I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

Chapter 274: The Victim of the Tianming Fire

"Kyoto?"

Ogata is now asking the way to a passerby who happens to be walking opposite him.

"You keep going down this road."

The passer-by pointed at his feet.

"Go straight, keep going, and then you will see a village called 'Xinri'."

"Pass through Xinri Village and then go west and you will see Kyoto."

"Thank you!" After bowing deeply to the passer-by to express his gratitude, Ogata got on his horse again.

Following the passerby's instructions, Ogata rode his horse and ran straight along the dirt road under his feet.

After spending nearly half an hour, wisps of cooking smoke slowly appeared in Ogata's eyes.

After discovering the wisps of cooking smoke, Ogata hurriedly tapped the horse's belly with his heel again, driving the horse under his crotch to run faster.

Under the wisps of cooking smoke, there is a fairly large village.

The villagers in this village don't seem to hate outsiders.

After seeing Ogata riding his horse towards them, several old men who happened to be chatting at the entrance of the village warmly welcomed Ogata into the village.

Ogata asked these old men, and after confirming that this village is Xinri Village, and after leaving Xinri Village and going north for a certain distance to reach Kyoto, Ogata raised his head and glanced at the sky.

It was now dusk, and the sun was almost sinking below the horizon.

Looking at the sun that was about to disappear from the horizon, Ogata made a secret decision: tonight he will spend the night in this Xinri Village.

On the way from Owari to Kyoto, Ogata has never walked through the night.

In such an ancient society, there were no lighting facilities in the wild.

The wild at night is really invisible.

Walking at night is both inefficient and dangerous. Instead of wasting energy walking at night, it is better to have a good rest and save enough energy to catch up on the next day during the day.

So during these days to Kyoto,

Ogata has always been obediently resting at night, and never travels at night.

...

Ogata led his horse and walked slowly in Xinri Village.

Looking around, you can see hotels with various signs.

Ogata secretly thought about Wang Zehua’s hotels with various signs:

——As the old men at the entrance of the village said just now, this village is for the development of tourism...

Just now, after confirming with the old men who were chatting at the entrance of the village whether this place is Xinri Village and whether we can reach Kyoto westward after leaving Xinri Village, Ogata chatted casually with these elders.

According to those old men, this Xinri Village was originally just an ordinary village.

But about 8 years ago, a new village chief took office.

And this new village head is quite talented, he keenly saw the biggest advantage of their Xinri Village-it is very close to Kyoto.

Kyoto is one of the largest cities in Japan, and there are countless tourists and tourists who go to Kyoto every day.

Therefore, the new village head of their Xinri Village encouraged the villagers to open hotels.

Under the leadership and encouragement of the new village chief, some villagers who had enough energy to open hotels opened hotels one after another.

The new village head of Xinri Village's "tourism development" policy is also quite effective.

Every day, there are many people who don't have time to arrive in Kyoto before dark, but don't want to walk at night. For these people, Xinri Village, which has a lot of cheap hotels, is the best place to go.

Therefore, since the start of "tourism" under the leadership of the new village head, Xinri Village has become slightly richer than before.

But for some unknown reason, Ogata walked into every hotel in the village and was told that it was "full."

Hearing the "full customers" one after another, Ogata's heart gradually became heavy...

Just when Ogata began to suspect that he might be sleeping on the ground in a place full of hotels tonight, a kind old woman said to Ogata:

To exchange good books, pay attention to the vx public account. [Book Friends Base Camp]. Pay attention now, you can receive cash red envelopes!

"Samurai-sama, are you looking for a hotel with vacancies?"

Ogata nodded.

"Then you go straight along this road." The old woman pointed behind him, "Go along this road to the end, and you can see a hotel with the sign of 'He', which belongs to Granny Cake. The hotel, Granny Cake's hotel should still have vacancies."

"Mother-in-law?"

"That's our nickname for the proprietress of the hotel." The old lady smiled slightly, "Because she likes to eat the specialty of her hometown of Kusatsu - grandma cake, so we all like to call her 'Grandma Cake'."

After bidding farewell to the enthusiastic old woman, Ogata walked all the way to the end in the direction the old woman pointed out just now.

At the very end of the road, there is a two-story mansion with a decent floor space and a signboard with the word "和".

——It should be here...why do you always feel that this hotel is deserted...

While Ogata said this in his heart, he slowly opened the door of this hotel.

There are a few candles burning in the hotel, so the light is still bright.

Just as Ogata was about to shout "Is anyone there?" he heard footsteps coming from far and near from the depths of the hotel.

After a while, an old lady with a short stature appeared in front of Ogata.

The old lady was wearing a light red kimono that had been seriously faded, and a pair of white socks that could be seen to be quite old.

Although the clothes on his body are very old, both the kimono on his body and the socks on his feet are quite neat and clean.

The old lady came up to Ogata with a beaming smile.

After seeing Ogata's face clearly, the old woman seemed to smile even more happily.

"Hohohohoho~~" the old woman covered her mouth and smiled, "The new guest who came to the door today is a handsome young man, mother-in-law, my luck is really good today."

"Good evening, you should be Granny Cake, right?" Ogata couldn't help smiling at Granny Cake's ingenious opening remarks just now.

"Hooooooh~ Guest officer, you still know my mother-in-law's name, I'm so happy. Guest officer, do you want to have dinner here, or do you want to stay?"

"Do you still provide food here? Then I want dinner and accommodation."

"okay!"

Granny Cake quickly quoted a price.

The price was still cheap, so Ogata readily agreed.

Guided by Granny Cake, Ogata carried his small amount of luggage to the second floor of the hotel.

The hotel has 2 floors, and each floor has different functions-the first floor is a restaurant, and the second floor is a hotel.

Combination of board and lodging - the function of this hotel is very complete.

But after going up to the second floor of the hotel with the cake mother-in-law, Ogata was surprised to find that he seemed to be the only guest in the hotel at present.

Granny Cake, who was walking in front, seemed to notice the confusion on Ogata's face behind her, and said softly with a smile:

"Guest officer, you are wondering why there are no guests here, right?"

"This is also inevitable. After all, the location of the store is relatively remote, so the business has always been very ordinary."

Although Granny Cake's words were said with a smile, Ogata could still hear a bit of disappointment in Granny Cake's words...

...

After packing up his luggage in his room, Ogata followed Granny Gao back to the first floor, ready to enjoy today's dinner.

There are not many dishes that this hotel can provide, they are just some ordinary home-cooked dishes.

Although the dishes provided are just ordinary home-cooked dishes, Grandma Cake's cooking skills are quite good. Even if it's just ordinary home-cooked dishes, Ogata still eats them with relish.

Because there is only one guest, Ogata, there are only two people in this hotel, Ogata and Granny Gao.

After serving all the dishes that Ogata had ordered, Granny Cake walked towards Ogata with a few pieces of cakes with rather peculiar shapes.

"Guest officer, come here. Please use it."

"I didn't order this..."

"Grandma, I invited you to eat." Grandma Cake covered her mouth and smiled, "This is a specialty of my hometown, Omi Kusatsu: Grandma Cake."

"It's my favorite food."

"It's also something I love to share with my guests."

"It's rare that a young and handsome guest came today, so I invite you to eat some! Come, eat quickly!"

"Handsome or something, I can't talk about it..." Xu Fang showed helplessness.

"I think you are handsome, guest officer." Granny Cake seems to like to cover her mouth with a smile, "Even though I am quite old, I still like to see handsome young guys."

"This is very similar to my husband."

"My husband is also a lot of old and still likes to look at beautiful young girls."

"Whenever I see a pretty young girl, I stare at the back of the neck and at the bare feet without the ankle bags."

Granny Cake is so enthusiastic, it is quite difficult for Ogata to refuse.

After picking up the pastry called "Grandma's Cake" passed by the pastry mother-in-law, Ogata did not rush to stuff it into his mouth, but looked it up and down several times.

—— Rice cakes...

After simply looking up and down several times, Ogata found that this grandma's cake seemed to be just a strangely shaped rice cake.

Now the rice cake is covered with a layer of red bean paste, and then a piece of white rice cake is placed on the red bean paste.

Its size is just big enough for Ogata to eat one in a mouthful.

Throwing the grandma cake in his hand directly into his mouth, the sweetness immediately filled Ogata's entire mouth.

"More than two hundred years ago, when Rokkaku Yoshiken was attacked by Oda Nobunaga, Rokkaku Yoshin entrusted his great-grandson to his wet nurse."

"The wet nurse makes mochi cakes in her hometown and sells them on the main streets to support the great-grandson of Rokkaku Yoshiken."

"Because this pastry resembles a wet nurse's breasts, it is called 'Grandma's Cake'..."

When Ogata was chewing the grandma cake in his mouth, the pastry woman sitting beside Ogata introduced the history of this grandma cake to Ogata.

Ogata has no interest in the history of grandma cakes.

But he couldn't bear to interrupt the nurse's words, or showed obvious impatience on his face.

After all, he really likes this enthusiastic Grandma Cake, so in order not to hurt Grandma Cake, Ogata chose to be patient, pretending to be very interested and listening carefully, while listening to Grandma Cake's "History Lesson" ", while nodding from time to time.

...

While Ogata was quietly listening to Granny Cake's history lesson——

"Master Hasegawa, here we are. This should be Xinri Village. Tsk...it's so late, I don't know if there are enough hotels yet."

"In short, let's look for each room first. It's convenient to find a place where you can live."

...

After finally talking enough about the history of grandma's cakes, Granny Cake changed the subject:

"Guest officer, you are from Izumo, right?"

Ogata frowned: "How do you know?"

"Because mother-in-law, I have received several guests from Izumo, so I can tell from your accent that you are from Izumo."

"By the way, guest officer, let me take the liberty to ask—is this your birthmark?" Granny Cake raised her finger and pointed to her left neck.

"Yeah." Ogata touched the deep purple flesh on his left neck, "Yes, this is my birthmark. Fortunately, this birthmark is on my neck. If it grows on my face, I will be disfigured .”

The place Granny Cake pointed to was naturally the place where the immortal poison was lurking.

The place where the immortal poison lurks—that is, the flesh of Ogata's left neck is still dark purple.

This is not the first time Ogata has been asked what happened to his left neck.

And Ogata has now figured out the best answer to these questions—these are birthmarks.

Granny Gao looked at the deep purple patches on Ogata's neck, her eyes revealing the color of memory:

"I really miss it... My son also has a birthmark on his neck, but his birthmark is red and not that big..."

After withdrawing her eyes from Ogata's neck, Granny Gao then asked Ogata:

"You ran all the way from Izumo to Kyoto, probably to attend the Gion Festival?"

"Ah?" Hearing Granny Cake's question, Ogata was taken aback for a moment, then quickly reacted and nodded, "Oh, um. Yes, that's right. I'm here to participate in the Gion Festival."

It's not convenient for him to tell Granny Cake the real purpose of his coming to Kyoto, so Ogata decided to just talk nonsense to fool Granny Cake.

"Then you came just in time." Granny Cake covered her mouth and smiled, "Today is already July 16, and tomorrow will be the busiest time for the Gion Festival."

"Guest officer, if you spend one night at night, you won't be able to catch up with the busiest tomorrow."

Ogata didn't know much about the Gion Festival, and he didn't even know why tomorrow would be the busiest day of the Gion Festival—and he didn't want to know.

After all, he didn't come to Kyoto to attend the Gion Festival.

So for what Granny Cake said just now, Ogata just smiled slightly, and even said perfunctory words like "Yeah, I'm so lucky".

"Tomorrow, I'm going to close the store for a day."

A look of longing appeared on Granny Cake's face.

"Tomorrow is the busiest day of the Gion Festival, so I have to join in the fun."

"Hohoho~ I'm really looking forward to tomorrow."

"It's a pity that no one is going with me, so I don't dare to play too much."

"Huh?" Ogata raised his eyebrows, "Grandma Gao, are you going alone?"

"Of course. After all, I don't have any family anymore."

Confusion crept up Ogata's cheek.

"My husband died of illness three years ago."

"After my husband passed away, I had a son, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson."