for the Mongol forces. This made most of the notebook writers feel Japan was on the right path. China may once have been a great country, worthy of study, but to them, if even the Mongols couldn’t conquer China, then obviously Japan was now better and stronger; it was time for their own way forward. Some even felt that "China"—a name with high prestige and special meaning in the Huaxia tradition—ought to be transferred to Japan instead.

On top of that, shrines in Japan, in order to boost their own authority, desperately promoted the narrative of "divine wind protecting the nation," helping to cement the ideology of Japan as the "Divine Kingdom"—a nation blessed by the gods and naturally destined to rule the world.

Harano read for a while and found it similar to other books he’d seen before, so he put the notebooks aside and started circling the desk, thinking.

His grasp of history wasn’t great, or he wouldn’t have stumbled so much through the Japan Middle Ages. At first, back in Hibi Village, he’d been so jumpy he didn’t dare eat without Yayoi trying the food first. Still, even with poor history skills, he knew about "the Monkey," Toyotomi Hideyoshi, launching the invasions of Korea.

He’d never really understood why "the Monkey" would go so nuts; after all, even domestically Japan wasn’t all that settled, with all sorts of regional powers still in play. Yet still, Hideyoshi did it, and even proposed the insane slogan, "conquer China in two years, India in three." Even before the war started, he’d drawn up plans to make himself Japan and China’s "kanpaku," and was preparing to move his base to Ningbo to personally command a renewed invasion of India.

Thinking about it now, "the Monkey" must have been influenced by this ideological climate—in fact, maybe he started the war just to fit the mood. As a grassroots ruler, he wanted the divine aura of legitimacy, so he launched the Korean invasion. He sent a letter to the Korean king demanding right of passage to wage war on the Great Ming, or else he’d subjugate Korea first. The Korean king refused, appealed directly to the Great Ming, and so began the "Imjin War."

The war’s impact was huge—even though "the Monkey" failed and the Toyotomi Family went down with him, the Great Ming didn’t get away easy. The war dragged on for six or seven years, costing tens of millions of taels for nothing, and indirectly allowed the rise of the Later Jin.

In a way, the Qing dynasty really owed "the Monkey" thanks—the Ming’s intervention in Korea gutted the forces out of Liaodong, to the extent that even after the war Korea lamented, "Liaozuo’s whole region, ruined by the Imjin War, its population decimated, mules and carts gone."

If Liaodong hadn’t been drained, if the population hadn’t collapsed and military power waned, Nuerhachi might not have unified the Jurchen tribes so easily.

So...

After circling the desk dozens of times, Harano’s scattered thinking finally returned to order. He nodded slowly—now that he’d found his footing in Japan Middle Ages, and had built up a little strength, maybe it was time to go look for "the Monkey."