Come to the Countryside With Me

"Lang Zhi, that last one wasn't standard enough, do it again." Kōshū sat in his chair, not even bothering to look up as he commanded.

"Huh? Were you even watching just now?" Lang Zhi was already exhausted from being pushed so hard. He had finally reached the end of the training menu and, taking advantage of Kōshū's focus on his book, had slacked off slightly. He hadn't expected to be called out on it immediately.

"Hehe, who do you think I am? How dare you slack off on the sly? I'm penalizing you with three more." Kōshū patted his conscience, claiming he wasn't taking personal revenge. "Who do you think this is for? If you don't train properly, how will you get into Seido through recommendation?"

"Tch—" Lang Zhi was well aware that this training menu had been specially requested from Coach Ninomiya, mainly focusing on muscle training.

"Kōshū, open the door, I'm coming in." It was his mother's voice; she had personally brought up their extra meal again.

"Mom, you could have just called us down." Lang Zhi, who had been sprawled on the floor, leaped up and opened the door.

Perhaps influenced by pregnancy hormones, Shen Qing had recently become particularly fond of being close to her two children, especially when they were doing extra training together in the evenings. She always wanted to watch them interact, smiling to herself as if lost in thought. Her style of dress had also changed; her originally neat short hair was now growing out a little.

"Don't work too hard, just leave the dishes outside the door when you're done." Kōshū nodded, finally moving his butt from the chair. He took the plate and held Lang Zhi back, "Be careful going up and down the stairs."

"Hey—" After seeing Shen Qing off, Lang Zhi finished all his penalty exercises before sitting back at the table. "I feel like you're a bit distant from Mom now. What are you thinking? Are you only just starting to feel uncomfortable?"

"What are you thinking? It's just that her maternal instincts are overflowing a bit, making me uncomfortable."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Lang Zhi was puzzled. Kōshū had initially seemed very mature, like an adult, even taking care to remind Shen Qing to pay attention to various things as an elderly mother.

"That's why I say you're still a child." Kōshū's words immediately riled Lang Zhi up again. He couldn't understand why a very ordinary topic always turned into a critique of his immaturity. Seriously, where was he being immature this time?

"Have you ever thought that after April next year, the focus of the family will no longer be on us, but on that newborn? All the extra love she's giving now is for that child. It's a transfer of affection, and one day it will be lost." Lang Zhi fell silent upon hearing this. He knew that in society, the youngest child was usually the most favored, especially when parents had children later in life and tended to spoil them more.

'Not good, isn't it said that the middle child among three is usually the most neglected?' Lang Zhi suddenly lost his appetite.

"...Don't make that face. Just pretend everything I just said was nonsense." This guy's facial expressions were really easy to read.

"You didn't need to say that specifically."

The next day, during their usual training schedule, Kōshū suggested learning a new Changeup, but Coach Fujii ruthlessly rejected him. "Your top speed has increased a lot recently. You need to stabilize your Straight Ball first before considering a new Changeup."

"Alright—"

"Got rejected?" Hayakawa Aki clearly knew the conclusion but still asked specifically, only because Kōshū wouldn't give up after being stopped and insisted on asking the coach.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"By the way, I might leave early today. Practice with Nakajima later. He just joined the team, so you need to cooperate with him well."

"Okay—You sound like a nagging mom."

After today's pitching practice, Kōshū and Shibasaki went to practice batting, only to find a group of people gathered near the Bullpen, while the batting cages were a bit deserted.

"Shibasaki, what's going on? Where are they going?" Kōshū thought of what Hayakawa had said about leaving early.

"Ah, former batting coach Maeda, you remember him, right?"

Kōshū nodded. He was the coach who had been on long leave ever since Coach Kinoshita returned to be the batting coach.

"His wife passed away a few days ago, and they're holding a memorial service today, so they're planning to go together."

"Ah, so we don't have to go?"

"Because we're not very familiar with Ms. Ryoko. Ms. Ryoko was also a staff member in the team two years ago, but she had recurring cancer and had been in the hospital ever since. Those who are going were already in the team back then. I only came in my first year of middle school, so I wasn't asked to go."

"Cancer?" As soon as Kōshū heard the word cancer, he stopped paying attention to Shibasaki's rambling.

Kōshū is acutely aware of the terror of cancer. It's like a blood-sucking parasite clinging to a patient's bone marrow, draining them until they are emaciated and unable to find peace day or night.

In the cancer ward, he could witness everyone's journey towards death. First, there's denial, a feeling of being disconnected from the real world. Then comes the visits to other hospitals, undergoing various diagnoses, hoping for a misdiagnosis. Once the cancer is confirmed, they sink into deep fear, eventually slowly accepting it. In the process of constantly trying new treatments, they exhaust their money and their hope for life. Finally, one day, their image and laughter are erased from the world.

The patient in bed 8 couldn't accept his illness and was somewhat senile, constantly clamoring to be discharged. Grandpa's bed was separated from number 8's by only a curtain. One day, after school, Kōshū came to Grandpa's room and saw Grandpa looking like a child, bursting into tears as soon as he saw Kōshū. "Kōshū, Grandpa doesn't know when, but he's going to die like this."

His withered hand grabbed Kōshū's, and a tremor passed through. He frantically wiped away tears with a tissue while speaking intermittently, "Yesterday, the patient in bed 8 was in pain for a long time, keeping us awake... He pressed the call button, and the head nurse gave him a painkiller, but it didn't work. He was quiet for a while, then started crying out in pain again... His son was sleeping outside, snoring away. I fell asleep too. Who knew that in the morning, he was gone with his eyes open? He cried himself to death all night."

Kōshū hadn't experienced much at that time, but he felt a pang of sadness welling up in his chest. He clasped Grandpa's hand tightly with both of his, knowing that before long, he wouldn't be able to hold this hand anymore. Thinking of this, the two embraced and wept together until Shen Qing, who came to deliver food later, stopped them.

"Dad, you're still a party member. The leaders from your school are coming to visit you tomorrow. Are you going to greet them looking like this?" How could Shen Qing not be sad, but she didn't have time to cry right now. They say a single tree cannot support a forest, but she had to endure it.

Grandpa quickly wiped away his tears, like an elementary school student, being fussed over by Shen Qing as she changed him out of his pajamas.

Then, not long after, several people in this ward passed away one after another. Shen Qing moved Grandpa to another ward, one she had inquired about. The previous patient in that bed had been successfully discharged after surgery, not died, but it couldn't prevent anything. After a few months, Grandpa stopped moving altogether.

Kōshū thought of Grandpa in the ice coffin at the funeral, and his eyes welled up with tears, which he found hard to suppress.

"Kōshū..." Shibasaki saw Kōshū's expression and immediately understood what was happening, so he stopped talking.

At this moment, Kōshū spoke instead, "Shibasaki, please work with someone else today. I need to go to the memorial service."

"Okay..." Shibasaki saw Kōshū walking towards the group in the bullpen and immediately told Lang Zhi.

"Thank you, then I'll go too." Lang Zhi immediately put down his bat and followed the group heading towards the preparation room.

Lang Zhi vaguely remembered that Kōshū's grandpa had also died of cancer.

"Where is the memorial service being held? I'll go too." Lang Zhi moved closer to Hayakawa Aki, looking at Kōshū, who was lost in his own world, and didn't dare to approach.

"You're going too? It's in Kanagawa. Where's your school uniform? You can't go in your training clothes."

Kanagawa is still very close to West Tokyo. By the time the two brothers returned, it wasn't even 9 o'clock.

"Thank you, Lang Zhi, maybe it's because the anniversary of his grandpa's death is coming up." Shen Qing patted his head. "Kōshū will be fine in a couple of days, don't worry too much."

But Lang Zhi felt that the adults were making it sound too trivial, so that night, he secretly sneaked into his parents' room, took Mr. Sasaki's phone, sent absence messages to the school and the club, and then destroyed the evidence.

The next morning, the two ate breakfast normally, packed their bags, and went to school. Near the station, Lang Zhi stopped Kōshū. "Hey, let's skip school today."

Kōshū said listlessly, "Where are we going?"

"Let's go to Gunma. My grandma makes really delicious tea-soaked rice."

"Huh?" Kōshū didn't understand what this kid was thinking all day. After all that observation and contemplation last night, that's all he came up with?

"Let's go, it's only 2 hours by bullet train."

Kōshū's head was dizzy, and he fell asleep as soon as he got on the train. Lang Zhi looked boredly at the rapidly passing scenery, thinking about what Shen Qing had talked to him about at length last night, and soon fell asleep too.

After an unknown amount of time, the two were shaken awake. "Passengers, this is the last stop. Are you getting off here?"

Lang Zhi wiped his saliva, his blurry eyes widening instantly. "Crap, what time is it? We need to get off at Takasaki and transfer to the Joetsu Line to go to Gunma."

Kōshū didn't look at the flustered guy, stretched, and pulled Lang Zhi off the train, bought tickets for the next train back. The next train was in half an hour, and they would probably arrive at Takasaki Station around 1 p.m.

"Are you hungry?" Both of their eyes were drawn to the local specialties.

"I don't have any money." Lang Zhi replied honestly, his allowance was all spent on figurines.

"I'll treat you." So the two bought some things, ate them quietly, the station was filled with various sounds, the conversations of passing pedestrians, the sound of station announcements, the sound of trains arriving, in the midst of all the noise, Kōshū felt a trace of serenity.

At Takasaki Station, they bought two more bento boxes and finished them in the car. After getting off the Shinkansen, they had to transfer to a bus to reach Lang Zhi's grandparents' countryside home.

The scenery passing by gradually changed from tall buildings to rows of bungalows, and then to fields on both sides. Because winter was approaching, the fields on both sides were bare, which was not very inspiring to look at.

"We're almost there, see that house with the lights on in front? That's where my grandparents live."

But Kōshū stopped: "Lang Zhi, let's go back."

"Eh? But we're almost there, and I wanted you to try my grandma's tea rice."

"Okay, but let's wait for the New Year, your grandparents live with your aunt, right? It's not good for us to go directly without saying hello to them." Lang Zhi wanted to say something, but Kōshū pressed his head lightly: "Let's just do that, Lang Zhi, you took me around all day today, and I'm much better now, let's go back now."

"Okay..."

The next holiday is the Spring Festival, I really want to take a vacation.