When I started Suspecting my Wife of Cheating, I Somehow Ended up Living in the Middle of Nowhere - Episode 20

Today, the village chief’s wife said she had work for us, so the three of us—me and my daughters—went over to help.

“Thank you for having us.”
“”Thank you!””

We greeted her at the entrance.

The chief’s wife looked us over from head to toe, probably because she had told us beforehand, “Wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.”
I was wearing work pants, a compression shirt, and a T-shirt over it.

Do you know what a compression shirt is? It’s the tight-fitting one that soccer players wear under their uniforms, or construction workers wear under their gear.

My daughters were in their respective high school and middle school gym clothes.
All of us were ready to go.

“Hmph, come with me.”

She led us to the front of the house. I thought we would be doing work there… but then we were loaded onto a kei truck.
Not just boarded—loaded!
I’d heard that it’s legal to have one person in the truck bed if there’s cargo to hold down, but there wasn’t much cargo, so was this illegal!?
Maybe this was private property, though. Who even knows anymore.
But my daughters looked super excited.

After a short drive, we arrived at a chicken coop. It was pretty big.
Judging by its size, it was easy to tell they were selling eggs for income.

“I want you to clean the inside of the coop.”
“Okay!!”

My older daughter looked thrilled. She probably loves this kind of stuff.
The younger one clearly looked reluctant. She probably hates this sort of thing.

We learned how to clean and got to work.
Being the countryside, the coop was a big one-story structure with chickens running all around.
Naturally, the ground was littered with feed and droppings everywhere.
Our job was to sweep it up with brooms and dustpans.

My older daughter went to work like a fish in water.
I was working at my usual pace.
My younger daughter was a bit hesitant, but still did her part since we were getting paid.

About an hour later, we had done a decent amount and completed the tasks we were told to.
The place had obviously been left uncleaned for a while—it probably wasn’t easy for them to do it alone.

“Dad, we could still make it a little cleaner here,”
my younger daughter, Chieri, said.
She’s the type who can’t stand doing a half-assed job once she starts.
Looking closely, some of the corners were still a bit messy.

“Alright, if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it right!”
“Yeah!”
“Okay.”

We decided to up our cleaning game.

It took us about half a day, but we finally finished.
Then we started the trek back to the chief’s house.
Riding the truck here was fun, but walking back was tiring.
If I lose weight because of this, what are we gonna do?

“Dad, you’re probably gonna get skinny living here,”
“Hey now, do you know how much effort I put into maintaining this body? It’s the result of daily dedication!”
“””Hahahahaha”””

Even just walking along the road together, the three of us were having a great time.

After about 15 minutes, we made it back to the chief’s house.
When we told the chief’s wife we were done, she said, “I need to check,” and loaded us onto the truck again.

Should’ve brought my phone…

“………”

When we got back to the coop, the chief’s wife looked around and said,
“Wow, you really cleaned this place up nicely!”

“I used to work as a cleaner, actually.”

She inspected the whole coop carefully.

“Geez… My husband’s back is too bad now, so he can’t clean anymore.”
“I see…”
“And my grandson says he doesn’t want to help with the chicken coop because it’s not cool or whatever…”
“Yeah, that’s probably normal…”

She kept looking around, really impressed.

“Oh, what did you do with the chicken droppings and the feed waste?”
“Oh, we found a spot behind the coop where it looked like you were piling stuff up, so we put it there.”
“You figured that out!? I didn’t even tell you! That’s why I brought you back—I thought you hadn’t finished yet!”

Apparently, she thought we’d left a job unfinished.

“It must have been nasty around the pile, right? Weren’t your daughters grossed out?”
“Oh, they handled it.”

The chief’s wife looked at my daughters’ hands.
They proudly showed off their blackened, filthy work gloves, opening and closing their hands like puppets.

“Wowww, even my grandson won’t touch chicken droppings!
And you kids from the city are fine with it!?”

“Uh, thanks…”

Apparently, she was seriously impressed.

“There’s still a ton of work to be done! Why don’t you come help out here more often?”

The pay wasn’t bad either.
Since there were various tasks, it was really helpful.
I figured we’d need to transfer schools anyway since commuting would be tough here.
We’d need the money too—no reason to say no.

“Yes, we’d love to help out!”

“I want to help on my days off too!”

“…Me too.”

Even my daughters were volunteering to work!

“I’ll count on you. I’ll talk about ‘jeni’ too.”

Probably meant money—she said “jeni,” like a local version of “zeni” (cash).

○●○

When we got back to the house, we rode the truck again.
Felt a little like we were being hauled off like livestock.

“Granny,you working?”

A boy was standing at the front door.
He was wearing a school uniform, so he was probably just back from school—maybe the grandson she mentioned?

“You’re home early again! Skipping class?”
“I told you, it’s exam week!”

Ah, so he got out early because of exams.

“They’re about to have lunch. You stay in your room! I’ll bring your food later!”

Wait, what!?
Since when were we eating lunch here!?

“No, no, we can’t impose. We should go.”

The three of us hopped off the truck bed.

“This here’s my grandson, Hinata. Don’t worry!
First, go wash your hands. I’ll whip up some lunch for you!”

While we were hesitating, the grandson, Hinata, came over to my daughters.

“Wow, visitors, huh?”

“We just moved to the village,” I explained.

Hinata greeted us with a cheerful “Hey there!”
Seemed like a good kid.

“B-b-b-b-b—”

Suddenly, he started stuttering while looking at my daughters.
Is he a chicken too!?

“Hi, I’m Yoshifuku Tomoko. Nice to meet you!”
“Chieri,” added the younger one.

The two girls shyly peeked out from behind me to greet him.

“B-b-b-b!”

Bright red and flustered—yeah, looks like he fell for them instantly.
Can’t blame him, my girls are cute.

“How long you staying?”
(You already forgot we said we moved here?)

“My school’s having a cultural festival soon. You should come! I’ll be playing guitar!”

Turns out the kid plays guitar.
Surprisingly, it was Chieri, the younger one, who seemed interested.
Maybe we’ll drop by the festival.

This grandson Hinata was totally smitten with my daughters.
As their dad, I was… feeling complicated about it.

“I play guitar, so I often go into the city. Want me to take you next time?”

Funny thing is, we just moved from the city.
He’s an interesting kid.

□□□ Chief’s Wife Kunizaki Toshiko’s musings

That coop had been a mess for ages!
I thought for sure those kids would hate it and run away!
When I married into this family, even I almost broke down doing that job!

If they couldn’t handle it, they’d bolt for sure!

○●○

What the heck!?
These kids are amazing!
They can’t be that much older than my grandson!

And yet they’re fine with the stink of chicken manure!
Even my son and grandson won’t help out with the farm work!

Meanwhile, these “city girls” handle grass trimmers, clean the chicken coop, and don’t flinch at the smell.
They’re cute, they’re capable—there’s no one like them in this village.
Heck, there aren’t even any other girls their age left here.

The pink-haired one will probably leave the village soon, just like so many before her.
I’ve seen it happen again and again.

I had planned to show these kids how harsh rural life can be and scare them off—but not these ones.
No, we must keep them here!

How can I make sure these kids stay in the village!?