"And then what happened?" Minamoto Tamako couldn't help but wipe her tears.
As Ito Mayu recounted the past, the residents showed expressions of nostalgia, occasionally interjecting to add some small details, making the characters in her mind even more vivid.
"Koizumi really liked eating dumplings, she would always chew on them non-stop..."
"Yes, and she loved to paint too, all the village posters were drawn by her..."
"Sometimes when I tapped her on the shoulder from behind, she'd get startled..."
The residents of the town back then are now all middle-aged, sitting on the edge of the cliff with their husbands or wives, chatting about the past with bitter smiles.
That lingering sadness, like a wet sea breeze, roars past, leaving behind nearly transparent grains of salt, which accumulate over time, forming a thick white crust.
Ever since that ferry left the harbor, Koizumi Mizuki has been like a lost soul, standing day and night on the cliff, gazing at the horizon.
