Chapter 4: Ancestral Houses and Taboos

Kitayama Jinghuang looked at the streets that kept shuttling past outside the car window with a dull expression. The incomparably bustling, densely populated urban Tokyo scene was gradually beginning to be replaced by the sparsely populated countryside scene. However, as soon as Kitayama Kagehō thought about the imminent return to the Kitayama family's ancestral home once again, she felt a strong sense of uneasiness. At this moment, her mother was sitting on the side, holding her lipstick and touching up her makeup in the mirror, while sitting in the driver's seat were her uncle, Kitayama Jinji, and her cousin, Kitayama Yuichi. Although she and Farichi were considered the same age, the two hardly had much in common. Farichi was a man with a boring personality who spent his days buried in research, and he was currently studying Japanese history at the university. And Kitayama Jinghuang has no interest in history, as in Japan's economic bubble burst into depression in the lost twenty years (nowadays perhaps can be said to be the lost thirty years) grew up in the loose generation, she is very difficult to imagine that the school bully all day to study hard that kind of life. 宽松世代这一群人，也因为学习太过轻松，导致在如今竞争激烈的社会步履维艰，被称之为平成废宅，终于随着令和时代到来，宽松世代的教育方针也被放弃了。 However, as a generation that grew up in the Generation of Laxity, Kitayama Jinghuang did have more time to do what she wanted to do. Plainly, while she was introverted within the school, she always focused on her own things and played games most of the time. When she was a child, she played Mario on handheld consoles, and later on, when smartphones became popularized she started playing Nymphs. As time passed, she became less and less interested in the real world, and lately she's been more addicted to the Fate Grand Order game . She certainly knew that she was an anomaly to those around her, not participating in club activities, not walking with anyone after school, and even when she ate in the cafeteria, she sat alone at a table and people didn't bother to look at her more than once. When people say bad things about her, she plugs in her headphones, turns up the volume of the game on her cell phone to the maximum, and immerses herself in the game character she plays, and only in this way can she feel fulfilled. Anyway, her parents never cared about her studies, leaving her alone in Japan, and the Kitayama family didn't care how well she studied, only whether or not she could be a qualified candidate for witch at the Kitayama Shrine. The status of women in Japan was inherently low anyway, and professional women tended to quit their jobs and stay at home as soon as they got married, as if marrying and having children were the most important things. "Mom." She suddenly turned her head to her mother and said, "When exactly will you give me my cell phone? Maybe my brother will contact me." "I'll keep it for you, and I'll relay any contact from your brother on your behalf." Yuriko Kitayama made sure that her face in the mirror didn't look sickly, so she put the mirror away and said, "There are too many useless games inside your cell phone." "Mom, give me the phone." "Remember well what I told you and what you should say when you see your maternal grandfather. Grandfather's health is becoming less good now." Kitayama Jinghuang took a deep breath. She slowly rolled down the car window. The three words, maternal grandfather, made her severely physically ill just by hearing them. "Don't go against your maternal grandfather's words." "Or else …… will you be like Aunt Yukie?" As soon as that name came out, her uncle Kitayama Jinji, who was driving in front of her, immediately said, "Jing Huang! You can't mention that name! In the entire Kitayama family, your aunt's name is taboo!" "Taboo"…… Beishan Jing Huang slowly stroked her forehead, she simply had a physical aversion to this word. After the age of seven, she was not willing to go back to the family shrine even during the New Year's festivals. Even if she was alone, she would rather go to a shrine in Tokyo to celebrate the New Year. "Your maternal grandfather was the head of the family spanning Taisho, Showa, Heisei, and Rinwa, and no one within the family should ever disobey maternal grandfather." Mother chimed in and added, "You must remember that." "So you would rather abandon your own daughter and leave me alone in Japan for all those years right?" The mother froze. "Jing Huang, you can't say that …… " Uncle even ignored the fact that he was still driving and turned back to her, "No matter what …… " "I speak Chinese better than Japanese." Kitayama Jinghuang but so said, "I'm half Chinese, in fact, let me go to school and live in China, I do not mind. But to me, there is no difference between having parents and not having parents. It's just because, I'm the only candidate who can replace a witch like you, mom, who can inherit a witch." She, at this point, stuck her head completely out of the car window. This Nissan sedan is traveling on a country road. Even on a country road like this, you could see various businesses celebrating the upcoming Tokyo Olympics from time to time. However, she didn't care about any of this. It had nothing to do with her. She didn't want to have anything to do with it either. The car gradually became incredibly dull as it traveled down the road. Just at this time, suddenly, Kitayama Yuriko said, "Big brother, stop the car!" Kitayama Jinji immediately stepped on the brakes, while Yuriko said, "I want to go to the restroom, big brother, wait for me for a moment." "You …… don't look too good?" Kitayama Jinji looked back at his sister, while the latter was showing a hint of reluctance and said, "It's fine, it's fine, there's a restaurant nearby, there should be a restroom. I'll go and come back." There happened to be an izakaya around here. Yuriko quickly rushed out of the car and entered this store, entering the women's restroom　　without a second thought, finding a single room, opening her bag, and taking the injection out of it. As a patient with advanced colorectal cancer, she had forced her way out of the hospital with this newly developed and imported injection, and was only barely able to suppress the pain of the advanced cancer cells spreading through her body. The doctor informed her that the cancer cells had now spread rapidly to the liver and would inevitably lead to liver failure, putting her life at risk. She skillfully found a vein in her arm, grabbed a needle, and proceeded to inject herself. "It's getting harder and harder to suppress ……" Beads of sweat seeped from Yuriko Kitayama's forehead as she felt a heartfelt fear. "I can't die …… I absolutely can't die outside the family's ancestral home ……" She knew that her life was already in the wind, and the frequent use of this injection had also caused her life expectancy to be shortened even more than the doctors had expected. The medical principle behind this injection is the most cutting edge genetic technology in the United States. Most terminally ill advanced patients actually die of organ failure. Because the proliferation rate of cancer cells far exceeds that of normal cells, their spreading process will rob nutrients from normal cells, thus causing the normal cells of the organs to no longer be able to maintain their normal roles. This kind of injection could slow down the process of the cancer cells infiltrating the organ and seizing nutrients, dragging back the speed of organ failure as much as possible, and barely maintaining it in a state that could ensure normal human survival. And so far, she had concealed everything, everyone assuming that her previous colon cancer surgery had been a great success, completely unaware that the cancer had returned in full force. The doctors have proposed a further chemotherapy regimen if survival is to be achieved. But there was no doubt how predictable the quality of survival would be. How painful that would be for Yuriko, she knew well. And how desperate it would be for her husband and children, and her father, and her brother and others to find out about it could also be imagined. "I have to go back …… back ……" She sat on the lid of the toilet, her consciousness beginning to lax a little, and in her mind, all that remained was her father's repeated warnings to her as a child. "Remember, Yuriko, if you grow up in the future, if you fall into a situation where your days are numbered, you must go back to our ancestral home in order to die. Remember, never die outside. You can't be in a car accident, you can't be killed, you can't kill yourself. You must die here!" At this moment, the ringing of her cell phone interrupted her memories. She subconsciously took out her cell phone, only to find that no one was calling on it. "Not this one ……" Yuriko then remembered. "Right, it's Jing Huang's cell phone. Well …… it's Jing Long." Looking at her son's incoming call on her cell phone, Kitayama Yuriko picked up the phone. "Hello ……" "Mom? Where's Jing Huang?" "She's not here right now, I'll relay whatever you want to say to her." "It's like this, we've arrived in Tokyo. Leaving soon to go over to the ancestral house." "That soon?" Kitayama Yuriko couldn't help but be a little surprised. "It's a surprise for you guys! Mom, do you want to hear your daughter-in-law's voice?" "Let's wait until we meet ……." Kitayama Yuriko gradually began to feel the pain in her body begin to slow down. She pulled off a roll of paper from the side, wiped the sweat off her forehead, and tossed it into the trash can next to her. "Also, you brought what I instructed, right?" "The premarital medical report? Bring it." "Must have that one, must show it to your grandpa." Yuriko Kitayama said inwardly: your grandfather must be made to confirm that your wife is free of any disease and will not suddenly die on a certain day in a place outside her ancestral home ……