】!【8500】

Perhaps because of his darker skin tone and rougher skin texture, Inoue looks a little older.

Obviously he is only 31 years old this year, just past his thirties, but he looks like an old man who is in his late 40s.

From the interactions between Inoue and Shusuke, Kondo, Okita and others, it is not difficult to see that the Kondo family really treats Inoue as a family member.

Zhousuke talked to Inoue with a warm attitude as if he were treating his beloved relatives and friends.

A Bi, who usually had a stinking face, rarely lost the coldness on his face.

Kondo and Okita looked at Inoue with eyes full of respect and trust.

As a person with a foreign surname, Inoue could actually hold such a lofty status in the Imperial Guard Hall and the Kondo family... Qingto understood this quite well.

After all, Qingto also admired Inoue's story when he heard it.

Before formally meeting Inoue tonight, even before he knew what Inoue looked like, Qingto was already full of respect for the old man from the Imperial Guard Hall.

In a previous chat, Okita once said to Ayoto: After Inoue moved into the trial hall, he spontaneously took care of almost all the housework such as laundry, cleaning, and cooking. He scrubbed the dojo floor, cleaned the bamboo sword, etc.

Inoue often rushes to do all kinds of hard and tiring work that is necessary to run a sword hall.

Whenever someone asks Inoue why he has to do these dirty words, hard work, and hard work so hard and without complaint, the old man always replies cheerfully:

"Because these things are very interesting. Don't you think it is very interesting to build and take care of your favorite sword hall with your own hands? I enjoy it anyway."

In short - Inoue Genzaburo is a diligent old scalper in the trial defense hall.

To Shusuke, Kondo and others, Inoue is the old butler who takes care of their food, clothing, housing and transportation in an orderly manner, and is also a trustworthy and close disciple and reliable senior.

Since entering the living room... no, to be precise, since Qingneng and others appeared, Inoue's eyes have basically never left Qingneng and others.

The eyes he looked at Qingdeng and others were full of curiosity.

Inoue looks at Qingto and others with such eyes... which is quite natural.

After all, before he returned to his hometown to help his old friends clear up wasteland, the residents of the Trial Guard Hall were just him, Shusuke, Abi, Kondo, and Okita, a total of five people.

It's just that I haven't been back to Edo for more than half a year, so there are so many new faces in the trial guard hall...

Inoue must be aware of the fact that "the trial house has received many new residents, including Aoshinobu, in recent months."

After Inoue returned to his hometown, Shusuke, Kondo and others had been exchanging letters with Inoue. Shusuke and the others must have mentioned the current situation of the Imperial Guard Hall in their letters.

Inoue just didn't know who these new faces were.

Zhousuke noticed Inoue's curious glances that he frequently cast towards Aomori and others.

"Oh, I'm just here to chat."

Zhou Assistant smiled, raised his hand and patted his forehead.

"Inoue, come here, let me introduce you to him!"

Zhousuke turned his body slightly to one side, so that Inoue could better see the faces of Qingto and others sitting behind him.

"These are Tachibana Aoden, Saito Ichi, Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke and Kyubei whom Isamu and I have mentioned frequently in our letters to you before!"

Inoue followed Shusuke's words and approached Aoshi, Saito and the others with kind smiles.

"Hahaha, our trial defense hall is really prosperous now!"

Inoue sat up straighter.

"Hello you guys."

"Although you should all know who I am, I would like to formally introduce myself again."

Inoue bowed his waist without any pretense, placed three fingers of his hands on the ground, and bowed to Qingdeng and others.

"My name is Inoue Genzaburo. This is the first time we meet. Please take care of me."

Facing Inoue, who has a very high seniority and status in the imperial examination hall, Aomori and others should not be rude due to both emotion and reason.

Nagakura bowed in a very samurai-like manner.

"This is Nagakura Shinpachi, it's our first time meeting you. Please give me some advice."

Harada carelessly raised his right thumb and gestured to himself.

"I am Sanosuke Harada!"

Saito bowed slightly, and his tone was as emotionless as his expression.

"Saitoichi, nice to meet you."

…

The last person to announce his name and return the gift was Qingdeng.

"I am Ju Qingdeng. I have heard of your name for a long time, and I am finally lucky enough to meet you today. I am overjoyed."

"Oh?" Inoue's eyebrows twitched hard and his eyes lit up. "You are Tachibana Aoden."

While Inoue looked at Qingden's face carefully, he showed a smile as simple as a farmer's to Qingden.

"Ji Jun, I've wanted to see you for a long time."

"You are often mentioned in the letters sent to me by the old master and the young master."

Qingto secretly thought: The old master and little master mentioned by Inoue should refer to Shusuke and Kondo.

"As early as the beginning of this year, when you first became a master and tried out the defense training, the young master wrote me a long and eloquent letter."

"Most of the content in the letter is about praising you."

"The young master told me directly in the letter: 'We have a new and powerful disciple in our imperial examination hall who is outstanding both in terms of talent and hard work, and who is sure to have great achievements in the future'."

"After reading this letter from the young master, I have always wanted to meet you and see with my own eyes what the person who can be praised so highly by the young master looks like."

"Tonight I finally got what I wanted."

Inoue turned his eyes and roughly looked at Qingden from head to toe, and then laughed "hahaha" a few times.

"Tachibana-kun, you are much more handsome than I thought."

Qingdeng smiled and said modestly:

"Mr. Inoue, you are flattered."

"There is no need to call me 'Mr. Inoue'." Inoue waved his hand vigorously, "Everyone is a member of the Imperial Guard Hall, so there is no need to call me by such an unfamiliar title."

"Just call me 'Uncle Yuan' like the young master and the chief executive do."

“It’s both nice to listen to and easy to read.”

When Inoue said this, his eyes passed over the faces of Aoto, Saito, Nagakura, and Harada one by one. This action naturally meant "You can all call me 'Uncle Gen'".

Qingto was a little surprised by how kind Inoue was.

Compared to the big swordsman in the swordsmanship hall, Inoue feels more like a kind-hearted old man who leads the family.

After Aomori and others introduced themselves to Inoue, Shusuke resumed chatting with Inoue about various trivial matters.

"Yuan, since you have been back home for so long, you probably haven't delayed your swordsmanship training, right?"

Inoue laughed and replied without thinking:

"Master, I am also a swordsman after all."

"In the past few months since I returned to my hometown, I have not only not slacked off in training, but I have also gained a new understanding of footwork."

Zhou Zhu was delighted when he heard this.

"Oh? A brand new perception? What kind of perception?"

At this time, most of the people in the hall were martial artists, and they naturally had a deeper interest in topics related to martial arts.

Inoue's words immediately attracted the attention of most people in the hall, including Qingto.

"Well..." Inoue raised his hand and touched his throat, "What kind of feeling... it's hard for me to describe it in words."

Having said this, Inoue put down the hand touching his throat and grinned.

"Old Master, it's hard to explain to you with just one word what kind of new improvements I have made to my footwork."

"Okay, master, I will show you my new footwork directly."

"After you see it with your own eyes, you should know the similarities and differences in my footwork compared to the past."

"Hoo ho ho!" Zhouzhu patted his thigh gently, "Okay! Come on, let's go to the dojo. Let me take a good look at what new insights you have gained in footwork!"

Although Shusuke always smiles and looks quite unreliable, in essence, he is still a swordsman, the third generation head of the natural Rishin-ryu clan and the current head of the Kaiwei Hall.

When it comes to matters related to "disciple training" and "swordsmanship", Shusuke has always had a high degree of passion and enthusiasm.

"Hey." Abi raised his eyebrows and looked at Zhousuke, then at Inoue, "It's already this time, do you still want to go to the dojo?"

Outside the window, the moon is already hanging high above the night sky... The time now is roughly just after 22 o'clock.

In this day and age, such a time is already properly late at night.

"Hoo ho ho, ma'am."
To be continued...