Probably because of the cold weather, Zuo Nazi's palms were cold, but not as cold as ice cubes.

The temperature is just right.

This cold touch spread from Zuo Nazi's palm to Qingdeng's arms and wrists, and then extended to the pit of his heart, calming the looming dryness.

Qingden unconsciously let go of the hand holding the knife.

"Tachibana-kun, you must not be provoked by Eiichi Shimizu."

Zuo Nazi said softly while slightly tightening his grip on Qingdeng's wrist.

"He obviously wants to provoke you and lure you into taking the bait."

The general manager on the side echoed:

"Yes, yes! What Eiichi Shimizu did is what Mr. Hijikata told me before... uh... what is that? Ah! Yes! A conspiracy! Tachibana-kun, you must not fall for it.

It’s a plan!”

Shimizu Eiichi's behavior can indeed be regarded as an irresistible conspiracy - anyone can see his intentions, but no matter how Qingden takes the move, he will not be able to escape the severe consequences.

"It's incredible, Okita-kun, you actually understand what 'conspiracy' is."

"Hey! What's going on with your look of relief like 'an old father sees his daughter finally knows how to cook'?!"

Qingdeng ignored the fuming General Secretary and turned his gaze back to Zuo Nazi's pretty face.

In order to lift up the slightly heavy atmosphere at this moment as much as possible, he deliberately said it in a joking tone.

"Miss Zuonazi, I thought that someone like you who values ​​tradition would encourage me to fight bravely and defend the honor of the samurai to the death."

A warrior can be killed, but cannot be humiliated... This is a very important foundation in Bushido.

Even though he knows he is outmatched, he still has to fight desperately to defend his personal honor - as long as anyone who can do this, the world will not think of him as a short-circuited fool, but will respect him as a hero.

Zuo Nazi received traditional martial arts education since he was a child.

In other words, concepts such as "reputation comes first" and "it's better to be in pieces than in ruins" should be deeply rooted in his heart.

Qingdeng believed that even if Zuo Nazi did not encourage him to fight with the Qingshui clan, he would not encourage him to escape.

But who would have expected that as soon as Qingdeng finished speaking, Zuo Nazi said quickly in a high pitched voice:

"'Defending glory' and 'die in vain' are two different things!"

Zuo Nazi, who behaved elegantly, rarely spoke in such a loud voice.

Her sudden high-pitched voice frightened both Qingteng and Souji.

Zuo Nazi also realized that he had lost his composure just now, and couldn't help but be startled.

Immediately afterwards, she lightly bit her shell teeth, assumed a "go all out" posture, and continued to speak in that rare high-pitched voice:

"The garrison force in Qingshui Residence is at least several hundred people, including martial arts masters such as the 'Blood Tiger' and the 'Double Spearman', and there is also a ready-made fortress to support... Such a formation,

Even if Brother Rong comes in person, he may not be able to get through!"

The "Ei-nii" mentioned by Zonazi naturally refers to "Edo's strongest swordsman" - Chiba Eijiro.

"Of course I don't want you, Tachibana-kun, to get a bad reputation for avoiding and not fighting."

"But...but..."

Zuo Nazi hesitated, seeming to be thinking about his next words.

Zonazi has always shown herself to be the perfect image of "graceful, elegant and dashing when wearing a women's kimono".

However, at this moment, she showed a completely different appearance from before.

I saw the expression on her pretty face slowly change slightly.

The facial lines gradually relaxed, the corners of the eyes and eyebrows drooped slightly, and the attractive red lips pursed slightly.

It seems that the whole person has become very... weak.

It was the first time Qingdeng saw Zuo Nazi showing such a girly side.

"I don't want you to die..."

Zuo Nazi looked straight into Qingdeng's eyes.

She squeezed Qingdeng's wrist tightly with her hands, as if she would never let go.

There's no room for joking...she's dead serious.

There is some kind of strong determination deep in her eyes.

Being stared at by such eyes, Qingdeng was speechless for a moment.

Obviously Zuo Nazi just grabbed his right wrist and looked directly into his eyes, but he had a strange feeling that his escape route was blocked...

"……I see."

Suddenly, Qingdeng sighed silently, and a helpless smile crossed his cheeks.

"I'm not an idiot. Of course I know that 'defending honor' and 'die in vain' are two different things."

"In the final analysis, my real goal right now is to completely destroy Huanfu Lake, not to fight to the death with the Qingshui clan."

"So, I am measured."

"I won't do anything stupid unless I have to."

Hearing Qingden say this, Zuo Nazi and Souji both showed expressions of relief.

Especially Zuo Nazi, as Qingdeng finished speaking, her tightly pressed red lips slightly raised.

However, at this moment, a childish voice suddenly intervened between them.

"Mom, look, those two people are making love to each other in public."

Not far away, a little girl about 8 or 9 years old pointed at Qingdeng and Zuo Nazi and said to the woman next to her with a smile.

The woman just looked away casually, but soon after seeing the long and short swords on Qingdeng's waist, her expression changed drastically.

Due to various considerations at the national level, the Edo shogunate gave the samurai the privilege of "killing rude civilians" - but even so, in order to prevent the samurai from killing indiscriminately, the shogunate still set extremely strict rules on this

The conditions for its use are so great that samurai are very cautious in using this right. Even if they are really humiliated by civilians, they will most likely choose to endure it as long as they can.

However, the tragedy of "a certain samurai must kill a certain civilian even though he knew he would be severely punished afterwards" still happened from time to time.

Once upon a time, there was a commoner who acted like a mean man and humiliated a certain samurai crazily, thinking that the other person did not dare to draw his sword.

The samurai was so angry that he wrote a suicide note and took care of all the funeral arrangements. Then he picked up his sword, broke into the civilian's house at night, and sent the civilian to see Amaterasu.

With so many lessons learned from the past, civilians in their right mind would try their best to avoid conflicts with samurai.

The woman immediately grabbed the little girl's hand, scolded her, "Don't talk too much," and then hurriedly dragged the little girl away from the place.

As she was leaving, the woman was mumbling something in a low voice.

Although her voice was very soft, it was still heard by Qingdeng and others who had good hearing.

"You are really shameless. Even if you can't bear it, please at least go to Ueno Shinobazu Pond before doing such a thing..."

Ueno Shinobazu Pond - a famous date spot in Edo.

Speaking of date spots that are often used by young lovers, they are usually places that are not easily noticed, such as the back of the main hall of a temple or a rice storage warehouse along a river.

Closer lovers would choose date teahouses scattered throughout Edo, which were similar to today's love hotels.

The area with the highest concentration of date teahouses is the area around Ueno Shinobazu Pond, especially around the dam built on the south side of Shinobazu Pond during the Enyō period in the mid-eighth century.

Since the name has the character "pond", as the name suggests, Ueno Shinobazu Pond is a huge pond.

Every summer, lotus flowers bloom all over the lake, which is very beautiful.

Many young men and women often fall in love in the dating tea house next to Ueno Shinobazu Pond in the name of watching lotus flowers.

Young men and women hold hands on a crowded street, and it is the woman who takes the initiative to hold the man's hand - in the eyes of the public of this era, this behavior is indeed very bold.

In fact, since just now, passers-by have been casting strange glances at Qingdeng and Zuo Nazi.

It's just that both Qingteng and Souji were attracted by Zuonazi, and Zuonazi himself was busy persuading Qingteng and had no time to think about other places, so the three of them didn't notice the gazes of passers-by.

Fortunately, Zuo Nazi also wore a bamboo hat to cover his face like Qingdeng. Otherwise, if they saw this unknown man in a bamboo hat being intimate with such a beautiful woman... the male passers-by around him would probably be eager to shoot Qing Qing with jealous eyes.

Deng.

In Japan today, the social atmosphere is still very conservative.

After all, it is still the 19th century, let alone Japan. The social atmosphere of Western countries at this time is not much better.

Although Qing Teng has a body from the 19th century, the thoughts in his head are from the 21st century, so they are not affected by the ethics of the current era.

What's more, he was still the one being held in hand, the one who took advantage.

This way, he will be less likely to feel shy.

However... although Qingdeng was able to laugh off the little girl's unintentional jokes, it did not mean that others could be as "generous" as him.

Obviously, Zonazi, who was raised to be a model Yamato Nadeshiko, does not have the same enlightened ideas and thick skin as Aomi...
To be continued...