As a result, as soon as Sanako, who was deeply embarrassed, uttered the words "I want to know more about you", he immediately looked away from Qingden in confusion.

Looking at the white snow in front of my toes, I didn't dare to look at Qingdeng again.

Although the surrounding environment where he was carving was very dim, the shy pink that was slowly climbing up Sanako's cheeks was still clearly visible.

Qingdeng raised his eyebrows in surprise and was shocked.

Doesn't he understand Sanako's character yet?

Sanako is a more reserved person than the introverted Mai Kinoshita.

Such a girl actually asked such a bold question...

It's really surprising.

Since Sanako is so courageous, it would be a bit too unkind for Qingto not to respond to the other person as soon as possible and to help him get out of his embarrassing emotions as soon as possible.

"My past... Hahaha, this topic is not too interesting."

Qingden paused for a moment, digging into the memory of "Original Orange Qingden" and concentrating on where to start.

"My mother passed away not long after I was born, so I don't have many memories of my mother."

"As for my father... his name is Tachibana Takayuki. The 'Long' in Xinglong, the 'Zhi' in Zhihuo. The same name as the town of Kitaban."

"Well...if you ask me to elaborate on what kind of person my father is, I really don't know what to say for a while."

"To put it simply...he is a very ordinary, ordinary person."

"He has ordinary looks, ordinary abilities, and ordinary political achievements. He has been working in the position designated by Beiban for nearly twenty years."

"In these twenty years, he has neither made any big mistakes, nor has he accomplished any great achievements."

"Aside from his honest and kind personality and his good popularity, my father seems to have no merits worthy of praise."

"Logically speaking, a person like my father, who is content and follows the rules, should live his life plainly but peacefully."

"As a result... I don't know whether he made bad friends at some time or for some other reason. He suddenly became addicted to gambling. He went to the casino owned by the Qingshui clan every day to have fun."

"No matter how lucky a person is, it is impossible to win money forever. Therefore, as long as you are addicted to gambling, you will definitely lose everything in the end."

"It didn't take long for my father to lose all the family's money and be saddled with huge debts."

"Not long after my family became destitute due to my father's excessive gambling, my father fell ill and passed away."

"There is nothing to elaborate on what happens next."

"Although after my father became addicted to gambling, many people who had a very good relationship with his father became alienated from him."

"But there are still a group of people who will never abandon their father from beginning to end."

"For example, my father's old colleagues: Mr. Arima, Mr. Inotani, and Mr. Ushiyama."

"Another example is Otsuki Minoru's father: Mr. Toshizo Miyagawa."

"Not only did they help organize my father's funeral, they also helped me take over my father's job later and helped me successfully seize my father's official position."

"It can be said that I would not be able to be where I am today without the help of these old friends of my father."

"Without the help of these seniors, I might have to make a living by doing small jobs."

Sanako played the role of a "listener" very well.

She listened quietly the whole time without saying a word.

When she heard that Tachibana Takayuki was addicted to gambling, which caused the family to bear huge debts, and later passed away due to illness, she raised her head and beautiful eyes and looked at Qingden.

His face and eyes were filled with shock and regret.

"Then... have you paid off all the debts owed by your father?"

"I paid it off...ah, no. I shouldn't say 'paid off'. It should be said that I was exempted from it by the Yakuza of the Qingshui clan."

"Exempted?"

"Well. After I became famous, the Qingshui clan probably wanted to win over and please me. With a stroke of a pen, they canceled all the gambling debts left by my father."

"That's it...that's good."

"All in all, my past is basically like this. There is nothing worth mentioning."

Qingden smiled and shrugged.

"...um...uh...uh..."

Sanako, who had always behaved in a dignified manner, looked like he was hesitating to speak and hesitated.

Qingdeng turned his head when he heard the sound and looked towards her face.

I saw that Sanako was reluctant to look at Qingden.

Even if their eyes met for an instant, they would move away reluctantly.

After a long while, Sanazi said vaguely:

"That... Mr. Orange... you... you... ah, please forgive me... that..."

Qingden heard it immediately: Sanako wanted to comfort him and bring comfort to him who had such a tragic past.

"Miss Sanako, thank you for your concern."

Qingdeng smiled.

"These are things that happened a long time ago, and I don't care about them long ago."

After finishing speaking, Qingden added in his mind:

——Tachibana-kun is not my real father after all...

Takayuki Tachibana is the father of "Original Tachibana Aoden", not Aoden's.

When retrieving the memory of "Original Tachibana Aoden", Aoden felt like he was watching a movie.

He will be touched by the plot of the movie, but that's it. He won't fall in love with a character in the movie or hate it so much that he will gnash his teeth just because he watched a movie.

Therefore, Qingnobo really didn't have any deep feelings about Tachibana Takayuki's death.

Hearing Qingden say this, Sanako's expression improved a little.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, gusts of cold wind mixed with scattered snowflakes hit Qingto and Sanako head-on.

The coldness ran along Sanako's collar to the inside of her clothes, and then passed through two large and round hemispherical arcs and rolled into her belly.

Sanako, who was afraid of the cold, immediately shivered, raised her arms, covered her stomach with one hand, and blocked her chest with the other.

Seeing this, Qingto pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then, as if he had made up his mind, he took half a step in the direction of Sanako, stood closer to Sanako, and then untied his neck.

The scarf he wore was only half untied - half remained on his neck, and the other half was gently wrapped around Sanako's swan neck.

Suddenly, Sanako's beautiful eyes widened. She looked dumbfounded at the black scarf around her neck that connected her to Qingden.

"Tachibana-kun, what are you doing?"

Sanako pretended to be calm.

"This way, the wind will not get inside the clothes."

Qingdeng said with a smile.

"This...this...it would be bad if someone saw this..."

While Sanako raised his eyes and glanced around worriedly, he raised his hand to grab the scarf and tried to take it off.

Qingden rushed to take off the scarf and said with a smile:

"Just think of this as a thank you gift for accompanying me tonight to rescue Otsuki Tsuneji."

Hearing this, Sanazi couldn't help laughing and joked:

"Thank you? Isn't this thank you too simple and casual?"

"Hahaha, no matter what, just accept this little gift from me with peace of mind."

"..."

Sanako was still hesitating, but her reach for the scarf slowed down a lot.

Qingden launched a new "offensive" at the right moment...or in other words, gave Sanako a new step that he could take advantage of with peace of mind.

"If you catch a cold or catch a cold, it will affect your swordsmanship practice."

"...There's really nothing I can do against you."

Sanako's pair of jade hands that were originally raised in the air to untie the scarf continued to reach towards her pink neck, grabbing the soft fabric that retained Aintō's body temperature - no longer untying the scarf, but putting the scarf away

Tighter.

"...I won't do it next time."

Sanako's side face looked a little shy when she said this.

As if she didn't want Qingdeng to see her shy expression, she lowered her head and slipped half of her face into the warm scarf.
To be continued...