Chapter 102: Ginnosuke Nohara’s Plan! Heading To Tokyo To Find His Little Son!
However, while the center of the storm was gathering power in Tokyo’s steel forest, power sufficient to subvert the era, the source of the storm, that distant land that had nurtured all of this, remained tranquil as if time itself had stagnated.
Akita Prefecture, Omagari City.
There were no sleepless neon lights of Ginza, no surging crowds of Shibuya, only endless emerald rice fields, under July’s blazing sunlight, like a massive emerald carpet laid out by deities, stretching continuously toward the distant horizon.
In the Nohara Family Home, that Japanese-style old house filled with traces of years, the air was filled with the unique fragrance of tatami mixed with soil.
“Outrageous! Truly outrageous!”
A roar full of vigor yet carrying a bit of childish annoyance broke the afternoon tranquility.
Ginnosuke Nohara, the family head of the Nohara family, was at this moment like an enraged mountain deity, puffing out his cheeks as he sat cross-legged on the tatami.
On his weathered face, two thick eyebrows identical to those of his youngest son were now twisted into an angry “river” shape, and those small eyes that always sparkled with cunning light were now fixed dead on the old Sharp television in front of him, filled with complex emotions.
There was pride, gratification, but more than that, a kind of jealousy like an old father being harshly slapped on the beach by his own younger generation.
On the TV screen, a in-depth interview program from 《Tokyo Film and Television News》 was being broadcast.
In the image, that young person dressed properly, speaking eloquently to the lens, radiating a dazzling light called “elite” from head to toe, was none other than his youngest son Hiroshi Nohara, who had left home to make his way in Tokyo?
“Look at this! Look at this unfilial son!”
Ginnosuke Nohara put his hands on his hips, using a tone as if accusing a heartless lover, complaining to his old wife Tsuru Nohara, who was slowly tidying the tea set beside him: “Our Nohara family, generation after generation, has been down-to-earth farmers facing the yellow soil with backs to the sky! How did such an unfilial son come out, running off to do television movies?!”
“Only half a year out of university! Half a year! And he’s made the entire Neon Country know him! He doesn’t even come home to visit! Does he still have me this old man in his eyes?!”
As he spoke, he subconsciously puffed out his chest, that pride belonging to an old father ultimately couldn’t be hidden, quietly leaking out from the edge of his puffed cheeks.
“Heheheh…”
Tsuru Nohara, this woman who had spent her life with gentleness and patience accommodating all the improper behavior of her husband, at this moment just covered her mouth, letting out a soft laugh as warm and moist as a clear spring.
In her eyes, already etched with fine lines by the years yet still clear and bright, were filled with indulgence and helplessness.
“Child’s dad, your words are unreasonable.” She wiped the washed tea cups one by one with a clean cotton cloth, her movements unhurried, full of the zen of life: “That child Hiroshi calls us every week without fail to report he’s safe, doesn’t he? Last month, didn’t he specially wire a million yen from a bank in Tokyo, saying to let you stop going to the fields all the time, buy some good liquor to drink, and let me get a few new clothes.”
As she spoke, the corners of Tsuru Nohara’s eyes curved like crescent moons with a smile: “Isn’t that enough?”
“Not enough! Of course not enough!”
Ginnosuke Nohara’s eyebrows twisted even tighter, he pursed his lips, looking like a child who didn’t get candy: “What’s money? Am I Ginnosuke Nohara short of money? What I want is him! This brat to come back personally, kneel before me, and kowtow to me this father to admit his wrong!”
As he spoke, those restless small eyes began lecherously scanning back and forth over his old wife’s figure, which though over fifty, still retained its charm.
“But speaking of which, Ah Tsuru.” His voice suddenly lowered, full of an old rogue’s mysterious tone: “Are the Nohara family genes better than I imagined? Look at that kid Hiroshi, grown handsome and smart. Say… shouldn’t we respond to the national call, to prevent low birth rates, and make some effort for the Nohara family’s branching and scattering?”
“You this… shameless old thing!”
Tsuru Nohara’s face, always carrying a gentle smile, instantly flushed red, she grabbed the bamboo broom from the corner used for sweeping the courtyard, and made to swing it at her husband’s already “Mediterranean” head.
“Ow! Joking! Just joking!”
Ginnosuke Nohara got a fright and a jolt, hurriedly scrambling backward with hands and feet, that comical appearance had none of the dignity of a family head.
Tsuru Nohara looked at him like this, that broom held high ultimately didn’t come down.
She just helplessly shook her head, but deep in her eyes was a gentleness that couldn’t be melted away.
She knew, her old man, no matter how harsh his mouth, in his heart didn’t know how proud he was of that son far away in Tokyo.
‘Splash—’
At that moment, the slightly worn wooden sliding door at the entrance was pushed open from outside.
“I’m back.”
A steady and heavy voice came.
Then, a figure walked in against the light.
That was a young man who looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, his facial features seventy to eighty percent similar to the handsome young man on television, but his build was even more burly and robust, his skin constantly exposed to sunlight presenting a healthy wheat color, a pair of large hands covered with thick calluses from hard labor, the whole person emitting a plain yet reliable aura like the vast land of Akita Prefecture.
He was precisely the eldest son of the Nohara family, Hiroshi Nohara’s blood elder brother five years older—Nohara Hiroshi.
“Oh, Hiroshi’s back.”
The atmosphere in the living room, originally full of playfulness and warmth, inexplicably gained a touch of elder embarrassment the moment he appeared.
Ginnosuke Nohara instantly put away his grinning face, resumed the posture of a family head, cleared his throat, and gave a lukewarm “Mm.”
Tsuru Nohara also put down the broom in her hand, put back her gentle smile on her face, and quickly went up to greet him.
“Hiroshi, you’ve worked hard today too. Quick, take off your shoes and come in to rest.”
Hiroshi Nohara gave a honest smile, as told, took off his farm rubber shoes covered in soil at the entrance.
“If it were that kid Hiroshi, I wouldn’t dare let him take off shoes.” Tsuru Nohara handed him clean slippers while saying in a half-joking tone, but her words carried heartache for her youngest son.
“Hiroshi loved sports since childhood, no helping it.”
Hiroshi Nohara scratched his extremely short buzz cut, on that dark face appeared a simple smile: “He likes running on the court in clean sneakers. Me, I like going barefoot, stepping on the soft soil in the fields, feels solid.”
These words, plain and unadorned, also revealed the completely different life paths of the two brothers.
One chose to gaze at the stars.
One chose to keep feet on the ground.
“Hmph, what’s the use of feeling solid? Can’t even find a wife!”
At that moment, Ginnosuke Nohara’s dissatisfied voice rang out again.
He frowned, those sharp small eyes like two unsheathed daggers, fiercely stabbing toward his eldest son.
“Look at you! Almost thirty years old! Five whole years older than your younger brother! Hiroshi in Tokyo has even found a girlfriend, heard she’s a pretty girl from Kumamoto Prefecture, bringing her back for us to see over New Year! And you? As the elder brother, still single! Where do I put my old face?!”
These words made Hiroshi Nohara’s dark face instantly flush red.
He rubbed his pair of large callused hands somewhat awkwardly, his voice full of helplessness.
“Dad… this… this can’t blame me.” He defended in a small voice: “I want to find one too, but… but now the village girls all have eyes in the sky. They all like big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, like those office workers wearing suits in office buildings. Like me, staying in Omagari City a lifetime, guarding dozens of acres of crops, they… they think I’m countrified.”
These words pierced like a needle precisely into Ginnosuke Nohara’s heart full of local pride.
Also revealed this era’s unstoppable flood of urbanization, the cruelest impact on them these villagers clinging to tradition.
Although farming in Neon now with the agricultural cooperative isn’t poor.
But really not as decent as those office workers.
“Outrageous!”
Ginnosuke Nohara suddenly slapped his thigh, those small eyes shooting flames of anger: “What’s wrong with us farmers? Without us farmers working hard in the fields, what do those city people eat? Drink? One by one, forgetful of roots!”
He paced back and forth in anger, ultimately stopping powerlessly and dejectedly.
He knew, this wave of the era wasn’t something an old man like him could block with a few complaints.
The fact was just like this.
Ginnosuke Nohara looked at his honest but somewhat inarticulate eldest son, that old father’s heart anxious and angry.
“No! Can’t go on like this!”
Ginnosuke Nohara walked to Hiroshi Nohara, said in an unquestionable tone: “You go to Tokyo too! Find your younger brother! Have him introduce you some city girls! If really not… then… go to a custom shop first to find a woman, get used to it! Experience it!”
“You this improper old man! Spouting nonsense again?!”
Before Ginnosuke Nohara’s “tiger father admonition” full of wolfish words finished, a fist full of anger belonging to a housewife came with wind, heavily smashing on his back of the head!
“Ow!”
Ginnosuke Nohara let out a shrill wail, hugging his head, instantly squatting down.
Hiroshi Nohara looked at this familiar scene, on that dark face appeared a helpless can’t laugh or cry expression. He gave his mother a pleading look, then like greasing his feet, slipped into the kitchen.
“Mom, I’ll bring out dinner.”
……
When the steaming hot dinner was placed one by one on the low table, the atmosphere in the living room finally regained some tranquility.
Ginnosuke Nohara was full of resentment, rubbing his still faintly aching back of the head, muttering nonstop: “I was just saying… didn’t dare really let him go… Tsuru you really, hand too heavy…”
“You still say!”
Tsuru Nohara withdrew that fist ready to strike again, glaring at him: “Don’t teach our family’s Hiroshi bad! He’s not like your little son mixing in Tokyo’s flowery world, he’s honest!”
These words made Hiroshi Nohara, who was silently shoveling rice on the side, his dark face redden a few more degrees.
Dinner was simple and homey.
Miso soup emitting rich soy sauce fragrance, glutinous rice mixed with red beans, a few small fish fried golden and crispy, a plate of pan-fried tofu cold-mixed with soy sauce and chopped green onions, and… that bowl forever only for Hiroshi Nohara, as physical supplement for agricultural worker, piled like a small mountain of fatty and lean pork bone meat.
The family gathered around the low table, quietly eating.
Outside the window was the gradually sinking dusk and the intermittent frog croaks in the fields.
“Say…”
In this tranquility, Ginnosuke Nohara who had just been listless suddenly seemed to think of some brilliant idea, suddenly slapped the table, those small eyes flashing with excitement again.
“We… go to Tokyo!” he suddenly said.
“Hm?”
Tsuru Nohara and Hiroshi Nohara both lifted their heads, casting gazes at him.
“Go to Tokyo! Find that brat Hiroshi!”
Ginnosuke Nohara grew more excited, that old face overflowing with childish agitation: “Our family hasn’t gone traveling together in a long time! Just right, take this chance to see how that kid Hiroshi is doing in Tokyo! Also have him take us to see that legendary Tokyo Tower!”
“This… this won’t trouble Hiroshi too much?” A trace of worry appeared on Tsuru Nohara’s face: “He’s in the rising period of his career now, definitely very busy. Us going rashly, what if… we disturb him?”
“Trouble what?!”
Ginnosuke Nohara glared, that family head dignity online again: “I’m his father! You’re his mother! His brother is his blood brother! Us visiting him is perfectly justified! He dares say one ‘no’, see if I don’t break his legs back in Akita!”
As he spoke, he seemed to already see himself standing on the prosperous Ginza street, pointing at the passing pretty girls.
That old face uncontrollably showed again a lecherous and expectant, squinting smile.
He even lowered his voice, muttering in a volume only he could hear: “Heheheh… heard Tokyo’s younger sisters are really… juicy…”
‘Pa!’
Before his muttering full of pink fantasies finished, a figure had come behind him, using fists to vigorously mess up his head.
“Sigh.” Hiroshi Nohara helplessly lowered his head to eat hard, pretending to see nothing.
And in his ears rang again his old dad’s familiar shrill wail full of pain and regret.
“Ow! Tsuru! I was wrong! I really was wrong! I won’t dare again!!”
PS: Daily life chapter! Write more! Everyone support more!
