After watching Norwegian Wood I realised that every woman should live like this.

It was only after reading Norwegian Wood that I realised that every woman should live like Midori.

"Whenever I encounter trouble, I always think, "Let's get through this first, and then we'll get on with it.

In Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood, the heroine Midoriko Kobayashi's words speak to me.

After reading the book again, I grew to love the second female character, Midoriko Kobayashi, who is such an exceptionally beautiful girl to live with.

Her story teaches us that life is a process of fighting and upgrading, and that if we encounter difficulties, then we should solve them, and so on.

In an imperfect world, living beautifully is one's greatest skill.

01 Life kisses me with pain, I want to sing in return

Midori was a simple, sweet and energetic girl who first came to Watanabe's attention during a drama class.

She had short hair, inky sunglasses and a white mini cotton dress, and it was this uniqueness that impressed Watanabe.

She told Watanabe that she lived with her sister and father. Her father ran a small bookshop and earned enough to support the family, plus two daughters in university, and that was about it.

Once Midoriko invited Watanabe to her home for dinner, and she put together a huge meal all by herself: mackerel in vinegar, thickly sliced egg skin, fish with Saikyo sauce, plus boiled eggplant, vegetable soup, and tamago rice, which was delicately sprinkled with sesame seeds and dried yellow radish.

Midoriko's house is small, the furniture old and uninspiring, but the meal fills the room with light.

Midoriko told Watanabe: "My mother hated housework so much that she hardly cooked any food. When we were busy, we just ate whatever we wanted, ordering in food from the outside one day, and going to the butcher's shop the next to buy ready-made meat pies. I was determined to cook and eat properly, so I bought the most advanced cookery book and followed it word for word. This included choosing a chopping board, sharpening a kitchen knife, killing fish, peeling wooden fish and everything else."

When her family wouldn't spend money on a good kitchen knife or a good pan, Midori saved up her own money to buy one.

A young girl of fifteen or sixteen gives up the beautiful clothes and shoes that girls her age have, and can't even afford to buy underwear. The only underwear she had, she washed at night, cleaned it by all means the next day, and continued to wear it.

The cold feeling of wearing wet underwear in winter was always fresh in Midori's mind.

When she finally had the kitchenware of her choice, it didn't feel hard to give what she once gave.

By labelling life as a dream, ordinary days are elevated, and ordinary times take on a magnificent colour; life's little blessings are that simple.

Midori's father is seriously ill in hospital and Midori and her sister take turns to go there to look after him.

When Watanabe visits Midori in the hospital, Midori is neatly turning her father, wiping his face and giving him water. Midoriko's father was looking very poorly and seemed ready to die at any moment. Midori did not show too much sadness, and after her father fell asleep, she took Watanabe to the hospital canteen for dinner.

The canteen was full of medical staff and patients, as well as family members, all of whom were unsmiling and in a hurry to come and go.

Watanabe looks at this environment and has no appetite for the food in front of him. Midori, on the other hand, was eating happily, having finished all the food on her plate.

Seeing Watanabe's confusion, Midoriko explained, "In a hospital, people who are not used to it can't eat. The smells, the sounds, the murky air, the patients' lids, the tension, the anxiety, the disappointment, the pain, the fatigue - all these things strangle one's stomach and make one lose one's appetite. However, getting used to it is not a big deal. Besides, how can you take care of a patient if you don't eat properly? I really know how to take care of my grandfather, my mother-in-law, my mother and my father because I have taken care of them. If something happens, I won't be able to eat the next meal. So I try to eat as much as I can, otherwise I'm screwed."

Yes, if she doesn't eat enough, who will take care of her family?

How much does a young girl have to go through to be so light-hearted?

Life kisses me with pain, and I want to sing in return.

Romero said: "There is only one kind of heroism in the world, and that is to love life even after seeing it for what it is.

The greatest courage a person can have is to live hard and laugh at setbacks after encountering life's trials and tribulations.

02 The best love has respect, understanding and tolerance

Midori liked Watanabe, and she and Watanabe discussed what would be the perfect love.

Midori said, "The pure and perfect true love I want is when I want strawberry cake right now and you drop everything and run to get it for me! And then come back to me gasping for breath and say, 'Midori-chan! Look! Strawberry cake!' . But I'd say, 'Huh! I don't want to eat it now!' And then I'd throw the cake out of the window. That's the kind of love I want."

Watanabe says he doesn't understand.

Midori says with conviction, "For a woman, it's very important! I wish the person would say, 'I know Midori-chan, I should have known you wouldn't want strawberry cake, I'm as stupid as a donkey. I'm sorry! I'll go and get you something else. What do you like? Chocolate puffs? Or cheesecake?'"

In fact, in Midori's mind, what she wanted from love was just an understanding and care, a pampering and forgiveness.

Once, she grew her hair long and changed her hairstyle to meet Watanabe.

Unfortunately, Watanabe did not notice the obvious change.

Midori found an excuse to send Watanabe to buy a coke, and she left a letter for him and went away.

The letter reads: "You know what? You did a cruel thing to me today. You didn't even notice that my hair had changed, did you? I worked so hard to grow my hair long that I managed to get a feminine haircut last week. And you didn't even notice. It's a great look. I thought you'd be surprised to see me, but you've been so transparent. You probably can't even remember what I'm wearing. I'm a girl too. Whatever you have in mind, you should at least take a good look at me: just say "Your hair is so cute" and I'll forgive you for whatever you think or do after that."

Watanabe, with Naoko on his mind, doesn't have the heart to notice what kind of hairdo and clothes Midori is wearing.

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So Midoriko is sad that she clearly knows that Watanabe has someone else in his heart.

But she does not hide her loss; she tells Watanabe frankly that she does not accept his indifference, and that if the other person does not really have her in mind, how can such a love last?

After leaving the letter, Midori stops contacting Watanabe and is determined not to see him even though he calls her again and again.

Dumas said that women sometimes allow their love to be cheated, but never allow their pride to be hurt.

Midori is an intelligent girl who wants a love that must accept her completely and respect her, otherwise, she will leave decisively.

Keep your sanity in the face of love and do not get lost easily in order to find the happiness that belongs to you.

03 Living deeply in a world of thin love

Once, when a fire broke out in the neighbour's house below Midori's, Watanabe and Midori walked up to the top floor of her house to hide from the fire house.

To pass the time waiting, Midori brought beer and a guitar and drank while watching the black smoke.

Watanabe said that watching the action like this would not be offensive to the neighbours.

Midori said, "It's okay! We don't have to care what people think!"

Then she started playing her guitar and singing old Western songs. The singing was mediocre and the guitar playing was average, but Midori enjoyed herself.

Police came from downstairs, a newspaper helicopter flew in to take pictures, the police shouted through loudspeakers to passers-by watching to move back, children cried, mothers shouted, and there was the sound of breaking glass, a mess.

The wind was blowing white smoke onto the roof of the building, choking the breath out of people.

Even so, Midori was in a happy mood, drinking and singing.

She even sang a song she had composed for Watanabe: "Wanted to make a dish for you, but I didn't have a pot. I want to knit you a scarf, but I don't have any wool. Want to write a poem for you, but I don't have a pen."

The lyrics and melody sound strange, but it doesn't detract at all from Midori's full-throated rendition.

She sang obliviously, and the soldiering of the outside world had no semblance of relevance to her.

Midori once told Watanabe that she was a thin-skinned person.

When her mother died of a brain tumour two years ago, she didn't shed a single tear and was scolded by her relatives for being cold-blooded and heartless.

And when the kitten she kept died, she cried bitterly for a month.

Midori says it wasn't her fault, that if her parents had loved her a little more she wouldn't be feeling this way.

Watanabe asks, puzzled, if neither of her parents loved her.

Midori said that her parents' love for her was somewhere between not quite loving and not loving at all. When she was a child, every time she pampered her parents, they pushed her away and called her a money-loser.

Her parents' indifference to her made Midori vow to find someone who would always love her deeply.

So, in her own way, she lives deeply in this thin-skinned world.

Her joys and sorrows are blazingly clear.

To love is to love and not to love is not to love.

Growing up without the love and companionship of her parents, she grew up in loneliness and indifference.

When she survived her loneliest moments, she realised that life was not as difficult as she had thought. She craved the company of others, but that did not mean she could not warm herself.

After Naoko's death, Watanabe is depressed for a long time, and when he gets over his emotional low point, he can't wait to see Midori, whose energy and enthusiasm he misses, and whose frank and affectionate nature is Watanabe's final salvation.

Midori received a long-awaited phone call from Watanabe, who said a lot, and Midori listened quietly, asking him only one thing: "Where are you now?"

At that moment, he realised that there was nothing more he could ask for in the world than Midori.

Everyone can go through a bleak time and walk a lonely journey.

Settle your soul, clean up your mind, and live deeply in a world of thin love.

04 Living beautifully is the greatest charm of a woman

Midori is three-dimensional, walking, breathing, beating, her every move is making Watanabe feel touched.

Midori's experience is not really much better than Naoko and Reiko's in the book.

She is unsupported.

But in her loneliness, her choices are very different from theirs.

She accepts reality and chases after the small, seemingly insignificant goals in life. She lives her life with heart, passion and joy.

In her, we see the best of life: to be able to take and to let go.

Just like tea leaves brewed in boiling water, there are only two postures: floating or sinking.

Tea drinkers also have two postures: picking up, putting down.

Life is like tea, when sinking frankly, when floating lightly, can afford to also put down.

Everyone, we should live like the green child.

In the face of embarrassment, the heart is open, even though the world is cold, we always have a passion.

We can live our lives with a sense of calmness, and the natural fragrance of the years.