Wakayama

— Breaking Pottery

Crash!

"Ah!"

Su Mei cried out in alarm. Something seemed to have been knocked over, and it shattered at her feet with a mournful crash.

"Su Mei, how could you be so careless?"

The older woman from the inpatient department looked at Su Mei's pale face reproachfully. The accident made her feel vaguely uneasy.

The two of them had been busy helping each other take photos just moments ago. Somehow, a piece of pottery with colorful glaze had fallen to the floor and shattered into seven or eight pieces.

Judging by the fragments, it had been a delicate little pottery jar.

"I—I don't know!"

Su Mei was at a loss. She had no idea how she had touched the small piece of pottery, let alone why it had been there.

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and leave! Don't just stand there like an idiot."

The older woman glanced around. Better to cut their losses than stick around and get caught red-handed.

Once they got back home, surely the other party wouldn't come after them!

When the man saw the broken pieces of pottery, his gaze sharpened and his expression changed at once.

"Hey? What happened?"

The antique pottery that should have been on a nearby display shelf had somehow ended up here—and now it was in pieces.

This was bad. They'd been caught in the act. Neither Su Mei nor the older woman from the inpatient department could get away now.

"Damn it! Damn it! We really didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident! We don't know how it fell, either!"

Before coming to Japan, the older woman had crammed a few common Japanese phrases. But aside from those first two, she knew only a handful more, and her pronunciation wasn't very