Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard
Chapter 301 - 236: Birthday Fireworks

Chapter 301: Chapter 236: Birthday Fireworks

After days of rain, the rain mist on White City Street was like a thin veil in the morning, hazy and light.

"Really, I love your coffee so much, I’ll definitely come again next time!"

"Thank you."

Uesugi Sakura nodded and politely saw off a customer who seemed like a fan.

Rainy days would make business a bit slower, but the customers who came were loyal patrons of Soho Coffee Shop.

His gaze glanced over a few window seats, and he saw Miss Anna who came with an umbrella on this rainy day.

She was dressed in casual denim, with a red bag on her back, and wore beige knee-high boots.

Her golden hair was tied into two pigtails.

Unlike many British women who gained weight after marriage, she still looked as young as in her twenties.

Ding-ling~

Miss Anna pushed the door open and walked inside, placing her rain-soaked umbrella into the stand.

"Sakura, you’ve been here with me for a month now, right?"

"Yeah, about that."

"That’s good."

Miss Anna turned sideways, unzipped her bag, and took out a bundle of bills.

"What’s this...?" Uesugi Sakura noticed a large stack of fifty-pound notes.

"It’s your salary, 4000 British Pounds," Miss Anna said with a smile, "Since you came, the business has improved significantly, especially with many Asian customers coming specifically to see you."

Uesugi Sakura had originally agreed with the owner for a salary of 1000 British Pounds a month, as he was a novice and a temporary worker who wouldn’t stay long, 1000 British Pounds was already generous considering Mrs. Margaret’s influence.

"Isn’t it too much?"

"Sakura, would you complain about having too much money?"

"I wouldn’t."

Uesugi Sakura felt that the salary Miss Anna was giving him far exceeded the value of his actual work.

"Then there you go, accept it. Before you came, our coffee shop’s business was a tier lower, now not only old customers like your coffee, even new customers frequently come back."

Although Uesugi Sakura’s coffee was still somewhat inferior to Mr. Blaise’s, the tips he received these days were much more.

"How’s your guitar practice going lately?"

"It’s okay, the blisters on my fingers have healed."

"Hmm, when you’re playing for the first time, calluses form more easily, and it won’t hurt as much, but it seems you’re working too hard."

"It’s necessary," Uesugi Sakura said.

The guitar strings were usually steel, the thick ones were fine, but the first string was only 0.10 inches.

Pressing it felt like piercing the fingers with a needle.

Miss Anna brought over a cup of tea brewed with hot water, turning the chair in front of the bar to sit on it.

"It always seems like you study everything so earnestly, do you have any dreams?"

"Dreams... used to have none... but now I do."

Miss Anna looked at him curiously, "Oh? What is it?"

"To live a peaceful life with her, every single day."

...

The raindrops outside the glass fell on the paved street, splashing and quietly vanishing along the gaps.

————————

October 10th, Friday, after days of rain, it finally stopped.

Uesugi Sakura was at home with Mrs. Margaret preparing for little Hanabi’s birthday party.

Inserting a bouquet of freshly bought lilies into a vase, Uesugi Sakura felt his eyes slightly moved for some reason.

"What’s the matter, child?" asked Mrs. Margaret as she walked over, tying up the blown balloons with concern.

Uesugi Sakura gazed at the pure white flowers above the clean vase.

"Just... thinking of many things about her..."

Mrs. Margaret looked at the expression on his face, then at the immaculate lily.

Though they hadn’t known each other long, she always felt Hanamaru Hanabi was as beautiful as a pure white lily.

"You’ve known each other for so long, you must have many stories together?" Mrs. Margaret asked with a smile.

Uesugi Sakura spoke in a usual tone, "Few stories, and very ordinary, but I don’t think anyone will care for me like she does anymore.

"During the time after she left, I always felt like a part of my heart was missing, every night I thought of her smile under the Sakura Tree, and the soft voice calling my name."

"This feeling... has never existed before at any other time..."

Seeing his eyes fixated on that lily without moving, the white-haired Mrs. Margaret smiled.

"It’s wonderful, in both of you, I even felt those decades of sentiment."

Uesugi Sakura turned his head, "Speaking of which, why have I never seen your husband and children, madam?"

"They passed away."

Mrs. Margaret smiled without a care, "We didn’t have any children either."

"To be more truthful, it was more about not having the chance. I had adenomyosis, a condition requiring devices to be inserted into the body, stopping menstruation, relying on expensive drugs daily to sustain life, and the disease came with complications of infertility."

"..."

"It’s very cruel for a woman, isn’t it," Mrs. Margaret smiled, "Those were hard days, and he was just a waiter working in a restaurant.

"Often after work at night, he and I would sit on the steps to chat, talk about the strange customers he encountered today, talk about which gratuities he received from which important guests today.

"He would tirelessly tell me these things, promising that one day we would own a villa in the Shirojyo District.

"I used to laugh at his dreams back then, saying they were unrealistic because the Shirojyo District was in the west of London, ’The elite is in the west’ referred to the prestigious and eminent Shirojyo District.

"It was a place everyone longed for, where people left their homes with smiles every day."