The deal was done, and Matsumoto had to drag his two old houses out to the new cave district. Of course, this required cash for labourers. He hired some workers for four dollars per person per day. However, his judgment was proven wrong and his houses did not move easily. Unfortunately, the two houses came to be stranded at the halfway point, just like how Musashibo Benkei was stranded at the castle of Koromogawa-no-tate*. This troubled Matsumoto, and what is worse, it unsettled Osachi’s mind. Matsumoto insisted that he was not going to pay her by cash. But his houses did not move. At the end, Osachi tried to manipulate Matsumoto by pleading with him.
Matsumoto already had his grocery store near his office then, but this has little to do with the story here. As for the conflict with Osachi, he resolved the issue by offering Osachi to build a new little house for her on the land he owned in the new cave district. The house was newly built, indeed, but it was built cheaply only at eight hundred dollars.
Thus, on the surface the relationship between Matsumoto and Osachi was completely resolved. However, for whatever reason that we would never know, the two continued seeing each other secretly. And here again a comical, rice-blowing** event happened. After the cave district was relocated to the new site in August, Osachi wrote a letter to Matsumoto and had a white child deliver it to Matsumoto. Funny, indeed, the letter fell into Oshige’s hand. Matsumoto was absent, and the child, seeing no problem giving it to his wife instead, left the letter with Oshige. If the letter was from any other person, it would not have been an issue for Oshige but it was from Osachi. Oshige held the letter in her hand so strongly that even the thunder could not make her let it go. As if having beheaded a monster***, she smiled on one of her cheeks but grew her two claws, and opened the letter. It was no problem for her to open the letter; it was addressed to her husband. She pulled the letter out of the envelope in despair. The letter goes: “I was going to visit the place you know at the time as planned but I had some issue and was late. When I went there you were gone. But I was easily able to tell that you were there because your dog Togo’s footprints were there. Please make sure to come to the Chinese house you know next Tuesday.” The wording was clumsy but the message was something along that line. Oshige was so mad that her hair was sticking up to raise her hat. It was extraordinary madness.
**“Rice-blowing” means that it is so funny that you would blow the rice out of your bowl while eating it.
***“To behead a monster” is a Japanese saying which means to feel as if having achieved a feat.