Just as Zhou Tai'an cut off his fantasy and tapped his head, a familiar sigh came from the other side of the wall.
Zhou Tai'an froze.
Because he recognized the owner of the sigh. It was indeed the "Carrot" he had met on his morning run.
"Why is Suzuka-san in the hot spring at this time? Shouldn't she be training during the summer camp?" Zhou Tai'an frowned but didn't dare to ask the chestnut-haired Horse Girl sitting on the other side of the wall.
But the gentle-natured Silent Suzuka, while enjoying the hot spring, muttered to herself, answering his unspoken question—
"Trainer made me rest again... But I only went for a little morning run, and I didn't even do any high-intensity training," she said, covering her chest with her hands, looking unhappy. "Everyone else went to train. I'm the only one who wasn't given a training plan and was told to rest. What kind of plan does she have for me?"
"It's been almost a year since I joined the team, but I feel like I've never really fit in," she closed her eyes, her voice full of helplessness.
…
Unaware that she had an audience, Silent Suzuka fell silent.
And on this side of the wall, Zhou Tai'an didn't dare to make a sound, just sat properly in the pool.
He muttered to himself, "To not be able to make a Horse Girl feel a sense of belonging to the team after a year... Tojo Hana-san is a real piece of work."
In his opinion, Silent Suzuka, who had a stat panel on par with Oguri Cap's, was definitely not a Horse Girl without talent. Considering she hadn't fully matured yet, he felt that she still had room to grow—both in terms of stats and otherwise.
"I'll see if I can find out what Tojo Hana's intentions are for Silent Suzuka later," Zhou Tai'an gave himself a side quest.
Although he had learned about Silent Suzuka's issues with her team, he had no intention of poaching her—mainly because she was a Central Horse Girl and he was a local trainer. They weren't from the same place.
Normally, the optimal time to soak in a hot spring is 10 to 15 minutes. But not wanting Silent Suzuka to know that he had overheard her muttering, Zhou Tai'an forced himself to wait until she had left the hot spring before getting up.
"Phew—" He took a deep breath. The steam-laden wind from behind him carried a faint fragrance, and also took away some of the heat from his body, making him shiver involuntarily.
"It really makes you wonder what kind of talent the other Horse Girls have, to make Tojo-san ignore Silent Suzuka," Zhou Tai'an said to himself as he stepped out of the pool.
Standing by the pool, he wrapped himself tightly in a bath towel, dried himself thoroughly, and then left the hot spring, returning to his Japanese-style room.
…
After changing back into his casual clothes, Zhou Tai'an rested for a bit, then left his room and went to the lobby to get a carton of milk from Sachiko-san.
"Sigh, prices have been getting more and more expensive these past few years," Sachiko-san complained to him. "Tojo-san was just telling me that a lot of her colleagues at the academy are playing the stock market. Apparently, a few who have made a lot of money are not planning to continue as trainers."
"That's probably because for those people, being a trainer is just a job," Zhou Tai'an said with a strained smile. "Since there are other ways to make more money, isn't it normal for them not to be trainers anymore?"
"Then if you also made a lot of money in the stock market, Zhou-kun..." Sachiko-san blinked, not finishing her sentence.
"That's impossible," Zhou Tai'an shook his head. "I don't know the first thing about the stock market. And besides, I only know how to train Horse Girls."
His gaze fell on the carton of milk in his hand. "Since I was a child, I've been around the Horse Girls my father trained. And as I got older, I've been studying how to train them. So it's impossible for me to give up this profession."
"You love the Horse Girl-related business more than those Central trainers, Zhou-kun," Sachiko-san said with emotion. "If you ever plan to bring your Horse Girls back to Hokkaido for a summer training camp in the future, just let me know in advance. I'll definitely save a spot for you."
"Then thank you in advance, Sachiko-san," Zhou Tai'an said, unscrewing the milk carton and downing it in one go.
"Hah—" He placed the carton on the counter and grinned. "As expected of Hokkaido, with its thriving livestock industry. The quality of the milk is really good."
"Thank you for the compliment," Sachiko-san accepted the praise with a smile. "This milk is all produced by the farms in our town of Hiratori. I hear they're going to introduce the latest generation of breeding equipment from overseas."
"Well, the yen has appreciated, so it's much cheaper to buy equipment from overseas now than in previous years," Zhou Tai'an said, understanding.
The impact of the yen's appreciation was not only reflected in the indirect improvement of milk quality.
In the afternoon, as Zhou Tai'an was reading the new newspaper printed in the Sapporo area today, he noticed that the Hokkaido regional URA had proposed giving subsidies to Horse Girls participating in the local exchange Graded Races starting from August.
"A subsidy of 1.7 million yen per Horse Girl. Hokkaido is really rich," he commented softly.
"It's not just Hokkaido that's rich," Tojo Hana's voice sounded beside him as he finished speaking.
The young man turned his head in the direction of the voice. Tojo Hana, dressed in casual clothes, had sat down opposite him and continued, "The whole of Japan and the Japanese people have become rich."
"If you put all your money in the stock market, even a pig could make money," she pouted, clearly not having a good impression of this phenomenon.
"Then I must be worse than a pig," Zhou Tai'an smiled. "Since coming to Japan, I haven't set foot in a single stock exchange."
Tojo Hana raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that great?"
At this moment, if the Stat Viewer could see Tojo Hana's panel, Zhou Tai'an would have found that her favorability was rising rapidly.
"For me, if I have extra money, I'd rather save some and use the rest to provide better training conditions for my Horse Girls than to throw it into the stock market to become a fluctuating character in a digital wave," the young man continued, seeing that Tojo Hana's attitude towards him was not bad.
"Exactly," Tojo Hana nodded vigorously. "A local trainer like you is really rare, Zhou-kun. Why don't you come to Central?"
Zhou Tai'an was taken aback. He hadn't expected to be the one scouted, not Oguri Cap.
-------
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