Edo, Koishikawa Kohinata Yanagi Town, Imperial Guard Hall——

"Zhouzhu, I just read our 'apprentice book'."

In the living room, Kondo Shusuke sat cross-legged on the floor, holding a cup of hot tea that was constantly steaming out in his hands, blowing cool air into the cup of hot tea.

His wife: Kondo Pen knelt down next to Kondo Shusuke in an extremely standard posture. With an expressionless face and a tone that was neither sad nor joyful, Kondo pen reported to Shusuke the recent business of their trial clinic.

Condition.

"It's been a whole month since the New Year this year, and we have only had two new apprentices in our training hall."

"After one month, there are only two new members... This is the most dismal month for our trial clinic in the past five years."

"Not only are there fewer new people, but there are also fewer old people."

"As of the end of this month, there are three more apprentices who have not come to our training hall to practice swordsmanship for half a year and have not paid tuition for us..."

"Ah." Zhou Zhu, who had been listening quietly to A Bi's report, now took a sip of the tea in the cup, and then let out a low cry of surprise, "Madam, have you changed it to new tea?"

Abi paused, then showed a faint smile.

"Oh? You can taste it? Your tongue is very powerful."

"This is a new tea sent to me by my mother-in-law. Does it taste good?"

Zhou Zhu nodded vigorously: "It tastes good. It tastes very refreshing."

"As long as you like it."

After saying that, Abi cleared his throat and returned to his expressionless and serious expression.

"Okay, let's get back to business."

"Now, let's try the 'Apprentice Book' in the Guard Hall. The contents inside are so miserable that I can hardly stand it anymore."

"There are only 28 apprentices who often come to our training hall and pay their tuition on time..."

"Ah!" Zhou Zhu exclaimed again at this time.

He handed the tea cup in his hand towards A Bi.

"Madam, look, the tea stalk is standing up."

Zhoushu grinned and showed a happy smile.

"It's been a long time since I've seen the tea stem stand up while drinking tea!"

"It looks like something good is going to happen in the future!"

In Japan, there is a superstitious legend that "Once the tea stem in the teacup stands up, it means something good is going to happen."

Abi glanced at the tea stem in the teacup, and then looked at Zhouzhu.

"call!"

Abi blew hard on the tea stem in the cup.

The tea stalk slowly circled in the tea for several times before sinking to the bottom of the cup.

"Ah! My tea stalk!" Zhouzhu wailed.

"'Good things will happen when the tea stems stand up' - this is just a boring superstition." Abi said coldly, "As a noble warrior, how can you believe in such a boring superstition?"

After briefly reprimanding Zhou Zhuyi, Abi turned the topic back to "the management issues of the trial guard hall".

"The operation of the trial health center is getting worse and worse, and the price of firewood, rice, oil and salt on the market is getting more and more expensive."

"Our family is a big family."

"You, me, Yong, Souji, Yuan, count 5 mouths for eating."

"If this continues, it will be a problem for us to even eat..."

"Ah." Zhousuke suddenly exclaimed again, "Speaking of which...why haven't Yong and Souji come back yet..."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A Bi raised his hand and patted the tatami beside her several times.

“Don’t keep changing the topic!!!”

Zhou Zhu, who was yelled at by A Bi, shivered a few times and shrank his neck.

"I'm telling you something very serious! Don't interrupt me again and again!"

Abi's slender red phoenix eyes, with the corners pulled upward, made her look quite scary at this moment.

Zhousuke's body trembled a few more times.

He raised his narrowed eyes and carefully looked at the lady beside him

"Madam... similar topics... my ears are almost ringing..."

"The current operating conditions of our trial clinic are very bad...of course I know that."

“But improving the current operating conditions of the sword hall will not happen overnight.”

"Yong and I have been working very hard to improve the current economic situation of the Trial Guard Hall, but..."

"Working very hard?" Before Zhou Zhu could finish his words, Ah Bi's eyebrows stood up even more, "What's the use of just working hard?"

Abi patted the tatami next to him vigorously a few more times.

"If hard work can be effective, then wouldn't those farmers who work hard from dawn to dusk and work hard to cultivate the land become rich early?"

"The most important thing is 'results', right?"

“I have been working hard, but it has been ineffective – what is the difference between this and no effort?”

"Madam, what you say is too much..." Zhou Zhu said weakly with his shoulders hunched and his neck drooped.

"What's too much?!" A Bi directed his sharp, dagger-like gaze at Zhou Zhu.

"It's nothing..." Zhou Assistant silently retracted his gaze from A Bi.

at this time--

Wow...

From the direction of the entrance, there was the sound of the door being pushed open.

"We're back!"

It was Okita's voice.

Listening to this voice, Zhouzhu, who was made uncomfortable by the suffocating atmosphere, quickly said to Abi as if he was grasping a life-saving straw:

"Ah, Isamu and Souji are back... huh?"

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Zhu was stunned for a moment.

Also stunned was Abi.

Both of them discovered that the footsteps... were too much...

This long series of footsteps moved from the entrance to the living room door.

Wow - the door to the living room was opened.

Shusuke and Abi looked in shock at Kondo and Okita who pushed open the living room door... Aoto, Saito, and Kyuubei behind them...

…

…

Edo, in a certain inconspicuous house——

"Todo, that means - only Miyabe was caught by that Tachibana Aoden?" Sitting upright behind a desk, he was looking carefully at a piece of paper covered with dense words the size of tadpoles.

Kamino asked a young man with only one right arm behind him.

"Yes." The one-armed young man...the young samurai whom Kamino called "Fudo" nodded gently, "Everyone except Miyabe escaped successfully."

"...It's really useless." Kamino suddenly tightened his grip on the brush in his hand, and the wooden penholder made an overwhelming "creep" sound, "I can't even set it on fire..."

"Forget it, Miyabu is just an insignificant pawn anyway. He doesn't know the important information within our anti-barbarian group. If he is caught, just arrest him."

"Did Tachibana Aoden's house burn down successfully?"

"Tachibana Aoden's home has now been perfectly reduced to a pile of charred ruins." Todo grinned, "It's a pity that Tachibana Aoden couldn't be burned to death."

"It doesn't matter." Kamino said, "I never expected to burn Tachibana Aoden to death from the beginning."

"I can burn down his house and give him a little warning."

"Mr. Kamino, what should we do next?" Todo asked, "Are we going to continue to take revenge on Tachibana Aoden? It feels like just burning his home down seems a bit unsatisfactory."

"That's enough." Kamino put the paper in his hand on the low table in front of him, "The reason why I decided to burn Tachibana Aoden's house was just to give him a warning."

"Warning Ju Qingden: We will not forget the revenge that caused us to suffer a humiliating defeat. This revenge must be avenged."

"Now that the warning has been successfully given, I plan to do nothing for the next period of time and let Tachibana Aoden be free for a while."

"Next, I plan to focus on reforming our anti-barbarian group."

Kamino's brows frowned slightly at this time.

"The defeat of Suehiro and the others made me fully realize that we had only focused on expanding the number of people before, so our team is now a mixed bag. Although the number of people has increased, the combat power has not increased."
To be continued...