[Transparent World] (01) Author: Cassano

Author: Casano
Word Count: 5728

(I)

Japan, a mysterious island nation that many people yearn for and are curious about, especially young men.

Because I studied in Japan during my university years, I have more experience and feelings about this country
, but unlike the typical angry young man who hates it.

Whether it's the caviar sushi in Otaru or the beef udon in Kagawa Prefecture, I still remember it fondly.
The prosperity and liveliness of Ginza is indeed a great attraction for young women. My girlfriend during my studies abroad
often dragged me there on dates.

Akihabara is a different kind of liveliness. Whether it's antique Famicom game cartridges from the last century or
the latest comic books and magazines, or cosplayers dressed in all sorts of different styles, you can see them all.
It can be said to be a gathering place for ACG culture and trendy men and women. If I went there now at my age, I would probably
be considered a weird old man.

After returning to China, I worked in a foreign-funded company in a job related to international trade. Perhaps because of
my experience studying in Japan, the company's upper management assigned me the work of trading with Japan.

Even now, after I got married, I'm still in the same department and position, only with a promotion.

During my studies in Japan, I made a very good Japanese friend named Hideki Takahashi—a
rather delicate-sounding name. He was my classmate, and when I was alone in Japan, without any relatives or friends, he took great care of me
, often pointing out things I didn't know.

My rapid improvement in Japanese was thanks to him, and in return, I naturally taught him Chinese,
though his accent wasn't very standard.

During my work, the nature of my job gave me many opportunities to travel to Japan, so I
visited my old friend of many years. At that time, I was dating in China, and when I arrived at his house, I was
told he was already married, which I found unbelievable.

Hideki is a very excellent man, as diligent as many Japanese people are at work. I thought he
would stabilize his career before considering his personal life.

Although I felt embarrassed, I still secretly asked him
about getting married so early, and he just smiled mysteriously and didn't answer.

Hideki's wife, Rina Ito, was a traditional Japanese woman. She didn't possess
a strikingly beautiful appearance at first glance, but rather a gentle and refined demeanor. Perhaps many Japanese women are like this
; they might be wild and carefree before marriage, but once married, they become devoted wives and mothers—the opposite
of the situation .

That time, I had a meal with Hideki and hurriedly returned to my residence. Although he earnestly invited me to stay
for a few days, I had to rush back due to work commitments.

My last meeting with Hideki was a year ago. At that time, I couldn't believe how quickly
life could come and go. I specially prepared a gift to visit him, and his appearance upon first meeting
could only be described as emaciated. He looked like a blood-sucked corpse, his
cheekbones unusually prominent.

Upon inquiry, I learned that his wife, Rina, had passed away from lung cancer two months prior. Although I
hadn't spoken much with his wife, I was still happy that my old friend had found such a good wife
. Their marriage was barely beginning, and yet this tragedy had already occurred.

During that time, aside from handling business and work matters in the mornings, I would frequently visit him.
Fortunately, Osaka, where he lived, was also where I worked, so I didn't have to travel back and forth.

Every time I finished work, I would take him out for drinks. Although he seemed ill-suited to
such potent remedies, at least it helped him temporarily forget his troubles.

Hideki wasn't a heavy drinker, but he insisted on toasting me each time, seemingly seeking
solace as well.

By the time I had settled everything and was about to return home, his spirits had improved slightly, but he was still
far from reassuring.

Hideki's father lived in the countryside, not with him; he lived alone in the house. This
made me uneasy even after leaving Japan. Later, I specifically asked several other friends from my studies abroad
to visit him whenever they had time, lest I hear devastating news one day.

Later, I got married myself and took a three-month leave from work to
go on my honeymoon abroad with my wife. When I returned, I had a mountain of unfinished work waiting for me, and I was so
busy completely forgot about Hideki. It wasn't

until my recent business trip to Japan that I started thinking about my old friend again. I wanted to
call him first, but I was afraid of getting a reply like "The number you dialed is not answered,
" which would scare me.

This business trip wasn't in Osaka, but it went exceptionally smoothly, giving us
a lot of free time. My companions were both men and women, all young, and naturally didn't like me, a married
man, hanging around. But I was thinking of my old friend, so I went off to do my own thing with them.

I took the earliest train and didn't arrive in Osaka until noon the next day. When I rang
the doorbell at Hideki's house, I heard footsteps coming from inside shortly after.

A young girl, probably in her early twenties, opened the door. She was tanned a sexy
chocolate brown all over, dressed in the classic Shibuya-style gyaru look, radiating youthful energy.

But I wasn't in the mood to appreciate this unique beauty; my heart skipped a beat, a bad
feeling creeping over me.

The girl asked in a very friendly tone, "Hello, who are you looking for?"

I nervously replied, "Hello, is this Takahashi Hideki's house? I'm his friend
."

For the next few seconds, I was terrified, afraid the girl would say something I couldn't accept.

But the girl didn't follow my expected script. Instead, she said in an unusually cheerful tone
, "Oh! You must be Mr. Inoue Kazuya!"

I chose the name Inoue Kazuya myself when I was studying in Japan. The surname Inoue came from my fondness for the manga *SlamDunk* by
Takehiko Inoue, but the given name didn't hold much significance.

When Hideki heard my name, he guessed that I liked Slam Dunk. He said
many Chinese students studying in Japan have names like that, and he himself was a Slam Dunk fan, which gave us
a lot to talk about.

I was surprised that this girl I was meeting for the first time knew my Japanese name, but at the same time, a glimmer of light appeared in my
gloomy heart.

"Yes, I'm Inoue Kazuya. How did you know my name?"

To my question, the girl gave me a mysterious and ambiguous smile. For a moment, I did have a strange feeling that
'Japanese girls are really interesting. ' Seeing that I was dumbfounded and couldn't answer, she gave me another charming smile, indicating that she was letting me off the hook, and turned around and shouted loudly into the house, "Darling, come out quickly, come and see who's here." At that time, I had a rough idea of who the girl was, but I still wanted to wait for the owner of the house to confirm before I dared to be sure. After the girl called out, that long-lost voice came from inside the house: "Who is it, Mao? Who is it?" Looking at Hideki, who still seemed half-asleep and disheveled, I forgot all about etiquette and ran , giving him a tight hug. Hideki seemed startled by my sudden action, only snapping out of his daze after exclaiming, "Kazuya! It's you! It really is you! I was wondering why you hadn't come to see me for so long!" He punched me hard in the chest, but the joy in my heart made me oblivious to the pain. After we both calmed down, I realized I was still wearing shoes, and the girl named Mao kindly and gently offered me a pair of slippers. I kept apologizing . Hideki pulled me all the way to the living room; he was too excited to speak, and so was I. Hideki stared at my face for a long time, making me a little uncomfortable. "Kazuya-kun, you've changed. " I was puzzled. How could I have changed so suddenly? "Ah! Really? I didn't notice." I touched my face. Hideki looked at my comical movements and couldn't help but laugh out loud, finally solving the mystery: "No, no, no, it's not that you look different, but rather, there's a happy look on your face now. Something amazing must have happened recently." "I wondered what it was. I've been thinking about it for so long. You could go be a fortune teller now." I didn't know how Hideki figured out that I had recently gotten married, but I was genuinely happy that he could joke so easily, without any of the despair he felt after Rina's death. "Fortune teller? You mean those people in China who draw cards to test your luck? Haha, I guess I'm right ." I nodded and told him that I was already married. "Oh! You got married and didn't even tell me? Was it one of those traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies? I'd love to see what it's like." Since my wife and I both studied abroad, we share similar values and ideas. We wanted a simple wedding, and after getting permission from both sets of parents, we went on a destination wedding , so we didn't invite anyone. "It was just a regular destination wedding, nothing special. Didn't you tell ?" I said half-jokingly. As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them, nervously watching Hideki's reaction, and began to blame myself for my slip of the tongue, fearing it would remind him of his ex-wife, Rina. To my surprise, Hideki's sadness only flashed across his face for a moment before he grinned and said , "Yeah, I don't know what came over me back then, I just wanted to get married as soon as possible, and even my family didn't find out ." I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then thought of the chocolate-skinned hot girl , and changed the subject, "By the way, who was that girl earlier? I've never seen her before." Since we came into the living room to chat, that girl had conscientiously poured herself a cup of tea and gone . Hideki gave an ambiguous and somewhat shy smile: "She's my current wife." I was so shocked that I almost spat out the tea in my mouth. "What! My current wife? You mean you married that girl?" It had only been less than a year since I last saw Hideki, and if he hadn't said anything, I would have guessed that the girl was his new wife. Only after receiving Hideki's confirmation did I believe it. "Tell me quickly, what exactly happened? How did you meet her?" If I truly thought Hideki's deceased ex-wife, Rina, was the perfect wife candidate when I met her, then Mao, in terms of appearance, dress, and age, was completely mismatched with Hideki, which inevitably piqued my curiosity. Hideki then told me Mao's story bit by bit. It turned out that after I left that time, he was still unable to get over Rina's death. Even though his old friends visited and comforted him one after another, he still couldn't cheer up. Until one time, when he went to a hotel to drown his sorrows, he accidentally bumped into Mao. For some reason, Mao seemed interested in this heartbroken man and started talking to him. Perhaps he was drunk, or perhaps he had too much pain to vent, because he actually started telling this girl he had only known for a short time about his love story with Rina. Mao listened attentively as he poured out his troubles. When Hideki finally awoke from his drunken stupor , he was in an unfamiliar room—Mao's rented apartment. After this incident, Hideki and Mao became acquainted, even exchanging kisses. In the days that followed Mao would frequently ask Hideki out. Perhaps it was this young girl's unique energy and optimism that made Hideki slowly forget Rina, shifting his focus and attention to Mao. The longer he spent with Mao, the more Hideki realized why he had never noticed before—it was because...

Girls can be this cute! If Rina is the traditional, virtuous type, then Mao is
bold and lively, which revived Hideki's previously barren heart.

"So, you got married after knowing each other for only a short time?"

"Yes, I knew she was the one I wanted to spend my next life with, so I
proposed to her without hesitation."

As he spoke, Hideki couldn't help but smile, probably thinking of something amusing.

Although I was happy that my old friend had been able to stand up again, I had many
opinions . No matter what, I still felt that she wasn't suitable for marriage, at least not for Hideki.

But what's done is done, and I had nothing to say. I could only pray that their marriage would be happy and wouldn't
bring any more pain to this sorrowful man.

Before I knew it, it was evening. Hideki knew that I had finished my work and insisted that
I stay at his house for a few days. I rarely had such an opportunity to see him, so naturally, I accepted.

Mao prepared all the dinner that evening, handling everything from stir-fries to soups with ease. This
significantly changed my opinion of her. As two men and longtime friends, our reunion naturally involved drinks
.

To be honest, neither Hideki nor I are particularly good drinkers, but once we started, we both acted like we could drink
a thousand cups without a second thought. Mao occasionally joined in.

We ended up reminiscing about embarrassing moments from our university days, clapping and laughing heartily at the funny parts. Mao listened quietly the whole time, occasionally chiming in with a comment or two, quite unlike
her demure appearance . Finally, we were completely drunk. Hideki collapsed onto the table, and although I was still somewhat conscious, my body and limbs were completely out of my control. Mao, seeing our pathetic state, shook her head with a wry smile. She struggled to carry Hideki back to the bedroom, while I, with her help, half-supported and half- leaned against her, made my way back to my own room. Perhaps the alcohol was really taking effect, because when I finally reached the bed, I suddenly lost all strength and collapsed onto the tatami mat. Since my arm was still around Mao's neck, I also pulled her down to the floor. The young girl gasped in surprise. I don't know if it's because people are drunk and their bodies are full of alcohol, making them particularly heavy, but Mao struggled to push me up for a long time before I finally got up. At that point, I didn't care about anything else and just lay there, feeling like I would fall asleep any minute . But then Mao showed the gentle and caring side of a married woman. She carefully pulled my head and tried to straighten me onto the bed, then started helping me take off my coat. The warmth she felt was just like that of my own wife. I even started to have illusions, thinking that the woman taking care of me was my wife . When she pulled down my pants, I clearly heard a gasp. At that moment, my brain was too numb to think, and I couldn't figure out what was happening. My eyelids were too heavy to open. It wasn't until quite a while later that I felt Mao's soft little hand on my waist again. She laboriously helped me take off my trousers, then covered me with the blanket and left. When I woke up the next day, it was almost noon. I got up, feeling dizzy and disoriented, and ran into Mao as I went to the bathroom to wash up. "Ah! Good morning." She smiled, covering her face. I realized it was almost noon, so there was no need for a good morning, and I couldn't help but . "Last night was so embarrassing. I hope I didn't bother you." Although I had forgotten a lot of what happened last night, I still clearly remembered that Mao had taken me back to my room. She simply gave me a warm smile. "Mr. Kazuya must be hungry. I'll go prepare lunch now . I think Hideki should be up soon too." "Thank you so much." Watching Mao's back, I thought to myself how considerate Japanese girls were. Around midnight, Hideki woke up from his drunken stupor. He said he couldn't remember anything from the previous night, but he did tell us about an interesting dream he'd had. Just then, the landline rang. Mao answered, said a few words, and then rushed back to tell Hideki to answer the phone immediately. I sensed something was wrong. Sure enough, after hanging up, I learned that Hideki's father, who lived in the countryside, had accidentally fallen and injured himself while working in the fields. The call was made with the help of a neighbor, hoping Hideki could bring his father to the city for medical treatment. Besides expressing my sympathy, I offered to help Hideki bring his father over, knowing that Hideki's work was extremely demanding, with almost no rest time, and that getting time off would be difficult. Our long-standing friendship was on full display; he didn't stand on ceremony and agreed to my suggestion. (To be continued)

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