683 Xiaokui, we seem to have encountered something strange.
The plum candy served at the Summer Night Festival is made by wrapping sour plums in maltose.
Xiaolu bought seven in one go.
Two were given to Tsurumi to gag the junior sister, while five were kept for himself.
Of course, she didn't eat these five by herself.
She planned to give one of the little old man's outer bodies to a wolf, a red deer, and a Mimi child.
However, Tsurumi, who got two plum candies, said that one was enough for him, and returned one to the deer.
The latter was not polite, just took one in each hand, licked it here and took a bite there.
Tsurumi rarely laughed when he saw the childish look shown by his senior sister inadvertently.
"Xiaokui, why are you looking at me like this? Is there candy on my face?"
Noticing Junior Sister's expression, Xiaolu blinked and then subconsciously stuck out his tongue to lick the corners of his mouth, trying to lick away the sugar residue that didn't actually exist.
"No." Tsurumi Aoi shook her head.
She felt that Teacher Kamiya probably took good care of her senior sister.
Moreover, although she is a senior sister, Kanoya is two years younger than Tsurumi.
The two girls were eating sweets while turning to a secluded bush on the corner far away from the stall street.
Here, Kanoya called out all three shikigami attached to the small bronze statue of a rosary on his wrist.
The three of them, Sendlang, were not as capable of hiding themselves as the scouts, so they did not show up directly in crowded places.
Kanoya also gave out sweets to the shikigami, and promised Miyako, who was the most interested, that he could secretly take her to visit the festival at a closer distance later.
Tsurumi Aoi slowly finished her plum candy, and Kanoya next to her suddenly grabbed her wrist.
A junior senior sister had a little maltose on her palms, which made them a bit sticky, but her palms were soft and slightly cool, and the touch was unexpectedly comfortable. Perhaps most people are more tolerant of beautiful girls, which makes her reluctant to do so.
Tsurumi, who was in physical contact with others, did not take the initiative to break away for a while.
However, Lu Yewu didn't do this on purpose. The tip of her small nose wrinkled, obviously she discovered something: "Xiao Kui, look over there."
Following the guidance given by his senior sister, Tsurumi looked towards the outer edge of the bush where they were now.
The two girls had already reached the end of the road lined with stalls, in the woods, and the path on that side was not within the radiation range of the Yoshikoji Summer Night Festival.
The colorful lights at the festival cannot shine over there, making the path that seems to lead to the mountain forest extremely low-permeability. It is obviously not too far away from the lively Summer Night Festival in a physical sense, but it is like that over there.
It's another world, and the darkness entrenched on the path seems to attract inhuman things.
And on such a road that has nothing to do with "liveliness", there is a wooden hut standing for some reason. At first glance, the building feels very rough, as if it was temporarily built.
Tsurumi is relatively clear about the situation near his temple.
There should not have been such a building on the road leading to the mountain forest.
However, the Summer Night Festival is being held recently, and some vendors have temporarily built small buildings that meet the specifications in order to attract more customers, and then demolish them after the Summer Night Festival is over, and Yoshikoji Temple has given permission.
As for whether temporary buildings can be built in this area, it is decided by Yoshikoji Temple.
That's of course because——
A large area of land around Yoshikoji Temple, including some mountains and forests, is privately owned by the Tsurumi family.
Due to various historical reasons, it is not particularly uncommon in Japan for shrines or temples to privately own large areas of land.
After all, even a large part of Mount Fuji is directly owned by Sengenji Temple on the mountain and is private property.
"That cabin..."
Tsurumi Aoi became a little confused.
Even during the Summer Night Festival, it is not too strange that some temporary buildings appear near the temple at home, but if the wooden house is a small shop, why was it built there? In a location where no one would notice it?
Also, when Tsurumi entered the trees just now, he did not notice the outline of a building in that direction.
Maybe you didn't notice?
After all, it was too dark on that trail.
After staring at the hut for a while, Tsurumi, who may have adapted to the darkness over there and mastered the "Silk Beating", was able to observe more details on the abrupt wooden building——
She saw a heavy, red and purple curtain hanging in front of the hut. She saw clearly the signboard standing in front of the hut that read:
[Treasure House]
The handwriting was majestic, but because it was smeared by the shadows in the dark, it was hazy and distorted.
The "Treasure House" at the celebration is already a very chronological term, and it itself has long been swallowed up by the torrent of the times.
It is basically impossible for girls of Kanoya and Tsurumi's age to come into contact with such things.
However, after all, the Tsurumi Aoi family runs a temple and hosts celebrations every year. As the eldest lady in the temple, she has a vague understanding of the so-called Treasure House.
In my impression, Treasure House is a kind of exhibition that satisfies people's curiosity.
It is a project that uses some weird things to attract curious people.
For example, the owner of a treasure house will brag to his guests that there are monsters such as "crab woman" and "girl in a bottle" in his house.
For a small fee, the boss will briefly lift the curtain at the door, allowing guests to peek in and see the true face of the monster.
The light in the room is usually dim, and what can be vaguely seen may be a woman wearing a kimono, with the corners of her clothes lifted to reveal a few crab legs; or there may be a living girl's head on the vase.
And so on.
Of course, the so-called "monsters" in the treasure house are usually not real.
Just some crude little tricks.
The ticket to take a peek inside the house is not expensive, and it is enough for a good person to get a little curious and talk about it.
Judging from the publicity outside, the Treasure House that appears at the Yoshikoji Summer Night Festival seems to have "living painted girls" on display.
"Senior sister, do you want to go there and have a look?"
Intuitively, Tsurumi Aoi felt that the treasure house that appeared on the dim path was a bit strange.
But she was a little unsure about what her senior sister, who had an out-of-touch personality and even showed childishness when eating sweets, wanted to do.
If senior sister wants to go over to check, should I stop her?
Tsurumi's question did not receive an immediate answer, but she felt the cool palm on her wrist tug gently, and then something hard and familiar was thrust into Tsurumi's hand.
It is a word that has not been sheathed.
Tsurumi Aoi turned around and saw that Senior Sister Kanoya had slung her bulging satchel on her shoulder at some point.
This junior senior sister, who looked quite childish when she went to the festival, now looked like a completely different person.
Her bright black eyes flickered in the darkness, her tone was serious, and she said every word:
"Xiao Kui, we seem to have encountered something strange."